#46. It was so dazzling.
“…Harin-ah.”
Even though she had done some horrendous things, she was heartbroken to see her emaciated face.
“Are you okay?”
Her overly lifeless look on her face made me want to ask her rather.
“I don’t know.”
It was me who had not yet seen a doctor and had not received a proper examination result.
She sat down on the chair next to my bed and said nothing with her head bowed.
“…Harin-ah?”
“…Yoo Shi-hwa. It came and went.”
How did she know that her poems had gone.
“…Yes. I stopped by a while ago.”
Harin only looks at the floor. She didn’t raise her head.
“…Did you hear everything?”
I couldn’t respond to Harin’s next words.
Because Harin’s face with her head raised is …
It was because she was covered with tears.
Tears fell from her eyes like a never-drying spring.
“Inwook… I… You know…”
Harin slowly spit out words one by one as if she was strangled.
“I wanted to be happy with you…?”
With her next words, I could feel moisture forming around my eyes as well.
“I… I don’t know how much I regretted my past life like that…”
“You must have met Yoo Shi-hwa and Hayena too and started a new love with those people…”
“I couldn’t…”
Harin wiped her flowing tears and took her breath.
“I couldn’t even laugh even once in the many seats that her mom and dad held.”
“I’m afraid you’ll come back to me.”
“I’m afraid you won’t forget me and come to me.”
Tears started flowing from my eyes too.
“Because it’s good after you met someone else and got a divorce. I prayed earnestly that you would give me another chance.”
“But… No matter how long I waited, you didn’t come.”
“I miss you so much. It seems you don’t.”
“So in this life, I didn’t want to lose you…”
Harin will put her hand on mine.
“I’m sorry… Inuk-ah… I’m sorry…”
It felt as if her heart was falling apart with every word she said.
But even if she knew all the truth, I had to tell her.
“…But you shouldn’t have done that.”
“No matter how much you wanted to start over with me, it wasn’t…”
“If it was Sihwa, not me, who hit it… I think you and I would have been happy…?”
“You want me to know nothing. Are you trying to ruin Sihwa’s life?”
“This is not… Harin-ah. This is not real…”
I also held her hand tightly.
“You weren’t like this… Harin-ah…”
After those words, we looked at each other in tears on the spot without saying anything.
It was Harin who broke the silence.
“Inwook-ah.”
“…Yes.”
“What kind of space was this Hunter Academy to you?”
For me, Hunter Academy is…
It was the starting point of my hunter life in my previous life and the place where I met Harin.
Harin continued the story while she was pondering over her question.
“For me… The academy…”
Harin caressed my cheek.
“It was a space full of memories of you and me.”
“I don’t know what that place meant to you. For me, it was the happiest time of my life.”
“I train with you, I go out to play, and each of those days that are no different from others.”
“You were so dazzling. Inuk-ah.”
I felt like my heart was being shattered again at Harin’s words.
“…That’s why I hated him.”
“It’s never a good thing. I know.”
“But I’m so scared that the space where you and my love stayed will be erased by different people.”
“Unlike last life, I’m impatient because of you, who doesn’t look at me.”
I felt Harin’s emotions rushing over me.
Maybe I like you. Harina.
I pulled her body and pulled her into my arms.
I felt the pain in the wound explode, but it didn’t matter.
I stroked her hair without a word.
If I don’t do that, I’m afraid that this feeling that flows between us right now will lose its place again.
I hugged her tight enough to break her.
So I held her until her trembling stopped.
When she felt that she had calmed down to a certain extent, I pulled her out of her arms and grabbed her shoulders with both of her hands.
“Harina.”
“…Yes.”
“I’m sorry, but we…”
I couldn’t catch her as she sprinted out of her door as she ran away.
* *
“What about the magic circuit?”
Jena carefully checked my condition one by one with the doctor.
As expected, she was an S-class healer, so she used jargon that I didn’t know well and had conversations with the doctor.
“That’s… This part…”
I don’t know for sure, but one thing was certain: my body was not normal.
“Still, this is pretty decent. If it was another hunter, maybe…”
The doctor shook her head.
“…How to treat?”
“Research on Ezion is still in progress, so we cannot give a definitive answer.”
In a way, it was a natural story.
How many specimens of hunters actually hit Ezion around the world?
“Ha… I see. Then, first prepare a rehabilitation plan in that direction.”
Looking at Jena next to me, she felt as if she had been to the hospital with her mother when she was young.
I felt like I was being protected, who was always in a rush to protect someone.
I didn’t like it.
“I had a hard time staying in the hospital for a long time. Choi In-wook.”
3 Days have already passed and my discharge is imminent.
After Sihwa and Harin visited, Yena was the only one who came back.
Jena I don’t know how she coordinated the schedule, but she stayed by my side almost all day, taking care of me.
She said over and over again that she was fine and tried to send her back, but Jena was floating to her point.
You didn’t even pretend to listen to me.
“So. What’s the state of my body?”
I’m not healthy because I talk too much in a language that only they can understand. Is it okay to resume hunter activities again? I couldn’t figure it out
“Hmm… It’s vague. Should I call this a good thing? Or should I say it’s worse than I thought?”
Going back to my room, Jena explained my condition.
“I’ll tell you this first. You won’t be able to use all your magic now.”
“…How long?”
“I don’t know.”
Are you saying there is no promise? If so, then the situation is more serious than you think.
“Then to what extent can you use it?”
“You’ll find out if you try it yourself after you’re discharged from the hospital. I’ve been told that it depends on individual capabilities.”
I listened to her and raised my magic a little, but again, I got my strength back in a foreign feeling different from usual.
It felt like my body was not mine.
“Don’t overdo it yet. Let’s check it out in at least a week.”
Jenna glanced at me and gave me advice.
We went back to the hospital room and packed our things.
“Thank you, Jena.”
Fortunately, except that there was a restriction on the use of magic power, there was no major damage to the body.
I heard that there are hunters who become handicapped, but I guess I’m on the lucky side.
“…Don’t exercise too much for a while and don’t practice using magical powers. Okay?”
It was something I had already talked about many times, but she emphasized it to me again.
“Yes.”
“Then I’ll see you at the academy. I’ll go.”
Jena, who had to take the bus in the opposite direction to me, crossed her crosswalk.
I watched Jena across from her, looking down at her cell phone, until she got on her bus.
* *
It was my family who welcomed me back home after a week.
“Oh, Inwook-ah. He said he was hurt. Huh?”
Mom grabbed my cheek and turned it around.
“Still, I was treated well.”
“We were going to go see your face too, but the handsome wife said that In-wook is in a state of absolute need for stability, so we didn’t go partly.”
…A pretty woman? Who is it?
“What did she ever look like that girl?”
“Huh? Isn’t Inwook your girlfriend? Her hair style was short-haired, but her color was brown? Was it black?”
Yena.
Jena probably doesn’t know my home address right now.
My parents’ house that Jena from her previous life knew was a different place than it is now.
I was sure that I came here because someone asked for my address.
“Anyway, I really liked how bubbly she was. Did your mom really like it?”
I couldn’t help but smile bitterly at her mother’s words.
It was because she said something similar back then.
“He’s a good person.”
“Mommy wants to see her grandchildren soon? She doesn’t even tell your dad, but when she’s not with you, she talks about how much she misses her grandchildren.”
“No. When did I say that?”
Her father responded to her mother with a grim expression.
“It’s not like this. Inwook-ah. Hurry up and rest. It seems like we’ve been holding on to it for too long. He’s not feeling well.”
“Yes, Mom, then I’ll sleep first.”
I returned to my room, turned off the light, and lay down on the bed.
Because the hospitalization period was over, I had to return to the academy again after a little rehabilitation period.
Then it means that we have to meet Harin, Sihwa, and Jena again…
Love.
Marriage.
Child.
And perish.
…I needed to make a decision.