Chapter 8

The sight of herself made Raine sigh first.

“Ugh, even I can see what a mess I am.”

Naturally, Eden, the man she had spent the previous night with, came to mind.

No matter how much she thought about it, his behavior remained a mystery to Raine.

“How could that man possibly want to sleep with me?”

With a self-deprecating laugh mixed with a sigh, she pinched the large rolls of flesh protruding from her body.

“Ju-ha ran away from me….”

Remembering once again why she had broken up with Ju-ha, she became depressed.

“Well, I guess anyone would get tired of looking at beautiful, slim celebrities every day and then seeing someone like me.”

Overall, Lee Raine was gentle, but she could sometimes be eccentric and fickle.

She occasionally swore when she got angry, but for the most part, she was quite forgiving toward herself.

Yet there were moments when she could never look at herself positively.

Whenever she examined her own appearance, even Raine herself wasn’t on her side.

Frowning as she carefully examined her reflection, she grabbed a handful of flesh beneath her armpit.

“Wow, look at that armpit fat. And I’m standing up straight, too. That’s got to be at least five layers. Is this even human? I’m basically a pig.”

After verbally abusing herself, she moved on to the rolls of flesh around her abdomen, rubbing them with both hands.

“Wow, look at my stomach. I look just like Bibendum, the Michelin Man mascot. I could cosplay as that character. I wouldn’t even need to wear anything. I’d just have to paint myself white and I’d be done….”

Along with her self-deprecating joke, her gaze moved down to her thighs.

The cellulite was packed so tightly that it bulged out in uneven, lumpy bumps.

No matter how she looked at them, she hated them.

“I really can’t even wear shorts outside.”

After repeatedly pinching her neatly folded belly and thighs, Raine let out a resigned sigh.

‘Yeah. I know. I know I’m a first-class fat pig. I’m basically the VVIP of the Fat Club, aren’t I?’

When Raine pouted, the Fat Club VVIP in the mirror made the exact same expression.

Although Raine thought she was hopeless, she soon launched into her own defense.

“It’s not like I never tried. I’ve tried dieting, you know. I’m probably already an expert in theory.”

Raine began complaining to her reflection.

“The answer is to eat less. So I tried cutting down on food, and I even secretly tried those one-food diets.”

She began grumbling as she remembered all the diets she had tried.

“But none of it works. Whenever I think I’ve lost a little weight, it comes right back. The Emperor Diet and herbal medicine cost money, too….”

Then she remembered her parents, who had passed away, and shook her head.

“It’s probably genetic. Especially since Mom was overweight too…. About as much as me?”

Raine pressed a finger against the mirror as though she were about to poke her reflection.

Suddenly, she remembered the day she had abruptly left home.

She had been young and overwhelmed at the time.

No one had even been there to tell her that she would never be able to return home, so she hadn’t managed to take even a single photograph of her parents with her.

Raine deliberately blurred her focus for a moment, wondering if she might find traces of her parents in her fully grown self.

But perhaps because she had been so focused on examining her body packed with fat, she saw no trace of her beloved parents.

All she could see was her own pathetic and hopeless life, from head to toe.

In the end, all she could do was reminisce about the past.

“Still, I was slim and pretty until high school…. And I was even a chaebol family’s daughter once, just like Hyena…. Sigh. How did I end up like this?”

As she muttered while thinking of Hyena, Ju-ha’s new lover and a top star, her own situation felt even more miserable.

“If I could be like Hyena… No, even half as much….”

Raine found herself envious of Hyena, who was both the daughter of a chaebol family and exceptionally beautiful.

“If I became slim and pretty like Hyena…. But would my life really get any better if I became beautiful?”

“If I became pretty, would Mr. Ju-ha come back?”

Raine foolishly brought up Ju-ha again.

She had once thought of Ju-ha as her true love and her only family.

After thinking about him so habitually for so long, completely removing him from her thoughts was never going to be easy.

Then she remembered what had happened during the day and bit down firmly on her lips in self-loathing.

When Kim Ju-ha had looked at her and smiled, she had been pathetically excited.

Seeing him again had only reconfirmed that he was nothing more than a cruel man who had used her.

Clenching her teeth, Raine tightened her fists.

“No. That’s not it. I need to become slim and beautiful so that bastard will regret everything and beat his chest in remorse. And then I’ll live my own life.”

Once she said that, she remembered what Eden had told her.

‘Stop crying and think about it, Ms. Raine. Think about how you can get productive revenge. If necessary, I’ll help you.’

It felt as though a revelation had descended upon Raine.

“Productive revenge! Yes, that’s it!”

Make Ju-ha regret what he had done, start a new life, and live well.

Not dying, but living.

Living spectacularly, right in front of him.

Feeling as though she had found the perfect answer, Raine clenched her fists even tighter.

But she quickly realized that the method she had just described might only be possible if she actually managed to lose weight.

Her spirits sank again.

“But how am I supposed to lose it?”

No matter how she thought about it, it seemed realistically impossible.

After staring at herself in the mirror for a long time, she suddenly became frustrated and muttered something extreme.

“…I’d sell my soul to the devil if he could make me lose this weight.”

It was merely something she said to herself out of desperation, since of course it could never happen.

“Hyena has a body-fat percentage of 26% and wears size 44, while someone your size would probably find even size 88 clothes too small.”

Then, completely unexpectedly, a familiar voice reached her ears.

Raine quickly turned toward the sound.

How had he found her?

Leaning against the wide-open window frame, Hayden rested his chin on his hand and looked at Raine.

Dressed neatly in a silver-gray suit, Hayden scanned Raine’s naked body with an expression devoid of emotion.

“At a glance, I’d say your body-fat percentage is over 47%. Hmm.”

After stating Raine’s condition as though speaking to himself, Hayden slowly raised one corner of his mouth.

“Lee Raine. You said you’d even sell your soul to the devil if he could make you lose weight, didn’t you?”

Perhaps because they had shared their bodies, he seemed to regard her more familiarly now.

Hayden wore a relaxed smile, overflowing with confidence to the point of looking almost arrogant.

“That’s a good attitude. If you’re prepared to go that far, then yesterday’s contract should proceed smoothly as well.”

An unimaginable situation was unfolding before Raine.

She was so flustered that even her lips began to tremble.

“W-What? What?”

But Hayden paid no attention to Raine’s reaction.

“I’ll give you five minutes. Get dressed first. We’ll go inside and discuss what we didn’t finish talking about in detail.”

“……?!”

A red emergency light seemed to flash inside Raine’s head.

“Eeeh?”

Of course it did.

Lee Raine was completely naked right now!

Yet Hayden stood outside the window with an expression suggesting that this was perfectly normal.

Raine’s confused stammering soon turned into a scream.

“Kyahhhhh!”

Rattle! Bang! Click!

Raine hurriedly shut and locked both the window and the door.

‘C-Crazy! How on earth did he even find my house?’

Clutching her confused head, Raine frantically paced around the room.

Someone had been openly looking into her room!

It was something Raine had never even imagined could happen.

Her heart began pounding like crazy.

Of course, they had already seen everything there was to see between them after spending the night together.

But what happened in bed was completely different from this.

By Raine’s standards, he was either a pervert, a sexual offender, or a stalker—or all three.

In other words, no matter how handsome he was, from this moment onward, Hayden was a criminal in Raine’s eyes.

As she paced around the room trembling with anxiety, Raine suddenly thought of the most effective way to deal with the pervert waiting outside.

‘That’s it! The police! I need to call the police!’

Raine frantically searched for her phone first.

But she quickly remembered that she had left it in the room where she had spent the night with Hayden, along with her bag.

“Oh, come on… What rotten luck.”

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

“Are you dressed?”

“!”

It was Hayden.

Raine was so flustered and confused that she felt like she was going to throw up.

She hurriedly put on three-quarter-length cotton pants and a boxy T-shirt.

The room, which was already cramped and hot, immediately felt like a steamer.

The sweat that had begun to bead on her skin after her shower quickly trickled down her chin.

Raine switched on the wall-mounted fan.

The old, worn-out fan began spinning its blades with a flap-flap noise.

The sound was unpleasant enough that Raine quickly turned it off.

She wanted to open the window.

Even though it would still be hot, at least having an unobstructed view would make her feel a little better.

But no matter how she thought about it, with Hayden standing outside, opening the window was impossible.

‘M-Maybe he’ll leave after a little while? If I don’t come out, he’ll eventually go home, right?’

Whether it was about the contract she couldn’t remember or something else, if she said she didn’t want to come out, any normal person would eventually leave.

About five minutes later, Hayden knocked again.

“You’re dressed, right? Open the door now.”

Raine ignored him.

Hayden knocked again, this time emphasizing each syllable of her name.

“Lee. Raine. I said open the door.”

His forceful tone made it clear that he wasn’t in the mood to simply leave.

It would be better to tell him to go away without seeing his face.

“How did you even find me?”

“There are plenty of ways to find someone.”

At those words, Raine remembered her resident registration card.

Her address was written on it.

Apparently, he had opened her wallet and looked at it.

“You looked at my resident registration card without permission?”

“Why are you acting surprised now? You wrote your home address directly on the contract, didn’t you? You didn’t look like you had blacked out last night.”

“Oh….”

Raine had nothing to say about the address, so she awkwardly scratched her head.

“B-But still, who just shows up like this without contacting someone first?”

“We didn’t expect to come like this either. Who leaves without saying they’re going?”

“That was….”

“I was going to call you first because we still had things to discuss, but your wallet and phone were both in your bag. Judging by the situation, I figured you weren’t going to come back for them anytime soon, so I came here first. I’m busy.”

Hayden’s words sounded as though he were scolding Raine for making him wait for a long time.

“But what on earth were you doing that it took you this long? I didn’t expect you to make us wait four hours even after we’d finished everything we had to do today.”

The word ‘us’ that he used sounded strange.

It seemed to imply that there was someone besides Hayden.

But Raine didn’t have time to think deeply about it because he had said they had been waiting for a long time.

If they had really waited that long, it must have been difficult for them.

Still, no matter how she thought about it, it wasn’t her fault.

“Isn’t it your fault for coming without making an appointment first?”

“I told you I’m busy. I had to see you as soon as possible.”

“……”

Raine stopped answering.

Whatever business he had that required him to see her seemed to be related to the contract, which made her feel burdened.

If it was an important contract, she would have to see him again eventually.

But right now, she simply didn’t have the courage.

After Raine continued refusing to open the door for a long time, Hayden let out a deep sigh from outside.

“We definitely made a contract, and there are still things we need to discuss about it. But it seems like you’re ignoring our agreement, so I’m not exactly happy right now.”

Hayden’s voice gradually lowered.

Perhaps the intense heat was beginning to irritate him, or perhaps there was another reason.

There was an inexplicable possessiveness in his tone.

“I want you to open the door and let me see your face already. I’m about to go crazy wanting to rip this pathetic aluminum front door right off its hinges.”