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She stood alone, staring out across the city lights.
The loud vehicles and distant voices echoed from below,
but it all blurred into silence.
The cold wind wrapped around her like an old embrace—
a cruel reminder of warmth now lost.
And for a moment, she imagined what could have been.
Not as demons.
Not as enemies.
But simply two souls who once shared something quietly sacred.
Her gaze shifted to the moon.
It shined differently tonight.
Colder. Lonelier. Too familiar.
“Weird… it almost looks like someone I knew,” she thought, shaking her head in denial.
She placed her fingers gently on the railing, two fingers walking slowly along the cold metal—
mimicking a memory.
“Together, and always, Rumi,” she whispered,
imitating Jinu’s voice.
That irritating,
comforting tone
that still lived—untamed—within her heart.
"Why…?" she finally murmured, her voice cracking as tears welled up in her eyes.
“Why did you sacrifice your goddamn life for me?
We had plans… we could’ve started over.
We could’ve been something real.”
Her shoulders stiffened as the weight of grief tightened its grip.
The wind howled past her, swallowing her sobs.
Then—
a sound.
Soft. Familiar. Cruel.
"Still mourning a dead man?"
The voice was unmistakable.
Her eyes widened. She wiped her tears quickly, trying to regain composure.
And there he was.
Jinu.
But not quite.
A shimmer of who he was.
No body, no shadow—just essence.
“Why can I see you?” she breathed.
“You disappeared. There was no body… no trace… nothing left.”
He smiled gently, hand resting on her shoulder with warmth.
“I gave you my soul, Rumi.
And I wasn’t ready to say goodbye.
That’s why you can still see me—because my final wish…
was to see you one last time.”
He leaned in slowly, pressing a soft kiss to her forehead.
“I’ll always look after you.”
Tears streamed down her cheeks once more.
She tried to speak, but no words came—only trembling silence.
She met his gaze.
Those eyes—familiar across every universe.
The only ones she would ever look for.
With a bittersweet smile, she shook her head and reached out,
cupping his cheek with trembling fingers.
Rumi’s trembling hand lingered against his cheek, her touch desperate to memorize the warmth that would soon be lost to the wind. Her voice finally broke through the knot in her throat, fragile and quiet—
but resolute.
“I’ll find you again, Jinu,” she whispered, tears falling down to her cheeks. “I swear… across every star, every world—I’ll keep my promise.”
But the light in Jinu’s eyes was already fading, his form growing translucent like morning mist beneath sunlight. The air grew colder, emptier. She felt the shift.
“No—wait—!” Rumi gasped, lunging forward to wrap him in her arms.
But there was nothing to hold.
Her arms closed around emptiness, and Jinu was gone—vanished like he had never been there, leaving behind only the echo of his final kiss and the ghost of a touch on her shoulder.
Rumi fell to her knees, clutching her chest as if that could hold the shattered pieces of her heart together. But through her pain, she lifted her head, eyes burning with tears and quiet fire.
"No matter how many lifetimes it takes..." she murmured into the silence, "I'll find you. Always."
