I closely observed the person in front of me without making it obvious.
One look at him told me he had the face of a young master from a wealthy family.
He didn’t seem very old, and there was a bit of a rebellious, delinquent look to his face.
Furthermore, completely unfitting for his appearance, his tone of voice was exceptionally kind and gentle.
As if he were putting it on deliberately.
‘It feels exactly like he’s trying to scam me.’
I couldn’t shake off the suspicion.
No, based on the circumstances, there was absolutely no way I could be called a cult leader.
I had clearly been collapsed while looking like a complete beggar, so a cult leader all of a sudden?
Moreover, the way he was acting all smooth as if he knew something made it glaringly obvious that he intended to swindle me.
But why on earth would he bother?
“What are you thinking about so deeply?”
Right then, I snapped out of it at the sound that suddenly drifted down.
Before I knew it, the man’s face was hanging extremely close over mine.
Looking straight at me from a nose-touching distance, his eyes were shining intensely.
There was a clear indication that he was scanning and searching for something.
“I’m just… a bit confused…”
When I responded while letting out a sigh, still pretending my head ached, the man looked at me with a pitiful expression.
“Yeah, it’s completely understandable that it’s hard on you. Our Yuan worked so hard, but the believer died anyway.”
The man was still spouting incomprehensible nonsense.
Since he was consistently trying to scam me, I decided to drive in a wedge to see his reaction.
“Ah, it’s not that…”
“It’s not that?”
“…I can’t seem to remember very well.”
“Is that so?”
“…Yeah.”
I watched to see how the man would react, but his expression wasn’t nearly as panicked as I expected.
Rather, he was accepting it naturally, as if he had already anticipated it.
‘As if he anticipated it?’
I gained a certain conviction from that sight.
Just as I suspected, I was definitely not a cult leader, and I had clearly been a mere beggar.
However, for some unknown reason, this man had picked up my beggar self and it was plain to see that he intended to use me in some way or another.
Yet, if there was one slightly strange detail, it was that rather than simply using me, a certain sense of possessiveness was flashing briefly through the man’s eyes.
‘Exactly what part of me does he covet so much to act like this?’
I felt that the question blooming right now was the most critical piece of information I needed to discover.
Given how powerfully drawn I felt to this mystery inside my head, it seemed I was absolutely right.
But how on earth was I supposed to find out?
The head that hadn’t even been hurting all that much earlier was truly starting to ache now.
“It must be because the shock was too great.”
“Mmh…”
“It’s alright. Even if you can’t remember anything, it’s fine as long as I stay by your side and take good care of you.”
Suddenly, the man placed his hand on my shoulder and pulled his body close to mine.
At that exact moment, a subtle breath escaped his lips.
It sounded almost like a sigh of pure satisfaction—the kind of sound made when someone is desperately trying to suppress an overwhelming surge of emotion.
“I know you must still be confused, but once you rest up a little more, I’ll explain everything to you. Alright?”
When I gave a slow nod, the corners of the man’s mouth curled upward.
It was still a smile so artificial that it felt entirely unnatural.
For a while, he lingered intimately close, taking his time before finally pulling away.
Even so, he couldn’t completely wipe the greedy, deeply lingering look from his eyes, as if parting from me was an immense regret.
What made it stranger was that he seemed completely oblivious to his own behavior; his face was still masked with that same superficial, gentle pretense.
‘What on earth does this guy want from me?’
I kept my eyes lowered to hide my internal chaos, but then my thoughts came to a sudden halt.
My gaze had inadvertently caught the man’s groin. It was excessively, glaringly swollen.
‘Is he a fucking pervert?’
If his only motive for picking me up off the street was to use me to satisfy his sexual urges, it wasn’t entirely impossible to comprehend.
The world wasn’t exactly filled with rational, normal people.
Reality was teeming with all kinds of lunatics, criminals, and absolute human trash.
Yet, to settle on that explanation alone left too many loose ends.
Even if I had been lying there looking like a total beggar, it wasn’t as if I were the only beggar on the streets.
If he just wanted a decent face, there were plenty of homeless people around, so why did it have to be me?
‘If only I had a single proper clue to go off of.’
The lack of information was suffocating.
I desperately wished for just one definitive, concrete piece of evidence—anything would do.
“Well then, get some rest for a bit.”
Leaving me with those words, the man leisurely walked out of the room.
Left in a bedroom that had instantly become silent, I slowly scanned my surroundings.
I pushed myself up from the bed, gently massaging my stiff, aching muscles as I stood.
I had no intention of doing anything reckless.
Given the man’s sketchy demeanor, it wouldn’t be surprising if there were hidden cameras monitoring the room.
I walked over to the window and reached out to pull back the curtain.
The view outside immediately filled my vision.
We were clearly on a very high floor, as the scenery below looked distant.
‘I can’t really tell much just by looking at the exterior.’
It was nothing more and nothing less than a typical urban landscape.
It was a bit strange how densely packed the buildings were, and the fact that the vast majority of them were drab, concrete shades of grey was unsettling, but other than that, nothing stood out as completely alien.
Is this even Seoul?
I couldn’t tell if this was the same region I used to live in or an entirely different place altogether.
My chest felt so tight with frustration that I wanted to wrap my hands around my head and scream.
Is there really no hint anywhere?
Clutching at straws, I scanned the room once more before my eyes locked onto the door—the very door the man had just walked through.
‘I don’t think it’ll be locked.’
It was just a gut feeling.
Since he was running a scam pretending that I was some kind of cult leader, it wouldn’t make sense for him to lock the bedroom door and ruin the illusion.
He had likely already taken measures to ensure I couldn’t escape the actual building anyway.
Without hesitating, I walked toward the door.
‘Click.’
The door opened much more easily than I anticipated.
Poking my head out slowly, the living room came into view.
The man was nowhere to be seen.
Testing the waters, I took a step forward out of the room, but fortunately, nothing happened.
Walking into the center of the living room, my attention was drawn to a massive TV screen that was currently turned off.
There was no remote control in sight.
