Desire Me If You Can Chapter 1

I first heard that rumor at a charity party hosted by an acquaintance I had been invited to.

“What? A psychic?”

Grayson, who had been killing time by sharing trivial chatter with the people at the party, frowned and asked back unintentionally. The man who had first brought it up sipped wine mixed with a strong spirit and giggled playfully.

“Yeah, they say it’s a fortune-teller who was invited to Hayden’s party, and it was quite interesting. They were pretty accurate, too! Everyone was amazed.”

“As if.”

Grayson drank his wine with an indifferent expression as he listened to the story. Fortunes? Believing in superstitions like that is foolish.

…That’s not to say he hasn’t tried. In fact, he had already sought out countless fortune-tellers and psychics. Probably ten times more than the maximum number of fortune-tellers an average person would meet in their entire lifetime. There was always only one thing Grayson asked them: Where is my soulmate?

He had heard many things and paid a considerable price, but the results were always like this. A soulmate? Just when he thought he had finally met one, it wasn’t them; and when he thought he had found another, it wasn’t them either. Having gone through that process several times, Grayson no longer blindly trusts their words. That is why, even now that he had heard about a new psychic, he wasn’t easily swayed, and while he was listening quite carefully, he was maintaining a lukewarm attitude. Seeing Grayson’s indifferent reaction, the man looked embarrassed and added with a laugh:

“It’s just for fun. Mind you, they gave Keith such an absurd prophecy that the guy got incredibly angry.”

“To Keith? What kind of prophecy?”

Asking with curiosity at the unexpected name, the man answered nonchalantly.

“That he’d face a huge hardship in the near future. Said if he wasn’t careful then, he’d regret it for the rest of his life.”

“Like going bankrupt?”

Another man who was with them giggled and joked. The rest of the men also laughed in disbelief. Keith, going bankrupt? The thought that it might be more likely for the world to end first probably wasn’t held by just one person. The man who first brought it up spoke again.

“Who knows? They said he’d lose something more important than money, but I don’t know what that is. Keith got angry and stormed off before I could even hear it.”

“He’s always had such a short fuse.”

“I’d have been pissed off and walked away too if I heard that.”

“Yeah, hearing bad prophecies only ruins your mood.”

Just as it seemed like voices of agreement were coming from here and there, the topic quickly changed. Grayson sipped his wine aimlessly and pondered.

It had been years since Keith, who was just as much of a rake as Grayson, chose the nonsensical institution of marriage and settled down. It was a reality that everyone still found hard to believe, but he hadn’t strayed even once since getting married. If it was something so precious that it would make Keith that angry, it must be Yeon-woo. Or perhaps his two lovely children.

A fraud.

There was nothing more to see. The idea that Yeon-woo would leave Keith’s side was preposterous. It went without saying that it was absurd for his children, who did nothing but chirp around without any abilities, to be the subject of such a thing.

He had found his soulmate. Much earlier than Grayson, who had been craving one so desperately. If you look at it that way, God must be an incredibly biased being. Keith had always just mocked Grayson’s wishes, and yet he was the one who had found his partner. Grayson thought with a scowl. That guy hadn’t even checked a single one of those common fortunes.

For that psychic to give such an ominous prophecy to a man like Keith—it was a miracle they returned in one piece. They must have used up their entire lifetime’s worth of luck at that moment.

If Hayden had brought them, he should have verified them to some extent. Then again, it isn’t easy to spot a fraud.

That was the extent of his thoughts regarding the new fortune-teller. Grayson soon joined in on the trivial conversation, and just like that, the talk about the fortune-teller was nearly forgotten.

However, a month later, Grayson’s attitude did a complete 180, and he urgently contacted Hayden. Along with a request for the fortune-teller’s contact information.

This was because he had learned that the fortune-teller’s warning about Keith had come true exactly as predicted, leaving him in a tremendously difficult situation.

∞ ∞ ∞ 

“Hmm….”

Grayson watched with a deeply furrowed brow as the middle-aged woman stared at the cards spread out on the table with a serious expression.

Quite a bit of time had passed, but the fortune-teller was silent. Why is it taking so long? Is it difficult to say? Or can’t she read the cards?

Just as a sense of distrust in her began to spread and fill his eyes, the fortune-teller finally straightened her back as if she had made a decision.

“It is truly difficult.”

At that meaningful opening statement, Grayson crossed his arms and stared fixedly at her face. Whether she was trying to avoid his sharp gaze or just ignoring it, the fortune-teller kept her eyes fixed only on the cards and continued slowly.

“Your soulmate… it is difficult. Very difficult….”

“And? Does that mean they don’t exist?”

Grayson couldn’t hold back and pressed her. The fortune-teller, who seemed startled for a moment, hurriedly cleared her throat with an “ahem.”

“I didn’t say they don’t exist. But I can’t say they do, either….”

“Do you think I came all the way here to play word games?”

Grayson asked the fortune-teller, who kept stalling, with a smile spread across his face. Despite the smile, she knew all too well that his mood was severely twisted. After all, Grayson was exuding pheromones of rage with his entire body.

“Of course not.”

With years of accumulated experience, she quickly smiled and managed to deflect the situation.

“You’ve tried very hard to meet your partner so far. But you couldn’t meet them. It’s simply because the time hasn’t come yet….”

“And?”

Grayson didn’t drag it out anymore and pressed the fortune-teller.

“When does that time come? Is it still a long way off? How much longer do I have to wait? You don’t mean to say they’re an undertaker, do you? Are they coming to wipe down my corpse after I die? Is that it?”

“Now, now, please calm down.”

Raising one hand as if to restrain a fighting dog about to pounce, the fortune-teller paused before speaking.

“It’s not far off. You will meet soon. You may have even brushed past them once already.”

“They were right in front of me and I didn’t recognize them?”

Just as a seed of doubt began to sprout, thinking no way, the fortune-teller added:

“It might not have been a direct meeting. Many encounters in this world simply brush past one another. In Buddhism, they say, ‘Even brushing sleeves is a karmic connection’….”

Grayson frowned and stared at her. His posture, arms crossed slowly and leaning back in the chair, seemed to represent that he didn’t have much patience left.

“So.”

Contrary to his impatient heart, Grayson began slowly.

“How can I meet that person?”

The fortune-teller picked up a deck of cards stacked to one side and drew one. She spoke to Grayson, who was staring at the card laid out on the table.

“Fire.”

“Fire?”

When he asked back with a scowl, the fortune-teller nodded and added an explanation.

“I see helping others, and I see fire.”

“You mean a firefighter?”

“It could be, or it might not be.”

She, who had been speaking well up until now, took a step back again.

“It could also mean that your partner will appear while you are doing that work and helping others. Regardless, the keyword is fire.”

Grayson looked at her with his brow still furrowed, as if debating how much he should believe this fortune-teller’s words.

“Is that all?”

To Grayson’s demand for more information, she checked the cards again and answered:

“It could be a woman, or it could be a man.”

“Of course it could.”

After ruthlessly being sarcastic, Grayson sank into thought for a moment before narrowing his eyes and asking:

“What about the chest?”

“Pardon?”

When the startled fortune-teller asked back, confused by the sudden question, Grayson repeated:

“You can see if they’re big or small, or if they don’t exist at all, right? How is it? The chest.”

“Uh… um… they’re big.”

After drawing a card and flipping it over, the fortune-teller gave her answer, and Grayson concluded clearly:

“It’s a woman.”

The fortune-teller was surprised by his clever trick to determine the gender, but soon became puzzled. If that were the case, why hadn’t the gender come out clearly in the previous reading?