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It was now the first spring, nearly a year since all of us had faced the final wall after killing the Dokkaebi King after the 99th scenario. We didn’t kill the “Most Ancient Dream”, but we had managed to come back to Seoul.
To me, it felt like a whole decade had passed since then because too much had occurred. So much had been sacrificed for an ending he knew he could never be satisfied with.
I was asked to be Yoo Joonghyuk’s best man, and now, I watched him from the side. A position that reminded me that I was a “reader” who was now witnessing my favorite character, no, person, reach his ‘happy ending’.
I felt happy for him who had managed to reach the conclusion he’d been searching and craving for in order to relieve his years of suffering as a regressor. But as I saw him smile so softly while holding Lee Seolhwa’s hands, in a way I had never seen before, a corner of my heart twinged.
I watched the two figures standing on the platform, looking happier than they had ever looked, the bride and the groom. They would remember this day as one of the happiest days of their lives.
My throat felt scratchy as if there was something stuck in my throat and caused my eyes to get misty. I coughed lightly into my hand so that the ceremony wouldn’t be disturbed, only to open my hand and see a small bundle of delicate flowers. They were small yellow hyacinths. My hand trembled slightly as I watched them get carried away by the wind before scattering to the ground a short distance away.
The rest of the wedding concluded within an hour as it had been planned to be simple and short, so a little after most of the guests left, I slipped into a bathroom nearby. Locking the door to my stall I turned around and started coughing harshly into my hands several times until the stuffiness in my throat was cleared. Tears were in my eyes from having forced down the flowers that had suddenly risen in frequency and amount.
How come it had gotten so bad? It used to be only 2-4 flowers every hour, but now I was holding a small bouquet’s worth of flowers in my hand. They were all relatively small, but the large amount had made me feel as if I was going to suffocate to death. I looked at the small assortment of flowers. There were more yellow hyacinths, a few baby yellow tulips, and a couple of light blue forget me nots.
I stared at them for a bit before dropping them into the toilet and flushing them. Disappearing in a flurry of colors that broke my reflection. Then I walked out with the same smile I always had, as if nothing happened.