"Delicious."

In the hot summer, they were eating ice cream.
It was sweet.
The melting ice cream stick rested on her fingers, and she took a bite.

The weather was hot.
Han Si-Hoo remembered the white sleeveless shirt Seo-Ah wore.

Cold. Delicious.

Had she already started using the drugs by this point?
It was summer, shortly before Han Si-Hoo entered the academy.

At that time, there were no bandages.
She didn’t cover her arms either.
It was summer.
Why would she? It was too hot for that.

So they went out to buy ice cream.
It had been a while, and they had some spare money.

"Heh."

She smiled.
Because of the drugs?
Or because the ice cream tasted good?
Memories should be beautiful.
He didn’t want to worry about the drugs.

She finished eating.

"Let’s buy more next time."

A small shop on the outskirts of the city.
The occasional customers were all pitiful in one way or another.
That was the rumor.
Living outside the city was considered proof of misfortune.

But they weren’t unhappy.
They got along well.

"Together."

Everything was better when they were together.

Crunch.

The ice cream shattered in his mouth.
It was cold.

He walked along the road.
As he walked, memories from the past surfaced.
He was on his way to meet Lee Yoo-Ram’s younger sister.

He bought an ice cream at a convenience store along the way.
Whatever he did, old memories kept coming back.
There were too many memories.

It didn’t taste good.
It was the same ice cream, but it didn’t taste the same.

The same flavor.
What went wrong?
The reason was obvious.

His family was dead.

Crunch.

He saw the concrete curb on the side of the road.
It was nighttime.
The streetlights weren’t working.
But the moonlight was bright enough, so it didn’t matter.

"This is how you do it."

If you step off the curb, you lose.
You had to stay balanced on top of the curb.
When there’s a break, you jump.

"If you reach that spot, you win."

He stretched his arms out to balance himself.
Even when it felt like he might fall, he didn’t.

There were no cars.
The roads leading out of the city were rarely used.
There were signs of damage from monsters.
There was no capacity to repair the damage.

"If you reach that rock over there, you win. Got it?"
Seo-Ah was already at the finish line, waving from a distance.
It was Han Si-Hoo’s turn.

This was an even older memory.
A memory without any need to worry about drugs.
Of course.
How far back do I have to go?

Every time he thought of Seo-Ah’s smiling face in the past, he wondered if she had really enjoyed being with him.

"Ah, look at that."

She looked up at the sky.

"The clouds are all gone. So many stars."

Were they?
Han Si-Hoo looked up at the sky.

There were still clouds.
It was still the city.
Cars were everywhere on the streets.

The "don’t step on the ground" game.
Honestly, it wasn’t that fun of a game.
It was just fun because he was playing it with a friend.

Seo-Ah blocked the moonlight with her hand, trying to get a better view of the faint starlight.

"Ah, if you look from this angle, you’ll see them better."

Bang.

And then Seo-Ah said nothing more.

I should have stopped it.
I could have stopped it.
How?

If he went to the academy, he could make money.
With that money, Seo-Ah could live somewhere better.
But Seo-Ah told him not to come.
She told him not to come into the house, so he waited outside for hours before leaving.
When she said she was disgusted, it hurt a little.
Would things have been better if he hadn’t gone back to the academy?
Which part of it?
She was already addicted to the drugs—how could anything be okay?
Was it okay just because he managed to make enough money to give her for the drugs?

Where did it go wrong?
No matter what choices he made, it seemed like nothing but bad things came of them.
Where, where, and which choice should he have changed?

The academy seemed like it treated him well.
There were some unsettling aspects, but still.
He believed it would be a good shelter until they found a better solution.
But all they did was stick more drugs into Seo-Ah and run tests.
Even the trauma tests they weren’t supposed to do—those were disgusting.

Still, wasn’t it an institution meant to protect humanity?
A place to protect citizens.
They only justified everything they did under the guise of "for humanity’s sake."
And yet, the doctor was freely walking around.
No one was protecting them.
Because everyone was too busy trying to protect themselves.
Forgetting the fact that this place was already rotten was a mistake.
A mistake.
I was wrong.
Sorry.

That’s why learning is necessary.
To learn, you must reflect.
What went wrong and what was right.
How to fix things.

It was just a lack of strength.
Power.

"Si-Hoo."

"Yeah."

"What are you doing?"

"Practicing my swordsmanship."

"Again today?"

It was just a metal rod in his hand, but if he swung it properly, it became a sword.
The more he practiced, the better he got.
If he had had a teacher, he would have learned faster, but even self-study led to growth.

"Yeah."

"Who are you going to hit?"

That sounded strange.

"I’m not hitting anyone."

"Hmm?"

"I’m only going to deal with bad people."

He had known for a long time that he needed strength.

"I see."

Seo-Ah knew it too.
That they needed strength to survive.

"We might end up having to fight real monsters."

There might come a time when they had to deal with dungeons or gates.
When the air raid sirens went off, all they could do was run.
But someday, the time to fight would come.

"That’s scary."

He swung the sword.
Then thrust it forward.

"Still, there might be a more peaceful way than fighting."

It wasn’t as if they could talk things out with monsters.
When you have to protect, you have to protect.
But just protecting isn’t enough.
You have to eliminate the cause.

So he slashed and stabbed.

"Peace?"

"Yeah. You might get hurt if you keep fighting."

"......"

"You saw it, didn’t you? People getting hurt in fights."

When was that?
He had seen people fighting each other.
He had seen them fighting things that weren’t human.

"I’ll only fight when it’s necessary."

There were times when it was necessary.
There are moments when a fight is justified.
Han Si-Hoo had never gotten hurt.
He was becoming a hero who never lost.

So he slashed with the sword.
Cutting down the enemy without hesitation.

For some reason, there was blood on his blade.
It wasn’t just the air he was cutting.
His heart pounded.
There was ringing in his ears.

"Was I the bad person?"

He had only tried to kill the doctor.

"Was I the monster?"

Was that what she wanted to say?
Everything overlapped in his mind.
From the young Seo-Ah to the version of her who had been struck by Han Si-Hoo’s blade.

He didn’t want to hear it.
Did he really have to listen to his childhood friend explain that she hadn’t sold her body?
Choking her, kicking her.
Honestly, even the worst villains don’t treat their family like that.
No one in their right mind could do such a thing.
That shouldn’t happen.
It couldn’t happen.

He didn’t want to hurt Seo-Ah anymore.

Bang.

So the doctor shot her.

Nom.

They were back to the ice cream.
Seo-Ah was eating it with delight.

"Should we get one more...?"

They didn’t have much money left.
But it was rare for them to buy a treat like this.

"Should we?"

"Yeah."

There was a new ice cream they hadn’t seen before.

"It’s tuna-flavored ice cream!"

"Tuna... flavor? What’s that supposed to taste like?"

There were a lot of cans of tuna at home because Seo-Ah liked them.
If they were looking for cheap food, there were plenty of other options.
Even canned food wasn’t that cheap.

"Let’s try it!"

She smiled brightly.
Well, the tuna ice cream tasted like tuna.
It was so fishy that even Seo-Ah couldn’t finish it and spat it out.
Later, they found out it had been released as a joke for a short time.

Though it wasn’t entirely inedible.

"...It was fun, right?"

Haha.
They laughed together.

He never understood how she could always laugh like that.
The world was bleak.
Everything was a mess.
There wasn’t a single optimistic thing to hold on to in this world.

"Why would anyone freeze tuna?"

Good question.

"I think I’ll be okay without eating tuna for a while."

"Me too."

The streets on the way home were crumbling.
Everyone had left, and only dust remained.
Occasionally, stray animals wandered around.

"Do you know what kind of flower this is?"

Seo-Ah pointed to a flower that was a mix of red and white.

"What is it?"

"Hmm? I don’t know either."

"It’s probably a carnation."

"What? You knew? No wonder it looked like those paper carnations people make."

"Yeah. It’s a carnation."

He remembered seeing it in some flower encyclopedia Seo-Ah had picked up.
He had forgotten the meaning behind it, but at least he remembered the name.

"Maybe someone planted it and then left. Feels kind of lonely."

"They must have moved a long time ago."

"Yeah."

Moving.
He had thought for a while that they would have to move someday.
Han Si-Hoo knew that living in the slums was dangerous.

But they had nowhere else to go.
Without money, they couldn’t live under the city’s protection.

"I wonder if we’ll ever live in a nice house."

"Yeah."

"Though honestly, this is good enough for me."

Seo-Ah didn’t seem to have any attachment to their home.
She only brought it up because Han Si-Hoo had mentioned moving before.

"...If you’re happy, I’m happy too."

Han Si-Hoo spoke.
It was a rare, somewhat embarrassing thing for him to say.

"Haha..."

She laughed.
And they walked a little farther.

"Si-Hoo."

"Yeah?"

"Do you think we’ll always be able to stay together?"

There was a hint of unease in her voice.
Even though she was smiling, the atmosphere felt heavier.

"Of course."

"I hope so."

But there was nothing to worry about.
He would never leave Seo-Ah behind.
As long as that didn’t happen, there would be no problems.

The thing Seo-Ah worried about would never happen.
Never.
It couldn’t.

"...Still. There might come a time when we’re apart for a little while, or we can’t see each other."

Seo-Ah said.
Thinking realistically about the future, she wasn’t wrong.
There was some doubt about whether they could always stay together.
But he still wanted to be with her.

"But we’ll meet again. So let’s cheer each other on, no matter where we are."

Seo-Ah said that with a smile.

"Will that day really come?"

It was hard to imagine.

"The world is big. Someday."

She said something like that, talking about how they would chase their dreams.
The sun was beginning to set.

The clouds looked like giant cotton candy.
The sky was turning orange with hints of pink.

For a moment, they stopped and stared at the sky.
Everyone around them was probably admiring the same view.