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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: FusionX
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“…Ha-rin.”
Even though she had done such a terrible thing, seeing her haggard face made my heart ache.
“Are you feeling a bit better?”
Her face looked so lifeless that I wanted to ask her instead.
“I don’t know.”
I hadn’t even met the doctor yet or received proper examination results.
Sitting on the chair next to my bed, she kept her head down and didn’t say a word.
“…Ha-rin?”
“…Yoo Si-hwa. She came and left, didn’t she?”
I don’t know how she knew, but she was aware that Si-hwa had visited.
“…Yeah. She stopped by for a bit earlier.”
Ha-rin only looked at the floor, not raising her head.
“…I guess you heard everything?”
I couldn’t answer Ha-rin’s next words.
Because when she raised her head, her face was…
Covered in tears.
Like a never-ending spring, tears dripped endlessly from her eyes.
“In-wook… I… you know…”
Ha-rin seemed to have a lump in her throat as she slowly uttered the words one by one.
“I wanted to be so happy with you?”
I felt moisture gathering in the corners of my eyes at her next words.
“I… After letting you go like that in my previous life… You have no idea how much I regretted it…”
“You might have met Yoo Si-hwa and Ha Ye-na and started new love with them, but…”
“I couldn’t do that…”
Ha-rin wiped her flowing tears and caught her breath.
“I couldn’t even smile once at the numerous blind dates my parents arranged for me.”
“Just in case you might come back to me.”
“Just in case you didn’t forget about me and came looking for me.”
Tears started to flow from my eyes as well.
“Even if it was after you met someone else and got divorced, I earnestly prayed that you would give me another chance.”
“But… No matter how long I waited, you didn’t come.”
“I missed you so much. But it seemed like you didn’t feel the same way.”
“So in this life, I didn’t want to lose you…”
Ha-rin placed her hand on top of mine.
“I’m sorry… In-wook… I’m sorry…”
It felt like my heart was crumbling with each and every one of her words.
But even after learning all that truth, I had to tell her.
“…Still, you shouldn’t have done that.”
“No matter how much you wanted to start over with me, that was not right…”
“If it had been Si-hwa who got hit instead of me… Do you think you and I would have been happy…?”
“You wanted me to know nothing and tried to ruin Si-hwa’s life?”
“This is wrong… Ha-rin. This is really wrong…”
I also grasped her hand tightly.
“This isn’t like you… Ha-rin…”
With those words, we didn’t say anything and just looked at each other, shedding tears in that place.
The one who broke the silence was Ha-rin.
“In-wook.”
“…Yeah.”
“What kind of place was this Hunter Academy to you?”
To me, the Hunter Academy was…
In my previous life, it was the starting point of my hunter life and where I met Ha-rin.
As I was pondering her question, Ha-rin continued.
“To me, you know… The academy was…”
Ha-rin caressed my cheek.
“A place filled with memories of you and me.”
“I don’t know what meaning it held for you. But for me, it was the happiest time of my life.”
“Training with you, hanging out with you, just those ordinary days one by one that were no different from others.”
“It was so dazzling. In-wook.”
Ha-rin’s words made my heart feel like it was shattering into pieces again.
“…So I hated her.”
“I know it wasn’t the right thing to do.”
“But I was so scared of the space where our love resided being erased by someone else.”
“I grew impatient because, unlike in my previous life, you didn’t look only at me.”
I felt Ha-rin’s emotions rushing towards me.
What should I do with you, Ha-rin?
I pulled her body towards me, into my embrace.
I felt the pain of the wound flaring up, but that wasn’t important.
I silently stroked her head.
If I didn’t do at least that, I was afraid that the emotions flowing between us right now would lose their way again.
I hugged her so tightly that it felt like she would break.
I held her in my arms like that until her trembling subsided.
When I felt like she had calmed down enough, I separated her from my embrace and held her shoulders with both hands.
“Ha-rin.”
“…Yeah.”
“I’m sorry, but we…”
I couldn’t hold her back as she ran out the door as if escaping.
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“What about the mana circuits?”
Ye-na meticulously checked my body’s condition with the doctor one by one.
As expected, being an S-rank healer, she conversed with the doctor using specialized terminology that even I wasn’t familiar with.
“Well… This part is…”
I wasn’t sure, but one thing was certain: my body wasn’t normal.
“Still, this is a very decent state. If it were any other hunter…”
The doctor shook his head.
“…What about treatment methods?”
“Research on Egeon is still ongoing, so we can’t give you a definite answer either.”
In a way, it was a natural thing to say.
Just how many samples of hunters who were actually hit by Egeon would there be worldwide?
“Sigh… I understand. Then for now, please prepare a rehabilitation plan in that direction.”
Having Ye-na beside me, I felt like I had come to the hospital with my mother when I was young.
This feeling of being protected, as someone who was always in a hurry to protect others.
I didn’t dislike it.
“It must have been hard for you to stay at the hospital for so long. Choi In-wook.”
Already three days had passed, and my discharge was imminent.
After the hospital visits from Si-hwa and Ha-rin, the only one who came again was Ye-na.
I don’t know how Ye-na adjusted her schedule, but she stayed by my side almost all day and nursed me.
I tried to send her away several times, saying that I was fine and that there were nurses, but Ye-na was adamant.
She didn’t even pretend to listen to me.
“So. What condition is my body in?”
They talked in a language that only they could understand, so I had no idea if I was healthy or if it was okay for me to resume hunter activities.
“Hmm… It’s ambiguous. I don’t know if I should call this fortunate or worse than I thought.”
Moving back to my hospital room, Ye-na explained my condition to me.
“Let me tell you this first. Right now, you won’t be able to use all of your mana.”
“…Until when?”
“I don’t know.”
Does that mean there’s no telling? Then the situation was more serious than I thought.
“Then how much can I use?”
“You’ll find that out yourself after you’re discharged from the hospital. I was told that it varies depending on individual capabilities.”
Hearing her words, I tried to draw out a bit of mana, but as expected, I withdrew my strength at the unfamiliar feeling that was different from usual.
It felt like my body wasn’t my own.
“Don’t overdo it yet. Try checking from at least a week later.”
Ye-na glanced at me and advised me.
We returned to the hospital room and packed our things.
“Thank you for everything, Ye-na.”
Fortunately, apart from the restriction on mana usage, I was told there was no significant impairment to my body.
I heard that there were hunters who became disabled, so maybe I was lucky.
“…Don’t do excessive exercise or training using mana for a while. Okay?”
She had already told me this several times, but she emphasized it to me once more.
“Yeah.”
“Then I’ll see you at the academy. I’ll get going now.”
Ye-na, who had to take a bus in the opposite direction from me, crossed the crosswalk.
I watched Ye-na from the other side, looking down at her phone, until she got on the bus.
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Returning home after a week, I was greeted by my family.
“Oh my. In-wook. You got hurt, right?”
Mom held my cheeks and turned my face this way and that.
“But I received good treatment and came back.”
“We wanted to go see your face too, but a pretty girl said that you needed absolute stability right now, so we purposely didn’t go.”
…A pretty girl? Who was that?
“By any chance, what did that girl look like?”
“Huh? Isn’t she your girlfriend, In-wook? She had short hair, and the color was brown? Or was it black?”
It was Ye-na.
Ye-na doesn’t know our current address.
The house of my parents that Ye-na from my previous life knew was a different place from now.
It was certain that she had asked for my address somewhere and came here.
“Anyway, she was so nice that I really liked her. I very much approved of her.”
I couldn’t help but smile bitterly at Mom’s words.
Because she had said something similar back then too.
“She’s a good person.”
“I want to see my grandchild soon. Your dad doesn’t say it, but when you weren’t here, he kept talking about wanting to see his grandchild.”
“No. When did I ever say that?”
Dad responded to Mom with a nonchalant expression.
“This won’t do. In-wook. Hurry up and go rest. It seems like we held you for too long. You’re not feeling well.”
“Yes. Mom, then I’ll go rest first.”
Returning to my room, I turned off the lights and lay down on the bed.
Since my hospitalization period had ended, I had to return to the academy again after a short rehabilitation period.
That meant I had to meet Ha-rin, Si-hwa, and Ye-na again…
Dating.
Marriage.
Child.
And extinction.
…I needed to make a decision.
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