“Wh-Who’s there!”
“Stop right there!”
The soldiers on watch shouted a warning the moment they spotted Lee Shin and me, but Lee Shin didn’t stop. As they scrambled to block us with their bodies, he suddenly veered toward the far end of the fence, pretending to change direction to throw them off.
When the soldiers fell for the bait and started chasing after us, Lee Shin spun back around and darted through the entrance. I was slung over his shoulder, stiff with confusion, jolting violently with each movement. I felt like I was going to be sick, but I held it in and forced myself to scan the surroundings.
WEEEE-OOOH! WEEEE-OOOH!
An ear-splitting siren blared through the air.
“……!”
It seemed the ship had finally caught on to what was happening. Thanks to the phased reporting from the research facility, we’d managed to buy this much time at least.
I felt a buzzing on my wrist—my watch must have been sending alerts too. I wanted to check it, but in this position, it was impossible.
I winced, closed my eyes, then opened them again. Lee Shin was running so fast it was hard to make anything out clearly.
Even when the open space narrowed into a corridor, he didn’t slow down. There was a strange, growing chill in the air.
Suddenly, he came to a halt. Despite all that exertion, his breathing remained steady, completely unfazed.
“Suho, here!”
He jerked his chin forward, gesturing for me to look.
I turned my head and stared at the massive door in front of us. It was large enough to transport a beast through. In fact, it looked less like a door and more like a wall. Naturally, there were no handles or locks—this was the kind of entryway that required remote access from a designated control unit.
“…Put me down.”
I tapped his shoulder. I had stayed still to avoid interfering or getting him caught, but the ride had been pure hell.
Surprisingly gentle for someone who’d just been hauling me at full speed, Lee Shin carefully set me down. The moment my feet touched the ground, I felt like I might live again—but that hope vanished instantly. A wave of nausea crashed over me, and I covered my mouth.
“Suho?”
Maybe he noticed the change in my expression, because Lee Shin called out in confusion.
“Your face is pale.”
“……”
I raised a hand to stop him from coming any closer. He hesitated, wearing a worried frown as he looked at me from a distance.
I didn’t say a word and just kept taking deep breaths until my stomach settled a bit. I couldn’t stay frozen here forever. I started walking toward the door.
Remembering what Min Yugeon had said—that in emergencies, all doors were designed to allow manual override—I carefully scanned the area near the door. Thankfully, I quickly found the manual access panel.
“Lee Shin.”
“Yeah.”
At my signal, Lee Shin hurried over. I took his bag, set it on the floor, and began pulling out the descent equipment. He stood there blinking, silently watching me.
If I’d known it would come to this, I wouldn’t have bothered explaining how to use this stuff.
As I strapped the gear onto him, a stray thought crossed my mind.
“You said earlier that if I stayed on the ship, things would get dangerous.”
Breaking the silence, I spoke up. His pitch-black eyes accepted my words without wavering.
“Yeah. It’ll be dangerous. If you send me back…”
“No. That’s not going to happen.”
I wanted him to leave without any regrets.
“People don’t hurt each other that easily.”
“That’s not true. You got hurt, Suho.”
He frowned and objected.
“You were in pain here.”
He pointed to his cheek. I fell silent. He was referring to the bruise that had only just faded a few days ago. I hadn’t expected him to call me out so directly.
I paused for a moment, then responded as casually as I could.
“That was… a special case.”
“……”
“It’s not going to happen again.”
I had no intention of telling Lee Shin everything. If I’d wanted to ramble, I would’ve spilled it all back at the research center. Before he could press for a reason, I changed the subject.
“I’ll be fine here. So worry about yourself instead.”
Lee Shin looked down at me, his lips drawn in a tight line.
“Suho.”
“What?”
“Will you really be happy?”
It was a simple question.
His words instinctively made me imagine the future.If I got lucky and wasn’t exiled, what then? Maybe I’d see Min Sanghan being punished. Maybe Sun Woosung and Cat would grow closer. Maybe Lee Seo-rim and Seol Young-jun would keep teasing each other like always. And maybe, just maybe… with Min Yugeon…
I let out a slow breath. Every time I thought of Min Yugeon, it felt like my brain just froze.
I remembered the moment I left him behind—desperate and clinging to me with that pained look on his face. I ran. I abandoned him. And now I wasn’t sure I even had the right to go back to him. I didn’t know if I could.
The time we spent together—so natural, so constant—might really just become the past now. The thought gripped my chest like a vice.
“Don’t go. Please, Suho.”
“I know… I know you must hate me. I must disgust you.”
“But still…”
That trembling voice. Those tear-soaked eyes and shallow, shaky breaths. He clung to me with everything he had, and I turned my back on him.
I was the one who ignored Min Yugeon’s desperate plea.
…After all that, I’d told him he could lean on me anytime. I said I’d be someone he could rely on.
But instead of keeping that promise, I ignored his cry for help.
“……”
Lee Shin, who had been gazing into my eyes, slowly turned his head to glance behind us. Snapping out of it, I turned to look in the same direction.
“Someone’s coming.”
There was no one in sight. No sound either—only silence. But Lee Shin spoke with certainty. He must’ve sensed it with that uncanny intuition of his.
I quickly crouched by the manual control unit. It looked like the door opened by pulling the lever down. I opened the casing and grabbed the exposed lever.
“Nggh…!”
But it wouldn’t budge. I put all my strength into it, feeling heat rush to my face, but it didn’t move an inch. Was it broken? Or did it work differently somehow?
“What are you doing?”
I was using my whole body, not just my arm muscles, trying to pull the lever down any way I could when Lee Shin came over and asked. I scowled and muttered,
“We need the door open if you’re going to leave.”
“You just pull it down?”
“Yeah.”
Lee Shin nodded, gently pulled my hands away, and wrapped his own firmly around the lever. Then he began pulling it down.
“……!”
When I’d tried, it hadn’t even twitched—so much so that I didn’t even suspect strength was the issue. But under his hands, it slowly began to move. His forearm muscles bulged with pressure, almost as if they were about to burst.
Gu-gu-gu-gung…!
The door, which had seemed sealed shut and immovable, began to rise. From the bottom edge, icy air rushed in.
It was so cold that my skin felt like it was screaming— a sharp chill I’d never experienced aboard the ship.
Fwoooosh!
The wind whipped through, making our clothes flutter. And then, through the rising doorway, the outside world came into view.
Not some world walled off by metal. But the real sky.
I opened my eyes wide, staring through the strands of my wind-blown hair at the crimson-hued heavens.
The air soaking into my lungs felt utterly foreign.
“Su—”
Lee Shin let go of the lever and strode toward me.
“Suho!”
I had been too focused—spellbound by the open world in front of me—to notice his approach. As I turned my head, I saw his figure drenched in the glow of the setting sun.
“We have to go.”
He raised his voice, probably knowing the wind would drown him out otherwise. He gestured back toward the corridor—looks like the soldiers were almost here. And yet, his expression remained unchanged—calm, free of any anxiety or rush.
“Yeah. You’re right.”
I mumbled, then turned fully to face him. The one I needed to focus on wasn’t the outside world. It was Lee Shin.
The fierce wind and blinding sunset kept making me blink, but I tried to commit every detail of his face to memory.
That healthy tan of his skin. His slightly downturned eyes. His sharp nose. His thin lips.
He looked like a gentle young man—so long as he wasn’t baring his teeth in a snarl. And I knew I’d never see that face again.
It was truly time to say goodbye.
“Take care, Lee Shin.”
“……”
“Thanks for everything.”
A vibration rippled under our feet. As expected, the ones coming weren’t few. Through the wind, I caught what sounded like someone shouting orders to breach.
Lee Shin stared at me as if he were memorizing my face, just as I had been doing with his. And then he stepped closer—much closer.
Close enough that, if not for the wind between us, I’d have felt his breath mingling with mine. He lowered his head, and his face came so close that I flinched.
Then his arms gently wrapped around me.
Maybe he just wanted one last hug. Wanting to bring it to a swift end, I wrapped my arms around him too.
I patted his broad back, ready to push him away—
“Close your eyes, Suho.”
A low warning rumbled against my ear.
“…What?”
I barely had time to feel confused.
Before I knew it, Lee Shin tightened his grip— and leapt out into the open world with me in his arms.
