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it was before battles like these, life-risking, treacherous battles, when love was confessed.
and it was a battle just like this, when the truth came out.
i had always known i loved hyunckel, it was an undeniable, inevitable truth that was bound to be told.
an undeniable, inevitable truth that was revealed, a truth declared the day hyunckel left, unknowing if he’d ever return.
“wait!” i cried out after him, and he turned around to face me.
“dai and the others are waiting for me, the battle starts at dawn,” he told me sternly.
“hyunckel,” i embraced him, his warm, earthy scent flooding my senses. he was taken aback by this motion, so i continued, “i’m sorry i didn’t wake up earlier, but i wanted to wish you well before the fight.”
hyunckel sighed.
“you didn’t have to get up this early for me,” i released him from the embrace. “you could have slept in, and i would have gone peacefully.”
“i wanted to see you, one last time, because i don’t know what could happen to you.”
“neither do i.”
there was silence.
“don’t go-”
“i have to.”
silence again.
i knew he had to join dai, maam, popp, crocodile and the others. i knew he had to fight, god knows who or where, i didn’t, but he had a vision in mind.
a vision that he had to atone for his actions as a dark swordsman,
that he had to fight to justify his evil past,
he had to make up for his wrongdoings,
to fight evil, what he once was.
“alright, if you must, i understand,” i sighed. “but there’s something i want to tell you before you go.”
the world seemed to spin around me as i took his hands in mine, and as the sun rose slowly over the horizon, as time ticked slowly away, it felt as though the world fell away around us. and in that moment, it was just me and him, and i told him what i’d been meaning to for so long.
“hyunckel,”
the world stopped spinning, the world around me stilled, and my eyes locked with his.
“i love you.”
this time, the silence was empty. not the sound of running feet, not the earthy smell of hyunckel’s clothes, not the feel of his hand in mine,
nothing.
it was then he took me in his arms, holding me tight, something he’d never done to me before. tears leaked from his eyes and fell onto my shirt, and then i began to cry too.
“so please… promise me you’ll be safe, even if you don’t feel the same.” i told him.
after a moment, he responded,
“i love you too.”
and i stayed like that, in his grasp until the sun was in view, and his arms left my sides.
“don’t die,” i tried to smile at him, wiping my tears from my face.
“i won’t,” he told me, the confidence in his voice unwavering.
i had finally told him, finally confessed my love for him.
if he would come back tomorrow, i did not know.
the only thing that was certain, was in that moment, we both felt love:
a love stronger than any war.