The Light Within
Carmen
“I just went to talk to you and got kidnapped…”
Carmen muttered, sniffling.
“I only meant to make a light connection to your consciousness, you know? Nothing major—just a little chat. But then this weird guy with his reverse eyes suddenly activated showed up.”
She rattled the red threads binding her body.
“‘I need an assistant,’ he said, and dragged me straight here.”
“And you just let yourself get caught?”
“I did not just let it happen!!! I resisted. Hard.”
“Then… why are you still tied up?”
“That guy’s kind of a cheat…”
Carmen puffed out her cheeks.
“It feels like he’s connected to the world itself. Going head-on against him is just a hassle.”
“But… you.”
Carmen suddenly tilted her head.
“It’s worse than I thought.”
“…What is?”
“The guilt.”
"....."
“…I get why you’re linked to penitence now. You keep holding on to it. You won’t let go.”
“People are like that.”
“They hide the most painful things in the deepest places.”
“....”
“But do you know? Hiding it doesn’t make it disappear.”
Carmen continued quietly.
“It just keeps rotting from the inside.”
“…Don’t act like you know.”
“I’m not acting.”
Carmen stared straight at me.
“I’ve seen so many people like that. For all my looks, I’ve watched a great many of them…”
“....”
“Crushed under their own sins. Hating themselves. And still trying to keep living.”
"I wanted to help them. That’s why I founded the laboratory."
Her gaze wavered faintly.
“But you know what? Do you know what I learned from that?”
Carmen smiled slowly.
“People can’t look straight at their own wounds.”
“What do you mean…?”
“They keep running.”
“Making excuses.”
“Burying it.”
“Or accepting their sins as something inevitable and falling apart.”
"Because… I was like that. My colleagues were like that too."
Silence.
And then—
Carmen spoke very quietly.
“So I.”
Her red eyes glowed faintly.
“Force them to face it anyway. So they don’t end up like me… so they can face the light within their own hearts.”
In that instant the space rippled.
“What is this…?”
The room swayed like water.
Carmen’s form blurred.
And then—
It slowly changed into another face.
“Team Leader Mir…?”
Black uniform and those distinctive vermilion eyes.
Mir, one hand resting on her sword sheath, looking down at me.
That familiar sly smile she always wore.
But it was far too cold. It felt like it was piercing straight into my heart.
“Hey.”
“Why were you late again this time?”
My breath caught in my throat.
“Don’t… say that. Don’t say things like that wearing the face of someone precious.”
“No, I’m genuinely curious.”
Mir approached slowly.
The tip of her sheath scraped across the floor.
Ssshk.
“You were late then too.”
“Late this time as well.”
“I thought it would be different this time. Why are you always one step behind?”
“Shut up.”
“Ah…!”
“Trying to make excuses again?”
“....”
“Going to say you did your best this time?”
“That you had no choice?”
My heart gave a painful throb.
Mir’s eyes narrowed.
“But the result’s the same, isn’t it?”
“.”
“You failed to protect them again?”
My breath stopped.
“Shut… your mouth.”
“Your face when Yuri collapsed was pretty funny.”
Mir snickered.
“Couldn’t even breathe.”
“Hands shaking.”
“Looked like you were about to cry any second.”
“Were you scared?”
Those vermilion eyes locked onto mine.
“Afraid of losing someone again?”
My lips trembled.
“That’s not…”
“Don’t pretend it isn’t.”
Mir tapped her sheath lightly.
“You’ve already broken as much as a person can break.”
“And still you throw yourself in, claiming you’ll protect someone.”
“And end up losing everything again.”
Mir’s smile deepened.
“You’ve got talent for it, don’t you?”
My fingertips shook.
KWAANG!!
The space twisted.
It rippled again.
This time it was Doyun.
Expressionless face.
Cold eyes.
“Your judgment was late.”
My heart plummeted.
“You failed to properly control the risk factors.”
“And even left the corrosion state unattended.”
Doyun spoke calmly.
“Disappointing.”
“Were you never qualified to begin with?”
“You always move on emotion.”
“You’re always late.”
Doyun slowly raised the tip of his spear.
“In the end… another accident occurred.”
“Who dies next?”
The space rippled once more.
Nova stood there,
long rifle slung over her shoulder, smiling.
With nothing but an empty smile.
“Wow~ that was really dangerous.”
“This time it was Yuri.”
“Who’s next?”
Nova narrowed her eyes.
“Team Leader Mir?”
“Senior Doyun?”
“Carmen… please… please stop.”
“Or is it me?”
“You keep this up and someday you’ll actually kill everyone, you know?”
Nova smirked.
“You’ve got talent~”
“Hey, don’t make that crumbling face.”
Nova’s smile deepened.
“I’m seriously complimenting you.”
“You’ve got talent, I said? Talent for making the people around you miserable.”
My nails dug into my palms.
Even breathing was hard.
And then—
The space rippled again.
This time it was Yuri.
Completely unharmed.
Her usual neat employee uniform.
The glove tips she always fiddled with when nervous.
That familiar face.
That familiar smile.
“Han…”
My breath stopped.
“Yuri…?”
Yuri gave a small laugh.
“Why are you freezing up like that?”
"…”
“I didn’t die, you know?”
Yuri shrugged.
“Your expression looks exactly like someone who just came back from a funeral.”
My coworker from day one.
The memory of us awkwardly greeting each other in the training hall flashed past.
“You….”
“Yes?”
“You’re okay, right…?”
Yuri blinked.
And then—
She smiled very slowly.
“Well.”
In that instant—
Plip.
Red blood dripped onto the floor.
“Huh…?”
The skin beneath Yuri’s throat was slowly tearing open.
Crimson blood gushed out.
Her uniform was instantly soaked red.
“Ah…”
My breath locked.
Yuri was still smiling.
But her face was growing paler by the second.
“This time too…”
Yuri laughed in a trembling voice.
“You were late.”
“No.”
Yuri took a step closer.
Blood spread under her feet.
“If you’d been just a little later.”
Yuri let out a breathy laugh.
“I really almost died.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Why not?”
Yuri smiled.
But that smile was far too cold.
“It’s the truth.”
“...”
“You’re always late, Han.”
My heart dropped.
“Always regretting.”
“Always falling apart.”
“But nothing ever changes.”
Yuri tilted her head.
“It was the same this time too, wasn’t it?”
“Yuri.”
“No one wants to die.”
Yuri’s voice lowered.
“I didn’t want to die.”
“And no one else wants to die either.”
Red blood trailed down her chin and fell.
“But you always.”
Yuri smiled.
“Act like you’re the only one suffering the most.”
My breath caught.
“That’s….”
“Then what should you have done, Han?”
Yuri stepped even closer.
A wet splash sounded under her feet.
“Should you have died with me?”
“Or should you have done nothing from the start?”
My throat closed.
No answer came.
Yuri simply stared at me.
With eyes wet and red.
“But you know.”
Yuri tapped her own chest with a blood-smeared hand.
Splash.
Red blood spattered.
“The fact that it ended up like this.”
“It really is your fault, isn’t it?”
In that moment—
My mind went pure white.
“Ah…”
“Always late.”
“Always moving on emotion.”
“Always trying to carry everything alone.”
Yuri’s smile twisted further.
“But the result?”
“I almost died again this time.”
My breath locked solid.
Yuri approached slowly.
And then—
She whispered right beside my ear.
“Why do you always reach out first when you can’t even protect anyone?”
My heart sank straight down.
“Stop… stop it.”
My voice cracked.
Yuri looked at me and smiled very slowly.
But that smile—
No longer belonged to the Yuri I knew.
“You still… still don’t get it?”
“You, Han.”
Yuri’s eyes rippled red.
“Aren’t trying to save anyone.”
“You’re just thrashing around to ease your own guilt.”
My head went blank.
“That’s not true.”
“What’s not true about it?”
Yuri snickered.
“If it had really been for me.”
“You wouldn’t have moved so recklessly. Who was the one who almost died from overdoing it alone while fighting beside me?”
Yuri poked her own chest with a finger.
Splash.
Red blood ran down.
“It was me. Because of your recklessness.”
"You know the future, you say? You’re twisting fate, you say? You are twisting it. Twisting someone who was meant to live into someone who almost died."
My breath stopped.
A ringing filled my ears.
My fingertips trembled.
Yuri looked down at me and murmured quietly.
“You’re so cruel, Han.”
“If you’re going to save someone, save them properly.”
“Or don’t give them hope and make them expect anything in the first place.”
My vision swayed.
And then—
Carmen with her gray hair appeared again.
“Does it hurt?”
Carmen said quietly.
“Why…?”
My voice cracked.
“Why are you showing me this…”
Carmen was silent for a while.
Then she opened her mouth very slowly.
“Because you keep running from it.”
“...”
“People try not to look properly at their own sins.”
“They keep covering them up.”
“They keep looking away.”
“And eventually they rot from the inside.”
Carmen looked at me.
“But you’re especially bad.”
“...”
“You hold onto the guilt.”
“And at the same time you never face it properly.”
My breath caught hard.
“You keep running.”
“Not toward ‘it’s not my fault.’”
“But toward ‘I just don’t have to think about it.’”
“Shut up… shut the hell up!!!”
“That’s why I showed you.”
Carmen’s gaze deepened.
“The voices you hate hearing the most.”
“The gazes you fear the most.”
“Because those are.”
Carmen smiled quietly.
“The real voices inside you right now. The light in your heart.”
The space rippled again.
This time far more violently.
Carmen’s expression hardened for the first time.
“Huh…? Wait, what.”
Carmen furrowed her brow.
“This isn’t something I touched.”
In that instant—
The entire room split open in black cracks.
And then—
Someone walked out.
School uniform.
Black winter coat.
An ordinary male student.
My breath stopped.
It felt like my heart dropped straight to the floor.
Familiar.
So familiar.
I had never forgotten.
Not even once.
“Why… are you here?”
My voice trembled.
The male student slowly raised his head.
And smiled.
It was a warm smile.
“Long time no see, ■■.”
My breath locked.
My vision swayed.
Carmen looked at the student.
For the first time, her eyes held wariness.
“What… are you?”
The student glanced toward Carmen.
Then spoke very quietly.
“It’s still too early.”
Silence fell.
Carmen’s eyes narrowed.
“Why are you here?”
The student did not answer.
He simply looked at me again.
“It’s okay.”
“It wasn’t your fault.”
In that moment—
The sound of water began in my ears.
Splash.
Splash.
My breathing turned rough.
“Back then too…”
The student smiled quietly.
“You didn’t do it on purpose.”
No.
Don’t listen.
“It’s okay.”
“Don’t… come closer.”
“You did enough.”
“Stay away!!”
I couldn’t breathe.
My hands shook.
My vision collapsed.
The smell of rain.
A cold sensation.
Screams.
“No…”
The student reached out a hand.
“You can stop suffering now.”
“AAAAAGH!!”
In that instant—
KWAJIK!!
The space shattered into pieces.
My breath stopped.
My body trembled.
Someone grabbed my shoulders.
“Hey!!”
A familiar voice.
“Snap out of it!!”
My eyes flew open.
Rough breathing.
Blurred vision.
And then—
Vermilion eyes.
“Team Leader Mir? Where…?”
Mir was looking down at me, brow furrowed.
“Infirmary. Did you have a nightmare or something?”
In that moment—
I realized my hands were still shaking.