🏆 THE AMBY AWARDS 2023 TOP PICK - DIVERSE LIT 🏆
It's Rin and Hye-jin against the world. Or so it should have been.
Nagara Rin and Joon Hye-jin, college sweethearts and passionate gamers, have lived a fairytale marriage. Not even a decade after did...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
I drew away, wiping my tears with the back of my hand. Then, I realized what I just did and heat rushed into my face. I scrambled away, tucking my hands behind me. "Sorry, that was—"
"Hye-jin," Kora said. Just my name, but the way he said it contained everything unsaid between us. His eyes widened just a bit before looking away. "I mean, Seline."
My leg bumped against the edge of his bed, my eyes never leaving the rumpled sheets by his feet. " 'Hye-jin' is fine," I replied, tucking my hair behind my ear. "I'm still me."
A chuckle made me look up to his face once more. Even after barely surviving being poisoned to death, he was still smiling. Now that I thought about it, I've never seen him smile that openly in the final years leading up to our last night. What changed?
"Yeah, you're very much you," Rin pushed his hair off his forehead and it didn't obey for long. The smile on his lips never wavered. He was still the same Rin, albeit a little redder in the head and scrawnier than what I remember. I missed it, that smile.
I sank into the small spot by his feet. "What does that mean?" I scoffed, but my own smile pulled at the corners of my lips. It's been a while since we were able to sit together in the same place and not attempt to tear each other's hair off.
I jerked my chin towards him before he could provide an explanation. It'd probably be a lame one anyway. "How are you feeling?"
He stared at me, his face never betraying whatever he's feeling inside. When had I stopped being able to read him like an open book? How come he could still do the same to me? "How are you feeling?" he asked.
"You can't be throwing my own question back at me," I frowned.
He shrugged. "I just did," he said before heaving a sigh. "I keep seeing you in my memory before I blacked out. You found me, didn't you?"
I opened my mouth but shut it promptly. What else was I going to say? That it was his brain playing tricks on him? That I couldn't care less if he died? Both weren't true, and I haven't always been an excellent liar.
"That's why I asked," he continued when I wasn't spouting a single word as a reply and was instead looking down on my hands—the very ones who had been covered in blood a few hours ago. His blood. "I know we're not anything to each other anymore but...it must have been tough."
I didn't know if I was supposed to be hurt by what he's saying or if I should be relieved he was still around to be saying it. "It was," I admitted. No use trying to act tough now. Besides, a huge number of people already saw me whining in the waiting room yesterday. It wouldn't take long before some word reached his ears. Better it comes from me first. "And we're not 'not anything' to each other, Rin. I..."
My nails pinched my palm as I pushed the memories of his limp body and unresponsiveness out of my mind. It's fine. He's fine. We're okay. "I know we aren't on the best terms right now, and I haven't been mature enough to handle it in the best way possible, but you're still my friend," I raised my head from my hands to find his gaze to have never wavered from my head. Rather, my face. "Didn't I promise you that? I'd put our friendship first above everything else, even our failed marriage."
