"You see your life, Eren… you're just standing there without even reacting… it's like I'm dating a woman instead of a man… you're pathetic."
I remained frozen in front of the door, my fingers gripping a bouquet of flowers I had bought with an almost naive care just a few minutes earlier. The petals slowly crumpled under the pressure of my hand, but I didn't even notice, my gaze fixed on the scene before me as if my mind still refused to comprehend what was happening. A strange heaviness weighed on my chest, an oppressive feeling that made it seem as though something inside me was silently cracking. I felt as if my body had stayed planted there, in front of them, while my mind retreated slowly into a dark corner where reality had a harder time reaching me. Yet even in this confusion, Kyte's words sank into my head with painful precision.
Before me, the room looked almost unreal, as if I were watching a distorted memory rather than a present moment. The woman I loved, the one with whom I had thought I could build something simple and sincere, was in the arms of another man with an ease that made me feel as if I had never truly mattered. For a moment, I remembered the naive thoughts that had crossed my mind as I climbed the stairs of this building: this time, everything would be fine, this time my life might finally change. These flowers were supposed to be a small, almost ridiculous gesture, but for me, they represented the fragile hope of ordinary happiness. Now, that hope stood before me in the form of a lie.
"You're just going to stand there… get out, we're busy." The man holding Kyte in his arms said these words with contemptuous nonchalance, as if my presence were nothing more than an inconvenient detail in an otherwise pleasant evening. His arm tightened around her waist with a provocative confidence, as if to remind me that I no longer had a place here. He looked at me with that smug smile reserved for people one already considers defeated, silently savoring the humiliation unfolding before him. I remained there, unable to respond, incapable of finding a gesture or a word that could give meaning to this moment. The scene seemed to play out just a few feet away from me, yet I felt strangely distant from it.
"Kyte… why…" The words left my mouth with difficulty, as if they had to pass through an invisible wall before reaching the air. I immediately lowered my gaze, unable to endure the sight of their closeness any longer. A dull pain began spreading through my chest, slow and deep, and I knew that if I looked up, I would see something I could never forget. It was a pointless question, I already felt it, but it had slipped out despite myself. Perhaps because part of me still refused to accept that the answer was as simple as what I was witnessing.
Kyte abruptly rose from the couch, and before I could even comprehend what was about to happen, her hand struck my cheek with a sharp, dry force. The sound of the slap echoed in the room like a brutal clap, breaking the strange silence that had settled. My head turned slightly from the impact, and a burning heat spread across my skin as I froze in place. It wasn't so much the physical pain that surprised me as the expression she wore while looking at me. In her eyes, there was neither regret nor hesitation, only a cold disgust that seemed to erase everything we had shared.
"Do you really have to ask me why?" Her voice trembled with deep irritation, as if my question were the stupidest thing she had ever heard. She crossed her arms, looking at me with almost contemptuous distance, and I suddenly understood that for her, this scene was not a tragedy but simply a belated explanation. "When I started dating you, it was because I thought with your father's fortune, we'd never have to worry about money. But look where we are now… your father is dead, and he left all his wealth to someone else. Do you really think I'm going to stay with you under these conditions?" Her voice rose gradually, filling the room, as if she wanted even the walls to hear this truth.
While she spoke, the man on the couch watched the scene with a slow, satisfied smile, like someone enjoying a particularly entertaining show. He didn't seem in a hurry to intervene, preferring to savor every second of the silent humiliation unfolding before him. His gaze shifted from my face to Kyte's with amused curiosity, as if he were watching two characters in a play whose ending he already knew. This quiet indifference made the situation feel even more unreal. I felt as if I had become nothing more than a distraction in an evening that no longer concerned me.
"But you told me you weren't with me for my fortune, Kyte…" My voice trembled slightly as I said these words, and I felt a tear slowly slide down my still-reddened cheek. I didn't even know why I kept speaking, because deep down I already felt that the answer would change nothing. Perhaps I was just trying to hold onto a fragment of the past, a phrase, a memory, something that would prove what we had shared wasn't entirely false. Yet even as I spoke, I could see in her eyes that this illusion would not survive for long.
She sighed, annoyed, and turned her head slightly, as if my mere presence was beginning to bore her deeply. "You tire me," she said with an almost careless coldness, and those three words hit me harder than the previous slap. She continued, explaining that she now understood why my own father had ignored me all his life, adding that I simply had to accept reality and disappear from her life. For her, the situation was already settled, and the man behind her now represented a far more interesting future than anything I could offer. Her words flowed with unsettling ease, as if she had rehearsed them countless times before this moment.
I shook my head slightly, unable to accept that everything would end so abruptly, and instinctively grabbed her arm in a desperate gesture that surprised even me. I explained that I could forget what I had just seen, that I could work harder, that I could change anything she wanted if it would be enough to keep her by my side. The words left my mouth with an almost pathetic urgency, but I continued nonetheless, because giving up at that moment seemed even more unbearable. I promised her I would fight for her, sacrifice my sleep, my time, everything necessary to rebuild something. Deep down, I knew these promises came too late, but I couldn't help saying them.
The man watching the scene finally rose from the couch with an irritated sigh, like someone who had waited long enough for the show to end. He pulled Kyte toward him with a possessive gesture before looking me straight in the eyes, his expression suddenly much less amused. He declared firmly that she no longer wanted me and that I had to leave the apartment immediately if I didn't want him to force me out himself. His posture had changed, and he now seemed ready to turn his words into violence if necessary. Yet despite this clear threat, my gaze remained fixed on Kyte, as if she were the only person capable of ending this situation.
I repeated her name one last time, my voice broken, still hoping she might react differently, but it was the man who answered by stepping toward me with obvious anger. He called me a stubborn fool and raised his arm as if to strike me, to end this ridiculous scene. However, before the blow could fall, Kyte placed a hand on his arm to stop him with unexpected calm. She looked at him with a slight smile before saying it wasn't necessary, that if I wanted to stay, I could stay. Her gaze then turned toward me with a strange, almost provocative expression.
She wrapped her arms around the man's neck and kissed him with brutal intensity, as if she wanted to turn this moment into a calculated display. During that kiss, her eyes remained open, fixed directly on me, observing my reaction with cold curiosity. I felt my hands tremble slightly around the bouquet of flowers as the reality of the situation became impossible to ignore. The words I whispered afterward were weak and almost inaudible, a futile attempt to stop something that had long since begun. I begged her not to make me go through this, but my voice seemed to reach no one in the room.
Without taking her eyes off me, Kyte slowly removed her top and let it fall to the ground with provocative indifference. She turned to the man with a sensual smile and whispered that he had no reason to hold back, inviting him to continue what they had started. The man responded with a satisfied laugh, claiming she already knew how skilled he was at such things. Those words hit me like a cold blade, a brutal confirmation that pierced my mind. At that moment, I understood that this betrayal had probably not begun today.
I stood frozen for a few more seconds before slowly turning on my heels, unable to endure the humiliating spectacle any longer. My movements were strangely calm, almost mechanical, as if my body had decided to leave this place before my mind had even accepted the situation. I left the apartment without a word and closed the door behind me with an almost unreal calm. Yet even through the thick wood of the door, the sounds that began echoing in the room reached me with painful clarity. The moans and muffled whispers seemed to follow me down the empty hallway.
I stayed for a long moment in front of the closed door, eyes fixed on the floor as if searching for an answer in the patterns of the tiles. The sounds behind me continued to blend into a series of indistinct phrases that confirmed what I already knew. A strange smile slowly appeared on my lips, a tired smile more like a nervous reaction than genuine emotion. I pressed the bouquet of flowers to my chest as if it were the only thing still connecting me to the person I had been a few minutes earlier. Tears streamed silently down my face, and I made no effort to stop them.
Finally, I left the building and found myself in the street, where life continued with almost insulting indifference. Cars passed, people walked by, and no one seemed to notice the weight that had settled in my chest. I lingered for a moment, watching the road ahead, trying to understand how the world could keep turning when something inside me had just broken. Then I headed toward a narrow alley between two buildings, instinctively seeking a place where I could disappear for a few minutes. The air was colder there, and the shadows seemed to absorb some of the street noise.
I slowly crouched in this narrow passage, gripping the bouquet of flowers with a force that crushed the petals. The questions spinning in my mind finally erupted into uncontrollable sobs as I asked aloud why everything that belonged to me was always ripped away. Memories of my life flashed through my mind with painful clarity, each bringing a new wave of sorrow. After a long while, my cries subsided, and I sat against the cold wall, eyes raised to the gray sky beginning to drizzle. It was then that a strange notification appeared before me, floating in the air like an illusion.
[You have accumulated too many karma points in your life… for this you are granted a single wish.]
I stood still before these glowing words, too tired and too broken to properly analyze what was really happening. Memories of my life began to rise slowly in my mind, mingling the death of my mother, exhausted from work after my father left, and my sister, killed during a senseless robbery at a convenience store. All these losses seemed to form a single chain of suffering that had accompanied me since childhood. Reflecting on it all, I realized how this world had always refused to grant me a single moment of lasting peace. And it was in this mixture of sadness, fatigue, and bitterness that I finally whispered the only desire that still felt genuine: if I were to make a wish, it would be to no longer be human, for I no longer wanted to belong to this world or share anything with those who inhabited it; I simply wanted to become a demon, something different, something that could no longer be broken in this way.
"I wish I were a demon."