"A Contract in Ink and Blood"

The mist clung to the edges of the wharf like a funeral shroud. Through it stepped Jeong Gu-won, a man of lethal elegance, his silhouette sharp against the moonlight. For two hundred years, he had walked the earth as a predator of souls, an immortal demon who viewed humanity as nothing more than a collection of desperate, flickering candles. He was the architect of ruin, offering a decade of heaven for an eternity of hell.In another part of the city, the air was just as cold, but for a different reason. Do Do-hee sat in her office, the "Ice Queen" of Mirae F&B, her heart encased in the armor of corporate warfare. She lived in a world of betrayal, surrounded by family members who wore smiles like masks while concealing knives. Her only tether to warmth was Chairwoman Joo Cheon-suk, the woman who had plucked her from the wreckage of her past.Fate, however, has a sense of irony.Due to a misunderstanding by her assistant, Do-hee arrived for a blind date at a restaurant that had been entirely cleared out by a man who valued his solitude above all else. There, under the dim glow of the chandeliers, she found Gu-won. She saw a handsome, arrogant man; he saw an annoying, mortal interruption. Their first meeting was a clash of egos—a spark of friction that neither expected to burn.But the darkness of the night held more than just a failed date. As Do-hee drove away, she was chased into the shadows by a masked killer, a specter sent by those who wanted her inheritance. Her car stalled on the edge of a precipice, the smell of gasoline and fear thick in the air.Out of the darkness, Gu-won appeared. He didn't come to save her; he came to harvest. "Make a deal with me," he whispered, his voice a silken trap. "Your life for your soul."Before the contract could be sealed in blood, the world tilted. Their car plummeted into the icy embrace of the ocean. In the weightless, blue silence of the deep, Do-hee reached out, grabbing Gu-won's wrist.Then, the impossible happened.The cross tattoo—the ancient brand of the demon's power—began to glow. In a swirl of light and bubbles, the ink migrated, peeling away from Gu-won's skin and searing itself onto Do-hee's wrist.When the sun rose over the tide the next morning, the hierarchy of the world had shifted. Gu-won stood on the sand, shivering and mortal, staring at the woman who had inadvertently stolen his divinity. The predator was now the prey, and the woman who trusted no one had become the guardian of a demon's soul.