Part 1 Finale
One snowflake, then two. The scattered snow that had begun to fall soon came down in thick flurries. Passersby shook their heads or dusted off their clothes as they walked along. In no time, snow piled up neatly atop buildings and across the ground.
A man sitting on the hospital bed gazed out the window. The white snowflakes, so stark against the dark night sky, had a certain elegance to them.
“Whoa, it’s really coming down.”
“Isn’t this the first snow of the year? It’s pretty.”
The voices echoing through the hallway outside grew closer. The man checked the clock. It was time for rounds.
Knock knock. A familiar sound.
“Lee Eun-soo-nim.”
“Yes.”
At his brief reply, the door clicked open. A group of medical staff bustled in and approached his bed.
“Hello.”
“Hello, Professor.”
“How are you feeling today? I heard you worked hard during rehab again.”
His attending physician asked with a warm expression that doctors often wore when speaking to especially obedient, well-behaved patients. Lee Eun-soo smiled.
“I feel like I’m improving more each day.”
Seeing him like this, most of the medical staff shared a similar thought: For someone who had fallen from the rooftop just a few months ago and survived, isn’t he a little too fine?
Granted, it had been called a miracle that he’d landed on a structural fixture on one of the middle floors—but still. He’d survived an overwhelmingly fatal fall. Other than the moment he first woke up in the ICU, he had never once cried or shown signs of emotional distress. It was impossible not to be taken aback by such composure.
They exchanged routine checks and asked him to press the call button if anything felt off. With that, the team exited the room.
Left alone once more, the smile faded from Lee Eun-soo’s face.
“……”
Truthfully, he wasn’t suffering from any trauma related to the fall.
Even though the hospital room was on a high floor, looking outside didn’t faze him. He often strolled through the hospital’s rooftop garden without issue. He didn’t experience any symptoms typically associated with psychological distress, like shortness of breath.
Even he found it a little surprising.
But that didn’t mean he was completely free from things that haunted him. For one, the sluggish pace of his recovery was exhausting in its own way…
And more than that—there was confusion.
He was certain he’d been stabbed before the fall. Yet when he awoke and examined his body, there wasn’t a single trace left.
…How the hell does that make any sense?
He had asked the surgeon who operated on him whether there had been a stab wound near his chest. The answer had been a flat no. Even after repeating the question several times, the result was the same. All he got in return was a gentle suggestion that he consider psychological counseling.
The hospital, reporters who had come to interview him, and even his own company had all suspected that he might have attempted suicide. Already disoriented by the confusion in his memory, Lee Eun-soo had to lie to each of them, claiming he’d simply gone out for some air during his night shift and accidentally slipped. That alone had been incredibly stressful.
If only there had been a CCTV camera on the company’s rooftop, it might have been revealed right away.
No—There was no stab wound on his chest. Even if there had been a camera, would it have actually shown him being stabbed?
Tangled in these doubts and confusion, Lee Eun-soo had spent his days in the hospital. By now, part of him had come to wonder if maybe he’d imagined the whole thing. Perhaps it had been nothing more than a meaningless dream conjured in the midst of a near-death experience.
He looked out the window again. The snow was still falling in thick, fluffy flakes. This winter felt unusually long.
***
The gates of the mansion opened. A teenage boy stepped inside, looking visibly exhausted. A small child who had just come into the foyer spotted the boy and came running from a distance.
“Hyung!”
The boy waited until the child was right in front of him, then naturally scooped him up in his arms. The child’s plump cheeks, flushed pink with excitement, were absolutely adorable. The boy gazed fondly into the brown eyes that looked nothing like his own.
“Where were you going?”
“You were gonna come home soon!”
The child answered clearly despite his babyish lisp, smiling wide. The boy’s tired expression softened as he pressed a kiss to the child’s forehead. A peal of laughter echoed through the foyer, the kind that only comes from being tickled.
The brothers chatted peacefully as they made their way inside the house.
The scene shifted.
They were grown now. In a sunlit room, one man knelt before the other, speaking.
“I can’t refuse your decision.”
“……”
“So if there’s even the slightest part of you that wants to take it back, say so now.” His face twisted with a tangle of emotions as he asked, “Are you really willing to live your life as my Guide?”
The younger brother’s eyes widened. His lips parted to respond—
…And then, the scene changed again.
The two stood against the backdrop of a dark ocean. One was the younger of the two brothers; the other, a large man with a cropped hairstyle.
“You, young master, are my savior.”
The solemn voice dispersed into the air. “You are the one I must protect… the very reason I exist.”
The man poured his desperate emotions into the one he held tightly in his arms, lowering his head. He buried his face against the other’s slender shoulder, exhaling a heated breath. “If I can’t be with you, young master… then there’s no reason for me to go on living.”
“…Bodyguard-nim.”
A cautious hand gently stroked the man’s head.
Not long after, their lips met—and that moment, the image of them kissing—was the last thing he saw before…
He woke from the dream.
“Ugh…”
He grimaced, clutching his head. A pounding headache throbbed behind his skull like it was about to split open.
It had been a long time since he started having these fragmented, film-reel-like dreams. Ever since he was discharged from the hospital where he’d stayed for quite a while, even now, after completing his rehab—Every time the memories seemed to fade, they’d return.
One thing all the dreams had in common: A man with light brown hair always appeared.
Like the younger brother from tonight’s dream. His name would occasionally be spoken—Eun-soo, just like his own. The only difference was the surname: Cha Eun-soo.
From early childhood to just after becoming an adult, the events of Cha Eun-soo’s life appeared in no discernible order, scattered across time.
Sometimes, even sex scenes appeared—more than a few times, actually. And it wasn’t like he was suffering from some pent-up frustration or anything. Cha Eun-soo’s partners were always men, and though the scenes were brief, without fail… they were intense. Extremely intense.
“……”
Closing his eyes tightly, he let out a long sigh as he opened them again.
Dreaming of fictional people tangled up in erotic acts… well, that was his type—but still, it was damn bizarre. It wasn’t like he had them every single night, but since the same people kept showing up, it honestly creeped him out. And more than anything, every time he had one of those dreams, his condition for the rest of the day would be absolutely awful.
Last year, he finally gave in and tried psychiatric treatment.
…But it had done nothing.
“Haa…”
Letting out another deep sigh, he got out of bed. The moment his feet touched the floor and he stood up, a stabbing headache surged through his skull, like it was about to explode. Fumbling around, he grabbed some painkillers and swallowed them down.
He was sitting at the kitchen table, clutching his forehead—Tap. Tap tap tap. Something began striking the window. He lifted his head to see heavy rain pouring outside the living room window. The sky had turned pitch black.
Just moments ago, the sun had been blindingly bright.
The weather forecast had predicted nothing but sunshine—not just today, but for the whole week.
Well… weather reports weren’t exactly known for being 100% accurate anyway.
Figuring it was just a sudden passing shower, he got up from his seat. Even if he was feeling like crap, even if the weather stayed gloomy all day, he still had to go to work. A working man didn’t get a pass just because the sky looked like hell.
Dragging his heavy body, he washed up. But as he was washing his face, he caught sight of his reflection in the mirror—and for a second, he wondered if he was looking at a corpse. His face was that pale.
And then—
“…!”
For a moment, another face—breathtakingly handsome—overlapped mine in the mirror. Beneath long lashes, eyes the color of light amber glistened like polished beads.
Cha Eun-soo.
I jerked my head away in a panic.
Fuck, now I’m seeing things even after I wake up from these damn dreams.
I squeezed my eyes shut, then slowly opened them again. In those few seconds, dread crept over me. What if the image was still there? My fingertips went ice cold with anxiety.
…Ah.
My own face, back just as it had been, as if nothing had happened. Only then could I finally breathe again.
Still feeling disturbed and unsettled, I got ready for work. Everything felt wrong—my body, my mind, and the goddamn weather.
When I stepped outside, it had grown even darker. Far from stopping, the downpour had become even more violent, turning into a blinding wall of rain. It was the heaviest rainfall I’d ever experienced in my life. Trying to drive in this mess would’ve taken longer than walking, so I grabbed an umbrella and made my way toward the nearest station on foot.
I crossed an overpass and was waiting for the pedestrian signal at the crosswalk when—
The rain stopped.
Checking the time on my phone, I raised my head in confusion at the sudden silence. But before I could even look up at the sky, my eyes locked onto a man standing across the street.
He was wearing a gray suit, and just standing there, he exuded presence. Even from afar, his face was sharply handsome—too seasoned to be a young man, yet not quite old enough to be middle-aged.
And he was looking straight at me.
Something about him felt familiar. The instant our eyes met—
“You’ve grown a lot.”
My breath caught.
“You were adorable even back then. But now? Even more so.”
That’s right. I was sure of it. He was one of the people from my dreams.
My heart started pounding in my chest. The agonizing headache returned, gripping my skull with punishing force.
And in that exact moment, a bus roared past between us with a rush of sound and air.
“……”
He’s an illusion.
Just like that brief glimpse I saw in the mirror earlier—this had to be the same. Nothing more than a hallucination. And when the bus passed, he’d be gone.
…Eventually, the view across the street came back into sight.
As I’d predicted, the man had vanished without a trace.
My breath finally escaped in a rush as my shoulders sagged.
At this point, it just felt unfair.
It wasn’t like I was on drugs—so why the hell was I haunted by these incomprehensible dreams, only to be followed by hallucinations afterward? It wasn’t even a side effect that made sense for someone who’d survived a major accident.
But before I could dwell on that too long—
The signal changed.
The tension that had gripped every muscle in my body melted away all at once. With a weary motion, I closed my umbrella. I was just about to take a step forward when—
An arm reached out from behind and wrapped around me.
“I found you first.”
A low, spine-tingling voice echoed right by my ear. Not a hallucination—this was real.
“We only just managed to meet again.”
Lips burning with warmth brushed against my cheek.
“You shouldn’t have left like that… right?”
The umbrella slipped from my frozen hand.
And then—
My vision turned completely white.
