Red Threads Fade, Love Remains

‘But if I end up loving someone again, then I….’

A tight sensation wrapped forcefully around my body and Won-gyeong’s, as if something had constricted us both.

The red threads vanished in an instant.

My vision, which had been flashing chaotically, returned to normal.

In the empty room, only Won-gyeong remained, looking straight at me.

Won-gyeong, gazing down at me with unreadable eyes, lifted his hand toward my lips.

The hand that had been touching my cold-sweat-soaked bangs slowly slid down to the corner of my mouth.

His fingers, resting at the corner of my lips, gently traced around my mouth.

It was an incomparably tender touch, utterly different from how he had casually brushed my bangs aside earlier.

Pressing lightly on my lip with his thumb, he spoke.

“Doya, you’re bleeding.”

His voice was far too gentle.

I felt like I was about to cry.

Won-gyeong was being too kind to me right now.

I had always found that kind of gentleness unbearable.

I couldn’t stand it when someone I loved treated me gently.

Even as Won-gyeong pressed on my lip, I didn’t stop biting it.

The system was right.

Right now, even if only temporarily, I was ‘in love’ with the man in front of me.

My chest felt tightly constricted.

An inexplicable sorrow flooded over me.

“Doya.”

“Don’t touch me.”

I slapped his hand away harshly as I spoke.

His hand, pushed aside by mine, froze awkwardly in midair.

“Don’t touch me….”

“If you don’t want it, I won’t touch you. So just calm down for now, and stop biting your lip, okay? Don’t cry.”

Won-gyeong spoke anxiously in a soft voice.

As if my bitten lip hurt him more than the hand I’d just knocked away.

Pressing one hand hard against my throbbing head, I realized I was crying.

My cheeks were completely wet.

The trigger called ‘love’ shattered something that had been sleeping inside me.

I forcibly suppressed the memories I’d tried so hard to forget as they threatened to surface.

Those were emotions I couldn’t handle right now.

I couldn’t remember them.

[The player’s consciousness is in a ‘Confusion’ state.]

[The game cannot proceed under the player’s current condition.]

[Adjusting player favorability.]

[The player’s favorability toward the target ‘Won-gyeong’ has slightly decreased.]

The system belatedly adjusted my favorability.

My ragged breathing slowly calmed.

When I confirmed that no more tears were falling, I took a deep breath.

The sudden shift in my emotions had felt unfamiliar, and I’d overreacted.

As my vision steadied, I saw Won-gyeong standing restlessly in front of me, still holding up the hand I’d slapped away.

He looked unusually flustered.

When he saw that I had stopped crying and was looking straight at him, his gaze softened.

Hesitating, he brought his hand close to my face.

“I’ll just wipe your tears. Is that okay?”

He looked anxious, as if afraid I might reject his hand again.

He didn’t scold me for suddenly bursting into tears, nor did he ask why I was crying.

He just wanted to wipe away my tears.

At his attitude, I let out a breath that was almost a sigh and nodded.

After receiving my permission and pausing briefly to watch my reaction, his hand moved very slowly.

As if hoping not to startle me.

Won-gyeong’s large hand approached at that languid pace and gently rubbed my cheek.

A little sorrow, and a little affection.

Just enough sorrow and affection for me to bear rose quietly in my heart.

***

Maybe I never loved anyone at all.

Yeah, love wouldn’t hurt this much.

So what I’m afraid of is that I really did love you, OOO.

***

“Do you feel a bit better now?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I think we should talk a little about our current situation.”

Once I had calmed down, Won-gyeong gently guided me toward a chair.

He started to seat me on the bed, which was closer than the chair, but then his expression stiffened slightly.

Instead, he led me out of the bedroom area and pulled over a chair placed beside the tea table, seating me there.

Recalling the contents of the third formation, I understood his choice and frowned slightly.

After seating me first, he took the seat opposite me.

He placed a sheet of paper he’d brought from somewhere onto the table and began speaking.

“Are you aware that our current state is abnormal?”

It seemed the first thing to address was our unnaturally elevated favorability.

Clearing my subdued throat, I replied.

“Yeah. My emotions feel… kind of strange.”

“I think a curse in this room affected us.”

“You mean the thing we saw earlier?”

“That alone shouldn’t be enough to cause this, which is why it’s odd, but yes. For now, I think that’s the cause.”

Won-gyeong looked troubled.

When I stared at him with watery eyes, he slightly averted his gaze and continued.

“Could you refrain from looking at me like that? I don’t think my condition is very stable right now.”

Remembering the intense affection that had wrapped around me earlier, I nodded.

My favorability had decreased somewhat, but Won-gyeong was likely still maintaining the same level of favorability I’d experienced.

With heightened sexual attraction and high favorability on top of that, it was hard for him to endure being in the same room.

Looking at Won-gyeong’s ears, flushed red, I spoke.

“I think I like you.”

“You’re very honest…. I feel the same.”

He said it with a sigh.

“Did you touch the formation or try to read the characters?”

“No. I didn’t even go near it.”

When I denied it briefly, he nodded lightly as if he understood.

There was no sign of the coin he used when he saw through my lies.

Staring at the back of Won-gyeong’s hand, I spoke.

“You said it’s a temporary curse, right? Then can’t we just wait until it wears off?”

“That’s actually the easiest way to lift it. Resisting it makes the spell last longer, but if you accept it fully, it should be lifted more quickly.”

“Then let’s just stay like this until the curse ends, and once we leave the rift, we’ll treat it like nothing ever happened.”

Won-gyeong looked at me with conflicted eyes.

In his current emotional state, it seemed difficult for him to accept what I was saying.

To help him make his choice, I drove the point home.

“Everything that happens inside the rift gets forgotten. This isn’t even real emotion anyway.”

“You say that so easily.”

“It’s not that difficult.”

“…Alright. Let’s do as you say.”

When I spoke coldly, Won-gyeong lowered his gaze and agreed.

With the emotional issue settled for now, I shifted my gaze to the paper on the table.

Won-gyeong followed my glance and looked down at it as well.

As I examined the paper, I frowned.

The characters written on it felt strangely familiar.

When I furrowed my brow, lost in thought, Won-gyeong reached into his pocket and took out the identification tag he’d been carrying.

“The script on this paper looks the same as the one on the ID tag.”

Just as he said.

When compared side by side, similarly curved characters appeared all over it.

[** ***]

[* **** *** *** *** *****….]

As I carefully examined the unreadable characters, the system appeared.

[You have confirmed a paper written in unknown characters.]

[The target ‘Won-gyeong’’s favorability is at the ‘Affection’ level.

You have reached the ‘Affection’ level for the first time!

As a reward, the Language Decoding System is unlocked.]

[Language Decoding – Can interpret unknown characters. Current stat level: 1]

The suddenly appearing system began interpreting the text written on the paper.

“It looks like the language monsters use. It’ll take some time, but I’ll try to decipher it.”

“Wait.”

I hurriedly grabbed Won-gyeong’s hand as he tried to take the paper.

His hand twitched in surprise in my grip, but I didn’t pay much attention, focusing instead on the characters on the page.

“I think I can read it.”

With Won-gyeong’s favorability toward me so high, I felt confident that it was okay to reveal something a little unusual.

When I asked if he had a pen, he slowly pulled his hand free from my grasp and stood up.

He found a pen at another table, brought it back, handed it to me, and sat down again.

After sitting back down, Won-gyeong rested his hand exactly where I’d grabbed it earlier.

Glancing at that, I calmly placed my left hand over his again.

That alone seemed to make him happy.

“If showing affection helps lift the curse faster, I’ll just express it openly. If there’s anything you want to do or say to me, feel free.”

Speaking quickly, I used the pen Won-gyeong had brought and began writing beneath each line of the text, recording what I’d learned through the system.