Hana's breath hitched as she stared at the figure standing in the doorway. His presence was suffocating, as if the room itself were bending around him, drawn into his gravity. The air shifted again, heavier now, more oppressive, and the pendant around her neck throbbed with a pulse that seemed to echo her heartbeat.
She couldn't believe it. He was real.
The man who had haunted her dreams. The man whose betrayal had shattered the life she remembered. Standing there, in the flesh, eyes fixed on her with a chilling intensity.
Lucien Ricci.
Her mind screamed at her to move, to run, but her body refused to obey. The memories of their past life, of the world they had once shared, surged up like a tidal wave, crashing over her. It was as if they had never really been apart, as if time had folded in on itself, dragging them back into the same story, over and over again.
Lucien stepped forward, his dark eyes never leaving hers, a faint smirk tugging at the corner of his lips. His tailored suit gleamed in the dim light, the shadows playing off of it, accentuating the cold, calculated menace in his every movement.
"You're not supposed to remember," he said, his voice low, almost a whisper. But the authority in it was undeniable.
Hana swallowed, forcing herself to speak, though her throat felt dry, like it had been coated in dust. "How how are you here?" She couldn't bring herself to call him by name. Not yet.
"Your memories... They were never meant to surface," Lucien continued, his gaze flickering briefly to Jisoo, who was standing rigid beside her. "But it seems fate has a way of interfering. Again."
Jisoo stepped forward, his own expression hardening. "What the hell do you want, Ricci?"
Lucien's smirk deepened, his eyes gleaming with something dark and unreadable. "What I want is irrelevant," he said, taking another step toward them. "It's what you want, Hana, that will decide everything."
Hana's grip tightened around the pendant, her fingers trembling as the memories, the fragments of their past life, began to fill her mind with clarity. She remembered the way Lucien had looked at her in their past, the way his gaze had burned with something deeper than affection, something darker. She remembered the promises, the lies, the broken trust.
And yet, here he was, standing before her again.
"Why?" she managed to whisper, the word escaping her lips before she could stop it. "Why are you here now? Why... after everything?"
Lucien's eyes softened, though the coldness never fully left them. "You and I, Hana, are bound by forces you don't yet understand. The cycle you're caught in is not one you can simply walk away from."
Her chest tightened. The weight of his words pressed down on her like a vice.
Jisoo was the first to react, his voice cutting through the tension. "Enough with the cryptic nonsense. If you're here to cause trouble, you're going to regret it."
Lucien glanced at him, his lips curling into something like amusement. "Jisoo... You still don't understand, do you? You can't protect her from this."
Hana could feel Jisoo's anger rising, but she held up a hand to stop him. She didn't know why, but she needed to hear more. She needed to understand what was happening, what had gone so horribly wrong.
"What is it that you want from me?" she asked, her voice shaking, but she forced herself to remain steady. "What do you want from us?"
Lucien took another step forward, his eyes never leaving hers. "I don't want anything, Hana. I never did." His voice was almost too smooth, too calm. "But the world... it doesn't want us to have what we had. And now, it's too late to stop what's coming."
"What's coming?" she asked, her heart hammering in her chest.
The smirk faded from Lucien's face as he stepped even closer. He reached for the pendant around her neck, his fingers grazing her skin as he gently took it from her. It felt as if a spark of electricity surged through her at his touch, a flash of something dangerous.
"You shouldn't have this," Lucien said, his voice low, almost a warning. "It's more than just a trinket. It's the key to everything, Hana. You don't know what it can do."
Hana's breath caught in her throat. "What are you talking about?"
Lucien tilted his head, a dark gleam in his eyes. "You'll find out soon enough."
The pendant pulsed in his hand, almost as if it were alive. Hana's heart raced as the room seemed to tilt and sway. She reached for it, but Lucien pulled it out of her reach.
"You have no idea what you're involved in," he murmured, his voice colder than before. "The forces at play here... they're not just ancient. They're eternal."
Jisoo moved to intervene, but Lucien held up his hand, stopping him in his tracks. "You're out of your depth, Jisoo," Lucien said quietly, his tone like ice. "Both of you are."
Hana could feel the walls closing in on her. The air was thick with something she couldn't place, a presence that felt too familiar and too dangerous. The pendant in Lucien's hand pulsed again, stronger this time, sending a ripple of heat through her body.
Suddenly, everything snapped into focus.
The memories, the visions, the haunting sense of deja vu it all clicked together. She had made a choice in her past life. And this choice, this mistake, was the one that had brought her here.
Lucien wasn't just a man from her past.
He was the one who had sealed her fate. The one who had chosen to betray her, to break her heart, to lead her down a path she couldn't escape. And yet, somehow, in this life, they were here again. The cycle was repeating.
But this time... she wouldn't make the same mistake.
Hana's voice was firm, cutting through the tension that had gripped the room. "You won't win this time, Lucien. I don't care what you say. I'll stop you."
Lucien's eyes narrowed, his grip tightening on the pendant. "You think you can change fate, Hana?" His voice was mocking now. "You think you can rewrite history?"
For a moment, everything seemed to stand still, the air heavy with their words, their gazes locked. The tension was unbearable.
Then, without warning, the pendant in his hand shattered.