Waiting For Your Reincarnation Chapter 141

A sinking feeling sank deep into her chest. 

 

No matter how many times she’d had to let someone go, she hadn’t gotten used to it. 

 

Yeon-young wiped the drops of water from her face with her hand and looked up.

 

The place Negro had left behind resembled a tsunami. Everything in the world was broken and ruined, nothing intact.

 

Yeon-young slowly scanned her surroundings, looking for Ryu Won, but he was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, Yeon-young felt uneasy.

 

“Ming!”

 

Just then, a white sly appeared out of nowhere and stood in front of Yeon-young. Since entering Negro Headquarters, she had completely forgotten about the Sly’s presence. The Sly must have been hiding well.

 

“Are you okay? Where have you been?”

 

Yeon-young stretched out her arms and tried to scoop him up, but he dodged her hands, emitting a faint glow. It was a violent movement, as if it didn’t want to be caught.

 

Shaking her head, Yeon-young pushed herself up without letting go of the Sly, and the Sly bumped her calf with her body to make a point.

 

“Huh? What’s wrong?”

 

“Mingming!”

 

“Um…, you want me to follow you?”

 

It seemed to be the right answer. The Sly stopped nudging Yeon-young’s leg and crawled off somewhere.

 

“I need to find Ryu Won…”

 

Even as her footsteps followed the Sly’s, Yeon-young continued to think about Ryu Won. The words he’d said to her about not turning around when he’d given her the water to extinguish Daeheon kept echoing in her head.

 

‘Why had Ryu Won told her not to look back?’

 

Before she knew it, the Sly was down a long hallway and heading for the entrance. The farther she got from Negro’s headquarters, the slower her steps became. She clutched the ring he’d given her tightly in her hand.

 

The Sly stopped at a fork in the cave.

 

“Ryu Won…”

 

A sobbing voice called out, and there, covered in black spots, lay Ryu Won, unconscious.

 

Ther Sly nudged Yeon-young’s calf with his body again, as if to tell her to hurry over to him.

 

She ran to Ryu Won with a contorted face.

 

“Ryu-won!”

 

Yeon-young knelt down in front of him and gently lifted his head with her right hand. Still, Ryu Won didn’t open his eyes. His vision felt blurry.

 

‘Why does misfortune always return after hope?’

 

Yeon-young rested her head on his cold forehead and swallowed a shaky breath. Trying to calm herself, she raised her upper body and stared at his left hand, where his core was.

 

The white core was shattered and cracked, with the snarl’s energy seeping through the cracks. 

 

The core was even more damaged than the last time Yeon-young had seen Ryu Won.

 

It was as if someone had tampered with it artificially.

 

“Who the hell…”

 

Sure enough, the only people inside Negro’s headquarters were Yeon-young, Ryu Won, and Jaeho, whose body had been taken by Daeheon.

 

Yeon-young raised his head and stared at the ceiling, silent for a moment before looking down at him and reaching for the core. She found a white aura shrouded in blackness.

 

She dug deeper into it.

 

The dark cave disappeared from her vision, and a space in Ryu Won’s memory appeared. The library on the field was a vivid reminder of Ryu Won’s unstable state.

 

The countless bookshelves, huge, ancient, and mysterious, were nowhere to be found, and only a few books containing memories littered the floor.

 

If he couldn’t remember, it meant he hadn’t fully regained consciousness. Yeon-young impatiently checked the image on top of the book.

 

“That’s it.”

 

Fortunately, the memory she wanted to read was instantly recognizable. Black hair shining like obsidian under the lights of Negro headquarters. It was the back of Yeon-young’s head as seen from Ryu Won’s perspective.

 

She picked up the memory without hesitation. His consciousness was quickly sucked into his last memory.

 

Ryu Won stared at the cracked core of Yeon-young. Every time he blinked, his head felt dizzy and his consciousness faded. A rage that resembled despair clouded his vision.

 

Possessed by his gaze, Yeon-young could sense the stormy anxiety he was feeling.

 

Ryu Won was afraid. That he could hurt her at any moment.

 

At the same time, he instinctively realized that it would be faster for him to become a Snarl and break her completely than for her to purify himself.

 

Daeheon’s brainwashing reared its ugly head again, tormenting his mind. Ryu Won stared at the unstable white core, touching his ring over and over again.

 

When he finally stopped fiddling with the ring, he whispered in Yeon-young’s ear, “I’ll break the water. I’ll open the waterway for you, don’t look back and deal with Daeheon.”

 

‘No way…’

 

A chill shook Yeon-young’s heart. Ryu Won began to channel the power of the core into the ring. 

 

He didn’t stop, even as the light lost its power, all of it going toward the ring.

 

Only when the core lost its color and turned transparent did he hand the ring to her.

 

As he advised, Yeon-young looked straight ahead and ran to Jaeho. The spot Yeon-young had cleansed was now blackened by Snarl’s revitalizing energy.

 

Seeing her free of his embrace, Ryu Won grasped the core in his left hand and gave it strength.

 

Thud-!

 

With the sound of the core shattering, Ryu Won’s vision, which had been filled with light, became increasingly blurry.

 

It was he, the Snarl, who had broken Ryu Won’s core.

 

“Heh…”

 

Yeon-young’s head dropped to his chest as she snapped out of the last of his memories. 

 

She swallowed back a sob and bit down hard enough to turn her lower lip white. It felt like she was falling down an endless chasm.

 

‘Why did Ryu Won and herself always have to go back and forth like this?’

 

“Ugh…”

 

Every time she shifted, Ryu Won let out a groan of pain.

 

Yeon-young wiped a tear roughly with her hand as it rolled down her cheek, trying to regain her composure. She didn’t want to dwell on it, but rather purify his corrupted aura.

 

The fact that his form still remained in Tanato meant he was here. The core had to be restored before Ryu Won’s body disappeared completely.

 

Closing her eyes tightly, Yeon-young thought about the most efficient sequence. It would make sense to cleanse the core of the corrosive Snarl energy first.

 

The current rain shower would be the most effective way to cleanse the Snarl’s aura, but getting him out of the cave would be the first challenge.

 

“Is this the only way?”

 

Yeon-young looked at her core and muttered. Her glow was dulled by the overuse of her power.

 

Just then, the Sly, who had been watching the scene from behind, patted Yeon-young’s uniform coat. Dropping her hand, she dug into the coat’s pockets.

 

Inside was the half-eaten divine from earlier. It was soaked and misshapen, but it hasn’t disappeared yet.

 

“Ming!”

 

“That’s right, there was a divine.”

 

Recalling the benefits of the Divine, Yeon-young quickly dripped the juice onto Ryu Won’s lips. A drop or two of juice trickled between his plump lips.

 

As the Divine entered his mouth, the black spots faded slightly, and the color of the core changed.

 

It was only a temporary fix. Half a Divine was not enough to restore him to his original color.

 

“Yeon-young…”

 

“Ryu Won, are you awake?”

 

“What happened?”

 

Ryu Won asked weakly, holding Yeon-young in his eyes. He looked like he could fall back to sleep at any moment. She nodded slightly, squeezing his hand harder as if to wake him up.

 

“…It’s all over.”

 

“You’ve returned to Tanato, the one you wanted to find, right?”

 

“That’s right.”

 

“Then why do you look so sad?”

 

“I found Tanato, but…, I’m afraid that Ryu Won is going to pull away from me again.”

 

“That can’t be.”

 

Ryu Won’s voice was a low, bassy rumble as he reached out his arm and gently brushed his thumb across the tears on Yeon-young’s chin. Ryu Won’s fingertips turned transparent.

 

She couldn’t hold his hand any longer. She didn’t want to feel Ryu Won disappear in her hands.

 

“Don’t go.”

 

“I won’t. I’ll stay with you.”

 

“You’re lying. Then why are you closing your eyes again? Ryu Won, wake up, I’ll find a way.”

 

“…….”

 

“Please…, just hold on a little longer, okay?”

 

A warm, firm hand slid down her chin, cupped her neckline, and then gently touched her hand. 

 

He took the ring he’d handed her.

 

Fiddling with the ring, Ryu Won took a long, slow breath in and out. His glassy-white eyes, as always, were filled with longing. He blinked slowly and muttered like the wind.

 

“Don’t forget me.”

 

With those words, Ryu Won closed his eyes completely.