"I think you're hurting," Felix said quietly. His voice lost all edge, softening with dread instead of anger. "And I don't think you actually want to die-you just want the pain to stop."
A tight swallow, then-
"...I know what that feels like."
Luca blinked, as if the words didn't fit into his understanding of the moment. For a second, the bridge, the cold air, the city lights-they all seemed to distort at the edges. His mind couldn't decide whether Felix's voice was too close or impossibly far away.
A beat of silence.
Felix slowly extended his hand-not a grab, not a demand, just a steady offering between them, a thin lifeline in the night.
"Let me help you carry it instead."
Luca's jaw trembled as he clenched it shut, trying to keep whatever was inside from leaking out. Seeing Felix like this-seeing him feel-sent something sharp and foreign into Luca's chest. It made him unstable. It made the world tilt.
He didn't deserve this.
He didn't deserve anything.
His breath turned fast and shallow, panic and exhaustion tangling violently in his ribs.
"You can't carry this," he muttered, voice shaking-not warning, but confession.
Felix didn't let him finish. He stepped forward and seized Luca's wrist-not hurting him, but grounding him, holding him to the present moment as if his life depended on it.
"Try me," he said, fierce and shaking. "You don't get to decide for everyone else that you're not worth saving."
The words hit Luca like a blow.
He staggered-not physically, but mentally, as something inside him snapped in two directions at once.
Part of him believed Felix.
Another part whispered that Felix was lying-that this was pity, obligation, nothing real.
A brief, disorienting flicker washed over him.
For a split second, he was sure he saw Seo-in's silhouette beside Felix-disappointed, beautiful, unreachable. The illusion vanished when he blinked.
Delusion.
Just a flash.
But it punched the air out of his lungs.
"You don't get it," Luca whispered, his voice raw. "I ruined her life."
Felix's grip tightened-not painfully, but urgently.
"Then let me ruin yours by not letting go."
A breath. Softer.
"...That's what friends do."
Friend.
The word shattered him.
It slipped into the cracks of everything he'd been holding together with shaking hands and sheer force of will. Nobody stayed for him. Nobody held on. Nobody ever came back once things got ugly.
Yet here Felix was-
breathing hard, terrified, refusing to run.
Tears blurred Luca's vision. His whole body felt like it was made of glass-thin, fractured, moments from shattering.
"I'm tired," he whispered. The kind of tired that had nothing to do with sleep. The kind that burrowed weeks, months, years deep.
"I know," Felix murmured. His grip eased, but he didn't let go.
And Luca didn't pull away.
Something in his shoulders collapsed.
His breath hitched.
The fight drained out of him all at once.
Felix pulled him into a rough, desperate hug-one arm locked around Luca's back, the other behind his head as if shielding him from the world itself.
"I got you," he breathed into Luca's hair, voice breaking.
"Jesus Christ, I got you."
Luca didn't have the strength to resist anymore. His fingers curled into Felix's jacket like he was afraid the world would rip him away if he loosened his grip by even a fraction. His breathing collapsed into uneven, trembling bursts against Felix's shoulder.
Somewhere in the distance, police sirens wailed closer-summoned by someone who'd seen two silhouettes too close to the edge.
But neither of them moved.
Not yet.
Later that night, they were brought to the police station. Both explained everything honestly. The officer's eyes kept flicking toward Luca-quiet, exhausted, empty in a way that frightened even a trained professional.
They were released with a warning.
But Luca was formally instructed to undergo mental health treatment once he returned to Bremen.
And for the first time...
Luca didn't fight it.
***
The ride back home was silent.
Luca slumped in the passenger seat, his eyes glued to the passing streetlights as if he were watching from underwater. Felix drove with both hands gripping the wheel a little too tightly, jaw clenched in worry.
Every few minutes, he glanced at Luca—at the hollow look in his best friend's eyes—and felt something twist painfully in his chest.
"We'll figure this out," he finally said, voice low but steady. "You're not alone in this."
Luca didn't respond.
He just kept staring out the window as Bremen's skyline smeared into streaks of light and shadow.
But for the first time, he didn't argue.
After hearing Luca's entire explanation, Felix agreed that he would support Luca's decision and plan. He also promised not to tell Seo-in. Although he himself felt this was wrong, it was also the right thing to do.
***
The next day, after Felix returned home from arranging a small motel for Luca to stay in, things only became more complicated. Luca desperately wanted to see Seo-in again.
God, he missed her.
But before he could even decide, Aileen began sending messages again—pressuring him, warning that if he didn't cooperate, she would ask her boyfriend to drag him to meet her and Professor Andy. Her tone grew colder, more threatening.
The harassment only tightened the knot of panic in Luca's chest.
He felt like he was losing his mind. Every part of him longed to see Seo-in, but every time he imagined standing in front of her, something inside him seized up—fear, shame, the crushing belief that he only ever hurt her.
He knew he didn't deserve to see her.
And yet he still couldn't stay away.
But there was no escaping Aileen.
Not anymore.
He had to choose: face her—or risk her going to Seo-in first.
With shaking hands, Luca called Professor Schmitt to ask for advice. The professor suggested hiding the USB containing the project—somewhere safe and replace it with another-similar one, somewhere no one would think to look—at least until execution day.
It was a risky idea, but Luca clung to it.
If he hid the USB in the apartment … he would have a reason to go back. A reason to see Seo-in. Even if only briefly. Even if he had to pretend it meant nothing.
They weren't anything now—she had every right to walk away—but Luca still had a mission:
to make sure she never came back to him.
He stared down at the USB in his palm.
It felt like both a lifeline and a curse.
This was his excuse.
His one chance to see her again—without revealing how badly he wanted to fall apart in front of her.
He slid the USB into his pocket and let out a shaky breath.
"Alright."