⚡️-REWRITTEN ELECEED ALTERNATE UNIVERSE-⚡️

CHAPTER 14: MEMORIES OF HARDSHIPS AND TALES OF SNOWFLAKES.

I'm just making him feel awkward.

I suppressed the rising tears and swallowed hard at the lump in my throat. "...Go take care of your face. You can start looking for cats tomorrow."

"Yes, sir." and with that, he turned away, leaving the room and gently closing the door behind him.

I looked down at the now broken pair of glasses that lay silently, lifelessly yet ever-present on the ground.

The image of those glasses seared itself into my brain, and yet I couldn't look away. Because those glasses and the bruise on Wooin's face are a reminder of my rash, thoughtless actions.

Regardless of how I fucked up my latest experiment, I could have just moved on and made a new one.

I'm ashamed that a bruise on Wooin's face caused by my god-forsaken hand was what it took for me to realize that.

As I bent down and picked up his broken glasses, I felt pure guilt.

I dragged myself back to my now-empty desk and sat in my chair, ignoring the mess of papers, books, and tools lying on the floor.

I gently set his glasses down and stared at them.

"I'll buy him a new pair." I thought out loud, hardly hearing myself even in the midst of my dead-silent room.

"No... I'll buy him ten. Maybe I'll even tweak them a bit, 'see if I can make them any better."

I tapped my index finger on the desk, absent-minded and now dazed.

"I'm sorry, Wooin..."

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KAYDEN'S POV:

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The wind battered gently at the house as snow piled on the windowsills

The living room was silent. Nothing but the content breathing of myself, Jiwoo, and the cats gathered around her sleeping figure.

Silently watching her as she breathed in and out, inhaled and exhaled rhythmically was strangely calming.

In the process, I lost myself in the infinite spiral of thoughts.

I glanced over at the soft glowing light of the digital clock above the stove.

2:21 am.

It was so late, and yet I couldn't sleep.

Bothersome thoughts often found me most vulnerable in the dead of night. Now, they had jabbed their cruel blades into my mind, mercilessly and without relent.

I expressed a long sigh and rested my chin on my paw.

I'm worried.

Multiple times I tried at my awakened core, gently coercing it to produce the numen I had lost.

It didn't work.

Each time I tried, no matter how easy I went on it, it refused to produce anything.

And even after a small attempt, I felt a sharp pain writhe up my spine and run down to the tips of my paws.

My heart rate had risen and pumped copious amounts of blood within me from the sheer pain.

My own awakened core was fighting me.

Just the thought of that was unnerving and caused my heart to quench and race from the uneasiness.

My lips tightened in a straight line, I lowered my head and rubbed my temple.

If this keeps up, I might never...