Chapter 98
Angel ran toward us breathlessly, his golden hair sticking to his damp white nape.
Before I could say a word, Baek Hawon turned sharply, pulling a gun from his jacket.
“Ah.”
The dark eyes staring at Angel deepened.
“I was planning to find you later. You’ve saved me the trouble.”
Baek Hawon pointed his gun at Angel, his tone laced with a dangerous, smug smile. It was clear he knew Angel had betrayed him. If not directly from Yugyeom, then it was likely passed through Jiwoon.
I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the gun, which seemed ready to be fired at any moment. Slowly, I shifted my gaze to Angel.
Angel held the gun, but he didn’t aim it anywhere. His expression was rigid, a mix of tension and fear.
“Stay back.”
Baek Hawon set me down and pushed me behind him. His left hand gripped my wrist tightly.
His broad back blocked my view. I shook my head, but the thoughts that filled my mind wouldn’t be silenced.
‘Actually… it wasn’t Kang Taejun who killed my brother.’
I couldn’t erase the expression Angel wore whenever he spoke about his brother. Every time I looked at Angel facing Baek Hawon, that expression became even clearer—it couldn’t be ignored.
What the hell is going on in your head, Cha Yeon-byeol? Because of that bastard, right now, I—Yugyeom…
‘Baek Hawon. Your brother killed him.’
Damn it. I swallowed the curse rising within me.
The sorrow etched on his face whenever he spoke of his brother was too deep to dismiss as mere pretence. I always had to believe it because it was too real.
That sorrow was still visible, burned into my memory.
“Wait, wait a moment.”
I stepped quickly toward Baek Hawon’s side.
“Why.”
Baek Hawon kept his gaze fixed on Angel.
The tension was suffocating. It felt like any moment, he would pull the trigger. In my anxiety, I wrapped my fingers around Baek Hawon’s hand gripping the gun. His black eyes shook slightly as they locked onto Angel.
“I need to ask something.”
“Later…”
“No, now. I need to know right away.”
My voice cracked, breaking with urgency. I wasn’t sure if it was fear of the answer or the pressure of the situation.
I hesitated briefly before asking in a hoarse voice.
“Have you ever killed someone who looks like that?”
Baek Hawon narrowed his eyes.
“Someone almost identical, a girl, late teens.”
I started to point at Angel but stopped when our eyes met. I flinched, the tension rising sharply.
The air around Angel shifted drastically. It felt like a different person—no, maybe this was his true self that had been hidden all along.
The intense hostility in the air made me instinctively pull my hands away from Baek Hawon’s grip. I bit my lip and spoke carefully.
“Probably after my mother died.”
Baek Hawon’s gaze sharpened, his eyes flicking back through memories.
If it was after Cha Yeon-byeol’s mother, the former boss of Baekcheon, died, he might not recall that moment. When he turned twenty, four years after his mother’s death, he began his relentless pursuit of revenge.
Fueled by deep-seated rage and sorrow, he erased countless lives along the way.
“There’s no way you don’t remember.”
Baek Hawon muttered, then let out a dry laugh.
The sense of dread deepened. The situation was worsening.
Angel’s hand gripping the gun tightened, veins bulging.
“The first person who asked me to kill them.”
* * *
Angel remembers vividly. That memory—the moment he rushed out upon receiving the call from the police station—was just as sharp as the image of his sister’s death captured on the interrogation room’s CCTV footage.
The silent footage showed him watching the video for the first time, his mind still reeling as he saw it play.
The man in front of him, slightly younger but unmistakably the same in essence—his eyes, the atmosphere, everything was eerily familiar.
The black-suited man entered the interrogation room. Immediately, Angel’s sister rushed forward, dropping to her knees and grabbing at his trousers. Though only her back was captured on film, her weeping was unmistakable.
When was the last time he saw her cry like that?
For a brief moment, she clung to his pants, sobbing uncontrollably. The film couldn’t distinguish between her cries, pleas, or anguish—only the shaking of her shoulders and her desperate attempts to reach him.
Then the man pulled a gun.
The coldness in his eyes was chilling.
The body sprawled on the ground was grabbed by the man and flipped over.
Only then did the face become visible.
Angel was certain he could never erase that face from his memory, no matter how much he tried to rip it from his mind.
The reason she died in his name would forever remain a question he could never ask. Thus, Angel became a presence that had vanished from the world.
“…Stop talking nonsense.”
Angel’s hand gripping the gun trembled violently, not just his hand, but his entire body shook. His veins bulged darkly on his pale skin.
“You’re the one…!”
Angel spat out the words through clenched teeth, aiming the gun at Baek Hawon.
“You killed her.”
Baek Hawon, unfazed by the gun pointed at him, didn’t blink once.
“I wasn’t planning to kill her so easily.”
The indifferent voice flowing from his twisted lips felt eerie.
“Only a fool would see it as an accident involving a girl without a license or identity.”
Angel swallowed an unstable breath. The gun trembled slightly in his grasp.
This was the truth he had desperately sought, yet an impulse to block his ears and shut it all out surged through him.
“I was going to drag her away to uncover the truth behind it, but as soon as I saw her face, she begged me to kill her.”
“…”
“And she meant it.”
Baek Hawon, his green eyes slightly wavering, remembered a blurred face from his memories.
That day wasn’t particularly bad for him. The grief over his father’s death was overshadowed by the emptiness left behind. For him, his father was gone with his mother four years ago.
‘Please, kill me.’
Perhaps that was why he did something he wouldn’t normally do.
‘I killed your family. Your father. I don’t deserve this plea, but… please, it’s my only wish.’
Words spilled out frantically, as if chased by something.
Though his trembling hand held the man tightly, his eyes were steady, free of fear.
“What made her ask to be killed?”
Baek Hawon sneered.
“To protect the only thing she had left.”
The only thing she had left. Angel grasped what that meant immediately. His vision blurred, and he nearly dropped the gun.
“Should I tell you exactly what it was?”
Baek Hawon lowered the gun slowly, watching Angel’s wavering aim.
He pulled Cha Yeon-byeol toward him after she had frozen in place, unable to speak.
As Hawon and Yeon-byeol brushed past, Angel could do nothing.
Perhaps he had already guessed enough. But only now was Angel willing to admit the truth.
It’s because of me. You died because of me.
He had always refused to acknowledge it, blaming others, turning a blind eye to the reality. The mere thought of it was unbearable, suffocating him.
Angel let go of his clenched fist, letting it fall to his side. Then, with nails digging into his palm, he clenched it again.
“…Are you just going to walk away?”
Yeon-byeol paused, her voice hesitant.
Angel turned his head slowly to look at her.
“You have Yugyeom upstairs.”
The whispered words hung in the air like a breath.
“The fire won’t go out. No one else can get in but you.”
Yeon-byeol struggled to steady her shaking heart. Although there was nothing left to reveal, she couldn’t meet Hawon’s gaze and fixated her eyes on the ash-gray floor instead.
Her heart raced wildly, as if it might burst. Was this the same despair that would push her into a sacrifice for someone like Angel’s sister, or Yugyeom, in the original story? Could she step forward without hesitation and throw herself into the flames?
Thoughts swirled endlessly in her mind, the chaotic fire burning deep inside her. The pain left a lasting mark, an ever-present ache. Still, she couldn’t stop thinking.
Finally, at the edge of her thoughts, Yeon-byeol understood.
The consuming fire was our beginning and our end.
“…Boss.”
Yeon-byeol called out, her voice clear and firm. Hawon lowered his eyes slightly, meeting hers.
“This is a gamble with no possibility, but no matter how much I think about it, this is the only way.”
With a self-deprecating smile, Yeon-byeol lifted her head.
In the moment her night-sky-like eyes met his, Hawon grabbed her wrist tightly.
He knew it was futile, knew it wouldn’t change anything, yet his grip tightened.
“Let go.”
Yeon-byeol’s voice was steady and firm as she pulled the gun from her hand.
Given by him, the loaded gun couldn’t be stopped.
The barrel pressed against her heaving chest, rising and falling with rapid breaths.
The tears had dried long ago. Yet, with her heart pointed at her own, Yeon-byeol’s face twisted into a bittersweet smile.
“I have to end this nightmare. Even if the only way is through my death.”
