“Hey wait!” I didn’t bother putting all the books back on the table behind me and jolted for the library doors. As I pulled them open, I saw him a short distance in front of me. I quickly ran up to him and grabbed his wrist with both of my hands, making my grip extremely tight. “Stop!”

He flinched and turned to me, trying to pull away. “Ow, that hurts!”

“Don’t run away from me like that!” My voice raised and echoed through the open space of the hallway. There was no one else around us.

“Please…just let me go!” He turned toward the wall, away from me.

“No!” I exclaimed. “I already told you I won’t do that!”

“Youngwoon, you shouldn’t be with me!” He turned to me again. I saw that his eyes were very wet. “Didn’t you read that book just now? I’m just a pathetic soul on the brink of a steady, painful downfall and there’s no hope for me. Do you really want to be with someone like that?”

“But there is a way to save you!”

“Love is not going to save me.”

“But—“

“Did love save either of us when I disappeared without reason?”

I opened my mouth but didn’t say anything.

“Did love save me from apparently being banished from heaven and getting all my memories wiped clean? Huh?” He was facing me now and I could hear his voice crack slightly. “That’s just it, Youngwoon…I’m not a good person. I did something sinful…and now I’m getting punished for it like this…” He lowered his head and took in a couple silent breaths. “…we have to break it off now before you get hurt by me again.”

I was going to retort with something mean-spirited, but that last sentence stuck in my mind and made me widen my eyes a little. “Wait a minute…” A small grin formed on my face. “…so you do love me.”

He looked at me confused. “What?”

“If you didn’t care about me, you wouldn’t care that I’m still here with you even after learning about your future.”

“That…I-I just don’t want you to suffer because of me! I never said I loved you!” He exclaimed, his face flushing pink.

“Your face is red.” My grin didn’t go away.

He groaned and rubbed his face. “I’m going to leave now.”

“You can’t. My hand is still on your wrist.”

He shot me an annoyed glance and tried to pull his arm out of my hand, but I kept my grasp strong and he struggled a lot before sighing. “You’re only hurting yourself like this. Just stop.”

“Hyung. Do I look like I’m suffering right now?” I stared him down hard.

He slowly met my eyes and didn’t say anything.

“Since I saw you yesterday, I’ve been in a good mood, one that I haven’t been in a long time. And after learning about your identity, I only want to be with you more. I want to take care of you.”

“But I’m in a lot of pain.” He said quietly.

“I’ll help you feel better. Doing that will make me happy.”

There was a moment of silence between us as slight footsteps sounded below us as people walked around the halls of the second floor of the library.

“Don’t you want me to be happy and not suffer?” I asked.

He slowly lowered his head and didn’t respond.

I took in a small breath and took a couple steps closer to him. “Being with you like this makes me happy.”

I saw him let out another quiet sigh as his shoulders rose and fell. Then his head raised a little and our eyes met once again. We were much closer together and my heart sped up as a result. I hadn’t been so close to his face since last night.

My eyes slowly moved to his lips and I seemed to get captured by them. I wanted to kiss them again. After a quick glance back to his eyes, I focused on his lips again and leaned in very slightly.

“Youngwoon…” he said very quietly.

I stayed still for a moment and looked back into his eyes. I saw many emotions running through them, but the strongest was almost tangible to me: fear.

After a moment, I slowly brought my hand up to the side of his head and gently pushed him against the wall. The primary look of fear in his eyes didn’t go away.

“Do you really not like this?” I asked quietly. “Don’t lie.”

He seemed at a loss of words and could only let out a small, shaky breath.

I took another step closer so that our chests were gently touching. “I don’t care if you go crazy or blind or have constant physical pain every day. I’m never going to lose you again.”

He shivered slightly as my fingers slowly trailed down the side of his face. “Y-Youngwoon.”

“Hm?” I started to lose control of my actions and lean in even closer.

“T-there are other people here.” He turned away slightly, glancing at the staircase close to us. There was still no one in the hallway but we could still hear the footsteps of quiet people below us.

“I don’t care.” I shook my head slowly. My forehead was touching his.

Even at such a close distance, I could still see fear in his eyes. But as my sentence lingered in the tense silence, his expression seemed to loosen up, but only just a little bit. His gaze moved downward and he seemed to be thinking about something.

Suddenly we heard footsteps coming up the stairs and his gaze snapped back to me and he was practically screaming at me to get off.

I glanced toward the stairs very annoyed then sighed quietly and pulled back a little. I still wanted a kiss, so I gently touched either side of his chin and kissed his forehead. “Come on, let’s go.” I turned toward the stairs, pulling him along with me.

“W-where are we going?” He seemed very disoriented.

“Out for some fresh air.” I responded.

After walking around my neighborhood for almost five minutes in almost silence, he seemed to get tired so I found a bench and we sat down.

“At least the weather is nice today.” I crossed my arms and glanced up at the sky.

He didn’t respond.

I glanced at him. He was looking down at the ground. “You okay?”

He slowly looked at me. “I don’t feel good.”

I immediately straightened up and turned to face him more directly. “Where does it hurt?”

“My head hurts.” He touched the side of his head tenderly. “Since you…”

“Since I kissed you there?” My eyes widened.

He bit his lip a little and nodded.

“…c-come on, that’s probably just a coincidence.” I chuckled nervously. “We can just fix the pain with some medicine. I have some at my apartment.”

His gaze remained on the ground but I saw him nod slightly. I stood up and offered him my arm. He glanced at it and slowly pulled on it to stand up. I saw a wave of pain flow over his face as he cringed and kept his hand on the side of his head.

“Wow, it hurts a lot?” I gently put my arm around his upper back.

“It’s not my head.” He responded very quietly.

“Where does it hurt now?”

“Let’s just go back to your apartment.” He started to move forward and I moved a bit quicker to stay by his side. His hand was still tightly attached to my arm.

“Hey if you’re in a lot of pain, just tell me!” I looked at him hard, clearly worried.

After about a minute of walking, he slowly came to a stop with his head turned toward the side. I stopped too and looked where he was looking. Next to us was the entrance to the local church.

I looked at him. “Do you want to go inside?”

He continued to look at the church entrance with an unreadable expression.

“What?” I kept looking at him.

After a moment he turned to me. “I…I felt something…something familiar from that building.”

My eyes widened. “Maybe you’ve been there before and you can’t remember!”

He slowly turned back to look at the church.

“We should go inside! Maybe there’s someone in there that you met!” I tugged on his arm a little and started moving toward the church entrance. He didn’t fight me but his steps were a lot slower than mine. I broke away slightly to push open the church doors slowly and look inside.

“Hello?” I glanced inside the dimmer building, squinting a bit to make anything out.

“Yes, please come in!” A male voice called.

After a glance at Jungsoo, I walked inside and waited until Jungsoo was inside before closing the door.

From the side of the spacey church, another man walked toward us wearing a simple suit and a dark sweater over the suit with a shiny cross necklace catching in the light.

“Welcome to our church and—oh! It’s you!” The man stopped and looked at Jungsoo surprised. “It’s been a long time! How have you been doing?”

Jungsoo blinked and stared at the man, clearly confused.

“You met him before?” I asked the man.

The man nodded at me. “Yes of course! And I’ll never forget it.” He chuckled.

“I’m sorry…but I don’t remember you.” Jungsoo said quietly.

The man’s expression lost some of his brightness. “Oh…I see.”

“Please understand that we came in here because he felt something familiar about this place. You two clearly met before, so can we ask you some questions?” I asked.

The man nodded. “Yes of course. Please come in.”