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Jun-hee was finally at peace. She didn’t live the best life. She could admit that without batting an eye. She always thought death was going to be an eternity of darkness, but…
…this is definitely different.
A small cottage house stands alone in a plain field of greenery. She steps inside, feeling the strange urge that she’s been here before, several times.
It’s warm and nostalgic. She looks around. It’s clean. It’s home.
But what she didn’t know was that she isn’t alone.
There’s nobody in the house. But outside? Mindlessly walking through the plain, his feet dragging as he did so, was Myung-gi.
His eyes were wide open. His face was red and bruised. Old tears are dried down his cheeks, and his clothing are worn and wrinkly.
A white button-up with a black bow tie. Black dress pants and shoes.
Hell, he didn’t dress this nice on their first date. He sees the cottage. The small cottage upon the hill. It’s the only place where the grass turns to flowers.
And just like Jun-hee, it feels nostalgic, it feels like home.
He limps toward it, not thinking much about it. He knew he was dead. He knew he died a coward. And he knew that no matter how much he said he could—he couldn’t.
He couldn’t drop his baby off that ledge. He couldn’t win the game. He couldn’t save Jun-hee. He couldn’t save himself.
He steps onto the porch of the cottage, taking in the warmth radiating from the cottage. It’s the first time he’s felt comfort in days.
His hand drops to the doorknob, but before he opens it, it turns and it swings open.
And standing before him? It’s Kim Jun-hee.
She stares, the tranquil expression that this place built around her immediately breaking and crashing down.
“Jun-hee…” Myung-gi gasped out silently.
Jun-hee looked him up and down, taking in his bruises, his scars, the dried tears still on his pale skin.
“You’re dead.” She said as if that wasn’t obvious.
Myung-gi looked down at his tattered clothing, then back up at Jun-hee. She’s still staring, still taking in each bump and bruise.
“I’m a failure, Jun-hee.” He whispered, limping an inch forward.
Jun-hee knew that. She’s always thought of him as a self-absorbed bastard after their impromptu break up. He left her. And the only reason she saw him again was because they were both in debt—
—because of something he did.
And just when she started to trust him again? He killed one of the only people that protected her. Right in front of her.
Because he’s selfish. A selfish bastard.
“What the hell happened to you?” She asked, wondering, not really sure of what else to say.
After she voluntarily stepped off of the edge of the platform, she never expected to see his face again. And she was content with that as long as her baby was safe.
Oh, God. Her baby!
“Wait, no.” She stopped him as he was about to answer her previous question. “What the hell happened to my baby?”
Myung-gi felt a burning sensation rise in his chest. She instinctively called it her baby, instead of ‘our’ baby.
And he understands why. He wasn’t a good father by any means. He wasn’t even a good boyfriend. He had intercourse with her, then left.
Got her pregnant, then left.
His heart felt like it was going to burst into flames. If that fall didn’t finish him, then this certainly would.
“She’s safe.” He replied, his eyes glistening with new tears that hadn’t quite fallen yet. He caught his breath, “With 456. H-He…won…”
Jun-hee’s face didn’t show it, but inside? She was screaming with joy. Her baby is alive. She’s really alive! She wishes she could see Gi-hun just to say thank you.
He really kept his word.
Unlike…
“Jun-hee?” Lee Myung-gi started, staring at her, his bottom lip starting to quiver as he tried to stop himself from sobbing. “T-The last game…I was gonna…h-hurt our baby.”
Jun-hee’s eyes widen with fury. Her hand rises to slap him, but she doesn’t. She stops herself. She stops herself because he’s already here, meaning he’s received his karma.
“So you died a pathetic fuck, huh?” A little smile brushed her lips, one made out of anger and betrayal. “After all that shit about ‘come find me and kill me so you and our baby can live’, it was all fake? You were never really gonna lay down your life for us, were you?”
“You were just saying that because you wanted me back.” Jun-hee spoke, connecting dots. Dots she wished she had connected earlier. “And I’m such a dumbass for not seeing it until after I died. After YOU died.”
Myung-gi stuttered out something, something about him being sorry, but that doesn’t change a thing. Nope, not in Kim Jun-hee’s book.
“Why…? Why did I ever fall in love with you…?”
Those words hit like a truck.
“The only good thing that came out of our relationship is my daughter. You got me killed; you got yourself killed. And now? I have to deal with you forever.”
Jun-hee let a tear slip. She doesn’t want to think about the past now. She’s already dead. He’s already dead. Their daughter is alive, that’s the only good thing about this.
But she won’t grow up without her mother, or her father.
And it’s all his fault.
Myung-gi wobbled back, retreating to the porch. “I…I can go…” he offered, slowly turning. “…you don’t have to see me, I promise. I’ll just leave you alone. I’ll leave you here, and you can do whatever you want.”
“But, please…please know that I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
He hobbled off of the porch and started towards the field, trying to have a respectable walk off into the horizon, where he wouldn’t be able to see Jun-hee again out of respect for her wishes.
The only thing he’ll have of her now is the memories. The times of when she actually did love him. When the air around them wasn’t awkward or tense. When they woke up in the same bed and shared a little kiss.
When she whispered ‘I love you so much’ into his ear at night while pulling his shirt over his head to take it off.
It’s over.
He stepped down onto the grass, the small breeze pushing his hair side to side. He stepped again, straining to do so.
Even after death, the pain still weighed heavy.
“Stop.”
Came Jun-hee’s voice. Myung-gi slowly turned his head back over his shoulder, staring at her, those new tears now falling.
“You’re so…dammit, Myung-gi…you’re so dumb.” She groaned, not knowing what to do.
“I loved you.”
“I wanted to marry you, and you left me. You told me that you’d never do wrong by me! You told me that we’d always be together!”
Her voice started to crack underneath the rage.
“Why did you lie?! Why would you sit there and lie to me?!”
She inhaled as her lungs ran deflated, her hands balled into fists. She could just run out and punch him right now.
“If you didn’t love me, you should’ve just said that!”
She broke down. She made herself vulnerable in front of him. She told him what she was dying to—finally.
And it ended with her sliding down the doorway, her face red with anger.
Myung-gi slowly made his way back over to her. “You think I don’t love you…?” He asked.
Jun-hee looked up at him. She didn’t know if she wanted to hit him or not. She was done. She couldn’t do it anymore.
“Jun-hee, I wanted to leave that place with you. I only wanted to combine our money to pay off our debts…whatever we had left…it was gonna go to the baby, and…and to you.”
He continued as Jun-hee’s sniffling slowed. “I was gonna get a real job…I was gonna…start over with you…”
Myung-gi stopped there. He stopped because he didn’t know if it was safe to continue. He didn’t know if she would just smack him, or tell him to leave. Jun-hee stared, and stared hard.
She wanted to believe him. For some reason, after all the shit he did, she really wanted to believe him.
“Well…unless you can communicate with that psycho shaman lady, then you can’t get a real job.” She said, chuckling.
Myung-gi paused. Did she really just make a joke in the middle of this. “Uh, are you okay? She died, remember?”
Oh, right.
Jun-hee rolled her eyes, wiping away the tears at the same time. “It’s called ‘lightening the mood’ you braindead idiot.”
She brought herself to her feet, sighing once she did. “This…us…it can’t happen again. I trusted you and you broke me…twice…”
Myung-gi looked down, ashamed.
“…but, as for starting over?” She leaned on the doorframe, eyeing him up and down.
“My name is Kim Jun-hee. Who do I have the displeasure of looking at today, hm?” She asked with the tilt of her head, a small smile playing at her lips.
Myung-gi saw this. He stepped back, not knowing what to do. But then…he snickered.
“I’m…Lee Myung-gi…” he said, “…it’s nice to meet you.”
She offered a hand out for him to shake. “The feeling isn’t mutual.”
He laughed.
She did too.
It wasn’t love. Not (yet) anymore.
But it was a start.
Another start.