The Woman I Was Flirting With Turned Out To Be A Chaebol Heiress - Chapter 1

At 3 a.m., the sound of plastic rain boots hitting the wet pavement rang out too loudly in the quiet, making Li Nianyi instinctively lighten her steps.

The fine raindrops pattered against her umbrella, creating a soothing rustle. Every breath carried the scent of rain.

Yet, for some reason, a vague sense of unease gnawed at her. She gripped the plastic bag in her hand more tightly. The oden in the paper bowl was still steaming, making her knuckles feel hot.

Her heartbeat was speeding up again that creeping dread she’d felt upon waking half an hour ago from a nightmare was crawling up her spine once more. But the more anxious she got, the more she found herself thinking wildly.

She couldn’t help but recall that dream it was a bit blurry now, but it had something to do with being chased. Probably due to stress lately, her entire body had been tense in the dream, running desperately as if a nameless beast was about to tear her apart, or some deranged serial killer was about to grab her hair from behind…

Once her thoughts spiraled, there was no stopping them. The dim streetlights were refracted through the rain into hazy halos, and the water splashing against the manhole covers sounded eerily like footsteps…

This kind of weather, at this time of night, easily reminded her of horror novels or films fragments of American Psycho flashed unbidden through her mind.

As she got closer to the small apartment building she rented, her nerves began to ease, and she started to regret not buying a bottle of iced cola.

But the next moment a heavy thud erupted behind her, breaking her momentary peace. Water splashed everywhere.

Before her brain could react, her body had already turned stiffly.

Lying on the ground was a figure staring blankly upward with lifeless eyes. The pale, familiar face and the dark red blood stabbing into her brain like needles.

Boom!!!

An indescribable horror exploded in her mind like fireworks.

The gentle drizzle of early morning had, without her noticing, begun to intensify.

Instinctively, she looked up.

Rain blurred her vision, but she still caught a glimpse of a dark shadow disappearing quickly behind the railing on the seventh floor. A silver accessory on the figure’s neck glinted conspicuously in the night.

Li Nianyi used all her strength to suppress a scream. Her limbs numb, she turned and ran like mad back toward the 24-hour convenience store she had just left.

The killer was still in the apartment building!

Her mind went blank this was pure instinct. The convenience store was just across a not too wide road from her apartment. Her survival instinct pushed her into a sprint, her heartbeat pounding like war drums in her ears. Fear rose like a tide, flooding her chest.

Stay calm. Stay calm…

Li Nianyi tried desperately to collect her thoughts that were scattering like raindrops.

Finally, the faint glow of the convenience store drew closer.

As she neared, the automatic glass doors sensed her presence and opened. The cashier, yawning behind the counter, looked up with a confused expression upon seeing her.

“Li? Why’re you back again…? Hey? What happened? Are you”

“Lock the door!”

It was the first time Li Nianyi’s voice sounded so shrill. She didn’t even want to imagine what her face looked like soaked hair sticking wildly to her cheeks like seaweed clinging to a drowned ghost.

The cashier snapped to attention at her panicked state, but before she could react, Li Nianyi had already rushed behind the counter, grabbed the key to the sensor lock, scrambled back out, and shakily jammed it into the lock, setting the door shut.

When it was done, she collapsed to the floor, exhausted. Only then did she taste the iron tang in her mouth her lower lip had been bitten raw at some point.

“Li, what the hell happened?!”

The cashier was flustered. Li Nianyi’s state was utterly terrifying.

“Call the police! Right now! I just saw… someone fall from a building.”

Somehow, the words “murder” didn’t make it out of her mouth. Instead, she said “fall.”

She looked up through the glass doors at the store signs reflected in puddles outside the rain-dappled glow turned the reflections red, as if they had merged with the body she’d just seen.

The cashier, sensing the seriousness, quickly made the emergency call.

But then, Li Nianyi realized she had made a grave mistake. Her entire body went cold, goosebumps rising.

In the rain, a woman in a black raincoat slowly approached the building.

Her eyes swept over the spilled oden and discarded clear umbrella on the ground. Then, she walked straight toward the body. She crouched down and began searching it. After a few moments not finding what she wanted she vanished into the rainy night like a phantom.

At 3 a.m., the rain had no color until it washed the blood from the ground.

By the time they left the police station, Li Nianyi was still in a daze. Everything from that night felt surreal, like a bad dream. The cashier who’d accompanied her gave her shoulder a pat.

“Li, you’re in shock. Maybe take the afternoon off? I’ll ask the manager to adjust your shift.”

No one would expect someone to return to work after witnessing a death.

Li Nianyi steadied herself, leaning on the cashier.

“I’m fine. You go ahead.”

Only after multiple reassurances that she’d take care of herself did the girl finally leave.

She squeezed her dry eyes shut, but couldn’t get rid of the image of Suzuki Kazuko’s wide, lifeless eyes.

Yes the dead girl was someone she knew.

Her senior Suzuki Kazuko.

Not only the sole witness, she was also a close acquaintance of the victim. Li Nianyi was now completely caught in a murder case.

And Li Nianyi hated nothing more than trouble but now, she was neck-deep in the worst kind.

To make matters worse, the officer made it clear: since it was likely a homicide, she could be called back at any time for further details  maybe even scene re-enactments.

She couldn’t return to the apartment where someone just died. In a daze, she checked into a cheap hotel nearby.

Thankfully, it was a weekend no classes, no lab meetings. She still had her part-time job, though. Her life just seemed endlessly unlucky.

Back in the hotel, she collapsed into the soft bed. As her taut nerves eased, sleepiness crept in. She pulled off her sweaty white T-shirt and crawled under the blanket.

If not for the night’s events, she would’ve been enjoying her midnight snack and dozing off again. The more she thought, the more her mind faded…

Eventually, she “woke” again everything in her vision was hazy.

“Name?”

“…Li Nianyi.”

“Age?”

“23.”

“Address?”

“4-chome, Hakusan, Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo.”

“Did you know the deceased?”

“Yes, Suzuki was my senior. We’re both in Professor Tanaka’s social psychology lab…”

She realized she was dreaming reliving the police interrogation.

Initially, she hadn’t wanted to mention seeing the third person. Li Nianyi just wanted to survive her two years in Japan in peace, and not get involved in anything especially not a murder.

But she’d left the oden and umbrella behind when she ran. The killer would already know someone had witnessed the crime maybe even figured out where she lived.

If the killer wasn’t caught, she’d never be safe.

So, the incident escalated from suicide to homicide.

The female officer asked her to repeat every detail. So, her mind was dragged back again and again to that moment, replaying the image of the figure behind the seventh-floor railing magnifying it over and over.

“She wore a raincoat. The hood was big I think there was a mask too. I couldn’t see her face. She was tall, slim, but not frail… Oh, and there was a necklace metallic, shiny…”

She had mild nearsightedness  no glasses or contacts that night yet she could recall all these details.

Suddenly, she felt cold.

When she looked up the officer was gone.

The cramped interrogation room seemed to expand the walls vanished. In their place was the dark apartment building and the corpse at her feet.

The black figure was still there, still blurred, but Li Nianyi felt the gaze like a cold, slimy snake coiling around her.

Move! Move!

She screamed internally, but her body was frozen. She couldn’t even blink, let alone flee.

The figure came closer… and closer…

She could hear the raindrops falling from the raincoat to the ground.

She tried to see the woman’s face, but the fog blurred everything all she could see was the silver glint on her neck.

Huff… huff…

Her breath caught, her chest tightening, her heart pounding.

The black figure was now inches away.

With a jolt, Li Nianyi snapped awake from the nightmare.

Eyes wide, her heart racing, a thin layer of sweat covering her.

That sleep had made her even more exhausted.

Trying to clear her mind, she took a breath, grabbed her phone, and checked the time — it was already noon.

She could still make it to her shift.

No time off. She needed the money. Food still had to be bought.

Dragging herself out of bed, she grabbed a bite and headed for the convenience store only to be greeted with an explosive shock.

She’d been fired.

“Why?!!”