The Eternal Wheel Turns
*CRACK!*
It sounded as though the heavens themselves were roaring.
From within the very hole in Gang Min-hee’s mindscape, a terrifying boom erupted.
At the same instant, something beyond the veil came into view.
It flickered, flickered, flickered… it was fire.
A fire blazing with hellish crimson!
And at its heart, a colossal flame god burning in the same searing light.
A judge clad in robes of fire stared straight at me.
: “How dare you stand before the Emperor’s history! :”
*WHOOSH!*
I had sensed its existence, yet my soul remained untainted.
Almost no wisdom flowed in. A fragment alone trickled in—little more than the judge’s title and name.
Beyond that, wisdom did not seep in to corrupt or erode me.
It felt as though the being was showing me mercy.
: “The act of sealing the child’s path will be treated as an obstruction to this sovereign’s history. As well as the Emperor’s. Withdraw. :”
*CHIJIJIK!*
My eyes were growing dry. No matter how merciful the being might be, prolonged staring would blind me.
I was staring at the flaming judge before me.
The foremost judge of the Underworld—Yeomra, Chief Judge of the Underworld.
At that moment, words spoken by Chief Judge Yeomra flashed before my eyes.
A future in which I was dragged straight into the deepest reaches of the Underworld, tormented endlessly by his power.
It was no mere illusion.
The Heavenly Qi was shifting, fixing my fate to this path.
If I refused Yeomra’s words, rushed to save Gang Min-hee, and continued sealing the path, this future awaited me.
But…
The pain that seemed to burn my body was not frightening.
What frightened me was the regret I would feel later if I failed to save her now.
Pain that I was giving myself.
*Can I do it?*
No.
There was no need for doubt.
I would.
*Do it!*
*KIEEING!*
Behind my head, a carriage wheel rose like a halo.
Every cell in my body erupted with flames as though Yeomra himself was enraged.
I closed my eyes for a moment and recalled the scene I had just witnessed.
The white carriage wheel I had seen from the *Most Ancient One*.
I recalled that wheel.
How it had reversed.
How it had worked.
What force had acted, what power had stirred…
*WIIING!*
The carriage wheel began to reverse.
Yeomra was wielding his power.
The surroundings had already changed.
It seemed he had used his power to distort reality and created a new dimension.
A massive jade seal fell from the distant sky.
*KWAAAANG!*
I died the instant I was stamped by the seal.
*KIIEING!*
Yet even after my death, the carriage wheel continued to reverse.
*PAAT!*
Along with it, I stood up and looked beside me.
A seal burning in flames. Beneath it lay what appeared to be the remains of *me*.
*I* had not died.
: “Presumptuous. Offering a promotion ritual as a subject of the Earth, you dare oppose this judge? :”
*KWADDDDEUK!*
In the next instant, a flaming hand plunged into my mouth.
The flame hand clamped my tongue, then yanked it out.
From tongue to soul, core, external core, force, and explosion—all were extracted, and I died on the spot.
The carriage wheel reversed again.
I saw my own corpse, everything pulled out and dead.
Immediately after, I was sawed to pieces.
The carriage wheel reversed.
I was trapped on an ice cliff, my soul freezing solid from the cold.
The carriage wheel reversed.
I…
The carriage wheel…
How many deaths had there been?
*KWACHIJIJIK!*
I was impaled through the entire body in the hell of the Mountain of Death and felt the agony.
Yet I did not flinch. I knelt slowly.
Although pierced everywhere, the pain was bearable.
I knelt before Yeomra, the ultimate judge.
“Granting your vast mercy, I offer my deepest gratitude.”
I understood.
He was showing me mercy by killing me.
If he had used his true power, he could have crushed me with the carriage wheel and preserved me as a puppet—yet he allowed the wheel to remain so I could revive, repeating meaningless death.
I turned around.
Hundreds of my corpses already lay there.
I had known from the start.
According to Yeomra’s words, I should have stolen the carriage wheel’s secret art from them.
Yet Yeomra had not raged. He had not revealed his true power. Instead, out of mercy, he had only let me know his name—no overwhelming torment.
Therefore, killing me countless times here…
was merely a trial.
*WOO-OONG—*
I was forcibly raised by overwhelming force.
Yeomra looked down at me with his blazing body.
: “Do not kneel. Those who possess the carriage wheel do not kneel lightly. :”
The carriage wheel.
A secret art that combined the Flawless True Word and the Dharma-Destroying True Word.
The trial of a moment ago had been his mercy, teaching me how to handle the carriage wheel.
After simple “reset,” I began to feel the carriage wheel’s power more clearly.
The carriage wheel’s power was to rearrange cause and effect.
More precisely, to organize it.
I could not die easily anymore.
My body itself had become a kind of secret art, and the being that lived was too terrifying to call mere life.
Such a being would not die from being stamped by a seal, frozen, having tongue and organs extracted, or burned.
What Yeomra had done was to cover my death with the form of death.
And by reversing the carriage wheel, I had returned to the state before that “covering.”
I had organized the act that distorted cause and effect itself—the very act of higher beings like the True Immortals overlaying reality—and restored it to its original form!
In other words, this was a method good for resisting the power of True Immortals, just like the Myeonsin Geopcheon.
: “…Excellent. :”
Yeomra exhaled a small sigh of admiration while watching me maintain the carriage wheel.
: “Truly, you wish to save the child who receives the Underworld’s support? Do you truly wish to save the child who shall become the vessel of the Emperor’s arrival? :”
“Yes.”
: “Even if your path becomes a thorny thicket? :”
“…More than the thicket before me.”
I looked straight at Yeomra.
“My inner Sword Mountain is even more painful!”
*PAAT!*
At that instant, the world cleared.
The dimension Yeomra had created—once filled only with darkness and flames—changed.
It became a glass sword mountain.
A transparent glass sword mountain that pierced me.
At the same time, Yeomra was pierced through the entire body by my glass swords.
Clear.
Utterly clear.
And… it hurt!
“I have seen the limit of pain. The limit of pain was something that even the Chief Judge’s karmic fire could not surpass. That… was myself.”
The Mugeuk Sect vanished, and my karmic fire went out.
Only later did I learn that the condition for the fire to extinguish was that my own pain and regret surpassing the fire’s pain would naturally extinguish it.
From that moment, I learned one fact.
No matter how painful or terrifying external pain was,
it could never match what existed inside me.
A hundred lashes were nothing compared to one moment of self-reproach.
Therefore…
“I do not wish to do anything I will later regret.”
I did not wish for pain.
Because I had reached the limit of pain, I hated pain even more.
And because I knew the greatest pain was my own regret…
I wished to live a regret-free life.
“If I die this evening, I will not do anything I will regret in the morning! Please, return her to me!”
Yeomra looked at me for a moment, then gazed at the colorless sword mountain.
: “Good. :”
He showed no reaction even as the sword mountain pierced me, and it seemed he was actually in a good mood.
: “Granted. :”
“…!”
A tingling sensation spread through my entire body at those words.
Chief Judge Yeomra had permitted me to save Gang Min-hee.
: “However, what binds that child… you must judge for yourself. :”
After speaking, Chief Judge Yeomra raised one hand.
: “Karmic Mirror, close your eyes. Send the noble person back. :”
At the same time, the small dimension I had transformed trembled, and the surroundings warped.
I soon discovered that Yeomra was sitting in the lotus position, and behind him was a massive mirror that reflected me and him.
*WOO-OONG!*
I instantly returned to my body with him.
*This place…*
A moment ago.
I had been holding Gang Min-hee’s arm, peering into the hole in her mindscape.
*So that small dimension was Yeomra’s secret art…*
It seemed to reflect the essence of a person or history.
*CRACK, CRACK…*
I felt a tingling, and something flowed into my mind.
The wisdom Yeomra had given me.
It was how to fill the hole in Gang Min-hee’s mindscape.
*WOO-OONG!*
I entered her mindscape, raised both hands, and began reciting the Flawless True Word.
*WOO-OONG!*
A black circle formed by force between my hands.
*WIIING!*
I felt the circle spinning.
At the same time, the black hole in front of me trembled.
*SSSSSSS—*
Using the wisdom from Yeomra, I shrank the size of the Flawless True Word.
Although I had received wisdom from him, it felt like the kind of wisdom one might discover after further research into the Flawless True Word.
As the circle shrank, the black hole began to shrink with it.
*CHCHCHCHCH!*
And at some point.
*PAAT!*
The circle disappeared into a single point, and the black hole shrank into a tiny dot before scattering away.
*We did it…*
At last, I could save Gang Min-hee.
*PAAT!*
I wandered through her mindscape, searching for her awareness.
After some time,
I found her awareness sleeping at the center of a black ink cloud.
*PAAT!*
*Twin Flower Heaven and Earth*
*White Lotus Flower!*
The aura of the incense dissipated the surrounding darkness.
I approached her awareness, grabbed her shoulders, and shook her.
“Wake up, Gang Min-hee.”
And Gang Min-hee opened her eyes halfway.
Her gaze was somewhat hazy.
She was dreaming.
I immediately used the Uihye Eunsan to enter her dream.
* * *
*This place…*
Our house.
The house I missed.
A truly wonderful house equipped with law artifacts—a computer, lamps, air conditioner, boiler—that allowed us to live comfortably every day.
And I was sitting on the bed, talking to Gang Min-hee, whose face was slightly flushed.
*This is… the day it happened.*
The day Gang Min-hee had passed out after drinking.
I had brought her to our house and put her to sleep in my room because I could not leave her alone.
Gang Min-hee and I were talking.
She sighed deeply and said, “Even if you give it to me, I can’t eat it.”
I laughed and said, “Buy me something to eat first.”
After a while, we bickered, and I whispered something in her ear.
At first confused, Gang Min-hee stayed silent for a long time, then quietly leaned her head on my shoulder.
That day was the day we started our short relationship again.
“Stop looking.”
*PASASASAK!*
The dream was becoming hazy, and Gang Min-hee appeared beside me.
“Why did you come? Get out.”
She held a bear claw in one hand, wearing a black silk robe, and stared at me with cold eyes.
“I was dreaming about old dreams in my sleep… and you were peeking at me like a pervert… As expected, you’re the worst. Get out. I was just reminiscing. There will never be a time we meet again.”
“I know that too.”
“If you know…”
I said nothing and took her hand.
“Let’s go. Once we’re out, we can talk.”
“Th-this, you won’t let go?”
Gang Min-hee looked startled and tried to pull her hand away.
But I did not let go and kept walking forward, holding her hand.
Inside her mindscape.
There, countless dark and ominous forces lurked.
“Let go! Let go! Hurry! Do you want me to die?”
Gang Min-hee began to get angry.
But I sensed her voice trembling.
I said,
“I won’t die.”
“You’re talking nonsense! What do you know… what do you know…!”
*WUUUUU—*
Black ink clouds appeared around us.
Inside Gang Min-hee’s mindscape.
This was not her mindscape, but the resentful spirits inside her soul.
“Don’t act tough, Seo Eun-hyun! Let go!”
Before long she was sniffling.
She was worried about me.
I began to read her past with the Eye of Desire.
I had roughly heard what had happened to Gang Min-hee in the Black Ghost Valley, so it was not difficult.
I understood everything that had happened until now.
I could not read the [Underworld hole] properly, but I could read about the ‘ghosts.’
*So that was what the Chief Judge meant…*
- One, what binds that child… you must judge for yourself.
Gang Min-hee pretended to be strong on the outside, but her heart was surprisingly gentle.
Despite that, her sense of responsibility was enormous.
*The ghosts…*
* * *
Gang Min-hee, who had entered the Black Ghost Valley, had learned the Anhun Jinjeol to comfort the souls of the ghosts.
The reason was simple.
Even after death, the ghosts being forced into the Black Ghost Valley had been pitiful.
One by one, she began to take in the ghosts.
She embraced them, comforted them, and comforted them.
And gradually, more ghosts began to gather around her.
It was not a problem of the body type like Guido Eumhwa Seonggeun.
It was her attitude of trying to truly understand the ghosts’ feelings, comforting them, and taking them in.
That attitude had attracted the ghosts.
At the time of the Seven-Star Ceremony, a group of ghosts who obeyed her command had punched a hole through the black ink cloud.
Even during Foundation Establishment advancement, a Foundation Establishment Pill was not needed.
The ghosts willingly gave her their power, allowing her to advance.
Because she needed to consume a Thousand Calamities to grow like Jeon Myeong-hun, she could not grow properly from Nascent Soul.
Without any constraints, from the day she learned the Anhun Jinjeol, she had grown vigorously to Four Pillars with the help of the ghosts.
However, there was a side effect.
Gang Min-hee began to feel that her mind was gradually being eroded by the ghosts.
The ghosts’ pain.
Their grievances.
The fear of not wanting to die.
Fear of death…
Those terrifying things gradually covered Gang Min-hee’s mind.
To endure that, she recalled the good days of her life.
…Somehow, the first thing that came to mind was the scene of her former boyfriend and her watching the sunset on a hill covered in clouds.
Although she did not like it herself, Gang Min-hee continued her training while recalling those scenes to maintain her mind.
One day.
She felt something [something] calling her from beyond herself.
The [something] said.
“I will help you.”
Since taking in the ghosts’ grievances would be painful, I will help you and take in the grievances together…
Gang Min-hee refused.
But… from some point on, the [call] grew stronger.
The [call] began to teach her a secret art.
At first she did not care about the secret art, but as time passed, the [call] grew stronger.
And one day.
Gang Min-hee met Seo Eun-hun again.
The day she met the grown Seo Eun-hun.
Thanks to Oh Hye-seo’s power, she had fallen somewhere, and at some point, she had fallen into the mouth of a terrifying being.
To escape that crisis, there was only one way.
To properly accept the power of the ghosts.
Until now, she had not properly accepted the grievances and pain.
She had only comforted them and extracted a little resentment.
If she fused with the ghosts properly, she could use terrifying power immediately.
Gang Min-hee, to break the situation, had accepted the ghosts.
And from within the ghosts’ grievances and pain, she finally responded to the [call].
Beyond the [call].
[Something] had taken over Gang Min-hee’s mind, and from that moment, her memories were no longer clear.
After the [call] grasped her soul, the flow of the being called Seo-hul invaded her, and the being beyond the [call] manifested through her body, she lost her mind.
After that, it was an endless time of pain.
She lost herself in the ghosts’ whispers and grievances.
And at some point.
Gang Min-hee opened her eyes again.
The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Seo Eun-hun.
The man she had once made happy times with.
It seemed he was fighting with her.
Scenes blurred and distorted.
Gang Min-hee could not understand why she was fighting Seo Eun-hun.
She did not want to fight.
She did not want to inflict wounds.
She wanted to hold his hand, not tear him apart with her hands.
She no longer wanted to argue with him!
If she continued like this… she would kill Seo Eun-hun.
So Gang Min-hee desperately prayed even in her chaotic memories.
To the existence of the [call].
Please.
I will give you anything, so please do not let me kill Seo Eun-hun with my own hands.
A reply came from the [call].
————?
It was words that a mortal could not understand.
But Gang Min-hee could understand, and she accepted the [call]’s voice.
She did not know the details, but she understood.
Beyond the [call].
She had to fall to a place where she could not see Seo Eun-hun again by relying on endless darkness.
To not kill the most precious thing with her own hands, she had to give up the most precious thing.
Gang Min-hee felt a great sadness at that miserable fact.
At the cruel fate of this world.
And at the suffering of countless resentful spirits who had died in this world.
*Life is…*
She had said something.
I do not remember what she said.
She had merely revealed a little of the emotion of ‘sorrow.’
After speaking, a ‘path’ was determined for her to follow according to the [call]’s guidance.
Along that path, she would never meet Seo Eun-hun again, but she would never kill him again.
That was Gang Min-hee’s past.
* * *
*…It was the ghosts.*
Various things about me, and the [call].
In other words, the [Underworld hole] also had a part in her madness.
But now that the hole was filled with the Flawless True Word, what kept her from recovering was the ghosts.
Because she had accepted their powerful grievances and pain and was in a state of erosion.
“Let go… let go…”
Gang Min-hee’s voice trembled.
She was telling me to let her go, to go away.
I felt as though I might be eroded by the ghosts too.
Because the ghosts’ grievances were never shallow.
And… Gang Min-hee had been unable to escape the madness of the Ghost Dao Holy Mother until now because she had been holding the ghosts’ grievances with her own hands.
*I wonder if she thought she had to take them in.*
It had always been like that.
On the surface she seemed cold and prickly, but in truth she was showing me mercy.
*Even the Human Rights Declaration soap.*
If she had not taken on the burden, perhaps instead of the Human Rights Declaration, she would have made a Communist Party Declaration soap or some other strange soap.
…There was actually a precedent of the Communist Party Declaration soap being pushed as a royal command.
*Anyway.*
What mattered was not that.
She was gentle.
She wanted to take in the pitiful.
Even if she seemed cold, her heart was kind.
So she could not ignore the grievances of these ghosts.
*Then what I have to do…*
*GRAB!*
I tightened my grip on Gang Min-hee’s hand and began to walk forward.
Gang Min-hee tried to shake off my hand, but I did not let go and kept walking.
Terrifying ghosts appeared before us.
They were the ones she had taken in, the collective of the grievances that had bound her.
[I’m wronged! I’m so wronged!]
[It’s unfair. It’s so unfair.]
[Mom, mom, our mom…]
[I want to live. I don’t want to die. Where is this place? Mom. Mom…]
[Please save me. Please save me. Please save me. I don’t want to become a pill!]
[The Great Heavenly Venerable will punish you all! Just like us, the soft-soled clan here, you will all be boiled in a pot and drunk dry!]
[It hurts, it hurts, it hurts. It hurts so much…!]
[I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die!!!]
I opened my mouth toward the gathering of that pain and suffering.
“I cannot understand you.”
How terrifying they must have been.
How frightening and painful.
Such things could not be judged by my standards.
No matter how much terrible pain I had endured, if I erased all my memories, took all my strength, and killed them miserably, I could have such pain too.
I could not simply say I “understood” them.
But…
“I only know a little about pain.”
*Step—*
I took one step closer to the collective of grievances.
“So… I can empathize.”
Come here.
*PAAT!*
The ghosts entered my embrace.
I read their past with the Eye of Desire, read their memories and thoughts from their past with the Eye of Comprehension, and made their pain and fear manifest to me.
*SSSSSSSSS!*
What did the ghosts most desire?
Because I myself was a great ghost who could not die and was living… I knew.
Having someone listen to my story.
Someone “knowing” my circumstances.
I quietly listened to their pain and empathized.
Without using any secret art or law technique…
The ghosts I had empathized with turned completely white and flew away into the void.
“Come again. Keep coming. Come more…!”
I brought in the ghosts that bound Gang Min-hee.
From at least tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
But I was not afraid.
I took one more step.
One step, another step.
I simply empathized with the ghosts’ pain, made it manifest to myself, understood it, and walked slowly forward.
* * *
Gang Min-hee walked forward with Seo Eun-hun’s hand, looking at him.
*How can you do that?*
She thought that even if she accepted just one ghost’s grievance, she would lose her mind to that pain.
How could a human understand death?
Could she know that her own life was being taken away completely?
That was why Gang Min-hee could not understand the ghosts who had experienced ‘death.’
*How can I understand them… and empathize?*
She could not understand Seo Eun-hun.
Suddenly, something appeared before her eyes.
It was a scene.
*This is…*
The day she first met Seo Eun-hun.
The days when they dated, were together, and broke up.
The awkward days that followed.
This was…
Seo Eun-hun’s memory.
The memories related to her in Seo Eun-hun’s memory naturally flowed in.
Seo Eun-hun was splitting apart.
He was splitting apart to accept more ghosts before him and empathize with them.
At least ten thousand pieces.
While splitting into ten thousand pieces, he walked forward holding Gang Min-hee’s hand.
Through the gaps of the split Seo Eun-hun, the memories of the ghosts he loved flowed in.
Gang Min-hee first realized in his memories that she was “strong.”
So she smiled bitterly.
*…Do you know, Seo Eun-hun?*
She looked at his back.
It was a back as vast as Mount Tai.
*The truly strong one… is you.*
Seo Eun-hun empathized with the ghosts she had taken in, comforted her.
But suddenly she thought.
*If you carry everyone’s sorrow first… who will carry your sorrow?*
And from the state where she was being pulled by his hand, she took her own step.
*Step—*
One step.
The forgotten memory returned.
Two steps.
That memory.
The time when she had felt sorrow after losing Seo Eun-hun and deciding to save him.
Three steps.
In her memory, she remembered feeling her own essence.
Within that essence, she saw [something].
It was something shaped like a Buddha statue she had seen once near a temple.
A painting of a Buddha statue wearing blue robes, sitting on a blue lotus, performing the Mudra of Fearlessness.
Four steps.
Gang Min-hee reached out toward the painting and cried.
She herself did not know why she was crying.
But one thing was clear.
She had understood what the meaning of ‘sorrow’ was.
Five steps.
*WOO-OONG!*
Light entered Gang Min-hee’s eyes.
*Thinking about it… you’ve led me a lot.*
First love, first dating, first breakup…
Everything had been led by Seo Eun-hun.
Even now he was leading her.
*I cannot lead you.*
She was not strong enough to walk forward without hesitation.
Seo Eun-hun thought Gang Min-hee was weaker and had stronger responsibility, but actually Gang Min-hee thought Seo Eun-hun was stronger.
Six steps.
And finally Gang Min-hee stood on almost the same line as Seo Eun-hun.
She faced the ghosts before her.
*But… I can protect them.*
In the next instant.
Gang Min-hee finally stretched out her foot and went a little ahead of Seo Eun-hun.
Seven steps.
*I will protect you. I can leave the embracing to him… just as you led me, I will lead you… and everyone. I will protect you with all my strength.*
I cannot embrace Seo Eun-hun.
From the day I touched the painting of the Bodhisattva in blue robes, I knew.
She had already become someone who comforted.
Someone who comforted sorrow.
Sorrow is ‘leaving behind.’
Sorrow is missing what is left behind and grieving in the heart.
Because what is left behind can usually not be reached again.
The ghosts had left life behind,
and Gang Min-hee, even after parting from Seo Eun-hun, had always left Seo Eun-hun’s place behind.
But…
Seo Eun-hun would never enter this place again.
Comforting sorrow meant understanding what was left behind and sending it off.
*So that…*
Gang Min-hee finally understood what the [call] had done to her.
The [call] had changed Gang Min-hee into a Seopmyeong Ship.
It stored the ghosts and, at the time of the end, sent them normally to the Underworld instead of escaping to the Ilwol Cheonyeok.
It played the role of sending the ghosts so they would receive comfort in the Underworld.
That was the hidden role of the Black Ghost Valley and the true purpose of the Seopmyeong Ship.
Gang Min-hee looked at Seo Eun-hun.
*If I want to become freer too… I have to send you.*
She understood her own sorrow.
The sorrow left in the place for Seo Eun-hun who had left.
That was ‘her’ sorrow.
And…
To comfort that sorrow, she had to completely send Seo Eun-hun from her heart.
*But… it seems difficult to send him yet.*
So Gang Min-hee decided to accept a little more sorrow.
But this sorrow was different from the sorrow until now.
She had fully accepted her own sorrow.
Completely sending off was a given.
And sending off meant building a wall between people.
Gang Min-hee wanted to protect Seo Eun-hun through that wall.
*PUKWAK!*
And at that moment.
Gang Min-hee’s hair completely turned blue.
Blue light spread from Gang Min-hee, purifying the darkness.
The ghosts’ grievances were washed away all at once.
*PASAK!*
Along with it, the charcoal mask she had been wearing on her face shattered, and Seo Eun-hun’s appearance returned completely.
Seo Eun-hun smiled faintly at Gang Min-hee.
“You see? I told you I wouldn’t die.”
*PASASASASAK!*
At the same time, the ten thousand pieces of split Seo Eun-hun returned to their original form.
*GUGUGUGUGU!*
At the same time, the Triple Taiji rose behind Seo Eun-hun’s back.
By empathizing with Gang Min-hee’s internal ghosts and reading their history to understand them,
Seo Eun-hun fulfilled the final condition of the Eye of Desire Four Pillars advancement ritual.
Seo Eun-hun released Gang Min-hee who had escaped from the darkness and walked toward the Gaeyeol True Immortal flying in the distance.
Gang Min-hee reached out slightly toward that Seo Eun-hun and recalled the past.
After the day Seo Eun-hun brought Gang Min-hee home and said they should date again for a while,
the two dated for about three days, and on the last day they parted.
The outdoor smoking terrace of the company.
There, Gang Min-hee was smoking a cigarette while looking at the sunset.
Seo Eun-hun came beside her and quietly stayed for a moment.
After a short silence.
Gang Min-hee once again recommended a breakup to Seo Eun-hun.
- It’s over. Let’s break up again. You’ve comforted me enough…
- …Are you sure?
- …Yeah. More than me…
Because there was someone who could embrace Seo Eun-hun better than herself and heal him…
- …No, it’s fine. You won’t understand even if I tell you.
Of course, the Seo Eun-hun who had eaten rice while being picky about the dish did not notice the hint, but Gang Min-hee had already noticed.
Kim Yeon would eventually connect with Seo Eun-hun.
And… she would embrace and heal Seo Eun-hun even better than herself…
- …Let me have one cigarette too, Gang Min-hee.
- You said you quit?
- I’m craving one.
- …It’s a lighter.
- …? I just bought a pack!
- Shut up. Today I’m giving it to you.
- Light it a little too…
She lit the cigarette.
But the lighter would not work. The fire did not catch.
It was a new lighter; it seemed broken.
Gang Min-hee took the cigarette from her mouth and handed it to Seo Eun-hun.
Seo Eun-hun brought the tip of his cigarette to Gang Min-hee’s lighter.
*CHIIIII—*
Giving the lighter back, Gang Min-hee conveyed her final words of farewell.
- Goodbye, my ex.
Seo Eun-hun, receiving the last flame, answered.
- Take care, my ex.
“Goodbye…”
Gang Min-hee watched the Seo Eun-hun whose hand she could not hold and clenched her fist slightly.
“Seo Eun-hun.”
Seo Eun-hun left Gang Min-hee.
She knew he would not come back.
She had sent him off.
And now she would watch from behind.
From behind, or from the front.
Without approaching again, just watching.
She would become Seo Eun-hun’s wall.
She would become a wall and silently protect him.
That was…
the way she was sending Seo Eun-hun off.
That day,
Gang Min-hee could finally fully accept the meaning of what she had realized before—“life is sorrow.”
---