The rain had stopped.
But Jung Yena couldn't breathe.
She stood alone behind the counter, hands braced against the cold wood, heart beating like it wanted to escape her chest. Haejin's words echoed in her ears like thunder:
"You picked up the petal."
He'd seen her.
Three years ago.
That night.
The night Doyun died.
She had told herself it was a nightmare. That her memory had twisted it. That her grief had imagined the sound of Haejin's voice yelling in the rain.
But he remembered too.
Her legs gave out, and she sank to the floor.
The drawer. The box. The petal. The bloodstained note.
She had never thrown them away.
Because deep down, she knew this day would come.
---
Later that night, she stared out her tiny apartment window above the shop, watching the city blur in wet neon. Her phone buzzed — a message from Seri.
"He's not well, Yena. Please don't push him."
She didn't reply.
What did Seri know?
She had been Doyun's closest friend. Or maybe more. Yena never dared to ask.
And now Seri was asking her to protect the man who might've—
She couldn't finish the thought.
---
The next day passed in a daze.
She barely spoke to Seojun, who watched her with quiet concern. She watered the lilies too long. Overcharged a customer. Burned her tongue on hot coffee.
When the bell rang that evening, she didn't flinch.
She expected Haejin.
But it wasn't him.
It was Seri.
---
She looked different than Yena remembered — thinner, sharper, like grief had sculpted her bones.
"I didn't know where else to go," Seri said, voice tight.
Yena didn't answer. Just led her to the back room, where the scent of dried petals clung to the walls like ghosts.
Seri sat.
"I saw him," she whispered. "Haejin. He's not sleeping. He's… slipping again."
Yena stared. "Why are you telling me this?"
Seri's eyes filled with something between guilt and panic. "Because you were there that night."
Silence.
Yena's hands clenched.
"What do you want me to say?" she asked, voice low. "Yes, I was there. I saw your best friend's brother die. And I ran."
Seri's mouth opened, but nothing came out.
Yena stood.
"You all had your secrets, Seri. I just kept mine quieter."
---
That night, the dreams came back.
Doyun standing in the alley, drenched in rain.
A voice shouting his name.
Another voice — desperate, trembling.
Then—
Blood.
And Yena, frozen behind a dumpster, too afraid to move.
She woke up screaming.
---
Somewhere across the city, Haejin stood on a rooftop, cigarette burning low between his fingers.
He closed his eyes.
He could still hear it.
His brother's voice.
And hers.
A girl sobbing in the rain.
He'd told himself it wasn't real.
But now?
Now he knew.
She saw everything.
And the worst part?
So did he.