The morning was no different.
And that…
was what frightened Kim.
He woke to the same pain.
The same black pulse beneath his skin.
The same feeling that his body was no longer a safe place.
He tried to sit up.
He succeeded.
He tried to stand.
He succeeded.
But when he extended his hand…
it trembled.
The black veins did not recede.
They spread.
As if the night…
had never left.
Neer entered the room moments later.
He was carrying rolls of cloth,
small glass vessels,
and herbs with a sharp, penetrating scent.
He spoke in a tone he tried to make reassuring:
"Today, we'll try something else."
Kim didn't answer.
He sat on the bed,
staring at his hand as if it didn't belong to him.
At last he said quietly,
"Don't tire yourself."
Neer ignored him.
He began wrapping the cloth around the arm,
pressing specific points,
whispering words in an ancient language
that the sages of this world learn from childhood.
At first…
nothing happened.
Then—
a scream.
Not from Kim's mouth,
but from his body.
The pain exploded.
He fell from the bed.
Curled on the floor.
His fingers dug into the wood.
Neer shouted, panicked,
"Stop!"
But Kim could no longer hear.
The hands in his left eye
began spinning violently.
He saw the place crack.
Walls repeating.
Time bending.
He saw the white city.
He saw the angels vanish.
He saw himself…
standing over nothingness.
Then he saw Neer.
But not as he was now.
He saw him dead.
Kim screamed.
A wave of pressure burst outward.
Not full chaos…
but its shadow.
The glass vessels shattered.
The herbs burned.
Neer slammed into the wall and fell.
A heavy silence followed.
Consciousness returned slowly.
Kim was gasping.
His entire body trembling.
The black veins…
were deeper.
Neer tried to rise.
Blood ran from his forehead.
He looked at Kim.
And for the first time…
he didn't know what to say.
Kim spoke in a broken voice,
"I told you…"
"Don't try."
Neer approached despite the pain.
Sat in front of him.
And said, with quiet anguish,
"I was wrong."
"This isn't an illness."
Kim let out a hollow laugh.
"So you finally understand."
Neer shook his head.
"No."
"This isn't a curse either."
He lifted his gaze.
Looked directly at the blackness on the arm.
"This… is a consequence."
Kim closed his eyes.
Asked,
"A consequence of what?"
Neer hesitated.
Then said,
"Something that should never have existed."
A long silence fell.
Outside…
people were waiting.
When Neer came out alone,
they knew.
They didn't ask him.
They saw his face.
A woman covered her mouth.
A man lowered his head.
The child who had asked Kim about his pain…
disappeared behind his mother.
That night,
no one brought food.
No one knocked on the door.
And Kim…
understood.
He sat alone in the darkness.
The pain did not ease.
It grew smarter.
Every pulse
told him:
You will not heal.
He struck the wall with his fist.
The wood cracked.
But he felt nothing.
He said to himself,
"I was a fool."
Tears fell from his eyes.
"I thought I deserved…
rest."
He opened his left eye.
The hands had stopped.
He saw only one possibility.
To leave.
Before he hurt them.
At that moment…
Neer entered.
He was carrying a bag.
His face was pale.
But his eyes…
were burning.
Kim asked him,
"Where are you going?"
Neer answered without hesitation,
"To search."
Kim stood slowly.
"I told you that—"
Neer cut him off with a sharp voice Kim had never heard before:
"I will fail again."
Then he added,
"And maybe I'll die."
Kim froze.
"But I will not sit and watch you rot away."
He stepped closer.
Looked him in the eyes.
And said,
"If this world has no cure for you…"
"I will find it beyond it."
For the first time in a long while…
Kim did not know what to say.