episode_0049

“I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that my rejection hurt you so much. But, at that time, I was genuinely happy.”

“….”

“But even though I was happy…. I was also afraid.”

So when Eugene came to confess, Jisoo asked him.

– I don’t want things to get awkward between us. What if we break up after we start dating?

– Who thinks about breaking up before even starting to date?

– But it could happen. What would you do then?

“I was so afraid. Because I really like you so much, I wondered how I would live if we were to part ways forever. It’s something that I can’t be sure won’t happen.”

Eil listened quietly to Lague’s words. Without even letting out a common sigh, she just stared into his blue eyes while being held in his arms.

What is she thinking?

Lague felt inexplicably anxious.

Is it already too late? Impatience arose.

“But I was wrong. Saying that I want to remain friends forever was just a pretense I made out of fear of losing you.”

“I see.”

“So now I’ll say it again. Even if it becomes embarrassing and shameful in the future, I’ll say it anyway.”

His arms around her tightened.

Her eyelids seemed to tremble as if they were about to burst. Her heart pounded as if it was about to explode.

It felt like stepping towards a point of no return.

But this time, Lague knew very well that it was his turn.

Regardless of the outcome.

He had to cross that line.

“I love you.”

“…Lague.”

“Will you become my main heroine instead of an unnamed extra?”

He didn’t know how those words came out.

Eil’s lips, which had been silent for a while, moved, and Lague waited eagerly with a burning heart.

Suddenly, a breeze blew, causing her platinum blonde hair to flutter. A pleasant scent tickled Lague’s nose.

“It’s a shameless question, but.”

Unable to wait any longer, Lague spoke.

“Do you still, even a little bit…. like me?”

Eil’s deep golden eyes trembled slightly.

She hesitated several times, opening her mouth as if to speak, then biting her lip as if she had made up her mind.

As he pulled Eil closer, thinking about embracing her, she finally spoke.

“I did.”

Eil opened her mouth.

“…like you.”

With sad eyes, Eil turned away from his eyes.

Without making eye contact.

The words came out easily.

“You should have told me back then.”

“…Eugene. No, Eil.”

“It’s too late now.”

Lague’s heart sank.

But Eil, who couldn’t see his face engulfed in despair.

Still staring off to the side, murmured.

She drove a nail into Lague’s heart.

“So much time has passed.”

“….”

“It’s different from before.”

“No, don’t say that.”

“Now, even when I look at you, I don’t feel excited like before. My heart doesn’t race.”

“As you wished.”

“We’ve just become friends, without any excitement.”

Tears streamed down Lague’s dismayed face.

Feeling something fall on his face, Eil turned her head.

Realizing he was crying belatedly, she looked momentarily perplexed.

But that was it.

Just because she was taken aback didn’t mean her feelings changed to sympathy. The withered excitement didn’t return.

Just as she said back then.

They had already become ‘eternal friends.’

“I’m sorry, Lager. No, Jisoo. It’s not out of ill will towards you. Thank you for finally telling me. But, just…”

Even after hearing your confession, I feel no excitement.

Those words felt like a clear verdict, as cold as a blade.

Like a prisoner receiving a sentence, like a death row inmate meekly accepting the blade at their throat, Lager couldn’t offer any defense.

The simple words could inflict such pain on a person’s heart, it was staggering.

On one hand, he felt a deep sorrow, remembering the endless descent of emotions he had experienced years ago.

Perhaps.

It could be that he was now receiving the punishment for not being honest back then.

Lager chuckled self-deprecatingly as he thought.

The wind blowing between them finally broke the tension. Lager let go of the ale.

As the ale slipped away from him, Lager straightened his disheveled clothes and took out a cigarette from his pocket.

After lighting it and taking a deep drag, exhaling a thick smoke, Ale asked Lager, “Want one?”

After a moment of hesitation, Lager accepted the offered cigarette.

“Don’t resent me.”

Ale said as Lager brought the lighter close to the cigarette in his mouth.

“You have to inhale. That’s how it catches fire.”

“Cough cough!”

Feeling the exhilaration of nicotine for the first time, Lager coughed as if he had swallowed something wrong. He coughed so much that he continued even until Ale finished smoking his cigarette.

“Are you okay?”

Ale patted Lager’s back as he continued to cough.

However, even though it was his first time smoking, Lager wondered why he was coughing for so long, and discreetly glanced at Ale’s expression.

“…Kid.”

He.

Was wiping his eyes with the back of his hand.

*

On the way back on the subway, Ale and Lager had an awkward atmosphere.

Dakota was still leaning on Lena, unable to regain his composure, continuing to dry heave.

While Lena had returned with Lager and Ale, she couldn’t bring herself to ask if everything had been resolved between the two, feeling a sense of distance between them for some reason, so she didn’t initiate a conversation.

Lager and Ale….

Naturally, they had nothing to say to each other.

For that reason, even at the deserted subway station, the four of them remained silent.

“Sigh.”

Lager was still suffering from the lingering smell of cigarettes on his hands. Closing his eyes, he wondered how people could endure living with that smell every day if it lingered even after just one smoke. Seeing the platinum blonde girl drawing as if nothing had happened beside him, Lager clicked his tongue.

Come to think of it, what happened to that urgent mission earlier? Lager suddenly became curious and opened his phone. He praised himself for not doing anything harsh to her in the heat of the moment due to the sudden mission.

But he slightly regretted not following through with those last words.

“Hmm…?”

However, the message on his phone was just as unfamiliar and even more bewildering than before.

[Emergency mission failed.]

[Promised points will be deducted.]

[To earn corresponding points, the difficulty of the next mission will increase significantly.]