Chapter 11
I’m sorry…
“Eunsol, I’m sorry!” I didn’t even know if those words made sense as they spilled from my mouth, but they were all I had left as I pushed myself faster, closer.
My vision blurred, a haze of dizziness sweeping over me like a suffocating fog. I couldn’t think. I just felt like I was losing my grip on everything, as if my body was moving without my soul. A scream left my throat, raw and unfiltered, my desperation flooding out.
“Please don’t do that!”
I couldn’t tell if the wetness on my face was from sweat or tears.
Why was I crying?
‘Dirty.’
The word sliced through my thoughts like a blade.
Was it because of me? Did I really do something wrong? Was I the reason for this, for everything?
“I was wrong…” My voice was breathless, almost a whisper, as I finally reached him and grabbed hold of his arm, desperate. I held onto it like a lifeline.
Jin Eun-sol stopped, his body rigid, his expression cold. He looked down at me—his face unreadable, yet filled with a bitter emptiness.
“I think my sister is dumber than a dog.” he muttered, his words were venomous.
I couldn’t answer. My breath was ragged. I couldn’t speak through the overwhelming rush of air in my lungs.
“I told you not to do it.” he continued, his face hardening into a mask of fury.
“I told you not to do anything dirty!”
His anger exploded, making his features twist into something almost unrecognizable—resentment flooded in his eyes, a deep, suffocating rage that seemed to consume everything. It was like a storm, an uncontrollable fury.
I tried to speak, tried to apologize, but no words came out. My chest heaved with every breath, every desperate attempt to catch the air that seemed to slip away faster than I could take it.
Instead, I hiccupped, the panic catching in my throat.
“I think I’m going crazy because of you!” Jin Eun-sol screamed, his voice breaking the air like thunder.
At that moment, a deep rumble echoed from the sky above us.
The storm was coming.
Suddenly, it started raining.
But I quickly realized it was a dream because I couldn’t feel the raindrops on my skin.
In my dream, it rained heavily and annoyingly.
His clothes were wet and clingy, and he looked down at my hair.
And I put my palms together to collect the rainwater.
But the water did not rise to my palm.
It’s a dream.
I raised my head to the sky.
I blinked as the rain poured down as if it was going to hit my face.
Clouds were hazy and misty.
I opened my mouth and stuck my tongue out.
When I was young, this happened often when it rained.
No matter how much I opened my mouth, nothing touched my tongue.
The wet tongue stretched further towards the sky, as if it wanted to touch the rain.
My tongue stuck out, making it look like I was craning my neck.
When I did this, Jin Sol immediately frowned and said it was dirty.
But he found it strange that I was like that, so he stared at my tongue sticking out for a long time.
Then he tapped my tongue with his finger.
And that hand… … .
I straightened my head.
‘Only after you become like a wet rat will you find a place to shelter from the rain.’
As I moved my legs from where I had been standing still, the water splashed against my shoes.
As I walked a little further, I came across the annex where I had lived since I was young.
I need to go in and take a shower right now.
I entered the annex with a vague thought that was still in my dream.
‘Jang Hyun-ji!’
uh?
I raised my head before taking off my shoes.
‘You really… … .
What the hell is that?’
It was my mom.
My mouth fell open.
Mom?
Mom… … .
Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe, as if someone had put my head in the water.
Has the rainwater filled the annex and made it underwater?
And in an instant, the world began to fall apart.
Everything except my mother was washed away by the rain and crumbled away.
Oh, no.
No!
Wait a sec!
‘How long have I been looking for you… … .’
My mother looked at me as if she was reprimanding me.
At that moment, my mother was also drenched with the rain and fell down.
Mom!
I screamed, but no sound came out.
I hurriedly ran to where my mother had fallen.
I didn’t find her.
Instead, there was Jin Eun-sol underneath.
I felt like my whole heart was turning cold and hard.
Why Jin Eun-sol here?
I felt an unpleasant, foreign sensation, like a snake was squeezing my throat.
Mom disappeared without a trace, and Jin Eun-sol was looking at me from the bottom of the cliff, covered in blood.
Why, this was a separate dream right? What am I dreaming really?
Why?
I was kneeling at the bottom of the cliff and looking at Jin Eun-sol.
Valley.
This is a valley.
‘Sister.’
My whole body trembled at the sound of Jin Eun-sol’s voice calling me.
I asked.
‘What about my Mom? Have you seen my mom?’
‘Your mom…’
Jin Eun-sol sneered, as if he had somehow recognized the shape of my mouth.
The corners of his red lips were twisted upward.
Then he opened his mouth.
‘I’m sick.’
‘Oh, does it hurt?’
My mother quickly disappeared from my mind.
‘How did that happen?’
‘Are you hurt a lot?’
‘Are you in a lot of pain?’
My voice sounded puzzled as I asked him desperately.
Whenever that guy dies, I won’t be that sad.
That must be the case.
‘That’s what my older sister is like.’
The cliff I was sitting on collapsed.
“Omg.”
My eyes suddenly opened.
Okay.
It was a dream, really.
I raised my upper body and swept my hair.
I stopped in the bluish dawn light and lowered my raised arm.
There was a black lump in a space that should have been empty.
I immediately turned my head and looked at the place the lump was occupying.
“Did you have a nightmare?”
Jin Eun-sol was sitting on my desk chair.
Rather than my heart sinking at the thought of Jin Sol being here at this hour of the morning, a sigh of relief escaped my lungs at the thought that the guy wasn’t covered in blood.
“Oh, yeah.”
Jin Eun-sol was looking at my cell phone.
He glanced up at me, then snorted and laughed like an adult who had heard an insignificant reason.
Did I get very upset while talking in my sleep?
