Chapter 82
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 82
Chapter Title: Thorny Flower
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Right now, pinned beneath Yoo Seon-woo.
His breath brushed her cheek, and she could feel his heart pounding fiercely through his shirt.
Behind her back, black ashes swirled in the flames consuming them.
This distance.
This was just right.
Gazing back and forth between the remnants of Choi Si-hyeok burning away to nothing and the face of Yoo Seon-woo straddling her...
Mary reminisced about the past.
It was a story from long ago.
Her world had been reduced to ashes, and behind her back, nothing remained.
After ten years of war.
The end of the Divine Nation Erebos...
The final stand of the high priests and holy knights, staking everything they had, ended in mutual destruction with the descended demons, reducing all to nothingness.
Lava surged from cracks in the earth. Not a single living creature breathed on the surface.
Mary should have met her end alongside her homeland in that crumbling world.
But at the very moment the world was about to collapse, an unknown force seized her.
With a sensation like dimensions tearing apart, she was transferred to another world, against her will.
The last survivor of the Divine Nation Erebos.
She had no home to return to.
No people from her homeland.
No one who had loved her.
No one... who even remembered her.
Everything remained only as faint memories.
That crushing weight of despair was far too heavy for a young girl to bear.
And that weight showed in her demeanor.
"Um, Mary. That's not what I meant... If it's okay, maybe we could work out together or something..."
"Get lost."
Back then, Choi Si-hyeok—the top prospect of the Golden Riders—and other Otherworlders had continually approached her, dazzled by her otherworldly beauty.
But the response was always rejection.
Soon enough, most realized the truth.
She was a flower laced with poison.
However, there was one person who didn't see her that way.
When Mary had first arrived in this world.
When she bared her hostility to everyone.
When she felt there was no one left on her side in the world...
As she wandered the park, thinking she might as well just drop dead right there.
"......"
She saw it.
Late at night, on a bench bathed in moonlight, a man sat with his head bowed, shoulders silently shaking.
A choked sob desperately holding back tears.
It was Yoo Seon-woo, a man she'd only glimpsed in passing.
—Mary, try smiling a bit. You look way prettier without the frown.
—Get lost.
—Okay~ See you tomorrow!
The man who always cheerfully chatted her up, undeterred even by rejection the next day.
She had instinctively sensed he harbored no ulterior motives.
He, who always shone brightly and got along with everyone.
Was sitting alone on that bench, swallowing his tears.
Mary paused there for a moment.
Curiosity bubbled up inside her.
A weakling.
But at the same time, someone hiding wounds in a way different from her own.
The opposite of Mary.
Not baring her pain and bristling with thorns, but choosing to conceal it—this man.
She grew a little... curious about him.
For some reason, her feet wouldn't move.
Instead, Mary moved quietly.
She headed to a vending machine in one corner of the garden.
Under the dim light, she selected a can of warm coffee.
When she returned to the bench, he hadn't stirred, still with his head down.
Mary quietly placed the can of coffee next to him, at arm's reach.
—Thud.
The sound of the can hitting the bench echoed through the garden.
Yoo Seon-woo jolted upright, lifting his head.
He hastily wiped his tears, but his reddened eyes were impossible to hide.
Mary had already turned away.
What was she even trying to do?
She intended to vanish without a word.
But.
"Mary."
Yoo Seon-woo called out to her.
His voice wasn't cheerful—it carried a hint of weariness.
Mary stopped and slowly turned to look at him.
Yoo Seon-woo smiled faintly through his damp eyes and patted the empty spot on the bench beside him.
"Want to sit?"
Mary hesitated for a moment.
...She didn't know why she hesitated back then.
Normally, she would've just turned away without a word.
But Mary silently approached and perched cautiously on the far opposite end.
An awkward silence flowed between them, but...
Yoo Seon-woo broke it first.
"Embarrassing, huh."
He rolled the can in his hands and spoke carefully.
"Showing a side like this in front of you, Mary."
She could guess what he meant.
Crying over something like this.
The Riders knew bits about Mary's background.
It must've been embarrassing to cry in front of her over something so trivial.
Mary didn't respond.
She hadn't stopped for any other reason.
Well.
She wasn't so different herself.
Every night.
In her empty bedroom, she buried her face in the pillow and wept silently.
She thought even screams were a luxury.
Sometimes, she considered ending it all right there.
There was just no reason to keep living.
Mary gazed at him with empty eyes as he wiped his slightly dampened eyes.
'You're the same, aren't you?'
There's no hierarchy in sorrow.
Even he, who smiled and laughed so brightly, ended up swallowing his pain alone at night.
She didn't know what hurt him.
But.
They were the same—wounded people. The only difference was how they showed it.
'In the end, you're no different from me, are you?'
How do you compare the size of grief?
Mary wasn't the type to inflate her own pain and diminish others'.
"Not really."
So, without looking at him, Mary said that.
"You seem strong, Mary."
"Not really."
As if.
If I were strong...
I could've saved them all.
My world wouldn't have crumbled.
No one would have died.
And I wouldn't have escaped alone like this.
It was right then, as Mary bowed her head in self-mocking despair.
"Well."
Yoo Seon-woo tilted his head.
"None of that was your fault, Mary."
"What...?"
Mary reflexively countered, though she hadn't voiced it. It was guilt churning inside her.
Yet he answered as if reading her mind, responding to that self-mockery.
Mary stared at him in shock.
"What did you just... say..."
How? How on earth?
But Yoo Seon-woo didn't answer.
He just lifted the corner of his mouth in a gentle smile.
For a moment, Mary felt like she was dreaming.
It was always what she wanted to hear.
'It wasn't your fault, right?'
Every moment since being cast into this unfamiliar world, abandoning her ruined homeland—that one phrase she longed for.
But at the same time, words no one could ever say to her.
So how did you?
How did you know?
"How...!"
—Tap.
Right then, Yoo Seon-woo's fingertip gently touched her forehead.
Mary looked up at him in surprise.
"Just."
"......"
Yoo Seon-woo whispered.
"I had a feeling you were thinking that."
And slowly added,
"Not everything shows in your eyes."
From then on, he said nothing more.
He withdrew his finger and silently stayed by her side.
The two sat side by side on the bench in silence.
Time passed.
The moon in the sky tilted westward, and cold dawn air settled between them.
He didn't leave.
He didn't pity her pain or offer hasty comfort.
How much time passed?
As the veil of night lifted and the world slowly awoke.
Sunlight pierced through the massive dome of the quarantine zone.
Mary turned her head.
Beside her sat Yoo Seon-woo, who had kept vigil by her side all night.
And.
Mary finally felt herself awakening from a long, endless nightmare.
The same afternoon.
The same meal.
In the quarantine zone's vast cafeteria, Mary sat alone as always.
Now, no one dared approach her.
But.
"Mary!"
A bright voice called to her.
The din in the cafeteria halted instantly, all eyes turning to one spot.
It was Yoo Seon-woo.
Tray in hand, he beamed at her.
Mary fidgeted with her fingers unconsciously.
'What should I do?'
Her heart pounded fiercely.
Memories of last night flashed by.
The warmth of him silently by her side, the gentle touch of his fingertip on her forehead.
Should she tell him to get lost?
Or ask him to tap her forehead again like yesterday?
Or what?
Options swirled in her mind.
In the end, she chose a path she'd never taken before.
"...Yeah."
Head bowed, in a voice as tiny as a mosquito's.
At that tentative reply, the eyes of many in the cafeteria focused intently.
"Wanna eat together?"
At the center of the commotion, only Yoo Seon-woo smiled brightly.
That was the starting point for Mary and Yoo Seon-woo.
