Weren’t You the One Who Was Dying? Chapter 1

“Are you really going to stay in the cold like that, Dapflen?”

An afternoon bookstore in the city.

A tall, black-haired man gently pulled me toward him. I leaned fully against his strangely warm body and blinked my eyes.

‘What? Why is he so warm?’

It wasn’t even that cold to begin with. But once that warmth reached me, my body relaxed as if I had stuck a hot pack on myself.

“Your hands are cold.”

At the words of the black-haired man—Ehit—I touched my hands.

They were a bit cold. It was because of my poor circulation that always got worse in autumn.

“I’m not cold…….”

Just then, a light sea breeze came in through the window. Dust that had piled up on the window frame flew in and tickled my throat for a moment.

“Cough! Cough!”

Ehit quickly turned me around. When his handsome face suddenly came right in front of me, my throat tightened and I coughed again.

I could see Ehit’s face slowly hardening.

‘Ah, it’s not contagious though.’

This man looking at me with such a serious expression was Ehit Cloyden—my fiancé.

Black hair that seemed to hold light, and attractive blue eyes. With light falling on only one side of his face, his nose bridge looked even sharper than usual.

Ehit was the male lead of the novel Flowers Blooming on the Sea, the story I had reincarnated into.

He was outstanding in both ability and looks, but he was a character set to die young. Later on, he was even supposed to die after taking a sword meant for the female lead—and I was his fiancée.

Being the male lead’s fiancée might sound enviable, but like in most romance novels, that role never ended well.

‘Nine times out of ten, she dies early from illness, or her family causes trouble and she’s completely ruined.’

And then she only appears in people’s memories, getting talked about like, ‘You know, the one who was engaged to the young master back then…….’

‘Sadly, the fiancée in this novel was also a character who got completely ruined.’

So I had to run away in advance.

I would quickly gather some money and break off the engagement before spring came to the sea. After handing over the title of Ehit’s fiancée to the female lead, I’d live peacefully somewhere quiet and empty of people……

“Cough! Ugh!”

“Dapflen.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

I covered my mouth with the handkerchief I carried around and coughed once more.

Ehit was a man who was especially sensitive about health to begin with. Because of that, I tried my best to stop coughing, but it didn’t work.

‘Maybe dust really got stuck in my throat. The coughing won’t stop.’

After coughing repeatedly, it felt like heat was rising to my eyes.

I blinked my slightly bloodshot eyes and lifted my head.

“I’m sorry, I keep coughing…….”

But strangely, Ehit’s eyes were red too.

‘I’m the one who coughed, though?’

Did dust get into his eyes?

“Just a moment.”

I gently placed my hand on Ehit’s cheek and examined his eyes. His long eyelashes hanging over his blue eyes trembled slightly.

‘Hmm, I can’t see anything with the naked eye.’

Even so, for some reason, Ehit’s eyes kept getting redder.

‘Could this be a side effect of Ehit’s precognition?’

In the original story, Ehit had an ability called precognitive sight. Because of the backlash from that ability, he was destined to die.

“Ehit, are you okay?”

Just as I was about to pull my hand away, Ehit wrapped his hand around mine. I looked at him in confusion.

What is this?

Lately, Ehit seemed to be doing things I couldn’t understand more and more often. It was strange enough that he had followed me on a precious day off.

As someone who valued days off greatly, I couldn’t understand it at all.

“But Ehit, is it really okay for you to stay here? You said it was your day off.”

“Yes.”

“Isn’t it a waste of time?”

“It is a waste—every minute, every second.”

“Then why are you here? You could go somewhere and rest.”

To my question, Ehit gave an answer I couldn’t understand.

“That’s exactly why I’m here. Because time…… isn’t left in much supply.”

“What?”

Was he talking about the time he had left? If not, then could it be……

‘Did he realize that I’m planning to break off the engagement?’

Now that I think about it, his expression looks kind of angry too, doesn’t it?

 

 

****

 

 

 

“Cough!”

As he watched Dapflen coughing, Ehit tightly clenched the hot pack he had tucked inside his clothes.

So that he could warm her anytime she felt cold, Ehit always carried a hot pack close to his chest. But what use was any of that now?

“Cough!”

From between his tightly clenched teeth, he tasted iron-like blood. A fierce anger toward himself rose onto his face.

He had always been this fierce. Even though the one suffering was Dapflen alone, the one who felt angry was him.

“I’m sorry, I keep coughing…….”

Dapflen didn’t have much time left to live. In other words, she was terminally ill.

The more he felt how little time remained, the more something sharp gnawed and clawed at Ehit’s insides. If he followed his heart, he wanted to keep her right by his side and erase everything that could be a threat.

The cold brought by Bellachen’s sea wind. Any object that might carry even a bit of dirt. And everything that would steal time away from her.

In the face of those things, Ehit could become as fierce as needed.

But he couldn’t show that side of himself in front of Dapflen. Every time Ehit noticed her symptoms, she always said the same things.

‘No, it’s just…….’

‘Please don’t tell anyone else.’

Dapflen didn’t want anyone to know about her illness. Anyone at all.

So who was he, someone who wasn’t even the patient, to act so fiercely?

“Ehit?”

Only after Dapflen gently placed her hand on his cheek did Ehit realize he felt like he might burst into tears at any moment.

Again. He didn’t know when it had started, but before he knew it, everything that made Ehit laugh and cry had become Dapflen.

“Why are you here? You could go somewhere and rest.”

“That’s exactly why I’m here. Because time…… isn’t left in much supply.”

It might be selfish toward Dapflen, whose time was running out, but Ehit couldn’t give even a single moment of that time to anyone else.

 

 

****

 

 

 

The first time I met Ehit was at a Fallen estate banquet in early autumn.

It was also the day I realized this world was inside a novel.

On a drowsy afternoon, while sitting at my usual seat in the infirmary and spacing out, I suddenly remembered my past life.

‘What? Do memories of a past life usually come back this suddenly?’

Anyway, once I realized my past life, everything about this world—the scenery, the names, even how people looked—felt unmistakably like a romance fantasy novel.

It definitely seemed like a novel I had read in my past life, but I couldn’t tell which one right away. There was no novel where a character named “Dapflen Aileta” appeared.

“Dapflen, what are you doing? Let’s go.”

Even while Dellers, my academy classmate, came to get me and we headed to the Fallen estate banquet together, I was still a bit dazed by what I had just realized.

“What are you thinking about so hard, Dapflen? Nervous because it’s been a while since a banquet?”

“No…….”

“Don’t worry. Just trust me.”

With Dellers confidently saying that, we arrived at the banquet hall.

After standing in a corner, lost in thought, eating only bread from Toad Bakery that wasn’t easy to come by, I ended up facing this man.

“Have we met somewhere before?”

In the mansion garden filled with the scent of apple wine.

With scarlet lights enhancing the banquet atmosphere, contrasting with the dark Bellachen sea visible in the distance, I grabbed the handsome man in front of me and said something like that.

It was the kind of line you’d only hear in an old romance novel, but I wasn’t actually trying to flirt.

Jet-black hair, blue eyes with a cold impression, and an expressionless face formed by strong, sharp features.

It was just that something about this man’s presence and overall feeling seemed strangely familiar.

“No.”

A stiff, sharp reply came back. But right now, his tone or expression wasn’t what mattered to me.

Even though we didn’t know each other, the fact that I felt like I knew him meant……

The man turned away and quickly walked off. But since I felt like I was standing before something extremely important, I hurried after him and grabbed him.

“What’s your name?”

But as I moved too quickly, my feet tangled, and I ended up slamming my face right into his chest. The man caught me as I fell, but his blue eyes clearly showed exhaustion.

“Will you move?”

I quickly steadied myself on the grass with my dark green shoes. The moment I was back on my feet, the man irritably adjusted his tie and walked away.

Left alone, I felt a bit dazed as I stared at his back for a long time. And then I thought.

That man—somehow, it really felt like he was the main character of the novel I had possessed.

 

 

****

 

 

 

“Dellers!”

I immediately called out to my friend Dellers, who was clinking glasses with people in the middle of the banquet hall.

As soon as Dellers spotted me urgently waving from the side of the hall, he pushed people away and came over.

“Dapflen, you finally feel like joining people? Just in time—Sir Mary is in the middle of a fascinating story about his pet hedgehog……”

“Who is that man?”

I pointed to a man talking with others in the center of the hall.

A tall figure who stood out even among countless people, a careless expression as if nothing here interested him, and an overwhelming presence that naturally drew everyone’s gaze.