* * *
“I was always in love.”
With myself.
His gaze drifted, entranced by the countless shattered glass shards scattered around him, each reflecting sharp, glinting lights.
Only Yoonjae’s image shone within the reflections—Daeheon’s figure was blurred, hidden behind the fractured surface.
Daeheon looked at Yoonjae, his face drained of all hope, before lowering his head.
A moment later, sirens blared from the streets below, slicing through the night air.
“Shit, that’s the cops, isn’t it?”
Kang Heesung’s hands trembled as he let out a laugh—a laugh that teetered between amusement and despair.
The broken glass in his grip pressed deeper into Junhee’s throat, leaving a thin red line in its wake.
“Fuck this… If I’m going down, I’m taking you with me. I won’t die alone.”
His trembling hands shoved Junhee toward the edge.
His back hit the waist-high railing, his upper body tilting dangerously backward.
Above, the jagged edge of a glass shard.
Behind, a drop into a pitch-black abyss.
Doyoung screamed. Siwon shouted.
“J-Junhee!”
“That bastard—let go of Junhee-hyung!”
Siwon moved forward, but Heesung pressed the glass harder against Junhee’s throat.
“Stay the fuck back! Or I’ll slit his throat right here!”
Junhee’s world tilted, his vision filled with the black, humid night sky.
It was ridiculous.
When he had decided to die, he hadn’t been afraid at all.
But now that someone else was about to kill him, fear gripped him.
Even in this moment, all he could think about was whether Ki Taeryu would grieve if he died—whether, once he was gone, the imprint would break, leaving Taeryu free to move on with another omega.
“…I must be losing my mind.”
Junhee murmured, but Heesung just tightened his grip, shouting something that no longer reached him.
The commotion around them barely registered.
“Put that down.”
A deep voice thundered through the air, yanking Junhee back to reality.
If this wasn’t an illusion, then…
“Shit… What the hell? That bastard was supposed to be in Jeju…”
At Heesung’s muttering, the glass pressed even closer.
Junhee ignored the sting and slowly lowered his head.
“Yoo Junhee. Don’t move. Stay right there.”
It was really Ki Taeryu.
For the first time, Junhee’s body trembled.
It was like someone had cast a massive net into the ocean, dredging up all the memories he had buried deep below.
A flood of emotions crashed over him—whether it was longing, resentment, love, or hatred, he couldn’t tell.
When they had been apart, he had convinced himself that one day he would forget.
But now, standing face to face, he knew the truth.
He would never be able to erase this insane man from his life.
“S-Shit…! Don’t come any closer!”
Despite Heesung’s desperate threats, Ki Taeryu strode forward without hesitation.
He reached out and, without a second thought, grabbed the broken bottle.
A sickening crunch echoed as glass tore into his palm. Blood splattered.
The screams that followed weren’t his.
As if he were merely holding a soft cloud, Ki Taeryu crushed the bottle in his grip and slammed it into the ground.
With his bloodied hand, he shoved Heesung aside and pulled Junhee into his arms.
“Got you, my Junhee.”
As his gaze, which had been lifted toward the sky, lowered, a smirking face came into view.
“…Don’t smile like that with blood all over you. You look like a lunatic.”
“What, only now you’re noticing?”
Dark eyes pulled Junhee in, deep and consuming.
Their lips were so close, they might collide at any moment.
The nape of his neck, which had been numb, finally began to sting slightly.
Junhee inhaled deeply, filling his chest with the scent of the man before him, then parted his lips.
There was something he had sworn to ask when they met again.
“Is it still valid? What you said—about whether I could handle it.”
Taeryu replied without hesitation, as if it wasn’t even worth considering.
“No.”
“…You changed your mind?”
“Of course not, fuck—because I’ll handle everything.”
Junhee blinked slowly.
“Is that… a confession?”
“Does it sound like a threat?”
A little, yeah.
At Junhee’s response, Taeryu laughed again before pulling him into a bone-crushing embrace.
As Junhee awkwardly reached out to grip his waist, he hesitated.
He seemed thinner than before.
Without thinking, his fingers traced along his frame.
“You wanna roll around here?”
The whispered murmur sent a shiver down Junhee’s spine.
He could hardly breathe as the arms around him tightened.
He tried to push Taeryu away, feeling like his ribs might actually crack, but the weight pressing against him only increased.
Against his back, the railing groaned ominously.
The dark sky disappeared, replaced by dark eyes that loomed closer, about to swallow him whole.
And then—
“Wait, wait, hold on…!”
Just the thought of kissing in a place like this was enough to make him want to kick his blankets in embarrassment for the rest of his life.
He twisted his upper body to escape.
Creak—clank!
“…Huh?”
For a split second, gravity ceased to exist.
It felt just like that moment right before the drop on the gyro drop ride he had only ever ridden once as a kid.
“J-Junhee hyung!”
“Kyaaaah! Junhee! Junhee!”
The screams of people faded, like clouds drifting away in the distance.
[WARNING: FALL HAZARD]
A yellow warning sign flashed through Junhee’s mind.
“J-Junhee! Are you awake? Huh? Junhee!”
His mother’s voice echoed in his head, making it buzz.
Junhee stared at the white ceiling before slowly turning his head.
“…Mom?”
“Yes, it’s Mom, it’s me! Do you know how worried I was? Huh? Hold on, I’ll go get the doctor!”
Seo Junghee rushed out of the hospital room, and soon, approaching footsteps followed.
“Yoo Junhee, can you see me?”
Daeheon waved a finger in front of Junhee’s face.
“Yes, I can see fine, but I feel really dizzy.”
“That’s a relief. The tests showed no major injuries, just some sprains. There might be some aftereffects, but for now, we’ll monitor your condition as you recover.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much, doctor…!”
Seo Junghee grasped the doctor’s hand tightly, bowing repeatedly in gratitude.
Junhee watched blankly before slowly piecing his memories back together.
The yellow warning sign came to mind first.
And further back—
“Doctor, I fell, didn’t I? From that high-rise building. How… how am I completely fine?”
It had been so high that the road and cars below had looked like Lego pieces.
If this wasn’t the afterlife, then it didn’t make any sense that he was still here, unharmed.
Did I die?
Is this all a dream?
His fingers trembled slightly.
“Ah, luckily, the building was under maintenance, and you landed right onto the safety net. It was a miracle. If not for that, well….”
Daeheon shook his head grimly, as if even thinking about the alternative was horrifying.
Seo Junghee let out a deep sigh of relief, calling it an act of fate.
A miracle, huh.
Even as Junhee accepted that explanation, an unsettling feeling gnawed at him, like he was forgetting something crucial.
And then, it hit him.
“Dr. Kim, what happened to Director Ki Taeryu?”
“Ah, Taeryu…”
Daeheon hesitated, his gaze wavering.
A chill crawled up Junhee’s spine.
“Is he… badly hurt? It’s not anything serious, right? Doctor, please, just tell me something…!”
As Junhee pressed for answers, Daeheon let out a long sigh before finally speaking.
“He underwent emergency surgery, but he hasn’t regained consciousness yet. For now… visiting him might be difficult.”
Hasn’t… regained consciousness?
Junhee gripped the edge of the bed with trembling hands and forced himself upright.
“Junhee, you’re still not fully recovered. You need to rest, okay?”
Despite his mother’s concerned tone, Junhee stubbornly swung his legs over the bed and slipped his feet into his slippers.
Daeheon, who had been watching, exhaled deeply and turned to Seo Junghee.
“Madam, you’re also a patient. You shouldn’t be overexerting yourself. Now that you’ve seen Junhee awake, you should return to the center for your own treatment.”
“But…”
“Mom, you should go get treated too. I’ll come visit you at your hospital.”
Right on cue, Seo Junghee’s personal nurse arrived to escort her.
She made Junhee promise to call before reluctantly leaving.
Only after they were alone did Junhee finally voice the question that had been clawing at his throat.
“Then when can I visit him? Is he badly injured? What kind of surgery did he have?”
“When Taeryu grabbed onto you, he absorbed most of the impact. The good news is that he also landed in the safety net. The bad news is that he hit one of the support beams, which caused severe injuries.”
“…”
“He suffered an open fracture in his right femur, a closed fracture in his kneecap, fractures in his fourth, fifth, and sixth lumbar vertebrae, and also—”
“Hold on. Is he even alive?”
“Yes. His body is a complete mess, but he’s stubborn as hell, so he’s still alive. He even woke up briefly from the anesthesia and muttered your name.”
“…”
“Said he’d kill you when he gets his hands on you.”
“…What?”
Junhee almost teared up—until those words sank in. His emotions dried up instantly.
“Ah, don’t mind it too much. Patients sometimes say all kinds of things under anesthesia. It’s just unconscious rambling.”
As if he could ignore it now.
Still, there was something more important right now.
“Any other questions?”
“Yeah. When can I see him?”
“He’s in the VIP room next door. You’ll be the first to know when he wakes up.”
“Then… what about those people?”
Junhee’s voice was cautious.
At his question, Daeheon let out a long, heavy sigh, as if even answering would be exhausting.
* * *
