Chapter 06
What on earth was this crazy guy?
Bari’s confused mind tangled into a mess. There was no way a strict, principle-following Korean police officer would just commit something like this without reason. But the situation clearly looked like a home invasion. A completely illegal one at that.
“Hey, Gang Hae-an.”
“…….”
“You know that stalking under the excuse of public authority is the worst kind of crime, right?”
Bari swallowed hard and tried to stay calm. She threw her clutch bag onto the sofa and faced him boldly with demanding eyes.
“I won’t go easy on you, so speak clearly. How did you get in here?”
“The front gate was open.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Then… I walked in?”
“You’ve really lost your mind!”
At Bari’s cold outburst, Hae-an clicked his tongue while crossing his arms.
“Idiot.”
He lightly tapped his forearm at steady intervals while staring straight at Bari.
“You still can’t recognize this body at a glance.”
In the second-floor living room of the dark mansion, a deeper blue light flickered in Hae-an’s eyes than the darkness itself.
And only then did she realize. The true identity of the being inside the body of human Gang Hae-an.
“Criminal Bari-degi, show proper respect and meet the Heavenly Lord.”
Heavenly Lord. Another name for the Jade Emperor. The highest authority in the heavenly realm, the creator who formed the first humans.
Overwhelmed by the immense divine pressure, Bari dropped to her knees uncontrollably, her whole body trembling.
“I came in the face you would be most glad to see, but it doesn’t seem very welcome.”
Clenching her fists, she met the Heavenly Lord’s gaze with hostile eyes. The Heavenly Lord, wearing Hae-an’s face, walked slowly and stood by the wide-open window. The cool dawn breeze scattered both their hair.
“Well, I suppose my existence itself is resentment and anger to you.”
“…If you know that, why have you come here?”
At Bari’s bitter reply, the Heavenly Lord smiled strangely with his hands behind his back.
“I came to inspect whether you are properly enduring the punishment I gave you.”
“Heavenly Lord!”
“And? How is it?”
At the sudden question, Bari lost her words. She steadied her breath as if suppressing her emotions, then looked at the Heavenly Lord wearing Hae-an’s face.
“For a thousand years, governing the lives and deaths of humans, guiding countless souls… how does it feel?”
Her bloodshot eyes and exhausted face remained silent with a cold, twisted expression.
“Isn’t it painful—to exist as something neither alive nor dead, living an endless immortality?”
“Are you here to mock me?”
“Not at all. As you know, I am a very busy being.”
The Heavenly Lord sat lightly on the window frame, tilting his head in an irritating way.
“Shall I just let this body fall? It might get quite damaged.”
He lightly shook Hae-an’s body as if he might fall out of the window at any moment. The soul of Hae-an, deeply asleep under divine power, might never wake without permission.
Should she wish for Gang Hae-an’s death instead? Would that also erase the soul of her ex-husband, Mu Jang-seung? A long-buried hatred surged up, but Bari barely managed to regain her calm.
“You have a request, don’t you?”
“Correct. Finally, you’re speaking properly.”
The Heavenly Lord stepped down easily from the window frame where he had been sitting dangerously.
“Unfortunately, the one who has more to lose is always the weaker one.”
What he meant by “losing” was only one thing. The people who had become the most precious and cherished beings in Bari’s life—someone who had been abandoned at birth and never knew family love.
“So you intend to use Deok-jae and Jeom-rye as hostages?”
The Heavenly Lord nodded with a grin and spoke cruelly.
“You expected I would use them as tools of threat, didn’t you?”
A bad feeling crept in. Bari’s face turned pale as her trembling hands clasped together like in prayer.
“To gain one thing, you must give up another.”
As painful and unfair as it was, the Heavenly Lord’s words had their own logic. The law of equivalent exchange was a fundamental rule of the heavenly realm.
“One hundred days.”
The Heavenly Lord grabbed Bari’s arms and pulled her up from her kneeling position, speaking coldly.
“Exactly three months from now, your final judgment of ascension will be decided.”
Bari lifted her fiercely hardened eyes, her rage on the verge of explosion.
“If you truly want to protect your precious ones until the end, then within three months, you must win this body’s heart.”
He pointed at Hae-an’s face as if indicating himself and smiled faintly.
“The reincarnation of your husband, Mu Jang-seung, whom you killed with your own hands, must come to truly understand and love you.”
A reality more horrible than death made her sick. Bari felt a wave of nausea rise up.
“That is the only way to save you and your people.”
Tears that could not become sound finally fell from her burning red eyes.
From this moment on, Kim Bari had only three months.
Not even a single second could be wasted. No one could help her—she had to rely solely on herself to persuade Gang Hae-an and make him hers.
Earlier, after the Heavenly Lord left, Hae-an’s body collapsed onto the living room floor, drained of strength. Bari dragged the limp adult man upstairs and threw him onto a bed in the last room of the second floor. She stripped off the long-unused bedsheet and roughly dumped the unconscious Hae-an onto it.
She stared at his sleeping face for a long time, then turned away. From a wooden bookshelf, she randomly pulled out ridiculous books like “100% Winning Love Manual”. Even though she knew it wouldn’t help, she desperately wanted something to cling to.
“Damn it.”
This was insane. How was she supposed to do anything when they couldn’t even communicate properly?
Bari anxiously bit her fingernails and glanced at Hae-an sleeping peacefully. This “thing” couldn’t even hold a conversation, let alone be persuaded. She ran her fingers through her hair, paced around the room, but no solution came to mind.
“What am I supposed to do alone!”
She shouted and sat on the edge of the bed where Hae-an lay, holding her throbbing forehead.
Time was running out. She had to think desperately. Somewhere in her mind, there had to be a way to deal with stubborn Gang Hae-an.
His head throbbed like it was about to split open. Even with his eyes closed, the world felt like it was spinning, so he pushed away the pillow. Feeling nauseous, Hae-an changed positions several times before slowly opening his eyes.
Then he let out a dry, broken laugh.
Because Kim Bari was standing in front of his bed, staring directly at him.
“This woman… is she following me even in dreams?”
His hoarse voice slipped out weakly. He blinked slowly, closed his eyes again, trying to sleep—but then felt something strange.
“She really does everything.”
Bari’s clear voice rang out. Hae-an opened his eyes again. Bari, who had been standing still, walked closer to him.
Startled by her approaching figure, he quickly pinched his cheek.
“Ah!”
It hurt. That meant this was definitely not a dream.
Bari looked down at him pitifully and sat on the edge of the bed. Faced with this unbelievable reality, Hae-an shot up.
“Why are you here?”
He remembered drinking with Kang-ho last night, but after that everything went black. His head ached with hangover pain as he held it.
So why is this woman in my house?
“Get it together. This is my house.”
At Bari’s indifferent words, his body stiffened. He quickly looked around and realized he was indeed in an unfamiliar bedroom.
“Calm down. You won’t understand anything right now anyway with that head of yours.”
Her incomprehensible words only made things more confusing.
Bari reached for the blanket covering his legs. The moment cold air touched his skin, his exposed body tightened. She quietly lifted the blanket and covered him up to his neck.
Half-naked upper body, only pants and underwear on. Remembering his cursed sleeping habit, Hae-an made an embarrassed face.
“Get up if you’re awake.”
Bari stood up first and shook her head. Hae-an didn’t even know where his shirt was, so he couldn’t move properly.
Leaving him in confusion, Bari calmly left the room.
He stared blankly at the closed door, then hurriedly looked around—when the door suddenly opened again.
Leaning against the doorframe, Bari casually showed him a large men’s T-shirt, shaking it in front of him.
“Put some clothes on first.”
She threw his clothes onto the bed, then closed the door again and disappeared.
