“You came because you were worried about me.”
“…No, I could see you walking along the beach.”
“So, did I look sad even from a distance?”
…”
I didn’t bother to answer the empty question knowing the answer. Jun didn’t persistently seek my response. He already knew that the answer was sad.
Jun resumed his paused steps. Slowly, he walked in the direction of the flowing sea. I also started walking a little later beside Jun. The solid footsteps were not due to wet sand.
“If you followed me because I looked sad, then you must have misunderstood.”
There was no way he could have misunderstood. So, I thought he was trying to reassure me with unnecessary words. Until Jun uttered those meaningful words.
“Not because I’m sad, but because I’m sorry.”
“Sorry, for what?”
“It’s a memory that must have hurt you too. It’s Hiroshi’s line from the movie I made.”
The name Hiroshi made my breath, just taken in, not settle in the original direction but rise up through my throat.
It was always like that with that name. In this short word, Jun’s long wait, too painful to be painful anymore, was now dull with an inevitably accepted state of sorrow.
“In fact, Hiroshi was me.”
“…”
“Hiroshi missed Yoo every time he saw this sea. This sea always reminded him of Yoo. This is where Hiroshi and Yoo first met.”
“That’s right. The sea… The place where Hiroshi and Yoo met was also a seaside village.”
Because the place where you and I met was also a seaside village. The love of Hiroshi, laid out like parallel lines, and your love were actually the same love.
“Haru. By any chance, do you remember that? What I said nine years ago passing by this sea.”
“Passing by here?”
“Yeah, back then, I said I would just see this sea or any sea in Korea as the same water. The sea is constantly circulating, so there’s no reason to be absorbed in such contemplation. I said something like that, and you responded.”
“Ah… yeah. I said that. Then, why bother coming to Japan if all seas are connected on the same Earth with the same mantle.”
“Right. You remember it well. Then, do you remember what I said next?”
I could figure it out immediately. Jun was deliberately asking me that. In fact, at that time, I pretended not to hear Jun’s words, spoken in a lowered tone like a whisper.
Jun let out a faint laugh.
“If you hadn’t come to Japan, I would have definitely struggled to find you.”
“…I said that kind of thing.”
“Yeah, you did. I said it. Without you, I’ve been looking at this sea countless times, recalling the conversations we had back then. And then, I had this thought.”
Jun turned his body, which had been facing the direction of my footsteps, toward me for a moment. Connecting our gazes, Jun spoke.
“Haru was right. I wasn’t saying that the water, in the end, circulates to Korea anyway, so it doesn’t matter. If Haru doesn’t come to find me again like back then, I really can only wait. I can’t reach you.”
It was difficult to keep listening to these words. I really didn’t know if he had such thoughts.
I never thought that one side of the conversation we had shared would be recalled to you with such sad emotions. With a feeling of warmth rising along with heat in my throat, tears tried to come up.
“But do you know what I was thinking today?”
“…Sad thoughts?”
“No, I didn’t think sad thoughts.”
Jun spoke with a frustrated expression, thinking that he could only show that he was unable to express his sadness. Laughter first followed us, but at the end of his words, a low sigh began to spread.
“I apologized to Hiroshi… For carrying all my pain and longing for nine years, Hiroshi, trapped in the cold winter without meeting spring even in the movie, I apologized. I left you there alone and only I met spring, saying sorry. Your wait may have no time limit, but my wait ended completely the moment I met spring. So, there won’t be any more waiting. That’s why I’m really sorry.”
Jun walked to match my pace, making our footsteps sound the same. Intentionally, I deviated from the track of our footsteps and stood still right there.
“I should apologize too.”
Since nine years ago, Jun had been looking at this sea from a distance, thinking about me before meeting me. And still, waiting for Hiroshi to come back, I quietly whispered in my heart.
I’m sorry for coming too late. I’m sorry for leaving you alone in that long pain for so long. I’m really sorry for keeping you wandering here for so long.
“Haru, I know your feelings.”
“…What?”
“Such apologies won’t work. Hiroshi won’t receive comfort from such an apology. Until Yoo returns. Until Yoo comes back, Hiroshi’s pain won’t end. It will persist gently and occasionally lock up to the end of the throat, that kind of pain.”
Pain that occasionally locks up to the end of the throat…
That would be Jun’s pain. My chest tingled for a moment.
“It seems emotions are unmistakably revealed on the face.”
“…It’s inevitable to feel sad when you hear those words.”
“Why?”
“Why, you ask.”
“Yoo didn’t eventually come back to Hiroshi, but Haru, you came. Moreover…”
Male lead fell into her trap — and shattered when she walked away
This is also on my reread list!
This one is a slow burn, but when it burns, it burns hard.
Definitely worth a read, y’all!
The story follows a thousand-year-old seductive spirit who, on a bet, sets out to charm the male lead—a once-promising but unfortunate cultivator.
But just when she succeeds in making him fall for her, she heartlessly leaves, driving him to madness.
Determined to find her at all costs, he captures her, keeping her by his side no matter what, even if she hates him.
I love this kind of trope—I enjoy watching the male lead suffer in agony.
The ending drags a bit with unnecessary filler, but that’s fine.
As long as I enjoy the beginning, I’m good.
Intro
As an enchantress, Su Heng possesses captivating eyes and charming beauty, easily manipulating the joys and sorrows of living beings at her fingertips.
But to enchant a god, making him taste the bitterness of love’s separation, long-lasting resentment, unattainable desires, and inability to let go…
Do you dare?
Su Heng assists a divine lord in his cultivation, aiming to make him experience all the sufferings of love, so that he can attain the Great Dao.
Only after being chased down from the heavens by the divine lord, confined and completely possessed by him, does she realize how successful she has been.
The once gentle and polite youth has transformed into someone she no longer recognizes.
[Touch the gear icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to move to the next chapter if you want.]
