Although my eyes were tingling with the frightening determination, looking at the considerably reduced soup in the bowl, I suppressed my tears.

“After eating, I’ll go home. To Mom and Dad.”

The hand of Kanghyun, who is still on the dining table, trembled visibly.

Why is my hand like that again?

Narrowing her forehead, Seoyun turned away from the pale back of her hand, which had red marks engraved on the back and wounds like veins from today’s meal.

“If I go home, when will I see you again? Three days are too long. Let’s meet every two days.”

When Seoyun didn’t answer, Kanghyun’s lips were sullen.

“If two days seem too fast, then three days.”

Seeing that his expression didn’t look good, she reluctantly retreated for one more day.

“Oppa, I think I should live as Se Jian.”

From the beginning to the end, the choice had never changed.

The dilemma deepened with Seoyun’s greed for parents she had never experienced and distrust of Kanghyun’s love, always reaching the same conclusion.

“Do as you wish. Live as Se Jian. Just live like we used to.”

“That’s not possible.”

“Why.”
“Taekanghyun’s Han Seoyun died in that accident. It means living as Sejian, not wearing the disguise of Han Seoyun.”

Seoyun, with bloodshot eyes, finally declared the end of her relationship with Taekanghyun.

“We are really breaking up this time.”

Intermittent spasms occurred on Kanghyun’s chin, firmly clenched.

No words came to mind during the shortness of breath.

Kanghyun, pondering on what to say, chose to give Seoyun what she wanted first and buy some time.

“Okay, let’s break up. We’ll break up, so let’s meet occasionally. I won’t ask you to hold hands; I’ll just see your face.”

Holding on like this, enduring, maybe everything would eventually return to normal.

“Oppa, that’s not breaking up.”

Seoyun, rubbing her throbbing forehead, sighed deeply.

“I’ll persuade my parents and leave anywhere. I don’t plan to stay in the house you gave me.”

Leaving.

Unable to qualify for suffering, Kanghyun’s eyes, barely enduring the painful cold rebuke from Seoyun, saw something shatter within them.

“Then, how should I see you?”

Realizing that an irreversible farewell was imminent, an unstable tone tinged with anxiety surfaced.

“I said we’re breaking up! Why should I see someone I’ve broken up with!”

“No, you have to see.”

“…Oppa hasn’t changed at all since then. It seems like you’re still talking to a wall.”

“Seoyun.”

“I was happier for the additional 4 years than the 20 years I spent with you. I don’t want to lose my parents. So, Oppa, let’s please stop now. Let me go a little more comfortably, okay?”

As the cruel plea continued, thick veins bulged on Kanghyun’s reddened neck.

Slowly rising from under the table, where he had been gripping both hands tightly, Kanghyun moved towards Seoyun.

Even if he were called selfish, even if he were criticized as a monster, there was no alternative.

“I was wrong.”

Kanghyun, one by one, placed his folded knees on the floor and bowed his head.

The gaze that always had to look up plummeted in an instant.

“Don’t do this.”

“I was wrong. I realized too late that my way was wrong. I’ll never do that again. I won’t try to confine you like a crazy person. Yuna, just once…”

As Seoyun tried to get up from her chair to leave, Kanghyun, who followed her slowly, grabbed her limp arm.

“Let me see your face, even just once a month.”

Living without Seoyun was too frightening.

During the time when she thought Seoyun was not in the world, she lived each day with the thought of following her in death.

For five years, she stubbornly endured, even though it was close to five years, when asked to be sad.

But living without seeing the clearly alive Seoyun was impossible.

Even though it seemed impossible, she couldn’t honestly confess to Seoyun, who treated her like a monster, that she didn’t have the confidence to live.

“Let go of this.”

Through trembling lips, a suppressed voice flowed out.
Whether it was anger or sheer frustration, even my small head shook from side to side.

“I told you to let go.”

In the end, Kanghyun finally released the grip on Seoyun’s arm.

Unable to force her anymore, Kanghyun turned his head away from Seoyun, who turned her lips and half-turned her head.

Kanghyun, with his hands on his kneeling knees, stared at the cold floor with a bowed head.

The heat surging around his neck pressed against his dry tongue, rising to the tip of his nose, heating his eyelashes.

At a strange moment when the view became strangely blurred, unable to properly distinguish the black patterns embedded in the smooth white marble, tears that had rolled down his cheek hung at the edge of his chin before dropping to the floor.

Touching the teardrop on his face for the first time, Kanghyun laughed as if he were smiling.

“Yuna, can’t you just let me see your face?”

Kanghyun, who uttered a voice mixed with moisture, covered his eyes that seemed to be melting.

“Oppa…”

Even though she heard the melancholic sigh, Seoyun should not have turned around.

Kanghyun, looking down in wonder at her shoulders shaking with tension, covered his tear-filled eyes with his hands.

“Why are you smiling at me, why are you crying when you look at me…”

Seoyun, breathing heavily as if it were difficult, breathed heavily as she plunged into the blanket.

Though her body crouched, her cold hands and feet began to tremble.

As shocking as it was, the vivid image played incessantly in her eyes.

Taekanghyun is crying.

Transparent tears welled up in his tender brown eyes, accurately expressing the recent scene.