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Chapter 22
Slowly, little by little, with endless patience…
Nadiana became the bridge connecting a family that had once been incapable of even facing one another.
The awkward, uncomfortable moments gradually became easier as time passed.
Eventually…
They became natural.
Though clumsy…
They had finally begun to resemble an ordinary family.
At Nadiana’s suggestion, they shared dinner together whenever time allowed.
Sometimes they gathered for no particular reason at all, simply chatting about trivial things.
The once gloomy mansion…
The family who had neither smiles nor conversation…
Even the servants, whose lives lacked any trace of liveliness…
Were all slowly changing because of a single person.
To Kairos…
It all felt like a dream at times.
Which only made the present all the more precious.
Nadiana seemed to feel the same.
She never hid the affection she felt toward her family.
She wasn’t openly expressive, but every small word and gesture carried her feelings.
To Kairos…
Nadiana was a more dependable guardian than Duke Calion himself.
Everyone in the estate knew Kairos followed her everywhere like a duckling trailing after its mother.
That was how much he relied on his older sister.
And yet…
“I never once considered any of you my family.”
It had all been an act?
Since when?
From what point?
Could it be…
That everything had been a lie from the very beginning?
Even her affection…
Her gentle eyes…
Her warm voice…
Why…?
Why didn’t you ever tell me?
Hearing words she had never once spoken to him before left Kairos devastated.
Disappointment gradually gave rise to resentment.
Every word Nadiana uttered struck him like a blade.
“So in our next lives… please, let’s never become family again. That would be far too horrible. No… let’s not even meet or pass by each other. For both our sakes.”
Those final words…
Spoken by the sister he had loved as though she were another parent…
Finally shattered Kairos.
“…What?”
He had definitely died.
He still vividly remembered those brief but searing moments of pain at the end.
Then…
How was he able to open his eyes?
Confused, Kairos blinked.
Above him…
Was a ceiling so familiar it stole his breath.
Was it… all a dream?
That was a dream?
Impossible.
Even now…
He still couldn’t forget how he had felt in those final moments.
Suppressing the turmoil in his heart, Kairos sat up to assess the situation.
Immediately…
Something felt wrong.
“…Huh?”
His perspective was much lower than before.
Before he could even process it…
A tiny hand, shaped like a maple leaf, entered his vision.
What… is this…?
Panicking, Kairos hurriedly looked around the room.
Only then did he realize…
Every little detail had changed.
No…
It was more accurate to say they had returned to how they once were.
The dreamcatcher decorated with pure white feathers that Nadiana had given him…
Along with all the other decorations that had brightened his room…
Were gone.
Nor were her gifts the only things missing.
The books Gwynes had given him for his birthday…
The butterfly specimens…
The bizarre pieces of driftwood…
The glass ornaments Felix had casually brought back whenever he went out—gifts Kairos had accepted only because he couldn’t bear to refuse them…
They had all disappeared.
“W-What’s going on…?”
Still dazed, Kairos turned toward the mirror.
Then…
His reflection met his eyes.
Standing inside the mirror…
Was his younger self.
After realizing he had returned to the past…
Kairos shut himself inside his room.
Even on the first day…
When Felix suddenly barged into his room…
Even after vaguely hearing explanations about what had happened…
He simply remained there.
It wasn’t easy to accept any of it.
Most of all…
Those dagger-like words from Nadiana’s final moments echoed endlessly inside his mind.
Curled beneath his blanket…
Kairos replayed the past.
One memory at a time.
Slowly.
Each recollection made his chest tighten with emotion.
If she hated it that much…
Then she shouldn’t have approached me in the first place.
She shouldn’t have spoken to me.
She could have kept treating me like a stranger.
Or at least…
She could’ve told me. Just once.
Yet…
The more he thought about it…
The stronger another feeling became.
Longing.
Emotions didn’t disappear overnight.
Whether joy…
Or sorrow…
They lingered…
Constantly pulling memories of the past back into the present.
And because of that…
Kairos didn’t know how to ignore someone he had already come to cherish.
…First… I’ll try talking to Noona.
After spending two weeks wrestling with his thoughts…
Kairos finally reached a decision.
Felix had told him Nadiana remembered nothing.
But staying locked inside his room forever wouldn’t change anything.
He couldn’t spend his entire life hiding.
Steeling himself…
Kairos finally left his room.
But after taking only a few steps…
He encountered Nadiana in the hallway.
And in that instant…
He realized just how selfish he had been.
Noona…
She… was this small…?
The person who, in his memories, had always seemed like a towering shelter…
Now looked impossibly tiny…
Fragile.
The Nadiana standing before him now seemed so delicate…
That even the smallest wave might sweep her away.
“Kairo—”
The instant she began saying his name…
Kairos instinctively fled into the empty room beside them.
He knew he shouldn’t.
He knew it.
But he simply couldn’t bring himself to stand before such a young Nadiana.
The resolve he’d gathered before leaving his room…
Vanished without a trace.
His grip on the doorknob turned his knuckles white.
His heart pounded even harder than it had before his death.
Head lowered…
Guilt slowly tightened around his throat.
After finally opening his heart to Nadiana…
Kairos had always regretted how cruelly he had once treated her.
“Noona…”
“I’m… sorry.”
“Hm?”
“…For the way I treated you back then.”
“Oh… that?”
“It’s okay.”
“I would’ve probably acted the same way if I were you.”
As Kairos clumsily apologized in a tiny voice…
Nadiana smiled as though she understood everything.
Thank goodness…
Kairos sighed inwardly in relief.
Now there was nothing left weighing on his heart—
“…Did you really think I’d say that?”
“Huh?”
Startled…
Kairos looked up.
Waiting for him…
Were lifeless eyes.
“Kairos.”
“Selfish, shameless Kairos.”
“Did you really think I’d forgive you?”
“Did you think hearing that hollow apology now would erase everything I felt?”
“N-Noona…?”
“I remember everything.”
“The expression on your face.”
“The things you said.”
“How viciously you shoved me away.”
“I’ve never forgotten for even a single moment.”
“But what about you?”
“The moment things got better…”
“You forgot everything, didn’t you?”
Nadiana glared at him with wide, dilated pupils.
Those eyes…
They were the same eyes she had worn in her final moments before death.
The eyes that had condemned them all.
Within those pitch-black eyes…
Burned what seemed like overwhelming rage…
Or perhaps resignation, desperately suppressing unbearable misery.
Faced with that gaze overflowing with resentment…
Kairos found himself unable to breathe.
Unable even to part his lips.
Nadiana silently stared at him.
Then…
A twisted, mocking smile crossed her face.
But it quickly disappeared.
Returning to complete expressionlessness.
“Do you know something, Kairos?”
“Every single day I spent with you…”
“Was a nightmare.”
“So…”
“In our next lives…”
“Let’s never meet again.”
With those final words…
Nadiana turned away without hesitation.
“W-Wait, Noona…!”
Kairos desperately tried to reach for her…
But neither his hands nor his legs would move.
In the end…
Nadiana disappeared into the darkness.
“Gah…!”
Kairos’ eyes flew open.
…It was a dream.
The first nightmare he had experienced in years.
For a long while…
He stared blankly into space.
Then he turned toward the window.
Rain poured outside.
The dreamcatcher that had once hung above the window like a protective charm…
Watching over his nights…
Was no longer there.
“I heard dreamcatchers catch nightmares, so I tried making one for you. You haven’t been sleeping well lately.”
“I-It’s not because of nightmares.”
“I know. But maybe having only good dreams will help you sleep better.”
It had been a gift she personally made…
Thinking about how he struggled to sleep.
“Every single second I spent with you was horrible.”
“Every day was nothing but one endless nightmare.”
Was the sister who had wished for him to never have nightmares…
Living through one she could never wake from?
As rain continued falling outside…
Kairos suddenly remembered Nadiana.
Whenever it rained…
She had always quietly stayed behind him.
And not only then.
Whenever he turned around…
She was always there.
In the same place.
The same gentle figure.
Silently…
Carrying everything alone.
Without uttering a single complaint.
It had never been easy.
It had never been something to take for granted.
Yet…
He had been too foolish to realize it.
If only…
He had noticed sooner.
If only…
He had reached out first.
If only…
He had sincerely apologized for everything he had done.
If only…
He had embraced the heart that had long since festered in silence.
Just once.
Even for a single moment.
Thus began an endless chain of thoughts…
Each one starting with the same two words:
What if…
