Jessica brought me home and treated me like something fragile. She had become extremely suspicious. The entire villa was filled with bodyguards, and security cameras were installed everywhere.

Meanwhile, she rarely left my side. She was worried that if she looked away for even a second, I would disappear again.

"Wil, these are your favorite barbecued ribs. I made them myself." Jessica placed a piece of rib on my plate as we sat at the dinner table, her eyes full of expectations.

She had never cooked for me before.

Even when I ran through the rain to deliver a contract for her and caught a fever afterward, all I got was her ordering takeout food for me. She had changed so much after I left, but why did she never care when I had given her my whole heart?

"It's really good. Thank you." I set down my fork and knife and tried to smile at her.

Jessica stared at me for a moment, and the light in her eyes dimmed a little. "Wil... Do you still blame me?"

"No." I shook my head and told her the truth. I did not blame her, because I neither loved nor hated her. Why would I blame anything on a stranger?

"Then, why are you..." Her voice trailed off, almost as if she wanted to ask how I could be so calm. Why was I acting so differently than before, when I would be touched by the smallest thing she did for me in the past. Now, I acted like a polite guest staying in someone else's house.

Just then, the person most responsible for bringing us to this point showed up.

Henry.

He was Jessica's best friend, and he was also the wedge that had come between us two years ago. He was still dressed in that polished way, but there was a trace of jealousy in his eyes when he looked at me.

"Wil, you're back." Henry sat on the couch, holding the cushion that used to be mine, and he looked at me provokingly. "Jessica had been having it hard for the past two years. You can be pretty heartless when you want to, leaving just like that."

Jessica was peeling an apple for me. When she heard that, she paused with the knife still in her hand, but she said nothing.

She was observing my reaction.

I guessed she wanted to see me get angry and jealous, then argue with Henry the way I had in the past because I cared about her. But I no longer felt that way. I simply gave Henry a brief glance as my heart remained still.

"I was," I said as I went along with him, my tone calm as if I was commenting on something insignificant. "Good thing you two are so close. Thank you for taking care of her these past two years."

Henry froze, clearly not expecting his attack to be deflected so easily.

Jessica's expression darkened. She slammed the peeled apple down onto the table. "Wil Lane, what do you mean by that? You don't mind it at all?"

I turned to look into Jessica's eyes and the anger she was trying to hold back. It was confusing for me. I was being generous, reasonable, and not making a scene. Was that not exactly what she wanted?

"Why would I mind?" I asked in a mild tone. "He's your best friend. Of course, he should be taking care of you. I just got back, and I'm getting tired, so I'm going upstairs to rest."

I stood up and left, my steps unhurried.

Behind me, I could hear Jessica let out a muffled roar of anger, followed by the sound of glass shattering.

Jessica was beginning to grow restless. She could not stand how I wouldn't give her any reaction. She began to indulge Henry to get a reaction out of me.

Henry stayed in her study until late at night. When I brought her a glass of milk, I saw her sitting on his lap, the two of them together in an intimate position.

When Jessica saw me come in, she did not push him away. Instead, she looked at me with open provocation.

Meanwhile, I simply stood in the doorway and watched them, my heart completely empty. If this had happened two years ago, I would have been furious. I would have demanded an explanation and probably even thrown a punch at him.

But now, my only thought was how uncomfortable that pose was and how the milk was getting cold.

"I'm sorry for interrupting." I walked over and set the milk on the table. Then, I closed the half-opened window for them. "The wind is quite strong tonight. Don't catch a cold. Please, carry on."

With that, I turned and closed the door behind me.

The second the door shut, Jessica roared in fury from inside. "Leave! Get out!"

Right after that, I could hear Henry arguing back in a pitiful voice.

That night, Jessica stormed into my room reeking of alcohol and pinned me to the bed.

"Wil! Do you even have a heart?!" Her eyes were red as she stared at me. "I went that far, but why didn't you get angry? Don't you love me anymore? Or have you never loved me?!"

I looked at her face as she was on the verge of collapsing and gently wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes. I then said to her in a calm voice, "Jessica, stop. I just thought that if you liked him, I could step aside. As long as you're happy."

"I'm not happy! I'm not happy at all!" She buried her face in the nape of my neck and broke down sobbing.

"What I want is for you to love me! You can hit me, yell at me, hate me... just don't treat me like this. Don't act like a puppet around me..."

I let her tears soak my pajamas, but I was already counting the days in my mind.

Just a little over a month left.

All I needed to do was hang on a little longer, and my mission would be completed successfully. I could then take the money and leave. As for her pain… She had brought it upon herself. It was not my problem.

I thought that was how we were going to pass the days between my numbness and her madness, until Henry came looking for me one day.

"Wil, you're so disgusting." Henry looked at me with malice in the garden. "You obviously don't love Jessica, so why are you still keeping her to yourself? Look at what she has become. You've driven her insane!"

I simply trimmed the branches and gently replied, "That was her choice."

"Heh. Just you wait." Henry let out a cold laugh. "You won't have the right to stay by her side anymore soon."

I did not know what he meant, but I didn't pay any attention to it. I had not expected him to be that vicious, however.

That day, Jessica said she wanted apple pie from that old shop on the south side of the city. It had been my favorite dessert two years ago.

I drove out, but when I reached a deserted coastal road, my car suddenly died.

I got out to take a look, and before I could react, someone had already covered my nose and mouth with a handkerchief that reeked of chemicals. Before I blacked out, my only thought about this was that this was so cliché.

-

When I woke up again, I was tied to an iron pillar in an abandoned factory. Several thugs stood around me with cameras, looking me over with malicious intentions.

An old loudspeaker hung overhead, and Henry's smug voice came through it. "Wil, you're awake? Are you very scared right now?"

"Henry, this is illegal," I replied calmly.

He burst out laughing before saying in a sharp tone. "Haha! Who do you think arranged this? Jessica gave her tacit approval!"

My heartbeat stayed steady, and it didn't stir at all.

Henry continued, "At first, she only planned to have someone drag you here and scare you a little. Then, when you cried for help in despair, she would show up like a hero and save you. She thought that after surviving death, you would start depending on her again. She thought it would trigger that so-called 'misattribution of arousal' effect and make you fall in love with her all over again. What a pathetic and laughable woman, am I right?"

So, that was it.

Jessica had actually come up with such a cheap little act to make me feel something and to make me come alive again.

"But… I don't want it to go that smoothly." Henry's tone abruptly turned cold. "I'm going to ruin you right here. I'll have these men ruin you completely and take pictures and videos. By the time Jessica finally gets here, the person she sees won't be the first love she has been obsessed with. All she'll see is a filthy piece of trash! Let's see if she still wants you then!"

The men got their orders and started approaching me.

One of them pulled out a syringe filled with a cloudy liquid and said, "Don't be afraid, bro. This is the good stuff. This thing will make you more… Passionate later on."

I struggled as best as I could, but the powerful men pinned me down so hard I could not move. The needle sank into my neck, and the cold liquid entered my veins. A sense of dread began to rise inside of me.

"System," I called out in my head, my tone still calm. "Check my condition."

The system sounded horrified. "This is bad, host! That's a heavy dose of hallucinogens and aphrodisiac!"

Just as I thought.

A wave of nausea rolled inside of me, and I questioned it, "When you sent me here, you personally guaranteed I would not be put in any danger. Am I supposed to take all of this right now?"

By then, those men had already started tearing at my clothes. Their rough hands scraped across my skin, and I almost retched.

My vision was becoming blurred, and I was losing my ability to reason. Instead, I began to feel a terrifying heat that felt so ominous and foreign.

The system answered shakily. "I... I did promise your safety, but I didn't expect the supporting character to do something this brutal..."

"Then what kind of safety is this?" I shot back at it.

The system suddenly sounded guilty as it tried to bargain with me. "Ahaha... But the three months you promised still aren't up..."

Stay the full three months and carry these memories for the rest of my life? "You failed to protect me first. You need to stop this now."

"System." I tried my best to maintain my last shred of clarity. "Activate the emergency extraction program."

That man's hand was already reaching for my belt, his ugly face filling my vision.

"Extract me. Now." My voice left no room for refusal.

"I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Lane! I'm extracting you immediately," the system said. Obviously, it couldn't take what was happening anymore either.

My vision flickered, and I was back in a dark space in an instant. The discomfort in my body vanished immediately as well.

A massive screen stood in front of me like a movie screen, showing everything that was still happening over the other side.

After my consciousness was pulled out, that body still showed a few signs of life as those men kept venting their primal urges while snapping pictures.

But not long after, once the core of the artificial soul holding that body together was gone, my body's heartbeat stopped before it went completely limp, as if whatever was holding it together had just disappeared.

The men froze in the middle of their carnal rage. They then checked for breath with a shaking hand.

In no time, panic broke out among all of them.

"Holy! He... He's dead?!"

"Dead?!"

At that exact moment, Jessica finally arrived and kicked the factory door open. "Wil!"