Chapter 17
“And to ensure that Ichang could understand at once, he spoke clearly and succinctly.
“I’ve been here since before the bomb went off, but Yugyeom didn’t see me. He hasn’t left yet.”
Knowing I’d likely be questioned later on how I knew, I fabricated the most plausible reason.
“You must have missed it. That bastard is always the first to get out and leave others behind.”
Ichan wiped the sweat off his forehead with a damp strand of hair.”
“I couldn’t believe Yugyeom hadn’t escaped,” he said.
“……”
He chewed on the curses that rose to the tip of his tongue.
Intellectually, he knew this was somewhat reckless, foolish, and insane.
But now, turning away just for my own safety seemed too much, knowing too much about Yugyeom.
His miseries and the desires festering within.
Until the end of his life.
All of those things weighed heavily on me, suffocating me.
“Hey, Ichang.”
I faced Ichan with a short, firm decision, wearing the most severe smile I could muster. I hoped it was a smile that could torment him even in his dreams.
“Wait here. If I die, will I become a ghost and haunt you?”
“…What?”
“Sorry, just a little.”
Then, I bit down hard on the hand of chan cheon , who was holding onto my arm.
Chan cheon was startled and let go of me. It felt satisfying, like cracking a walnut with its shell.
Before he could regain his composure and grab me again, I quickly dashed inside.
“Yu gyeom”.
Luckily, the fire hadn’t spread everywhere yet. I was thankful that killing everyone here wasn’t Yuwha intention.
I don’t know if Yu Hwa knows about Yu gyeom’s trauma.
Perhaps it was just a thought that if I died, it would be fine, and even if I didn’t, I could still tie him down.
It seemed like everyone hurriedly left, thinking it was a terror attack that could have been suppressed early on.
“Yugyeom! Try to answer if you can hear me!” I’ve read this scene in the original work. With an explosion and fierce flames engulfing him, Yugyeom collapsed.
At that moment, Baek Hawon who had struggled in the swamp of the past, rescued him.
As they went deeper, it became even harder to secure a clear view. As his breath grew thin, his mind filled with thoughts. ‘If you were Romeo. If you met God after you died, and God sent you back before you met Juliet.’
Memories that shouldn’t have been recalled vividly replayed as if unfolding right before his eyes.
The sunlight was dazzling, making the moment even more vivid.
I clenched the wooden block in my hand as if it were the pounding heart itself.
“But the ending is supposed to be the same sad ending. It’s like nothing will change no matter what. So what are you going to do? Are you still going to love Juliet?”
I delivered the question with a deliberately playful tone, mixing in mischief.
Although I knew I should ask a different question in my mind, it felt like now or never.
“Do you regret your ending? Would you make a different choice if you could go back?”
Under the pouring sunlight, Yugyeom’s eyes shone brighter and softer.
Looking into those eyes, I had to try not to betray the unease creeping over me.
Yugyeom didn’t hesitate for long. As if the answer had been predetermined, he whispered his response.
“How could I not love her?”
As soon as I heard the answer, I regretted it.
I shouldn’t have asked. I should have refrained from asking.
“What if, instead, Juliet also dies if we go back?”
A faint hope rose desperately.
But Yugyeom cut off that hope with a light laugh.
“Because you have the confidence not to die with me.”
I was speechless with no idea what to do.
It wasn’t baseless confidence but a fact.
Yugyeom died instead of Baek Hawon, but Baek Hawon didn’t die with him.
It wasn’t because their love wasn’t as intense as Romeo and Juliet’s.
Yugyeom made it so that Baek Hawon couldn’t die with him.
Unconsciously, I realized it long before.
“I couldn’t give up. But persistently, more than a swamp. That’s how I managed to survive at Baek Hawon.”
So, I couldn’t stop.
Knowing your end, how could I?
“….!”
Just after taking one more step forward, the silhouette of a man slumped in the corner next to the table caught my eye.
It was the same on the first night we met. My nerves tingled, and my heart reacted first. I denied it then, but this time, I believed.
I immediately ran to him.
Whether he was wearing a wig or not, his hair was black. When I took off the white mask, relief flooded his face as it filled my sight.
But relief was short-lived.
“The face devoid of laughter showed the emptiness inside. The unfocused pupils didn’t reach anywhere.”
The gaze that doesn’t reach me made my chest ache.
As I finally let go of the hands tightly gripping the table, the body leaned towards me, losing its balance.
The body leaning on my shoulder was trembling so vividly. He let out a faint groan.
When I gently pushed Yugyeom away, he obediently fell from me. Trying to meet his dry pupils and eyes, I shook his shoulders.
“Yugyeom. Yugyeom! Can you hear my voice? We need to get out of here!”
But his body kept tilting weakly, like a soaked cotton.
What did Baek Hawon do? It seems like he just carried the unconscious Yugyeom like a princess and came out. But I can’t just carry Yugyeom out like that.
I quickly gave up on trying to wake Yugyeom up and make him walk alone. There’s no time, no confidence, and besides, what if my efforts to translate it into English end up being futile?
“I was afraid that my words might inadvertently reopen his wounds.”
After leaning on Yugyeom’s arm, I stood up, taking a deep breath.
Despite exerting effort, my legs trembled as I bent over. Falling down would only make it harder to get back up.
Though I managed to stand up with great difficulty, taking steps forward was much more challenging.
“Huff, huff….”
With each step, I struggled to catch my breath.
When I tightened my grip on Yugyeom’s arm and lifted my head, the ceiling lights seemed to sway heavily, and the surroundings distorted like ripples on water.
“….!”
“The shimmering afterimage expanded wider and wider.”
“I fell close to unconsciousness, feeling like my thoughts were tangled up, and collapsed.”
“Ugh…”
As I tumbled to the ground with Yugyeom on my back, the impact felt twice as intense.
I felt disoriented. It was still time to spare even after getting the signal, so why wasn’t anyone coming? Did Yuhwa reach that far? What the hell is this bastard, Ichang, doing?
As I struggled to catch my breath and rolled onto my side, I saw Yugyeom collapsed next to me.
“How could I not love him?”
That brief response, like a thorn stuck in my chest, stings painfully whenever I forget it but inhale deeply.
“…I hope we don’t die this time.”
As my struggle to stay conscious waned, my eyes slowly closed.
Still, it was absurd that despite being certain there would be no risk of death, I found myself unable to escape the situation.
It feels like I must be insane to have risked my life like this.
I can assert with certainty that it wasn’t to that extent. I simply resolved to do what I could to save myself.
Engaging in something as reckless as Russian roulette was never part of my lifelong beliefs.
At the culmination of that thought, I snapped out of my trance-like state.
It just won’t do. I couldn’t stay lying here like this.
Beliefs aside, I’ll just have to save myself.
“I won’t die here.”
Muttering the words like a vow, I pressed my hands against the floor and forced myself to stand. I almost slammed my head back onto the ground, but managed to stop myself.
I crawled closer to Yugyeom with legs that wouldn’t stand no matter what. After lifting Yugyeom’s body with my hands and leaning him against the wall, I covered his head with a jacket. The space between me, shrouded in darkness, and his face was close enough for our breaths to touch.
“Yugyeom.”
As I called his name again, his eyelids, which had been tightly shut, lifted. Yugyeom breathed heavily and covered his face with trembling hands.
“It’s okay.”
His eyes, devoid of a single tear, felt as though they were crying somehow. It seemed as if I could hear sobbing in my ears. Emotions welled up inside me. With his rough, labored breaths, it felt like he was crying instead.
As much as it seemed agonizing.
I reached out both hands, clasping Yugyeom’s cheeks, and looked directly into his eyes.
“This is just a nightmare.”
“…”
“It will all end when you wake up. I’ll help you.”
Our intense gaze didn’t waver.
We just stared at each other for what felt like an eternity.
And then, in that moment when it seemed like cracks were forming in his dry eyes.
Crash!!
There was a sound of something falling and shattering. Startled, I quickly took off my jacket and turned my head towards the direction of the sound.
A tall shelf filled with bottles and glassware was tilting, one by one, from a distance.
Like a domino effect, in an instant, it all came crashing down.
I collided with the shelf right next to us.
My body didn’t move. The shelf came out without a gap, leaning towards Yugyeom.
In a moment when I sensed pain and clenched onto something in my hand, I tightly shut my eyes.
I felt solid arms wrapping around my waist and pulling me close.
The reason I thought the world was collapsing in that moment was because it was such a fleeting moment that I didn’t realize it.
Was it because of the glass shards pouring down like a shower, or because I was desperately pulled close and rolled onto the floor?
But one thing was certain, unmistakably clear.
“……”
When I opened my eyes again, instead of the ceiling, my sight was filled with another’s gaze.
Their tear-filled pupils shone sharper than flames.
