The Trap in the Portrait Room
Her heart pounded violently. It beat so fast that her chest felt tight and painful.
Cold sweat soaked her palms. Kanna’s mouth went dry in an instant from the tension.
Alexandro, who stared down at her in silence, felt like an enormous mountain. As if he could crush her beneath him at any moment. The suffocating pressure tightened around her throat, forcing her to breathe in shallow gasps.
‘How can Father be here?’
He was supposed to be on Pailon Island right now.
It had only been two days since she arrived here.
There was no way he could have come in that short time…
Then, at the end of that choking silence, he reached out. The moment his large hand approached, Kanna’s shoulders flinched hard.
As if he found her reaction amusing, he murmured quietly.
“You barged in here without a shred of fear, and now you’re trembling?”
He took the lantern from her hand, pulling it away.
“You look like you’re about to drop it.”
With how badly her hands were shaking, Alexandro left the rest unsaid.
It felt like she was suffocating.
“What were you doing in here, Kanna?”
Kanna.
Damn it. That gentle tone again. Goosebumps crawled across her skin. And that heavy, pounding heart.
“Answer me.”
Kanna forced strength into her stiff neck.
“I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“For entering this place without permission.”
“You know your mistake well.”
Kanna lowered her face. Almost at the same time, he lifted her chin with a single finger, tilting it up sharply.
“Do not lower your head in front of me.”
It was a command not to avoid his gaze. Kanna barely managed to meet his eyes as she apologized again.
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t overcome my curiosity and came inside.”
“Curiosity, you say.”
Alexandro took one step back and slowly bent at the waist.
“What exactly were you so curious about that you entered this room?”
At that moment, Kanna realized.
It was a trap.
She had walked right into the snare he had prepared.
From the beginning, Alexandro had lured her here.
He had spoken in Korean and deliberately staged his long absence from the mansion.
All so she would come to this place—where his secrets were hidden!
But the realization was meaningless now. Whether she knew or not, she was already a beast caught in the trap.
“…You were right, Father.”
Since she was already trapped, she would thrash until the very end. No matter the outcome, she would wring out every last piece of information she could.
“You said the word was ‘lie.’ I came here because I was curious how you knew that word. Wasn’t that what you wanted?”
“You understand well.”
Alexandro did not deny it. He had no need to.
“I thought that if you understood the word, you would definitely come here.”
Damn it. Kanna swallowed a curse. Just as expected, she had fallen for it completely.
Even if she had known he was luring her—
‘I still would have come.’
His secrets were not something she could possibly ignore.
Kanna pointed at the portrait.
“Who is this person?”
Alexandro glanced down at it. His answer was indifferent.
“Who knows.”
“She looks exactly like me. No, almost identical. Like a parent and child.”
“If you say so, then it must be true.”
That was confirmation. So the black-haired woman in the portrait really was her mother!
Her heart raced. The excitement surged as she finally grasped a truth she had never known before. Fear gradually receded, and curiosity burned fiercely.
“Where is she now?”
“Why do you ask?”
Alexandro’s reply was strangely sharp.
“Are you thinking of meeting her after all this time?”
“That’s for me to decide.”
“You won’t be able to decide anything.”
In other words, he had no intention of telling her.
Kanna bit her lip and glared at him. It was a look that could only be described as a glare.
It was exactly the same as before.
The first time she had asked her father about her mother as a child.
“Just tell me one thing. This person… the woman in the portrait… is she alive? Or has she passed away?”
“As if.”
Surprisingly, he sneered.
“She’s not the kind of person who would die even if you killed her.”
Yet strangely, the voice did not carry the tone of a man speaking about a former lover or mistress. Instead…
‘Hostility.’
Was it just her imagination that she sensed hatred as well?
“Now it’s my turn.”
Alexandro extended the arm holding the lantern to the side. As if a curtain of darkness had been lifted, the wall was suddenly revealed.
‘Another portrait?’
On the wall hung one more portrait that Kanna had not noticed earlier.
“Do you know this woman?”
Kanna looked at the newly revealed portrait. The faint crimson light flickered across the painting.
‘An Easterner…’
It was a woman who appeared to be Korean. And she was young.
Mid-twenties? Or perhaps late twenties?
And then…
“……”
Kanna nearly collapsed on the spot.
Because it was a face she knew.
“I see you recognize her.”
A strange glee colored Alexandro’s voice as he watched Kanna’s trembling eyes.
“Have you met this woman?”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“While someone else was inside your body, did you meet this woman? That’s what I’m asking.”
Kanna stared at him blankly. Each word struck her mind like a brutal blow. The shock was so intense that her brain seemed to short-circuit.
She wondered if she had misheard him.
But she knew she hadn’t.
Still—how? How could her father possibly…?
Was this even possible?
This conversation? Could this really be happening between her and her father? Was this reality?
A fear greater than any she had ever felt crawled up from her toes. Goosebumps rose like spiders across her skin. Kanna stumbled backward. Her thigh hit the table. There was nowhere left to go.
“Answer me.”
“I… I don’t understand what you’re saying, Father…”
The next moment, he took one heavy step forward, closing the distance.
“Don’t even think about denying that another woman took over your body all this time.”
How on earth did Father…?
A fleeting image crossed her mind.
Juhwa’s diary. The diary written in Korean.
The one only Juhwa and she should have been able to read.
That was what she had believed.
But of course Alexandro would have been able to see it too.
“Father, just how—”
She couldn’t hold back the question any longer.
“Who taught you Korean? And these portraits—what is your relationship with these two women? And…”
“Not yet. It’s your turn to answer now.”
Alexandro calmly brushed aside her heated questions. Once again, he pointed at the portrait in the darkness.
Pale moonlight slipping through the window seeped across the face of the Eastern woman—Seon-hui.
“Do you know this woman?”
“I don’t.”
Kanna denied it immediately. It was pure instinct.
She could tell that Alexandro was not searching for Seon-hui with good intentions.
His hostility, his hatred—it was directed not only at her own mother but at Seon-hui as well.
That was why she had to protect her. That was the most important thing.
“She’s a woman I’ve never seen before.”
“……”
Kanna met Alexandro’s eyes as calmly as she could. His vivid green eyes watched her silently from the darkness, like a beast lying in wait.
In that moment, Kanna realized.
Her father had not been fooled by her lie. Not even for a second.
And he was a man who would eventually wring out the truth.
By any means necessary.
‘Even if it means torture.’
The moment she became aware of that, the tips of Kanna’s fingers began to tremble.
This was a sealed room. A room no one ever entered.
As long as she remained within her father’s sight, escape was impossible. He might even harm her. He might do anything to hear the truth.
“I really don’t know her. I’ve never seen that woman before.”
“……”
“Just as you said, Father, another person was inside this body. And I… went into that person’s body in return. That place was a country called Korea.”
She mixed truth and lies so they could not be easily separated.
“But there are countless people living there. Even if they share the same nationality, most never meet in their entire lives.”
“……”
“I have never met that woman.”
Alexandro did not respond. The longer their eyes remained locked, the more it felt like her skin was being peeled away. A horrible sensation dug into her.
It was the shame and fear of someone whose lie had been seen through—someone who knew the other person already knew it was a lie, yet still had to keep lying.
“…Father, I will take my leave now.”
After a long silence, Kanna spoke in a cracked voice.
“Please let me go.”
“……”
“I was wrong. I won’t ever come into this room again.”
After that, she could say no more. She could only wait with a wretched heart for Alexandro’s decision.
‘If he decides to torture me…’
He hates me. And he needs information from me.
‘I did bring a self-defense chemical…’
The necklace that noblewomen carried, filled with perfume samples.
Inside it was a substance that caused skin-burning agony. But would it even work on her father?
More importantly, did she even have the courage to attack him…?
“Fine.”
Huh?
“Go.”
Alexandro stepped aside. He held out the lantern to Kanna, who stood there in a daze.
“Take it with you.”
“Th… thank you.”
Kanna accepted the lantern in a daze and began inching toward the door.
Her father really was letting her go. He wasn’t stopping her.
‘Quickly, quickly!’
Fearing he might change his mind, Kanna hurried her steps as if in alarm.
And the moment she left the room, she broke into a mad sprint.
“Hah… hah…”
Once she reached her bedroom, Kanna threw the lantern aside and collapsed onto the bed. She clutched the blankets, trembling violently.
What was that?
What the hell was that?
Kanna crawled deeper under the covers and curled into a tight ball.
What just happened?
That conversation.
The portrait of her biological mother, who looked exactly like her.
Her father, who knew that her body and Juhwa’s had been switched.
Her father asking if she knew Seon-hui.
Her father, who clearly knew she was lying, yet simply let her go.
The one who handed her the lantern—no, that wasn’t important right now.
Father. Father. Father.
Just how much did her father know?
Her head throbbed. Whether from fear or shock, the lingering aftereffects made her body convulse for a long time.
‘Seon-hui.’
Kanna gripped the blanket tightly. She closed her eyes. Seon-hui. Lee Seon-hui. A painfully familiar name. And someone she missed so terribly.
‘Mom…’
Juhwa’s mother.
The Eastern woman in the portrait was Juhwa’s mother.