Hongbin exhaled in disbelief. It was her. Alive.

He smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer to him. He buried his face in her neck and her hair. They stayed like this for a while until Youngji pulled away first. Once she broke away, she examined him thoroughly and Hongbin couldn’t help but become lost in her eyes. “It’s…It’s really you…” she finally said, smiling up at him. “I thought everything was a dream…but you’re here…and-“ she stopped and held her left hand up. She moved her fingers and smiled. Sitting on her left ring finger was the diamond ring Hongbin gave to her at the hospital. Hongbin watched as Youngji admired it, completely distracted by her expressions, movements, anything she did, Hongbin watched in awe. “So everything…everything that happened..” she said again looking at Hongbin. “Was real…”

Hongbin nodded, holding out his hand to her. Youngji smirked and pushed it aside, causing Hongbin to give her a confused expression. “You know…I never even said yes yet…” she teased and started wandering away from him. Right when she took her first step however, she fumbled and fell. Hongbin instinctively held out his arms and caught her. Youngji looked up at Hongbin, his glittering eyes heroically looking down upon her. She gripped his arm tight when he pulled her up and looked away awkwardly. Hongbin didn’t let go, his hands remained fixed intertwining with hers. Youngji smiled and placed her head on Hongbin’s shoulder as he brushed her hair away from her eyes. He leaned in to kiss her when she suddenly pulled away again. Youngji slipped her hand out of his, turned away from him and tried to walk again. Hongbin chuckled under his breath at her stubbornness, a quality he didn’t even know he missed about her. Youngji tried walking again and succeeded, it must have been a simple overlook from her time away from being fully human. She started to wander around the laboratory, gaping at all of the electronics and technology that surrounded her. She made her way over to the operating table and trailed the edges of it with the tips of her fingers before moving on to the next thing that interested her. Hongbin loved watching her, her movements, her facial expressions, everything about her made Hongbin feel at ease. He suddenly remembered the chip still in the rendering device. He quickly took it out and placed it back where it belonged, this was something he coul't affor to forget.

 Even before the accident, every time he was with Youngji he felt a sense of nervousness at the pit of his stomach, but that’s what made his love for her grow stronger. Hongbin couldn’t resist any longer. He walked over to Youngji and stood behind her as she stared at a picture hanging on the wall. Hongbin came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and pulled her into a back hug. Youngji giggled as he did so and playfully hit his arm. “야! 이게뭐야…” she protested, but didn’t move at all. She liked it when Hongbin had his arms around her. It made her feel safe and secure, like nothing bad would happen as long as he was right next to her…

“You still didn’t answer the question…” he spoke softly into her ear. Youngji ignored him and looked back at the picture. “Who’s she?” she asked. Hongbin looked at the picture for the first time, he never noticed it before. It was a young girl, maybe around Youngji’s age, with light brown hair and light colored eyes. She was smiling in the picture while holding a bouquet of flowers. She looked happy… he wondered who she was…

“Her name is Soohyun”

Hongbin and Youngji turned around to see Taekwoon walking over to them. Where had he been this whole time?

Taekwoon stared at the picture of the girl and showed a stern expression as he looked upon her face. “Who is she?” Hongbin asked. Youngji, still locked in Hongbin’s embrace, took a step back as Taekwoon approached them and ducked her face so he wouldn’t see her. Hongbin noticed this weird action, but pushed it aside and drew his attention back to Taekwoon. "Was she..."

Taekwoon continued to stare at the picture and sighed. “Soohyun… was my love… my only love. She took away all the darkness I faced and replaced it with a ray of hope. And every day I sought to impress her, love her, do anything for her. My whole life revolved around her, everything I ever strived to be was only for her. I didn’t realize how blinded by love I was…until the day she left me. That very day has been marked in my mind as long as I can remember. I remember the last look she gave me before she walked away from me for the last time. The sound of her voice, her scent, everything…That was something I couldn’t erase, but I did try. I mechanically engineered myself to not feel the pain she caused me, to not think about the last words she spoke to me, to erase her from my mind by replacing it all together. I did succeed with that. I can’t feel pain. I can’t feel emotions. But somehow, I can still remember the pain. Remember the emotions she gave me, but I can’t experience them. And I never want to. She…she destroyed me…and I never want to go back…”

“So why do you keep this picture?”

Taekwoon, never moving his eyes from the picture, answered back coldly. “I keep that picture as a sole reminder of the person I was, and never want to be again…”

Hongbin looked to Youngji, still hiding her face from Taekwoon. Youngji would never do such a thing, they had been through too much together. She was different…wasn’t she?

Youngji stood up, as if something had sparked within her.  She walked towards Taekwoon and stared straight at his eyes. Taekwoon looked at her, slightly taken aback.

“It was you” she hissed.

Taekwoon looked confused. “What are you talking about?”

Youngji blinked and suddenly it came back to her. Her talking on the phone with Hongbin, her crossing the street to go to his office building, the single car horn that sounded as she took her last glance at a man in a car directly in front of her. Taekwoon was that man.

“You…you were the one in the car the day I died!”