There Will Definitely Be

The world crumbles.

The shoddily placed bench in front of the company, the office perched on gray concrete, the unremarkable people passing by on the street.

Like a rain-soaked painting, everything flows downwards, disappearing somewhere.

“Inho, Kang In-ho.”

The grip of her hand on my collar tightens.

She clutches and squeezes my guilt as if strangling my breath.

“You know.”

Her voice, coldly subdued and filled with resentment if you dug deep enough, contained a deep appeal.

“Mina.”

“Don’t say it. Don’t say you want to leave this place.”

Lee Mina cuts me off sharply. It was a declaration of her will to reject any persuasion.

“I showed you, Inho. How hard my life has been….”

“…….”

She revealed the flaws she had wanted to hide.

“You feel sorry for me, don’t you? You want to comfort me, don’t you?”

“Mina.”

Nothing remained in the flowing world.

As if placed in the universe, blackness surrounded me and Lee Mina.

“You wouldn’t know, Inho. What happened after you died in that train accident.”

As if recalling a memory from a distant past, she was wistful.

“How many days I cried.”

Thump.

She struck my chest with her right hand.

A very light tap, without any force.

“How I killed them with what heart.”

Thump.

She moved her hand as if shaking off the pain of that day.

There was more force in it than before.

“How I accepted death with what heart.”

Thump.

A strong impact was felt.

“How confused I was when I learned the truth about you.”

A trembling fist plunged into my chest.

“How hard it was every time I chased after your traces.”

“Mina….”

“Don’t say it!!!!”

She screamed. Spewing out the emotions that had piled up in her heart.

“Don’t say it, what do you know? Even after showing you this, even after telling you this. Why are you trying to persuade me!

You’re also responsible. You took away the person next to me.

I can’t even remember that person’s name because of you.

I lost the only sanctuary I had!”

She struck me so hard that my body vibrated.

Each time her small fist dug into my body, I felt a different kind of pain.

In the empty space, my eyes open.

On the black background that resembled wallpaper, various eyes lift their eyelids and look down at me.

Hundreds of gazes, filled with desire, targeting me and coveting Lee Mina.

The sight sent a chill down my spine.

“I want to go back! I want to go back! But I can’t go back! My life is already over!”

The more she shouted, the more the eyes increased.

I instinctively knew that they were the remnants of the people she had devoured.

The space gradually narrows.

The vast, empty space that resembled the universe gradually began to narrow.

“I’m done. There’s nowhere to go back to. I’m already dead, already suffering in the flames of hell.”

Lee Mina hugged me tightly.

And wrapped her slender arms around me.

A restraint that could be easily broken with a little force.

The space narrows. The eyes get closer.

If I were swept away by the wave of those gazes, it seemed obvious that the result would be something I didn’t want.

“Mina, do you know what?”

I lower my tone slightly. In a way that she can’t cut me off, with a feeling of agreement.

“…….”

Fortunately, she began to listen to me in silence.

“Until I went to Mina’s world, you hadn’t made any progress with that person, had you?”

I don’t bother to mention the reason why I came to Lee Mina’s world.

[Possessed by an Irrecoverable Target.]

She may have realized it herself while following me, but I don’t want to stir up trouble unnecessarily.

Because if she realizes that she destroyed her own sanctuary, she will collapse even faster than she is now.

“When you were with me, you were happy, weren’t you?”

“…What are you trying to say?”

A sense of wariness seeps into Lee Mina’s voice.

“Some people say. How can love change? If love changes, it’s not true love.”

What I experienced while traversing dimensions.

A persistent array of emotions looking at only one person, directed at only one person.

“But in the first place, that emotion might not be love. It’s obsession.”

I wasn’t facing various forms of love.

I was facing various forms of obsession.

“Obs… session?”

“Obsession is not love.”

It took me a long time to realize this.

I raised my hand and cupped Lee Mina’s cheeks. And I lifted her face to make eye contact with me.

“From what I see, I don’t think Mina wants to ‘love’.”

“I….”

“I think Mina wants to be ‘happy’.”

“Don’t say whatever you want.”

Lee Mina averted her gaze. I used force to bring her face closer.

A distance where breathing would tickle her nose.

“That’s right. I don’t know the inside well. But, I think that’s the case.”

“Why?”

“Because I was like that.”

“Yes?”

Lee Mina’s eyes widened.

“Because I was so desperately lonely, I wanted someone who could understand my heart to be by my side. Because a big piece that supported my life was missing, so I was empty. Because I wanted to be compensated for my emptiness.”

I recall the time when I sat alone on the emergency stairs, suppressing my aching heart.

As I do so, I reflect myself in her empty eyes.

We are similar. Not the same, but similar.

“Mina, let me ask you. If you could go back, what would you want to do?”

The eyes come even closer. Their eyes are filled with greed.

I realized that there wasn’t much time left.

But I don’t rush her. Because she needs enough time to realize her own heart.

“I….”

Lee Mina began to speak.

“I… I want to be compensated. I want to be compensated for suffering this much, for being this unhappy.”

I, I, I….

Lee Mina stammered, weeping as she spoke.

“I want to be happy.”