The Collusive Alliance

“……P-Player Yusin…….”

The person who stepped out from within was none other than Yusin.

Unlike yesterday, he wore loose-fitting athletic wear, standing tall like a secondary front door himself.

Yehi’s mind filled instantly with question marks.

Leaving Yehi frozen in place, Yeoun stepped inside first. Secretary Yoon, who stood behind them, also began to carry in Yehi’s boxes of belongings one by one. Despite being urged to come inside, Yehi was the only one who couldn’t bring herself to step onto the entryway floor.

Observing her hesitation, Yusin spoke.

“Come on in.”

“…….”

“It’s fine, so come inside~ If you stand there for too long, the security guards will come up.”

Yusin didn’t possess the sharp, razor-edged demeanor from yesterday. His expression and tone were far softer and more easygoing—the exact image of him that Yehi had watched every single day on screen.

Even though she knew the circumstances were different from yesterday, was it due to her lingering guilt? Yehi kept her head bowed deeply and stepped inside with extreme caution.

“I-I apologize for the intrusion……”

The interior didn’t differ greatly in atmosphere from the apartment she had visited yesterday. Except for the fact that volleyball-related items weren’t cluttered about in a total mess, it was nearly identical.

Passing through the short hallway, they reached the living room.

Yusin conceded the sofa to the sisters and pulled over a small stool to sit down.

The sofa was made of matte black leather. In front of it sat a heavy-looking rectangular table, upon which three teacups rising with steam and three mysterious sheets of white paper had been placed corresponding to the number of people.

Two sheets sat before the sisters on the sofa, and one sat in front of Yusin across from them.

As the two exchanged familiar greetings, noting that they were meeting again just a couple of days after their last encounter, Yehi remained blankly silent like a borrowed sack of barley.

“Is the apartment to your liking? No rabid fans tracking you down here, right?”

“Yes. Thanks to you, I think I’ll be able to live comfortably.”

It was shocking enough that Yeoun was already acquainted with Yusin, but the news that Yeoun had gifted this apartment to him was absolutely jaw-dropping.

Watching the two engage in casual conversation, Yehi stealthily reached out her hand to check the paper before her eyes.

[Cooperation Agreement]

Turning the cover page, a brief passage of text appeared.

Cooperation Agreement

Article 1 (Purpose) The purpose of this agreement is for Gu Yeoun (hereinafter referred to as “Party A”) and Gye Yusin (hereinafter referred to as “Party B”) to mutually cooperate to achieve their respective objectives.

Article 2 (Cooperation Obligations) (1) Party A shall have the safety of her immediate family member, ‘Gu Yehi,’ guaranteed by Party B. (2) Party B shall be provided with documents regarding the death of his immediate family member, ‘Mun Jimin,’ by Party A. (3) Party A and Party B shall cooperate with each other during the agreement period in accordance with the principles of good faith and sincerity.

Article 3 (Obligations of Party A) (1) Party A shall provide necessary information and materials to Party B. (2) Party A shall actively provide necessary support to Party B. The support provided by Party A includes financial assistance, and Party B shall bear no obligation to return or reimburse it.

Article 4 (Obligations of Party B) (1) Party B shall guarantee the safety of Party A’s immediate family member, ‘Gu Yehi.’ (2) Party B shall act in a manner that appears to third parties as being in a marital relationship with ‘Gu Yehi’ during the agreement period. (3) This agreement includes a legal marriage, and the parties must maintain an attitude corresponding to their status as spouses in all social, official, and external situations, including each other’s family events. (However, the termination of the marital relationship shall coincide with the end of the agreement period.)

Article 5 (Agreement Period) The validity period of this agreement shall be one year from the date of execution. However, the period may be adjusted upon mutual agreement between Party A and Party B.

Article 6 (Confidentiality) Party A and Party B shall not disclose details regarding this agreement to any third party.

Date of Execution: March 9, 2XXX

Party A: Gu Yeoun Party B: Gye Yusin

Yehi blinked her eyes in utter bewilderment.

Matters concerning her were being negotiated, yet she had been completely oblivious. Furthermore, it was an agreement that had already been finalized with signatures.

Though she had much she wanted to ask, the most critical part was Article 4—the clause concerning Yusin, who had become Party B.

To think it included an actual legal marriage. It was far too audacious for a mere clause in a cooperation agreement.

“M-Marriage feels like it might be unnecessary……”

At her timid, crawling remark, the gazes of the two individuals pinned down upon Yehi’s disheveled hair.

“You’re a fan of Mr. Gye Yusin. Instead of saying ‘Thank you, sister, I love you,’ you’re claiming it’s unnecessary?”

“M-Marrying someone like me, I feel so incredibly sorry for Player Yusin…… What are the documents? He said he n-needs them…… Can’t you just give them to him?”

“Look at this girl playing the pushover again. Those are internal hospital confidential documents. I went through hell to unearth them and hand them over, so I need to gain something in return too.”

“……You can just look at Player Yusin’s face. We even t-talked. What more do you need beyond that……”

“She’s completely lost her mind.”

“I-If you get too greedy, you’ll be punished……”

“Completely lost her mind.”

Yehi murmured her protests. No matter how much she thought about it, marriage wasn’t right. She could just move to a well-secured place like this and live alone. There would be no problem…… Her voice grew progressively quieter.

“What do you mean there’s no problem? I told you, the family found out you’re in Korea!”

The hangnail beside the fingernail she had been biting stretched out long. It stung. A round, bright red droplet of blood was welling up.

“Yehi.”

Yeoun turned around to face Yehi fully. The hand she placed on Yehi’s shoulder was trembling. Only then did Yehi realize that she herself was shaking.

“You still think the real culprit is someone else, don’t you?”

Ever since that day when their parents were reduced to a bloody mess, Yehi had always been the one trembling in fear and running away, while Yeoun was the one who hid her.

Even after the culprit was caught, it remained the same. She had never believed that Yeoun did so because she believed her claim that the real culprit was someone else.

Letting her keep and collect blood-stained items under the guise of evidence, indulging her tearful tantrums when she insisted the house must not be sold, and refraining from forcing her outside when she expressed terror at leaving—she had assumed all of it was merely sympathy for a younger sister who had undergone a horrific tragedy.

Yet, Yeoun was now asking with a voice brimming with absolute certainty.

“When the culprit was caught during the initial investigation, you whispered to me that it wasn’t that mister who did it.”

The detectives who viewed the horribly mangled corpses had deduced that it was the work of an acquaintance driven by a substantial grudge.

Just as they claimed, the culprit was an acquaintance. Before the day of the incident concluded, he had walked in wielding the weapon and confessed.

He was the delivery courier who frequented Yehi’s house nearly every day.

He stated that every time he made a delivery, he felt envious of how leisurely Yehi’s parents—who were his peers—lived. Upon discovering they were actually his former classmates, his anger flared, driving him to commit the act impulsively.

He claimed that extreme rage had momentarily consumed his body.

While his own business had failed, leaving him barely scraping by as a mail courier, and he was right on the verge of getting divorced by his wife while his children were busy ignoring him, seeing his classmate Gu Jihan thriving, living in a spacious home, and possessing the profession of a doctor thanks to being born to wealthy parents was an eyesore he couldn’t bear to look at.

He claimed that every time he visited, treating him like a beggar receiving alms by serving him food and casually tossing expensive items at him under the guise of gifts had filled him with immense fury.

With a confession extracted and concrete evidence secured, he was imprisoned immediately.

Without even granting them time to resent him, he hung himself and died inside the prison.

Yehi had not wept. Shielded behind Yeoun, she had quietly listened to the mass-produced apologies of the bowing police officials.

Because he wasn’t the culprit.

The man who walked in with the evidence and confessed had indeed been holding a knife just as he appeared on the low-resolution CCTV, and he had been wearing a mail carrier’s uniform, but the culprit that day had been wearing a suit.

Through her vision blurred from being choked, Yehi had witnessed the culprit fleeing. Like someone intimately familiar with the layout of the house, she had clearly seen his back as he bolted straight toward the rear exit.

“What you saw that day……”

That figure, which felt strangely and unnervingly familiar, looked exactly like—

“It was Gu Sanghwan, wasn’t it?”

It looked like her eldest uncle.

“H-How……”

Yehi looked at Yeoun with trembling pupils.

As I thought, Yeoun let out a heavy sigh, shrugging her shoulders as she reached out for her cooled teacup.

“Ever since I told everyone that you went to America, Gu Sanghwan has been searching for you with bizarre tenacity. In front of us, he asks if you’re doing well, but behind our backs, he’s even hired people to investigate your whereabouts.”

“…….”

“It’s suspicious, isn’t it? Combing through everything like that. Why go to such lengths to find you? I figured there had to be something.”

Yeoun began to recount, one by one, the things she had unearthed while running background checks on Gu Sanghwan over the past few years.

The moment Yeoun first began to suspect Gu Sanghwan was on the first anniversary of their parents’ passing.

At the time, the sisters had left the house that remained a crime scene and were staying at Gu Myeongil’s residence.

Yehi remained holed up in her room regardless of whether relatives gathered or not.

However, at Gu Sanghwan’s insistence that they ought to at least face each other and exchange greetings given the significance of the day, Yeoun had no choice but to head up to the second floor.