If the day ever came when Jae Kyung appeared before her eyes again, Na Eun vaguely thought that it might be the last day of her life.

There was only one reason he would break his own promise to never see her again and to disappear from her life, and come looking for her.

Perhaps he wanted to kill her with his own hands.

Although she didn’t really know what kind of person the real Han Jae Kyung was, Na Eun strangely predicted his actions very accurately.

Ji Hwan, the center director and the protagonist of the first alphabet, said that this place would never be discovered.

It was a place where transmissions were cleverly blocked, making wiretapping and surveillance impossible, and since it was a general security company that existed as an affiliate of the center and was guarded 24 hours a day, it was hard to be second in terms of safety in Korea.

But Jae Kyung had come to this place in person, and all the heroes she knew could not be contacted.

Even Seo Hee Won’s heartbeat had stopped. Na Eun wanted to turn away from the one fact that all these situations were pointing to.

Jae Kyung’s black-gloved hand mercilessly covered her mouth and then let go.

Jae Kyung, who brutally grabbed her slender neck and pushed Na Eun against the tree in the garden right behind her, put force into his gun-wielding hand.

The sensation of the gun muzzle digging into her temple was spine-chilling, but she did not scream for her life.

She knew that once things had come this far, the end was already set.

Late at night, the icy cold air wrapped around the quiet garden, seeping between the two people.

Jae Kyung looked down at Na Eun, who closed her eyes and only turned away from him as soon as she saw him, with a cold gaze.

Click. The weapon in Jae Kyung’s hand prepared to spit out a bullet as if it would kill her at any moment.

It was Jae Kyung who first broke the suffocating silence that separated the two.

“You’re not going to beg for your life?”

It was a terribly sweet voice, as always. How many people had he killed with that tone, mocking them?

Na Eun was briefly curious, but soon her thoughts were halted by worry and despair for someone that filled her head.

She replied in an emotionless tone.

“You wouldn’t spare me even if I did, anyway.”

“…Beg and see.”

Looking down at her, Jae Kyung coldly scoffed.

“I might spare you.”

“……”

“Or do you want to die now?”

Taking his hand off her neck, Jae Kyung lightly tapped Na Eun’s pale cheek.

She slowly opened her eyes, which had been tightly shut until then.

Dressed in black from head to toe, Jae Kyung at first glance looked similar to the heroes’ attire, but to her now, he only looked like the Grim Reaper.

How could such a cold person have acted so warmly?

Looking at Jae Kyung, who had changed so much from the past she knew, with new wonder, she asked.

“What did you do to Seo Hee Won?”

At her first question, the smile on Jae Kyung’s face, pretending to be at ease, hardened.

“What did you do to Seo Hee Won, I asked.”

“……”

“Did you kill him?”

“Is that what you’re curious about?”

In this situation? Jae Kyung lowered the gun he had been holding to Na Eun’s temple. He scratched his head as if dumbfounded and laughed.

“You should ask something else, Na Eun. That’s not the right order now.”

He calmly informed her like an older brother soothing his younger sister.

“You should first ask how I found this place.”

“……”

“Next, you ask what I’m going to do to you.”

Then you should have begged, or at least screamed at me to kill you instead. That’s all you can do. Na Eun spoke to Jae Kyung, who was blatantly mocking her, with tearfully bloodshot eyes.

“I told you before, Jae Kyung.”

I’m not curious about anything from you anymore. If her intention was to anger him, she succeeded.

Jae Kyung’s gaze looking down at Na Eun became even colder. He wrinkled his nose, twisting his lips.

“Is that your last words?”

“Spare my mother.”

“……”

“That’s my last request.”

It’s up to you whether you’ll grant it or not. She muttered as if she had given up, and closed her eyes again.

She had nothing more to say, and if he wouldn’t tell her about Seo Hee Won, she had nothing to hear either.

Jae Kyung glared at her for a long time as she abandoned everything and waited for her impending death.

Then, unable to hold back, he suddenly pulled her small body into his arms.

Her body, suddenly pulled, was held limply in his embrace.

The cold collar touching her cheek and the unwanted familiar scent clearly let her know who was holding her.

In contrast to Na Eun’s lifeless expression, Jae Kyung’s face became desperate as if he had never been cold, and he wrapped his other hand that wasn’t holding the gun around the back of her head.

“Just cooperate once.”

Burying his face in her shoulder, he threatened as if he was begging.

“I’ll give you a cell phone, so use it to call out K and L. Just once.”

“……”

“Then not only you, but your mother can live too.”

So please, Na Eun… The one saying he would spare her was Jae Kyung, and the one looking like he would kneel and beg was also Jae Kyung.

But Na Eun let his desperate request go in one ear and out the other, secretly rejoicing that she had found out one precious fact.

Seung Joo and Sun Jin are safe. And no one knows where those kids are.

Seeing him directly try to use her as bait to lure them out made it clear.

At least they weren’t just out of contact, her friends were alive. That alone brought a deep sense of relief.

“What about Seo Hee Won?”

At Na Eun’s question, the eyes of Jae Kyung, who had been holding her with an anguished look, hardened.

He let Na Eun go from his arms and glared at her with cold eyes.

“Why do you keep asking about that bastard?”

“Did you kill him?”

“What if I did?”

Jae Kyung coldly scoffed.

“Are you two telepathic? I also just got a report a few minutes ago that J’s lifeline was cut, how do you know that?”

“……”

So he’s dead.

Seeing Jae Kyung’s reaction, Na Eun knew there was not a shred of falsehood and collapsed on the spot.

“Yoon Na Eun.”

Jae Kyung looked at Na Eun, who had sunk to the ground as if the world had ended, with startled eyes.

As if she didn’t know how to cry and was forcing out sobs, Na Eun buried her face on her knees in despair.

It wasn’t like her neck was being strangled, but she felt anguished as if it was. Jae Kyung looked down at Na Eun, who was suffering, with astonished eyes.

He hurriedly bent his knees and wrapped his arms around her shoulders to lift her up.

“Calm down.”

Even Jae Kyung’s soothing was of no use.

Tears flowed down like a downpour, and as she plummeted to the bottom as if death would be better, anger now flowed from Jae Kyung’s face.

Why are you like this. It’s not like your precious friends died. He’s neither your family nor your friend.

He didn’t want to accept it, so he didn’t try to understand. Jae Kyung asked deliberately even though he had inferred the answer, because he wanted to deny it.

That was also his biggest mistake in his life.

“What is Seo Hee Won to you for you to be like this?”

“……”

“I asked what that bastard is to you!”

At Jae Kyung’s question thrown like a reprimand, she flinched as she held her head and burst into a scream-filled cry.

What is he…?

Na Eun thought blankly. What is it. Seo Hee Won. To me……

A good person. Someone who was trash to others but kind only to her.

Someone close to a friend, but not a friend. Someone who genuinely liked her even when she committed the atrocity of wielding him without knowing anything. Someone who always said he would be below her. The one who asked her to be a little less cruel, who only cared about her shoulders shivering from the cold rather than the harsh words he threw at her in the middle of winter……

To me alone, he was an irreplaceable person that should never be touched.

There were many expressions to modify it, but Na Eun’s face went blank as she belatedly inferred the one word that could define all of those.

“…My sanctuary.”

What? Jae Kyung’s brow furrowed as he heard her feeble murmur.

“Jae Kyung, what do I do…”

Na Eun covered her mouth with both hands, looking aghast even as she spoke.

She wanted to scream in a different sense than before. She was frustrated again by her own heart that she had realized too late.

Why at this moment of all times. Why in front of Jae Kyung and not in front of him. The situation, the place, the person, everything was wrong.

It was another moment proving that God hated her.

“I love Seo Hee Won.”

The heart confessing as if vomiting it out was too late. The price of realizing too late that it had already come too far to be just a simple liking was heavy.

A heart crying out to the void after already losing the other person had nowhere to go. A ray of light disappeared from the eyes of Jae Kyung, who heard Na Eun’s confession.

“It was love…”

What do I do. What should I do. All the atrocities she had committed to him without knowing anything flashed before her eyes like a panorama.

It was a cruel act even without love, but knowing that love was the foundation made it even more brutal.

What have I done. Na Eun covered her mouth with both hands and fell into despair again.

As if all the pessimism in the world was pouring down on her alone, Na Eun writhed in regret and guilt.

She found the love to give to Seo Hee Won, who said he would gratefully accept even a hair’s breadth of affection, but the person to receive it had disappeared.

Jae Kyung looked down at Na Eun with an expressionless face as she burst into tears, agonizing over what to do after loving that person but only making mistakes, only hurting him and sending him away like that.

He watched her cry for a few minutes without comforting her anymore, then slowly grabbed her shoulders that looked like they would collapse and stood her up again.

Jae Kyung, who propped up the staggering Na Eun against the tree without resistance, smiled and broke the silence he had kept for a while.

“…Na Eun. I asked you before.”

“……”

“What do we have to do to go back to how we were.”

She didn’t answer, covering her face with both hands and crying.

Even though Jae Kyung knew she wasn’t listening to him at all, he continued talking. He murmured softly.

“You said back then.”

That it would be better for you to go crazy instead.

Jae Kyung smiled emptily with reddened eyes.

As if he had given up on everything, or looking desolate, he was already filled with despair comparable to hers.

So he chose to let go of the last thread of reason he had been desperately clinging to.

“…Okay. Let’s just do that.”

He slowly took something out of his arms. A thin syringe with an unknown transparent liquid sloshing inside.

“Let’s go crazy together.”

I was already crazy before anyway, so you just need to go crazy.

Jae Kyung, feeling a different sense of despair than her, laughed as if he was crying.