Mu Yichen, who had been staring at him all this time, finally noticed how soft his hair was, how cold his body felt against his own, and how beautiful he really was up close.

  So beautiful that it stole his breath for a second.

  But then, those eyes.

  Those lifeless, tired, half-lidded eyes looked straight at him… with not even a ripple of emotion.

  Just like that, the trance shattered.

  Mu Yichen blinked once, then twice, and finally exhaled.

  Slowly, gently, he let go.

  Lee Aseok’s feet touched the ground. He didn’t stumble. He just stood there like the fall never happened.

  Seo MinHyun couldn’t take it anymore.

  He stormed forward, stopping just short of grabbing the boy by the collar. “You… Do you want to die?! Do you think that was funny? Jumping off like that? Are you trying to mess with us again?!”

  The rain had no mercy. It soaked the cracked pavement, the rusted rails, and the three figures standing front of the five-story building in the abandoned West Zone.

  Seo MinHyun stood with his hands on his hips, hair drenched and clinging to his forehead, glaring at Lee Aseok as if sheer willpower could shake an answer out of him.

  “Are you crazy?” he snapped, voice sharp. “Actually..seriously..what the hell is wrong with you?”

  Lee Aseok didn’t react. His posture was relaxed, even detached, like someone whose soul had wandered off and never come back.

  The rain ran down his pale cheeks, soaking through his cheap cotton clothes. Long strands of hair stuck to his skin, but he didn’t move to brush them away.

  Mu Yichen stood beside Seo MinHyun, his brows faintly furrowed, gaze locked on the boy in front of them.

  The way he had fallen, arms wide, eyes open, utterly unafraid.

  Not just unafraid. Empty.

  There was something so eerily calm in that moment that it unsettled him more than if the boy had screamed or cried.

  And now, even after being caught mid-air, Lee Aseok stood there with the same dull eyes and gloomy aura, as if none of it mattered.

  It was clear.

  This was not normal apathy. This was the kind of indifference that only came after something broke, shattered into pieces too small to ever be whole again.

  And yet... Mu Yichen didn’t know why that realization made his chest tighten. Why this stranger, a teenager he’d just met, made him feel something close to... rage. Not at him, but at the thought of what had driven him to this point.

  Seo MinHyun, still fuming, took a step forward. “Say something. Or do I need to shake your empty head until words fall out?”

  Mu Yichen raised a hand. “MinHyun.”

  “What? Are you seriously going to let him act like jumping off a building is normal?”

  Mu Yichen didn’t answer. He looked at Lee Aseok, calm as ever, and asked with a steady voice, “Why?”

  Lee Aseok turned his head slowly. He looked at Mu Yichen. Then Seo MinHyun.

  And he just stared at them.

  For one full minute.

  A long, heavy minute where even the rain seemed to pause.

  Seo MinHyun opened his mouth to snap again, but something in the boy’s eyes stopped him cold. It wasn’t hostility. It wasn’t defiance.

  It was nothing.

  Pure, emotionless silence.

  Yet for some reason, Seo MinHyun didn’t move forward. He didn't shout. He didn’t threaten. It was as if something deep inside was warning him: Don’t push.

  That realization made him even more frustrated. Since when did he hesitate?

  Then, for the first time in what felt like eternity, a voice, hoarse, quiet, and brittle, broke the silence.

  "...I’d rather die... than leave this place."

  It was barely louder than the rain. But it hit like thunder.

  Mu Yichen's expression froze. Seo MinHyun’s eyes widened.

  The boy’s voice was dry, as if unused for months. His tone carried no emotion. It was simply a fact, spoken with the same finality as stating the time.

  Lee Aseok said no more.

  He turned, water sloshing around his shoes, and began to walk back toward the stairwell. Calmly. Slowly.

  Like he wasn’t the one who’d just jumped off a building.

  Like none of this meant anything.

  Mu Yichen stood still, raindrops sliding off his lashes.

  Seo MinHyun watched the retreating back, silent for once.

  “I’m going to kill that guy,” he muttered under his breath. But even he didn’t sound convinced.

  They said nothing else.

  Just listened to the rain.

  And watched the boy who didn’t want to live, walk away like he already hadn’t.

  Rain continued to pour, loud and constant, as if to drown the city in its endless grief.

  Lee Aseok didn’t seem to notice.

  He walked back toward the building slowly, his soaked clothes clinging to his thin frame, long black hair sticking to his pale skin.

  He looked like a ghost wandering through his own ruins, calm, quiet, and so very out of place in the world.

  Mu Yichen watched the figure's back. His eyes, usually calm and composed, now flickered with emotions even he couldn’t define. Confusion. Anger. Worry. And something deeper, unfamiliar… unsettling.

  The gentle expression he was known for was gone, wiped away by the boy’s indifference.

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  Seo MinHyun, on the other hand, was in no mood for silence.

  “Hey! Are you really just going to walk away like that?” he shouted, water splashing as he stomped after him. “You almost died back there! What is wrong with you?!”

  Lee Aseok didn’t respond. His pace didn’t quicken or slow. He walked like someone running on a frayed thread, each step barely holding him together.

  Seo MinHyun caught up quickly, the anger in his chest bubbling again. “Why don’t you want to leave this place? You think staying here in this cursed zone won’t get you killed?”

  Then he paused, the memory of the rooftop flashing back into his mind.

  Falling, arms open, eyes blank.

  He looked at Lee Aseok’s face again. That unreadable expression.

  “…No,” he muttered, suddenly quieter. “You already want to die, don’t you?”

  Lee Aseok didn’t look at him.

  He didn’t argue. He didn’t deny it.

  He simply kept walking.

  Seo MinHyun cursed under his breath. “This guy… I swear, if you weren’t so..” He cut himself off, too frustrated to finish. “Oi! At least say something!”

  But Lee Aseok was exhausted. His thoughts were a fog. His limbs felt like lead. All he wanted was to fall into a bed, pull a blanket over his head, and never wake up.

  So he walked around Seo MinHyun, ignoring him.

  Seo MinHyun stepped in front again and spread his arms, blocking the path. “Nope. Not this time. You don’t get to act like you didn’t just scare the crap out of us. At least tell us why you’re so obsessed with staying in this dump.”

  Behind him, Mu Yichen silently approached. His eyes fell on Lee Aseok’s face again. With the rain and wet hair clinging to his skin, the boy looked even younger than before. Delicate. Small. Fragile.

  And yet his eyes held nothing. No light. No hatred. No life.

  Just... emptiness.

  Mu Yichen clenched his jaw.

  Lee Aseok finally stopped walking.

  He stood in front of them, chest rising and falling slowly with each tired breath. His reddish-brown eyes drifted between the two men.

  Seo MinHyun raised a brow, waiting impatiently.

  Then, in a voice quiet, cold, and emotionless, Lee Aseok answered.

  “I don’t like humans,” he said.

  Short. Direct. Heavy.

  “I find them... repulsive.”

  The words fell like stones. Seo MinHyun’s expression froze. Mu Yichen’s eyes narrowed slightly, unreadable.

  There was no emotion in Lee Aseok’s tone. It wasn’t spoken with anger, hatred, or resentment. It was simply the truth, a statement of fact, like the weather.

  The kind of truth that comes from someone who had long since stopped hoping to be understood.

  Neither man spoke.

  And Lee Aseok, without a single glance back, walked past them and into the building.

  The echo of the door shutting behind him felt louder than thunder.

  Rain continued to fall in steady sheets, soaking through every layer of clothing and numbing the skin. It was a cold, oppressive rain, the kind that didn’t just drench the body but seemed to press down on the soul itself.

  Lee Aseok stood silently in front of the shattered entrance to the building.

  His gaze was fixed on the broken door, its hinges bent, the frame splintered, rainwater dripping onto the wooden floor inside.

  He didn’t speak. He didn’t move. He just stood there, unmoving, under the downpour like a drowned ghost.

  This was his home.

  One of the few intact buildings in the entire West Zone, abandoned by others, claimed by him.

  He had kept it neat. He had lived quietly. Alone. For over a year.

  Now even that had been taken from him.

  He blinked slowly. If he hadn't already jumped off that rooftop… this moment might have pushed him to try again.

  Footsteps splashed through puddles behind him.

  Mu Yichen and Seo MinHyun caught up, both out of breath. Seo MinHyun was still steaming, his voice rising again.

  “How can you say you don’t like humans? You are one!” he shouted, hands thrown in the air, utterly exasperated. “You talk like you’re some.. some mentally broken doll!”

  But when his eyes fell on the youth standing motionless before the broken door , soaked, small, staring at the damage in silence, the words caught in his throat.

  He shut up.

  Mu Yichen came to a stop beside him, his brows furrowing.

  He had been prepared to speak again, to offer comfort or perhaps scold the boy for his recklessness but seeing Lee Aseok like this... his voice faded too.

  Both stood still.

  The air was heavy with something neither of them could name.

  Guilt?

  Maybe.

  After all, they had assumed this place was abandoned. A criminal’s hideout. Seo MinHyun had blasted the door open without hesitation, laughing while doing it.

  They didn’t expect to find someone quietly living here.

  Certainly not someone like him.

  Lee Aseok slowly turned his head, water dripping down his long black hair and over his pale cheeks. His reddish-brown eyes looked between them. Then at the broken door.

  Then back at them again.

  There was no anger in his gaze.

  No sadness.

  Just that same lazy gloom. A distant, tired emptiness, like someone who had long since stopped being surprised by the world’s cruelty.

  He opened his mouth.

  “Humans are annoying,” he said flatly.

  Then, without waiting for a response, he walked inside.

  His wet footsteps echoed through the hall, soft and unbothered.

  Mu Yichen watched him go, lips pressed tightly together, eyes thoughtful and unreadable.

  Beside him, Seo MinHyun stood frozen with an expression halfway between guilt and indignation.

  “…Why do I feel like I’m the villain here?” Seo MinHyun muttered under his breath, ears turning red.

  Mu Yichen didn’t answer. He just sighed and started walking after Lee Aseok.

  “Hey! Wait for me,” Seo MinHyun called, chasing after him. “I was trying to help! It’s not my fault the door looked sketchy!”

  But Mu Yichen didn’t respond.

  The rain continued to fall behind them, washing the shattered pieces of the door deeper into the mud.

  And somewhere deep inside that silent, crumbling building… was a boy who had no faith left in people and no reason to care whether he was understood or not.

  Lee Aseok went inside his room and closed the door.

  Mu Yichen stood in silence, his eyes lingering on the closed door.

  The soft click of the door shutting echoed louder than expected in the quiet space, sealing them out like unwelcome guests. He didn’t knock. He didn’t call out.

  Seo MinHyun, on the other hand, looked at the door like it had personally offended him. His brows were furrowed, his arms crossed, and his whole body radiated disbelief and frustration.

  “I broke a door, got soaked, nearly died jumping off a building, and what do I get? A door slammed in my face!” he muttered darkly.

  He snapped his fingers, and with a faint hum, a soft orange glow lit the air beneath their feet. A magic circle expanded briefly before disappearing, the rainwater vanished instantly from their clothes, leaving them dry and warm again.

  Mu Yichen didn’t acknowledge the magic. He stood still, his brows faintly furrowed, eyes fixed where the boy had disappeared.

  Seo MinHyun glanced at him. “You’re being awfully quiet.”

  Mu Yichen gave no reply. His usual gentle expression had faded, replaced by unreadable silence. There was something in his eyes , not confusion, not pity, something deeper.

  “…Don’t tell me you’re taking this personally,” Seo MinHyun said, raising a brow.

  Still no response.

  Seo MinHyun sighed and sat down on a crate near the hallway wall, grumbling to himself. “That brat needs therapy. And manners. And maybe a smack or two"

  Mu Yichen finally spoke, voice soft. “He’s too calm about everything.”

  Seo MinHyun blinked. “What?”

  Mu Yichen’s gaze remained on the closed door. “Most people who want to die act out of impulse. Desperation. But he was… steady. He didn’t hesitate, he didn’t flinch.”

  Seo MinHyun scoffed. “You sound like you're admiring him.”

  “I’m not,” Mu Yichen replied quietly. “I’m worried.”

  Behind the closed door…

  Lee Aseok stood under the cold stream of water, eyes half-lidded, unmoving. The water beat down on his head, drenching his long black hair, clinging to his pale skin like silence clung to his life.

  The bathroom was small, the tiles cracked in places. But it was clean. He had kept it that way.

  The water ran and ran, almost as if trying to wash away something more than dirt, exhaustion, heaviness, maybe a life already lived once too many.

  He leaned against the wall.

  His body ached.

  His mind felt full of screaming voices, but no sound came out. His lips didn’t tremble. His eyes refused to cry. The pain stayed buried, deep beneath that same blank expression.

  He wanted to scream until his throat bled.

  He wanted to cry until his chest stopped hurting.

  But nothing came.

  His hand curled slowly against the wall. The same hand that had carried weapons. That had gripped swords until his knuckles turned white. That had bled for others until he forgot what it felt like to bleed for himself.

  No. That’s the past. It’s gone. It doesn’t matter.

  He let out a breath that shuddered slightly.

  A moment of weakness.

  And then… silence again.

  He turned off the water. The silence was louder now, crawling into his ears like static.

  The room was quiet. The sound of the rain outside faded into a dull murmur, like distant static behind the stillness.

  Lee Aseok sat alone on the edge of his futon, a towel draped over his head. Droplets of water trailed down his back, soaking into the thin fabric beneath him. He didn’t bother drying completely. He didn’t care.

  His gaze slowly dropped to his chest.

  He undid the front of his loose shirt, fingers trembling faintly not from the cold, but from the weight of memory pressing down on him.

  There it was.

  A mark, etched across the center of his chest, right over where his heart should be.

  Golden. Gleaming faintly even in the dim room.

  To others, it might’ve looked divine. A symbol of protection, power… even favor from the gods.

  But Lee Aseok knew better.

  That was no blessing.

  It was a scar.

  Like a curse.

  The final proof of his death.

  The boss of the “Hell Gate” hadn’t just torn open his body , it had carved into his soul.

  That blow should’ve killed him. It had killed him.

  He should not be alive.

  He stared at the mark with blank eyes. It didn’t hurt anymore, not physically. But every time he looked at it, he remembered. Every time he closed his eyes, he relived.

  Gate after gate.

  Fight after fight.

  Alone. Always alone.

  They had called him a weapon, a miracle, a monster, a thief.

  They had whispered behind his back, cursed him, and feared him.

  But no one… no one asked if he was okay.

  No one asked if he was tired.