Part 1 (Cale’s POV)
It was raining cats and dogs outside, but inside my room, darkness still reigned. Although the room was tranquil, the bed… was shaking vigorously.
I was rubbing my body against her like an animal in heat, but it wasn’t just lust. I also wanted her to feel the pleasure that I was having.
She bit her lower lip as if saying she was close, and pressed her fingers into my back, leaving faint scars, even though my back was already full of them these days.
…
“Ha, that was good,” I said, lying right beside her under a thick blanket. I looked at her, waiting for a response.
She glared at me with her piercing gaze. “Why were you so rough?”
“Uh… was I that rough?”
Without waiting for her answer, I jested, “But it felt good, didn’t it?”
She covered her face with the blanket and snorted, “Whatever.”
I guessed she was definitely embarrassed, and just like that, we slept till the next morning.
When I woke up, I was lying alone on the bed, completely naked.
I looked at the calendar—Monday, June 16th. A working day!
Meow, meow.
Here came my cute little pet, Chika—a long-furred grey cat—asking for food. I got up and fed her. While she was eating, I asked,
“You’re not having an affair, are you?” I said, gently stroking her head.
She just meowed.
I heaved a sigh, got dressed, and went to the office.
This had become a normal routine over the past few months after I met her. Earlier, I lived the typical, miserable life of an ordinary office worker—work, work, and only work. After finishing one task, get lectured by your seniors, then start working again. After office, go home and work more, all just to get a little attention, favourability, or meaningless praise.
It sucked.
But after I met her, my boring life changed a little…
…
7 months ago…
I was on my way back home, just as usual, because it was freezing outside. I accidentally bumped into someone.
Thud!
I promptly turned toward them to apologise and help.
The person lying on the walkway turned out to be a lady—a well-dressed woman with a thin build, wearing a checked brown brass coat.
She had long, silky black hair, thin brows, mischievous brown eyes, and soft jawlines that suggested she was somewhere in her twenties or thirties.
“Hehe.” She giggled in embarrassment as soon as our eyes met.
Even though my eyes were exhausted from overwork, I still gave her an apologising look and offered my right hand like a gentleman.
She grabbed it with her gloved, wool-covered hand.
“Ah, sorry. My bad. I was spacing out in the daytime.” She scratched her head awkwardly as she apologised.
“No worries, ma’am,” I replied as I bent down and picked up her black wool scarf.
“Ah, thank you!” she snatched it quickly.
But I could still catch that sharp, coppery scent—one I knew all too well.
“Umm… well, I’m new here, so I don’t know this place that much.” She tried to change the topic.
Never asked you, though, I thought, but gave her a gentle smile and a curt nod. I was well aware of these kinds of scams. Go ahead and try me.
“By the way, I’m May Forger. And?” she introduced herself.
“And I’m Cale. Good to meet you,” I answered.
“Hehe, so… I don’t know any restaurants here. Can you guide me, please? I’ll give you a treat!” She imposed rather than insisted.
I lifted my hand and pointed at a shop that had been right in front of us the whole time.
“Here you go.” My gentle smile probably looked more like a smirk.
“It was right here the whole time? Hehe… I guess we often miss what’s right under our nose, right? So, shall we head in?” she said with a wry smile.
“Yeah, please.” I pointed for her to go first. I had already sensed something was amiss, but I let it continue for a certain reason...
...and the reason was: how could anyone not accept freebies? I knew if the product was free, that meant you were the product. But still, humans were greedy, right? That’s why I agreed—because I thought I would at least get some free food...
“Ah, sorry. I think I forgot my purse.” She looked at me with exaggerated teary eyes and a ‘please-forgive-me’ face.
I knew it! I cursed myself for falling into the honey trap.
“Fine, fine.” I waved my hand to stop her drama.
I checked the bill and—
Gasp!
Yes, I actually gasped like that after a very long time. Either the restaurant was shady, or the pretty lady in front of me was an incarnation of gluttony. But did I have another choice?
No. A ginormous NO.
I paid the bill with a dead expression and pushed open the door to escape that cursed place. Outside, my eyes caught a missing-person poster taped to an electricity pole:
[Name = Anthony. Age = 32. Sex = Male. Address = Ward 30. Contact: …]
The man had white hair and a beard. An ordinary face you'd forget in seconds… but a golden, teardrop-shaped locket with white diamonds on the lid was visible through the gap in his slightly unbuttoned shirt…
With a brief glance, I ignored the poster and continued walking toward home.
...
But a certain lady with pretty looks had been following me ever since I left the restaurant.
My steps came to a halt.
I looked back to capture her whole body with the extra details I hadn’t noticed earlier. With a deep gaze, I contemplated—
Hmm. About 179 cm. 80 cm bosom. Fair skin, long silky hair. Smells good. Probably has a lot of money… or maybe stolen...
...And her scarf was missing!
Interesting. Something is definitely fishy.
“Miss, how may I assist you?” I asked bluntly.
“Umm, well… I am new here—”
Before she could finish, I interjected, “I know, ma’am. That’s why I’m asking.”
“I have nowhere to go. So…” She scratched her head in embarrassment.
Ah, another member of the home-robbery service? I murmured to myself.
“Excuse me?” She had probably heard it.
“Ah, nothing, ma’am. But are you sure about that? Like… living in the same room as an unknown man?” I enquired a little more.
“Ah, you don’t have to worry. After all, you fed me. You’re a good person!” she proclaimed without any filter.
What kind of logic is that? And what are you? An animal? I seriously contemplated her reasoning.
“Ah, thank you,” I replied half-heartedly.
“So, shall we head?” she probed further.
Can I really let her into my house? Even if she’s a robber, she can’t rob a broke person like me, right? And even then, I can’t leave her outside. Not in this freezing cold! Let’s just hope she’s not a scammer.
After thinking for a few seconds, I nodded heavily and let her come with me.
...
My sweet home was on the outskirts of the city—a small two-storey building in Ward 31. This ward was sparsely populated and cheaper than the others, so it wasn’t too expensive to buy a house where you could at least rest...
...I bought it with that thought, but it was still expensive for a salaryman like me, whose savings and income barely made enough for the instalments...
But I was still happy. You should have a place you can call “home,” right?
...
I opened the entrance and headed inside. She lowered her body to take off her shoes. That was when I heard—
Cling clang.
…glass bottles clinking. I searched for the source, and it was her. I narrowed my eyes and stared at her, waiting for a proper excuse.
With an embarrassed yet cheerful voice, she said, “Hehe, I thought… why not have drinks together and celebrate?”
Celebrate? But for what? Please tell me I’m not doomed yet… right? Right?!
Lost in my nervous musings, I took a deep breath and asked,
“Umm, ma’am… where did you get those?” I pointed at the alcohol bottles she had stuffed inside the inner pockets of her brown coat.
“Oh, did you forget? You’re the one who paid.” She responded cheerfully.
“Wait, what—”
Before I could express my shock, she interrupted,
“Hmmm… looks kinda shabby.”
She was commenting on my home. My sweet home!
That was the moment I lost all control over my respectful, gentlemanly demeanor and blurted out,
“Hah? And with what face does a con artist like you—who knows nothing except scamming people for survival by using your pretty body as bait—get to comment on my hard-earned treasure?!”
She pondered for a moment and said, in a teasing tone, “So… you think I’m pretty?”
Huh? How did she just ignore my entire cutting remark and focus only on a single compliment?!
I was completely stunned. I had no idea how to handle someone like this.
She started moving toward me after putting the bottles on the table, while unbuttoning her coat. Underneath it, she wore a black turtleneck T-shirt—simple but strangely seductive—matching her fair skin, thin figure, and black hair.
She let her coat fall to the floor. When I lifted my eyes from the coat to her face, she had already closed the distance between us until only a breath of air remained.
Yes, she was that fast.
Now she was leaning over me. Maybe she was taller, or maybe my legs had buckled a little.
I could feel her gaze looking down on me. Her hands, resting on my stomach, slowly moved lower.
She leaned in further, positioning her head next to my ear to the point where I could feel her warm breath.
“Wanna do it?” she whispered in an alluring voice—though her hand was already inside my pants, playing with something.
I quickly pushed myself back and headed toward the drawer on my left. I opened it, grabbed an envelope, and returned to her. She stared at me with a blank expression.
“Here.” I shoved the envelope toward her and pointed for her to open it and read aloud.
She opened it. Inside was a document. It read:
[Hereby do I accept full responsibility for my choice and offer my earnest consent to share intimacy with him.
The declaration is made of my own volition and without compulsion.
Should my sentiments alter henceforth, let it be known that such change shall not diminish the consent I pledge this day.]
And there I was, holding my phone—recording her confirmation.
Her eyes shifted back and forth between me and the paper.
I guessed she was in a dilemma.
My, my. What will you do now? I was always prepared for these kinds of situations. After all, “Do not trust anyone” is the lesson I learned best!
I smirked internally, convinced she wouldn’t sign and would just act scared.
Then—
Scribble!
She signed the paper.
Not only that—she took my phone, saved the video, and uploaded it to cloud storage as backup.
I was shocked. Completely shocked. I stared at her with a dumbfounded expression.
She darted her eyes at me, then handed back the paper and the phone. Even in my bewilderment, I took them and put them in the safe.
“Heh. Typical virgins,” she mocked in a teasing tone.
Yeah… she was right. I was still the world’s ultimate virgin. Not because I lacked choices, but because I lacked spirit. I was just a little afraid of girls. So, why not her? Because she approached me first.
I sighed deeply, trying to calm my chaotic heartbeats. I was just about to open my eyes when she pushed me onto the sofa and, like a wild beast, she started to undo my clothes.
“Why does your shirt have so many buttons?” She seemed irritated. So… she tried to tear it away and… actually succeeded.
“Ack!” I cried in pain.
So much pain.
While pulling, she accidentally yanked out some of my chest hair.
I smacked her head as hard as I could and shouted, “Do it gently, you idiot!”
“Sowwy.” She looked down with tearful eyes, still caressing her head.
“Okay, take the lead now—and do it gently, for god’s sake.” I controlled my anger and let her continue.
She jumped on my face and kissed me.
Her tongue forced its way in like an inspector. Inspector Tongue successfully entered the residence of Mr Tongue. Mr Tongue was deeply shocked by the sudden intrusion.
Before Mr Tongue could take any action, Miss Tongue stealthily inspected every little corner of the residence with inhuman agility and flexibility, while the owner stayed still like a statue.
Suddenly, Miss Tongue attacked Mr Tongue; not knowing what to do, he played along with her.
After a few minutes of intense battle, Miss Tongue, the winner, left the residence.
But her hunger could not be satisfied with just a little win. She alone then attacked the Empire of Neck, Kingdom of Chest, and Valley of Belly. She conquered battle after battle, kingdom after kingdom, and left her marks all over the world.
She was just about to go down to fight Mr Weenie, but a big hand pinned her down. Not even she could fight against a godly hand.
She stopped her journey and went home, in the deep hope of fighting Mr Weenie someday.
Mr Weenie, sleeping in a cotton cave and completely unaware of the outside world, saw a big behemoth hand with slender fingers reaching toward him.
They showed no mercy when they captured him.
Unable to free himself, Mr Weenie had no choice but to transform into “brain-dominating Mr Wiener”—the power he had received from the heavens after a certain world-changing phase.
As soon as he transformed, he was sealed into “mind-shaking” muscle walls.
Maybe Mr Wiener had never experienced the torturer walls in his whole life, but he was well aware of their existence, thanks to the training he had done with Mr Hands.
He just had to use his life-surviving lessons inside the torturer walls. He had learned that after the torturer walls there came a cursed land, where he should never go and should never puke at any cost.
Mr Wiener tried his best to persevere, but it was not his home ground.
“No, I must persevere!” Mr Wiener insisted.
But in the next moment he… puked.
He puked all he could and turned back into Mr Weenie.
That was the tale of heroic Mr Weenie and the torturer walls.
...
I was unable to say anything, felt weak, and just dozed off like that. But I could feel her warmth on my body, and I slept peacefully like that until morning.
________
Part 2 — May’s POV
I felt the warm rays of sunlight on my left cheek coming from the window.
I slowly opened my eyes, only to discover that I was alone on the bed, wrapped in a white blanket and naked beneath it.
I rubbed my eyes, stood up, and reached for his shirt to cover myself.
As I was thrusting my arms into the sleeves, my ears perked up at a faint noise.
Scrape, scrape.
Someone was digging outside.
I lazily followed the sound to find the source. As my somewhat annoyed eyes peeked outside, I discovered a garden.
No… a wave of red flowers.
They were roses.
Everything was roses.
That’s why it looked like an oceanic wave of red.
And there was a young man with a trowel in his hands, planting another rose stem, and a grey cat was sitting beside him, staring at the roses almost deeply.
“Good morning,” he said with a cheerful voice.
“Gardening?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes. Would you be willing to assist me?” he requested, wiping his sweaty forehead.
“Uh, sure,” I agreed.
…
“Hah, you don’t even know how to dig a hole.” He scoffed as he looked down at me.
How could I ever know this? I’d never done these kinds of things, and do I need to? Humans like these things. We Silk Shifters are not born to do these mundane tasks. It’s you humans. You need to eat plants and other things. Heh, we can just eat your kind and satisfy our hunger. I really didn’t want to come to a human settlement. It’s you humans who are cutting down jungles and killing our food. That’s why I have to take revenge. Yeah, you cut off our “supply,” and now you will become our supply.
Whahaha…
I thought, as a distorted smirk spread across my face.
“What are you smirking at?” he asked, studying me closely.
“N-Nothing,” I replied hurriedly.
“Hah.” He let out a deep sigh.
Then he sat beside me, clasped my right hand, and guided it through the sand.
His hands… they’re so warm, so soft, I thought, feeling a strange flutter in my chest.
He repeated the scooping motion, carving out a neat semicircular hole that put my rough, messy one to shame.
“Here! See? That’s how you do it!” he said with a smug grin.
“Right, right… You don’t even need any tool to dig a hole, do you?” I teased, a sly smile spreading across my face.
Bewildered, he looked away, but I could still see the tips of his ears turning red.
I shifted my eyes from him to the plants. The roses were too red—slightly darker than normal roses.
“Why roses, though?” I asked.
“Oh, because I like them,” he replied frankly.
“Huh?” I raised my eyebrow, asking him to tell me more.
“Uh, well. My family once owned a flower shop. One day, a customer came to our shop asking for flowers, but he didn’t really fancy roses like my mother. He became a regular customer and…”
He looked away.
“My mother ran away with him. My father became a drunkard and died because he drank small mirror shards with the alcohol.
“Actually, I don’t have any longing for them. One left me alone and another bit me after a few drinks.”
He said it with a wry smile, but my eyes couldn’t help widening a little.
“Only the roses were there for me. Well, that’s not the only reason… They’re quite peculiar, aren’t they? The way they protect themselves. If you’re not careful enough while plucking them, they’ll teach you a lesson—giving you thorns instead of softness, like they’re telling you to take care of them gently and be responsible.
“Ah, I want my grave to have a rose growing on it. Not only because they will attract attention, but also because their colour will become redder as my blood serves as their nutrition.”
He replied, but his eyes turned cloudy, like he was imagining his wish.
“Quite scary,” I passed my judgement on his horrific wish.
“Haha. Shall we head inside?” he asked, offering me his warm and soft hand.
I nodded and grabbed his hand.
Days blurred into routine. After gardening, he taught me everything—cooking, laundry, cleaning. He spent his days at the office and his nights with me in the kitchen, preparing dinner together. I was alone in the daylight, but always in his arms once darkness fell.
Somewhere along the way, I began to forget that he was a toy… no, my food—that was the reason I seduced him. But how could I take his life when he came home weak and exhausted?
I just held him, warmed him, and let the truth slip away.
Still, Silk Shifters needed human flesh every two weeks to stay healthy. It wasn’t difficult for me—humans were plentiful. The disappearance of one or two each month hardly mattered. And so my quiet days passed like that, peaceful and almost dreamlike… until—
One day I found meat scraps under our bed…
Yes, it was human flesh—the one that I had hunted the previous night.
I was deeply horrified that maybe he had found out about me. But, I guess I was wrong. He was oblivious, like always. Ignorance was bliss, wasn’t it? Or maybe…
...
June 16th, 5 a.m.
I woke up early that day.
He was sleeping like a baby.
So I went outside for a stroll—or a hunt.
Although he never asked me about my whereabouts, he always left his door open for me.
For a person like me, who always needed to hunt and eat, it would be bothersome to explain the details every time.
The most important thing was that today I was feeling hungry, and I needed to look for my prey.
Time flew like the wind, and it was almost dusk. My hunger was painfully increasing—driving me mad. My eyes fell on Miss Harper, who was carrying vegetables and going home.
She was our neighbour, an old divorced lady who lived on her own. She was kind and sweet-hearted. But…
She was now my prey. I followed her to her house.
Her house was very close to ours.
There was still time before he would return.
I stealthily transformed into a black grotesque spider with red stripes on my arms in her backyard.
I waited patiently and entered her house from the first-floor window.
It was dark; she probably hadn’t turned on the lights.
I hung upside down from the ceiling in the dark and headed silently toward the ground floor.
She was taking vegetables out of the paper bag, probably preparing dinner.
Her kitchen was surprisingly right in front of the entrance door.
I hung in the dark corner of the hall, waiting for my chance to attack.
The moment she stepped out of the kitchen to fetch something—
Thump!
I jumped behind her.
I moved my sickle-like tentacle toward her neck.
Swoosh!
Spritz!
Thud!
As she tried to pull her neck back, I cut it.
A fountain of blood surged toward the ceiling as her decapitated head fell.
Mmph! Gulp!
To stop the bloody mess from spreading, I shoved my fangs into her neck and gulped down the sour and warm liquid.
At that moment…
Creak.
Someone opened the entrance door so quietly that even my sharp senses couldn’t catch it in time.
My eyes quickly moved toward the intruder. The person was…
Cale!
He was holding a rose stem in his right hand and staring at me.
In his pupils, I saw the reflection of a black behemoth spider with crimson stripes.
His hands were shaking—so were his eyes.
Tap.
The stem in his hand fell, loudly.
His lips trembled, but I could read his words. They were:
Why, May? Why did you take—
Huh? How did he know—? I thought.
Time seemed to slow down.
Yeah, the question was:
How did he find out that it was me?
Wasn’t it obvious?
He was the one who did my laundry. He was the one who let me into his home. He knew me more than anyone in this world, maybe more than I knew myself.
How could I forget that he was the one who took care of the sloppy me?
That day, when I found the meat scraps, he was the one who picked them from my hair, one by one, so patiently, as if he had all the time in the world. He didn’t want to wake me up, but…
…I could feel the warmth and softness of those hands even in my sleep. More importantly…
He had sharp eyes.
His stance changed.
He rushed toward me with a knife!
The desperation that drove him to attack me was fear, I guess.
He knew he couldn’t run away from me.
So he ran on the trail of blood. He ran into me.
The fear I knew was a cowardly and betraying emotion. It made humans into dastards who cling to survival and, at the same time, into berserkers when they tried to protect someone.
It was that very emotion that made my love… yes, my love… Did he love me?
He stabbed the world’s sharpest knife into the weakest joint of my arm, and green blood gushed out.
But—
Stab!
My tentacle pierced his heart.
Cling!
His knife fell with a sharp clatter.
Cough, cough!
He coughed blood from his mouth.
It was warm, but not warmer than my tears, which were flowing without my permission.
His neck went limp and his eyes turned cloudy. I didn’t know why, but I tried to take a peek at his face.
As I saw it, my scalp tingled…
…There was neither the twisted contour of pain, nor the anger, nor the still expression of peace that the dead usually wear. His face was coloured with a frown—an annoyed face…
I guessed he must have resented himself for meeting me.
I lifted his body, startled by its warmth—so familiar to me—that it shattered my heart so violently I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
As I started to walk forward, something caught under my foot.
It was a rose stem that had come with him.
I bent down to pick it up.
I grabbed it so hard that the thorns carved their way into my skin and a streak of blood flowed out…
I carried him to our… no, to his backyard to fulfil his last wish.
Chika was quietly sitting there, staring deeply at the rose plants.
I placed his body on the soft grass and quickly grabbed a shovel to dig a grave.
I started to dig the earth near a rose plant.
Thanks to someone,
I was now better at digging.
It was then—
Cling.
I heard a sharp noise.
The shovel had hit some object.
It was a golden, teardrop-shaped locket with white diamonds on the lid.
As I was cleaning it a little, my eyes caught the shovel’s blade…
…It was covered with black liquid… No. It was blood!…
I dug a little more to find out what—or who—it was.
After some digging, I found a man, already rotting, but I could tell he had been in his thirties, with white beard and hair and…
…The rose stem was planted on his chest—no, thrust deep into his heart…
I quickly looked over all the roses.
I started to dig them up…
…There were 128 rose plants besides the one I had planted.
And 128 dead bodies. Twenty-nine cats—all of them males. Eight-two men. Seventeen women...
Everyone had a different body, a different gender, and a world of their own outside. But…
There was one thing that was the same—a stem shoved deep inside their hearts…
Cold sweat beaded on my forehead. I had killed more than he had, but… it was my need.
For him? They were just “dye solution.”
I couldn’t help feeling scared when I glanced over at his body.
Gulp.
I swallowed the overwhelming saliva that made my mouth heavy.
I did what I intended to do.
I cleaned up the mess, dug a grave for him, and planted a rose stem carefully over his heart.
I didn’t even wait for the sun to rise.
I left the human settlement and vowed never to come near humans again.
---
A few months later…
Chika was trying to catch a mouse to sate her hunger. After catching her prey, she glanced at a certain rose plant.
It was the darkest red rose—almost black if you didn’t look closely.
Then she turned away and ran back to her boyfriend.
— By KASH
