Page 286 of Scarbound

“What do you mean?”

Noeul shook his head. “I said the same thing.” His mind seemed to slide somewhere else. “I was you.”

Duri frowned.

“With Gong,” Noeul said, his voice weakening. “When he wanted to die.”

Ji-Woo went still.

“I begged him too. I cried. I told him to stop. I told him we should call his psychiatrist.” His mouth twisted. “Exactly the same.”

Duri felt something cold move through him. “Noeul hyung…”

“Is this how he felt?” No one answered. Noeul looked up. “Is this why he thought I betrayed him?”

Ji-Woo frowned. “Betrayed him?”

“I did.”

“No.”

“I did.” Noeul’s voice turned flat. “I betrayed him.” His fingers loosened slightly around the glass. “I betrayed myself too. Us.”

Ji-Woo’s expression tightened. “What are you talking about?”

Noeul closed his eyes. “You don’t know what he looked like the last time I saw him in the clinic.”

He sank completely to the floor. “He looked at me like I’d destroyed him.” His voice cracked. “And then he killed himself.”

Ji-Woo crouched several feet away, still not touching him.

Noeul stared at the broken pieces around his knees. “He wanted me to find him.”

Ji-Woo went rigid. “What?”

“When he died.” Noeul’s breathing changed. “When I read the note…”

Ji-Woo stared at him. “He left a note?”

Noeul shut his eyes. “Yes.”

“Why didn’t I know?”

“I hid it.”

Ji-Woo looked wounded. “Why?”

Noeul’s mouth trembled. “Because you were young.”

“I wasn’t a child.”

Noeul looked at him, his eyes red. “You would’ve hated him.”

Ji-Woo went silent.

Noeul looked back at the glass in his hand. “He wrote things about me.”

Duri barely breathed.