The wind blew fiercely. The half-open window swung wide, causing the white chiffon curtains to flutter.
“When I first saw you, I forgot you.”
Russell carefully stood up and sat next to Summer. He reached out his hand, as if to touch a precious and delicate petal.
He withdrew the hand he had extended. A single leaf was caught in his fingers. It seemed to have fallen onto Summer's hair in the breeze.
“And then, when I saw you by the lake, I remembered your name and face.”
“......”
Russell fiddled with the leaf as he continued speaking.
“And the next time we met, I became curious about why you wanted to die.”
“......I’m not trying to die.”
“And then, after that, I wanted to understand you.”
“......Russell.”
“After that, I resented the trajectory of my life for not being able to understand you. If I had walked the same path as you, wouldn’t it have been easier to understand you?”
“......”
“I kept asking you annoying questions because I wanted to understand.”
“It wasn’t annoying.”
“Summer. I believe that the day a person can understand another person will never come.”
Russell's clear eyes sparkled blue in the sunlight. Summer focused on the neat and cold Russell.
She felt as if she was being drawn in. Whether to call this a sense of stability, Summer couldn’t tell. There was no time to look inside herself.
“You remain an unclear and ever-changing existence to me.”
“That’s too true; I have no words.”
“So I thought I would probably never understand you for the rest of my life. That was the answer I had come to in my life so far. For me, emotions and appeals were unnecessary. I would just increase the consultation windows at the medical center if the mortality rate rose.”
“......”
The wind blew again.
The leaf in Russell's hand slipped away and danced in the air, carried by the wind.
Summer's gaze followed the leaf flying beyond the window before returning to Russell.
The moment she met his deep eyes, she felt as if something tightly entangled had rendered her immobile.
“But meeting you, the result is this.”
Russell gently held the tips of Summer's fingers with both hands. Then, he lightly pressed his forehead against her hand.
Like someone praying to seek answers from a deity.
“Russell...”
“In a world filled with numbers, you alone are a piece of writing to me.”
After finishing his words, Russell lifted his head and met Summer's gaze.
“......Ah.”
If they kissed, would he push her away?
If the wind hadn’t stopped blowing, no one would know what would have happened next.
“Shall I close the window?”
“I’ll do it.”
Fortunately, Summer, who regained her composure first, hurriedly broke the silence. Russell also closed the window without saying much.
“I had a dream after meeting you, Summer.”
“I was in your dream?”
At the unnecessary remark, Summer shivered her shoulders. She was startled. She thought he meant he had dreamed of her.
Why does he keep saying things that could be misunderstood? Summer felt her face heat up for no reason and covered her forehead with her palm.
“No. I saw a strange and bizarre world.”
“......A bizarre world?”
“The buildings were towering as if they would pierce the sky. They were taller than the spires of palaces. Objects faster than carriages whizzed past me with loud noises.”
“......What!”
Startled, Summer covered her mouth with both hands. She heard a piercing ringing in her ears, which soon became muffled.
A constant buzzing echoed in her head, and it felt surreal.
Could it be, could it be?
“Avoiding the objects, I entered a building packed with people, with no room to step. No one paid me any attention. I was holding something small in my hand and only looking at that.”
“......So? Did you have a conversation?”
“When I asked where this place was, a man looked at me strangely and answered, ‘South Korea.’”
“Wait, Russell. What did you say...?”
“South Korea. Is it a name you know?”
“Wait a minute. When was that? The day you had that dream!”
“The day we played a game of lies. That night.”
Russell had seen Summer's world in his dream. How? The people of this world were not supposed to interfere with the original world.
Summer's complexion turned pale.
She finally felt how deeply the world was interfering with this matter.
It sent chills down her spine. A world that stuffed her into a minor role, preventing her from dying, and offered no words.
Did the protagonist have the confidence to fight and win against this god who wielded power at will? She wasn’t even the protagonist, just a mere human.
Powerless, like a tiny creature before nature. She couldn’t win.
If all of this was the world’s trick and she was merely a pawn in it, suddenly, Summer found herself unable to trust anything at all.
Could she go back? On what grounds did Pay say she didn’t have to return by tomorrow? What was the god thinking? What did the god want to do with her, an outsider? They said the existence of an outsider was causing cracks in the world?
No, did this world even wish to continue existing in the first place?
Why?
What kind of malice was behind this treatment towards her?
Summer felt like she wanted to scream at the god in frustration.
“Why on earth to me...”
But her body trembled violently like a aspen tree, and her voice came out hoarse, as if someone was choking her.
“Summer? Are you okay?”
“I’m, I’m not okay... Ugh, ugh...!”
Summer gagged, and her frail body collapsed.
Russell quickly supported her. Summer's body was excessively cold.
“Summer! Just a moment. I’ll call a doctor.”
“D-Don’t go. I’m scared...”
“Summer. Calling the doctor is the priority.”
“Please, please! Just stay by my side...”
“......”
Summer shouted nervously, clasping her trembling hands together.
Russell's once wavering gaze soon steadied with firm resolve.
He tightly embraced Summer, as if to absorb her trembling.
“Ugh, ugh...”
“Shh. Summer. I will find a way.”
“I’m c-cold...”
“......Summer. Can you hear my voice? Do you understand what I’m saying right now?”
“Yes, yes...”
Summer answered, shivering.
Seeing Russell's calm eyes was somewhat reassuring, but the overwhelming sense of powerlessness and fear that had engulfed her body was not easily shaken off.
“Then... please grant me one last mercy for the person who will keep a place for you in their heart for the rest of their life. I ask you to allow it.”
Russell quietly lowered his head.
The strength in his arms holding Summer tightened, and their bodies pressed closely together.
And warm breaths brushed against her. On her forehead, her eyelids, the tip of her nose.
And on her lips.
It was a disappointingly short kiss. Startled, Summer looked up at Russell with wide eyes.
“R-Russell...?”
“Your color is returning a bit. That’s a relief.”
Russell smiled slightly sadly. His eyes were smiling, but his mouth was forced into a faint tremor.
“Russell, do you... do you perhaps...”
“It’s not very important. If my feelings block your path, then those feelings should exist, but they shouldn’t.”
Tell me the answer. You are the clear Russell Bertrand, after all.
Summer's expression openly revealed her thoughts, but Russell simply covered her eyes with his hand.
“Don’t look at me like that. I want to hold you.”
“Russell. Can’t you stay with me?”
She was no longer the Summer who was always on edge, wary, and pretending to be indifferent.
She was a delicate and vulnerable person who should have been trembling alone in a strange place, crying out in nightmares in a room left empty.
“Of course. I was planning to follow you without you even having to say it.”
“I... need to go to the temple.”
Summer opened her mouth, trying hard to calm herself.
When Mary spoke about her original body in the world, when the world turned back time, and when Russell said he had seen the original world in his dream.
Summer was certain. It was a matter that required her to go to the temple. She needed to see herself again at the temple.
And returning was also something she planned to do at the temple.
“Let’s go together. You’re still trembling.”
“Russell. Can I say something bad just once?”
“Anything.”
“When I leave... can you stay by my side?”
“......”
At the unexpected words, Russell swallowed hard and brushed his hair back with one hand. His tightly clenched jaw was filled with tension.
“If it’s not okay,”
“It is. It’s a cruel request, but you know I can’t refuse it.”
“I thought you would refuse.”
“You said you would return. I will trust you. But if I see you in danger, I will stop you.”
Even after saying that, Russell sighed and swallowed hard. How far was this lady planning to unsettle him?
“Let’s go in my carriage.”
“Okay.”
Summer preferred that. She hoped the coachman Jack wouldn’t discover her dead body.
Russell stood up and rang the bell. Soon, a servant approached Russell.
“Prepare the carriage. We’re going to the temple.”
“Yes.”
The servant left, and Russell slowly walked around the reception room.
Seeing him occasionally sigh while holding his head, it was easy to feel that this matter was quite burdensome for Russell as well.
As Russell organized the situation step by step, he couldn’t help but chuckle at his own contradictions.
At first, she was an absurd woman. She felt a bit pathetic.
But he had come this far, bewildered, flustered, and curious.
Knowing how painful it was to love someone who would eventually leave.