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Aerum froze, her breath catching in her throat as Renjun’s words sank in. His grip on her arm was firm, his gaze intense. The distance between them was practically nonexistent, and she could feel the heat radiating from his body despite the cold night air.
"I-..." she whispered, her voice trembling slightly. "You keep pushing my limits. I don’t want to hurt you, but you’re pushing me to a point where I might lose control and do something we’ll both regret."
She tried to pull her arm free, but his grip was firm, keeping her locked in place. "Ren...Renjun it hurts"
"You don’t get it, do you? When I tell you to stop, I mean it. I’m not someone you should be messing with. I've said this a hundred fucking times but you don't get it"
"I wasn’t trying to mess with you, I just-" she said, her voice barely above a whisper. "Just what? Huh?," Renjun interrupted, his grip on her arm tightening. "Just what?"
"Pushing me to the edge!? Finding why I almost killed your brother. You don't get that in your fucking brain that I can hurt you too if you're in my way" he began, eyes never left hers.
Renjun’s expression darkened, his voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "I’m warning you, for the last time, to stay out of my way. I’ve done horrible things—things you wouldn’t believe, and have lost count of how many lives I’ve taken." He paused, his gaze never leaving hers. "And....That blood on my shirt? It’s not mine. It’s Professor Jung’s. He got what was coming."
Aerum felt her stomach churn, her fear paralyzing her as the weight of his words sank in. "You... you killed him?" she whispered, her voice barely audible.
Renjun looks down at his blood-stained shirt, then meets her eyes with a cold smile.
"He learned the hard way that I don’t make empty threats."
Aerum's eyes widened, tears pooling as she stared at him, her fear clear, her voice trembling, finally speaking the question that had haunted her. "Are you going to kill Jinwoo too?"
Renjun's eyes softened briefly before his face hardened again. He shook his head slowly.
"No..."
"...If I didn't do it, someone else would have, and they wouldn't have stopped. They would have killed him."
Renjun's expression turned cold, a dangerous glint in his eyes as he stared at her. "Consider yourself lucky. Walking out of that boxing club alive isn't something everyone gets to do."
Her heart skipped a beat at his words. "What do you mean by that?" she asked, trying to keep her voice steady, though it wavered with uncertainty.
"Wait! Was that you? The one who hit me on the head the other day… when I went to see Jinhyuk?"
Renjun’s jaw tightened, and for a moment, he didn’t respond, the tension between them growing unbearable. His silence only confirmed her suspicions, and Aerum felt her heart sink.
"I was trying to protect you," he said, his voice low and chilling. "Be grateful." He let go of her and walked to her bike.
"But you… you hit me," she frowned, trailing behind him "You knocked me out and left me there. How could you say you were protecting me when you left me vulnerable?"
Renjun looked away, his expression hardening further. "I did what I had to do, sweetheart. You have no idea who you’re dealing with. If they caught you snooping, you’d be just another girl in his collection—and I couldn't let that happen."
Aerum strange hearing something from him.
"Um...And Jinhyuk?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "Does he know what you did?"
Renjun’s eyes darkened at the mention of Jin-hyuk. "He knows enough to stay out of it," he replied coldly. "And so should you. You don’t want to end up like any of it."
"Why are you doing this?" she said, her voice quivering. "Why even bother warning me, when you could have just walked away and let them deal with me?"
"Because you’re not like them," Renjun interrupted his tone harsh but something soft in it.
"You don’t belong in that world. You’re too innocent, too… good. And I can’t let you get dragged into it any more than you already have been."
Aerum stared at him.
"But you’re part of that world, aren’t you?" she asked, her voice barely a whisper. "You’ve done things… terrible things…"
Renjun’s gaze was firm, he never broke the eye contact with her. "Yes, I have," he admitted, his voice like ice. "... that’s why I’m telling you to stay away. You can’t save me. You can only save yourself."
The words hung between them, heavy and suffocating. Aerum didn’t know what to say, how to respond to the darkness that surrounded him, the darkness that seemed to pull him further and further away from the person she had once thought he could be. All she knew was that, despite everything, a part of her wanted to reach out to him, to pull him back from the edge before it was too late.
