Elena’s POV

When I woke up, the world felt unbearably hot.

The heat pressed against my skin like a suffocating blanket, yet at the same time my body shivered as if I had been thrown into ice water. My head throbbed painfully, and every breath scraped against my throat like sandpaper.

For a while, I could not remember how I had even fallen asleep.

Then fragments of last night returned slowly.

The snow.

The hotel lounge.

The cold coffee in my hands.

And the photo on Sang Ran’s page.

My ...