Chapter 165.1

Chapter 165.1

“What… what are you?” Seoryeong tried to shake off his grip, but the more she struggled, the tighter his hold became.

His hand, drained of blood and now a dark crimson, throbbed as if it might burst.

“Go ahead and try to run. No one can describe your face as well as I can. From your voice to your accent, even your unconscious habits, I’ll cram every little detail into a sketch.”

“Even if I let you go, the whole world will help me find you.”

Lee Wooshin curled his lips in satisfaction.

“So come with me. Let’s go home. You don’t want to spend your whole life running, do you? Trust me… it’s f*cking exhausting. I’ve tried it. It’s no way to live, Seoryeong.”

He spoke as if pleading, no, as if threatening. For a moment, the future that flashed through her mind chilled her to the bone, and her legs jerked reflexively.

She had to run. She had to get up right now and run for her life. But her body wouldn’t move, frozen in place.

All her senses were fixated on the blood gushing from his side in thick, relentless waves. Though his body twitched violently, Lee Wooshin never once took his eyes off her.

‘Why? Why is he going this far? He won’t even apologize, yet he refuses to let me leave.’

‘Where does that arrogance even come from?’

Under the distant glow of red warning lights, Seoryeong winced. Perhaps because of the gunshots fired from the hunting lodge, a crowd was gathering, led by police cars.

Horrified, they covered their mouths as they surrounded the gruesome scene. Among them, she spotted some of the same travelers who had attended their wedding.

“Someone’s been shot! There’s an injured person here!”

The fragmented screams from all directions made her vision spin. The quiet desert road quickly turned chaotic.

As the murmurs grew louder, Seoryeong’s stomach churned unbearably.

‘Did I shoot him? Or did he shoot himself?’

In the haze of hallucination, she might have reflexively pulled the trigger. Even if he had manipulated her hand, the sensation of the gun against her finger had been real.

She lifted her trembling arms. Blood stained her palms and the thin slip she wore, ever since she’d thrown the bucket at him in the warehouse. But the onlookers, unaware of the full story, only pointed and screamed.

Even as their piercing stares bore into her, Lee Wooshin was losing consciousness. His eyes, which had stubbornly refused to close despite the drugs, finally began to shut.

As she pressed down on the gaping wound at his side, his voice, thin as a thread, escaped.

“Was it… because I was Kim Hyun… that it hurt so much?”

“…!”

“But when you… Han Seoryeong came looking for me like a madwoman-”

“…”

“-Strangely, I felt at ease. I don’t even know why…”

Her shoulders trembled as his fading gaze lingered on her bare skin.

With his ice-cold hands, Lee Wooshin began unbuttoning his shirt. It was a sudden, bizarre action. His fingers fumbled, but he stubbornly kept tugging at the buttons.

“I wanted to make you give up but it was ridiculously hard.”

Pfft. He let out a self-deprecating laugh.

“This time… I’ll come find you, so… don’t go too far…”

His eyes closed completely.

“Just wait a little. Look at the stars for me.”

She stood there, stupidly unresponsive. Whether from the cold or shock, her nose froze, her ears muffled, and time seemed to stop completely.

Dazed, she glanced around, until her eyes met those of the house owners. The wife was screaming something, but Seoryeong couldn’t hear it. The woman had collapsed in despair, her husband holding her tightly.

“What, what is this? What’s happening?!” the wife shrieked, her face pale.

“Miss, are you hurt? Whose, whose blood is that? Are you injured? Tell me you’re not!”

“Ah, this…”

Her mind, detached from reality, dragged Seoryeong back to another time. Just like the day she had rushed to the police station to report Kim Hyun’s disappearance, she stared blankly at her own palms with a strange expression.

“Ah! This is my husband’s blood… My husband’s blood… Yes… This time, it’s real.”

She muttered, dazed. The same people who had once raised their glasses and sincerely congratulated her on her marriage now stared at her as if she were a criminal.

She didn’t resist at all, only watching helplessly as handcuffs clamped around her wrists.

“Blood pressure’s dropping below 90, increasing the IV flow!”

“Doctor, I can’t locate the bullet, hold this spot under his shoulder!”

“Gauze and pads! Sir, stay awake, don’t close your eyes! We might need a transfusion, call the hospital in advance! Prep for emergency chest tube insertion, and get Betadine ready!”