Steam filled the black marble bathroom. The scent of lavender softened the tension.
I sat with my knees drawn up on the edge of the large jacuzzi. Ren lay submerged in the scalding, suds-filled water.
His eyes were closed. His head rested against the rim, exposing the faint tattoos on his strong neck.The scowl was gone. As if he had stripped away the mask of the 'dictator president', leaving only an exhausted man.
I scooped warm water, pouring it gently over his pitch-black hair. My slender fingers massaged his scalp in a steady rhythm.
"Does that feel good?" I asked softly.
"Mnn..." Ren hummed in satisfaction. "Your hands are gentle..."
Suddenly, Ren opened his eyes. Those pitch-black irises stared at me through the steam. But his gaze was vacant, profound, and sorrowful. As if he were looking right through me, staring directly into the past.
"Yurin."
"Yes?"
"That day... why did you abandon me?"
The question struck without warning. My massaging hands froze. My heart plummeted. The once-warm bathroom instantly turned glacial.
Ren's voice trembled. A raw, agonizing pain rippled through his eyes.
"I saw you. I tried to call out to you with my eyes. I prayed you would come save me. Or just scream for someone."
"But no..." He let out a bitter scoff, even as tears pooled in his eyes.
"You met my gaze. Then you stepped back. You turned your back on me. You ran away. You left me in the dark. You left me with that beast. You let him until nothing remained."
I shook violently. The blood drained from my face. The guilt hit all at once. I couldn't breathe.
"Ren... I... I was scared... I'm sorry."
Ren's wet, heavy hand seized my wrist. He violently yanked me into the tub!
Splash!
"Cough! Cough!"
I choked on the water. My silk pajamas instantly soaked through, clinging to my skin.
Ren dragged me into a crushing embrace. I could barely breathe. But I didn't dare push him away. I could feel the violent tremors racking his body.
"It hurts... Yurin... It hurts so much I want to die."
He wept shamelessly. He buried his face in my wet shoulder, shivering like a bird with broken wings.
"Since that day, I loathed myself."
"I constantly wondered what I did wrong. Why did you find me disgusting? Why did you abandon me?"
"Was I that filthy? Was I so utterly repulsive that you refused to help me?!"
"No. No, Ren. It wasn't like that!" I hugged him back tightly, rubbing his back to console him.
"You did nothing wrong. It was my fault. I was a coward."
"Do you know how insane I went when you vanished?"
He looked up at me. His eyes were a volatile mix of madness and utter fragility.
"I searched everywhere for you. When I found out you moved, I practically lost my mind. I tried to let go. I tried to let you live your own life. But I couldn't. I couldn't stop myself from hunting you down. To exact my revenge. And to own you."
He grabbed my hand, pressing it against his left breast. Forcing me to feel the frantic, frenzied beating of his heart.
"Because I cannot survive without you, Yurin. Without you, I am just nothing but scraps."
"That is why I have to lock you up. I have to chain you. I have to make it impossible for you to leave."
"Because if I let go of your hand again... I will die. I cannot live without you."
His confession laid bare the gaping, festering wound in his psyche that would never scab over.
Ren wasn't just possessive. He was so entirely shattered that he couldn't be pieced back together without me.
My chest tightened. I looked at the man in front of me and no longer saw a monster. I only saw the terrified boy I had abandoned ten years ago.
"I am right here, Ren," I whispered faintly, pressing a soft kiss to his temple.
"I will never leave you again. I promise."
Ren stared at my lips like a man dying of thirst in the desert. The yearning morphed into a violent, profound hunger.
"Prove it..."
He crushed his body against mine.
"Make me know you are mine."
"Erase their touch. Erase those horrible memories. Please help me, Yurin. Please love me."
Following that pathetic plea, his lips crashed into mine. A desperate, consuming kiss. It tasted of salt and tears. It tasted of absolute desperation. It wasn't forced. It was a plea.
"Mnn."
I parted my lips, accepting his scorching tongue as it invaded and intertwined with mine.
Submerged in the scalding water, our bodies pressed flush against each other until we practically melted into one. Our soaked clothes clung tightly to our skin.
Ren didn't strip me completely.
His trembling hands slowly unbuttoned my soaked pajama shirt, one button at a time. As the final button gave way, he slid the fabric gently off my shoulders, pulling it down to my elbows.
He then pulled my pants down. Leaving me only in my sheer white underwear. It clung transparently to my skin, clearly outlining everything beneath.
He buried his face in the crook of my neck and my bare chest. His large hands caressed my back and waist over the drenched fabric. His touch was scorching, burning straight through the wet cloth.
"Yurin..."
He moaned my name repeatedly like a man lost in delirium. Ren grabbed my hand, guiding it down to his rigid, burning erection.
"Help me. I need you."
I didn't resist.
I shifted closer. I straddled his lap in the water. I pressed myself directly against his bare flesh.
The heat bled through the fabric-his hard, scorching length ground along the underwater. The fabric sank inward under the pressure.
Ren threw his head back, a guttural groan vibrating in his throat from the intense friction. He gripped my waist tightly, forcing my hips to roll and grind against him.
The tip of his erection dragged along the length of mine through the fabric.
The cloth grew thoroughly saturated from the bathwater and our slick pre-arousal.
"Ah... Good... Just like that..."
I wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my face in his broad shoulder. I felt his muscles tense with every thrust. The friction of bare flesh against wet fabric sent a sharper, more electrifying sensation shooting through me.
I shivered slightly as he drove his hips upward with force, burying the head of his erection against my most sensitive spot.
"Do you love me?" he asked hoarsely. One hand slipped down, squeezing my ass through the soaked underwear.
"Ghk... I-I love you..." I answered shakily. I didn't know if it was from the escalating pleasure or sheer pity.
"I belong to you. Ah! Only you."
Ren smiled through his tears. He leaned in, kissing me with feral desperation.
His hips snapped upward, faster and harder as the lust crested. The bathwater sloshed violently, spilling over the rim of the jacuzzi. The sound of our ragged breathing and the wet slap of friction echoed through the room.
"Don't go... Don't abandon me..." He chanted against my ear.
His body seized. He crushed me against him so tightly it hurt.
"I will do anything. I became a monster just for you. Just stay with me. Just let me have you..."
"Ahhh! Ren! ...Ghk!"
A breathy cry slipped past my lips as the euphoric heat flooded my lower stomach.
We crested simultaneously. Releasing every pent-up emotion.
His scorching release erupted, sinking through the thin fabric onto my skin. I spilled my own release inside the underware. Beneath the white cloth now stained with our fluids and the swirling bathwater.
Ren collapsed onto my shoulder.
He panted, utterly drained. He buried his face in the crook of my neck and wept silently. Like a child who just got his favorite toy back.
"I love you, Yurin... I love you. Please don't hate me... I'm sorry..."
I lay paralyzed in his embrace.
One hand gently stroked his damp hair. I listened to his frantic heartbeat hammering against my chest.
In this exact second, I finally understood. The true 'chain' wasn't bound to my ankle. It was shackled to Ren's 'heart'. He didn't lock me away. He locked himself inside his own agonizing past.
Ren's breathing slowly leveled into a steady rhythm.
The exhaustion from our encounter, combined with the heavy sedatives Aunt Lin had slipped into his wine, pulled him easily into a dead sleep. He lay sprawled on the bed, still wearing his bathrobe.
His heavy arm remained draped securely over my waist. As if terrified I would vanish while he dreamed.
I carefully, agonizingly slowly, slipped out of his grasp. I held my breath every time he shifted.
I stared at Ren's sleeping face.
Tear tracks still stained his cheeks. His long lashes rested against his skin. He looked incredibly fragile and pathetic.
A wave of guilt rose in my chest.
Was I torturing a wounded man? Was I compounding the pain of someone who loved me (in his own twisted way)?
But a glance down at the metal shackle binding my ankle, and the livid bruises painting my skin, snapped me back to reality.
No!
His pathetic fragility was not an excuse to annihilate someone else's life. He loved me, but he destroyed me. If I didn't run, I would die alongside his madness. And if I yielded to pity, I would never see the sun again.
I reached toward the nightstand with trembling hands.
I carefully picked up Ren's smartphone. I gently guided his sleeping thumb, pressing it against the biometric scanner.
Beep... The screen unlocked. A blinding light flared in the darkness.
I quickly navigated to his file manager. To the hidden folder secured by double encryption.
I wasn't stealing his money. I wasn't stealing corporate secrets. I was hunting for evidence. The exact evidence Zen warned me Ren kept to blackmail me into submission.
And I found it.
Hundreds of photos of me. From my college days to photos of me sleeping in this very room. Video clips from the security cameras record my every move.
And most importantly. The 'Password File' containing the master override codes for the entire penthouse security grid.
I frantically pulled out the tiny phone hidden beneath my lamp. I snapped a photo of the master codes and hit send to Mr. Zen.
I placed Ren's phone back exactly where I found it. Leaving no trace.
I turned to look at Ren one last time.
My heart thundered with a sickening mix of thrill and terror. I leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to his forehead.
The absolute final shred of my guilt.
"Sweet dreams, Ren."
"May I remain in your dreams forever. But in reality... I have to go."
I lay down beside him. I closed my eyes, feigning a peaceful sleep as I waited for dawn.
Waiting for the next phase of Mr. Zen's plan to commence.
And in this game, someone had to lose.