An Hyun rushed out, and what he saw beyond the tent was already chaos. A crowd had gathered, murmuring around someone, while in the center, two women were locked in a fierce shouting match.
“Are you kidding me? You kept me waiting forever, and that’s the best you can come up with?” Lee Yoo-jung’s sharp voice rang out repeatedly nearby.
“So what? What do you want me to do about it?” came Vivian’s indignant reply.
Pushing through the onlookers, An Hyun stepped inside and saw Yoo-jung glaring with bloodshot eyes, wildly shaking her hands, while Vivian’s collar was gripped tightly as she stared back with wide eyes. Amid their standoff, Jin Soo-hyun stood silently, mouth agape, seemingly stunned into speechlessness. Baek Han-gyeol hung his head low nearby, tears welling in his eyes.
“Do you think only a few people are waiting for the results? Then go find out again! No, just give me that contract or whatever it is! I’ll go find out myself!” Yoo-jung growled, yanking Vivian’s collar even tighter.
“Do whatever you want!” Vivian snapped back, throwing the folded contract she held. It slapped against Yoo-jung’s face with a sharp sound before fluttering to the ground. For a moment, Yoo-jung’s eyes were obscured, but when they reappeared, they blazed with fury.
The shouting grew louder by the second. An Hyun wanted to grab someone and ask what was going on, but he held back. The tension between the two women was so thick it felt like a fistfight could break out any second. Yoo-jung’s face was so fierce and hostile that no one dared intervene.
With no one else around like Ko Yeon-ju or Shin Jae-ryong to step in, An Hyun felt he had to act. Gathering his wits and suppressing the rising anxiety in his chest, he grabbed Yoo-jung just as her hand was rising.
“Hey, hey. Let go of her collar first. What are you doing? Why are you treating Vivian like this? What did she ever do to you?”
But Yoo-jung didn’t budge. She just glanced at An Hyun briefly, then spoke in a cold, emotionless tone.
“Let go. Don’t interfere and just get lost.”
An Hyun frowned for a moment but sighed deeply and shook his head.
“Why do you have to talk like that? Just stop this already.”
“Let go. I said let go.”
“I’m telling you to stop.”
“Let go.”
“Yoo-jung.”
“Let go…! Ack!”
At that moment—
“Hey.”
A small voice. At the same time, a shadow fell over them, blocking the sunlight. Yoo-jung instinctively turned her head. When her eyes met An Hyun’s, shining brightly, she could no longer keep up the same attitude as before. She neither scowled nor glared, but looking into his deeply sunken eyes, she felt an undeniable urge to submit. Along with the sharp pain radiating from her wrist.
Still refusing to release Vivian’s collar, An Hyun twisted Yoo-jung’s wrist hard and yanked her collar, pulling her close. Yoo-jung was caught off guard, unable even to scream, standing face to face with him. She was quite surprised—if she remembered correctly, this was the first time she’d seen An Hyun truly angry.
“Listen when I’m talking. Don’t make me bring out the old temper.”
His voice was low, simmering with barely contained heat. Yoo-jung tried to pull away reflexively, but there was no escaping An Hyun’s grip. Even if she had been slightly ahead at first, she had been stuck in place for a long time. Meanwhile, An Hyun had grown leaps and bounds through the ordeal of the Steel Mountains. The gap between them was no longer even close.
“Do you think you’re the only one struggling? Why take it out on innocent Vivian?”
“……”
“If you’re having a hard time, deal with it yourself. Don’t go around whining everywhere.”
“……”
An Hyun’s calm voice made Yoo-jung bite her lower lip hard. Was she that upset? Her face twisted as if stung, her breath ragged. But she couldn’t argue—his words were too true. Eventually, she lowered her gaze slowly.
Noticing he might have gone too far, An Hyun released her collar. Yoo-jung staggered briefly before collapsing onto the ground. She looked around at the crowd with a dazed expression, then finally broke down in tears.
“Waaahhh…”
“Miss Yoo-jung? What’s going on here?”
Just then, Shin Jae-ryong arrived, pushing through the crowd. Seeing Yoo-jung crying bitterly and An Hyun quietly watching, he calmly began to soothe her.
“Oppa… oppa…”
“Miss Yoo-jung, it’s okay. It’s going to be okay.”
Soon, Jung Ha-yeon came running over to comfort Yoo-jung, who was helped back into the tent. Baek Han-gyeol followed immediately, and Jin Soo-hyun glanced at An Hyun before shouting at the crowd to disperse. Finally, a quiet stillness settled over the area.
Yoo-jung’s sobs continued inside the tent. The sound of her sorrowful crying drifted out, but then, as if someone cast a sleep spell, silence fell abruptly. An Hyun, having forced himself to calm his breathing, glanced down. Vivian was quietly picking up the contract she had thrown earlier, her lips pursed.
An Hyun spoke softly.
“Vivian.”
“…What?”
Her voice was weak, but she seemed to have regained some composure.
“So… what happened?”
For a moment, her expression flickered with deep conflict, but An Hyun pressed on. Based on Yoo-jung’s reaction, he had some idea, but he couldn’t help hoping for a different answer.
He was hoping to hear about the contract between Kim Soo-hyun and Vivian. When Kim Soo-hyun had gone missing on the mule after a vagrant attack, they had used the contract to confirm his survival. So this time, they tried the same method to check if he was alive.
“I don’t know,” Vivian said, her voice drained of energy.
“What do you mean, you don’t know?”
“Exactly that. I don’t know. I checked every temple, but they all gave me the same answer. What can I do?”
“So… does that mean he’s really dead?”
“No. I don’t know. All they said was this contract only works in our world. They’ve never tested if it works across dimensions. So it’s impossible to tell if Kim Soo-hyun is alive or dead using this contract.”
Vivian sniffled suddenly as she spoke to An Hyun. Her lips trembled. Her hair was a mess from the earlier fight with Yoo-jung, but her eyes were swollen from crying on the way back. Her voice had been slightly wet for a while now.
“Damn it… I’m struggling just as much as you are…”
She tried to say more but choked up, then turned and trudged away. An Hyun stood frozen, unable to call her back. His mind was tangled and fragile. If only they could say he was dead—then at least he could grieve properly. But the answer after days of waiting was unbearably vague.
Some time passed.
An Hyun let out a deep sigh and staggered toward the tent. Just as he neared the entrance—
“How….”
“So….”
Suddenly, voices of two women drifted from the left side of the tent. One was Im Han-na, the other Ko Yeon-ju. An Hyun stopped instinctively.
“But, sister… Vivian said the contract was broken. That means…”
Broken contract? What did that mean?
He strained to listen more closely.
“Vivian said she tested whether it was really possible to know or not. The temples seemed to conclude that, at the very least, Soo-hyun isn’t in this world anymore. That’s the only way the contract could be considered broken.”
“So… does that mean he’s basically dead? Sob”
“Don’t cry. I think that’s likely too. But Vivian strongly denies it. She says he might still be alive in another dimension, just not here.”
“What do we do… what do we do…”
Im Han-na’s soft sobs were followed by Ko Yeon-ju’s quiet pats of comfort.
After a moment—
“Maybe… it’s best to keep this a secret?”
Her voice was quieter now, calmer.
“Definitely. Especially from brother-in-law. Speaking of which, how is he doing?”
“Getting worse. He’s not rampaging like before, but lately he’s been under constant sleep and calming spells.”
“…That bad?”
“If he doesn’t have it, he can’t sleep at all. The shock must be enormous. Who would have thought he’d end up like this? According to the priest, it wouldn’t be surprising if he’d already tried to take his own life several times…”
That was as far as the words went.
At that moment, Ahn-hyun’s legs gave out beneath him, and he collapsed heavily to the floor. Soon after, the voices stopped, and he sensed someone rushing toward him, but he no longer cared about anything. All he felt was a crushing despair as he closed his eyes gently.
He just wished he could pass out like this and wake up someday when Kim Soo-hyun returned.
---------------------------= Author’s Note =---------------------------
I’m sorry. I had planned to finish the side story last week, but family matters piled up, and progress was slower than expected. I ask for your kind understanding. It should be wrapped up within the next two chapters.
As for my little cousin’s wedding… it went well. Honestly, I barely saw the ceremony itself—I was busy handling the gift money and handing out meal tickets to the guests. Haha. -_-a It’s a bit disappointing, but everyone was so busy, so I guess it’s understandable.
Thank you all for waiting. Starting today, I’ll be back to regular updates. :)
P.S. A big thank you to BrokenFan for the new fan art! Seeing fresh drawings of Kim Soo-hyun, Han So-young, the Hell Duke, and more is a real treat for the eyes. They kindly posted them on my page, so I encourage readers to stop by and take a look! :D