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The screen of your phone lit up the darkness of your bedroom. You were wide awake, floating in that limbo where your body is exhausted but your mind refuses to shut down. The harsh glare forced you to squint. Reaching out, you grabbed the device and unlocked the screen, expecting a stupid meme or a "just got home" text from the person who occupied ninety percent of your thoughts.
But it wasn't that. What you read turned your blood to ice, stopping your heart for a second that felt like an eternity.
Baku: Hey, sorry for doing it this way and not being able to say it in person. I want to break up, this just isn't working anymore.
You froze, the air trapped in your lungs as you reread the words once, twice, five times. The letters floated before your eyes, losing all meaning and blurring into black smudges against the white background of the messaging app. You looked back at the sender's name, wishing with all your might that it was a mix-up, a cruel prank by one of his friends, or a text sent to the wrong number. But the name at the top of the screen left no room for error… it was Baku.
Your Baku… the boy who had promised he would always protect you.
The weight of the phone in your hand became unbearable, as if you were suddenly holding a block of cement. A horrible emptiness settled in your stomach… a sudden freefall into nothingness. There were no explanations, no "we need to talk", no prior hint that things were going downhill between you. Just two short, freezing sentences putting an end to months of a story you believed was unbreakable.
Staring at the ceiling, completely unable to cry from the sheer shock, your mind began to spin out of control. It was as if the text had broken a dam… every memory with him flooded your head, forcing you to replay the movie of your relationship from the very beginning, desperately searching for the exact moment the thread binding you together had started to fray.
You remembered the day you met him perfectly. It hadn't been a romantic movie scene. Hu-min was the center of Eunjang High… everyone loved him, welcoming him with laughs and friendly fists. You had seen him for the first time on a street corner near the school, defending a freshman from three guys much bigger than him. What caught your attention back then wasn't his undeniable physical strength or the ease with which he dodged blows, but the easy smile on his face… as if fighting were as natural as breathing, yet without a single drop of real malice in his eyes.
You had stood there, paralyzed, clutching your books to your chest. When the fight ended and the attackers ran for their lives, Hu-min turned around, brushed the dirt off his uniform and locked his eyes onto yours. Instead of intimidating you, he gave you a wide grin, sheepishly scratching the back of his neck.
"Sorry about the show" he had told you, his voice a little winded but incredibly kind. "I didn't mean to scare you."
From that afternoon on, your world intertwined with his in a way you never could have planned. Hu-min started appearing in your path constantly. You’d cross paths with him at the school entrance, find him sitting in the back courtyard eating a sandwich, or he’d simply slide into the seat next to yours in the cafeteria without asking, filling the space with his magnetic presence. It overwhelmed you a bit at first, but resisting his personality was impossible. Behind the "Baku" persona, behind the monster of underground street fights, was an incredibly loyal and protective boy.
You remembered your very first date, far away from the chaos of school. He had taken you to a street food stall he loved. You spent hours talking about absolute nonsense and you discovered that he loved to eat, hated when people messed with his friends and possessed a hidden sensitivity he rarely showed the world.
When he dropped you off at your front door that night, the crisp night air wasn't enough to cool the blush on your cheeks. He had stood there staring at you for a long moment, with an uncharacteristic seriousness, before taking your hand for the first time. His fingers were large, but his grip on your skin was so gentle it made you feel like the most precious thing in the world to him.
"I want to do things right with you" he had whispered back then. "I'm not the smartest guy or the most peaceful, but I promise you nothing bad will ever happen to you as long as you're with me."
And you believed him… God, you did believe him.
The months that followed were the happiest of your teenage years. Baku became your anchor and you became his. When he had a rough day, all it took was seeing you for his shoulders to relax. You loved how physically affectionate he was… how he’d rest his head in your lap while you stroked his hair, or how he’d wrap his strong arms around you from behind when you were distracted, burying his face in your neck with a sigh of relief.
By his side, the constant danger surrounding the Eunjang crew seemed to vanish. You felt invincible because you knew he would move heaven and earth before letting a single drop of rain touch you without your consent.
You two had something real… an unspoken understanding, a safe space where he could just be Hu-min… the boy who laughed until his stomach hurt and looked at you like you were the only good thing in his life.
Which was exactly why this text made absolutely no sense. Why it felt like a treacherous stab in the dark.
You sat up in bed, pressing your back against the cold wall and lit up your phone screen again. The text was still there. You tried to dissect every single word, searching for a double meaning, a hidden code or any sign that he had been forced to write it.
"This just isn't working anymore."
The phrase beat against your brain like a deafening echo. When had it stopped working? Just three days ago, you had been sitting in the park, sharing headphones and planning what you’d do next weekend. You remembered his face right before you said goodbye… it had been a deep look, laden with something you hadn't known how to decode at the time. A lingering melancholy that now took on a terrifying meaning.
A solitary tear finally slipped down your cheek, followed by another, and another… until your vision blurred completely. The initial shock gave way to a wave of confusion and abandonment that tore you right down the middle. You didn't deserve this… and you knew it. No one deserved to have their heart broken over a text message, without the other person showing their face, without a chance to reply and without being allowed to look into the eyes of the person they loved to understand what the fuck was going on.
Your hand shook as you found the call button. You needed to hear his voice. You needed him to tell you, at least over the line, that everything you had lived through had stopped mattering to him overnight. You pressed the icon and brought the phone to your ear, listening to the ringing with a racing heart.
One ring. Two rings. Three rings.
Every second of waiting felt like torture. Your mind spun in circles, repeating the same unanswered questions. What did you do wrong? Had you been too demanding? Had he grown tired of you? Or had the dark world of fighting finally swallowed him whole, deciding you no longer fit into his life?
"The number you have dialed is currently unavailable..." the automated voice cut off the sound brutally, sending you straight to voicemail.
You hung up, desperation clawing at your chest. You tried calling him three more times and the result was exactly the same. The empty voicemail prompt was the only thing answering on the other side of the line.
Park Hu-min had thrown a bucket of ice water over you and turned off his phone, leaving you completely alone in a room with the shattered pieces of a love story that had vanished in a split second.
(...)
The first few days after that night were the worst.
You spent them glued to your screen, waiting for a response to even one of the dozens of messages you sent him. But nothing came. Park Hu-min had evaporated from your life as if he had never existed, leaving only that cold text message as a constant reminder of your painful new reality.
Unable to find any rest, your mind replayed the same loop over and over. How was it possible for someone to erase months of love with a single click? You felt trapped in a labyrinth with no exit, pacing circles around your room, overanalyzing every conversation, every glance, every detail, looking for a sign to help you understand. But there was nothing. Only the deafening vacuum he had left in his wake.
At school, the void of his absence was staggering. He was skipping classes, his seat remained empty and the bullies were starting to reclaim their territory. His closest friends, like Go Hyun-tak, walked around with miserable expressions and actively avoided your eyes in the hallways. No one told you anything directly, but the atmosphere at Eunjang was completely suffocating.
It wasn't until two weeks later that the rumors finally began to leak through the school corridors. He hadn't moved and he wasn't sick. Baku had left his house and plunged headfirst into the Union… the organization run by Na Baek-jin that everyone feared.
The whispers in the hallways turned your stomach every morning: they said he’d been spotted in the dangerous parts of the city, that he was out at night stealing motorcycles and that he was constantly picking fights. You couldn't reconcile the monster everyone was talking about with the boy who used to lay his head in your lap just to feel your fingers in his hair. The contradiction ate away at your mind, drowning you in a sea of grief and deep worry. Why would he do something like that? Did you ever really know him at all?
Nearly a month passed before your body hit its limit. You needed to see him. You needed him to look you in the eyes and say those lies to your face so you could finally close the wound once and for all. You were sick of spinning around the same questions, trapped in doubt and misery. Your pulse spiked every time someone muttered his name and you knew you couldn't move on until you faced him.
The chance came on a gray afternoon while you were walking home down a deserted street near the industrial warehouses. The sky threatened rain and the wind blew hard, kicking up dead leaves across the asphalt. That’s when you heard the roar of an approaching engine speeding your way. You stepped aside out of pure instinct, but the motorcycle screeched to a sudden halt just a few yards ahead.
The rider cut the engine. He was wearing a sports jacket that looked painfully familiar. When he pulled off his helmet, your heart leapt into your throat.
It was him… it was Hu-min.
His hair was messier than usual and he had a fresh scrape on his left cheekbone. His presence was as commanding as ever, but there was something different about him… something in his eyes you had never seen before. He climbed off the bike, hooked his helmet onto the handlebar and walked toward an alley, completely oblivious to your presence at first.
Your legs moved before your brain could protest. The anger, the anguish and the weeks of crying morphed into a sudden impulse that forced you to close the distance between you.
"Hu-min!" you screamed.
He stopped dead in his tracks at the sound of your voice. You watched his shoulders instantly stiffen and he stood perfectly still, as if tearing himself between running away or turning around. Finally, he slowly turned his body. When his eyes locked onto yours, a sickening jolt hit your chest. You expected surprise, maybe a flicker of guilt or the warmth of the boy who used to hold you from behind.
But there was nothing. His gaze was a wall of ice… cold, detached and completely vacant. It was the look of a stranger.
"What are you doing here?" he asked.
He didn't even use the gentle tone he always used with you, it sounded like it pained him just to speak to you. You stepped closer, defying the physical distance he was trying to maintain. Your hands shook inside your coat pockets.
"What am I doing here? You vanished a month ago, Hu-min. You dumped me with a fucking text message and turned off your phone" you said, feeling tears threatening to spill, though you swore to yourself you wouldn't cry in front of him. "People at school won't stop talking about how you're stealing, how you're with the Union... I need you to explain what the fuck is going on with you. Why did you do this?"
Hu-min let out a short sigh, cutting his eyes toward the street for a split second before looking back at you. He made no effort to step closer, nor did he relax the harsh set of his features.
In his mind, an alarm had blared the second he heard your voice. Baek-jin had already been asking subtle questions about his life and rumors that Baku had a weakness were starting to ripple through the Union's ranks. Hu-min knew exactly what his former friend was capable of to break someone… if Baek-jin discovered how much you meant to him, you would become the perfect target.
The only way to keep you safe was to push you away, to make everyone and, most importantly, you believe that he didn't care about you at all. Even if it meant destroying himself in the process.
"I already told you in the text" he replied, crossing his arms to fake indifference. "It wasn't working anymore. I don't have anything else to explain to you."
"You can't just tell me that!" you barked back. "Three days before that text, we were fine. We were planning a date for the weekend. How do you just change your mind overnight? Look me in the face and tell me what's wrong. If you're in trouble, if the Union is forcing you into something... tell me. We can fix it together, like we always do."
The mention of fixing it together nearly shattered Hu-min's facade. For a microsecond, his fists clenched tight and a flash of pure desperation tore through his eyes. He wanted to throw the whole world away, grab your hand, pull you onto the bike and run far away from the Union, from Baek-jin and from the violence dragging him down.
But the sheer terror of you getting hurt because of him anchored him. He couldn't afford to be weak… not with you.
He forced a lopsided smile… a smirk dripping with a fake arrogance that turned your stomach.
"The Union is forcing me? Don't be so naive" he scoffed, using a mocking tone that sliced right through you. "Did you actually buy into that whole happy couple fairytale?"
You froze, the afternoon air suddenly feeling impossible to breathe.
"What are you talking about?" you whispered.
Hu-min took a step toward you, his posture cold and dominant, deliberately trying to intimidate you into stepping out of his path for good.
"I did what I had to do to have some fun for a bit, but I got bored. Playing the good boyfriend was getting old" he lied, tearing away whatever was left of your soul. "I never loved you. I dumped you over text because it wasn't even worth wasting time on a dramatic breakup in person. So do me a favor… stop following me and stay out of my business. What I do with my life is none of your business"
Every word left his mouth like a physical blow to your heart. You could have handled him changing, you could have handled him going down a dark path. But hearing from his own lips that everything you had shared… the promises at your doorstep, the afternoons of laughter, the love you built, had been nothing but a boring pastime was the final blow.
The tears you had tried so hard to hold back spilled over your freezing cheeks. You stared at him, desperately searching for a trace of the Baku you knew behind that cruel mask. But he stood his ground, ignoring your crying and looking at you like you were nothing more than an annoying obstacle in his way.
"You're a monster" you told him, your heart completely shattered, your dignity in pieces. "You're absolute trash, Park Hu-min."
He didn't blink, he didn't move. He simply turned his back on you, walked to his bike, pulled on his helmet and mounted the vehicle. He kicked the engine to life and, without looking back a single time, he sped off. He left you entirely alone as the first drops of rain began to fall from the sky.
A bitter resentment began to take root in your chest, swallowing up the worry and love you once felt, replacing it with a cold contempt.
(...)
Over the following weeks, you learned to bury your grief beneath a wall of indifference. You forced your heart to harden, reminding yourself every morning that the boy you loved no longer existed… the one in your memories was a fantasy and the real one was the cold man who had turned his back on you in the rain.
Which was why, when Park Hu-min suddenly showed up back at Eunjang High a month later, you promised yourself you wouldn't falter.
You found out about his return from the chaotic buzz echoing through the hallways first thing in the morning. The whispers traveled like wildfire: Baku was back in his seat, classes seemed to return to some twisted normalcy for his group of friends and the bullies who had tried to take over scrambled back into hiding. However, what the rumors didn't say and, what you were entirely oblivious to, was that his time with the Union was over. Hu-min had walked away, severing ties with Baek-jin after ensuring the tyrant no longer saw you as a threat or a target to get to him. He had paid an astronomical price to buy your safety, but to you… he was still just the traitor who had used you and thrown you away without a second thought.
The first time you crossed paths with him in the school corridor, the world seemed to grind to a halt. He was walking alongside Gotak and the second he spotted you, his gaze locked onto you with burning intensity. His friends visibly tensed, bracing for a scene. You swallowed the knot threatening to close your throat and held his gaze. There was no pain in your eyes anymore… only a freezing disdain. You looked at him as if he were a piece of garbage on the floor and walked right past him, brushing your shoulder hard against his.
Paying him back in his own coin. Erasing him from your life.
He didn't turn around, but out of the corner of your eye, you saw his head drop as his fists clenched tight.
The days that followed turned into a toxic game of avoidance. You made it your mission to show him he was completely invisible. If he walked into the library, you stood up and left. If you met at the entrance, you picked up your pace. You treated him with the exact same dead coldness he had given you in that alley and seeing how much it rattled him gave you a twisted sense of justice.
But the apparent peace at school didn't last long.
Rumors of an imminent war against the Union became the only topic of conversation. They said Baku had challenged Baek-jin to a final battle. The tension in the air was thick enough to choke on. Your pulse raced at the thought of the danger, but you forcefully reminded yourself that you no longer had anyone to protect with your prayers.
The day before the massive showdown, the bubble finally popped.
You were in the school cafeteria, standing in the buffet line to grab your lunch. The room was loud, filled with the clatter of trays and the roaring chatter of students. Suddenly, the noise around you dropped off sharply. You felt a presence stop right behind you. You didn't even need to turn around to know who it was… the scent of his jacket and the heavy energy he radiated were unmistakable.
"We need to talk" he said in a whisper low enough that only you could hear.
You turned around slowly, gripping your tray with a white-knuckled hold so he wouldn't see your hands shaking. Hu-min was right there, just inches away. He was wearing his Eunjang uniform, his eyes reflecting a deep exhaustion and a frantic anxiety you had never seen in him before.
"I have nothing to say to you, Park Hu-min" you replied, using his full name to drive the knife of distance home. Your tone was so cutting that a couple of kids nearby turned to stare.
He took another step closer, a desperate plea hidden in his eyes that crashed violently against the arrogance he had thrown at you a month ago.
"Please" he begged. "I know you're angry, I know you probably hate me. But tomorrow... tomorrow is the fight. I'm just asking you to wait. After I win tomorrow, I'm coming to find you. I want to explain everything and I need you to listen to me."
Hearing him talk so casually about "explaining everything" after the absolute hell he had dragged you through lit a roaring fire of fury inside you. Who the hell did he think he was? That he could break your heart, stomp on your dignity in the street and then come back demanding an audience as if you were some prize waiting for him at the finish line?
"Listen to you?" You let out a harsh laugh, your voice rising. "Do you seriously have the nerve to come here and ask me for time? I don't give a shit about your fight, I don't give a shit about your explanations and I don't give a fuck what you do with your life. To me, you died the day you sent that text message, so do me a favor and go to hell."
The words hung heavily in the cafeteria air. Hu-min went completely rigid, his eyes widening in shock as a sudden pale washed over his face. It was in that exact moment, seeing the raw finality of your contempt and the hatred burning in your eyes, that Baku finally realized the magnitude of his mistake. His plan to push you away to protect you had worked so perfectly that he had lost you completely. He had blown up the bridge between you and he had no idea how to cross the wreckage.
You turned on your heel without waiting for him to react, walked over to an empty table at the back and sat down. Baku stood frozen in the middle of the cafeteria for several long seconds, his eyes glued to the floor, before turning around and hollowly walking out.
A classmate of yours, sitting a few tables over, had witnessed the entire sequence. He had always been interested in you, but Baku’s shadow had kept him at bay. Seeing the titan humbled and noting the obvious split, he realized this was his shot.
He got up from his seat, grabbed his bag and approached your table with a warm smile.
"Hey!" he said, gesturing to the empty chair across from you. "I saw you were sitting alone. I wanted to ask a huge favor... I'm really behind on the literature notes for next week's exam and I know you're the best in class. Do you think you could help me look over them after the last period?"
You looked up at him, still trying to steady your ragged breathing after the clash with Hu-min. You knew exactly what this guy was angling for, but right then, the desperate urge to find literally anything to distract you from the ghost of your ex-boyfriend made you nod.
"Sure, no problem" you forced a smile. "We can meet up in the library after school."
As the boy sat down next to you and began talking with enthusiastic energy, you glanced toward the cafeteria exit out of pure instinct. Hu-min had stopped right in the doorway. He had turned around and was watching the scene play out. Even from across the room, you could see his expression darken completely and his jaw tightening into stone. Seeing another guy step into the space he had abandoned out of fear was a blow far more agonizing than any punch the Union could ever throw.
The afternoon in the library felt eternal.
Even though you tried your hardest to focus on your classmate's notes, your thoughts were permanently stuck on Baku. The boy beside you rambled on, asking questions and pointing at paragraphs with his pen, but to you, his words were just background noise that couldn't drown out the echo of your own voice screaming at your ex. You kept your promise to help him, but the second the final bell rang, you packed your bag in a frantic rush, said a clipped goodbye with a forced smile and bolted out of the school. You needed air. You needed to run away from that place.
(...)
The following day, Eunjang High was swallowed by a heavy silence. It was the day of the grand battle… Eunjang vs The Union, Baku vs Baek-jin. The classrooms were practically empty and the few students who had shown up huddled in the hallways, whispering about leaving early. Hu-min’s core group of friends was nowhere to be found. Gotak, Si-eun, Jun-tae, even the bullies... everyone had vanished. You didn't need to be a genius to understand they were gearing up for the final war against the Union's forces.
You spent the school hours glued to your classroom window, your gaze lost in the gray sky that seemed to be collapsing onto the earth. You told yourself over and over that you didn't care, that Park Hu-min could go to hell with his street wars, but the knot in your stomach grew more suffocating by the minute. Anxiety gnawed at your chest, traveling through your nerves like a freezing poison. Despite the resentment you had built up, despite his cruel words, the thought of something truly catastrophic happening to him in that fight terrified you. Your body still remembered the warmth of his embrace and no matter how much you wanted to hate him, your heart refused to let him die.
When classes ended, you hurried home, practically running from the rumors starting to filter through the students. You locked yourself in your room and tried to do anything: study, organize your drawers, blast music, watch a show, anything to drown out your own thoughts… but it was useless.
The hours bled away and night fell over the city, bringing a biting chill. It had been raining non-stop for hours and the wind began to howl violently against the glass.
It was close to ten o'clock when a sudden, heavy pounding on the front door made you leap out of bed. You went entirely still for a second, straining your ears to confirm if someone was actually out there. Your parents were out of town on a trip and you weren't expecting a soul at this hour. The doorbell rang and you slowly stood up. Feeling the cold floor against your bare feet, you walked down the dark hallway and approached the main entrance.
"Who is it?" you asked, flicking on the intercom screen.
There was no verbal response. Instead, you were met with the image of Baku, entirely unable to hold himself upright. You threw back the deadbolt and yanked the door open. The freezing night air whipped across your skin, but what you saw left you completely paralyzed.
Hu-min was standing there, but barely. His Eunjang uniform was shredded, caked entirely in mud and dark streaks of blood. His face was swollen, his lip split wide open and a big purple hematoma covered almost his entire left cheekbone. His knuckles were raw, bloody meat and his hands shook violently from sheer physical exertion. His breathing was shallow and ragged, a dead giveaway that his ribs had taken a brutal beating.
He had won… he had brought down the untouchable Na Baek-jin, but the price he had paid was devastating.
Yet the moment his eyes landed on you, his exhausted gaze seemed to fill with an overwhelming relief… a light you hadn't seen in him in months.
"Hey..." he whispered, his voice cracking and broken. "I told you... I told you I'd come find you after I won."
The resentment you had painstakingly nurtured over the last weeks evaporated in a microsecond. Seeing him in that state completely erased any shred of pride, replacing it with a desperate urge to protect him. You couldn't leave him out there. You immediately stepped aside, carefully grabbing him by the arm and hauling him inside the house, kicking the front door shut behind you. The sharp scent of wet earth, copper and sweat instantly filled the entryway.
"You're crazy, Hu-min. You're completely out of your mind" you said, the tears you had fought so hard against finally breaking free. "Look at you... you're covered in mud from head to toe, you're bleeding and you can barely even stand."
"Sorry for tracking dirt on the floor..." he tried to give you his signature lopsided smile, but a sharp gasp of agony cut him off, forcing him to hunch over as his hand flew to his left ribs.
"Shut up. Don't talk, don't say stupid things" you interrupted, taking total control of the situation so you wouldn't crumble right in front of him. "You're going straight to the bathroom. Move slowly before you pass out right here and I have to drag you."
You guided him step by step down the hallway, feeling the dead weight of his massive frame leaning heavily against your shoulders. You got him into the bathroom and forced him to sit down on the closed toilet seat while you turned on the bathtub faucets, letting the hot water run. Baku was so spent and broken, that he didn't even utter a single one of his usual complaints when you helped him peel off the uniform jacket ruined by the mud.
"Seriously, Hu-min?" you asked, holding the tattered jacket up in his direction. "You never wear your uniform properly, but today of all days you do?"
Baku just offered a faint smile as the water rushed into the tub, steam quickly filling the small room. Patiently, you grabbed a clean sponge and soaked it in warm water. You began to wash away the thick layers of grime from his back, his shoulders and his arms. Seeing the sheer volume of marks, deep cuts and fresh bruising painting his skin tore your heart to pieces, but you grit your teeth to keep your hands steady.
"Wait here. Don't move" you ordered in a soft but unyielding voice.
You walked to the back of your bedroom, opened your closet and pulled out a bag you had promised yourself a thousand times you would throw away, but never had the heart to. Inside was the clothes he used to leave at your place when you spent weekends together: a pair of gray sweatpants and one of his oversized black t-shirts. You walked back, left the clean clothes on a fresh towel and stepped out so he could change.
A few minutes later, the bathroom door creaked open and Hu-min stepped out in the clean clothes, his hair dripping wet and his eyes glued strictly to the floor. He looked so small right then, so entirely stripped of that ruthless Union aura and his fierce Eunjang reputation, that your chest tightened painfully.
He was your Baku again.
You helped him sit on the edge of your bed and immediately appeared with the first-aid kit. Pulling up a chair right in front of him, you began unpacking gauze and antiseptic. Carefully, you started dabbing the cuts on his face. The room would have been dead silent if it weren't for the sharp winces of pain he let out every time your fingers brushed against the raw wounds on his cheeks and lip.
"Yesterday in the cafeteria..." he started suddenly, the quietness of his voice catching you off guard. "When I saw you talking to that guy... when I saw him sit in my spot and smile at you... I felt like I was dying inside. I swear to you, it felt worse than any hit I took all damn afternoon. I realized my plan had worked too well... that I had actually lost you because I was a coward."
You didn't answer right away. You forced your eyes to stay fixed on his wounds, gently smoothing a healing ointment over his skin, even though inside, your heart was hammering against your ribs and your hands threatned to shake.
"I didn't lie to you in that alley because I wanted to, or because I got tired of you" he continued, his voice beginning to break. "Baek-jin isn't stupid. He was hunting for my weaknesses to keep me in line and he started asking subtle questions about my life… about the girl I was always seen with. The Union bastards have no code… if they found out how much you meant to me, they would have made you the ultimate target. They would’ve used you to control me, they would’ve hurt you just to watch me break."
You stopped dead in your tracks and looked him straight in the eyes, forcing yourself to hold his gaze.
"The only way I could keep you safe was to tear you away from me. I had to make everyone believe that I didn't care about you at all, that you were just some high school pastime. I had to break your heart so you’d stay far away and wouldn't get dragged into my messes, because I preferred you hating me for the rest of your life over seeing you get hurt because of me." Tears finally spilled down Hu-min’s battered cheeks. "But it hurt so fucking much... You have no idea what it felt like. Every single word I threw at you that afternoon burned me up inside. When I saw you crying, when you called me trash and I left you alone in the rain, I swear to God I wanted to turn around and die. I couldn't sleep thinking about what I’d done to you. Forgive me. Please, I'm begging you... look at me and forgive me."
Seeing Baku crying inconsolably right in front of you, his shoulders slouched and his entire heart laid bare, shattered the very last piece of your wall.
The truth clicked into place in your mind like a missing puzzle piece: his apparent madness, his plunge into the Union, the melancholic look in his eyes before the breakup... everything, every single painful thing he had done, had been a sacrifice for you. To keep you safe from the nightmare he was trapped in.
You set the first-aid kit aside on the bed and, unable to hold back your own tears, reached out to gently frame his face, taking extra care to avoid his swollen skin.
"You're an idiot, Baku" you whispered. "A complete and total idiot. You should have trusted me, you should have told me... we would have found a way to handle it together."
"I was terrified" he confessed, closing his eyes and pressing his forehead softly against yours. "I was so scared they'd hurt you because of me that I couldn't think straight. Don't leave me, please. I'm out of the Union, I brought Baek-jin down, that whole hell is over for good. I just need you to feel like myself again... I can't keep going if you're not with me."
The pain, the confusion and the sleepless nights of the past few months seemed to melt away, completely mending the wound that had stayed open since that damn text message. You looked deep into his eyes and saw the exact same love reflected back at you that he had shown you from day one.
Your Baku, your real Hu-min, had finally come home.
"I'm not leaving you, dummy" you answered softly.
You brushed your lips against his in a tender kiss, being careful not to sting his split lip. Baku let out a deep sigh from his chest, wrapping his strong arms around your waist to pull you close, burying his face into the crook of your neck. The danger had faded, the Union had crumbled and you were together again… ready to rebuild from the ashes a love that had never truly gone out.