When the Clock Strikes|Pi Han Ul x Reader|

(S02) Chapter 38

Not even when she crossed inside the hospital.

Not even when she disappeared.

She had tears in her eyes. I saw them. Even if no one else did.

So why?

Why would she do this?

What happened in the few hours between our morning texts and now?

What could’ve broken her enough to throw us away?

I thought of the way her hand trembled when she said the words.

The way her voice cracked—just for a second—before she forced it back into something cold.

This wasn’t her. This wasn’t Ye Na.

Ye Na was warmth wrapped in fire. She loved hard, even when she was scared. She didn’t run.

But she’s running now.

And I don’t know what from.

I wanted to chase her.

God, I wanted to run after her and tell her I’d wait, that I’d stay even if she pushed me away a thousand times.

But she looked so… tired.

Not of me.

Tired of fighting.

Tired of something else.

And I couldn’t fix what I didn’t understand.

So I just stood there, in the rain, in front of the hospital where we first met again, watching the space where she used to be.

Letting the cold soak into my bones.

Letting the grief sit quietly in my chest, because screaming wouldn’t help. She wouldn’t hear me now.

She was already too far.

And all I could do was hope she’d come back.

Even if she never did.

The rain didn’t stop.

It came down in sheets now, soaking the sidewalk, blurring everything ahead of me. But I didn’t move.

I stayed where she left me.

Watching nothing.

Feeling everything.

“Bro—what the hell are you doing?”

A voice cut through the rain. Familiar. Sharp. Concerned.

I blinked slowly.

Minhwan was walking toward me from the parking lot, an umbrella held crooked over his head. His hair was already wet at the edges. His sneakers splashed across the pavement. When he got close enough to see my face, he stopped.

“Han Wool?” he said again, lower now. “Why are you just… standing in the middle of the street like some rejected K-drama lead?”

I didn’t answer.

I couldn’t.

The rain hit my eyes, or maybe that was something else.

Minhwan’s smile slipped. He lowered the umbrella slightly to see me better. “Hey, man. You good?”

Still nothing.

My jaw moved, but no words came out. Just silence. Just the heavy weight of I don’t know what just happened sitting in my chest.

“Did something happen?” Minhwan asked. He stepped closer, nudging my shoulder with the edge of the umbrella. “You look like you just saw a ghost.”