The Frosty Wind Makes the Magnolia Blossom

“I’ll take that child in.”

Dragged by the hand of a man who shared not a single drop of her blood, the young girl, Mokryeon, was sold off to a courtesan house. 

She thought she had been saved when a stunningly handsome man named Gyeonu suddenly appeared and rescued her.

But the moment she saw the sharp fangs peeking between Gyeonu’s red lips, she realized the horrifying truth:

“You fled one monster, only to run straight into another.”

Gyeonu was no human, but a yokai—a supernatural being.

Terrified, Mokryeon tried to escape him, but…

“Let me go! I don’t want to return to that place!”

“You belong to me. Never try to run away from me.”

Instead, he sank his cold fangs into her pale neck, carving a peach blossom sigil into her skin—binding her to him.

“Because of me, you will be able to breathe for all eternity.”

“……”

“So live by my side, and if you must die—die by my hand.”

Preview

“The person in your lordship’s heart… the name you call with these lips—is it truly me…?”

In that instant, her words hit him like a stone dropping to the pit of his chest.

Gyeonu realized then—Mokryeon had known all along.

“……Where on earth did you hear that? Mokryeon, I…”

“My lord. For the first timen my life, I have come to hate my own name.”

As though guided by a will not her own, her lips gave voice to the ache she had long kept buried.

“Every time you call me ‘Mokryeon’ in your sleep, it tears my heart to shreds…”

Her rising sorrow trailed down her cheeks, wetting his hand.

“It hurts too much. I feel I must give you up, my lord.”

“Right now, you are the only person I desire most.”

“But I don’t want to be a stand-in for someone else’s absence.”

In that moment, Gyeonu’s hand fell limply to his side.

His gaze, once full of desperate longing, turned into a deadly frost in an instant.

“Don’t you dare distance yourself from me.”

“My lord…”

“I won’t let you go.”

The instincts he had forgotten began to resurface—dark, relentless.

“Even if you end up hating me like before, I don’t care.”

He would do whatever it took to keep Mokryeon by his side.

He never wanted to lose her again.

Gripping Mokryeon’s chin, Gyeonu’s chilling crimson eyes gleamed.

“So live by my hand, and if you must die—die by my hand.”

You are mine. My only one.