Turning point (11)
Creak—
The sound created by the oil not seeping properly into the opening mechanism echoed in the dark room.
The light from the hallway burst through the open crack in the door but quickly disappeared as the door closed, narrowing until it vanished as if it had never been there.
Celestia sat by the window, looking at Lee Hyun-woo, the guest who had entered the room. As she looked at him, he looked at her too. The room was indeed dark, but neither of them seemed to care.
"You're here."
"I'm not too late, am I?"
"It's fine. Hyun-woo, you've never been late. Not before, not now."
Celestia gave a faint smile as she watched Lee Hyun-woo, who said he got tied up because of a small commotion and had to break a sweat to settle it. The way he joked made her think of someone.
She thought it every time she saw him, but they truly resembled each other in many ways. The people around them, Carry, herself, and her oppa, Ian.
There wasn't much furniture in the spacious room, so it felt empty.
In the past, she had forced Nadia to come over to fill that emptiness, but that hadn't lasted long. Nadia decided to live somewhere else. In the end, the room became empty again.
'I know what's truly hollow isn't... the room.'
Celestia knew that. She silently shifted over a little, and Lee Hyun-woo naturally took the empty seat beside her.
He didn't ask why she'd called him, or what she wanted to say. He simply waited, meeting her gaze calmly.
'He's really like them, too.'
Celestia knew that many thoughts lay submerged under those calm eyes. He tried to hide it, but she could see right through. She hoped she was the only one who could, and she slowly started to speak.
"What was the commotion?"
Perhaps because she had kept her mouth shut for so long, her voice was lower than usual. That bothered Celestia for some reason. Uncomfortable, she fiddled with the ends of her hair.
"Oh, you know how there are a few things Carry treasures, right? Among them, there was a somewhat—no, a very pretty refined Blue Crystal, and a spider robot was playing with it and ended up breaking it."
"Gasp, Carry must've been really angry, huh?"
"Oh, don't even mention it. All the bottled-up grievances exploded at once, and soothing it wasn't easy. About five times the usual coddling? Then it finally calmed down."
"Coddling..."
Celestia burst out laughing at the image that popped into her head. She could easily imagine Lee Hyun-woo picking up a chibi Carry and doting on it.
"Hyun-woo, you'd probably make a good parent."
"Suddenly?"
"Yes, suddenly. I just thought so."
"I guess I am pretty mature."
"Actually, now that I think about it, maybe not! I take it back!"
"Oh, come on...!"
Seeing Lee Hyun-woo's pride instantly crumple from his hearty laughter made Celestia unable to stifle her own. Maybe it was because of her laughter, but she felt as if her mind was floating, tipsy as if drunk.
"Ah, Hyun-woo, did you know there's an animal like this on Earth?"
"What kind of animal?"
"It hatches from an egg, has a beak, venomous spurs on its feet, but it's a mammal."
"... Is that even possible? Was it genetically modified? You're not teasing me, are you?"
"It's real. The platypus really exists."
"I feel like my understanding of reality is collapsing..."
Their small conversation continued. With each exchange, the barren room filled with their breath. The chill left, and warmth grew between them.
And with that, a single desire started to raise its head. No, it had already been there—they were just barely holding it in check.
A curtain of pale light from outside the window shone on Lee Hyun-woo. It wasn't Saturn's reflected light, but now the aurora hanging in the sky. Curtains of faint, dazzling colors wrapped Albatross.
Celestia found herself enchanted by the light. Not the aurora, but the light radiated by one person.
She thought of a moth desperate to reach the light, endlessly fluttering its wings, only to burn itself and fall. She realized she had that same foolishness inside her.
Possession is a way to fill emptiness. The means of satisfying desires becomes the driving force needed to live.
To keep better connections, to amass more wealth, for whatever reason—to enjoy even more.
Possession is piling up. But ironically, when you gain something, you experience loss at the same time. Nothing in this world comes without a price. To gain something new, you have to give up something you already had.
In exchange for obtaining what you wanted, you give up something you owned—so the emptiness never goes away. The joy is temporary. Emptiness remains. 'Lingering' doesn't even begin to describe it.
But that's only part of the story—one where you get what you want. If you can't get what you desire most, and you try to fill the longing by grabbing anything to cover the empty space, the situation just gets worse.
No matter how hard you struggle to fill the void, the weight of futility that can't be relieved turns into an unpleasant déjà vu, sapping the strength from those seeking to satisfy their longing.
And yet, you can't give up, so you keep crashing into the light like a moth, wings burning and all.
That was Celestia, just now—or rather, up until a while ago. She kept crashing into the light, not realizing she was burning up, only to recognize the truth later and fall into despair.
She had thought everything was over, but it wasn't. A new light still shimmered before her eyes, and this time, it was a gentle light that didn't burn her.
Only when she felt it did she realize. It wasn't the kind of light she'd only hazily imagined, but this was exactly what she'd been searching for.
Her oppa, Ian Myosotis, was dead. Celestia no longer denied that.
She wouldn't see Hyun-woo as Ian. That was her resolve. In fact, there was no need for resolve—it simply wasn't true.
She wouldn't use Hyun-woo as a substitute for Ian. Celestia whispered that this was only right. Though her heart was still pointed in the same direction, it no longer felt crooked as before.
"Hyun-woo."
"Yes, Celly."
'Celly.' Celestia liked the short resonance of that name reaching her ears. She wanted to keep hearing it.
"What kind of relationship will we become?"
"..."
Lee Hyun-woo startled and looked up. Celestia didn't avert her gaze and asked again.
"What kind of relationship could we be?"
"Um..."
Lee Hyun-woo hummed in thought. He'd realized from her question that this was why he'd been called here. He couldn't help but be serious.
Celestia told him he could think as long as he liked, leaning back slightly. But she made it clear that she intended to hear his answer now.
Eventually, his answer came.
"... Friends?"
He scratched his cheek, so even he didn't sound confident in his answer. Seeing that, a small smile tugged at Celestia's lips.
"Friends..."
Celestia rolled the word around her mouth. It didn't sound bad, but it wasn't satisfying either. It felt much too shallow—a relationship lacking depth by far.
"Friends are nice. But sadly, that won't do. No, it won't. What I wish for is more than that."
"..."
"Would you be satisfied as friends, Hyun-woo? Could you be? ... Because I can't be."
Celestia smiled mischievously. She pretended to be relaxed, but her heart was pounding wildly, her breathing trembling at the edges.
Celestia fixed her gaze.
A man who would escape the narrow ice moon to go somewhere bigger,
A man who would experience much, meet countless people, and achieve great growth,
A man whose very presence would grow so immense that he could no longer be removed from her life, no matter how she tried.
Celestia wanted to be remembered by Lee Hyun-woo. So clearly, so vividly, that she would never fade no matter how much time passed—forever. She wanted it with a burning intensity.
Not just leaving a secret mark, but sharing a part of his life—eventually, all of it—so that nothing could ever separate them.
Lee Hyun-woo's eyes trembled. He didn't speak, but he didn't look away either. It seemed he'd made up his mind too. He'd come to tie up loose ends. Though she couldn't be sure what conclusion he'd reached.
As he was about to say something, Celestia, almost without thinking, closed the distance a little more than usual. She wasn't ready to hear his answer. Her heart, thundering madly, pushed her forward.
The distance between leaning and falling—there was still a little space left, telling her: If you want to stop, do it now; if you step back now, you can still recover.
She couldn't hear any other sounds. The pounding of her heart drowned everything out—even the last bit of reason in Celestia's mind.
Drawn by that clamor, she leaned toward him—a little more, just a little more. The distance between them steadily shrank.
Before she knew it, she was so close she could touch him just by raising her head a little. Celestia filled Lee Hyun-woo's gaze; their breaths mingled, her rising body heat brushing across to him.
With an entranced look, Celestia gazed into his eyes. The black irises now had a blue rim.
A change that had occurred after he hunted the Blue-Eye. It wasn't obvious unless you looked closely, but the rim darkened whenever he used his strength. And right now, with Celestia's eyes reflected in his, the effect was even clearer.
Silence hovered for a moment, then Celestia whispered softly.
"... Hyun-woo, do you know what Myosotis means?"
"I know it as forget-me-not."
"And its flower meaning?"
Celestia watched Lee Hyun-woo shake his head and then provided the answer.
"'Please don't forget me.' That's the meaning of the forget-me-not flower."
Celestia wondered if, maybe at the end, when Ian's consciousness returned in his final moment, it was to say those words. At the very least, she hoped she could remember him as Ian in the end—rather than a monster.
"I won't forget. No matter what, never. Will you do the same, Hyun-woo?"
Lee Hyun-woo understood what she meant. Celestia had kept Ian's death as a memory and thus separated their existences. It was her confession that she would not see them as one and the same.
"... Yes."
Meeting her eyes, Lee Hyun-woo nodded. No trace of inner turmoil remained. Realizing that, Celestia drew a thin, shaky breath and finally spoke after some hesitation.
"There's another flower meaning for forget-me-not."
The other meaning was true love.
Nerves threatened to weaken her knees, but Celestia mustered her strength and, with a trembling sigh, let out the words she'd been holding in.
"I like you. I've come to like you for who you are, Lee Hyun-woo."
Celestia kept her confession plain and honest, with no unnecessary embellishments, making it impossible for him to avoid her exposed, long-concealed feelings.
"So if you dislike me, push me away."
"That won't happen."
His words were more resolute than ever. Celestia was startled by this unexpected turn. Or perhaps she would have been, had Lee Hyun-woo's head not moved down faster than she could react.
With the little distance left between them, it took just a small motion for them to touch. Their breaths overlapped softly. Celestia's eyes, which widened in surprise, slowly fluttered shut. Instinctively, she reached up and drew Lee Hyun-woo closer by the nape of his neck.
The wondrous aurora's light, not Saturn's moody glow, still illuminated the room. The two shadows on the floor merged into one, as if frozen in time.
Finally, they separated into two shadows again. Celestia couldn't catch her breath. She had wished for this to happen, expected it, but was still flustered that she wasn't the one to take the initiative.
She wondered if her feelings mechanism was broken or if the emotions were just too overwhelming, as tears welled up in her eyes.
She hadn't known that having the other person reciprocate would make her heart tremble like this. It was incomparably different from when she'd only guessed at things alone. He was awkward, but even that made him adorable.
In fact, their mutual awkwardness left something overflowing inside, a promise that they could grow more adept together.
From the beginning, before they became one, her heart had been uncontrollable, and now she clasped her hands over it, hoping it would settle a bit.
Maybe because those were the same hands that had just held Hyun-woo, her heart finally broke down at the lingering warmth on her palms.
Celestia knew that an unerasable scar had been etched into both her and Hyun-woo. The past, ruined by another's malice. The time that had already passed, and the leftover scars, could not be helped.
All she could do was cover those scars with better times and memories.
Without a word, Lee Hyun-woo used his fingertip to gently wipe away the moisture at the corner of Celestia's eyes. She shivered slightly. Not at the touch itself, but because of the longing and many words rising up in her throat.
Could she whisper of love just for today? What if she had found him sooner? Would she have been the first? She regretted not being able to.
Just for now, she wanted to think of nothing else and have a moment for just the two of them. To cast off their confining clothes.
She wanted to share their warmth more deeply—nibble his ear, rub cheeks, intertwine fingers.
She could have said these things, but didn't. That would be greedy. She had already been selfish enough.
She had already crossed a line, and it was tempting to go farther. But that wasn't right. Beyond this, there was a precipice.
Hadn't Nadia said the same? That what Celestia was doing only brought harm, unable to control her desires and acting thoughtlessly, and such behavior was barely any different from violence.
Celestia didn't ignore that. She had just averted her eyes from it—until now. But now she faced it.
There was no longer any distance left between them. No more casual conversation flowed. All they could do was barely hold on to their soaring emotions and faltering reason.
Celestia let her head fall gently on Hyun-woo's chest and spoke to him in a trembling voice.
"... Hyun-woo."
"Yes, Celly."
"Will you accept this?"
Raising her head, Celestia summoned the mark of Myosotis in her hand. A blue flower bloomed in the air—a forget-me-not she could give to only one person.
Hyun-woo reached out and stroked the blue flower. Data particles flowed from it into his bracelet. With few chances to inherit a rank before, his bracelet's light had stayed green—but now, it changed to blue.
"This is my limit for now. When we return to Earth, I'll do it properly."
Celestia, who had said she'd give him her red, moved forward this time. She pressed her lips, not to his face, but to his neck, brushing past as though breathing.
Her embarrassment made her head heat up and her thoughts fuzzy, but one thing was certain: she did not dislike it. Rather, the spot her lips touched tingled with pleasant heat.
It seemed they stayed like that for a long time, yet when they parted, she found herself wanting more. Noticing how tense Hyun-woo was made her laugh, though she herself was just as nervous.
Celestia didn't want that to be noticed, so she hugged his head close, not letting him turn to see her, and whispered as if engraving it on his memory.
"Myosotis is yours. I am yours."
From this moment on, and always, forever.
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