Chapter 2. The Bliss Shop
Doseok quickly wiped the surprised look from his face and curled one corner of his lips into a smile.
“Oh, what should I do? I’ll call you back in a moment.”
He had no intention of hiding from Seol-young that the person on the phone was a woman.
“Actually, wait a bit. I’ll come over to your place tonight. We should celebrate the victory properly.”
Smack. Smack.
He even left a sticky kiss into the phone before hanging up, deliberately locking eyes with Seol-young as he did.
Seol-young had to clench her teeth hard to keep herself from vomiting.
So there was another woman too.
Even while openly having someone else, he pretended he wanted to marry her?
Well… of course. His goal from the beginning had been her money and her recipes.
“Pan Doseok, I don’t care who you see. You’re nothing more than a husband in name, so I’m not even jealous. But what you stole from me—I’m taking it back.”
Seol-young spoke the words she had prepared, one by one.
“Give me my recipe notebook. And prepare yourself. You’ll pay the price for stealing.”
“The price? What price?” he scoffed. “I’m your husband. What’s the big deal if a husband reads his wife’s diary, huh?”
With a shameless expression, he tossed the recipe notebook toward her face.
What he said next was even worse.
“Here, take it. There’s nothing special in it anyway. You should be grateful. Thanks to me showing it to the world, those dishes are now known by the whole country.”
The rage burning in Seol-young’s eyes surged wildly.
“Pan Doseok! You forced that marriage by holding my mother hostage! You stole my recipes, took out loans in my name, and even ruined my restaurant! I’ll make sure the whole world knows everything you’ve done!”
She spat the words venomously.
But for some reason, Doseok looked completely relaxed.
“You know, Seol-young… if I were you, I’d worry about your own future. Because soon the whole world will believe the exact opposite story.”
The opposite?
What was he talking about?
Then Doseok spoke again. His voice had subtly changed in tone.
“Seol-young, please stop this. Our marriage was something you forced on your own. You even registered the marriage by yourself, secretly, without telling me.”
A chill ran down her spine.
He was speaking as if he were acting.
Like an actor playing the victim.
Everything he said was a lie—except for one thing.
The marriage registration.
It was true that Seol-young had gone alone to the district office to file it.
He had told her the documents were already prepared perfectly and that she only needed to submit them.
Thinking back, his attitude had completely changed after that registration.
Don’t tell me… he planned this from the beginning…
“So you wanted me that badly that you secretly registered the marriage? Even if you’re a Pan Doseok stalker, you shouldn’t do something like that, Ryu Seol-young.”
“W-what nonsense are you talking about—!”
“I never expected my kindness in taking your mother to the hospital would come back like this. Stalking? Fake marriage registration? And now you even break into my house like this? What am I supposed to do, huh?”
“…!”
Seol-young realized it.
She had fallen into another trap Doseok had prepared.
He was waving his phone around deliberately.
The recording function was on.
“You even sent me money. Did you think that money would make me marry you? Sorry, but that’s impossible. Get a grip, Seol-young.”
Seol-young remembered the money he had secretly borrowed and transferred into his own account.
He was twisting even that situation to make it look like she had done it.
“I thought of you like a real younger sister, Seol-young. But if you were going to use my recipe to open a restaurant, you should have at least done it honestly! Using garbage ingredients for your food? That’s too much!”
“P-Pan Doseok…!”
“Ryu Seol-young, please come to your senses and start a new life. Your mother is sick—are you really going to behave like this? If you keep this up, you’ll be punished by heaven!”
He even dragged her mother into it.
Seol-young forgot how to respond.
Her throat felt blocked.
“Please stop obsessing over me, Ryu Seol-young. It’s all over.”
But the show he had prepared didn’t end there.
The front door suddenly burst open.
A group of police officers rushed inside.
The highlight of the show he had arranged was about to begin.
“Ms. Ryu Seol-young. You are under arrest on suspicion of violating the Anti-Stalking Act and trespassing. You have the right to appoint a lawyer…”
As a policewoman twisted Seol-young’s slender arm behind her back and handcuffed her wrists, another officer asked Doseok with concern:
“Mr. Pan Doseok, are you alright?”
“Yes, I’m fine… but please go easy on her,” he said gently. “She’s my younger sister’s friend, and she’s mentally unstable, so please don’t treat her too harshly.”
He pleaded with them in the same warm, gentle manner he showed on television.
As if he truly cared about her.
“She’s not usually like this… but her mother is critically ill right now, so maybe that’s why…”
At the mention of her mother, Seol-young’s blood boiled.
“Pan Doseok!”
The voice that had been stuck in her throat finally burst out.
“Don’t you dare put my mother’s name in your filthy mouth, you bastard!”
Doseok shook his head sadly.
“I tried to endure it for your mother’s sake, but calling me a bastard? Seol-young, if you act like this, I can’t stay quiet either. Please think about your mother!”
Hearing those words, it felt as if the ground beneath Seol-young’s feet was collapsing.
His words about thinking of her mother hurt especially deeply—because thinking only of her mother was exactly why she had married him.
The sorrow pierced her bones.
Her blood boiled.
“Pan Doseok! I won’t let things go your way! I’ll never let you get away with this!”
Filled with fury, Seol-young struggled violently.
The police officers dragging her outside tightened their grip.
“Ms. Ryu Seol-young, please cooperate! Resisting will only make things worse!”
As Seol-young was dragged out the front door, Doseok spoke to her sincerely.
“Seol-young. If you get the chance, please tell your mother this. Thank you for everything. Especially for eating what I made for her. I’m truly grateful.”
What you made… she ate well? Grateful?
Seol-young twisted her head back to glare at him.
A horrifying realization flashed across her eyes.
No… it can’t be…
My mother… was it you?!
Thinking about it now, something had always been strange.
Her mother had suddenly collapsed shortly after Doseok began hovering around them.
He was the one who found her and took her to the hospital.
Her mother had depended on him unusually and even said she wanted him as a son-in-law.
If all of that had been his scheme from the start—
“Pan Doseok!! Was it you?! What you did to my mother?!”
If he had fed her something toxic enough to give a healthy woman acute liver failure—
And then acted like a hero afterward—
Doseok didn’t answer.
He simply turned his back and walked into the house.
Through the closing door, Seol-young caught a glimpse of him twisting his lips into a crooked smile.
Only then did Seol-young fully understand.
The stolen recipes were a very small part of it.
From the very beginning to the very end, everything had been perfectly manipulated by him.
And the result was that Seol-young’s life had been completely destroyed.
Even the life of her only family—her mother.
* * *
At the police station, Seol-young’s fingertips trembled uncontrollably.
There were so many crimes Pan Doseok had committed.
Where should she even begin explaining?
How could she reveal the truth of something so carefully set up?
Her mind was completely dark.
Still, there was one faint ray of hope.
A message from her friend—and sister-in-law—Doran.
[Seol-young, I’m on my way to the police station now. Just wait a little. I’ll testify on your side. I’ll never believe Pan Doseok.]
And Seol-young had another hope.
Han Jae-kyung.
Her longtime friend was rushing back to Korea to help her.
Just thinking about him gave her strength.
If he came, maybe there would be a way out of this darkness.
Jae-kyung… please hurry.
Seol-young clasped her hands and prayed desperately.
Then it happened.
A series of uneasy alarm sounds rang out.
People around her took out their phones—and Seol-young’s eyes also fell on hers.
It was an emergency alert message.
A horrifying piece of news.
A plane flying from New York to Incheon had crashed.
…New York?
“Don’t tell me Jae-kyung…”
She couldn’t finish the sentence.
Jae-kyung had been flying from New York to here.
Could it be that plane?
No.
It can’t be.
It absolutely can’t be.
The desperate words she wanted to say wouldn’t come out.
On the television showing breaking news, footage of the exploding plane appeared.
And Seol-young lost consciousness.
And then she saw it.
In the pitch-black darkness, four faintly glowing characters appeared.
The fateful sign that could turn back time.
