MDWR 06

Chapter 6

A long sigh escaped through Eun-jo’s lips.

“When I wanted to see him so badly, I couldn’t.”

Just then, the chat window appeared again.

First, approval has been granted for 1 year’s worth of Na Eun-jo’s memories.

Just one year’s worth of memories.

Still, it was better than nothing.

“Alright. I’ll take even just one year’s worth.”

You may refuse. Depending on the situation, it could be a quite unpleasant experience.

Of course it would be unpleasant.

‘I’m peeking into someone else’s life, and the life of someone who committed suicide at that.’

Even so, she was slightly expectant. She felt like Ju-heon might be somewhere in those memories.

Recalling Ju-heon, whom she had run into a moment ago, Eun-jo thoroughly prepared herself to receive another person’s memories.

Would you like to view the memories?

“Yes. I’ll watch.”

Whatever memory it was, no matter what it turned out to be.

If it was something necessary to take revenge on the people who drove her father to death, stole his company, and even murdered her.

She could handle at least that much.

When she released her tightly bitten lip, the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth completely.

She remembered the blood-soaked blouse she had seen early this morning. Nausea surged within her.

Proceeding with synchronization.

In an instant, unfamiliar memories invaded her mind. Tears flowed down endlessly.

Having tossed and turned all night, Ju-heon woke up at dawn and put on a black suit. It was to see Eun-jo off on her final journey.

Lee Eun-jo.

Lee Won-gyu’s daughter and a fairly famous painter.

And Ju-heon’s first love.

Ju-heon had loved her deeply and fondly, though she was three years his senior.

At first, he fell in love with her voice.

Next, he fell in love with her paintings, her bright and clear laugh, and the unique, light way she walked.

He fell in love with her fingers as she lifted a coffee cup, and her lips as she nibbled on lemon shortcake.

To twenty-one-year-old Ju-heon, who saw her for the first time, Lee Eun-jo was an overwhelmingly beautiful woman.

Her face was pretty, but above all, her soul was beautiful.

To twenty-three-year-old Ju-heon, who had no choice but to break up with her, Eun-jo was someone even more cherished because he couldn’t have her, and someone too noble to crush. Because her soul was beautiful in every single moment.

Was that soul about to return to heaven now?

Tying his black tie, Ju-heon left the house.

8:00 AM.

Arriving at the crematorium, Ju-heon watched from afar as the limousine carrying Eun-jo pulled in.

From the front seat of the limousine, someone holding Eun-jo’s funeral portrait stepped out, followed by Kang Jin-woo.

Taking in the sight of Kang Jin-woo, strength naturally gathered in Ju-heon’s fists. Kang Jin-woo was once a mountain he couldn’t dare to cross, but now he was simply pathetic.

A pathetic human being who couldn’t protect Eun-jo even after having her.

No, rather, the scum of a human being who drove her to her death.

Ju-heon tightly clenched his jaw.

It didn’t take long for Eun-jo, who had arrived at the crematorium like that, to turn into a handful of ashes and come back out.

Eun-jo, contained inside a small urn, was cradled in Kang Jin-woo’s arms.

Unable to bear watching, Ju-heon turned his gaze away, but soon narrowed his eyes. It was because of an out-of-place presence caught at the edge of his vision.

“…Na Eun-jo?”

Na Eun-jo had come there.

She looked quite different from how she had appeared in front of the funeral hall two days ago.

Dressed neatly in a black one-piece dress, she was looking at Eun-jo with a face without makeup.

Her blonde hair was tied back into a single ponytail, exposing her face completely as she watched Eun-jo’s final moments with a firm, resolute gaze.

Her tightly pursed lips were pressed together with so much force that a dimple formed deeply on her left cheek.

A person who had been so shocked by Eun-jo’s death that she had shown up wearing mismatched shoes.

Someone whose feelings for Eun-jo were so immense that she had visited the crematorium following the funeral hall.

‘What on earth is this?’

Why is she acting like this?

It was right when Ju-heon’s brows furrowed crookedly.

“Sister! Eun-jo sister…!”

A woman following behind Kang Jin-woo wailed and shouted.

She had acted like that at the funeral hall too, so she must have been close with Eun-jo during her lifetime.

“Poor Eun-jo sister, what are we going to do…?”

Even so, Ju-heon frowned, displeased that she was staining Eun-jo’s final journey with sympathy.

However, the look in Na Eun-jo’s eyes as she watched that woman was extraordinary.

With contempt resting in her coolly lowered eyes, she did not drop her gaze until Kang Jin-woo and the woman got into the car.

As the limousine carrying Eun-jo sped away like that, Na Eun-jo bowed respectfully toward the limousine. The sight was striking, to say the least.

Standing still until the limousine disappeared completely, Na Eun-jo let out a faint sigh and took a step forward.

As Ju-heon watched her, a vein bulged on one side of his forehead.

Light, airy footsteps stepping forward without any weight.

Because for a brief moment, Lee Eun-jo’s image seemed to overlap with Na Eun-jo.

Lee Eun-jo no longer exists. There is only Na Eun-jo.

She realized it the moment Lee Eun-jo’s shattered body came out as ashes.

That there was no turning back now.

Since there was no physical body left to return to, she was no longer Lee Eun-jo from now on, but Na Eun-jo.

Having offered her condolences to the body of Lee Eun-jo, who had lived like a peony blossom for 34 years and then passed, she fell into thought for a moment while watching the receding limousine.

It had happened earlier in the crematorium restroom.

Thinking no one was around, Kim Na-in had been on the phone with someone for a long time.

“Yeah. I told you, Lee Eun-jo’s entire fortune belongs to my darling now!”

She had wept so hard until entering the restroom, yet it seemed she couldn’t stop the pleasant emotion from bleeding through her voice.

“A wedding? We should have one. But right now it’s still a bit much. We need to cry a bit more for the dead woman, comfort each other, and then fall in love. We have to go with something like that.”

The person on the other end must have asked if people wouldn’t curse at them.

However, Na-in was thoroughly excited, saying she was already fully prepared mentally to take the curses.

“CX is going to be mine, so what does cursing matter? I could take curses from a grandfather.”

Na-in’s light laughter rang out coquettishly.

“Yeah. In fact, I was going to ask to register the marriage first. I need to set up a safety measure for myself too. Do you think someone who betrayed once can’t betray twice?”

After washing her hands thoroughly, Na-in left the restroom.

Only then did Eun-jo reveal her hidden form and slowly followed behind Na-in.

The moment they rounded the corner into the sight of the crowd, Na-in started crying.

‘Sister, sister. If anyone heard you, they’d think your real sister died.’

To hold back her urge to slap that abominable face, Eun-jo had to endure the pain of her fingernails digging into her palms.

In the end, Na-in got into the limousine as if collapsing and vanished with Jin-woo, bringing peace to Eun-jo’s mind as well.

“You say you’re going to register the marriage first?”

Laughter slipped past her lips.

“Not a chance.”

Then, she slowly took a step forward.

She had taken a taxi when coming here, but on her way back, she wanted to walk a bit and decided to take a bus.

Having lived as a precious princess her whole life, she was a little embarrassed that she had never ridden a bus before.

Leaving the crematorium like that, Eun-jo walked slowly while savoring the mid-September autumn sky.

It was right at that moment.

With a light honk of a car horn, a black sedan slid along next to her.

The heavily tinted window rolled down, and the person who showed his face was Ju-heon.