Aera lived on the top floor of a small building with old but warm walls, and from the moment the door opened, you knew it was her place.
Everything was pink.
Not a vulgar pink, no.
A warm, powdery, luminous, almost sweet pink.
A pastel pink couch covered with twelve heart-shaped pillows, fluffy throws, a cotton-candy-colored rug, and on the wall, fairy lights shaped like tiny moons.
In one corner, a fake cherry blossom tree.
In another, a rose-gold vanity overflowing with makeup.
A true girly cocoon, warm, funny, chaotic, just like Aera.
— Come on, sweetheart… said Aera, holding Nari by the forearm as if she were afraid she might collapse.
She gave her an oversized pale-pink t-shirt, fluffy shorts, and guided her toward the bathroom.
The bathroom was pink, too.
Pink glitter shower curtain, pink towels, a small pink bunny-shaped mat.
Aera placed a hand on her shoulder.
— Here, go take a good shower… it'll make you feel better. If you need anything, I'm right here, okay?
Nari barely nodded.
— I'm making us a bowl of noodles, shouted Aera as she went to the kitchen.
You're gonna eat at least half, understood?
Nari stepped under the shower.
The first drop of hot water slid down her neck…
… and her whole body tightened.
The warmth should have soothed her.
But it only awakened the pain.
Her forehead leaned against the cold tiles.
Her trembling hand gripped the wall.
And in her head…
He came back.
Sion.
The real one.
Not the monster from earlier.
But the man he was with her.
The one she had loved.
The one she still loved, in a devastating way.
The memories surged, one after another, violent, soft, burning:
— Sion taking her by the waist under Seoul's lights, spinning her under the silent falling snow.
He was laughing, a real laugh, rare, almost innocent.
He looked at her as if she had hung every star in the sky.
— Sion lying beside her, tracing the line of her collarbone with his fingertip, whispering "You're going to drive me crazy…" before kissing her like she was his last breath of air.
— Sion pressing his forehead against hers in bed, breath short, eyes soft, his trembling hand wrapped around hers.
"I love you more than anything… stay with me."
— Sion carrying her, holding her, covering her with sheets, with kisses, with warmth, as if he were afraid she might disappear.
— Sion watching her sleep, his golden gaze full of an animal softness he showed to no one else.
Each image pierced through her.
She felt her heart cracking again and again, as if every memory ripped away a piece of flesh.
She slid slowly down to the shower floor, knees pulled to her chest, the hot water running over her like winter rain.
Her breathing broke.
Her throat tightened.
And in her head, a single whisper, obsessive, unbearably guilty:
"I abandoned him.
I left him alone."
The gentle Sion.
The vulnerable Sion.
The broken Sion.
She had left him.
She had left him at the worst moment.
The pain stole her breath.
She placed her hand over her heart, as if she could keep it from tearing apart.
But the pain was too strong.
Too real.
Too immense.
A pain that no longer wanted to leave.
A pain that drowned her.
Nari closed her eyes.
And let the hot water fall, again, again, again.
As if she wanted to disappear into the steam.
As if she wanted to return to where Sion was.
The shower steam was still coating the walls in a milky mist when Nari turned off the water.
Her legs were shaking.
Her breath caught in jerks.
And when she tried to step out… her body gave out.
She collapsed onto the cold tiles.
The impact echoed through the bathroom — a dull, brutal BAM, almost obscene in the gentle silence of Aera's pink apartment.
Pain burst everywhere.
In her thighs.
In her arms.
In her ribcage.
In her heart most of all — a heart with no skin, no bone, no walls left.
Nari couldn't even cry anymore.
Or rather: she cried without sound, mouth open, but no noise came out.
Aera heard the noise.
A crash.
Sharp.
Too heavy to be just a slip.
She dropped her pot of noodles — the metallic clang echoed through the entire apartment — and ran.
She flung open the bathroom door in one dramatic motion, breath cut short.
— Nari…?
Silence.
Then she saw her.
Nari naked, fragile, her body marked by purple, yellow, mauve bruises, spread like tragic constellations across her skin.
The cold tiles.
The droplets running down her spine like extra tears.
Her hands open, abandoned, like two weapons that had just been thrown away.
Nari naked, soaked, curled up on the pink tiles.
Her black hair stuck to her cheeks.
Her skin pale.
Bruises on her hips, wrists, thighs.
A body that weighed nothing anymore.
A broken body.
Aera didn't say a single word.
She dropped to her knees.
And she took Nari into her arms.
Not gently.
Not carefully.
Instinctively.
Like someone grabbing a loved one at the edge of a cliff.
She held her.
With all her strength.
Her hands trembled around Nari's shoulder blades.
Her breath was ragged.
Her hot tears fell onto Nari's neck.
And Nari, at the touch of that warm body, shattered.
She screamed.
A silent scream at first, strangled, stuck in her throat.
Then a real cry, visceral, tearing, that split the entire pink air of the bathroom, that echoed in the mirror, in the walls, in Aera's stomach as she cried with her.