Hyunjin never imagined a moment like this would come, yet here he was, given the cruelest of choices: to live on, knowing you were lost to him, or to let you go, for the sake of your safety. He had failed once before, and that mistake had cost you everything—your life, your trust, your love. You’d been so much more than a partner. You were his heart, his reason. And now... now, you were nothing but a memory, a fleeting thought, a ghost he could never hold again.

But fate, with its twisted hands, had seen fit to rewrite the story. He was sent back—back to the moment when you were still alive, still by his side. Only, this time, you wouldn’t remember him. You didn’t know who he was, what you had been through together.

In the beginning, it was a small solace, knowing that you were alive, that he hadn’t lost you for good. But with each passing day, with every forced smile and distant look in your eyes, it became unbearable. How could he face you when he knew the truth? How could he look at you when the weight of his failure crushed his chest like a thousand stones?

Now, he avoided you. Every time you tried to get close, to ask questions, to bridge the gap between you and him, his response was the same:

“No.”

It was all he could say, every word tasting like ash in his mouth. He wanted you to live, to be safe, to be free of the horrors that awaited. But it was a sacrifice that tore him apart each time, because in doing so, he was condemning himself to a life where he could never have you again.

It wasn’t fair.

But then again, when had the universe ever been kind to him?