Chapter 65

What Did You Do to Oppa?

For a moment, Minjun doubted his ears.

She wants me to lie down on the bed and rest for a while?

They had met for the very first time today, and it wasn’t even a private meeting. On top of that, Minjun had explicitly mentioned during their conversation only moments before that he had a girlfriend.

And yet she was telling him to lie down on her bed and take a nap?

…Is this just what American openness is like?

For a brief second, he wondered if perhaps such behavior wasn’t considered strange in another culture, but regardless of cultural differences, Minjun instinctively felt that this was an offer he should refuse.

“I’m fine. Thank you for your consideration.”

Not wanting to unnecessarily embarrass her if she truly meant nothing by it, Minjun declined as casually as possible.

At the same time, his mind began racing to find a suitable excuse so he could get out of there quickly. He had only come because events had swept him along, and because the thought of an SSS-rank Hunter coming specifically to meet him had initially seemed fascinating.

Now, however, Minjun’s survival instincts were blaring warnings that if he stayed with this woman any longer, something terrible was going to happen.

For now, he needed to keep his head clear. Didn’t they say that even if you entered a tiger’s den, you could survive as long as you kept your wits about you?

“Excuse me, but I need to use the restroom for a moment.”

“Of course.”

The instant Minjun stood up, a heavy wave of dizziness hit him out of nowhere. He realized his entire body was sending him urgent warning signals.

First, he would wash his face in the bathroom and clear his head. If his condition still didn’t return to normal after that, he would politely excuse himself and head straight home.

Minjun walked unsteadily in search of the bathroom. But perhaps because Yuria’s hidden curse had thoroughly dulled his perception, the door he opened did not lead to the washroom at all.

Instead, it led directly into the bedroom, and the room was filled with unmistakable traces of Yuria. There was her open suitcase, clothes scattered across the floor, and even revealing, intimate garments that were embarrassing to look at and clearly belonged to her.

…-!!!

Because his mind was so hazy, Minjun understood what he was seeing a beat too late. He hurriedly shut the door and tried to reorient himself to find the bathroom, but Yuria intercepted him immediately.

“L-Lia, I was just looking for the bathroom and accidentally—”

“Oh my, Mr. Minjun. I told you that if you’re sleepy, you’re welcome to rest. I was starting to feel a little tired too. Shall we sleep together?”

With intentionally suggestive phrasing, Yuria stepped forward and pressed her soft body tightly against his.

“It’s fine. Why don’t you take a good nap on the bed? After you sleep for a while, we can have dinner together and continue the conversation we didn’t finish. How does that sound?”

Until now, Minjun had never been completely certain, but this final move removed any lingering doubt. She was openly hitting on him.

Why on earth is she doing this to me?

Yuria’s bizarre behavior left Minjun’s thoughts in total chaos. He had once read gossip claiming she had a complicated history with men, but he had assumed it was baseless tabloid trash.

Even if those rumors had been true, Minjun had told her only minutes ago that he was taken. More importantly, as far as he knew, this woman had zero reason to make such aggressive advances toward him in the first place.

Yet he didn’t have the luxury of pondering her motives right now, especially with her warm, soft body pressed flush against his chest.

“W-Why are you acting like this?”

Normally, he would have spoken with firm authority and pushed her away without a second thought. But because Yuria had placed him under a potent curse, Minjun could not resist or reject her as decisively as he ordinarily would.

What is wrong with me?

Something was fundamentally twisted. Thoughts he would never normally entertain—thoughts far too indecent to ever voice aloud—began slowly blooming in the corners of his mind.

For instance, he caught himself briefly imagining what it would be like to lie down on a bed with a stunning woman other than Sia.

When Yuria saw his eyes wavering in hesitation, she pressed closer still, whispering in a low, velvet tone, “Is it guilt? Are you afraid your precious girlfriend will find out?”

“I have a girlfriend… How could I ever sleep in the same bed as another woman?”

“You’re far more romantic than you look. There are cultures where a man has several partners, you know. Those strict rules are all just hollow social customs. Why don’t you stop pretending to be the perfect, faultless boyfriend and just be honest with your own desires?”

It wasn’t even worth arguing against, but Minjun’s mind felt like thick fog. Why couldn’t he simply break away and storm out, despite how glaringly obvious and inappropriate the situation had become?

“And besides, your girlfriend will never have any way of knowing what happened here today.”

Her whisper was dangerously sweet. Because of the curse she had secretly woven throughout the room, an ordinary human would have long since surrendered to her temptation and crossed a line of no return.

Yet, miraculous as it seemed, Minjun did not. The curse made his hands tremble violently and his thoughts swirl in confusion, but he still clung desperately to his last shred of reason.

On the other side, Yuria’s internal thoughts were just as shaken.

I’ve gone this far, so why hasn’t he fallen yet?

She simply could not comprehend it. The curse was functioning properly, and she had relentlessly stimulated his most primal instincts. By every calculation she knew, Minjun should have completely yielded by now.

Yet he was still fighting back, which paradoxically sharpened Yuria’s twisted fascination.

It’s so much more fun when a rare piece of prey like this comes along once in a while.

It was always easy and mildly entertaining to conquer willing men, but what was far more satisfying? Breaking down a man who looked like he would never yield, of course.

A dark smile touched her lips as she subtly increased the output of the curse blanketing the room. At the same time, she slowly began undoing the top buttons of her blouse to shatter his remaining defenses completely.

However, despite everything, Minjun forced his jaw tight and said, “I’m… leaving now. Let’s just pretend none of this ever happened.”

Even after deploying what she considered her ultimate measures, they still failed to break him. There was nothing wrong with the magic itself—in fact, as she amplified it, Minjun’s expression grew steadily dazed, exactly like someone heavily under the influence of a potent aphrodisiac.

Even so, he gritted his teeth and fought through the overwhelming haze.

How is this possible?

When reality once again refused to bend to her expectations, deep cracks began forming in Yuria’s immense pride.

Why? Why won’t he fall?

By every standard of her long existence, it made no logical sense. Her initial curiosity was rapidly hardening into a fierce, stubborn competitiveness.

Fine. Let’s see how far your willpower can actually take you.

The look in her amber eyes shifted dangerously. If she let Minjun walk out that door right now, her pride would never let her live it down. She resolved to finish what she started here, no matter what it took.

Yuria snatched Minjun roughly by the wrist as he tried to stumble past her, gathering her mana to amplify the curse to its absolute limit—when suddenly, a blinding flash of golden light erupted in the center of the room.

A third figure materialized directly between Minjun and Yuria. It was Rokan.

“R-Rokan?!”

Minjun’s voice shot up in pure shock at his sudden, dramatic appearance. At the very same instant, a freezing chill gripped his spine.

Before them lay the unmade bed, women’s undergarments scattered haphazardly across the floor, an unfamiliar, dangerously alluring woman dressed in disarrayed clothes, and Rokan’s prospective grandson-in-law standing right beside her.

Anyone walking in without context would instantly misinterpret the scene as Minjun caught in the act of cheating—or at the very absolute least, standing one breath away from crossing the line.

Naturally, Minjun braced himself, expecting Rokan to erupt in blind rage.

Instead, Rokan asked calmly, “Minjun, are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere?”

To Minjun’s utter astonishment, Rokan showed zero anger, focusing entirely on his well-being.

The completely unexpected reaction left Minjun stammering. “R-Rokan, this is… I mean, I can explain—”

“I know. I know you are entirely innocent, Minjun. So don’t worry about a thing. Go on home now and get some proper rest.”

Rokan’s voice was frighteningly serene. Yet that eerie calmness made Minjun shiver even harder.

Telling him to relax, Rokan gently took Minjun’s trembling hand, teleported him safely away, and then turned a glacial, murderous glare toward Yuria, whose face had instantly drained of all color.

“Now… I have some urgent business to discuss with this woman.”

❦ ❦ ❦

Up until Rokan had suddenly materialized, Yuria had remained entirely confident, moving through the world as if everything bent to her personal whims. Now, she backed away step by step as though she were facing an ancient specter.

She had become so utterly consumed by her petty desire to seduce Minjun and sabotage Sia’s happiness that she had completely failed to anticipate Rokan tracking her down.

Even to Yuria’s own mind, such staggering carelessness was humiliatingly absurd.

“I was well aware that you looked unfavorably upon my granddaughter because of past disagreements. I could tolerate that much. But…”

With every slow step Rokan advanced, he unleashed an overwhelming wave of Dragon Fear so dense and crushing that even Yuria, a full-blooded dragon herself, found it difficult to draw breath.

Though they were of the same race, the sheer, crushing weight of Dragon Fear unleashed in earnest by an ancient dragon was on a completely different dimensional plane.

“It appears you decided to play a rather twisted little game that crossed a line you should never have touched.”

“Th-That’s not it, Rokan! I was merely trying to help Shasha make a sensible choice befitting our kind, free of any foolish regrets—”

Yuria’s voice shook uncontrollably as Rokan relived the moment he had finished repairing the dungeon barrier and checked Minjun’s frantic message. He had instantly pieced together what was happening: Yuria was actively attempting to prey upon Minjun.

If she had been playing her manipulative games with some random, ordinary human, Rokan wouldn’t have batted an eye.

But the human Yuria had targeted was the chosen lover of the granddaughter Rokan treasured above all else in the world.

“Yuria.”

Rokan closed the distance in a blur, grabbing her firmly by the collar.

“Let’s see if you can repeat those exact excuses straight to our Shasha’s face.”

Without giving her a chance to resist, Rokan dragged her forcefully through a portal straight back to his hidden lair, where Sia was currently staying.

✦ ✦ ✦

Inside the quiet sanctuary of Rokan’s lair, Sia sat at her desk, idly turning her smartphone over and over in her hands.

Should she call Minjun or not? At the very least, shouldn’t she send him a proper message?

She still hadn’t fully shaken off the lingering phantoms of that terrifying day. She knew that with enough time, she would pick herself up and move past it.

During her twenty-five centuries of life, she had accumulated countless horrific memories she could never truly erase, yet she had always managed to endure and overcome them in the end. She simply needed time, and eventually, she would conquer this trauma as well.

Unfortunately, that time had not arrived yet.

I need to pull myself together, and fast…

If this lingering trauma dragged on for months or years, Minjun—who stubbornly insisted on staying right by her side—would be the one forced to suffer the heavy emotional toll. A few years were nothing more than a passing blink to an immortal dragon, but the same could never be said for a mortal human.

Understanding that stark reality only made Sia feel an even more desperate pressure to break free from her mental prison.

“What on earth should I do…?”

No matter how hard she tried to force an optimistic smile, she still lacked the courage to dial his number and pretend everything was completely fine.

After struggling in silence for a while, Sia decided to fall back on an old habit she used during past hardships: writing a diary. She figured that if she organized her tangled feelings on paper and reminded herself of the happy memories she shared with Minjun, perhaps the tight knot in her chest would finally loosen.

Opening a drawer, she pulled out a blank notebook and a pen, settling at the desk to begin. But just as she was trying to figure out how to phrase her first entry, the heavy doors to the lair swung open, and Rokan returned.

“Grandpa?”

Sia started to greet him warmly, eager to ask how his errands had gone, when she noticed that Rokan was not coming in alone.

There was another woman walking right beside him. Looking closer, Sia instantly recognized her: Yuria, the infamous Black Dragon.

Sia knew who she was, having caught a brief glimpse of her at that wretched, nightmarish gathering of Earth-dwelling dragons.

Why is she here with him?

Yuria was one of the primary voices who had openly opposed Sia’s relationship with Minjun, and the rumors surrounding her chaotic personal life with men were notorious.

Aside from those tidbits, Sia knew almost nothing about her and hadn’t crossed paths with her since the assembly. Why on earth would she show up here now?

Sia looked back and forth between Rokan and Yuria in absolute confusion. Only then did she notice the stark contrast: Yuria’s face was completely drained of color and trembling with genuine terror, while Rokan carried an aura of cold fury far heavier than anything she had ever seen from him.

As Sia stood there bewildered, Rokan shoved Yuria forward slightly and commanded, “Yuria. Tell Shasha with your own mouth what you just tried to do to Minjun.”

“…”

Yuria’s expression twisted into a bitter grimace. She was already deeply humiliated that the former Dragon Lord had hunted her down like a common criminal over a mere human, and being forced to confess her failures in front of a dragon she privately considered unhinged was the ultimate degradation.

She bit her lower lip hard and kept her gaze glued to the floor.

“If you refuse to speak, I will tell her myself.”

“…”

When Yuria still stubbornly refused to utter a word, Rokan turned his heavy gaze to Sia and laid out the brutal truth.

“Yuria attempted to lay her hands on Minjun.”

The exact second those words echoed through the quiet room, Sia moved without a single hesitation, stepping forward and delivering a sharp, resounding slap straight across Yuria’s face.