The rain pours down on us, the storm raging on as if attacking us.
“Please,” I sputter again. “I can’t go on without you. I can’t live in a world where you don’t exist. I need my rabbit.”
I breathe into her mouth. Push on her chest.
Twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty?—
She jerks in place, convulsing as seawater spews from her lips and her body heaves upward. She coughs and retches, desperately gasping for air.
I gather her into my arms and hold her tight, cradling her in my lap until her eyes flutter open.
“J-Jin—” she chokes out.
“Shhh… Tokki-ya, save your breath,” I rasp, overcome with relief and blinking down at her in shock. “You’ve survived. We both have.”
She buries her head against my chest with a small, hoarse cry, her entire body trembling in my arms. We stay like this,unable to bring ourselves to move as heavy rain buckets down and the loud thunder rolls overhead.
But it hardly registers for either of us. We’re too exhausted and swept up by the shock and relief of what’s happened.
How lucky we are to still be here together, alive and breathing.
27.Jin
For thirty years,Noh Myeong-su held his grudge. The revenge he had sought was left unsated the night he slaughtered my family. But he never gave up hope that one day he would get to finish what he started.
Put an end to Seo Jung-hoon’s bloodline.
My father.
It all came down to the night on the cliffs—two men fighting in the pouring rain, one of them destined to die.
Myeong-su meant for it to be me. For me to be the one who perished. Instead, he was defeated once and for all.
He died with his revenge left forever incomplete. The Seo bloodline lives on.
I’m still breathing and he’s rotting in hell with the knowledge that I won. He lost and it was all for nothing.
In the aftermath of what’s been the most difficult period of my life, it provides some satisfaction. Though not nearly enough for what I’ve lost.
Even for the injuries I’ve sustained despite surviving. They’re serious enough to keep me hospitalized for days. An unusual experience for a man who typically stitches his ownwounds and pushes through pain that would put lesser men on their backs.
But even I had to admit the damage was too extensive to ignore. Several broken ribs make breathing an agonizing exercise. A stab wound to the chest missed my heart by centimeters, a fact the doctors remind me of every time they check my vitals, vaguely amazed I’m still alive.
My cheekbone is shattered, the left side of my face swollen and bruised in ever-evolving colors that change by the day. My shoulder was dislocated during the fight and had to be reset, leaving my arm in a sling that makes even the most basic daily tasks grueling. Multiple slash wounds decorate my side, arm, and back from when Myeong-su pulled a blade midway through our confrontation, each one stitched and bandaged and throbbing from residual pain.
And my toes—three of them broke from the impact of diving off the cliff into the churning sea below. At the time, I had been so desperate to save Monroe that none of these injuries even registered.
So when the doctors insisted I stay, for once I didn’t argue.
I wasn’t alone in sustaining serious injuries and cheating death by the skin of my teeth.
Sang-cheol survived his stab wounds and has been discharged, though it was only after emergency treatment and surgery.
Monroe’s friends—fellow teacher Kelly and her lab tech boyfriend Hyun-woo—also pulled through, though both suffered serious traumatic injuries that will take months to heal from. I’ve been told they’re recovering well, and that they’re expected to make full recoveries. I’ve only met Kelly a handful of times, and I’ve only heard about Hyun-woo inpassing, but I find myself grateful that Myeong-su once again failed at his mission.
Most of all, his ultimate goal to end Monroe’s life. Like me and the others, she has thankfully survived. A relief that still makes me lightheaded.
Her injuries required a stay in the hospital as well, though her room was on a different floor and I haven’t seen her since that night on the cliffs. Nearly drowning did a number on her system, from the significant amount of seawater she swallowed to the fact that she stopped breathing entirely at one point.
