Aeri’s eyes flew open, her chest rising and falling rapidly as she struggled to catch her breath. The room felt suffocating, and she sat up abruptly, causing the cool, damp cloth that had been resting on her forehead to slip off. Beside her, Taesan, who had been carefully tending to her, looked up in alarm, his eyes filled with concern.

“Aeri, what’s wrong?” His voice was gentle but urgent, his worry evident.

Aeri didn’t respond immediately. Her eyes darted around the room, searching for something—anything—that could anchor her to the present. But all she could see were the lingering shadows of a nightmare that felt too real, too close. Her skin was clammy with sweat, and her heart pounded so hard she feared it might burst. The memories that had invaded her sleep were still swirling in her mind, fragmented and terrifyingly vivid.

She slowly sat up, her movements jerky and uncoordinated. Taesan carefully took the cloth away, his brows furrowed. When he reached out to hold her hand, hoping to offer some comfort, Aeri flinched, pulling away as though his touch had burned her.

“Don’t—don’t touch me,” she stammered, her voice trembling with fear.

Taesan immediately withdrew, raising his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Okay, I won’t. Just take a deep breath, Aeri. You’re safe here, I promise.”

Aeri’s breathing was shallow and rapid, her mind struggling to process the onslaught of emotions and images that were flooding her consciousness. The terror she had felt in her dream was bleeding into her waking world, and she could barely distinguish between the two. Why now? Why was she suddenly remembering things that felt too painful, too horrific to face?

“I don’t understand,” she whispered, her voice cracking. “Why is this happening? Why am I remembering things now, after all these years?”

Taesan’s expression softened, and he glanced away, as if searching for the right words. “Sometimes, our minds block out memories that are too painful to handle,” he said quietly. “But they can come back when we’re ready to face them, even if we don’t feel ready.”

Aeri’s vision blurred with tears, and she pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes, trying to stop the memories from tearing her apart. The images were so chaotic, so disjointed, but they all carried the same sense of dread and helplessness. The echoes of screams, the faces—some clear, some obscured—haunted her, and she could barely hold onto the present.

“Is there… is there a railway station nearby?” she asked suddenly, her voice fragile.

Taesan blinked in surprise at the abrupt change in topic. “You mean the old station? The one that’s been abandoned for years?”

Aeri nodded, desperation creeping into her tone. “Yes, that one. Please, Taesan, take me there. I think… I think I need to go there.”

Taesan’s confusion was evident, but he nodded, sensing how important this was to her. “Okay, I’ll take you. But… can you tell me why?”

Aeri’s lips trembled as she struggled to find the words. “I don’t know exactly why. But I feel like… like something is waiting for me there. Like it’s the key to everything I’ve been trying to remember. Please, Taesan, I can’t live like this anymore. I need to know.”

Her tears spilled over, tracing paths down her cheeks, and Taesan felt his heart clench. He had always tried to keep his distance, to guard his heart, but seeing her like this—so vulnerable, so broken—tugged at something deep inside him. He had promised himself that he wouldn’t get too close, that he wouldn’t let his feelings interfere with his plans, his revenge. But now, watching her crumble before his eyes, he realized just how much she had come to mean to him.

“Alright,” he said softly, brushing a tear from her cheek with a tenderness that surprised even him. “I’ll take you there”

Aeri clutched Taesan’s hand tightly as they made their way through the dense forest, the underbrush crunching under their feet. The further they went, the more familiar everything felt to her, even though she couldn’t recall ever being there before. Every step brought with it a new wave of memories, each one more vivid than the last, yet still just out of reach.

Her mind was spinning, flashes of a little girl and a desperate woman invading her thoughts. The forest seemed to close in around her, and she felt like she was being pulled back into the past, her surroundings blurring and twisting until she could no longer tell where—or when—she was.

Suddenly, her foot caught on something hard, and she stumbled forward with a yelp. Taesan immediately turned, his arms steadying her before she could fall.

“Aeri, are you okay?” he asked, kneeling down in front of her.

Aeri nodded weakly, though she could feel a sharp pain throbbing in her toe. Taesan carefully examined her foot, then pulled a bandage from his pocket and began wrapping it around her toe with surprising gentleness. His touch was so tender, so careful, that for a moment, Aeri forgot everything else. But then, a sudden, vivid memory hit her like a bolt of lightning—someone else had done this for her before, under very different circumstances.

Her head spun as the memory took hold. A woman’s frantic voice, a hand bandaging her injured foot with trembling fingers… It was all so familiar, yet so distant. She felt like she was drowning in the past, unable to escape the flood of memories that were threatening to consume her.

“I’ve been here before,” she murmured, her voice barely audible. “I remember… this place…”

Without warning, she started moving forward again, her steps quickening as if she were chasing something only she could see. Taesan called after her, concern lacing his voice, but she didn’t stop. She was driven by an invisible force, her feet carrying her towards a destination that her conscious mind didn’t yet understand.

Aeri finally reached the old, dilapidated railway station. The building stood before her, abandoned and forgotten, its walls cracked and weathered by time. But as soon as she stepped onto the platform, everything came rushing back with a clarity that took her breath away.

She stumbled, her legs nearly giving out as the memories crashed over her like a tidal wave. She saw herself as a little girl, holding tightly to her mother’s hand as they ran, their breaths coming in desperate gasps. She remembered the terror, the hopelessness, and then—the moment they were caught. She saw her mother’s face, twisted in anguish as she was dragged away, and then the cold, heartless expression of her father as he took her back home, his lies seeping into her mind like poison.

Aeri’s knees buckled, and she would have fallen if Taesan hadn’t caught her. He pulled her into his arms, his worry deepening as he saw the terror in her eyes.

“Aeri, what’s happening? What do you remember?” he asked urgently, his voice barely penetrating the fog of memories that clouded her mind.

Aeri looked up at him, her vision blurred by tears. “It was here,” she whispered, her voice trembling. “This is where it all happened. This is where my life changed forever.”

The memories were too much, too overwhelming, and she felt herself being dragged under, unable to fight the weight of the past that was pulling her down. Her body went limp in Taesan’s arms, and just before darkness claimed her, she muttered the words that had been echoing in her mind since the memories began to surface.

“I want to meet my father…”

With that, the world faded to black, and Aeri slumped into unconsciousness yet again, leaving Taesan holding her as the pieces of her shattered past began to fall into place.