The bustling energy of the shopping mall surged all around them. Crystal lights from the massive chandelier above the central atrium glittered down like daylight stars, casting patterns onto the marble floor.
Crowds passed by in vibrant waves of movement, each person caught in their own consumerist frenzy.
Shan Wolf followed behind Rae Yoorin, half-dazed as she dragged him from one luxury boutique to another.
His expression remained blank, his arms crossed as she flitted through designer handbags, silk dresses, and perfumes with practiced ease.
"We left work on lunch break... just to shop?" he asked, lifting a brow.
Rae, already admiring a vibrant red frill dress in one of the boutique's mirrors, smirked and ran her fingers along the delicate fabric.
"What do you think?" she asked, her tone teasing, playful—aware of how she could look in it, how it would hug her curves and catch every eye.
"It's... pretty," Shan replied flatly, disinterested. He leaned against a wall, eyes drifting, mind elsewhere.
Rae ignored his apathy and disappeared into the nearby dressing room with the red dress in hand.
Shan sighed, rubbing his temples. The day had already been long. From Sae Jin Mei's rising modeling career to Mei Yoo Jun's now strangely submissive demeanor, everything around him had begun to shift. And Rae... well, Rae had never stopped being a chaotic force in his life.
But none of that compared to the storm brewing beneath the surface—his relationship with Ingrid Mikage.
He pulled out his phone and stared at a video he had kept hidden for nearly a year. The frame stilled on a moment he could never forget, Ingrid in her purple dark Porsche, panicked, crashing into a pregnant woman.
The memory of that scream, of him rushing in to help, came back all at once. He shut the phone, jaw tight.
"Shan!"
His head shot up. Rae's voice snapped him out of the spiral. He turned and immediately froze.
She stood at the edge of the dressing room, half-naked, the red dress half-zipped on her body. Her back was exposed, her skin glowing under the warm boutique lights.
"What is it, woman? You almost gave me a damn heart attack," Shan muttered.
She grinned and motioned for him to come closer. "The zipper's stuck. Help me."
He hesitated. But as he stepped inside the dressing room, he noticed something off. As he reached for the zipper, Rae pressed herself back into him, her lower body grinding subtly against his crotch. Her movement was too smooth, too intentional.
Shan's fingers paused. "You're doing that on purpose."
Rae didn't answer. She tilted her head, the hint of a mischievous smile playing on her lips.
The tension in the room grew. Her scent—faint perfume mixed with heat—wrapped around his senses. Her skin brushed against his chest again. His restraint thinned like old thread.
"Is this what you wanted?" he asked quietly.
Rae didn't move.
In a sharp motion, Shan gripped her waist and shoved her slightly forward, his hands running down the back of her thighs before tearing the lace of her stockings with practiced ease.
"Hey—what the hell—!" Rae squirmed, glancing over her shoulder.
"You're the one who started teasing," Shan growled near her ear. "You couldn't help yourself, could you?"
He undid his slacks and let them slide partway down. She felt him press against her folds, and despite herself, her breath hitched. Her legs trembled. The red dress now hung off her shoulder, exposing one breast.
He entered her without warning, thick and deep, and her mouth opened in a gasp.
"Ughn...! We shouldn't. What if someone—"
Before she could finish, he grabbed the back of her neck and pulled her into a hungry, silencing kiss.
His tongue slid deep, muffling her cries. She gripped the edge of the vanity in the changing room, her nails biting into the wood.
The heat between them rose to unbearable levels. Rae's body trembled, her mind screaming to stop—yet her hips rolled back into him, desperate.
She didn't know when she had gotten this wet or why she couldn't control herself.
"Just hurry," she whispered through clenched teeth, "I'm a regular here. If someone hears—damn it—I'll die of embarrassment."
Her orgasm caught her off guard. Her body clenched around him, a sudden, gushing release spilling from between her thighs. She bit into his shoulder to stop herself from crying out.
Back at the Won Group office, Ingrid Mikage sat alone in her private lounge, licking cream from a puff pastry.
A thick drop of cream slipped from the corner and landed on her cleavage. She looked down, chuckled softly, and shook her head.
"You perverted little pastry," she said to herself with a wry smile, wiping it away.
She leaned back, letting her mind wander.
"When was the last time I had sex with that bastard...?"
Shan Wolf's name danced on the edge of her thoughts like a lit fuse.
Just then, her phone rang. She glanced at the screen—Bae Sik Gong, her daughter's tutor.
"Ah, Mr. Gong. What's going on?"
The poor colleage boy sounded flustered just from hearing her voice. He quickly explained that Kim Yeon, her teenage daughter, had been skipping tutoring sessions. Ingrid frowned, puzzled.
"Skipping? Why?"
After a pause, he said he'd heard Kim Yeon was approached by someone on the street about auditioning for a celebrity program. Ingrid groaned.
"She's going through a phase, isn't she...?"
But her instincts stirred. She asked him a favour and to meet her in person, said she would send him the location.
Meanwhile, back in the changing room, Rae Yoorin gritted her teeth as Shan pounded into her, his pace growing rougher. He leaned forward and slid two fingers into her mouth, silencing her gasps.
"Hey... you stupid Wolf," she tried to protest, her voice muffled around his fingers.
Shan didn't stop. He leaned close and whispered against her ear.
"Rae, your body's moving on its own."
Her eyes shot wide. She glanced down—and her whole body was moving, grinding, matching his rhythm perfectly.
She hadn't told it to. She hadn't even meant to keep going. But her hips kept rolling, chasing more, as if possessed.
"What... is happening to me...?"
She didn't know anymore. She just felt good. Too good.
"I don't care," Shan growled, gripping her hips tighter. "Let's end this already."
He spun her around, lifted her against the dressing room mirror, and slid deep inside her again.
Their lust echoed in silence, unspoken and raw.
And still, outside the dressing room, the mall carried on. Blissfully unaware.
They both climaxed—shuddering, breathless, their bodies locked in sweat and tension. For a moment, time stilled. Rae Yoorin, still catching her breath, found herself nose to nose with Shan Wolf. Their eyes met, hazy and dazed, still tangled in the heat of what just happened.
Then—footsteps.
A voice called out from the hallway outside the dressing room.
"Hello? Is everything alright in there?"
Rae's eyes widened in alarm.
"Shit! Get out—fast!" she hissed.
She shoved Shan out of the dressing room just in time. A boutique worker was approaching, but turned away when she saw nothing suspicious—though the ripped stockings and rumpled dress would soon give everything away.
"Hmm..? This is..."
She looked down and see the item on the floor.
Later at the counter, Rae, now red-faced, peeked out. Her heart dropped.
"My purse…"
She had forgotten it inside. Shan sighed, clearly resigned, and went to the counter, pulling out his wallet to pay for the dress.
"You idiot," she snapped at him under her breath at the park.
He raised a brow. "Pretty sure you started it."
She glared at him, flustered but silent.
Later that day, they sat on a bench just outside the mall, where a small park softened the noise of traffic.
The sky was beginning to shift orange, dusk creeping into the city's skyline. Rae sipped from her iced Starbucks latte, sighing hard.
"Puhhaaah… I can finally breathe again."
Shan sat beside her, holding his own cup, quietly sipping.
She glanced at him. "You've changed, Shan."
He looked up, brows raised slightly. "How so?"
"You used to drink nothing but canned coffee from the company vending machine. Black. Cold. Miserable. You said it 'matched the taste of your life.'"
Shan chuckled. "So now you're monitoring my coffee habits?"
"You're more interesting lately," she said, turning her gaze away quickly, cheeks tinted faintly pink.
He shot back, "And you've been unusually interested in me these days."
"I—shut up."
Rae took another sip, flustered, before muttering, "Well, people change."
Shan's eyes lingered on her a beat longer than usual. Then he spoke, voice low. "You didn't."
Her smirk faded. "Excuse me?"
"Retirement scam. Embezzling funds. Skipping work. Blowing your savings on luxury crap. You haven't changed at all."
"Skipping work? I took a half-day off, thank you very much!" she snapped.
He gave her a look. She exhaled, annoyed, then leaned back and said, "I work hard, so I can spend hard. That's the point. We only get one life. You want me to waste it playing by the rules?"
She looked at him. "Get up. Go to work. Rinse and repeat. Is that really living?"
Shan didn't reply immediately. He watched a couple pass by the path in front of them. Then, without turning, he spoke.
"Does money make you happy?"
Rae blinked.
"Money gives you happiness… sure," Shan said, gazing up at the sky. "But it also drives people mad. It kills relationships. And sometimes… it makes you forget who you really are."
Rae was quiet for a while, eyes down on her latte. Then she stood up.
"I'm going home."
She hesitated, then looked back over her shoulder.
"Thanks. For the dress."
She took a few steps, then called out suddenly.
"Hey, Shan. You're a good person."
He watched her go without replying. His hand tightened slightly around the cup.
"Good person, huh?" he muttered to himself. "You're wrong, Rae. I'm a bad person. A very bad one."
Somewhere down the street, Rae's expression turned cold as she walked. Her playfulness was gone. Her smile erased. Her body language shifted into sharp, focused motion, as if shedding the woman she had been moments ago.
"Shan Wolf," she thought.
"You are a good person. That's why... I'm doing this."
She stepped into a quiet alley nearby, the noise of the world muffled behind her.
A figure in a black suit waited beneath a flickering lamppost. Rae approached him without hesitation.
"Here. I brought it."
She handed over an item she got from back at the dressing room, Shan's smartphone.
The man took it wordlessly and slipped it into his coat pocket.
"The Vice President will be in touch shortly, Ms. Yoorin," he said with professional detachment.
She looked up at him. Gon Jun San. The Vice President's shadow. Jen Heo Won's assistant. Bodyguard.
He turned without another word, already fading into the darkness.
Rae remained still. Then she whispered to herself.
"Alright. Because… I'm a bitch."
Her voice in disgust, almost too quiet to hear.
---
Chapter 50 — End
─── End of Volume 1 ───