Not A Regressor-Chapter 266: Snowfield (6)

A chill ran down Kwon Oh-Jin’s spine like the world suddenly froze in place.

“Ha-Eun...?”

Song Ha-Eun strode into the hospital room with an icy glare.

“You lost your memory?” she asked.

Did she hear everything already?

Kwon Oh-Jin deeply sighed and nodded. “Yeah.”

“You...!” Song Ha-Eun raised her fist.

He instinctively closed his eyes, bracing for a punch that never came.

“Why... why didn’t you tell me?!” She grabbed him by the collar, tears welling in her eyes.

Her shoulders and hands shook uncontrollably.

He gently wiped away the tears at the corners of her eyes with a pained expression. “Because I didn’t want to see you make this face.”

She loosened her grip and bit her lip. Then, she looked at Isabella, who stood awkwardly to the side and didn’t know what to do.

“Step out for a minute,” Song Ha-Eun said.

“But Mr. Oh-Jin only did this because of me—”

“Step out.” Song Ha-Eun coldly cut her off.

Isabella hesitated. Her lips parted to say something, but Kwon Oh-Jin nodded and silently signaled that it was okay.

“I’ll be outside then.”

The door shut behind her.

Only the two of them remained in the hospital room. A cold, suffocating silence settled over.

Eventually, Song Ha-Eun broke the silence that felt like it would last forever. “You said you lost memories of me too?”

“Yeah.”

“What kind of memories?” she fearfully asked.

Seeing how fragile she looked, as if she could shatter at a touch, he gently took her hand.

“The memory that we were lovers.”

Song Ha-Eun’s eyes flew wide open. She tightly gripped his hand and leaned in toward him.

“T-Then, does that mean we’re not together anymore?”

“Just because I lost the memories doesn’t mean I lost the feelings.”

The memories of them being lovers had disappeared, but the feelings he had for her remained. Those deeply rooted emotions couldn’t be erased. For them to truly vanish, he would have to forget everything from the very first day they talked on the orphanage’s rooftop.

“When did this all start—Ah...” A quiet gasp escaped her lips.

She recalled when he had escaped from the Demonic District. He had seemed so anxious and said he needed to get some fresh air. She hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but looking back now, he did seem a bit off.

“So all the memories before that... Are they gone?”

“Not all of them. Just the part where we became a couple.”

“Then, that means... You don’t remember me confessing to you?”

When Cheon Do-Yoon held her captive, when she kissed him and finally poured out her deeply hidden feelings... Had he forgotten all of that?

Kwon Oh-Jin didn’t reply. He just looked at her with sorrowful eyes, which was enough of an answer.

“Ah...”

Song Ha-Eun’s eyes brimmed with tears again like she would burst into tears at any moment. It felt like a heavy cloud had settled over her heart. The realization that he had been carrying this burden alone felt unbearable.

“I’m sorry,” she said.

“What do you have to be sorry for?”

“I didn’t know that you were suffering all this time, and I...”

She had relied on him as if nothing was wrong without ever realizing what kind of weight he had been bearing by himself.

“Those Black Star Society bastards must be a piece of cake for you now!”

She even said something stupid when he first told her about Open Heaven and laughed like it was nothing, completely clueless. Now she could only wonder. What had he really felt when he heard her say that?

Kwon Oh-Jin gently caressed Song Ha-Eun’s tear-streaked cheek and faintly smiled.

“Ha-Eun, just because you close your eyes doesn’t mean the world disappears, right?” he whispered what he once heard from Vega.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I’m saying, even if I forget, it doesn’t mean it’s truly gone. Besides, losing memories is not really that big of a deal, is it?”

“What do you mean it’s not a big deal?! That’s ridiculous!”

“Okay. Then, do you remember what you had for lunch a month ago?”

“That’s...!” Song Ha-Eun muttered, “That’s not the same...”

“Haha. True.”

Forgetting about a meal a month ago obviously couldn’t be compared to losing precious memories with a loved one.

“Even if I forget a hundred times, I’ll still be right here with you,” he said.

Song Ha-Eun looked at him with trembling eyes. She pulled him close and tightly wrapped her arms around him.

“From now on, don’t ever use that skill again.”

“We’ll see...”

Could he really avoid using Open Heaven if another situation like this came up?

“Oh-Jin, you—!”

“Okay, okay. I won’t use it again.”

“Promise?”

“Yeah.” He chuckled and nodded.

Song Ha-Eun gently stroked his back with a somber expression. She silently held him for a while and squeezed her eyes shut.

Pull yourself together. Oh-Jin must’ve felt terrified to lose his memories too.

Despite knowing, he still chose to use Open Heaven to protect his loved ones. How could she scold him for that? If he hadn’t used that skill, she wouldn’t even be holding him in her arms right now.

“You said you were attacked by the Serpens Queen, right?” Ha-Eun asked.

“Technically, the Heavenly Demon was controlling her.”

“Whatever.”

He had come face-to-face with the Black Star Society’s first-ranked executor and survived. She couldn’t let only grief and heavy memories linger after such an event.

“Ahem. Hey, so when you used Open Heaven before, that’s when you forgot we were dating, right?”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

“Then... did you forget our first time, too?”

“What?” Kwon Oh-Jin blinked in disbelief, not expecting this kind of question in this mood. “Well, I mean... I lost the memory of us dating, so I lost that part too.”

“So basically, you lost your virginity twice?”

What the hell is this woman even saying?

“Hehehe. So, if we do it again this time, that’ll make it the third time?”

“What? No, I didn’t forget this time—”

Without any warning, Song Ha-Eun forcefully pushed him down onto the bed.

Plop!

She seductively smiled and climbed on top of him. Then, she leaned in so close that the tips of their noses touched.

“Starting now...” She reached out and gently brushed along his chest. “I’ll make you remember so deeply that you’ll never forget again.”

With a soft smile, she pressed her lips to his.

“Wait, Ha-Eun, you crazy—What are you doing to a patient!?”

Creak, creak.

The cold hospital room began to heat up fast.

***

Song Ha-Eun, clinging to him like glue since broad daylight, finally drifted off to sleep looking thoroughly satisfied. Kwon Oh-Jin quietly slipped out of the hospital room and made his way to the rooftop late at night.

“Haaa.”

The cool night air gently brushed against his cheeks. He took a sip of the canned coffee from the vending machine and looked at the stars scattered across the sky.

The Heavenly Demon.

Who or what was that being?

At this point, it's most likely a powerful Celestial like Titan or Polaris...

However, he didn’t have enough information yet to say for sure. He couldn’t afford to jump to conclusions.

Kwon Oh-Jin deeply sighed, “Haaa.”

The Heavenly Demon’s existence didn’t weigh on him this heavily in the past because that entity never appeared.

First, Barbatos and now Cassia.

The Heavenly Demon’s influence grew more visible as the pressure and fear mounted.

“Is it not in a state where it can act directly yet?”

That was the only minor comfort. Based on how it had to act through Cassia, it seemed like the Heavenly Demon still couldn’t move on its own.

“Ugh.” Kwon Oh-Jin leaned against the rooftop railing and swallowed dryly.

Just then, a gust of wind blew away the empty coffee can he had set beside the railing. As he turned to catch the can, he heard the chilling sound of a snake slithering.

Shhhh.

A black snake crawled across the floor toward him with the empty can in its mouth.

“There you are.” Cassia stepped out from the thick shadows.

Kwon Oh-Jin flinched and tensed up, scanning her with wary eyes.

Cassia softly chuckled with a faint smile. “You don’t need to be so on guard. I’m not here to hurt you.” She slid closer to him and whispered into his ear, “Not yet, anyway.”

Her cold breath grazed his earlobe.

“What are you doing here?” he asked.

“I came to see you before I leave. I have something to give you, Mr. Oh-Jin.”

“Leave? Where to?”

Could she be planning to return to the Heavenly Demon?

Cassia laughed playfully with a teasing smile. “Hehe. Why? Are you curious? Don’t worry. I’m not going back to the Heavenly Demon.” 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Her eyes wandered up to the night sky, tinged with a quiet sorrow.

“You could say... It’s my own form of atonement. Though I’m not sure I even deserve to use that word.”

She had spilled more than her fair share of blood.

“That wasn’t your fault. The Heavenly Demon was controlling you.”

The Heavenly Demon had exploited her trauma and turned her into a fanatical puppet. She probably didn’t even realize what she was doing as she blindly followed his every word in a haze.

“Even so, I still did those things with my own hands.” Cassia shook her head with a faint smile. “But thanks to you, I finally know what I need to do.”

She approached Kwon Oh-Jin with a gentleness in her eyes that resembled Isabella.

“Don’t forget the promises we made.” She gently pulled him into an embrace.

“Okay.”

He had promised to become her Heavenly Demon. Even if it was nothing more than a pathetic lie told by a scammer to survive, he couldn’t turn his back on the girl trembling alone in the snow.

Cassia slightly trembled as she held him. Was she silently crying again? It seemed both the sisters were secretly softhearted and prone to tears.

Kwon Oh-Jin smiled and gently patted her back.

“Mr. Oh-Jin.”

“Yeah?”

However, what she said next caught him completely off guard.

“You smell like another woman...”

Cassia’s long tongue flicked out like a snake’s, and her eyes glinted with a chilling emerald light.