Chapter 226.1

Chapter 226.1

Seoryeong ground her teeth without realizing it.

Driven all the way to the edge of the stage, she kicked hard at the stained glass. Bang, bang! Soon, it burst open.

The moment the cold wind lashed her flushed face, the reality of it hit her.

Before her stretched the endless sugarcane fields of Sakhalin and a night sky that looked ready to collapse. They had no way to escape this place.

From that moment, Seoryeong stopped thinking. She quickly began to loosen Lee Wooshin’s tie. His lips parted, as if he wanted to say something, but no sound came out. With resolute eyes, Seoryeong gripped the loosened tie tightly.

“Hold on to me. This time, we’re going all the way together.”

“…Seo…”

The instant she crossed his arms around her neck and waist, Kia, who had burned the others without mercy was already walking toward them.

The stench of burning flesh pierced her nose. Seoryeong glared at the brother who still refused to show mercy until the end. Kia silently looked at the old man modeled after his own face and at Sonya, who carried him on her back, before raising one leg.

That instant unfolded in slow motion before Seoryeong’s eyes. Kia’s cold boot touched her back.

Of course. He would never let them go so easily.

“I can’t tell you to live happily. I don’t even know what that means. I can’t wish for that. But instead…”

Kia shoved her back without hesitation. Thud! The brutal kick sent Seoryeong flying out the window. At the same time, she flung the tie around an overhead power line as they fell through the air.

Clenching the tie with one hand and her teeth, she bore the weight of both their bodies. Her teeth ached, and her jaw throbbed as if struck, but she refused to close her eyes.

He was the man she had finally found her husband. She couldn’t die like this.

The two of them accelerated along the power line that spanned the Sakhalin sky. Sparks burst like blue fire each time they slid down, and soon the entire monastery went dark.

Through the wind-whipped strands of her hair, Seoryeong looked back at the monastery swallowed in darkness. In her numb eyes, she caught a glimpse of Kia, left alone. His lips seemed to move.

‘Live long, Han Seoryeong.’

Kia stared after them for a long, distant moment, then disappeared into the burning monastery.

All at once, the strength drained from her arms. The tie slipped from her grasp in an instant.

“Ah!”

Then, a heavy arm caught her waist like a steel beam, and a black-gloved hand grabbed the falling tie.

“Seoryeong.” His voice scraped like metal, raw and broken.

“…!”

Lee Wooshin didn’t care that his gloves had caught fire. Holding Seoryeong tightly, he slid down the line.

He pulled her close with one arm, covering her bare, chilled neck with his face and shoulder.

Cradling her against his chest like a baby monkey, Lee Wooshin pressed his lips again and again to her trembling ear.

“I’m sorry for leaving you alone on the tracks.”

“Ugh… mm…”

His voice was so gentle it felt like a dream, and Seoryeong broke down.

“I’m sorry for leaving you alone. But you survived and came back to me.”

“Hh… uhh…”

Her trembling lips brushed against his cold cheek.

“You’re the only one who ever found me. Only you, Han Seoryeong.”

It had been a trial she never wanted to endure again, a cruel ordeal that had pushed even her strong heart straight into the pit.

Without a word, Seoryeong reached out and clawed at Lee Wooshin’s face. Her nails tore into his flesh, again and again. When the face she’d longed for so desperately finally appeared beneath her hands, she broke down crying.

Burying her face against his neck, she clung to him even tighter. Their chins locked together on each other’s shoulders, and her chest caved with emotion. Their heartbeats thudded as one, pulsing all the way to her toes.

“A little girl like you saves me again. It doesn’t make any sense.”

Let me live a few more times. Heal me like it’s a lie. His murmured words made Seoryeong cry harder, though she didn’t even understand why.

“I can’t survive on love anymore!”

Even as the wind whipped around them, Seoryeong lifted her head. Her reddened eyes poured out every unspoken thought.

“Give me something more than that. Give me your weaknesses, your scars, your vital spots… everything. Just give it all to me!”

In that instant, the power line snapped, and the two of them plunged downward. Despite the searing voltage tearing through his gloves, Lee Wooshin held on until his body slammed into a utility pole. He deliberately struck every nearby support beam, clang, clang, to slow their fall.

By then, Seoryeong no longer cared about anything else. How long had she waited while suffering alone? She pressed her lips to his, ready to die with him if she had to. With the desperate conviction that this was salvation, they clung to each other in a fevered embrace.

Then something hot and wet forced its way into her mouth. His rough lips rubbed against her skin, his tongue pushing in without restraint. The heat was fiercer than fire, and her head spun.

His thick tongue greedily searched her mouth, then slipped out to suck at her wet lips. His hands, hot and rough, clutched her waist in desperation.

Falling with the person she loved didn’t feel terrible at all. Her heart raced, her breath hitched, and she remembered feeling something like this once before, in bed, maybe. When she met those gray eyes that seemed ready to consume her, her legs tensed even more.

Then… vrooom! A massive SUV came barreling toward them, crushing crops under its wheels as it charged ahead. Seoryeong stared straight into the blinding headlights, defiant. Just as she wrapped her arms around Lee Wooshin’s head, the vehicle roared again, accelerating without hesitation.

Crash!

The car’s frame caved in as it caught them in midair. It hadn’t rammed them, but had intercepted their fall. Seoryeong’s arms throbbed as if they’d been torn out of their sockets, but she felt no pain. The impact had been absorbed entirely by Lee Wooshin’s back.

“Ha… ha… Instructor… Instructor!”

Seoryeong gripped his unmoving body, her lips trembling.