HWR CH 08

Chapter 8. Your Wife Is for Sale

Eun-hwa quickly recognized Jae-kyung from when she had seen him as a child, but after the chaos that had just happened, she seemed to have no energy to pay attention to him.

“I’ll take you back to Seoul comfortably, so please get some rest.”

After some time passed and the car entered the highway, Eun-hwa closed her eyes and began breathing steadily.

Jae-kyung, sitting in the driver’s seat, then spoke to Seol-young.

“The liquid you asked me to analyze… the detailed composition report is ready. It’s in that envelope. Check it.”

Seol-young had decided to investigate the mysterious tea Doseok had given Eun-hwa in her previous life—the one that had caused her acute liver failure.

During that process, Jae-kyung helped her through a food research laboratory that he owned.

Watching them outside the shrine earlier hadn’t been something Seol-young asked him to do.

But after hearing that the liquid came from Doseok, Jae-kyung said he couldn’t feel at ease and insisted on waiting for them.

He didn’t tell Seol-young, but because of several incidents involving Doseok during their school days, he had never liked him.

And although Seol-young claimed Doseok was plotting something dangerous, she still kept meeting him.

That frustrated Jae-kyung.

Glancing at Seol-young through the rearview mirror, he continued:

“The main ingredient of that liquid is a poisonous plant called Arisaema. In the past, it was often used in poison.”

“Yeah. I saw orange flowers blooming everywhere near the shrine today. That plant.”

Through the meeting at the shrine, Seol-young had confirmed with her own eyes where Doseok had gotten the ingredients.

“What are you going to do? We can’t just let him go. This is a crime.”

Jae-kyung’s eyes sharpened as he thought about Doseok.

“Of course I won’t let him go. You know me.”

Seol-young looked back at him with an equally sharp gaze.

Jae-kyung sighed quietly before speaking again.

“That show… what was it called? Couple chef? I still don’t understand what you plan to do by appearing there. And honestly… I hate the idea of you being in the same place as that guy.”

Seol-young cut him off.

“No. I’m definitely going to appear.”

“And then?”

“I want to see Pan Doseok become famous.”

“What?”

“Even if we report him to the police right now, my mom is fine. It’ll be hard to prove his guilt. And he’ll obviously pretend he didn’t do it intentionally.”

“……”

“So I’m not going to punish him in some meaningless way that leaves no real damage. Right now, Pan Doseok is such a pathetic human being that giving him a small punishment would be pointless.”

Her eyes revealed the cold determination she had been hiding.

“I want Pan Doseok to experience being praised by people.”

“To feel like a big star, even if it’s only for a moment.”

“Only then will he understand how devastating it feels to lose everything.”

* * *

On his way back to Seoul alone from Mount Jiri, Doseok trembled with anxiety.

That Ryu Seol-young… she just ran away with her mother?!

Damn it… Did she figure out what I was planning?

This kind of fear was something Doseok hadn’t felt since he visited that place.

That place—

The Bliss Shop.

Convincing Ryu Seol-young should have been easy! I was almost there! There’s no way the Bliss Shop could be wrong …!

That was right.

Before Seol-young ever went there—

Doseok had already visited the Bliss Shop once.

It had been such a painful and terrifying memory that he never wanted to think about it again.

Grinding his teeth, Doseok remembered the day he went there.

* * *

That day…

Thick fog filled the surroundings.

The night was so dark that even the black sky looked gray.

It was impossible to tell where the beginning or end of the path was.

“Ha… ha… ha…”

The only sounds echoing through the mountain forest were Doseok’s rough breathing and curses.

“Where the hell am I supposed to go to find it?! Damn it!”

It felt as if he were wandering through hell.

Sweat soaked through his clothes.

His eyes burned with pain.

His legs felt as heavy as lead.

The fog in the deep forest kept grabbing at his ankles, as if trying to drag him into the darkness.

He was on the verge of losing his mind.

But there was somewhere he had to reach.

He had even risked his life to get there.

“I can’t die like this! I’m going to change this miserable life!”

As he gritted his teeth and shouted fiercely—

A faint light appeared through the fog.

His stumbling steps suddenly stopped.

Despite the overwhelming fear, he had finally found it.

The place he had been searching for.

The signboard of the building—more like a shaman’s house than a shop—glowed blue under the moonlight.

Doseok stared at it with fanatical intensity.

His eyes shone like those of a blind believer.

Creak…

When he opened the door, the old wooden door made a strange noise as if it might fall apart.

But Doseok didn’t even hear it.

This was not an ordinary shop.

It was a place where someone living a filthy, worthless life could steal a chance to rise to the top.

A chance to completely change the life of Pan Doseok—

A washed-up actor with fading looks, poor acting skills, and no fame.

A man who had wasted his entire fortune on worthless cryptocurrency and was on the verge of ruin.

“Finally…!”

Doseok let out a trembling cheer and looked around the inside with greedy anticipation.

But something felt strange.

The inside looked even worse than the outside.

Everything was dark.

Dust and spiderwebs hung everywhere.

And there was no one else there.

Is this really the place?

Then his eyes landed on an old signboard.

[Your Wife Is for Sale]

[You only get one chance.]

[Choose your destined partner and live your life again.]

Only then did Doseok shout in excitement.

“It’s real! What she said was real!”

“The Bliss Shop opens only at extreme moments.”

“When you’re about to die… or already dead.”

“If you go there, you’ll be given a chance to choose a husband or wife.”

“Depending on who you choose, your life will change completely.”

“Normally, the person you’d choose would lead you to the worst possible fate.”

“But don’t despair. You can steal someone else’s destiny.”

“You must choose Ryu Seol-young.”

Doseok repeated the words his sister, Doran, had told him.

People often called Doran a fortune-teller who inherited shaman blood.

Some even said she was possessed by spirits.

But in Doseok’s opinion, she was something like a prophet.

He wished she would just tell the future clearly all the time.

If she had used her ability to earn money from fortune-telling, she could have become rich already.

But whenever he threatened her to reveal things like lottery numbers, she refused stubbornly.

Still—

She had always been right.

And she was kind.

Even though he had abused her terribly, she still helped him at the moment he decided to end his life.

She had given him this crucial information.

“Ryu Seol-young’s color is white.”

“Oppa, no matter what happens, you must choose that one.”

White.

Ryu Seol-young’s color was white.

Doseok repeated Doran’s words and began searching the shop frantically.

But no matter how far he went inside, there was nothing white.

Everything was dark and filthy.

Damn it! There isn’t anything white here!

Just as he was about to curse—

His eyes reached the deepest part of the room.

And there he saw something horrifying.

The floor was crawling with countless larvae.

Large and small maggots wriggled everywhere.

What the hell… She didn’t say I had to choose from bugs!

Still, he had to endure it.

If choosing Ryu Seol-young meant gaining a new life—

Then a few worms were nothing.

He would grab one and return to the past.

Then he would invest in cryptocurrency properly.

Buy lottery tickets.

Become a famous actor.

Marry the pretty Ryu Seol-young.

And if necessary, he could discard her afterward.

Making up his mind, Doseok began digging through the mass of larvae.

Some of them shone bright blue like jewels, almost making him grab them instinctively.

But he resisted.

Finally, he picked up the only white one.

It was small and pitiful—

Something he would never have chosen if it weren’t for Doran’s prophecy.