"Ah… right, that's how it was…"
That single, hollow utterance made Jang-mi's eyes tremble.
Do-hwa quietly raised a hand and pressed it to her own head.
Brow deeply furrowed, she laughed a hollow laugh and murmured.
"I'm sorry… about that. Lately… my memory keeps slipping… haha, maybe I've lived too long…?"
"……"
Jang-mi couldn't say a word.
She could only bite her lip and stare at Do-hwa.
When had it started, exactly?
Those proud eyes that had once looked down on the whole world.
The woman who had always been so steadfast.
When had she begun to crumble into forgetting?
The forced smile on her face.
"I've been quite rude. I should be on my way… haha, I've been rather busy lately, too."
Do-hwa waved her hand with an awkward laugh and turned to go.
A lonely shadow stretched long behind her small back.
The moment she took her first step toward the front door.
Thud—
"……?"
Do-hwa's footsteps stopped.
My body moved before my mind did.
Without thinking, I slipped free from Jang-mi's grip and grabbed Do-hwa's wrist before she could walk away.
"Hm…? Child, what is it…?"
Do-hwa slowly turned her head and looked down at me.
Those eyes — empty, stripped of focus — turned toward me.
The moment I met them, something surged up from deep inside my chest.
Whether as the Shin-woo I used to be, or the Shin-a I am now, I couldn't just turn away from her like this.
I quietly tightened my grip around her hand and spoke.
"Please… stay a little while."
***
Do-hwa sat primly in the middle of the living room sofa, gazing blankly out the window.
The playful energy from moments ago, and the hollow laughter — all of it was gone without a trace.
Sitting upright in the full light, her silhouette carried a graceful, almost otherworldly stillness.
"Shin-a… why did you do that…?"
Jang-mi carefully led me into the bedroom and closed the door, then asked in a low voice.
Fear and worry were still tangled together in Jang-mi's eyes.
"Is something… wrong with her…?"
When I asked about Do-hwa's condition, a deep shadow fell between Jang-mi's furrowed brows.
"That's… haah……"
Jang-mi held my shoulders with both hands, looked into my eyes for a moment, then let out a heavy sigh from somewhere deep in her chest.
"Shin-a. This is a complicated matter. It has nothing to do with you."
"Is it… because of my father…?"
When I brought up my past self, the tips of Jang-mi's fingers trembled almost imperceptibly.
But she shook her head.
"No. It really has nothing to do with that. She's always been a little forgetful… She's just lived such a long life that her memory has grown a little hazy. She's just… feeling a bit melancholy about it."
"……"
Jang-mi was trying to reassure me — that Do-hwa wasn't like this because of the shock of my death.
But the look in Do-hwa's eyes that I'd just witnessed wasn't the kind of thing you could chalk up to simple forgetfulness.
Jang-mi studied my expression carefully as I stayed silent.
"Shin-a… are you worried about her?"
"……"
I said nothing. I just looked at Jang-mi.
Yes.
The answer rose all the way to my throat, but outwardly I kept my silence.
Because right now, I have no connection to her. Not officially.
Jang-mi looked quietly into my silence.
I don't know how she interpreted it, but something like a firm resolve slowly surfaced in her eyes.
"Then… Shin-a… would it be all right… if I told her… that your father was Shin-woo?"
"Yes."
I answered without a single second of hesitation.
The words were out before she'd even finished asking, and Jang-mi's eyes widened slightly.
She exhaled a shaky breath and pulled me into her arms.
"Thank you… truly, Shin-a……"
Her voice, thick with tears, reached me over her shoulder.
I glanced toward the living room.
Beyond the firmly closed bedroom door, I pictured her sitting there alone.
***
"……"
Do-hwa sat motionless, staring blankly at the sky outside the window.
'The years I have lived are not short by any measure.'
Having lived so long, it wasn't as though she'd never experienced the deaths of those around her.
If anything, she had seen more blood and bodies than she could count.
That was simply what it meant to be a hunter.
A profession where the comrade you laughed and drank with today could come back tomorrow as a cold corpse from inside a gate.
'Just a life that will die someday…'
There had been a time when she'd always thought that way.
That death was simply the order of nature. An inevitable conclusion.
天上天下 唯我獨尊 — Cheon sang cheon ha yu a dok jon.
Above the heavens and below the heavens, I alone am supreme.
That phrase had once been everything that defined her existence.
"……"
Days lived in boundless pride, every moment steeped in arrogance.
And yet… why did the death of one person cause her this much pain?
Because…
There had been one existence that had overturned entirely her indifference to the deaths and suffering of others.
That existence… was Kim Shin-woo.
***
She had run across the sky.
The air split beneath her feet with a thunderous roar.
Do-hwa had hurtled through the open air like a madwoman, reckless and unrestrained.
The wind cut across her cheeks, but it was nothing compared to the cold dread clenching around her heart.
"Hah… hah……"
When she finally arrived, a great crowd had gathered.
People dressed in black, weeping. Others standing with bowed heads, silent and grim.
The vast, murmuring weight of their grief pressed into her ears and made her head swim.
'It must be a prank. A rotten joke, everyone playing along to fool me. That's what this is, isn't it……'
Desperately denying reality, she shifted her gaze to the memorial portrait — and in that instant, Do-hwa's entire body went rigid.
The face in the photograph, smiling at her the way it always had.
Kim Shin-woo was there.
"Ha… hah……"
The strength drained from her legs.
Do-hwa sank to her knees on the cold floor, hollow and undone.
She couldn't breathe.
Drowning in an overwhelming despair that crushed her chest, she swallowed dryly.
"Hunter Cheon Do-hwa…! Please, pull yourself together…!"
The hunters around her cried out in alarm and moved to support her.
But Do-hwa shook off their hands irritably and forced herself back to her feet.
If she stayed here any longer, she felt she would go mad.
But only for a moment—
She stood rooted to the spot.
Her lips, fixed on the empty air, trembled faintly.
When the violent storm of emotion surpassed its limit, her mind went white.
With a searing headache, the circuit of her memory snapped — cut clean.
"……Hm?"
In an instant, Do-hwa's eyes came back into focus.
The despair, the grief — both evaporated.
Even the sounds of the people crying around her receded to a distant haze.
She stood there, calm and composed, as though nothing had happened at all.
A face so serene it was impossible to believe she had been on the verge of tears just moments before.
"Why am I… standing here like this…?"
Do-hwa glanced around in a daze, then looked down at her phone as it slipped from her pocket.
Her fingers moved mechanically, pressing a familiar number.
A dial tone rang out through the screen, indifferent.
The signal… scattered into the air, meaningless.
But the corners of Do-hwa's mouth curved into a bright, easy smile.
Her eyes began to shine again, guileless and clear.
"That kid Shin-woo……"
Phone pressed to her ear, Do-hwa laughed lightly out loud.
"Can't get through to him…… haha……"
As though nothing had happened at all — a clear, bright voice, like a parent mildly scolding a child who wouldn't pick up the phone.
***
"Shin-woo… is dead."
Her mind already knew.
Jang-mi's trembling voice, the world crying out the truth.
But no matter how hard she tried to accept it, something deep in her heart recoiled and pushed his death away.
She knew she had to accept it. But she simply couldn't.
There was no way forward except to deny reality.
Her weakened memory began to play tricks.
Surely he was just unreachable for a little while.
Because the moment she accepted it, she felt that one entire pillar of her world would come crashing down.
A wavering light settled quietly over Do-hwa's unfocused eyes.
And then.
"Hm…? Ah… Jang-mi, why are you…"
Do-hwa barely managed to turn her gaze and lift her head — and Jang-mi carefully guided a small silhouette out from behind her back.
"This child."
"Hm…?"
"She's Shin-woo's daughter."
"……?"
Do-hwa froze.
"Hmmmm…???"
The stillness in the room twisted all at once.
Do-hwa's eyes went wide enough to fall out of her head, and her grief transformed instantly into bewilderment.
***
"Th… this child… is Shin-woo's daughter…?"
"Yes."
Jang-mi nodded.
Do-hwa stared, dumbstruck, as the child — Shin-a — was slowly led forward by Jang-mi's small hand.
Deep, quiet black eyes. And hair that seemed to absorb the light.
"Now that I look… it's not just the energy she gives off… even her face…"
"Hello."
The small girl in front of her bowed politely in greeting.
Do-hwa felt a wave of déjà vu in every tiny movement, and swallowed dryly.
"Oh… oh, yes… right."
Her mind was in chaos, like a storm had hit it.
If anything, it was as much of a shock as the moment she'd first heard of Shin-woo's death — perhaps even more so. Her thoughts went completely blank.
Do-hwa rose from her seat as if drawn upward.
Then, one careful step at a time, she approached the child.
Her gaze was that of someone looking at a mirage that might vanish at a touch.
"Is… is this really… Shin-woo's… child?"
"Yes, without a doubt."
"Then… you, Jang-mi… wait, no. That can't be right…"
The logic didn't add up, and Do-hwa's words faltered.
"She's not my child."
Jang-mi cut her off with a rueful smile.
"What… what? Then whose… whose is she? Don't tell me… Ha-yun's…?"
"I don't know either. But…"
Jang-mi slowly stepped closer, leaned in, and whispered in a low, cool voice directly into Do-hwa's ear.
"It doesn't seem like a good person."
"……!!!"
At those weighted words, Do-hwa's brow creased sharply.
A flood of questions and dark possibilities swept through her mind.
"Then… how did you end up with this child…"
"Well… there were various circumstances, and I ended up taking care of her."
As if to skip over the complicated details, Jang-mi let out a deliberately light sigh and changed the subject.
"……"
"I'll bring out something to eat. You two talk."
And with that, Jang-mi turned toward the kitchen.
Left behind, Do-hwa looked down at the girl before her, still visibly flustered.
Words didn't come easily.
"Ah… um… hmm…"
Perhaps sensing Do-hwa's gaze drifting awkwardly through the air, Shin-a looked up at her with calm, steady eyes.
"Please, speak freely."
"Ah… right…"
"……"
She resembled him. But the atmosphere was slightly different.
Something ached near her heart.
Now…
"Aah……"
It seemed the time had truly come to accept it.
That Shin-woo no longer existed in this world.
And that this child standing before her was the trace he had left behind.
Everything around her was still confusing, still impossible to make rational sense of.
But truly… it was time. It was really time to accept it.
Do-hwa slowly reached out her hand.
And with a touch that was a little rough, but unmistakably tender, she gently stroked the girl's soft hair.
The child's warmth reached her through her fingertips.
Such a small, young child, left alone in the world, looking up at her.
She had lived long enough. She couldn't go on crumbling pathetically, trapped in the grief of the past, smearing herself against the wall like something broken.
Shin-woo was dead.
That was a tragedy that could not be changed.
But… this child was here, alive and breathing, right in front of her eyes.
Light returned to Do-hwa's scattered gaze.
'This child, at least… I will protect her no matter what.'
In his stead, even at the cost of her own life — she would protect her. Do-hwa carved that burning vow deep into her chest.
***
It was after the sound of Jang-mi's footsteps had faded completely beyond the kitchen.
The living room fell into sudden silence, and then Do-hwa reached out and gently stroked my head.
Her pale, slender hand descended slowly — light, yet somehow heavy with something unspoken.
Beyond her clear eyes looking down at me, a deep grief she hadn't managed to hide came through plainly.
Those eyes shimmered as though tears might well up at any moment.
The instant I met that gaze.
"……"
Something sank in my chest.
I wasn't at ease.
Watching her waver like this, struggling like this…
I couldn't just stand here and watch her come apart in front of me.
Say it. Tell her I'm Shin-woo.
Tell her.
I swallowed once, then quietly took a step closer to her, making no sound.
At my sudden approach, her eyelashes trembled faintly.
"Hm…? What are you—"
She tilted her head slightly, her words trailing off — and in that instant, I glanced quickly around the room.
Then I leaned in close to her and whispered in a voice barely louder than a breath.
"Actually… I'm Shin-woo."
The moment my words reached her, her shoulders visibly stiffened.
"Hmm…?"
The name drifted around her ear, and Do-hwa's eyes shook, losing focus.
I had thought that when she finally faced the truth, she would cry — or perhaps recognize me and fall into my arms.
Right. That's all it takes.
And then…
"Ahahaha…! What a funny little joke from such a small child!"
What shattered the tension-filled air was none other than her booming, hearty laughter.
Do-hwa laughed out loud as though clutching her sides, and in an instant swept away the aching sorrow that had hung in the air, turning it into something light and playful.
At the sight of her laughing so openly, my body went completely rigid.
"……?"
My vision of a tender, tearful reunion had missed the mark entirely.
…This isn't how it was supposed to go.
***
Do-hwa held her stomach and laughed for a good long while.
It was the first time she had laughed like this since that day.
After the laughter had filled the living room and finally subsided, she sat with a stray teardrop still clinging to the corner of her eye, smiling softly to herself.
'Come to think of it……'
Faint fragments of memory drifted past.
'The one who always made me laugh out of nowhere like this…… it was always that kid.'
The girl's voice, whispering earnestly into her ear just moments ago, still lingered.
'Actually…… I'm Shin-woo.'
'Not entirely wrong, either……'
Truly.
The warmth swelling up inside her chest was so real it almost made her believe Shin-woo had come back to life and was standing right beside her.
That cheeky little declaration from the child — who had noticed her grieving alone and reached out in whatever way she could to comfort her.
The atmosphere was a little different from Shin-woo's, but the way she went about cheering someone up through sheer absurdity — that was identical.
Still, Do-hwa let out a quiet breath and shook her head.
She couldn't let herself sink into that illusion.
'He's dead. No matter how much she resembles him, I have to accept what must be accepted.'
And so Do-hwa, without the faintest inkling of the desperate sincerity behind Shin-a's words, only hardened her resolve further.
Then, slowly, Do-hwa's gaze drifted toward Shin-a, who was standing there looking thoroughly bewildered.
'But what do children these days even like……? She said something sweet, so should I buy her a gift? Or… should I ask if she wants to go see one of those movies that are popular lately? Ah…… would she hate going out with an old woman like me? No, no…… but this face of mine is still quite lovely, so maybe it'd be fine…… actually, maybe not? I should figure out what she likes first. I'll quietly ask Da-bin when I get home.'
Do-hwa's mind was already filling up entirely with thoughts and worries about Shin-a.
Just then, Jang-mi emerged from the kitchen with a troubled expression, fiddling with her phone.
"We're going to have to eat out."
"Hm……? Why is that?"
Do-hwa blinked, surfacing from her thoughts.
"There's nothing at home for Shin-a and Grandmother to eat."
"Hm……? Then what have you been feeding this child normally?"
Jang-mi shrugged as though she didn't see the problem.
"Hmm……? We just eat out or order delivery most of the time……?"
"Wha, wha-wha-WHAT……???"
Do-hwa's complexion turned ashen in an instant, her voice cracking.
Jang-mi blinked at the unexpectedly fierce reaction.
"Huh……?"
"How can you feed a child nothing but that! You need to give her warm, nutritious home-cooked meals too, Jang-mi……! You'll ruin the child at this rate, ruin her!"
Jang-mi drew out her words in protest, trying to defend herself.
"Shin-a likes it though……"
"갈(喝)……!!!"
Do-hwa's thunderous shout rattled the walls of the living room.
Jang-mi's shoulders shot up to her ears in a startled flinch.
"Eek……"
"We're going to the market this instant!"
Do-hwa was already rolling up her sleeves and grabbing a shopping bag.
Jang-mi could only stare after her, utterly dumbfounded.
"Huh……?"