Sion froze.
He didn't even have time to understand.
She repeated, a little stronger, a little more broken:
— … it's over.
The floor caved beneath him.
Sion collapsed.
Literally.
His knees hit the parquet with a hard, animal sound.
Like a body being taken down.
— No… no… I don't want… I don't want it to be over…
His voice trembled, tore itself apart, lost, warped by a sob he couldn't even hold back.
He raised his eyes to her.
His pupils were those of a child watching the door close on him.
Of a man witnessing his own death.
— You never really loved me…
The sentence fell like a knife.
Sion jolted.
His breathing shattered.
He pressed his hands to his face—
a survival reflex—
pressing hard so he wouldn't see.
Then he clamped them over his ears so he wouldn't hear.
— No… no… no… no… NO…
His voice dissolved into an uncontrollable whimper.
A plea.
A descent into madness.
Nari went on.
Because she had to.
Because she had no choice.
Because if she stayed silent now, she would die with him.
Her voice shook, but her words were blades.
— You never wanted to see me happy, Sion…
He lifted his head, horrified.
— You don't really love me…
You don't love me.
You love what I give you.
You love that I'm there.
That I'm only yours.
You love my body, you love my presence…
But me, happy…? You don't love that.
Each word struck Sion like an axe blow.
Nari continued, her shoulders shaking with tears.
— The moment I'm even a little happy… you come break me.
You come destroy me so I'll be entirely yours.
What you want isn't love.
It's someone for you, alone, who will never leave you.
— NO!!
NO NO NO NO NO!!!
STOP!!!
I'M BEGGING YOU!!!
STOP!!!
Sion clawed at his own face as he screamed.
He was losing it.
Completely losing it.
But she had to finish.
Or she would never walk away.
— I love you, Sion.
With all my heart…
But I want more.
And today…
I'm ending this.
She lifted her head.
Looked at him.
And gave him the most painful smile a woman can give.
A breakup smile.
A mourning smile.
A deliverance smile.
She stood.
Got dressed.
Shoved clothes into a bag without folding, without thinking, without looking—
like someone fleeing a burning house.
Then she walked toward the front door.
Sion lurched up.
He ran.
But his body was broken.
Too weak.
Too exhausted.
Too destroyed.
He stumbled.
Fell to his knees.
And grabbed Nari's legs with everything he had—
like a drowning man clutching his last lifeline.
— I'm begging you…
I'm begging you, Nari…
Don't go…
DON'T ABANDON ME…
His voice didn't even exist anymore.
It was a shattered breath.
A crushed sob.
An implosion.
Nari closed her eyes.
If she turned her head now, she would fall into his arms again.
She knew it.
She felt it.
She ached for it.
But she couldn't die for him anymore.
Not this time.
Never again.
She spoke one sentence.
Only one.
— If you love me even a little… let me go.
The world stopped.
Sion became a statue.
Frozen.
Cut down.
Destroyed.
His hands slid slowly down Nari's legs—
as if someone were prying each finger off one by one.
Then his hands hit the floor.
Nari opened the door.
Without looking back.
Sion remained still.
On his knees.
Arms limp.
Eyes empty.
Like a man who had just watched the only thing he had left die.
Ten seconds.
Ten seconds where he literally ceased to exist.
Then—
His throat tore open.
— NARI—!!!
His voice exploded through the apartment.
A raw, animal howl,
the sound of a heart being ripped out by hand.
He tried to stand.
His legs collapsed.
He screamed again, louder, more broken, more feral.
Tears poured uncontrollably—
heavy, thick, hot, like blood.
— DON'T GO!!
DON'T LEAVE ME!!
NARI!!!
NARI!!!
He stretched his arms toward her like a drowning child begging to be pulled from the river.
His fingers trembled, searching, grasping at the empty air.
But Nari kept walking.
One step.
Then another.
Then another.
Without turning back.
Without breathing.
Without living.
Every one of Sion's screams ripped down her spine.
Every plea sliced through her ribs.
Every "NARI" tore open her throat from the inside.
Her heart was pounding so violently she thought it might burst between her ribs.
Her vision blurred with tears.
Her legs weakened beneath her.
She felt as if invisible strings were being pulled from her chest—
strings woven from memories, from nights in his arms, from snow, from kisses, from skin against skin.
Strings snapping one by one in a slow, excruciating crack.
She staggered.
Grabbed the stair railing.
Breathed like someone drowning.
Sion screamed again.
Screams that sounded like death.
Like ripping.
Like the cry of a man feeling his life collapse.
And Nari…
Nari was dying too.
With each step she took downward, a part of her peeled away, disintegrated.
Her inner voice screamed louder than Sion's:
"Turn around."
"Run back to him."
"Hold him in your arms."
"Don't leave him alone."
But she kept walking.
With a broken step.
A trembling step.
A survivor's step.
Because if she turned around—
she would never again have the strength to leave.
Never.
The door closed behind her with a dull, final thud.
Inside the apartment, Sion remained on his knees.
His forehead against the floor.
His hands open, empty, shaking.
His screams had died out.
Only a twisted, unreal silence remained.
The silence of a world ending.
His shadow, stretched across the floorboards, looked like the silhouette of a man dying.
Outside, on the stairwell, Nari leaned against the wall.
Her silhouette trembled under the pale light.
Her tears fell one by one, darkening the concrete with small circles.
Between them—
A door.
A world.
A fracture.
Two souls who loved each other until they bled.
Two hearts devoured by one another.
Two fires that, when they touched… burned themselves to nothing.
Their love was a storm.
A wildfire.
A void.
It had burned everything.
Lit everything.
Destroyed everything.
And now—
Only ashes remained.
The ashes of desire.
The ashes of a love too big to be carried.
Too violent to be lived.
Too inevitable to be stopped.
Sion cried.
Nari cried.
Two sobs separated by a few meters and an ocean.
And that night, the world understood something:
Some loves don't end when two people walk away.
They end when they survive.