✔ 𝐒𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐲 [𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑃𝑢𝑟𝑔𝑒]

«This is ...»

𝟐𝟎 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟓. 𝟏𝟑:𝟎𝟕 𝐩𝐦.

𝟐𝟗 𝐇𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝟒𝟑 𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐔𝐓𝐄𝐒 𝐁𝐄𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐄 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐔𝐑𝐆𝐄.

Choi Soobin was one of the people who survived Korea's first purge. Not because he was safe behind closed doors, but because self-defense saved his life and that of his lover. All or nothing, that thought had been floating in his head ever since. After that night, Soobin had a very long mental process ahead of him. He had killed a man in self-defense, but his mind couldn't handle it for a long time. He knew that if he hadn't done it, he and his friend Lien wouldn't be alive, yet it's hard to live with that conscience.

To take someone's life, to steal the light from their eyes.

After you pull the trigger, the shot goes off and you see the bullet go through the bone of your skull, it feels like time stands still and then slowly goes into slow motion. It's as if you're simultaneously suffering from a delusion that won't let you think straight. The body sinks to the ground, falling like a wet sack on concrete, and you watch helplessly as the other person's life goes out. The strength you still have in the adrenaline rush fizzles out. As if it had never been there. Arms and legs begin to shake uncontrollably, your heart races in your chest, beating up to your neck. A beguiling, terrifying feeling.

But Soobin was forced to do it, he was forced to take this stranger's life. Otherwise, the one would have taken his. Never would Soobin have been able to forgive himself if this Purger had killed his friend. It was self-defense, this thought calmed one of them. At least this thought was enough for Lien, but Soobin had a pretty hard time after this experience. In the beginning, he tried to drown it in work, which made his girlfriend feel quite alone and the quarrels between the two of them kept piling up. Eventually, Lien gave him the choice of either ending their relationship or seeking psychological help.

Of course, Soobin chose the latter, because he loved his girlfriend.

He wanted to spend his life with her, probably marry her one day and start a family. Such were his plans a year ago and thus he sought a psychotherapist who could get him out of this black hole.

"You don't have to walk me home," Soobin was snapped out of his thoughts by his friend. Surprised, the black-haired man raised his head, smiling because this answer did not surprise him. Yeonjun, at 23, was a year older than him, but Soobin still felt responsible for him.

He was his best friend, belonged to his family and was as important to him as his own brother.

Never would he abandon him.

"I know that - and you don't have to tell me every time," Soobin assured him with a wave of his hand. Each time Yeonjun came up with it, and each time he repeated those words. "It's just two more stations, not the end of the world."