Siyoon Park, a twenty five year old office worker in South Korea, lived a life so painfully ordinary it felt colorless.
His days blurred together in a cycle of paperwork, polite smiles and quiet dinners eaten alone. Love had never found its way into his routine and neither had excitement.
If there was one thing that fate seemed determined to give him, it was misfortune.
That night, after a mandatory dinner party with his colleagues, Siyoon walked home under dim streetlights with his mind numb from exhaustion and cheap alcohol. He barely noticed the sound of tires screeching until it was too late.
A woman had stumbled into the road, frozen in terror as a speeding car barreled toward him.
Without thinking, Siyoon ran.
He pushed the woman out of harm's way just in time while feeling a sharp, blinding pain crash into him instead. The last thing he remembered was the impact, the sky spinning above him and the distant sound of someone screaming his name.
He had saved the woman but wasn't able to save himself.
When Siyoon opened his eyes again, he expected darkness or nothing at all.
Instead, he woke up in a rundown house with his body screaming in unfamiliar agony.
A sharp, peculiar pain throbbed in his lower body while his legs felt heavy and numb, as if they didn't quite belong to him anymore. His head pounded with a warm liquid trickling down his temple and when he reached up, his fingers came back stained with blood.
The room around him was small and suffocating with dust clung to every surface, clothes were scattered carelessly across the floor and mixed with empty bottles he didn't recognize.
The air smelled stale, like something long forgotten.
Realizing that he might be in a strange place, his heart began to race.
He had no memory of how he got here and no memory of this place.
"W-where am I…?" His voice came out hoarse and unfamiliar, swallowed by the silence of the room.
Just as he tried to push himself up, a sudden surge of memories that did not belong to him came crashing into his mind.
Faces he had never seen, voices he had never heard and moments he had never lived flashed before his eyes like shattered glass.
His head felt as though it were being torn apart from the inside like a searing pain splitting his skull in two. The world also tilted violently with his vision spinning as nausea rose in his throat.
Siyoon barely managed to lean forward before vomiting as dizziness washed over him. Warm liquid flowed from his nose this time, dripping onto the dirty floor while a loud ringing filled his ears and the world slowly faded into a muffled hum.
The pain became unbearable.
Before he could even scream, his strength gave out.
His body went limp as the darkness swallowed his consciousness whole as he collapsed back onto the floor, unconscious.
Time passed and when he regained consciousness once more, clarity finally settled in.
He knew who he was now.
"Ugh… this is impossible," Siyoon groaned while pressing a hand to his aching head. "I can't believe I reincarnated. As if my unlucky life in Korea wasn't bad enough, now I'm stuck in another unlucky, boring body."
He clenched his jaw with irritation bubbling up fast.
"And what's with this body?" he muttered. "Gay? Seriously? What the heck… I clearly saw memories of him sleeping with a m-man."
A wave of panic crept in as he instinctively reached back, his hand hovering over his lower body. The unfamiliar sensations made his stomach churn.
And then, the memories became clearer.
This body belonged to Lewis, a twenty-three-year-old orphan living with his uncle.
After Lewis's parents died, his uncle took him in, not out of kindness but convenience. Lewis was worked to the bone, treated like a servant while the man wasted his days drinking and gambling away what little money they had.
"Damn that bastard," Siyoon grumbled. "And it seems like he's been sexually assaulting this body, too? Disgusting."
Anger burned in his chest as the last memory surfaced. A drunken night and an argument.
The uncle was forcing himself on Lewis but when Lewis resisted, he was struck in the head with a bottle.
"So, that must be why I woke up bleeding," Siyoon muttered darkly. "That bastard deserves to die."
Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to calm down.
Sitting up slowly, he gathered the scattered trash around the room while stuffing empty bottles and dirty scraps into a sack. His movements were stiff as his body was still sore but he pushed through it.
Finally, he wiped the dried blood from his forehead with the back of his hand.
Whatever this life was, whatever body he now lived in, one thing was clear.
He would not let it stay this way.
After cleaning the rundown house, Siyoon took a bath.
As he washed himself, his brows slowly knit together in shock. Bruises covered his body, far more than he had expected and some already darkened to an ugly shade of purple.
It was clear this body had suffered far too much.
As he continued bathing, something else caught his attention.
Just below his navel was a strange mark, faint yet distinct, shaped like a sleeping dragon.
Its color was a soft pink, barely visible unless closely inspected. Frowning, Siyoon scrubbed at it, thinking it might be dirt or some kind of stain but no matter how hard he rubbed, it wouldn't fade.
"…Weird."
Aside from that, bruises and bite marks covered much of his body especially his nipples with hickeys scattered across his neck, thighs and legs.
"Just what kind of pervert did this body get mixed up with?" Siyoon muttered while frowning as he rubbed at the marks with a mix of disgust and disbelief crossing his face.
With a deep sigh, he gave up on it and continued bathing, unaware that the mark was far from ordinary.
After getting dressed in clothes that were little better than rags, Siyoon headed to the kitchen, only to find it completely empty.
Not a single grain of rice, not even stale bread and what's worse was that, his stomach chose that moment to grumble loudly with the hollow sound echoing in the quiet house.
He sighed and rubbed his stomach.
"How pitiful," he muttered softly. "Living without any food stocked in the kitchen… haa."
Then, his gaze drifted to his wrist and he frowned. "And look at this scrawny body," he added bitterly. "It's almost like a girl's. All bones and no flesh. Such thin wrists and narrow waist." He clicked his tongue. "No wonder your uncle kept picking on you. Haa… I really need to fatten this body up."
With that thought, he turned toward the door, planning to step outside and look for something or anything to eat but before he could take another step, a sudden, excruciating pain tore through his belly.
"Ugh—!"
It was searing and brutal, as if his insides were being yanked apart, as if his body was splitting open from within.
His vision swam with dizziness crashing over him as his knees weakened.
"Sh-shit… w-what the hell?" he gasped, half-laughing through clenched teeth. "Am I really that hungry?"
Instinctively, he lifted his sleeve and glanced down and saw that the dragon shaped mark on his belly was faintly glowing.
"…What?"
Pain surged again, sharper this time.
"Ugh! Ow, damn it, it hurts like hell!" Siyoon groaned while clutching his stomach as his legs finally gave out. He stumbled and collapsed onto the ground, breath ragged and palm pressed tightly over the glowing mark as if that alone could stop the agony.
Just when Siyoon thought this pain would be the end of him, the door was suddenly kicked open.
The old wood shattered under the force with the broken door slamming inward so violently that Siyoon flinched, narrowly avoiding being hit. Then heavy footsteps followed and before he could react, someone crouched beside him.
"It's him. Let's go," a stranger said curtly.
"W-wait… no!" Siyoon panicked while swatting at the man's reaching hand as he struggled to sit upright. His stomach still burned and he clutched it tightly while forcing himself to lean against the corner wall. "Who a-are you?!"
"Calm down," the man replied in a low voice. "His Grace is coming. Please don't be afraid. We won't hurt you."
With that, the stranger stepped aside and another figure entered the ruined house, instantly commanding the space.
He was tall and dignified with presence overwhelming despite the filth around him. His appearance was dazzling, almost unreal and so strikingly handsome that Siyoon momentarily forgot his pain.
Then, the man crouched in front of him and, without a word, reached for Siyoon's wrist, lifting his sleeve.
"T-the heck?!" Siyoon yelped. "You pervert!"
He slapped the man's hand away, heart racing.
In response, the men behind him who are clearly knights, drew their swords in one swift motion and pointed their blades straight at Siyoon.
Siyoon froze, shrinking back instinctively.
Before fear could fully take hold, the dignified man calmly raised one hand, signaling them to stop.
"It's fine," he said evenly.
The knights hesitated, then lowered their swords, though their eyes never left Siyoon in a glare.
"Finally, I found you…"