To You Who Will Destroy Me - Chapter 1

Raeyeon looked at herself in the mirror. Inside was a beautiful woman with platinum blonde curls and dressed in a delicate chemise.

The slim face with twinkling blue eyes was so beautiful that she couldn’t adapt no matter how many times she looked at herself, but this face was not her own. Strictly speaking, it was the body of the supporting character in the game she was playing, “Erel Elorence”.

Raeyeon was lost in thought while fiddling with her skirt. She contemplated over her recent worries until it became a piece of dried gum. Nevertheless, there is still no answer.

It was a pity that she, an ordinary college student who was about to graduate, entered the game.

She had never touched a game before and needed something to soothe her boredom and nervousness while waiting for the job announcement. Therefore, she touched a game that she never played before.

“Salvation.”

It was a game with a romantic name. All the characters were attractive, as if they were alive and breathing, and the “favorability” system that responded to players’ words and actions was also interesting.

Raeyeon fell in love with the unique worldview and setting of this game. She wanted to live in the game, if possible.

I really didn’t know it would be like this.

For the first time, she didn’t eat properly and couldn’t sleep. She lived alone because she had an estranged relationship with her family, so there was no one to take care of her.

At one point, her body crossed the limit and it could not hold her anymore, so she passed out. When she opened her eyes again, she was already in the body of the supporting character, “Erel Elorence”.

“This is ridiculous!”

It was embarrassing to embody the character of a game. To make matters worse, she could see things that she should not have seen. The favorability window of the characters in the game.

Bang-

Unfortunately, this game did not give me time to reflect on life. Suddenly, there was a loud bang and the bedroom door broke. The large wooden door fell disastrously as if it had been bombed  with the smell of burning roses.

“Holy shit!”

Raeyeon was startled, so she sat up and looked back at the door. She saw a man as beautiful as a demon over the smashed door.

“Oh, my mistake.”

As if it were an extension of a nightmare, the man standing there laughed brutally. It was shameless to spit out an embarrassing amount on such a topic on purpose to frighten her.

He threw away the doorknob in his hands and came in with daunting steps into a private bedroom that a stranger should not be allowed to step into.

“You must have been very surprised. Maybe, I should have knocked.”

The man smiled alluringly after seeing Erel’s shocked face.  He knew why she locked the door, but the ‘knock’ was now abominable.

He hates me.

Erel bit her lip and looked up at the man. He was destined to be horribly entangled with Erel Elorence, and Raeyeon was trying to avoid it somehow.

Nevertheless, he appeared in her life like the last disaster that came to this world and tried to conquer her whole body and mind like a bloodless predator.

[Barkan Harmash: 25 favorability right now. He’s ‘hostile’ now. ]

Erel was devastated by the system message in front of her. She tried so hard but she couldn’t believe that she is that unlikeable.

“Oh, I can’t use it if you bite it.”

It seemed like she was biting her lips unknowingly. The man’s long and hard fingers touched her lower lip. At first, she was kind enough to remove her upper teeth from the lips, but his fingertips gradually rubbed over her lips.

“I thought you ran away because you didn’t come out, that’s why I was in such a hurry.”

She saw him gaze at her as though he was going to swallow her swollen lips, at once it began to sting. Even though he didn’t love her, that man gets sexually excited easily.

It was as if the blood that was flowing within her was an aphrodisiac instead of blood.

“You’ll understand, won’t you? It is all because I like you so much.”

The man tiptoed through the fragments of the smashed door and shrugged his shoulders. Although he had a flushed face, his eyes staring at Erel were cold as ice.

He really is a guy. Erel turned her head away from the hand that was touching her lips. She wanted to run away as soon as possible, but he was right in front of her and she was scared so there was no way she could do anything about it. In order to survive, she has to somehow do something to suit his needs.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. We can fix the door. More than that, this hand…….”

“That’s weird.”

The man cut off her shuttering words casually and then he asked with his grimly handsome face.

“Why didn’t you run away? I like playing tag.”

The smell of dry ash and sensual musk stirred from his breath as he asked languidly. As he stumbled away from this, his wild golden eyes thinned like a beast ready to hunt. How can she run away when those eyes are in front of her?

“That’s too bad. I was going to punish you if you get caught.”

He whispered like the usual puns of lovers, but seeing that sensual smile, Erel’s face turned pale rather than hazy.

Did she notice?

I was thinking of breaking her ankle if she got caught. In this case, it was regrettable that the woman in front of me was uselessly smart. Thanks to that, he never actually carried out the cruel impulses that ran out of his head every time.

Barkan slowly wet his lips with his tongue, concealing his impatient feelings. Whenever this woman is in front of him, his lips would dry up because of the heat.

If he could, he wanted to put a leash on her and always hold her in my hands. It was a mindlessly thought that deepened his smile. Erel, who sensed a sense of imminent crisis on his ecstatic face, hurriedly opened her mouth.

“Why would I run away from you?”

Erel who had slender arms stretched out and took his hand carefully, then with her soft fingers gently swept at the back of his hand. The man’s madness died out as the tickling touch stimulated the back of his hand.

However, they knew each other even when they were smiling affectionately as if they were lovers. Even though she reached first, she was shaking as if she was petting a fierce dog and she wouldn’t know when her hand would be bitten.

“Well, why did I think you’d run away….”

Is it because I love you so much? The man muttered in a dry tone while his eyelashes were lowered. His face was in sorrow like a man who is sorry for not knowing when she will disappear even if he holds his lover in his arms.

So Erel thought it was even more abominable. To him, she was not a human being. It was nothing more than a convenient painkiller that made him forget chronic pain.

It was also a kind of mind game to make her repeatedly scared and to be sweet to her as well.

It was simply to make her feel that she had nowhere to go, and that she is his until the day she dies.

But Erel had to pretend not to notice this. In the first place, there was only one rule of this icy relationship. First, it was a game where the person pretended to be a lover and whoever turned the table would lose.

“I will never leave your side.”

Erel held his hand tightly and whispered softly.

The pretty lips were stiff with fear, but the flowing voice was so warm that it felt like spring.

“Because I fell in love with you at first sight…… Barkan Harmash.”

Erel, who barely spoke out without shaking, smiled. The eyes of Barkan who saw the sunshine-like face were soft like a crescent moon.

I am pretty good at lying.

Every time Erel trembled and pretended to be nonchalant, he seemed to die of fun. Sometimes it was terribly unpleasant, but frankly funny.

How far can this weak woman, who is not even a handful, bluffed? He suddenly thought he wanted to watch the woman in front of him for a longer time.

Breaking her was as simple as popping an orange in his hand, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to keep up with this play.

Ring!

Erel raised her head at the pleasing sound that could only be heard by her. She then saw the translucent writing that floated in the empty air.

[Barkan’s favorability increased by three.] 

Erel was a little relieved. The twisted character of Barkan was really hard to please, compared to his usual single self.

For a while, she was relieved that she increased his favorability, but suddenly, Barkan approached her. As his large body approached her threateningly, Erel reflexively took some steps back. However, her narrow chemise hem wrapped around her legs which caused her to fall onto the sofa.

“Ah…!!”

The man’s stiff body climbed on top, holding her wrist pressed in his grip, and he looked down at Erel and smiled coldly as if she was adorable.

“I’m glad your heart is mine.”

In the blink of an eye, his hands crawled like snakes under the thin chemise and ordered arrogantly, gently sweeping the slender calf.

“Alright then, spread your legs.”