Soone was standing there.
“Myojeong?”
The mont Jaegyeom called the na, the figure slowly turned and looked back at him.
As soon as their eyes t, a violent emotion surged up from deep inside Jaegyeom’s chest.
At the sa ti, red spiritual force exploded outward.
The raw emotion swallowed Jaegyeom whole in an instant.
Revenge.
Destruction.
Hatred.
Rage.
And sorrow.
It was true frenzy—the kind that burned away reason, self-control, everything.
“That can’t be...”
I killed him. I definitely killed him with my own hands...
Clutching his head, Jaegyeom staggered toward Myojeong.
“Myojeong... why are you still alive?”
The person standing before him was unquestionably Myojeong.
With his back turned toward Jaegyeom, Myojeong held a long sword loosely in one hand. He glanced back over his shoulder with a bleak expression.
“Tell ... why are you still alive...?”
A strange madness and murderous intent gripped Jaegyeom whole.
“You ca to kill again, didn’t you?”
Red spiritual force gathered in Jaegyeom’s hand and ford a weapon.
The blade born from the violent surge of spiritual force closely resembled the sword in Myojeong’s hand.
Jaegyeom approached him.
The mont their swords collided, a trendous storm erupted.
“Are you hesitating in front of your enemy?”
Myojeong’s voice rang out as though mocking him.
Consud by hostility, Jaegyeom drove him back relentlessly.
Their swords clashed again and again.
Myojeong’s swordsmanship was overwhelming as always. Even with Jaegyeom fighting with everything he had, Myojeong remained unmoved.
The colliding spiritual force swallowed both of them whole.
Fragnts of ti spent with Myojeong beca tangled inside Jaegyeom’s mind. Like scraps stitched into a patchwork quilt, the mories fused together into a single scene.
Caught in the illusion, Jaegyeom had sohow returned to that day long ago—
the day he killed Myojeong.
“So you ca for revenge? Then show what you can do.”
But sothing felt wrong.
Unlike the mocking voice provoking him, Myojeong’s sword did nothing except push Jaegyeom back again and again.
Several openings appeared.
Yet Myojeong never once struck.
His sword focused solely on defense.
And his movents felt strangely unfamiliar, unlike the swordsmanship Jaegyeom rembered.
But Jaegyeom, consud by rage, failed to notice the dissonance.
The instant an opening appeared, he thrust his sword forward without hesitation.
Warm blood splattered across his face.
At the sa ti, Myojeong’s movents stopped abruptly.
Jaegyeom stared blankly at the sword buried in Myojeong’s chest before slowly lifting his head.
The eyes looking back at him twisted painfully.
“Ha... haha... ha...”
Jaegyeom’s mouth trembled upward.
He felt light.
Relieved.
It was refreshing, cathartic—like finally cutting away a noose that had strangled him for years.
Having taken his revenge once again, Jaegyeom laughed strangely, as though laughing and crying at the sa ti.
“This is what you get for betraying .”
At that mont, Myojeong slowly lifted an arm.
He rested it against Jaegyeom’s shoulder before wrapping both arms around Jaegyeom’s neck.
Lowering his head weakly, he buried his forehead against the crook of Jaegyeom’s neck.
“Gyeom-ah.”
Jaegyeom’s laughter gradually faded.
“Jaegyeom-ah.”
Jaegyeom hesitated as he looked down at Myojeong leaning against him.
That wasn’t how it happened that day.
On the day he killed Myojeong, there had been no embrace like this.
Myojeong should have collapsed to his knees at Jaegyeom’s feet.
But now he was holding tightly onto Jaegyeom’s neck with both arms.
Clinging to him with all his strength.
“Jaegyeom-ah.”
The broad shoulders.
The strong arms.
The warmth that had once always supported him.
Everything felt vivid.
Yet sothing was wrong.
The embrace felt similar to Myojeong’s—
but strangely unfamiliar.
And there was a faint scent that did not belong to him.
“...”
At so point, overwheld by a growing sense of wrongness, Jaegyeom unconsciously grabbed Myojeong’s shoulders and pulled him away.
The body leaning heavily against him separated far too easily.
Like peeling away paper.
Jaegyeom finally saw the face of the person he had just crossed swords with.
Even now, it was undeniably Myojeong’s face.
It definitely was—
But the instant he thought that, the face before him distorted violently.
In an instant, it overlapped with soone else’s.
As Jaegyeom recognized the face before him, his expression slowly stiffened.
“Why... why are you...”
The face overlapping with Myojeong’s—
was Yoon Taehee’s.
“...Yoon Taehee?”
At that mont, the sword in Jaegyeom’s hand scattered away like smoke.
Focus slowly returned to his eyes.
He stared blankly at the face in front of him.
Yoon Taehee’s face was pale as paper, made even more ghastly by the vivid red blood covering him.
Jaegyeom could not understand what had happened.
Why was Yoon Taehee here?
With a bewildered expression, Jaegyeom grabbed his shoulders.
“Why... why are you... why...”
This was not Myojeong.
It was Yoon Taehee, drenched in blood.
He could no longer tell what was real and what was illusion.
His deathly pale hands wandered helplessly over Yoon Taehee’s shoulders and arms, gripping and releasing them over and over.
Then Yoon Taehee lowered his gaze and spoke weakly.
“Jaegyeom-ah... hold ...”
The voice sounded like a dying ember.
As though he might collapse at any mont, Yoon Taehee leaned heavily against him.
As if entranced, Jaegyeom wrapped his arms around his back.
Yoon Taehee’s shoulder blades were wet beneath his hands.
Because of the sword wound.
Jaegyeom stared blankly at the blood soaking his palm.
“Who am I?”
Yoon Taehee murmured softly with his head lowered.
“You... Tae... Taehee...”
As Jaegyeom answered blankly, Yoon Taehee let out a weak laugh.
“That’s right. I’m Taehee.”
“...”
“Then who are you?”
From that mont on, Jaegyeom began stamring frantically like a terrified child.
“I-I’m... I’m...”
He could not finish the sentence.
His eyes trembled violently.
He felt suffocated.
Dizzy.
Everything felt unreal.
And yet the weight in his arms alone was horrifyingly real.
“I’m... Gyeom...”
After a long while, Jaegyeom finally managed to force the answer out.
“That’s right.”
Yoon Taehee nodded weakly with his forehead resting against Jaegyeom’s shoulder.
“I’m Taehee, and you’re Jaegyeom.”
“...”
“And...”
Yoon Taehee’s voice gradually faded.
“And... I like you...”
Barely moving his lips, Yoon Taehee slowly straightened up.
With visible difficulty, he raised one hand and cupped Jaegyeom’s cheek.
His face looked dazed, as though he had only just woken from a dream.
“I like you...”
As if trying to make him rember, Yoon Taehee carefully enunciated every word.
“I like you so, so much.”
With those final words, his knees gave out.
His shoulder bumped weakly against Jaegyeom as his body slid downward before collapsing limply to the ground.
“...”
Jaegyeom stared at his own bloodstained hands, breathing raggedly.
Then he looked down at Yoon Taehee lying motionless at his feet.
At last, Jaegyeom’s breathing beca completely uneven.
His legs trembled uncontrollably at the unbearable sight before him.
“What is this...”
Jaegyeom collapsed to his knees with a shattered expression.
“No.”
He had dread this once before.
A nightmare exactly like this.
It was as though soone had recreated the dream perfectly in reality.
In that dream, he had also seen Myojeong.
And when he stabbed Myojeong—
Myojeong beca Yoon Taehee.
Now that terrible nightmare had beco real.
“See? You wanted to kill him.”
His thoughts would not work.
The mories before and after the incident felt hazy, as though burned away in the aftermath of the frenzy.
The only thing left vividly behind was the sensation of stabbing Myojeong—
no, Yoon Taehee.
He could not rember where this was.
Or why he had co here.
“Think. I said think...”
And now Yoon Taehee was dying.
“No... no, no, no...”
Clutching his head, Jaegyeom shook it violently.
“The... thing san gave ... di... dicine... dicinal water...”
Groaning, Jaegyeom suddenly staggered to his feet.
Muttering like soone chanting a spell, he hoisted Yoon Taehee onto his back.
“It’s okay. It’s okay...! It’s okay. It’s okay...”
With empty, unfocused eyes, Jaegyeom ran desperately through the rain with Yoon Taehee on his back.
Rain poured rcilessly from the sky.
His face was soaked through completely.
He could no longer tell whether the wetness running down his face was rainwater or sothing else.
He had definitely been wearing shoes earlier, yet now he was sprinting barefoot through the mud.
Yoon Taehee’s limp body swayed helplessly against his back.
When he reached the mud-walled house through the downpour, Jaegyeom practically threw Yoon Taehee onto the wooden porch.
He flung the door open and rushed into the inner room.
With trembling hands, he overturned his bag completely.
“Wh-Where is it...? Where is it?! Where is it?!”
Jaegyeom shook violently, like soone freezing to death.
He frantically dug through the bag, throwing everything aside.
Then he saw it.
The bottle containing the dicinal water.
Grabbing it imdiately, Jaegyeom rushed back toward Yoon Taehee.
In his panic, he tripped over the porch and crashed to the ground, twisting his ankle badly as he fell.
Jaegyeom scrambled back up.
With trembling hands, he tore open the bottle and poured the dicinal water over the wound he himself had stabbed.
The bleeding seed to slow.
But it was not enough.
The wound was too large.
Too much blood had already been lost.
Even san’s dicinal water could not heal sothing this severe with such a small amount.
It was nowhere near enough to save soone dying like this.
Jaegyeom’s breathing grew faster and faster.
Desperately, he shook Yoon Taehee over and over, like soone trying to keep the last ember of a dying fire alive.
It felt as though Yoon Taehee might open his eyes at any mont, smile, and say, Surprised?
But he said nothing.
Jaegyeom suddenly clutched at his own chest as though trying to tear it open.
“H-Hey... help...”
“...”
“H-Help... please...”
“...”
“Do sothing, damn it—!”
Jaegyeom scread at the top of his lungs, his face deathly pale.
But the being inside him remained silent.
Unable to endure it anymore, Jaegyeom grabbed Yoon Taehee by the collar, breathing raggedly.
Beneath his hand, the pulse in Yoon Taehee’s neck was growing slower and slower.
At last, Jaegyeom’s face completely crumbled.
The mont his grip loosened, Yoon Taehee’s body fell limp again.
“...”
Blood poured from Yoon Taehee’s body.
Rain poured endlessly from the sky.
A desolate wind blew across the world.
Only then did Jaegyeom finally understand what catastrophe truly ant.
This—
was catastrophe.
Yoon Taehee lay motionless.
The pouring rain washed all color from his face until he looked pale as a corpse.
And Jaegyeom realized it.
At this rate—
Yoon Taehee would die.
Breathing unevenly, Jaegyeom suddenly doubled over.
His heart hurt.
Even though the wound in his chest had healed completely, his chest felt unbearably tight.
Jaegyeom’s face twisted helplessly like a child’s.
“Wake up... I said wake up...”
Groaning, he looked down at Yoon Taehee.
For so reason, seeing that peaceful face made emotion crash over him uncontrollably.
Feelings he had never acknowledged—
feelings he had desperately buried—
flooded over him all at once.
Jaegyeom cupped Yoon Taehee’s cheeks with both hands.
Like a child throwing a tantrum, unable to let go, he stared down at him from close up and began stamring incoherently.
“Y-You know... Tae... Taehee-ya... I... I also... I also...”
The words spilling from his trembling lips were a tangled ss.
“I also...”
Again and again, he tried to say it.
“I-I also dread about you...”
Yes.
There were things he had wanted to tell him.
“And... and...”
Jaegyeom’s shoulders shook violently.
“I also... ngh... ah...”
Then, at the words that surfaced next, Jaegyeom suddenly stopped breathing.
It’s okay if you’re still confused and uncertain. But prepare yourself. There will definitely co a mont when you’re no longer confused.
A mont without confusion.
That mont had arrived—
cruelly—
right now.
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