Chapter 36

**Episode 36: An Unchangeable Future**

—

– Click.

I closed the door to the room.

I told Siwoo to come back in about 30 minutes.

‘The time has come.’

Even without the location tracker… he didn’t run away.

‘It’s a pity that the tracker is gone, but soon Siwoo will retrieve it again.’

He is capable enough for that.

He is someone I can trust.

He won’t betray me.

It is finally time to entrust him with ‘that’ mission, which I have been waiting for.

When I first saw him…

I hesitated to even deliver the mission.

‘But now…’

Now is different.

I wonder if it would be okay to hand over such a task.

Maybe it’s better if I handle this cruel mission by myself.

That’s what I thought.

However, I couldn’t reveal my identity to the world.

To be precise, I must remain ‘missing’ for now.

‘Until that moment comes… I cannot show myself.’

I took out a personal safe from under the bed.

This safe is slightly smaller than others.

Because this safe was not made to hold money.

I sat on the bed and placed the safe on my lap.

And then…

– Clatter. – Clatter.

– Clatter. – Click!

‘The dial on the safe… should I call it that?’

In any case, I succeeded in unlocking the safe.

Yeah. Inside it…

There was a dagger.

As soon as I opened the safe, tears welled up from my eyes.

Tears.

I cried because I was sad.

How could something as simple as tears from a tear duct make a person’s heart break like this?

No, perhaps it was because I saw something that truly broke my heart.

To explain this, I need to go back a bit into the past.

Yeah. This dagger.

This dagger was not made by humans.

The day I first met Siwoo.

On that day, I shared my old story with him.

The part I couldn’t say at the time.

If we briefly look back at that part…

This dagger… was the one that was stuck in my father’s back.

That moment is still vividly embedded in my memory.

So much so that it remains unforgettable even if I were to suffer from amnesia.

It is a memory that has become the driving force of my life.

‘I couldn’t tell if I should be happy about this… or sad. I couldn’t decide.’

This dagger was probably one that monsters used.

My father had fallen, enveloping my mother and sister, in a position as if the dagger had pierced his back.

‘Of course, by the time I arrived there…’

By that time, my parents had already passed away.

In the meantime, I managed to bring my younger sister, Chaeyeon… or rather, I escaped with her, cradling her as I fled the collapsing house.

I was determined to take this dagger and plunge it into the association members who abandoned my family.

I regretted having worked under them up until now.

‘Back then, I vowed to take revenge with this dagger… but now as someone who has become ‘missing’, I can no longer appear in the world…’

Yeah, so my sense of vengeance began to fade away.

However, now that I feel like I’ve found a new way.

– Knock. Knock.

– Um… can I come in now?

“Yeah, come in.”

At this moment.

I want to kill every association member.

I wiped my tears.

It was a sad memory that I was almost happy to have interrupted.

Sure enough, Siwoo… you are a good kid.

**********

Siwoo sat in front of me like that day.

“Um… Eunbyul, didn’t we not have this before?”

He said, looking at the small mini aquarium on my desk.

Inside, there were two small female cichlids and one small male cichlid…

Whether it’s an aquarium or a fish tank, the fish inside seemed to enjoy the good quality water that I had just changed.

“Oh… that? Now that you mention it, it was definitely something Ye-rim gave me. She said she bought it thinking of me while she was out selling potions.”

“Is that so? Three fish in an unbalanced setup. Not very thoughtful of her.”

Siwoo stroked his chin, staring intensely at the fish.

“Ye-rim probably didn’t pay attention to those details. It wasn’t a gift for an anniversary or anything.”

Then he looked back at me and was suddenly taken aback.

“What’s wrong… Eunbyul, were you crying?”

‘Ugh, did it show that I just cried a little?’

I rubbed my eyes with my sleeve.

“I wasn’t crying…”

Feeling immense embarrassment at having invited someone to my room just to cry alone was overwhelming.

“Don’t lie, your eyes are red, right? If you were trying to trick me, you weren’t very convincing.”

“Ugh, stop it. I didn’t call you here to talk about that.”

“Really? Ah… I came to receive an ‘award.'”

Siwoo said, looking up at the ceiling as if there was something up there.

With a look of confusion as if he didn’t know what to do.

I just need to pass this dagger to him.

After that, our conversation should become easier.

But that’s hard.

I couldn’t take the dagger out of the safe and was just holding it tightly.

“What’s that safe for? Is that… the ‘award’?”

For some reason, Siwoo looked slightly disappointed.

“Yeah… uh!”

I closed my eyes tightly and pulled the dagger out abruptly.

“Whoa… what, what is that?”

Siwoo looked surprised as he stared at the dagger.

“This… this is a dagger…”

What should I explain to him?

Will he think of me as a weird person?

No, what even defines a weird person in the first place?

More importantly, in a company context, I would be his superior, so is there really a need to hesitate in giving this ‘mission’?

‘No… One cannot accept a mission to kill someone… hesitating is natural.’

“It’s a dagger, right?”

‘Ugh, what should I do…’

He was urging for a response.

Yeah, so what if he perceives me as a slightly weird person? I’m the leader of a villain organization.

‘I have nothing to fear!’

… On second thought, I felt like I couldn’t bear to be seen as someone weird by him.

Especially by ‘him’.

Yeah, I can’t deny it anymore.

I have feelings for him.

I have to acknowledge them.

Could this affection merely stem from the fact that I’ve been stuck in this underground space and finally met a man after a long time?

‘If that’s the case, I’d find it a bit uncomfortable…’

“Eunbyul?”

Now, I don’t even know myself.

“… Take it.”

“Huh? What did you say?”

“The… award… so hurry up and take it.”

“Uh, um… got it.”

He took the dagger that was resting in my hand.

“Siwoo… uh, about that dagger…”

“What about it?”

“It’s… rather precious to me… Anyway, take good care of it. I’ll let you know later when and how you should use it.”

Upon hearing my words, Siwoo nodded without saying anything.

“Yeah, alright. I’ve handed over everything. What will you do now, Siwoo?”

“What do you mean what will I do?”

“It’s late. Are you going to sleep at the hideout?”

“Ah, I was thinking of sleeping at the hideout for the first time in a while, but I have some work to do.”

“Oh… right. That makes sense.”

I felt a pang of disappointment.

No, I’m absolutely not disappointed.

I still have plenty of opportunities.

“Then, I’ll start infiltrating the association again.”

“Yeah. If you find anything suspicious, make sure to tell me. Don’t leave anything out.”

“Of course. But so far, there hasn’t been anything suspicious at all.”

‘Huh?’

“Right, if you say so then it must be true. I trust you.”

“Then…”

Siwoo seemed to mumble over my words as he left my room.

Why did he stumble over his words like that?

I’m pretty sure I’ve seen a scene like that in a drama.

The male lead who cheats behaved just like that.

Well, reality is never like a drama, so it doesn’t matter, right?

It shouldn’t matter.

After he left the room, I got up from the bed and put the safe back under the bed.

Now that it was empty, the safe was useless.

But someday, a time will come when it will be useful.

I looked at the small mini aquarium sitting on my desk.

‘Hmm… wouldn’t a fish tank fit better than an aquarium at this point…?’

Whether it’s a fish tank or a mini aquarium, it’s the same.

‘Anyway.’

But something feels off.

There were definitely three small cichlids in that mini aquarium.

Two female fish and one male fish.

But as soon as Siwoo left my room, one of the female fish died.

The remaining two fish didn’t seem sad at all; instead, they seemed to grow even closer together.

As if they were about to start mating right there.

It was a phenomenon that happened the moment Siwoo left.

What happened in this aquarium… doesn’t feel like it’s someone else’s affair.

‘This is… how should I put it…’

It seemed like I was watching the ending of a sad story.

As if someone’s conclusion would end up like that.

I don’t know who will become the dead fish.

If I were to liken myself to that fish, wouldn’t that mean that I would, in fact, become that dead fish?

Maybe the competition has already begun.

Have I been too late…?

‘… Is that what you’d call overthinking?’

I decided not to dwell on it too much.

Yeah, I trust him.

I have believed in him.

Those fish’s circumstances have nothing to do with me.

All I want is for the path I’m currently walking to not lead to a bad ending.