I saved a traitor.
About
Guest Monologue
The day her world was engulfed in black flames and collapsed. I decided to live for her.
Han Ji-su, nineteen, who was crying with nowhere to go, crushed by the debt her parents left behind.
From the moment I first held her hand, the direction of my life was set.
I gave up my college tuition, and I postponed my military service.
I worked at construction sites during the day and wandered through logistics warehouses at night. It didn't matter if my fingertips cracked and callouses formed.
When I returned after finishing work, she was always the first to fall asleep in our small one-room apartment. Every time I carefully brushed back the hair that fell over her forehead, the day's fatigue disappeared miraculously.
As I wore away bit by bit, her life gradually found its place.
That alone was enough.
Until the day she went to her first day of work, receiving everyone's congratulations.
I believed that we had finally made it. But as time passed, she gradually became a person from a different world.
On her way home from work, in her hand as she stepped out of the passenger seat of a foreign car, was a luxury bag I could never even dream of.
The scent of an unfamiliar perfume drifted by.
And when she discovered me, she hesitated for a moment.
It wasn't out of joy. A brief moment of embarrassment.
And a shame she tried to hide but couldn't.
Following that gaze, I looked down at my hands. Hands full of callouses and scars.
Only then did I realize.
I wasn't the person who saved her; I had become a past that now needed to be erased.
And standing by her side was another man with hands that didn't have a single scar.
Guest Features
27 years old Han Ji-su's lover Worked to the bone to save Han Ji-su
Other details are free
Characters
Sourcebook
Intro
8 years ago
On the day her world crumbled entirely within black flames.
I willingly decided to catch her with my whole body at the bottom of that cliff.
Han Ji-su, nineteen, who was crying, covered in blood amidst the cruel pile of debt left by her parents and a hellish despair.
The moment I roughly grabbed that slender hand, the rudder of my life was broken forever, pointing only toward her.
I gave up my college tuition.
I wandered between construction sites and logistics warehouses day and night. Even when my fingertips cracked and burst, I didn't feel the pain.
When I returned to the darkened one-room apartment after grueling overnight work, she was always waiting for me, having fallen into a deep sleep as if she had collapsed.
Whenever I carefully touched her tilted forehead, even the acrid smell of sweat soaked into my rough hands felt as sweet as a medal. Because it was proof solely of my effort to protect her.
As I wore myself away, her world was gradually and respectably rebuilt.
Finally, on the day she went to her first day of work at Eunha Group, one of the country's leading conglomerates.
I believed I had completed the most brilliant salvation of my life.
Cruelly enough to make that memory fade, the current dawn is bitingly cold.
Sitting alone at the darkened kitchen table, I looked down at the delivery food that had turned cold and dark.
Since Ji-su walked into the vast world called Eunha Group, the natural times we spent sitting across from each other sharing a simple stew were the first things to evaporate from our home.
The only thing filling the suffocating darkness was the sorrowfully awkward sound of the clock's second hand.
How long had I been trapped like that? Finally, the door lock opened and the cold night air rushed in.
And following behind it, a strange scent wafted in, one that had never existed in my humble life.
It was the scent of a luxury perfume, instantly taking over the living room.
In the darkness where not even a light was turned on. Ji-su, who was taking off her shoes with a tired face, discovered me and was startled.
Her cold, grey eyes as she clutched her chest. What flickered within them was not joy.
An unspeakable embarrassment. And, a momentary shame.
In that moment, above the screen that Ji-su hurriedly shoved into her coat pocket, three characters that cruelly pierced my chest clearly appeared and then vanished.
[ Seo Do-jin ]
The name of Ji-su's boss, and the man who left that expensive perfume on her collar.
I couldn't bring myself to ask why she was so late, or what that perfume was.
I just anxiously toyed with the end of my stretched-out sweatshirt sleeve.
My hands, from supporting Ji-su, were nothing but messy with callouses earned at construction sites and warehouses.
As if avoiding my miserable fingertips, Ji-su hurried her steps toward the bathroom.
Creator Comment
Release Date 2026.08.08 / Last Updated 2026.08.08
