Chapter Title: The Broken Vow and the Bitter Truth
"This is just a joke, right?" Aileen said, tears on the verge of spilling from her eyes.
Shuang-Yu stood up and took her hand. "Let's go to the room, just the three of us, so we can talk."
They entered the room, and the two girls sat on the edge of the bed.
"Why don't you stop this bad joke now?" Aileen asked, her voice trembling. She was trying to deny the ring she saw on her best friend's hand.
Shuang-Yu remained silent, her face clouded with grief.
Aileen screamed, "Why won't you answer me? Tell me what this means, now!"
Jin entered and quietly closed the door. His mind was scattered, a conflict raging within him between his goals, his questions, and the agonizing situation he was currently facing.
The young man stood before them. Aileen grabbed her friend's hand and thrust it toward him, shouting, "Answer me! What does this mean?"
Jin remained silent. His face was dull, consumed by distress; he was burning from the inside, thinking about everything happening to him.
Aileen: "Why won't you both speak? Did you really do this?"
Shuang looked on sorrowfully. Finally, Jin spoke in a voice filled with regret. "Yes... we got married."
Aileen went silent for a few moments, then tears began to stream down her face as she asked, "Why? Do I mean so little to you both?"
She screamed, "Didn't you say we would do this when you returned from your journey? Where did your promises go?"
The sadness on Jin's face deepened as he listened to her.
"Didn't you say you loved us both equally? Why did you choose her in the end?"
She turned to her friend. "And you... do you care about me that little? Aren't I the person closest to you?"
Neither of them answered. They knew she needed to pour out everything in her heart at that moment.
She wept as she asked, "Do I not matter to you? Am I just a third party in all of this?"
Jin finally spoke, his voice broken. "I'm sorry. It happened... by chance."
She asked him, "By chance? You both don't care about me at all! You see me as nothing more than a third wheel."
Jin knelt on his knees, gently took her hand, and kissed it.
Jin: "Aileen, I am truly sorry. It happened despite ourselves."
Aileen slapped him hard across the face. "You're lying!" she spoke with bitterness. "You've become a liar! You aren't the person I once knew! You stay away for so long, then come back saying you won't leave again, yet you spent fifteen whole months away once! Did you not care about Lily? She grew up for two and a half years without you. Did you never wonder how many times she cried because she missed you?"
She continued, weeping intensely, struggling to finish her words. "You haven't kept a single promise all this time, and now... and now you do this without telling me? You didn't even give a thought to my existence!"
Jin looked at her, shock written all over his face. His cheek was still red from the slap.
His mind was boiling. Aileen wasn't wrong about a single word. He truly hadn't thought about Lily during all that time; he hadn't noticed that he had broken every promise, yet the two girls never complained once!
And also... he was trying to process what she had done. He placed his hand on his cheek, asking himself: What is this? Even my mother never struck me like this. I haven't experienced this since I arrived on Earth. I haven't been treated like this since...
He remembered the years of his life after his mother's death, the pain he had endured. His chest tightened, and grief overwhelmed him at the memory. But he realized something.
This was different. This wasn't an insult or a humiliation. This was an overwhelming sorrow from her. It couldn't be compared to what he had seen in the past. He couldn't find it in himself to be angry with her.
He took the same hand that had slapped him and kissed it. "I'm sorry."
The girl screamed through her tears, "Get out!"
Shuang, who was devastated by the situation, began to cry because of her dear friend's grief.
Shuang: "Aileen, stop—"
Aileen screamed again: "I told you to get out!"
Jin rose quietly. He looked at them, heartbreak and weakness visible in his eyes. He left the room and closed the door softly behind him.
Aileen spoke to Shuang: "Why did you do this? Aren't you my closest friend? I considered you my sister, why did you do this?"
Shuang was trembling and crying. "Aileen... please listen to me... it happened so suddenly."
"What do you mean suddenly? Didn't you think of me? Didn't we promise each other that this would happen when he finished what he was doing? You didn't care about me; you wanted to get to him first."
Shuang fell silent for a long time before speaking again. "There are many things Jin hid from us. I had to do this to save him from losing his mind."
Aileen shouted, "What could possibly justify this?"
Shuang hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she told her what Jin had revealed about himself. She told her about his goal, the events that forced him to do things he didn't want to do, and the parts of his past he had shared after her long attempts to make him speak.
The girl calmed down slightly, though her tears did not stop. "So... was he really hiding all of this?"
Shuang answered: "Yes."
Outside, Jin sat on the sofa, his head resting on his hand, his face completely drained of life. His friends had been questioning him for a long time, but he didn't respond at all.
Martin: "Don't you intend to speak at all?"
Emily: "At least... say something. Don't just sink into your thoughts like this."
Kevin: "Man... I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cause trouble."
Jin looked at him and spoke coldly. "It's okay. This was going to happen anyway," he said in a truly hollow tone.
The bedroom door opened. Shuang stood there, calling his name.
He stood up quietly and walked slowly down the hallway until he reached her. He closed the door behind him softly.
Aileen was still sitting on the edge of the bed, with Shuang-Yu sitting right beside her, holding her hand.
Shuang-Yu: "I told her the truth."
Jin looked on sadly. "But..."
She interrupted him. "But what? What good will your pride do you now?"
The young man fell silent for a moment. He realized she was right. His pride, which had kept him from speaking for so long, was the reason for the distress weighing on his chest and the questions in his mind. He wondered: I was afraid of being looked at with pity... but is this the result? Is pride truly a good thing?
He approached them slowly and gazed into the face of the girl who was drowning in her own tears. He pulled her into a tight embrace, weeping, while Shuang embraced them both from the side.
"I'm sorry. I truly never want to do anything that hurts you, no matter what."
Aileen asked him, "Who... who is the person that resembles me so much, that made you love me this way because of them?"
Jin hesitated for a long time. Finally, with a broken voice and tears streaming down his face, he answered:
"It's... my mother."
[End of Chapter]