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Chapter 3
“No. That can’t be true.”
Shaking her head, she took a step back. Her foot caught on the wheel of the IV pole, and she tumbled backward.
Crash.
The pole fell, and the attached IV bottle shattered on the floor.
Maybe because her body hadn’t fully recovered, even her mind felt hazy and disoriented.
“This isn’t right…”
As she staggered to her feet, the needle stuck in her left arm tore free, ripping her skin. Blood streamed down her pale arm in crimson streaks.
“See? It doesn’t even hurt.”
And indeed, there was no pain. That proved it—this had to be a dream. There was no way she was really Yoo Hae-in.
Dragging her bleeding arm weakly, Juhong stepped out of the bathroom.
There’d been an accident, some bizarre status-window like a dream, and then a mafia-style game…
A laugh slipped out on its own.
“Haha. What a ridiculous dream.”
Stepping out, she glanced around the hospital room—only to realize it wasn’t normal at all.
She was wearing patient clothes, sure, but the room itself looked more like a luxury hotel suite.
Fridge, television, table, artwork, even the humidifier—every single thing was a designer brand.
“What… is this?”
She rubbed her face with both hands, but the blood that had run from her arm smeared across her cheeks.
She couldn’t tell what was wrong anymore. No—she couldn’t even tell what was real.
If this was a dream, then the accident itself must’ve been part of it too… or was it?
Right. The accident.
“If the explosion at a major corporation’s training center in downtown Seoul really happened, wouldn’t it be all over the news?”
They say panic can make the mind freeze—and she was living proof. Her thoughts were a tangled mess, nothing would come to her, not even what she should do first. No, before anything else, she needed to confirm the facts.
“I need to watch the news.”
She picked up the remote from the table and turned on the TV. Fortunately, it was already tuned to a news channel, spitting out breaking updates.
Breaking news. The 72-hour golden time for rescuing survivors has already passed two hours ago.
On the screen, drone footage showed the horrific ruins of the collapsed Ino Training Center.
Current confirmed casualties are 16 dead and 2 missing. The only survivors are Mr. Yoo, who was first rescued, and Mr. Jung, who was rescued on the same day. No others have been found alive.
Authorities are still struggling to determine the cause of the accident. Originally suspected to be a gas leak, officials have not ruled out the possibility of terrorism.
As the anchor rattled off updates, Juhong’s eyes fell to the names scrolling at the bottom of the screen.
[Deceased: Hwang Jung-soo (52), Lee Do-ran (41), Kim Dan-woo (29)…]
Her teeth sank into her lower lip as a familiar name appeared among the sixteen dead. The taste of blood quickly filled her mouth.
Then the missing persons list appeared.
[Missing: Yoon Soo-young (32)]
Senior Soo-young.
And then—
[Joo Hong (30)]
“…This isn’t a dream?”
[Survivors: Yoo Hae-in (28), Jung Hyung-woo (30)]
“Am I… really dead?”
Her face twisted as if she might burst into tears any second. Shaking her head, she touched her own face again.
“No. I’m right here. This is me. It has to be me.”
But even her voice was different. It was her voice—yet not. A stranger’s.
“What is going on?”
Just then, the hospital room door burst open and a woman walked in.
“Young lady?”
Carrying two cups of coffee, the woman froze, eyes wide, before hurrying over.
“Oh my god, young lady!”
Setting the coffee on the table, she clutched Juhong, repeating, “Oh my god, oh my god.”
“Young lady.”
But Juhong had never seen her before.
The woman had a chic bob haircut, flashy makeup, and was dressed head-to-toe in obvious luxury brands. Juhong had no memory of having such a person in her life.
The woman’s face went pale as she took in Juhong’s blood-smeared arm, her disheveled appearance, and the wreck of the room.
“Miss Hae-in, let me see—you’re hurt, you’re bleeding…”
Her manicured hand cupped Juhong’s cheek.
“Who did this to you? Was it Mr. Seo Tae-jo?”
“…Who are you, touching me like this?”
Repelled by the stranger, Juhong shoved her hand away and moved toward the door. She had to check if the accident was real. But the woman blocked her path again.
“Miss Hae-in!”
Why did she keep calling her that?
Yoo Hae-in… that woman…
That woman was—
“Move!”
“Young lady, please!”
Push—the woman blocked her again. Push—blocked again.
Their commotion soon brought medical staff rushing into the room.
“Please, let me through! I have to go!”
She had to check.
She had to see with her own eyes whether the accident was real. Whether Kim Dan-woo was truly dead. Whether Yoon Soo-young and Joo Hong were really missing.
She had to confirm it.
Just then, the anchor on TV interrupted with breaking news.
We have just received an update. Missing person Yoon Soo-young has been found in the rubble.
This raises the death toll to 17. Wait… ah…
Sadly, the final missing person, Ms. Joo Hong, has also been found—deceased.
We offer our deepest condolences to the deceased.
Juhong froze, tears spilling down her face.
“It’s true…?”
She shook her head frantically and staggered forward.
“Am I really dead?”
No. She couldn’t believe it. She had to see for herself.
But she never made it past the doorway. Overpowered by the medical staff, she was forced down as someone injected a syringe into her arm. A sedative.
Darkness swallowed her whole once again.
Her mind was cloudy, as if a mist had settled inside it.
Joo Hong is dead.
She was gone.
It didn’t matter how or why the Ino Training Center exploded, how many had died, how many were injured.
It didn’t even matter whether his fiancée had survived or not.
Only Joo Hong.
The fact that she was dead was the only thing that struck Tae-jo to the core.
Through his closed eyes, old memories surfaced faintly.
How she had smiled. How she had cried. What her face looked like when she was troubled. How she sipped water. The look in her eyes when she was embarrassed. Like a panorama, the memories flashed past him.
He remembered the day he first met her as his friend’s little sister, standing there in the golden afternoon sunlight—capturing his heart at first sight.
He remembered the shock of seeing her again after his military service, back on campus. The joy had been so overwhelming, he nearly forgot who he even was back then.
To him, Joo Hong had been his first love.
A feverish, all-consuming first love.
And yet, not once did I ever stand tall for her.
A bitter laugh escaped him.
Pathetic fool.
Even though they had shared an entire year together, not a single moment of it was truly honest, and so he could never hold his head high.
Back then, he wasn’t even allowed to breathe freely. He couldn’t tell her he was Rok’s friend, couldn’t admit they’d met before, couldn’t even choose their parting on his own terms.
After letting her go, he tried to erase her from his heart. Of course, that had never gone as planned.
The harder he tried to scrub her away, the deeper the marks became.
Like when you rub at something and the stain only grows messier, more obvious, impossible to ignore.
That was what Joo Hong had become to him.
So in the end, he’d simply chosen to accept her absence, as if flipping off a switch.
He grew used to a life without her, calm enough that even saying her name aloud no longer hurt.
But then why you…
Why was her name on that list?
Tae-jo squeezed his eyes shut tighter. His first love crumpled faintly in the darkness.
