There was a story of a beautiful hardworking girl who lived in the village happily and was loved by everyone.
Then one day, her father went up the snowy mountains to get a rose for her.
A rose that only grew in the territory of a dangerous beast.
And then, he never came back.
Determined to find her father, this girl climbed up the snowy mountains, and then she met the owner of the territory, who had imprisoned her father for trying to steal his rose.
He was a beast.
He said to her,
"I will let your father go... if you are willing to trade places with him."
And so she agreed and was imprisoned in the mansion of this beast.
He began to exploit her... nitpicking at everything she did and trying to find fault with her but she was patient and calm. She knew the beast was grumpy so even if she complained, it wouldn't change anything.
But as they grew closer, she began to understand that his coldness and bitterness stemmed from the loneliness he was feeling, staying in such a grand and big mansion alone.
And she thought, perhaps it wasn't she who was trapped by the beast.
Perhaps the beast had been the one trapped this whole time, in an unfamiliar shell. And all he needed was just one person to see his true inner self.
***
Isabelle opened her eyes to the morning light.
She didn't even know how she managed to fall asleep the previous night. It was all hazy.
"Ugh," she grunted. "My head hurts."
Maybe drinking that much coffee just to keep herself awake wasn't ideal from the start.
Still... She found a truth that no one would believe.
She looked at her digital clock and then dropped my face on her pillow, having no zeal to go to work.
Not after what happened the previous day.
'I can't face him. Not yet.'
It was a Friday. So she decided to just take a day off and then have the entire weekend to clear her thoughts on what she was going to do henceforth with the information in her hand.
So, she called in sick.
"This should buy me some time. I'll avoid him till I settle my thoughts." She told herself and decided to sleep a little bit more to clear the headache.
But no more than an hour had she fallen asleep when someone knocked on her door.
It wasn't enough to wake her up but the continuous knocking that went on for more than ten minutes, ringing even inside her dream, finally made her open her eyes.
"Who is it?" She asked no one in particular, got up from the bed, and opened her room door.
She entered the living room and noticed the knocking had stopped.
Maybe they already left but if that wasn't the case, then... Who could it be?
Yuna didn't knock like that and she had no other friends who shamelessly knocked on her door like this, knowing she was a hardworking employee that never missed a day of work.
And then, her blood went cold.
Was it the loan sharks?
No, that couldn't be.
It wasn't time to pay her monthly fee yet. So why...? She gulped hard and decided to go check.
She was wearing a thin top glued to her body with spaghetti straps and a pair of sleeping pants.
The top made her waist and rib curves so pronounced, and her big breasts were cupped beautifully.
Since she didn't want a situation where a thug would start staring at her body and make unnecessary demands, she wore a jacket and crossed it over her chest to hide her body.
Worried that it might actually be the loan sharks here to cause trouble, she bided her time.
As her fingers reached for the door handle, she asked,
"Who... Who is it?"
But there was no response. She could easily assume they were gone but what if this was a warning?
Loan sharks were known to be crazy and that was a good enough reason for her not to open.
She was a working-class lady, so it wasn't anything odd if they had banged on her door and she didn't respond.
She could just say she had been at work.
But just in case...
She decided to open the door.
But the moment she did, her hand on the door handle froze.
Standing right outside her apartment, dressed in his usual black coat and sleek slacks, and a rose brooch that didn't complement anything he was wearing... was the one person she wanted to never see again.
Elias Yoon.
His eyes met hers and her heart raced.
This... How did she know her address? No, more importantly. Why was he here?
Was he here to silence her for good?
Fear crept into her heart.
"Oh, hell no." She exclaimed, not wanting to find out firsthand what could happen if she stared at him and longer.
She immediately tried to close the door, but his hand shot forward, pressing against it with the aid of his foot so she wouldn't be able to shut the door.
"Move your hand or I'll—"
"Miss Han." His voice was low, firm, and annoyingly calm. "We need to talk."
"I'm pretty sure we don't!" she snapped, pushing harder against the door, but it didn't budge. This man had strength she didn't expect from someone who looked like he'd never done manual labor in his life.
Maybe this was because he was a beast.
He sighed, which made her flinch in unease.
"You saw something you shouldn't have. We can't just ignore that."
Her pulse spiked. So, he was definitely here for that. She decided to act like she didn't know anything and that all of that might've been a prank.
Maybe that way he would let her off with no threat to her life.
"Oh, you mean your little cosplay incident?" She laughed it off awkwardly. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me, Mr. Yoon. I won't tell anyone you're secretly into animal roleplay."
His jaw tightened.
"I know that you know better." He said. "You know it wasn't cosplay."
"Sure, sure," she said quickly, pretending nonchalance while her hand still fought to push the door shut. "Because people grow fox ears all the time, right? Happens every Thursday night after overtime."
Her words, as sarcastic as they sounded, made him realize that she was indeed pretending not to understand the truth.
His gaze darkened, and his hand pressed harder against the door.
"Delete the photo, Isabelle Han." He said with a strict tone that she knew she could no longer pretend.
Her throat hitched, like it needed a good scratch, and her breathing faltered
"So... it's true."