Chapter 96.2

Chapter 96.2

A storm of rage pounded her heart, heating her mind to a boiling point and swelling her eyes to the brink.

“Why!”

A deeper loss hit her than when he first disappeared. Her breath caught in broken gasps. She would have preferred a hundred times over to be beaten and left exposed. Seoryeong screamed, her voice straining until veins seemed ready to tear.

“Aaah!”

If you push me this far! Where am I supposed to go now? How am I supposed to live? Am I supposed to survive?

She buried her head against the corpse, trembling as she sobbed. But then, her vision was suddenly blocked.

“Don’t look. Please, don’t look.”

Wooshin’s rough voice cracked as he covered her eyes with his hand, pulling her toward him.

His large hand pressed against her temple, holding her firmly in place so she couldn’t move. It was as though her head were bolted to his chest, her head securely anchored there.

“Let me go! Let go!”

Seoryeong scratched and clawed at his hand, furious at being separated from Kim Hyun.

“Let go of me! Let!”

She felt his strong jaw brush the top of her head as he clenched it even tighter. But she couldn’t break free from his firm grip, which held her as securely as if he were restraining a frenzied animal.

Thrashing, she pounded on his thigh, but he remained unmoving. She kept hitting his head and face with her fists, but he didn’t make a sound or budge.

The fact that he could endure it so silently made her hate him all the more, and she screamed in anger.

“What right do you have to stop me? He’s my husband! If I don’t see him now, when will I get to? This is… this is my first time seeing him… even if he’s dead, I have to, I have to see him.”

“Don’t look.”

“How could I not―!”

A metallic taste filled her throat as she screamed.

“He’s the one I’ve been searching for. He’s the one I’ve been looking for!”

“….”

“He’s Kim Hyun. He’s my husband. I know him, he’s my husband!”

Seoryeong cried and pleaded through her anger. “It’s Kim Hyun. He’s my husband.” With each repetition, Wooshin tightened his grip on her arms, as if his hold might crush her.

At the same time, his low, heavy voice echoed from deep in his chest, like something tumbling into the river.

“I… I’m sorry. I was wrong. I shouldn’t have brought him here. I shouldn’t have done this.”

“Let me go!”

Her desperate struggle sent pebbles scattering noisily across the ground.

“So don’t cry. Don’t cry like it’s all over.”

For some reason, his grip felt desperate, as if he were the one who had lost everything—his purpose, his only person.

Yet, it was Wooshin who bowed his head against her shoulder.

The hands that had seemed so unyielding suddenly lost their strength. Her wet lashes and his palm separated, and her blurred vision cleared. But the harsh reality around them remained unchanged.

An unfamiliar white bird was pecking at the riverbank. As she watched it absently, a thick finger unexpectedly touched her lips, parting them slightly.

The bird kept its head submerged in the water.

“Breathe,” he murmured, lightly patting her back as he placed his finger between her teeth.

She hadn’t realized how hard she had been clenching her jaw until the sudden flood of pain hit her.

‘—If it’s a woman, I’d carefully strip them down with respect. If it’s a man, I’d just shove them right into the water. Let them bloat first, then I’d peel them back, bit by bit.’

“What?”

‘How would you feel if the face of someone you trusted turned out to be fake? It’s not just that the technique exists, it’s that we’re beyond what we can even imagine. Oh, recently, there was a former CIA disguise expert on YouTube, Jonah Mendez…’

“What is this?”

Suddenly, disjointed voices ricocheted through Han Seoryeong’s mind, and everything stopped.

She couldn’t feel Lee Wooshin’s embrace as if she’d entered some windless void.

Her ragged breaths stopped but her heart raced wildly. Her hands gripped with sudden intensity as if grasping for the last solid ground she had. Her once-dull eyes flashed with a terrifying sharpness.

“No, no, it can’t be.”

That kind of thing doesn’t happen in this world. She shook her head, trying to snap herself out of it, forcing herself to think logically.

No, it’s just a ridiculous rumor, something that doesn’t make any sense—but even as she tried to convince herself—

“Goddammit, Han Seoryeong!”

With a surge of strength from nowhere, she grabbed the bag and leaped into the river.