Chapter 22: Live. I’ll Find You.

Siheon glanced behind him briefly, gripping Kangeun’s hands tightly.

He whispered in a lower voice, biting his lip firmly.

Kangeun could see on his face that he was clearly enduring pain.

“Why don’t we have time? What, what does that mean?”

Anxiety swirled within her voice, which was thick with tears.

A sad premonition that she would lose Siheon again made her cry.

She was burning with frustration because she knew he was hurting somewhere, but he wouldn’t tell her the truth.

“Go Kangeun.”

At his urgent yet resolute voice, Kangeun wiped away her tears and nodded.

She instinctively read in his determined face that now was not the time for worry, but a time to listen to what he had to say.

“Live.”

“…….”

“Live, no matter what. Because I will find you.”

“……Siheon-ah.”

“I will find you. I will come to you, Noona. So that we won’t have to part like this again, so that you never have to cry again. I will make sure of it. Noona, are you listening to me?”

“I’m listening.”

“I’ll come find you. So please.”

“…….”

“We can meet again. Even if it takes some time, I will make it happen.”

“Siheon-ah…….”

“Live. Just stay alive. Please, just stay alive.”

Kangeun’s wet eyes, looking up at him, wavered, not understanding the reason behind his words.

Siheon’s throat bobbed as he looked down at her eyes.
After squeezing her hands until it hurt, he let go and slowly raised his hand.

“Don’t cry. Don’t cry because of me.”

His gaze was sorrowful as he carefully brushed away the hair stuck to her wet face.

His large hand, cradling her damp, tear-stained cheek, felt burning hot.
Kangeun couldn’t even blink; she locked eyes with him, letting him fill her entire vision.

“Don’t cry…….”

Pained by the sight of his hand trembling while holding her face, Kangeun leaned her cheek against it.

She rubbed her cheek against his palm, a silent gesture that she would not cry.

She did it because she wanted to provide some comfort to him, as he was clearly feeling as anxious as she was.

“…….”

Feeling the distance closing, the deepening gaze, and his breath drawing near, Kangeun looked at him.

Afraid that he would disappear if she closed her eyes, afraid that this too might be a dream, she stared at him endlessly, engraving his plea to “just stay alive” into her heart.

She accepted him as he approached—slowly, enough to make her breathless, as naturally as water soaking into the earth—and realized that his face was closer than it had ever been.

She realized in that moment that Siheon’s eyes, tilted at an angle and looking downward, were fixed with persistent intent on her lips.

“…….”

Kangeun suddenly regained her senses, and her hands tensed.

She froze, gripping his arms firmly.

Their noses touched. Their gazes locked.

They stopped at a distance where they could feel each other’s breathing.

Their wavering pupils spoke volumes of the confusion currently befalling Kangeun.

Reading her slight resistance, Siheon’s eyes stared straight at her.

“Noona.”

“…….”

“Go Kangeun.”

Kangeun knew exactly what Siheon’s intense gaze, calling her name, desired.

The moment she realized it, her heart dropped with a thud, aching as if it were rolling in the dirt.

She hadn’t wanted this kind of confusion.

This wasn’t right.

“……No.”

“…….”

“Siheon-ah, we are……”

It couldn’t be.

Siheon and she were family.

Even if they didn’t share a drop of blood, he was someone so precious to her—someone she had lived her whole life thinking of as her younger brother—how could they not be family?

She couldn’t lead Siheon down a bad path, as the neighbors had pointed fingers and claimed.

She couldn’t be bound to him by something other than family, not with her, who only brought misfortune.

Siheon, at the very least, had to be happy.

Therefore……

“We shouldn’t do this……”

“There he is!”

A shout that cut through Kangeun’s words echoed through the alley.

Pulled back into reality in an instant, Kangeun unconsciously hid in Siheon’s arms.

As the sound of urgent leather shoes grew closer, she grasped his waist tightly.

Siheon also pulled her into his embrace without a gap, turning his head to glare at the wall facing the alley.

“No, don’t go. Siheon-ah, don’t go.”

Kangeun held onto him with a voice more resolute than ever.

Her heart grew frantic because she knew for certain that the group coming to take Siheon away from her was near.

“Here! Over this way!”

The man’s shout was heard again.

She buried herself deeper into Siheon’s chest, trying not to hear the sound of the desperate footsteps.

But she could no longer ignore the figures appearing over the wall.

The strangers easily climbed over the gate of Kangeun’s house.

Kangeun watched with bated breath as four men in suits discovered the two of them clinging to each other, their faces twisted in frustration as they breathed heavily.

The man who had been touching his ear to use his headset said only one thing that Kangeun could understand: “We’ve found him.”

The men, not even taking off their shoes, stepped up into Kangeun’s room.

Though she flinched, Kangeun did not let go of Siheon, and he grabbed her tightly in return.

“Let’s go.”

The men tried to pull her and Siheon apart by force.

The more they did, the tighter Siheon gripped Kangeun.

Siheon curled his body, hiding her in his arms to keep from letting her go.

However……

“You know your surgical site will burst if you use your strength right now, don’t you?”

At the words shouted by the young man standing at the front of the group as if out of patience, Kangeun’s grip loosened.

“……Surgery?”

“…….”

“What surgery? Siheon-ah, what surgery?”

“…….”

“Why, where are you sick! What is going on!”

While Kangeun, overwhelmed by the worry she had momentarily forgotten, tried to examine him, Siheon was grabbed by two men and forced to stand.

Even as he resisted violently and rejected them with all his might, the men didn’t let him go; instead, they dragged him toward the yard.

Kangeun chased after them in a daze, grabbing the men and clutching at Siheon.

“Who are you people? Who are you to do this to our Siheon!”

Instead of the men, who remained silent despite being hit and pulled at, Kangeun’s questions were directed at Siheon again.

“Siheon-ah, where are you sick? What kind of surgery was it! Who are these people? Huh?”

“…….”

“You’re okay, right? You’re definitely okay, right?”

As Kangeun cried, Siheon began to resist, clinging to the gate.
Avoiding the hands of the men trying to force him away, Siheon shouted urgently.

“Noona, don’t forget. Just stay alive. I will find you, no matter what.”

“Siheon-ah, Siheon-ah!”

His fingers, which had been holding onto the gate, were all pried off, and Siheon was carried and dragged away like a piece of luggage.

Kangeun chased after him, but no matter what she did, she couldn’t pull Siheon away from the men.

Even when she lunged at them with the intent to bite like a madwoman, the men easily pushed her away.

“Ah……!”

After being shoved aside countless times and falling over repeatedly, Kangeun, who had been persistently chasing Siheon, tripped over something at her feet.

She tried to stand up, not even feeling the pain in her bleeding knees, but one of the men in the group taking Siheon away approached her.

“Noona……! Noona!”

“Siheon-ah! Siheon-ah!”

Siheon’s face, worried about Kangeun, was hidden behind the men.

Kangeun, unable to break free from the man holding her back so she couldn’t chase them, called out to Siheon, crying.

As he was moved further away, Siheon twisted his body as if in a struggle and shouted toward her.

“Don’t forget. Never forget! Noona, you must not forget me. Live! Just stay alive!”

“Siheon-ah!”

“Answer me! Go Kangeun, answer me!”

The men who had taken Siheon turned the corner of the alley and finally disappeared from Kangeun’s sight.

The man holding Kangeun finally let her go.

While the man left the alley without a second thought, Kangeun, her legs losing all strength, slowly slumped down.

“…….”

Kangeun’s breathing was ragged as she stared at the empty alley with hollow eyes.

Some people peered out of the alley at the commotion that had broken the dawn, but they were invisible to Kangeun, who was ruminating on the words Siheon had left behind.

Morning arrived clearly in the place where the blue dawn light had retreated.

Kangeun raised her hand.

She wiped away her face, which was a mess of tears, dirt, and sand.

With bloody hands, she pushed herself up from the ground and stared at the alley where Siheon had been dragged away.

People starting their day began to appear one by one in the alley now filled with bright morning sunlight.

Indifferent to them, Kangeun, who had been tracing only the memory of Siheon, finally opened her mouth.

“I will. I won’t forget you.”

The words she muttered over and over were an answer she hadn’t been able to give Siheon in time, as well as a promise to herself.

Wishing for her voice to be heard even though she knew it wouldn’t reach him, Kangeun continued to answer Siheon’s plea.

“I’ll live. I’ll survive.”

Kangeun, vowing to live to the best of her ability, no longer cried.

“So……”

I won’t forget you, so you shouldn’t either.

“So, us……”

I will survive, so you must too.

“Let’s meet again.”

Let’s meet again.

It was a promise and a goal.

It was the one and only hope that kept Kangeun alive.

Kangeun’s eyes, filled with that hope, shone brightly.