---
Yoon Se-ra pov:
I woke up with the taste of iron in my mouth.
Like I'd been chewing on blood in my sleep.
The room was still dark — early morning, maybe — but something felt... off.
The curtains were still. The door was locked.
But the mirror…
The mirror wasn't where I left it.
Last night, it had been beside the closet. Now it faced the bed.
Dead center. Watching me.
I got out of bed carefully, my body stiff like I'd slept under water. The floor was colder than before. The silence had teeth.
I stepped in front of the mirror and stared at myself.
And for just a second — only a blink — I swear the reflection moved before I did.
---
Han Jae-yul pov:
I didn't sleep.
I hadn't in years.
Sleep doesn't come when your dreams eat you alive.
I spent the night in the east wing, doors locked, lights off. Not because I was afraid, but because I needed to hear it—whatever it was.
The whispering always starts on Day Two.
That's when the house realizes someone new has arrived. That's when it begins to test them.
I heard the floorboards creak once. The sound of breath from behind the walls. A whisper through the vents: She doesn't belong.
I didn't answer. The house doesn't like it when I talk back.
Instead, I reviewed the file again. Her file.
Name: Yoon Se-ra
Age: 25
Blood type: AB
Parents: Deceased. Mother died from cancer four years ago. Father unknown.
Debt owed: ₩5.3 million. Mostly in medical and funeral expenses.
Current employment: Terminated. Former assistant at a dental clinic.
Psych Eval: Healthy. History of fever, insomnia, minor hallucinations post-grief. Energy Signature: Chaotic-neutral. Reactive. Non-absorbent. Untouched by residual curses.
It was that last line that made me choose her.
All the others were clean, polished, socialites with bodies that glittered but souls that rotted at the first touch.
Se-ra was different. Not pure, but...raw. Unfiltered.
I remember the exact moment I found her.
The night I had my second cardiac event, I saw her walking home in the rain, plastic bag of instant noodles clutched to her chest like treasure.
A man was following her.
Not human. Not quite.
A shadow with no source.
When she stopped, it stopped. When she turned, it vanished.
She never screamed. Never ran. Just hugged herself tighter and walked faster, like she'd lived with fear so long it had become second nature.
That night, I sent my assistant to start surveillance. Within 72 hours, I had the files. Within 96, I had her location.
By day five, my health monitor flatlined — and then leveled the moment her photo passed across the scanner.
My doctors called it coincidence. My shamans said it was fate.
But I knew better.
She wasn't the cure. She was the barrier. The wall between me and the thing that keeps taking them.
The curse doesn't like her.
And that… that makes her invaluable.
---
I watched her through the hallway monitor, a small, hidden screen embedded in my study. I didn't like spying. But I trusted this house even less.
She was awake.
Sitting up in bed. Staring at the mirror. Frozen.
I leaned forward.
"Move, Se-ra. Don't stare. Not at the mirror. Not this early."
But she didn't hear me, of course.
And then, the mirror blinked.
Not literally. But her reflection lagged. A half-second behind. Like the house wanted her to notice.
I cursed under my breath and grabbed the key to the second floor. If the mirrors were reacting, it meant the house had identified her.
Too soon.
They usually waited until Day Four.
But with Se-ra… everything was different.
---
Flashback: Three Years Ago
The first bride was named Ji-hye.
We met through a private arrangement. Daughter of a diplomat. Flawless health. Highly intelligent. Energetically stable.
She died five days after our wedding.
Collapsed in the bath. Eyes wide open. No pulse. No explanation.
The second was Eun-bin. Actress. Charismatic. Strong aura.
She lasted six.
Internal organ failure. No infection. No toxins. Just...shut down.
I loved neither. I respected both.
But both of them looked in the mirror the night before they died and said the same thing:
*"Why don't I have a reflection?"
---
Back to Present
Se-ra was now at the kitchen table. Mrs. Song had prepared porridge. She hated porridge.
I watched her flinch when the radio crackled.
"...Leave."
She heard it. I saw the way her shoulders tensed.
Mrs. Song turned it off like it was nothing.
But it wasn't nothing.
The house was speaking.
And for the first time in three years, it sounded afraid.
Afraid of her.
---
Later, I stood outside the door to the locked room.
It hadn't been opened in months. Not since Eun-bin.
But I heard it breathing.
Not a person. Not an animal. Just...breath.
Heavy. Labored. As if something waited behind it. Watching. Waiting to see if Se-ra would approach.
She had.
And it had shocked her.
That wasn't the door.
That was the house.
Rejecting her touch.
I pressed my palm to the wood, whispering in a language older than Korean. Words the shaman taught me.
*"Not yet. She's not yours. She is under my protection."
The door warmed slightly. Then cooled.
A warning.
Se-ra had triggered something. Something deeper than energy. Deeper than curses.
The curse was changing.
But so was I.
Last night, when she touched my wrist...my heart monitor turned green.
But what the machine didn't pick up...
...was that for the first time in years,
I felt warm.
Not just stabilized. Not just alive.
Human.
---
Later that day, I called the shaman who'd helped me contain the curse.
"She's activating it faster," I said.
"Because she's not the same," the shaman replied. "She wasn't chosen. She was sent."
"By who?"
The line crackled. Then fell silent.
That was answer enough.
---
Back in the study, I stared at the marriage contract.
Seven days.
If she lived through them, I would annul as promised.
But for the first time since this started, I didn't want her to leave.
Because for the first time since the curse attached to my bloodline—
I didn't feel alone.
And if I had to choose between breaking the rules
...or breaking her heart,
Then I would rewrite the rules myself.
Even if it killed me.