Dive // Jaeyi x Seulgi

Chapter 3

Jaeyi was holding her breath.

She didn't know how she got there—only that the sea stretched beyond sight, vast and indifferent. The water heaved and surged, swallowing sound, breath, reason. Each wave crashed like a whispered threat, dragging her under, seeping into her lungs like a cruel promise. The cold wasn't just biting; it was alive, curling around her limbs, weighing her down. And then—she wasn't alone.

Seulgi was there.

She was thrashing in the water just a few feet away, her breath coming in sharp, panicked gasps. Her hands clawed at the surface, desperate, wild. Jaeyi's stomach twisted. Seulgi couldn't swim.

Jaeyi fought against the current, reaching for her, but the waves kept pulling them apart. Seulgi's eyes met hers—wide, pleading—before her head slipped under.

"No—Seulgi!" Jaeyi kicked harder, her fingers skimming empty water where Seulgi had just been. Bubbles rose, then nothing.

The ocean swallowed her whole.

Jaeyi gasped awake, her body jerking forward. Her breath came ragged, her heart pounding so hard it drowned out the sound of the storm outside. Her hands trembled as they gripped the sheets, damp with sweat.

She dragged a hand down her face, forcing herself to breathe.

It was just a dream.

But the weight in her chest told her otherwise.

Jaeyi exhaled sharply, pressing a hand against her chest as if that could steady the aching pulse beneath her ribs. Maybe she was just tired. Maybe the past was catching up to her in ways she couldn't control. She threw an arm over her eyes, but sleep wouldn't come. It never did on nights like this.

And so, she let herself remember.

The snow had been falling that night, soft and relentless, blanketing the world in quiet. Jaeyi's breath curled into the air as she stood by the bridge, hands buried deep in the pockets of her coat. Below, the sea stretched endlessly, dark and restless under the winter sky. The waves crashed against the shore, steady, unyielding.

But she wasn't looking at the water.

She was looking at Seulgi.

From the shadows, she watched as Seulgi stood near the railing, phone clutched in her hand, calling for her. Searching for someone who was no longer supposed to exist.

Jaeyi had planned everything. The key to her apartment. The letter. The quiet way she would slip Seulgi a thread of hope. But the moment she heard her father had been released—had been watching—everything changed.

She couldn't risk it.

Not when Seulgi had already suffered enough.

So she stood there, unseen, allowing herself a moment. One last, selfish second to take her in.

Seulgi was still calling her name. Jaeyi pressed her lips together, forcing down the ache in her throat. She had to turn away.

If she turns around, I'll run to her. Just once.

But Seulgi never turned.

Instead, she screamed Jaeyi's name into the cold air, her voice raw, breaking. Jaeyi had heard that same scream before. That day at the lake. The day she faked her death.

She could still see it—the frantic way Seulgi had searched, her feet splashing into the water, her hands gripping onto officers, shaking them, demanding they find her. The way her body crumpled when they told her there was no body to recover.