IF I WERE THE DEVIL ; YANG JUNGWON

CARD XXIII: Hypothesis of the crashing sky.

She let out a deep breath and sat down on the cold floor of the roof, her back leaning against the balustrade.

The boy followed her as he bent down in front of her to be at the same eye level. Jungwon watched her carefully, the silence beginning to crush him.

"Are you... okay?"

He knew she wasn't, nobody would be after realising they had just lost everything but themselves.

After all, that was how he had arranged it.

The deeper you fall, the more desperate you get for hope, and the more welcoming the devil's deal appears to you.

But he couldn't help himself. He had to ask. He wanted to do something, anything, just to stop feeling those heavy feelings, the cause of which he didn't know, or more accurately, didn't want to know.

Eyun did nothing but look at him in the deepest silence. Seriously, what was she supposed to do with him?

In the midst of her existential crisis, he appeared before her, without any reason or explanation. And the worst part of it was that she didn't even need him to answer her questions. Just her heart beating faster and faster was enough.

She didn't know anymore how to deal with him or this condition caused by him.

The boy who had put her in her place again and again was the same boy who had left his jacket with her and become ill as a result.

The boy who abandoned her in the corridor was the same boy who found her when she momentarily abandoned herself and held onto her.

The boy who didn't want anything to do with her in the first place was the same boy who now looked at her with his once abysmal eyes having taken on the image of boba pearls as he tried to comfort her.

His gaze had softened to the point where she began to wonder if he was really the feisty know-it-all from the Student Register.

"You don't need to answer that." He cleared his throat, somehow unable to stand her staring at him without a word any longer. He bit his lips in embarrassment.

What was he doing anyway?

Wasn't he done with this play?

Hadn't he returned to his true identity?

Why in hell's name was he here after all this?

And then, on top of this inexplicable act against his morals — if you can even call them that — he was now seriously trying to comfort her?

He who had perhaps the least compassion for mankind.

He, whose emotional intelligence wasn't even good enough to possibly comfort himself if he ever needed to do so.

His words snapped her out of the train of thought she had about him. It was fascinating to see how his presence made her forget about everything else but him.

"Johnny, you always have an answer for everything. So let me ask you just one question." She straightened up, but she still seemed to be hesitating.

"Why?" She plainly asked, with an almost hopeful look in her eyes. "Why did I lose?" Her beautiful blue eyes were the perfect reflection of her despair.

Eyun's feelings were exactly like the sky above them: Dark, heavy, wanting to rain but unable to.

"Where did it go wrong?" The more her thoughts were given space to express themselves, the more her pupils began to tremble."Do you know?"