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(Jae-hyun's POV)
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He should've killed her.
It would've been easy.
Clean. Silent. Forgettable.
But here she was.
Sleeping in a bed she didn't belong in. Surrounded by a world she should've never seen.
Seo-rin.
Even her name had stuck.
Jae-hyun sat in the armchair across the room, a drink in his hand, eyes locked on the girl curled up beneath silk sheets. She looked too soft for his world. Too breakable.
And yet… something about her held steady.
Most people begged. Sobbed. Bargained.
She hadn't.
Even when her voice shook, she looked him in the eye.
That fire pissed him off.
She didn't know who he was. Didn't understand the power she was playing with. Or maybe she did — and that made her even more dangerous.
He didn't like risks.
He'd built his empire on silence, fear, and precision. Everything under his control.
One wrong witness could unravel it all.
But when he pulled the trigger in that alley, and turned to find her watching…
He hadn't expected that face.
Big eyes. Pale lips. Frozen in terror.
Yet somehow… still beautiful.
Too beautiful.
He should've ended it right then. But his hand had stilled. And now?
Now she was in his home.
Inside his walls.
And he couldn't stop thinking about her.
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> "I've never let a civilian this close," he thought.
"Why her?"
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Jae-hyun downed the last of his drink, jaw tightening.
She was a liability. A loose end. But every time he looked at her, something in his chest stirred. Something old. Something dangerous.
He couldn't afford distractions.
And yet…
When she'd asked for his name, something about the way she said it—
Soft. Curious. Not afraid.
It made him answer. When he never answered anyone.
"Jae-hyun."
It was the first truth he'd given in years.
And it wouldn't be the last.
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