Chapter 205.2

Chapter 205.2

“Ah.”

She met the boy’s blazing eyes. That fleeting moment etched itself in her like a slow-developing photograph, and it was as if she had been shot, her breath seized in her chest. It felt like someone was forcibly prying open her pupils. Seoryeong bit her lip to suppress the rush of emotion rising within her.

It was the first time she’d seen the boy, but it wasn’t the first. He was a boy, but she already knew the face he’d grow into.

‘You… you…’

Her throat tightened. The Russian boy, carrying a small creature on his back, passed her by.

Though the whole world seemed to stop, the boy alone moved vividly, unaffected.

The tiny beast on his back, unaware of its fate, raised both arms and burst into a giggle.

“Ah… ah.”

Her jaw crumpled, and tears welled up instantly in her eyes. Every time her wet eyelids blinked, she could hear a cracking sound. Crack, creak, coming from somewhere deep within. The heavy curtain lifted like mist. Goosebumps rose all the way to her scalp, making it hard to breathe.

“Don’t go… Please, don’t go…”

She had never once called this person aloud. She didn’t even know what to call him.

Because he didn’t feel like one of her own kind, she always stayed tense, her claws out.

Letting her guard down meant the hawk would strike. Just as she’d discovered the truth of the dazzling Winter Castle at a young age, this angelic figure too would be nothing short of cruel.

But he was different.

The boy was the first pain Sonya had ever felt that didn’t hurt.

“Please don’t go that way…!”

She warned the boy until her raspy voice broke. “Please come back…! If you don’t, we’ll be separated. After this lake, we’ll never see each other again!”

She wanted to call out to the boy, but she still didn’t know what name to use. Her tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth. Seoryeong silently let her tears fall in heavy drops.

“Please, let me see him again… Just once more…”

“Any way is fine.”

“Please, just one more time…”

Sonya, who had awakened on the icy floor, begged like that, but her wish never came true.

The Winter Castle was destroyed, and her jumbled, chaotic memories were locked deep in her unconscious. But she shattered the lock on her lips and finally cried out.

“Ugh… Instructor!”

Standing in the middle of the lake, Seoryeong brushed the hair out of her eyes and took off running toward the far side of the lake.

Now she was the one sprinting past the boy. Swallowing hard against her burning, swollen throat, she looked back and saw young Sonya shaking a music box in her direction.

Seoryeong’s reddened eyes curved into a soft arc as she said, It’s okay. You’ll be okay too. Even if we part ways here, we’ll meet again today.

“Lee Wooshin!”

She wanted to rip apart the fake mask. She didn’t want to wear any mask in front of the boy anymore. Even back then, if she could have, she would have torn off the cold metal and pressed her shabby cheek against his.

She kicked off the ground with all her strength. Then, spiderweb cracks formed beneath her feet, and the thinly frozen lake shattered all at once, swallowing Seoryeong whole.

“―!”

Icy water surged over her head in an instant, chilling her to the bone. She flailed her arms reflexively, but her weakened body had no strength left.

The freezing water rushed deep into her lungs. While she failed to react properly, a thin layer of ice was already reforming above her.

‘No…’

Eyes wide, Seoryeong stared desperately at the ice where the boy had passed.

‘I want to see you… I want to see you again… I forgot. I’m sorry. I had forgotten so completely…’

She used the last of her strength to pound on the ice. Just once. Just let me see him once more. Bubbles burst violently from her mouth.

Though their time had been brief, she didn’t realize how much comfort the boy had brought her. Because of the boy, who seemed sculpted from sunlight, she had wanted to live…

She kicked her legs desperately, but her limp body sank slowly, lower and lower.

Thud!

A heavy crack split the ice above.

Thud! Thud!

The dull, rough pounding continued without pause.

Crash!

At the moment a large fist shattered the lake from the other side of the faint barrier, Seoryeong instinctively reached out with both arms. A man, revealing only one eye, pulled her up from the freezing water and embraced her tightly. Though she was the one with chattering teeth from the cold, Lee Wooshin was the one trembling all over, as if at a loss for words.

He had always been the only one. The boy who had first embraced her. Gentle and kind Kim Hyun. Harsh, hateful, and missed Lee Wooshin.

Always one person.

Damn it. Always.

“Huuuh!”

Seoryeong buried her face in his pale neck and sobbed. Her shaking arms wrapped around him tightly, as if she would never let go.

The coldest burns feel the same as real ones. Her heart burned hot and painful now, rising uncontrollably.

Seoryeong opened her mouth wide like a newborn and let out the sorrow she had forgotten for so long. It was a deep, dark wail she had never shown anyone before.

“It’s okay. I won’t let go. I’ve got you. It’s okay.”

Even as he held back his boiling emotions, Lee Wooshin kissed her ear gently while she wept in ruin.

The boy who once lifted Sonya from the cold tile floor had grown into a man, larger and stronger than the Winter Castle itself.

Seoryeong saw a vision of a music box spinning beneath the ice. The light was blinding.