The Rival Who Killed Me Remembers Too novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: The Rival Who Remembers
Woo-jin did not say anything.
He lay very still with Mu-yeol's weight on his chest, and let him tell it.
"It was the start of winter," Mu-yeol said, into his skin. "The Hall was gone by then. Yoo-chan was in the ground."
"I had nothing left that I could kill."
"I went back to the cliff to find out why."
"Why what?"
"Why you stood there." Mu-yeol's thumb moved on his ribs. "I replayed it every night. The high cut. The way you opened your hand."
"I had killed five hundred men, and I knew what one looks like when he's afraid, and you weren't."
"You looked relieved."
Woo-jin's eyes burned.
"I sat on the edge of the cliff with your forehead cord in my hand."
"I'd found it on the stone. I thought, if I sit here long enough I'll understand it."
"Did you?"
"Not all of it. I understood you had wanted me to do it." Mu-yeol swallowed. "I understood I had done what you asked."
"Then I understood that I had nothing at all left."
"So I stayed."
"The snow came. The wind came up the gorge like nine mouths and rang the bell on my back, over and over, that one note."
"I didn't mind it at the end. I thought, he heard that last. I thought, I'll hear it as long as I can."
"I said your name a good many times."
"I thought I'd see you."
He stopped.
Woo-jin felt his lashes wet against his skin.
"That's all," Mu-yeol said. "That's how. I was thirty-eight. It took four months."
Woo-jin could not speak for a long time.
He put his hands on the stubbled scalp and held on.
"You died of my sin," he said at last, and it came out cracked.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Rival Who Killed Me Remembers Too are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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