Park Shinui fell into thought while scanning the interior landscape that was familiar yet unfamiliar.
Kang Taejun’s mansion, which had amassed enormous wealth through countless battles, was a space that added modern sensibility to classical European architectural style. The splendor he hadn’t noticed when viewing it from afar as an audience member now vividly pressed against his skin as if in reality. At a glance, it was grand and imposing like the chaebol families he’d only seen in dramas.
‘This is strange. If I put on the ring and the bonding ceremony ended, shouldn’t I normally wake from the dream?’
Usually, when he dreamed of episodes from the novel, he would wake from sleep simultaneously with one incident being resolved. But why was it still ongoing this time? Was it because it was a development not in the original work, so even the ending was arbitrarily extended, or……
“I’ve prepared a change of clothes in Park Shinui-ssi’s room.”
“Ah, yes. Thank you.”
The butler, whom he had encountered most often today, spoke while setting down a teacup on the table. Park Shinui, who had been lost in thought, belatedly offered thanks while showing a gentle smile at the corners of his mouth. But didn’t the butler’s expressionless face harden coldly as if he’d witnessed something unseemly?
……Huh? I said thank you, so why is he like that?
Park Shinui raised the teacup in the suddenly chilly atmosphere. Then he carefully withdrew the smile he had put on his lips while reading the situation.
He had felt it at the bonding ceremony too, but Kang Taejun’s butler was hiding his displeasure toward Park Shinui beneath his polite speech and respectful attitude. Even if he pretended to treat him courteously on the surface, the cool emotion underlying his eyes couldn’t be hidden.
Park Shinui, who had eaten his share of others’ moods since childhood, couldn’t be unaware of that sense of incongruity. Honestly, judging by the butler’s reaction alone, it was as if Park Shinui were some mortal enemy. Even when receiving the ring from Kang Taejun, the sharpness in his sidelong glances was fierce enough to shoot out lasers.
‘But…… why?’
Why would he dislike the only Guide who recorded a miraculous matching rate with Kang Taejun? Park Shinui pondered the question while fidgeting with the teacup’s surface. Even though his throat was parched with thirst, he somehow felt conscious of the butler’s mood and hesitated even to drink the tea.
Park Shinui was moved to this mansion as soon as the bonding ceremony ended. True to the expression ‘was moved,’ he didn’t remember at all how he got here. When he came to his senses, he was already sitting quietly on the sofa in Kang Taejun’s house’s living room.
Kang Taejun disappeared somewhere without a word. Since he was a character defined solely by his sense of duty even in the novel, the situation could be anticipated without looking. No matter how important the bonding ceremony was, work would clearly be his priority. Thanks to that, Park Shinui was now finally in a state where he could ‘think.’ When Kang Taejun was beside him, it was utterly difficult to maintain his right mind, but just having his presence disappear from view gave him psychological breathing room. Of course, that didn’t mean the current situation was comfortable.
“How about drinking the tea after you change clothes?”
“Yes, I’ll do that.”
As expected, it seems right to drink the tea later. Park Shinui quietly set down the teacup he was holding while nodding his head. Then this time, the butler’s brow narrowed overtly. As if witnessing bizarre behavior he hadn’t expected at all.
‘Why is he like that? Did I do something wrong? In what part?’
“……”
“……”
Silence flowed between the two people facing each other.
“Um……”
Park Shinui carefully opened his mouth while enduring the butler’s sharp gaze that seemed to pierce through him.
“To change clothes.”
“Yes.”
“I need to know…… where my room is…… If you could guide me, Butler-nim.”
“……”
The more Park Shinui spoke, the more the butler’s expression hardened. Park Shinui added a smile to hide his embarrassment.
“I would be grateful……”
It wasn’t even a strange question, so why is he making that expression again? What on earth is the problem?
The butler looked down at Park Shinui silently for a moment, then opened his mouth in a rigidly hardened voice.
“To say that, you’ve already visited here several times and even decorated the room yourself…… You stayed here for several hours even yesterday.”
The cold voice contained cool reproach asking if he couldn’t even remember yesterday’s events. Park Shinui screamed inwardly while showing an awkward smile. He had stopped by the previous day too. This was a complete misjudgment.
“……Ah. That’s right. I did come yesterday…… too, probably.”
The problem was assuming this mansion would naturally be his first visit since there was no connection in the novel. Damn it.
“But if you don’t know, what can I do? I must guide you.”
The butler spun around as if not worth responding to and led the way. Park Shinui followed that resolute back with a troubled expression.
He didn’t know when he would wake from this dream, but at least while staying here, he needed to stay sharp. A single carelessly uttered word could be misunderstood as malice meant to make the other person suffer.
“This is Park Shinui-ssi’s room. The master’s room is right next door.”
“Ah, yes……”
“You won’t forget now, will you?”
At the pointed question, Park Shinui nodded his head like someone who had committed a crime.
“Yes…… I’ll definitely remember.”
The place the butler guided him to was right next to Kang Taejun’s bedroom, which he had seen in passing a few times in his dreams. Park Shinui carefully opened the door and entered inside. Though it was an unfamiliar space, he tried to act composed while quickly scanning the room to behave naturally as if he’d known this place from the beginning.
“……”
However, the moment he faced the scene spread before his eyes, he couldn’t readily utter any words.
The massive bed occupying the center of the room aside, the wine-colored curtains cascading down the walls and the heavy velvet carpet that made his feet sink deeply…… he couldn’t understand what kind of harmony this was. Moreover, the glossy red satin bedspread covering the entire bed. Who would sleep covered in that, but that person was Park Shinui. There was no way to describe it except as excessively stimulating and sticky atmosphere beyond splendor.
What should I call this? Should I say it’s erotic, or should I say it’s vulgar……
Park Shinui gaped vacantly at the space that blatantly exuded damp desire. The room, which seemed like his mind would melt just looking at it, was filled with things he would absolutely never choose even if given ten billion won.
“……Park Shin, I mean, I decorated this room?”
‘Does ‘Park Shinui’ have this kind of taste? Does he like this kind of atmosphere that seems like it would drive you crazy after just a little look?’
“Yes, you chose everything directly.”
The butler answered while looking at Park Shinui, who couldn’t hide his repulsed expression, with dubious eyes.
“Then, these clothes too……”
“Yes, they’re the indoor clothes Park Shinui-ssi prepared.”
Park Shinui slightly lifted the thin, fluttering garment placed on the bed with his fingertips then set it down while making a troubled expression.
Wear this at home? It would be better to just walk around naked.
What was placed as clothing was made of material that seemed like it would tear immediately with just a little force, and the size was merely a tiny piece of cloth that would barely fit one leg of an adult man. Of course, he wasn’t disrespecting people with this kind of taste, but he absolutely, really couldn’t wear it even if the sky split in two. It wasn’t at the level of aversion—it was completely impossible.
“Then I’ll take my leave now.”
Park Shinui hurriedly reached out toward the butler’s back as he turned around.
“Wa-wait a moment. Butler-nim!”
“Yes, what is it?”
“I…… I mean……”
Now that he had stopped him, he was at a loss for what words to bring up. Park Shinui bit his lips repeatedly while rapidly working his mind.
Whether there were other clothes to change into, whether the room could be changed to somewhere else, or whether he really looked like Park Shinui. There were more than one or two things to ask, but they were all difficult to bring out of his mouth.
“……There’s one thing I’m curious about.”
Of course, he couldn’t say ‘I’m not Park Shinui, you’re a character in a novel I know, and this is all a dream.’ Then the priority was to ask the most urgent thing first. That is, a question that could identify which point in the novel this situation corresponded to.
“Kang Taejun and Park Shinui…… I mean, when and how did we meet? Do you know anything about that?”
“……”
“What I mean is…… it doesn’t seem like we bonded because we loved each other……”
“……”
“But then again, bonding all the way to marriage with just the matching rate and no affection is a bit much, you know.”
“I don’t know what you’re trying to say. Right now…… are you saying that Park Shinui-ssi is holding the master’s lifeline?”
“What? No. That’s not what I meant……”
“That’s why the master is doing everything Park Shinui-ssi wants, isn’t he?”
“As I want?”
“You’ll confirm it starting tonight, so I don’t understand the intent of bringing up a contract that’s already been made.”
“Contract……?”
“That’s enough. I have a lot of work to do, so I’ll excuse myself.”
The butler, who had been maintaining courtesy at least formally, spun around as if he no longer wanted to exchange words and left the room.
Park Shinui stared vacantly at the closed door then slowly tilted his head. Not a single sentence among what the butler had just poured out was properly understood.
What’s this about a lifeline, and what does it mean to do as I want? A contract…… what the hell is that supposed to be?
“Now I can’t even guess how the story will unfold.”
He thought he’d wake from the dream once he put on the ring, but that wasn’t it either. Even trying to grasp the situation, the information he held was woefully insufficient. Looking at the overall flow, the characters matched the novel, and except for the variable of ‘Park Shinui’ who had suddenly intruded, the relationships between characters were also the same as the original.
“It’s definitely the novel I read…… but why is the content like this?”
When he first opened his eyes, Park Shinui immediately guessed that this was inside a dream. Even though the development was unfamiliar, he didn’t harbor doubts. Even while going through the unwilling bonding ceremony, he thought ‘it’s a dream, so it’ll end when it’s over.’
However, even though quite some time had passed, the fantasy before his eyes showed no sign of ending. Just as dramas usually wrap up episodes after decisive events, the dreams inside the novel that Park Shinui had been having had been the same. It was an iron rule that he would naturally wake from sleep when one episode was tied up or when tension reached its peak. Even if the current development was content not in the original work, there was no reason for the way the dream proceeded to be completely reversed as well.
“Is the central content of this episode…… not the bonding ceremony?”
Park Shinui sprawled on the bed without caring about things like the ceremonial clothes wrinkling. How long had it been since he entered the dream? Five hours? Six hours? If time here flowed identically to reality, morning should have already broken by now.
“Ah, I’m tired……”
Today was an exceptionally long day. After finishing classes, assignments, and even part-time work, to be dragged into the dream’s novel world and even hold a bonding ceremony. Moreover, perhaps from overworking his brain trying to follow the novel’s flow, his body and mind were heavy like wet cotton.
Park Shinui cast his gaze toward the indoor clothes placed beside him because the constricting clothes were uncomfortable, then immediately shuddered and turned his head away. It would be better to sleep wearing armor than to wear that piece of cloth. The clothes chosen as ‘Park Shinui’s’ taste were shocking even upon second look.
“I don’t want to think this way about Kang Taejun, but…… should I say it’s fortunate that we use separate rooms even after bonding?”
Park Shinui slowly blinked his heavy eyelids then closed them completely. The mansion, where even the noise of the city center didn’t reach, was quiet like a vacuum. Compared to its grand scale, almost no presence was felt, and not even any noise was heard as if even the servants moved like shadows.
“It’s also ridiculous to sleep inside a dream, but……”
The texture of the embarrassingly red sheets was unexpectedly not bad. Park Shinui rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand while letting out a long yawn. The dream would end someday anyway.
Perhaps…… when he woke up, he might see his own room’s ceiling.
I had quite a special experience today. Park Shinui gently smiled at the corners of his mouth, then his consciousness gradually sank. He fell into an incomparably deep sleep, hard to believe he was sleeping inside a dream.
