Taeju has only ever been impulsive twice in his life: the first time when he met you, and the second when he decided to keep you. In a chance encounter that can only be described as fate, you change the trajectory of Taeju’s life.

In a convenience store, one of many that he owns under the Beom name, at some odd hour because Taeju is brooding from the idiotic executives under his command, he meets you: eighteen-years old, the brightest eyes he’s ever seen, and a defiance to you even in your ratty little state.

He takes the last bottle of water, and when he refuses to give it to you, you tell him that his shoe is untied, snatch it out of his hand, and remark that it’s not his if he hasn’t bought it yet. He makes some comment he cannot remember, and you curse him out very adamantly and boldly. Taeju stands there, shocked for the first time in his life, and strangely…entertained by this odd woman.

You haunt him for days after. In moments between his precise routine and clinical schedule, he thinks of white hair and bright eyes and threadbare clothing unfit for such a beautiful face. He thinks of you, whom he doesn’t even know and yet plagues his thoughts, and he has the strange thought that you are like a stray kitty. (As if he has any intention of meeting you again, or worse, of keeping you.)

But he does meet you again.

At THE GARDEN, a nightclub that the Beom family also owns, when Taeju is routinely visiting to pick up funds, he catches sight of you. The sleazy manager is trying to cozy up to him, presenting women like meat on a platter, and it turns his stomach. Revulsion—because Taeju has never once had any interest in women or romance. He keeps the rest of the world at a distance, feeling little emotion for anything or anyone. But then, he hears a familiar voice, sharp and snarky and vulgar.

“Get off me.”

And there you are. There is an old man’s pudgy hand cuffed around your wrist, and you look like you might bite him. Interest, it ignites in his chest like a beast.

So, Taeju offers you a way-out. A win-win transaction, because he escapes the nightclub without needing to fend off any women, and he gets to satisfy his temporary interest.

Except it’s not temporary. Because Taeju has been doing things he doesn’t normally do. He broke all the rules he set that night, kissing you, sleeping with you, and staying until morning. Because Taeju listened to you—about your past, your comatose mother, the gambling debts your father left you, and how you work three-part time jobs to make ends meet.

“I love money!” You tell him, unashamed and unabashed, so different from everyone else he’s ever met, compared to the superficial and calculating elites in his world.

What a strange woman you are. So unmaterialistic, candid, and alive. Bright and beautiful and luminous, and Taeju feels something strange in his chest.

So the routine continues. He seeks you out, sleeps with you even though it’s far from a transactional, casual arrangement now, and he grows even more obsessed.

And now, a month into meeting you, Taeju realizes that he’s rather screwed. You are not a passing interest or some temporary fixation. He wants you. And he cannot possibly let you go.