The storm outside had not stopped. Rain lashed the glass walls of the penthouse like a warning an unrelenting rhythm that filled the silence between them.
Hana sat on the edge of the couch, a blanket draped around her shoulders, but her mind wasn't on the warmth. It was on the sound she had heard earlier a faint click, the unmistakable noise of a camera shutter. Someone had been there, outside the penthouse door.
And then there was the study.
When Seo-jin left abruptly for a "meeting," her curiosity finally snapped its restraint. She had been told never to enter that room. Which, of course, only made it impossible not to.
She approached the heavy oak door at the end of the hallway, her bare feet whispering against the marble floor. The key card panel beside it glowed faintly red. She hesitated then tried the handle.
Locked.
Her pulse quickened.
She should stop. She should walk away. But a flash of movement through the frosted glass a shadow? made her freeze. Her hand trembled as she pressed the panel again. To her surprise, it blinked green.
The lock clicked open.
Inside, the study was nothing like the sleek, modern rest of the penthouse. It was a world frozen in the past mahogany shelves, dust coated books, and on the far wall… a gallery of photographs.
Hundreds of them.
At first glance, they looked like press clippings corporate galas, award ceremonies, magazine covers featuring Han Seo-jin's face. But as she stepped closer, the images shifted in tone.
Her eyes widened.
The people in the photographs weren't just business partners or associates. They were the same people she'd seen at the shareholder dinner. And in every photo… someone had a red mark drawn through their face.
She covered her mouth, her breath catching.
And then she saw the last photograph.
It was her.
Taken from across the street, blurry but unmistakable. The small bakery she'd worked at. Her smiling beside an old woman her mother.
Her heart dropped into her stomach.
The sound came again the faint click of a camera shutter.
Hana spun around, eyes darting to the open window. The curtains fluttered wildly from the wind. She stepped closer and peered out into the night, across the glittering skyline. Nothing but darkness.
Until a flash of lightning lit up the opposite building.
For a single, blinding second she saw him.
A man in black, standing on the rooftop across from them. Holding a camera watching her.
Her knees weakened. "Who are you…?" she whispered into the storm.
A voice from behind startled her."You weren't supposed to see that."
She turned sharply. Seo-jin stood in the doorway, his white shirt drenched from the rain, eyes cold and unreadable. The air between them felt electric dangerous.
Hana's voice shook. "Why is my picture on that wall? Who's that man outside?"
He didn't answer.
Instead, he stepped forward, his gaze darkening. "You've crossed into a world you can't walk out of, Hana."
Lightning flared againand in its light, she saw something in his hand.
A photograph.
Of the same man she'd just seen outside.
But in this pictureSeo-jin was standing beside him, smiling.