Chapter 118.2

Chapter 118.2

“…”

“My mind is fine, Sonya. Only mine is fine. That’s why I’ve never forgotten it, not for a second.”

“…”

“I didn’t want to send you to the pigs, so I killed someone for the first time. They said I was the fastest among the brothers. Next to you, my hands felt clean. I finally understood the Bible verses I’d memorized without meaning, understood what God might be.”

His gaze, firm and piercing, carried a fragile intensity.

“But when I opened my eyes, you were gone. I never believed you were dead—not for a second.”

“So I searched for you, from a country whose name I didn’t even know, all the way to Sakhalin. It took me three years.”

The time it took to return, wandering barefoot across streets. His furrowed brow relaxed into a weary smile as he rested his forehead against Seoryeong’s hand. His bowed head seemed both tired and childlike.

“So please, stay by my side now.”

But the hands holding hers lacked warmth. The priest fumbling for a shadow of the past seemed strangely similar to her own reflection, yet she felt nothing, as though staring at an object encased in glass. She withdrew her hand and spoke calmly.

“I’m sorry, but those memories don’t feel like mine, Priest.”

“…!”

“What I want to find isn’t my childhood.”

She had to draw a clear line here. She couldn’t let herself or her team get hurt over this any longer. With resolve, she stated her position. Kia’s lips trembled as he yelled in frustration.

“It’s about you! About finding the essence of who you were as Sonya!”

“And what good will that do?”

Kia was speechless.

“I’m already twenty-eight. Hearing this now doesn’t make me feel anything. Whatever I did at ten, wherever I was born, how does it change who I am now?”

“Sonya, you don’t… you’re not even curious?”

Kia bit his lips, his face contorted in resentment.

“Why you had to marry because of those NIS bastards!”

“I loved him.”

Kia froze, as if confronted with something completely foreign. His gaze, wandering over her face, was cold and unyielding.

The pallor of his face slowly crumbled into an unreadable expression—neither entirely weeping nor smiling. Soon, the whites of his eyes turned bloodshot.

“Then what about me—!”

Kia flung the half-eaten instant noodle cup aside, as if swatting away a betrayal. His expression was steeped in despair. The floor was instantly littered with mess, and the priest, his eyes blazing, breathed heavily.

“I endured everything up until now just for you! Of all people, why are you the one trying to bury my Sonya—!”

His face twisted in disbelief, the defiance in his teary eyes glinting with anguish.

“Don’t fool yourself! It wasn’t love. It all started because of your father—everything is because of your father!”

An icy silence fell between them. Seoryeong froze, unblinking, while Kia nervously scanned her face.

His warped expectations clung to the moment with persistence. Time seemed frozen, even their breathing felt suspended. Then, she tilted her head slightly, her expression blank, shattering the stillness.

“So, you’re saying it’s all my fault. The NIS approaching me, Kim Hyun pulling out… everything happened because there was some reason for it. Because of that man, my so-called father—”

Mid-sentence, Seoryeong let out a soft laugh. “Father, father,” she muttered the word over and over, as if testing its sound. The corners of her lips curved into another sneer.

Doesn’t roll off the tongue, does it? She massaged the back of her neck as she spoke, her demeanor as indifferent as someone skimming through a stranger’s book.

“And with that kind of story, you’re asking me to stay locked up in this room with you?”

“I know everything. I know Kim Hyun, that’s why I’m saying this.”

“…!”

For a brief moment, Seoryeong’s eyes faltered.

“He’s all you care about, isn’t he? So what if we just find Kim Hyun and deal with him? Would you then let go of everything and live here with me? If it’s about cleaning up his corpse, I’ll help you with that. If that’s what it takes, then right now, this very moment—”

A sudden movement. A pair of chopsticks lunged at his throat, poised as if to pierce his windpipe.

Her icy tone sliced through the tension. “Don’t throw around words like ‘corpse’ so carelessly.”

“…!”

“And you’ve misunderstood something, Priest. Even if I were to be locked in a room, it would be with my husband. And if I had to kill him, I’d do it with my own hands, not through someone else’s. So who’s meddling with whom here?”

“…”

“If you want me to stay in this monastery, then there better be a room next door for Kim Hyun.”

“You!”

“And every night, I’ll go to him. During the day, I’ll block out the sunlight and slowly drain him of life, watching his face age bit by bit. Sometimes there might be a stench of decay, but I’ll wear it all over me like a second skin. Do you understand?”

Kia’s face gradually hardened, as though he were staring at something utterly alien once more.

“Stay out of a married couple’s fight, and take a hint.”