Chapter 18: Until the End.

TAANG-! A gunshot that seemed to tear the eardrums.

It was something that happened in an instant.

In the silence where even time seemed to have stopped, a half-crushed bullet fell with a thud.

Rolling across the wooden floor, above the lead bullet was a right hand gripping the end of the handgun tightly. It was Seo Jin’s prosthetic.

Ceril was safe thanks to the fact that he had reacted in time.

She had just frozen in place with her finger still on the trigger.

With an expression mixed with confusion, unease, and Devastated(mangyeonham: blankness; bewilderment).

From Ceril, who had stopped like that, Seo Jin immediately snatched away the handgun.

He separated the magazine and emptied the chamber in an instant, and then threw it far away. The handgun rolled across the floor and disappeared under the sofa.

Now, only silence with the faint smell of gunpowder was left.

Seo Jin felt his heart beating wildly.

It was really a close call.

He had barely reacted in time, but if he had been even a little slower,

If he had been absorbed (neotnohgo: spacing out) even for a brief moment-

Ceril would have clearly done it to herself………….

It was a result that he didn’t even want to imagine.

So, he tightly grabbed her shoulders and spoke with all his heart.

“Don’t ever do that again.”

But Ceril didn’t look at him.

She was just sitting down with a bewildered expression. As if she had completely lost her strength. She couldn’t even bring herself to lift her head, like a doll with a cut string…..

Seo Jin bent his knees and matched his eye level with the Ceril, who wasn’t answering.

“Ceril, look here. Look at me.”

Light brown eyes finally turned to look at Seo Jin.

A gaze that had lost its vitality like ash that had been burned.

But there was still a fragment of longing left inside it.

The one who had been averting his eyes from that so far was none other than Seo Jin.

He thought that he was someone who had to leave in the end, so it was best to separate like this, that he shouldn’t get involved in her life with just a past relationship.

But that was a misjudgment.

Ceril was in a much more croweded together (molryeoitdeon: cornered) state than he had thought, and was spending a difficult (himgyeoun: difficult; arduous) life to the point where she was thinking of relying on the old comrade she had met by chance as her last support.

He felt sorry for that.

She was clearly a beautiful and capable person. She was still someone who was worthy of being loved by anyone, but the fact that she wasn’t cherishing herself… he felt so pathetically (aetcheoropge: pitifully; forlornly) sorry for her, and carefully wrapped his hand over her trembling hand, which was that much pitifully.

While covering her ice-cold hand, he said.

“Ceril, please keep just one thing in mind.”

“You are a good person.”

She dropped her head. Her long hair was scattered and covered her eyes. Drooping shoulders. Time flowed by in heavy silence.

After a long time, a voice that had been badly hoarsened leaked out.

“…..A lie.”

“It’s not a lie.”

“You’re doing that, saying such things… while abandoning me too?”

Bloodshot eyes glared at him.

Seo Jin also looked straight into her gaze.

The truth that he shouldn’t avert his eyes from any longer,

He wanted to face it properly even now.

So, he pulled up his sleeve.

He removed the cloth that had been covering it,

And completely covered his shoulder,

And the dark blue stain that was getting closer to his heart,

He showed it all to her.

In an instant, Ceril’s eyes widened distantly.

Her bloodless complexion had turned even more pale.

She had recognized at once what that scar was.

Anyone who had been a soldier and had faced Encroachment species would have faced it at least once. The victims who had been infected with the Hexa Virus, there was no way she wouldn’t know what fate was waiting for them.

“Ah….. Aaaah….”

Ceril, who had realized all the truth, couldn’t even breathe with a cold, frozen face, just like a corpse, so Seo Jin realized that she had received a much bigger shock than he had expected.

When he pressed down on the hand that he had been covering with a little strength, she was barely able to exhale only then.

Ceril finally understood.

Why he had been trying to leave her side.

After all, destiny had been decided.

Since they had met again,

Farewell had been foretold for each other.

“So…….”

To Ceril, who had a bewildered expression, Seo Jin confessed calmly.

“I’m sorry. The reason I couldn’t tell you from the beginning was only because I didn’t want you to be sad because of me. But… it ended up turning out like this.”

Now, the only words that he could say were a sincere request.

“Please remember, Ceril. As you live on somehow, precious things will be created. Even painful and agonizing memories will eventually become dulled someday. Ceril is a really good person, so in the future, much more valuable than me-“

“No.”

A low voice cut off Seo Jin’s words.

Eyes that had clearly regained their focus were now glaring at him straight.

“No matter what you say, you’re abandoning me in the end.”

Seo Jin, who was a little embarrassed by her suddenly changed atmosphere, answered.

“I don’t have much time left-“

“What does that matter!”

Ceril grabbed his wrist in an instant.

The unease and confusion that had been surrounding her had disappeared before he knew it.

Because she had finally learned all the truth.

Because she had realized that he wasn’t leaving Ceril because he had no feelings for her.

She put strength into the hand that was grabbing him without hesitating as if she would never let go again.

She said.

“Do you want me to keep living on? Then take responsibility. No matter how much time is left, it doesn’t matter, just…. stay by my side until the end.”

“Then I won’t give up and will keep living on too. Even after you’ve truly left, I’ll live on somehow….!”

It was late, but Seo Jin had no choice but to admit it.

The heart that she had towards him was a much deeper and heavier sincerity than he had imagined. He had truly realized it now.

So, he worry (gomin: agonized; troubled).

The life that had been postponed for him was now really only a little left. Furthermore, it would only be more painful from now on. The more serious the infection became, the bigger the pain would become. He had come here in order to be comfortable early on without stubbornly enduring it, but…

If this time that he had been trying to give up,

Could be meaningful to someone….

He wanted to willingly use it in that place.

“I understand. I won’t leave.”

“….Really?”

“Yes, until the end.”

Seo Jin tightly grabbed her hand, which was still cold.

While looking at her face with the traces of tears dried.

Like that, the two of them made a promise for a long time.

The empty house.

In the coffee pot placed on the table, the water that was half full was coldly cooling.

In the scenery of that one-room where no one was,

Linesha lightly swept across the table with her fingertips.

The dust that was slightly buried (mudeonaneun: smudging) It was a trace of someone not living here for a long time.

The appearance of the house was mostly similar to him.

It had been organized, but there was no trace of life.

As if there would never be a time to come here again,

In the middle of that scenery, Linesha was lost in thought with her arms crossed.

Where on earth did it all go wrong?

Linesha agonizing for a long time with that coldly frozen expression, and finally came to a conclusion.

From the beginning, it had been a completely I got it wrong(teullyeomeogeun:wrong : eat, but here it is used as an auxiliary verb that reinforces the degree of wrongness. It is similar to saying utterly, completely wrong. There is nothing to salvage, or there is nothing good that can come out of it.) way,

So ‘Teacher’ had been able to betray her once again.

There shouldn’t have been a chance for that in the first place.

The fact that she had wasted time in useless hesitation was even my teeth were shaking (chiga tteollyeotda: She felt chills because of shame, anger or feeling bad, etc.).

The tightly clenched fist was just turning as white as a sheet without any blood.