Masquerader Prologue

The man was sitting on the dirt ground with his long legs bent. Amid the damp, earthy smell, the acrid scent of cigarettes wafted in.  

 

When the expressionless man turned his face toward her, Seol-ah instinctively held her breath, momentarily forgetting that she had been desperately running. His smooth yet sharp, and at the same time strong-looking jaw was splattered with dark red blood.  

 

She had never seen someone to whom bloodstains suited so chillingly well. Was that why?  

 

She was no longer young, naïve, or foolish enough to believe in a prince on a white horse. And yet, for a moment, she had the fleeting thought that she might have finally met the person who would save her.  

 

“Are you alone?”  

 

The man flicked the ash from his cigarette with long fingers, then brought it back to his lips, taking a deep drag. He inhaled leisurely, his smooth cheek hollowing slightly. What he exhaled was cigarette smoke, yet strangely, the scent of mist thickened around them.  

 

She felt his black-gray-blue irises slowly scan over her. Seol-ah’s gaze belatedly followed his.  

 

“Ah….”  

 

Only then did she realize that her pant legs were soaked. But shame was an emotion felt only by those in their right mind. She was simply dumbfounded.  

 

What…? Why is this happening?

 

At that moment, the man crossed his arms and casually pulled off his t-shirt. Then, lowering himself onto one knee before Seol-ah, he brought their eyes level.  

 

“You’re quite a handful, aren’t you?”  

 

As he looked into her eyes, he slipped his hand inside his coat. Their gazes locked deeply.  

 

The sensation of a large hand brushing against her waist made her nerves stand on end.  

 

“Take the left path at the fork.”  

 

After tying the t-shirt around her waist, the man slipped his hands under her arms and hoisted her up. Then, without hesitation, he withdrew his hands. As the warmth of another person’s touch left her, every cell in her body screamed at her.  

 

Hold onto him.

 

“Get a grip, little miss.”  

 

His low voice sent chills down her spine.  

 

***  

 

“Hah… Haah….”  

 

Breath that had risen to the tip of her throat scattered in disarray. Coarse grains of sand rolled over her tongue. Her throat, raw from gasping for air, burned as though it would tear, but there was no time to steady her breath.  

 

Seol-ah pushed through the overgrown underbrush, running blindly.  

 

Wildly overgrown vines clung to her ankles like claws. The fabric of her torn and frayed pants had long since been soaked through. Her sweat-drenched top fared no better.  

 

Where should I go?

 

As she fought her way through a pathless terrain, her sense of location and direction became obscured, as if swallowed by fog. But she had to get as far away as possible.  

 

“Hey, Seol-ah!”  

 

Deep in the mountains, a voice calling her name shook the air around her. At the instinctive moment she turned to look back, a dry branch slashed across her cheek.  

 

“Yoon Seol-ah!”  

 

A sharp pain spread across her cold, stiffened cheek. Like the sting of a whip, a thin scratch immediately welled with fine lines of blood.  

 

“Why are you running like you’re about to die? You’ll get caught anyway.”  

 

A hoarse voice scraped against her eardrums, thick with a sneering malice and twisted excitement, as if this game of predator and prey thrilled him to no end. Seol-ah clenched her teeth, forcing strength into her trembling knees.  

 

If he thinks I’ll be caught so easily…

 

Wiping at the wound on her cheek with the back of her hand, she bit down hard and clawed her way over a thick tree root blocking her path.  

 

“Where do you think you’re going? You know you’re in my territory, don’t you?”  

 

She listened to the voice echoing through the night, trying to gauge the distance.  

 

Five minutes… no, three… maybe just one.

 

A moment’s hesitation and he would seize her by the hair and slam her into the ground. And after that— At the horrifying thought, her clenched teeth chattered involuntarily.  

 

“Go on, scurry away like a rat.”  

 

She was already planning to do just that. Even if it meant breaking her bones and tearing her flesh.  

 

“It makes the chase more fun. I usually prefer pinning someone down by force, but I knew you’d play along. I’m so fucking hard right now.”  

 

To escape the one-sided barrage of malice, there was no choice but to run like mad, even if it was unfair.  

 

“But if you get caught too soon, that’d be boring, right?”  

 

Her ragged breaths mixed with the taste of iron, the strain on her throat growing unbearable. Her eardrums dulled under the pressure.  

 

At that moment, the sound of fabric tearing filled the air as something yanked roughly at her shoulder.  

 

Gasp!

 

Her breath caught in her throat. Even as the crushing realization of being caught sent her heart plummeting, her legs refused to stop pushing off the ground.  

 

“Let go… Let go!”  

 

As she thrashed, the grip pulling her backward unexpectedly loosened. Her flailing shirt had snagged onto a low-hanging branch.  

 

Relief was short-lived—her thin garment tore with a harsh rip.  

 

“If you get caught, you’re dead.”  

 

Her heart pounded, as if about to burst through her feet and shoot up again.  

 

“Got it? Huh? You hear me, Yoon Seol-ah? Seol-ah!”  

 

Leaving behind the remnants of her tattered shirt, Seol-ah scrambled up the steep, rain-slicked mountain path.  

 

“I’m gonna fuck you raw until you’re ruined!”  

 

His enraged scream startled the hidden birds from their perches, sending them flapping into the sky. The echoes of his voice repeated through the mountains, chasing her relentlessly.  

 

The sky above, where nameless birds took flight, was breathtakingly clear, as if mocking Seol-ah’s terror.  

 

When did everything go so wrong?

 

For a fleeting moment, her resentful gaze turned upward.  

 

The sky was high, the season when horses grow fat. Autumn—the prime time for the hunt.