I realized that the cold winter had passed and spring had fully arrived, feeling the warm sunlight landing on my palm stretched out to the window.

Strange. It was winter just a moment ago.

While blankly thinking that, from the other side, the person I liked the most approached, calling her.

‘Na Eun.’

One of the many things she liked about him, his gentle voice, seeped into her ears.

As she turned around with a bright smile, he playfully touched her cheek with his finger. When she blinked, Jae Kyung laughed.

‘What are you thinking about so deeply?’

Should we go out if you don’t like just looking? At his question, she just then remembered that she had come into an empty lecture room at the top of Jae Kyung’s Natural Sciences building to see the cherry blossoms.

Outside was bustling with people flocking to see the cherry blossoms that filled the campus.

Wanting to appreciate the flowers intimately with just Jae Kyung, she suggested going inside the building when everyone else was walking around outside.

The cherry blossoms viewed through the window of the empty lecture room on the top floor were pretty enough to be worth finding the perfect spot, and she was enjoying the sight of pink petals fluttering while basking in the sunlight pouring in from the window.

Jae Kyung placed a drink he bought outside into her hand. A vanilla latte with just a little syrup.

It was her usual drink that she always ordered whenever they went to a cafe.

Considering the hot weather, he had gotten iced coffee. As she stared blankly at it, Jae Kyung asked again.

‘What were you thinking about so deeply?’

At his voice, as warm as the weather, she answered.

‘I was thinking I want to be with you like this next spring too.’

‘…’

‘Jae Kyung, the flowers are really pretty. Right?’

She turned to the window, holding the coffee he gave her with both hands.

The sight of flower petals in full bloom falling with the wind was like a painting. She murmured as she stared blankly outside.

‘It’s a shame they’ll wither away soon.’

‘…’

‘When they’re so pretty.’

‘It’s okay, they’ll bloom again next year.’

As she expressed her regret, Jae Kyung comforted her from beside her.

Na Eun looked back at him as he smiled, saying they’d come see them again next year.

Early spring, an empty lecture room, sunlight pouring abundantly through the window. And the person she liked by her side.

She smiled blankly, looking back at the scene that painted everything perfectly. Bitterly and painfully.

‘Jae Kyung.’

Her voice, filled with resignation, trembled very slightly.

‘There is no next year.’

The smile disappeared from Jae Kyung’s face in front of her.

‘There is no… next time.’

‘…’

‘You know that too.’

That wind that would have come if we had waited, you broke it.

Even in the dream, it kindly told her, but sadly, it seems that didn’t reach him either.

In an instant, the scenery surrounding them changed.

The lecture room that had been bright thanks to the sunlight was now completely enveloped in darkness.

Suddenly, she was being choked by Jae Kyung’s hand on the cement floor covered in layers of dust.

Keck, keck. Her head tilted back as she couldn’t breathe, and she involuntarily started flailing.

She tried to use her strength to shake off Jae Kyung’s hand tightly choking her neck, but it was no use.

Jae Kyung, coldly looking down at her writhing on the floor beneath him, said.

‘You abandoned me first.’

No.

‘You’re the one who didn’t choose me first.’

…No.

I’m the one who was abandoned, so why do you keep blaming me? Tears welled up in her eyes for reasons other than pain.

It felt like she was about to burst into tears, but choked by her throat, she couldn’t even make a sound and her scream was stifled.

Jae Kyung looking down at her was gradually increasing the strength of the hand gripping her neck with an expressionless face.

His gaze crushing her as she floundered like a fish out of water was as cold as frost.

Just as her vision was finally blurring from the unrelenting lack of breath.

Yoon Na Eun.

Someone called her from somewhere.

Yoon Na Eun.

Familiarly gentle, but not belonging to the one currently choking her,

Yoon Na Eun!

A voice that was no longer unfamiliar.

And her eyes snapped open.

“…Huk, huk.”

Realizing the ceiling she saw as soon as she opened her eyes was familiar, she gasped for breath roughly as someone’s voice kept knocking at her ears.

[Get a hold of yourself.]

“…”

She couldn’t answer for a moment as she was gasping for the breath that had been blocked.

The other person seemed to hear her rough breathing and waited for a while. Once she seemed to have calmed down, he asked again.

[Are you awake?]

“…Yeah. Sorry.”

Na Eun said in a hoarse voice. Her dazed eyes looked around. It was her studio apartment.

She must have touched the earring again while thrashing in her sleep.

Hee Won had told her to take it off before sleeping every time, but this time the situation seemed a bit different, so he seemed to have woken her up more urgently.

Na Eun realized she had woken up from the dream thanks to Hee Won’s voice and caught her breath for a moment.

Her back, already drenched in cold sweat, chilled her as it cooled her body temperature.

“I’m sorry. You must have been surprised because of me.”

Thinking about how the communicator suddenly turned on and all the sounds of her groaning in pain must have been transmitted, she felt apologetic before embarrassment.

The clock on the bedside table showed it was early dawn, which made her feel even more so.

I really need to take off the earrings when I sleep from now on.

Making a mental note, she apologized to Seo Hee Won, who had received an unwanted interruption to his sleep at this late hour.

“I had a bad dream… I’m sorry. I’ll take off the earrings before sleeping next time.”

[…Get up and drink some water first.]

Calmed by the composed instruction, she slowly removed the blanket covering her.

Getting off the bed, she opened the refrigerator door and found some water, taking a sip.

Na Eun, who had moved back to the bed almost crawling in the dark room, curled up and lay down.

A chill came over her as the sweat that had drenched her back and neck cooled.

She didn’t want to cover herself with the damp blanket again, so she was fidgeting when Hee Won’s voice came through.

[You can have that when you’re under stress for a long time. It’s not because you’re weak.]

For some reason, the words that sounded almost resolute made her feel reassured, and she slowly closed her eyes.

[Get up, take a warm shower, drink water again, and then go to sleep.]

The voice saying she would be okay again sounded good to hear.

Thinking she couldn’t go back to sleep in her sweat-soaked state anyway, she slowly raised her body that had been curled up.

Then, after blankly staying still for a while, she suddenly blurted out.

“…I dreamed about the day we went to see the cherry blossoms.”

There was no answer from Hee Won. Since it wasn’t a story she brought up expecting a reply, her voice flowed smoothly.

“It was really pretty. In the year I entered school, the cherry blossoms on our campus bloomed especially abundantly.”

She remembers being even happier because it was the first cherry blossom season after entering school.

“There were too many people, so we went into an empty lecture room on the top floor and looked through the window.”

Her body trembled as the past she thought she had forgotten resurfaced like a scar.

She lay face down on the mattress with her knees against the bed.

Only when she was in a position as if begging someone did the tears suddenly pour out.

She sobbed and mumbled. Seo Hee Won−.

“I’m still not okay.”

[…]

“I don’t think I’m okay.”

When will I be okay? Will the day come when I’ll be okay?

What if Han Jae Kyung remains my nightmare even if I become stronger? What if I can’t overcome it until I die?

After silently listening to all the worries and anxieties pouring out incoherently from across the communicator, Hee Won called out to her after a long while. Yoon Na Eun.

[You just had a stupid dream today.]

He asserted to her as she wiped away tears and sniffled.

[It’s just one stupid dream you had.]

“…”

[Don’t make it seem like that bastard will be a nightmare that keeps following you in your life.]

Because that’s what he wants. Hee Won deliberately didn’t add the last part.

[I promised you, didn’t I? That the ending will be a happy ending. I’ll make sure you see next year’s cherry blossoms with your new boyfriend, so don’t worry about anything.]

“…I don’t want to. I’ll see them with Seung Joo and Sun Jin.”

Hee Won laughed softly at her somewhat whining tone.

[If that’s what you want.]

“…I’m hungry.”

Na Eun, who had gradually calmed down while listening to Hee Won’s voice, felt her empty stomach from crying and mumbled.

Hee Won laughed again, finding her cute for clearly expressing her hunger even while sobbing.

She somehow thought that laughter sounded nice to hear.

[Order something to eat.]

There were ingredients Hee Won had stocked in the refrigerator, but it was a comment knowing she wouldn’t have the energy to cook.

Besides, since she admittedly had no cooking skills, he didn’t want her to eat something bad-tasting in the meantime.

Following Hee Won’s instructions, she obediently picked up her phone lying far away and brought it over, then said while sniffling.

“I’m going to order mala tang.”

[…I really need to try it sometime.]

How delicious is it for you to like it that much? He asked laughingly, and Na Eun replied in a hoarse voice.

“It’s really delicious.”

Even though she had just been sobbing because of the dream she had, Hee Won laughed for a long time, finding her cute for mumbling about how delicious mala tang is.

Na Eun deliberately didn’t turn off the communicator the entire time she was ordering food delivery on her phone app.

It was because she wanted to keep hearing Hee Won’s laughing voice.

[This is the timeline separator]

Only after the delivered food arrived at home did Na Eun take out her earrings.

Upon confirming the signal indicating that communication had been automatically cut off, Hee Won likewise turned off his communicator.

“…Haah.”

Hee Won, who had been on standby fully dressed just in case, collapsed onto the sofa feeling drained even though he hadn’t done anything.

He blankly stared at the ceiling of his quarters for a while as he leaned on the sofa, then soon turned his gaze to look at the documents scattered on the table across from him.

“…How do I tell her this?”

Just when he thought it would be right to let her know someday, confusion arose as he judged that it might be better for her not to know.

He had a headache from the fact that everything he had investigated so far was increasingly pointing to one fact.

‘…You were right. Chairman Yoon Seok Hoon had been continuously reducing the scale of defense industry affiliates among his subsidiaries for quite a long time.’

The voice of Center Director Ji Hwan, who had handed over the relevant documents with a bitter expression, flickered in Hee Won’s memory.

”It must have been a goose that laid golden eggs for those bastards, so interfering with that… she must have been a thorn in their side.’

Hee Won briefly rubbed his forehead as he lay face down on the sofa.

His head ached, but for now, there was no point in telling the person involved when everything was uncertain, it would only create a vicious cycle.

She was already having fits at night because of past trauma, so it didn’t seem good to deliberately point out that there was another reason for her father’s death.

He wanted to at least relieve her of the guilt that she had been the trigger for her father’s death, but it was premature.

Let’s deal with that bastard Han Jae Kyung first.

Hee Won, who was among the top of the twelve heroes when it came to handling tasks, immediately organized the order.

If they didn’t do something about the trauma lump lingering in front of Yoon Na Eun first, it was clear that every step forward would get tangled up.