The Unmasked Puppet

Seohan had been alternating between zoning out and taking small sips of his drink when the party hall suddenly grew noisy, causing him to glance over.

‘……Why is he here?’

And there he was. Jin Yeon-oh—the man whose collar he had been gripping just the other day.

For a moment, Seohan’s mind went blank, making even simple thoughts feel sluggish. It was only when a crowd began to swarm around the newly arrived Jin Yeon-oh that Seohan reached a belated realization.

That guy was a chaebol heir as illustrious as—or perhaps even more so than—Baek Seohan.

It wasn’t strange for him to attend a charity party where the industry’s elite gathered. It was just hard to believe he was at this specific party, at this specific time.

Seohan naturally stepped backward, seeking a place where he would be even less conspicuous.

‘I absolutely do not want to run into him……!’

He had no excuse for their last encounter, and beyond that, he had no desire to create any points of contact with the Main Gong. What if Jin Yeon-oh found out that Lee Dohun was currently confined in his house? He could be finished right then and there.

Because he had tucked himself so deep into the corners of the hall, Seohan couldn’t see the rest of the room clearly.

However, the last image he saw of Jin Yeon-oh remained vividly seared into his brain. The line of people who had surrounded Seohan earlier was nothing compared to the sea of people crowding around Jin Yeon-oh.

As he continued to sip his drink, a cheerful ding sounded, and the system window manifested once more.

[Info | ‘Baek Seohan’ has an inferiority complex toward Jin Yeon-oh.]

“……Hmm.”

Seohan stared at the message with a peculiar expression. Was this why Baek Seohan hated Jin Yeon-oh?

But he felt it was unavoidable. One had a trashy personality, and the other was seemingly perfect. If two people with similar backgrounds were compared, unless one was blind, they would obviously choose the former.

‘You should have lived a kinder life, then.’

Though no one could hear him, Seohan clicked his tongue. This was all the karma Baek Seohan had accumulated.

‘And I’m the one cleaning it up.’

On second thought, clicking his tongue wasn’t enough. Curses teased the back of his throat, but he forced himself to swallow them, mindful that he was in a public space.

Furthermore, there was still one point that bothered him.

<I told you to wipe that damn smile off your face in front of me.>

Strangely, those words kept coming back to him. It felt like there was something between Baek Seohan and Jin Yeon-oh that couldn’t be dismissed as mere inferiority.

Thump. At that moment, someone gripped Seohan’s shoulder.

Startled, Seohan turned his head and froze. The man he locked eyes with was far too familiar.

“We meet again.”

Perhaps it was because his eyes curved so softly when he smiled, creating a cute impression, but the way his hair was neatly pushed back suited him surprisingly well. Such idle thoughts, however, fled his mind instantly.

Jin Yeon-oh was standing right in front of him. The very man he had been so desperate to avoid. Perhaps being lost in thought was his undoing; Seohan hadn’t sensed his presence until he was right there.

“……Yes.”

As he gave an awkward reply, Seohan glanced behind him. He was seriously contemplating whether to bolt like last time.

But that plan was quickly foiled. When he instinctively took a step back as Jin Yeon-oh drew closer, his path was blocked as if by magic. A look of absurdity crossed Seohan’s eyes.

‘Did he do that on purpose?’

Jin Yeon-oh’s face was still blooming with a clear, bright smile. It was a smile that made a person look inherently good—so much so that even though the circumstances suggested otherwise, it was hard to believe it was calculated.

Suddenly, the lights in the ballroom went out.

“The host of this charity party…….”

In the pitch-black hall, the only place receiving a spotlight was where an elderly man stood. Seohan glanced toward the light, then flinched as he turned back to Jin Yeon-oh. The man was still staring at him.

The surroundings were dark, but it wasn’t completely void of light, so the outlines of things close by were clear.

This was why he was able to perceive the exact moment the expression vanished from Jin Yeon-oh’s face. His body froze reflexively at the sight of that chillingly expressionless face.

Like a beast caught in a snare, unable to move a muscle, he stood pinned to the spot, unable to even look away.

“Are you afraid of me?”

Those well-shaped lips murmured softly.

Yes, completely. I’m terrified.

The words nearly tumbled out of his mouth, but he suppressed them with every ounce of his strength. Even though there was no direct light on him, Jin Yeon-oh’s dark pupils seemed to glint eerily.

“……What are you talking about?”

“Why? I haven’t even done anything scary yet.”

By the time Seohan managed to squeeze his voice out, he heard that small mutter. It was close to a monologue, but loud enough for Seohan to hear.

A chill ran down his spine. His mouth, which had intended to ask what he meant and why on earth he would be afraid, could only hang open without making a sound. His mind kept racing toward the worst possible conclusions.

‘You haven’t done it yet?’

Does that mean you’re going to?

The words “haven’t yet” implied that he might in the future. The moment he realized that, he couldn’t resist taking another step back, though it did little good as there was hardly any space left.

Seeing Jin Yeon-oh’s face still so close, Seohan wanted to cry. He began to doubt if this was the same man who had been walking around with such a warm smile.

[Drumroll! The hidden story of <Never Ending> is being revealed ╰( ^o^)╮!]

In the midst of this, the system, completely failing to read the room, floated up. He hadn’t even asked for information on Jin Yeon-oh, yet here it was—the “hidden story” of <Never Ending>.

‘I don’t need that!’

Of course, Seohan’s silent scream didn’t reach the system.

[Lee Dohun, rescued by Jin Yeon-oh, finds stability through him and grows to love him over time. However, upon discovering this, Jin Yeon-oh changes overnight and…….]

As Seohan read the text on the system window, he was soon struck with horror.

‘……Isn’t this guy a psychopath?’

Upon finding out that Lee Dohun loved him, Jin Yeon-oh began to put Lee Dohun through a wringer that was comparable to—no, even worse than—what Baek Seohan had done. The novel ended with Lee Dohun, unable to escape that abyss, falling into deep despair and breaking completely.

What Jin Yeon-oh did to Lee Dohun was a sort of “experiment.” If someone loves me, how far will they go to accept my actions? Jin Yeon-oh had been curious about that.

<If you love me, how much can you endure?>

Jin Yeon-oh’s words, provided by the system, kept ringing in his head. Only then did Seohan realize why the novel he had possessed was titled <Never Ending>.

Lee Dohun escaped Baek Seohan, only to fall into the hands of Jin Yeon-oh. He was simply being rolled from the hands of one tormentor to another.

‘This guy wasn’t sane either.’

Seohan’s trembling eyes turned toward Jin Yeon-oh. The man, who had been staring back, tilted his head slightly.

“How strange.”

“…….”

“You’re afraid again.”

Seohan quietly swallowed his saliva. The ballroom was noisy, but the space between them was so silent that it felt like Jin Yeon-oh must have heard the sound of him swallowing. It had been a long time since a human face felt truly terrifying.

[Info | After barely surviving a kidnapping in his childhood, Jin Yeon-oh lost the ability to feel proper emotions. Because of this, he has been acting out the role of a perfect ‘Jin Yeon-oh’ by observing and mimicking the behavior of people with good social reputations. Σ(ʘωʘﾉ)ﾉ]

‘So this was it.’

Seohan finally understood why Baek Seohan had hated Jin Yeon-oh.

The reality of the perfect rival—someone he felt inferior to—was a total lie. To someone like Baek Seohan, Jin Yeon-oh’s behavior would have likely felt like a form of deception.

The image of him being kind and gentle was all a facade. Perhaps Jin Yeon-oh was a bigger lunatic than Baek Seohan. No, it was certain. While his past revealed by the system was tragic, it didn’t change the fact that the man in front of him was someone to avoid at all costs.

It wasn’t just because he was the Main Gong. Jin Yeon-oh was quite literally a bomb that could go off at any moment. Seohan had no desire to take that risk.

“Seohan-ssi.”

“……Yes.”

“Where are you looking?”

Seohan quickly shifted his gaze, which had been lowered slightly to read the system window. Jin Yeon-oh was staring exactly at the spot Seohan had just been looking at. His heart hammered in his chest; even though Jin Yeon-oh shouldn’t have been able to see it, the way he gazed precisely where the system window floated was bone-chilling.