▣ OH SEHUN

▣ KIM KAI

+ the rest of EXO

✽ this is the 3rd entry in the Love Series. You should read Love Dealer and Love Killer first before reading this or you'll be so lost on why literally everyone is so insane and messed up in the story lol.

✽ if you are here after braving thru the two prequels, you should know the standard warnings by now, but just in case... WARNINGS for: mind games, manipulations, violence... and angst. this story isn't for everyone and can get a little... intense sometimes. don't say I didn't warn you.

✽ honestly, if you really survived LD and LK, you should know what to expect for LR, right? lol. so enjoy, all you masochistic readers who are still hungering for more even after the craziness in the two previous stories 8-)

✽ amazing poster by Color Bucket, thank you!

"You asked me to save you, but maybe the one that needed saving was me―from you. Maybe I needed to be saved from you!" Sehun screams, clutching his head in despair.

"How can you say that?" Kai breathes, taking a step closer and staring in disbelief when Sehun flinches back, shrinking himself further against the wall―away from him. "I tried so hard. I tried to be that person you wanted, I tried―"

"Did you really try or did you just convince yourself that?" Sehun bites out. Instantly, he recoils in fear when there are two palms slamming hard onto the wall beside his head, caging him in.

"Everything I did, it was all for you," the other hisses, eyes blazing. "I would've―burned this world to the ground. Killed every last person in existence if it meant we would be the only two that remained. That we would be together forever, with no one to disrupt us―"

"Don't you see," Sehun chokes out, angry eyes directing up at him that cannot hide the traces of sadness in them through the tears flowing endlessly down his cheeks. "You didn't need to―do any of that. You never had to do anything, because I would always choose you."

"What―"

"Do you remember, you asked me something before, once. You asked, 'Tell me what you want.' Do you remember what my answer was?"

Kai keeps quiet, but from the faltering of his eyes, Sehun can tell he remembers.

"I said," Sehun answers for him, stifling back a sob. "I said, 'You. I just want you. No pretenses, no lies, no games. Just you, the person underneath all the facade.'"

"Sehun..."

"But now... But now it's too late. It's too late, Kai," Sehun repeats, raising his voice. His hands are shaking by his sides as he continues to cry softly, bitterly.

Cries for what could've been. Cries for what's already lost.

For a long moment, there is no noise inside the room except for Sehun's little sobs, and he doesn't notice it until he feels something wet hitting his already-drenched cheek, as silent as the first fallen snow of the nightsky.

And when he looks up, it's like a freight train crashing into his chest. Like a blade diving in and twisting inside his heart. Like seeing Kai falling off the building that day and Sehun had thought he had lost him forever―

This sight―

These tears―

For the first time since Sehun has known him, two years ago, or even six years ago, for the first time―

―Kai is crying.

W I L L Y O U B E

M Y

R E D E M P T I O N

. . . ?