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The coppery taste hits the back of Yoo Joonghyuk's throat.
It's not just blood. It's the essence of a Constellation in a worldline without stars. It's the echoes of the Dream, finally realized and yet to be dreamed.
As his stigma grows and changes his body, he feels the Dreamer's lament over the agonizing existence he's now bound to.
His sponsor's features blur, slipping like sand through his fingers. The more he tries to hold on, the quicker they fade.
Yoo Joonghyuk surges forward, trying to capture his lips one last time, before it's too late.
The clock turns back.
⌛️ ⌛️
Anna Croft's blood is tainted.
It takes cunning to slip out of the chains she's woven. He's learning patience in his second life as he waits for the chance to strike.
Eventually, her paranoia falters. Perhaps she's too arrogant to consider him a threat. Perhaps it's leftover guilt over forcing the Proof of the Stars on him. But one day, she turns her back on him.
It's the last thing she ever does. Yoo Joonghyuk sinks his fangs in her throat, repaying all the pain she's put him through.
Using her lifeforce to erase all her dreams, he travels back.
⌛️
Kim Namwoon's blood is acrid.
It becomes a point of pride for the teen, if Yoo Joonghyuk ever mentions it in his hearing. A good-for-nothing high school dropout who only started living once the world ended: why wouldn't his blood be just as vile?
He laughs himself sick at the mere thought, cackling until he cries.
Yoo Joonghyuk won't diminish his pain by looking away when he does. In this, at least, they share a kinship the others can't understand.
And if it is Kim Namwoon standing at the very end, Yoo Joonghyuk won't look away until he's gone back.
⌛️
Shin Yoosung's blood is bitter.
He tries to avoid drinking from her when he can. He's already hurt her so deeply, thinking he'd be able to share his stigma to end the endless, solitary rounds.
The Disaster of Floods dries another Incarnation dry. Her beasts tear people to shreds until the streets of Seoul are slick and tinted red with blood.
Over and over, Yoo Joonghyuk must confront the consequences of his most selfish choice. During some lives, he pushes through, searching for that perfect, brilliant ending.
In others, he embraces the Disaster with fading strength and hurls himself back.
⌛️
Lee Hyunsung's blood is bland.
He's offered it so many times already. As long as Yoo Joonghyuk secures his loyalty, there isn't a single regression where he refuses to help him.
It's convenient, an easy failsafe always within his grasp, and that's where the danger lays.
Yoo Joonghyuk looks Lee Hyunsung in the eye as he drinks his blood. Then, he looks him in the eye and sees all recognition erased, but he'd be a fool to drive his shield away.
Depression nips at his heels. It's always stronger on the lives when he uses Lee Hyunsung to travel back.
⌛️
Lee Jihye's blood is sour.
In this new world, Yoo Joonghyuk isn't the only one carrying regrets almost too heavy to shoulder. Not the only one who marches on because others cannot.
When he explains his stigma, there's always a fleeting second of hope in Lee Jihye's eyes. Her knuckles turn white as she grips her sword and a question rises to her lips. Before she can voice it, critical thought reasserts itself and her expression falls.
There are no miracles left in the world. Even when Yoo Joonghyuk goes back to the start, Na Bori remains always beyond reach.
⌛️
Uriel's blood is cloying.
It wasn't at first. Not when she'd only been a Constellation to tear down. Victory had been a drug that propelled forward more than hope had ever done in his next life.
But Uriel is an ally as often as she's an enemy, nowadays. He carries with him the memories of her despair after her family is massacred in the high Scenarios. The genuine love she has for her few Incarnations. The brilliance of her sword, swinging in tandem with his own.
Now there's only another failure when she offers her lifeforce to send him back.
⌛️
Kim Dokja's blood is a mystery.
He's an anomaly. He crashes into Yoo Joonghyuk's existence with the force of a runaway freighter. He orders him around, infuriates him like no one else and yet he continues to flourish.
He dies. Before Yoo Joonghyuk can gamble on his blood leading him to another world where he exists, Kim Dokja returns to life.
As the Scenarios go on, Yoo Joonghyuk's curiosity grows. Sometimes, all he wants is to push Kim Dokja against a wall and taste all of him.
But more than that, he wants to reach the End by his side.
⌛️ ⌛️ ⌛️
The Most Ancient Dream is sweet.
He fits in his arms like a part that's long been missing, calming the storm in his soul with a caress.
Here, at the end of the road —at the end, or maybe the beginning— they're no longer who they once were.
The Plotter kisses his dear Reader until he steals his breath away, treats his blood like a delicacy, explores every inch of him until there's nothing that he doesn't possess.
They've always existed for each other, long before the story was written.
Though the pages stop turning, they'll always remain.