Chapter 40 - His love letters (1/2)
He lays down beside her. She is exhausted. Her tears are dried on her face. She can't move. The blood on the sheet is a clear indication of her lost innocence. He presses her face to his ċhėst. He gently moves his fingers through her silky hair before he pulls them hard.
”Do you still feel pain?”
”No.” She doesn't feel anything. Nothing at all. She doesn't know what she should feel. He takes a look at her. Her eyes are hollow. She is looking at him, but she isn't. She feels like something has broken inside her mind. She doesn't know what it is. But, she isn't suffering anymore.
”Only pain can remove the pain.” He nips her ċŀɨt with his nails. ”Remember that, my dear Hana.”
He gives her one final kiss and covers her eyes with his palm.
”Sleep, my dear. When the sun rises, you will become the sun,” He tells her affectionately. ”You shall become blindingly bright. Nobody shall be able to look at you directly. When the night comes back and you wake up alone, you will find me beside you again.”
Ahn Hana falls asleep.
***
Until now. She digs her fingers in her hair and shakes madly in Do Sejin's arms. Jung Kwang-soo and Do Sejin call her name. She hasn't been responding to them. That man. He... That night.
Nothing has been right since that night. Why didn't she say anything to Jung Kwang-soo? Something has been wrong with her. When she woke up the next day, she was alone. She didn't care about the night. She was no longer suffering.
Ahn Hana has never been invincible. She has been broken apart by that man a long time ago. He dissected her mind and rearranged it according to his pŀėȧsurė. He turned her into the sun and filled her with the arrogance that blinded the world. His sun. He has been watching her all this time from the shadows, never making his presence known until now.
The night has arrived. The fear is returning along with the pain. That man will come back for her. She is afraid for the first time.
Do Sejin slaps her. ”Hana, look at me.”
”What are you doing?” Jung Kwang-soo yells at him. ”I have called the doctor. Wait.”
”She is in pain.” He slaps her other cheek. ”Wake up. Come out of it.”
The stinging pain in her cheeks wakes her. Her lips tremble. ”Do Sejin, it hurts.”
”Where?” Do Sejin asks. His heart sinks when he sees her tears.
”Everywhere.” She mumbles. It's unbearable. It's smothering her. Ahn Hana takes Noe Kyung-Hee's photo in her hand. ”This... I know now... 100 days after the fifth anniversary of that night.”
”That night... it was him with you?” Jung Kwang-soo widens his eyes as he receives the mental blow. ”The killer?”
”The magnolia flowers are what he took away from me. The blood is what he instilled inside me that night.” She reveals it to them with a smile, ”Noe Kyung-Hee represents love because she died for love. He wants me to announce the love that he feels for me... to the world.”
Jung Kwang-soo and Do Sejin are horrified when the realization struck.
”36 murders are his love letters to me.” Ahn Hana shakes her head and laughs wildly. ”He wants me to wake up and embrace him.”