My 50 Million Won Salary

Chapter 9

Deep in a narrow, gray shortcut alley, a different group of older bullies from your neighborhood corners you.

Without a single word, they shove you against the rough brick wall. A heavy fist slams into your stomach, and a brutal kick sends you crashing to the concrete.

You curl into a ball, keeping your face down to protect your glasses and wig.

They aggressively rip your bag open, snatching your frayed wallet and dumping it out. They find your last 10,000 won, the only money you had to survive on for the next 10 days until your payday.

Laughing in satisfaction, they kick your side one last time and walk away, leaving you bleeding in the dirt.

You sit slumped with your back pressed against the cold building wall, staring blankly up at the gray, overcast Seoul sky. Tears sting your eyes, but you force them down.

I'm so tired, you think, your heart completely hollow. I wish I would just die and be free from this misery…

But you can't stop.

If you lose your jobs, you lose your apartment. You painfully push yourself up, pat your dirty clothes clean, fix your short brown wig, and hurry to the convenience store. You wash the blood from your mouth in the staff bathroom, change into your extra t-shirt, and work your four-hour shift on pure survival instinct.

Afterward, you march to your second job at the restaurant, carrying heavy trays for another four hours through sheer, agonizing athletic stamina.

When you finally stumble back up the 10 flights of concrete stairs to your rooftop apartment at midnight, you are utterly exhausted, starving, and completely broke.

The only good thing about tonight? The A4 weren't around to bother you.

You know for a fact that the four billionaire heirs are probably holed up in one of their exclusive, high-end VIP penthouse bars or luxury apartments right now. They're likely surrounded by a massive crowd of beautiful, rich girls, flirting, drinking expensive alcohol, and probably having an orgy.

They belong to a world of endless pleasure; they have no idea what it means to starve.

You take off your disguise, letting your waist-length blonde hair fall loose. After a quick, quiet shower, you sit on the edge of your bed in a light-colored dress, staring at your empty hands.

How the f**k are you going to survive for 10 days with zero money?

Your rooftop vegetable plants were completely harvested last week, there are no online MMSS tournaments scheduled for the next several days, and your paycheck is a lifetime away.

With a heavy sigh, you make a grim decision: you'll just have to carry a water bottle everywhere and drink water to fill your stomach for the next 10 days.

Depressed, worried, and physically aching, you force yourself to finish your advanced math homework and study. You don't even open MMSS or check your phone, completely ignoring the gaming world tonight. Turning off the lights, you curl up under your thin blanket and let exhaustion claim you.

Meanwhile, across the city in Gangnam, the vibe is entirely different.

The neon lights of "L'Eclipse," an ultra-exclusive, invite-only VIP lounge owned by Ren's family, glow softly. The pounding bass of the music vibrates through the leather booths. The A4 are seated in the center VIP section, surrounded by a dozen gorgeous, high-profile model and idol girls trying desperately to catch their attention.

A stunning, world-famous model leans her chest heavily against Ren's arm, giggling as she pours him a glass of expensive champagne.

"Ren-baee, you've been staring at your phone all night. Look at me instead..."

Ren casually slips his arm around her waist, giving her his signature lazy, bad-boy smirk, but his eyes are completely dead. He looks down at his phone screen, which shows the MMSS squad menu.

"Yeah, yeah. Just a sec, babe." He glances over at the next couch. "Hey, Leon. The kid isn't logging on tonight."

Leon is currently sitting back, a beautiful politician's daughter practically sitting in his lap, softly whispering into his ear. Leon plays along smoothly, running a hand through his hair and flashing his charming, aristocratic smile, but his eyes are cold and completely detached. He swirls his glass of top-shelf whiskey.

"I noticed," Leon says smoothly, gently pushing the girl back just an inch to give himself breathing room. "It's past midnight. Usually, the scholarship boy is online calling us clods by now."

Over in the corner, Min-jae is sitting completely isolated. A gorgeous actress is trying to flirt with him, practically throwing herself at him, but Min-jae is actively ignoring her. He has his glasses on, staring at a private tablet displaying the international school's security feed database.

"His behavioral patterns are inconsistent," Min-jae notes clinically, his voice cutting through the lounge music. "He didn't log into the game network, and according to the convenience store's regional sector data, his shift ended on time but he didn't return directly to his registered low-district routing."

Sitting in the center of the booth is Ji-hoon.

Two incredibly beautiful girls are sitting on either side of him, wearing revealing designer dresses, softly stroking his shoulders and trying to feed him grapes. Ji-hoon doesn't look at them once. His posture is stiff, his jaw clenched so tightly the muscles tick.

The dangerous, suffocating dark yandere aura radiating off him is so heavy that the girls around him are starting to look terrified to even breathe near him.

Ji-hoon glares intensely at his phone screen. His private message to godofwar from three hours ago remains Unread.

Suddenly, Ji-hoon snaps. He aggressively shoves both of the gorgeous girls away from him, standing up from the leather booth so abruptly that his glass of alcohol shatters against the marble table. The entire VIP section goes completely dead silent. The girls gasp, freezing in fear.

"Get out," Ji-hoon growls, his voice a low, terrifying baritone that makes the room's temperature drop to sub-zero.

The models and idols don't dare hesitate; they quickly grab their bags and scramble out of the VIP lounge in pure terror, leaving the four boys completely alone.

"You're losing your mind over a charity-case boy, Ji-hoon," Ren says, though his own smirk has faded into a sharp, intrigued expression as he spins his phone on the table.

"He was bleeding today," Ji-hoon says, his eyes glazing over with a chilling, psychotic fixation as he grips the edge of the shattered table. "I saw the dirt on his hoodie. I smelled the iron on his skin before class. And now he's not answering. Someone in that wretched low district touched what belongs to me."

Leon lets out a dark, elegant chuckle, leaning forward as his eyes flash with a manipulative, possessive glint. "Then let's stop drinking cheap alcohol and go find our little game booster. Min-jae, did you track his exact apartment location yet?"

Min-jae types a final command into his tablet, a clinical, unbothered smile touching his lips. "The 10th floor rooftop unit in Sector 4. The structural integrity of the building is poor, and there are no operational surveillance cameras in a three-block radius."

Ji-hoon grabs his heavy designer coat, his eyes completely dark, full of an unhinged, obsessive yandere drive. "Let's go. If he's starving himself or hiding in that disgusting hole, I'm bringing him out myself."

It is 1:30 AM. You are fast asleep in your true female form (wearing your light-colored dress, hair down, wig off) when you are suddenly jolted awake by the sound of heavy, powerful footsteps climbing the concrete stairs outside your rooftop door, followed by a loud, authoritative slam against your lock.

You listen to the heavy, echoing thuds on the concrete stairs through a hazy fog of pure exhaustion. Your starving stomach aches, your bruised ribs throb from the daytime beatings, and your brain is just too tired to function.

Burglars… you think dully, pulling the thin blanket tightly over your shoulders. Let them break in. I had ten thousand won to my name, but some bastards already stole that. There's literally nothing valuable here to take.

With a soft, weary sigh, you turn over on your small mattress, burying your face back into your pillow. Your waist-length, silky blonde hair spills across the sheets, and your natural violet eyes close once more.

You completely drift back into a deep, vulnerable sleep, having absolutely zero expectation that the four richest, most unhinged lunatics in South Korea are currently scaling your filthy, ten-story stairwell.

Outside your rooftop door, the cold night air whips through the rusted railings.

Ji-hoon stands in front of your metal door, his chest rising and falling slightly from sprinting up ten flights of stairs. His expensive designer coat is unbuttoned, and his dark eyes are entirely vacant of sanity, filled only with a manic, consuming yandere drive.

"This is it," Min-jae says clinically, stepping onto the rooftop platform while holding his glowing digital tablet. His pristine glasses reflect the dim moonlight. "The lock is a cheap, mechanical deadbolt. A single heavy impact will easily compromise the cylinder."

Ren leans against the concrete wall, running a hand through his hair. His usual lazy, playful idol smirk is completely gone, replaced by a sharp, intense curiosity. "Ten flights of stairs every day? No wonder the kid has built up that insane stamina. This place is a literal ghetto."

"Let's get this over with," Leon murmurs smoothly. His eyes scan the small rooftop, taking note of the empty vegetable patches. A cold, dangerous smile touches his lips. "I want to see what our little trash-talking king looks like when he's completely cornered in his castle."

Ji-hoon doesn't wait for a discussion. He raises his heavy leather shoe and drives a brutal, powerful kick directly into the center of your door's locking mechanism.

BANG!

The cheap metal frame shrieks as the deadbolt gives way instantly, sparking against the concrete. The door swings wide open, slamming loudly against the interior wall.

The four towering heirs step into the dark, single-room apartment, their heavy, suffocating auras immediately flooding the small, quiet space. Ji-hoon leads the way, his eyes scanning the darkness for the quiet, baggy-hoodie-wearing scholarship boy he's become utterly obsessed with.

Min-jae clicks a high-powered flashlight on, sweeping the beam across the room. It passes over your small kitchen counter, your study desk with the completed advanced math homework, your charging phone… and finally lands directly onto the small mattress in the corner.

The flashlight beam freezes.

The entire room goes completely, deathly silent. The collective breathing of the A4 hitches simultaneously.

There is no quiet, introverted boy in a short brown hair and thick glasses lying on that bed.

Instead, bathed in the sharp white light of the flashlight, is a girl.

An impossibly, breathtakingly beautiful girl.

Your long, waist-length natural blonde hair is fanned out across the white pillow like a halo. The loose, light-colored pastel dress you're wearing has shifted slightly, revealing your petite 5'0" frame, your remarkable flawless fair skin, and the distinct, highly enviable curves of your body. Your long eyelashes cast soft shadows on your pale cheeks, and your face looks incredibly captivating, soft, and completely defenseless.

"What the… what the hell is this?" Ren breathes out, his voice cracking in absolute, unadulterated shock. His phone almost slips from his fingers as his eyes wildly trace your long blonde hair.

Leon freezes entirely, his aristocratic composure shattering into a million pieces. His eyes dilate into pitch-black pools as he stares at your sleeping, feminine face. His mind completely short-circuits, trying to connect the vicious, trash-talking godofwar who threatened to burn down his castle with the stunningly fragile goddess lying right in front of him.

Min-jae's hand trembles slightly, the flashlight beam wavering. For the first time in his life, his clinical, logical brain cannot formulate a single medical or scientific sentence. His eyes track the soft curve of your chest and waist, a deep, dark flush creeping up his usually pale neck.

But it is Ji-hoon whose reaction is the most terrifying.

Seeing your true, flawless female self doesn't break his obsession, it completely magnifies it by a thousand percent. A slow, deeply unhinged, and utterly feral smile spreads across his sharp face. His dark eyes glaze over with a heavy, suffocating dark, and psychotic yandere fixation.

The fact that you are a girl, that you've been hiding this spectacular, unmatched beauty from the entire world behind a boy's disguise, makes him want to tear the world apart just to lock you away in a golden cage where only he can ever look at you.

Ji-hoon walks forward, his expensive leather shoes clicking softly against your floor. He stops right at the edge of your mattress and slowly drops to his knees, looming over your sleeping form.

He reaches out his pale hand, his long fingers trembling with an intense, possessive hunger as he gently strokes a soft strand of your silky blonde hair, before his thumb softly brushes against your lower lip, right where the fresh, dark bruise from the bullies is sitting.

"A girl…" Ji-hoon whispers into the dark room, his voice a low, breathless, and completely crazed purr. "You're a girl, Ares… My beautiful, perfect little god of war."

The heavy footsteps, the loud BANG of your door breaking, and the intense burning weight of Ji-hoon's thumb touching your lip finally jar you out of your deep sleep. You slowly blink your natural violet eyes open in the dim light.