* * *
“Baek Gunho!”
Baek Gunho turned to look at me, and I flinched at the sight of his face.
A deep scar stretched from his forehead across his cheek, giving an otherwise handsome face a hardened, intimidating air.
He strode toward me with long, determined steps.
My mind went blank.
I had imagined Baek Gunho coming to save me countless times, but I never expected to meet him like this, by sheer coincidence.
Before I could collect myself, he was standing right in front of me.
His gaze locked onto mine, making me instinctively shrink back.
He studied me, almost as if seeing me for the first time.
That unfamiliar, probing look made my heart drop.
“Do you know this person?” a security guard standing nearby asked.
I quickly shook my head. “N-no, I don’t.”
Baek Gunho frowned at my denial.
Then, he grabbed me firmly and demanded, “Haven’t we met before?”
My heart raced.
Just moments ago, his eyes looked as though he didn’t recognize me, and now this sudden question threw me into confusion.
“Do you know me?”
“I feel like I might.”
It was a vague answer, but one thing was clear: the Baek Gunho in front of me was not the Baek Gunho I once knew.
I told myself I could dismiss this as a stranger’s curiosity and walk away… and yet—
“I’ll go with you. There’s something I want to talk about,” I heard myself say.
The security guard frowned, clearly displeased.
“We can’t allow unknown individuals—”
“I’m Baek Gunho, an F-rank Hunter. I just came from the Administration Bureau; you can verify it,” Baek Gunho interjected.
“Please wait a moment.”
The guard turned away to make a call, leaving us standing there.
I stared at Baek Gunho.
“F-rank?”
“Yeah.”
“I see…”
An F-rank.
Not only had he lost the memories of his previous life, but now he was an F-rank?
I had never considered such a possibility.
The Baek Gunho I knew was always S-rank.
This was an entirely different person.
And yet, even knowing that, I couldn’t bring myself to walk away.
Before long, the guard returned and gave us permission to meet.
However, he warned me against taking him anywhere unsafe.
I decided to bring Baek Gunho to Lee Jungho’s house.
In the car, Baek Gunho remained silent, but as soon as we were alone, he broke the quiet.
“What’s your name?”
“…Seo Heewon.”
“I’m Baek Gunho.”
“I know.”
“How do you know that?”
I couldn’t answer.
I couldn’t tell him I had regressed and knew the Baek Gunho from the previous timeline.
Instead, I diverted the topic.
“Uh… what happened to your face?”
“Oh, this? Got injured a while back.”
I scanned him up and down.
His clothes hid them well, but I caught glimpses of other scars.
Even indoors, he kept his gloves on, which drew my attention.
“Aren’t the gloves uncomfortable?”
“They’re fine.”
Fine?
Baek Gunho hated wearing gloves.
He wouldn’t wear them unless absolutely necessary or for show.
“Take them off.”
“…”
“Hurry up.”
Instead of scolding me for being rude, Baek Gunho sighed and slowly removed the gloves.
What I saw made me gasp.
His left hand was missing both the ring and pinky fingers.
He quickly covered it with his other hand.
“It’s nothing. A monster bit them off, that’s all.”
He spoke casually, but his nonchalance made my eyes sting.
I thought I had long since forgotten how to cry, yet tears welled up and spilled over.
“Ugh…”
I bowed my head, embarrassed to show him my tears.
He must think I was strange—calling his name out of nowhere, dragging him to my house, prying into his scars, and then crying like this.
“Why are you crying?”
His voice, though, was gentle.
Too gentle to belong to Baek Gunho.
That tenderness only made the tears fall harder.
The Baek Gunho I knew was truly gone.
I resented him.
He had always remembered the past and killed me for it, but now that it was my turn to remember, he had forgotten everything.
But resentment was meaningless.
The person I resented had long since vanished into the sands of time.
Only the lingering ache of longing remained.
“Don’t cry.”
I glared at him as he tried to console me.
Despite the absurdity of the situation, he remained calm and comforting.
“Heewon.”
“…”
“Don’t cry, Heewon.”
The Baek Gunho in front of me was not the same.
I knew that clearly, but his face, his voice—they were all his.
And I couldn’t help but find solace in that.
✧✧✧
My feelings for this Baek Gunho couldn’t be defined in a single word—just like the feelings I had for the original Baek Gunho.
He was a stranger with no blame to bear, so I couldn’t resent him.
Yet, he was the same person at his core, so he eased the ache of my longing.
That’s why I didn’t stop him from visiting me every day.
Through him, I learned about the life he had lived.
This Baek Gunho was vastly different from the one I knew.
Having endured more hardships, he carried a harsher, more somber air.
Unlike the wealthy upbringing of the Baek Gunho I knew, this one had grown up in poverty after his parents committed suicide due to a failed business.
He struggled through life, bouncing between relatives’ homes, awakening, and entering dungeons to make money as a minor.
As an F-rank, his options were limited.
To earn what the S-rank Baek Gunho would have considered mere pocket change, he worked tirelessly.
“Why work so hard? Even gatherers earn decent money…”
He looked at me steadily and replied, “I had someone I needed to find.”
“Who?”
“I didn’t know.”
“What? That makes no sense.”
“Really, I didn’t know. I just felt like I had to find them. If I didn’t, it felt like there would always be this hole in my chest that nothing else could fill. So, I kept searching. Ever since I was a kid. Pouring money into detective agencies, traveling all over the country on my days off, hoping to see their face… always searching.”
“…”
“But now I think the person I was looking for is you.”
His words were calm, but his gaze burned with intensity, so full of yearning that it unsettled me.
I shook my head.
“That’s impossible.”
“No, it’s you. I’m sure of it.”
“…”
“It could never be anyone else.”
How could he be so certain?
That unwavering conviction was exactly like the Baek Gunho I once knew—unyielding in his beliefs.
I wondered if, like me, this Baek Gunho retained fragments of memory from the previous timeline.
It was only a guess, but the thought lingered.
I stared at him for a long moment before speaking impulsively.
“You… remind me of someone I used to know.”
“Who?”
“Someone I loved.”
His eyes blazed.
His gaze, searing and intense, swept over me before he spoke in a low, desperate voice.
“If you loved them, it’s in the past, right?”
“…I’m not sure.”
I loved Baek Gunho.
Even if we had once been enemies, intent on killing each other.
Even if Baek Gunho had his reasons for treating me well.
I liked that Baek Gunho.
But it was already in the past.
A feeling directed toward someone who could no longer return.
That realization pushed me to let go.
“If you can’t be sure, don’t bother liking me.”
“……”
“Just choose me.”
At Baek Gunho’s words, I blinked.
“……Why?”
“What do you mean, why?”
“Why do you… like me?”
“Because I fell for you at first sight.”
Baek Gunho answered as if it was the simplest thing in the world.
I liked this Baek Gunho too.
Not in the same way as before.
But I couldn’t help but feel drawn to the Baek Gunho who approached me with such sincerity.
“Can I hold your hand?”
Knowing how startled I got when someone touched me unexpectedly, Baek Gunho asked carefully.
When I nodded, he gently took my hand in his and kissed the knuckles.
My body flinched instinctively.
“I’ll wait.”
At his earnest words, I could only nod.
* * *
.