Chapter 97.2

Chapter 97.2

Wooshin’s throat bobbed roughly. He stood there, frozen and expressionless, seemingly unable to react.

But if Kim Hyun’s face could be altered like this, if it had been a disguise all along, just as Jin Hojae had suggested. Seoryeong looked at the skin in her hands with a peculiar expression.

Was the man she had once held in her arms—Kim Hyun, the one she knew by touch—his real face after all?

The instant she doubted what she had never questioned, Seoryeong felt herself fall into true hell.

No! It couldn’t be. It mustn’t be.

This torn shred of hope in her hands plunged her further into a raging torrent. Her pale face turned back toward Wooshin.

“Could Kim Hyun’s face have been fake from the very beginning?”

“…!”

Then, the man she had spoken to over the phone—could he have been someone else entirely? A sense of helplessness rose like a swamp, engulfing her.

“If his face, if that face was fake, if he kept appearing before me with a false face.”

“.…”

“Then… then how am I supposed to…”

Her eyes wavered, as if tested.

“How am I supposed to find my husband now?”

Her mind emptied completely. The delicate lines that formed the image of Kim Hyun in her memory gradually faded. Piece by piece, they disappeared until nothing remained.

“Even if Kim Hyun stood before me now, I wouldn’t recognize him.”

Was it so greedy to ask for just one simple thing? What did I do wrong? If not even one unique thing in this world is allowed to me, why must I continue this endless life? Despair hollowed her out, eating away at her heart’s darkness.

Kim Hyun was her only mission from the very start. That was all he was.

And it turned out he was not her family, but wholly an asset of the National Intelligence Service. She had never felt the sharp contrast in warmth so distinctly.

“Did you really think Kim Hyun loved you?” Chief Joo’s sneering words finally made sense.

During my entire marriage, I never got close to Kim Hyun. He, too, never once showed his true self.

So, what exactly was it that I loved?

This flimsy thing?

A wave of dizziness rose within her as it felt like he was being torn out of her life at the root. The version of her completed by Kim Hyun shattered, piece by piece, fading to white.

Her burning, aching eyes felt so hot she wanted to gouge them out, hoping everything would return to how it once was. Or better yet, she wished this damned world would simply end.

Seoryeong gritted her teeth, lifting her arm to fling away the evidence of this deception in her hand.

Somewhere in the world, he’s probably doing just fine.

You must have peeled off that face I remember so easily, and you’re out there living your life, completely forgetting about me. Hiding your real face, the one you’ve never shown, you’re probably still undercover as a proud National Intelligence Service agent.

Her arm trembled. Part of her wanted to stomp on this loathsome skin until it was crushed under her heel and spit on it. Yet instead of discarding it, she dug her nails into it, pressing it painfully close to her chest.

“You bastard won’t even let me throw you away!”

Each cell in her body felt like it was burning, dying out one by one. That feeling of misery and helplessness tore her apart.

You’re probably just the same, but I feel like I’m dying alone. Would drowning myself in alcohol until I lose consciousness work? Or…

“Please save me, Instructor!”

“…!”

Broken, she clung to Wooshin’s collar.

“Please save me. I can’t breathe.”

Every word leaked with festering pain. Seoryeong, with a face even she couldn’t recognize, clung to him in desperation.

She didn’t want to feel this decaying, lifeless facade—she wanted to feel a real, living person. In her heart, she wanted to destroy this body Kim Hyun had once cherished and scatter its fragments before his eyes.

If she couldn’t discard Kim Hyun, then she wished her own chest, poisoned by him, would be crushed along with it. This destructive urge pointed directly at herself.

And as far as Seoryeong knew, the only person useful, detached, and strong enough was Instructor Wooshin.

“Please! Help me get out of here.”

Her hollow eyes reflected nothing.

Wooshin froze, his face turning deathly pale as if someone were strangling him. His veins bulged as he snatched up Kim Hyun’s skin and crushed it with all his strength.

Seeing her utterly broken, it felt like his mind spiraled back to the very beginning of everything.