Everyone has ghosts.
Some wear the face of regret. Others—the voice of obsession.
Kaori was both.
It started when she worked for him in Tokyo. Obedient. Sharp. Too observant. She knew when he needed coffee. When to knock. When not to.
But behind that perfect professionalism, there was something else— Eyes that lingered too long. Questions too personal. A loyalty that bled into something too close.
When Seunghyun returned to Seoul, he thought he left her behind.
Until the signs began.
First: a note slipped under his door. No name. Second: a candid photo of him sleeping in his car. Third: a bento box placed in his private Gangnam home, which no one should have known existed.
She was watching.
Waiting.
And one night, he confronted her at a café.
“You’re not part of my life,” he told her. “You’re a shadow I’m erasing.”
Her answer was simple.
“You always did like things dangerous.”
Then—silence.
She disappeared.
No calls. No threats. And that’s what made it worse.
Until the night he came home to find a box on his table. Inside:
A sonogram. A baby shoe. A note:
“You can try to erase me, Seunghyun. But some parts of you live inside me now. Forever.”
He launched an investigation immediately.
The clinic confirmed it—Kaori was pregnant.
His Tokyo contact said there were no prior medical visits. Which meant this was planned. Staged. A strategy.
For a moment, he considered walking away.
But the child…
If it was his—he wouldn’t abandon blood.
So he tracked her.
It didn’t take long.
A private address on the outskirts of Incheon. Expensive, quiet, and paid in full in cash. Of course it was hers.
He showed up unannounced.
She opened the door like she’d been waiting every day.
“Seunghyun-ssi,” she whispered, hand resting on her stomach. “You came home.”
His eyes didn’t soften. They sharpened.
“You told them it was mine.”
“It is yours.”
“You sure?” His voice was low. Dangerous. “You’ve lied before.”
Her smile cracked, just slightly.
“I never lied. You just never listened.”
He stepped forward, taller, colder.
“If you think this child will force me into your life, Kaori—”
Her hand flew to his chest, almost desperate. “No. I’m not asking for that. I just wanted you to know—that something of you exists now. Something pure.”
He looked at her.
At the trembling lips, the frightened eyes, the perfect stillness of her hand.
Maybe she believed it.
Maybe that was the scariest part.
He leaned in close, voice ice against her skin.
“If this is my child, I’ll take care of them. But make no mistake, Kaori.”
Pause.
“I will never belong to you.”
He left that night.
Didn’t touch her. Didn’t threaten her. Didn’t promise protection or revenge.
He simply walked out the door, like a man stepping away from a fire that hadn’t finished burning.
Kaori didn’t follow.
He had her address, her clinic’s record, her confirmation.
That was enough—for now.
Weeks passed. He sent lawyers. Medical staff. He made arrangements. Quiet custody claims. DNA testing protocols.
He never saw Kaori again.
Because by the time his legal team returned to the Incheon apartment—
It was empty.
No furniture.
No clothes.
No forwarding address.
Only a faint trail of blood in the bathroom sink.
Like she had been there.
Like she had left something behind.
He checked every port. Every private airport.
No record.
But she was gone. And she had taken the child with her.
He wasn’t sure if the scream that cracked inside him was fury or fear.
Hades waited by the door every night after that, ears perked. Waiting for her steps.
Seunghyun never mentioned her name again.
But every year, on the same night—
He left his front gate unlocked.
And placed a small blue baby shoe beside it.
In case his child ever came looking.