Descent of The Demon Master [EN]: Chapter 1981

The warmth lingered on his fingertips.

The warmth from Choi Yeon-ha’s body still lingered on Kang Jin-ho’s fingertips.

It was poignant.

His heart felt heavy…

“Ugh, damn it!”

Heavy…

“Seriously! Why is it snowing like this! It’s pouring like crazy!”

So much for poignant.

Kang Jin-ho subtly turned his head to gauge Choi Yeon-ha’s reaction, who was in the driver’s seat.

The snow on the road was nearly knee-deep. On a busy road, the heat from the cars might melt some of it, but they had come to a secluded coastal road to avoid people, and the snow was just piling up as it fell, making it impossible for the car to move.

“First, my car…”

“What? What do you think you can do with a rear-wheel-drive sports car that’s worse than a tricycle in this snow?”

Uh…

That was a valid point.

Driving skills to control a skidding car, or the keen eye to accurately assess the road conditions… those things only matter if the car can move forward in the first place.

No matter how skilled Kang Jin-ho was, there was nothing he could do about wheels spinning uselessly on the snow. If it were a person, he could at least scold them for not having the willpower to overcome it, but a car’s performance doesn’t improve just by giving it more gas.

“Mine is a full-time four-wheel drive! And it’s a high-performance four-wheel drive with winter tires! If even that can’t go, what do you think you can do with a sports car?”

“I knew this day would come when you started driving that impractical car. Cars are all about practicality!”

Excuse me?

Someone who only drives on paved roads is talking about practicality while driving an off-road four-wheel drive? That’s a bit…

Anyone would think she was going to war.

“Ugh!”

Choi Yeon-ha slammed her hand on the steering wheel, agitated.

“…Let’s see if there’s a pension nearby.”

“What? A pension?”

Choi Yeon-ha turned her head sharply, her eyes blazing.

“Seriously, do you think this is some old-fashioned youth movie? Trying to lure me into staying the night because the last bus left? Do you think I’m going to fall for that trick just because I’m pretty like those other girls?”

Looking at Choi Yeon-ha with her eyes wide open, Kang Jin-ho said awkwardly,

“…I’ll ask if they have chains.”

“And it’s not like we haven’t slept in the same house before, what’s the…”

“What are you saying! How indecent!”

“…I’m sorry.”

Right.

There’s no winning with words anyway.

“…Why the sudden blizzard?”

“Should we just go?”

“Huh? How are we going to go? The car can’t move.”

“We can just leave the car and run, it’ll be quick…”

“…Um, I think you’re forgetting something, I’m a person.”

I’m a person too…

“I can carry you, it’ll be faster.”

“Oh?”

Choi Yeon-ha looked like she was considering it for a moment, but then she waved her hand.

“Ah, no. The cold wind will damage my face.”

“…I can make sure the wind doesn’t touch you.”

“No. I’ll get motion sickness.”

Choi Yeon-ha sighed deeply, looking out the window.

The snow was really falling as if the sky had collapsed.

“The coffee is cold…”

“Give it to me.”

“Huh?”

Kang Jin-ho took Choi Yeon-ha’s coffee and wrapped his hands around the cup. Soon, hot steam began to rise from the coffee.

“Here.”

Choi Yeon-ha took the coffee, looking back and forth between the coffee and Kang Jin-ho, as if amazed.

“You could do this too?”

“Yes.”

“…You’re like a magician.”

Kang Jin-ho had tried his best not to reveal that he was different from ordinary people, but after this incident, it seemed that he had changed his mind.

Choi Yeon-ha realized once again that this man was not ordinary.

The steam from the coffee fogged up the car window. The falling snow quietly painted the world.

The sound of the wipers squeaking, the low engine hum.

‘I wish it would stop.’

She wished time would stop like this. She wished she could live in this moment forever.

Not because she was too happy, but because she was too afraid of the time to come.

Choi Yeon-ha knew.

That she couldn’t stop Kang Jin-ho in the end. And that she shouldn’t stop him.

Choi Yeon-ha was not Kang Jin-ho’s everything. She sometimes wished she was, but she also knew that she shouldn’t be.

And above all…

Choi Yeon-ha turned her head to look at Kang Jin-ho.

‘I’m going to lose him.’

Maybe she could stop him.

If she cried and begged, if she got angry and yelled at him to kill her instead… maybe then Kang Jin-ho would change his mind. But if that happened, then Kang Jin-ho would no longer be Kang Jin-ho.

Those who are outwardly strong are inwardly fragile.

Kang Jin-ho, who had lost the belief that sustained him, would no longer be the Kang Jin-ho of the past. The Kang Jin-ho she loved would disappear at that moment.

It might not be so bad to live holding onto someone who was just a shell. She could regret what she had lost, but she wouldn’t lose something bigger.

But…

She couldn’t do that.

Not because she was afraid of losing Kang Jin-ho, but because she was afraid of Kang Jin-ho losing himself.

That’s why she couldn’t do it.

“So…”

“Yes?”

The coffee was bitter.

Pushing away the lingering coffee flavor, Choi Yeon-ha quietly opened her mouth.

“What are you going to do when you come back?”

“…When I come back?”

Because he would come back.

There was no way he wouldn’t come back.

Kang Jin-ho seemed to be pondering something before he spoke.

“I haven’t thought about it.”

Choi Yeon-ha’s hand tightened, slightly crushing the paper coffee cup.

“Haha…”

Can I really trust this guy?

This kind of person?

Fortunately, as if to ease Choi Yeon-ha’s concerns, Kang Jin-ho spoke calmly.

“I haven’t really thought about doing anything in particular. I’ll just live.”

“Just live? That’s irresponsible.”

“That’s what I’ve been doing so far.”

A smile appeared on Kang Jin-ho’s lips.

“I used to think that I needed a goal in life. I thought I needed something to achieve, but now I don’t really think so. I just… um, how should I put it? Shouldn’t I just focus on the present?”

“Go to the general assembly and work with the members, laugh and chat with friends, worry with the children at the orphanage, be happy with family, eat well and earn well with the company’s employees… and…”

Kang Jin-ho’s face showed a sense of ease.

“Live with Choi Yeon-ha.”

“The things I’ve been doing without a second thought, the days that weren’t so special… it seems like just doing those things is enough.”

Kang Jin-ho shook his head.

He didn’t need anything more.

Not anymore.

He already had enough.

It was here.

The things he wanted, the things he didn’t even dare to hope for.

A happiness so dazzling that he couldn’t even look at it.

Right now, here, it was with him.

“What is that?”

Choi Yeon-ha bit her lip.

‘He’s so bad.’

If he says it like that, she can’t hold him back anymore.

“…You’ll come back, right?”

“Yes.”

“Not just empty words?”

“Yes.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled.

His smile was so painful that she couldn’t bear to look at it.

“…Do you know what?”

“What?”

“You’re really an idiot.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled silently.

Seeing his desolate smile, Choi Yeon-ha clenched her fist.

Right.

That’s what she liked about him.

That’s what…

“…You’ll really come back, right?”

Kang Jin-ho nodded.

She kept asking the same question. But it didn’t frustrate him. He understood Choi Yeon-ha’s heart, which needed to ask that question again and again.

Now he could understand the hearts of others.

Just because something was invisible didn’t mean he should back down.

If he wanted to know someone, he shouldn’t just watch, he should take a step closer.

Things he had only learned after so much time had passed. That’s why they were more precious.

“…Jin-ho.”

“Yeah?”

“Please come back.”

The moment Kang Jin-ho was about to answer, Choi Yeon-ha hugged him. The moment Kang Jin-ho was about to hug her back, Choi Yeon-ha pulled Kang Jin-ho’s head towards her.

Behind the fogged-up car window, the two people’s lips met.

How much time had passed?

Choi Yeon-ha pushed Kang Jin-ho away and leaned back against the seat with her eyes closed.

“…Yeon-ha.”

“Go.”

“…Huh?”

“I said go.”

Kang Jin-ho looked around in confusion. The world was still covered in snow, and the car couldn’t move an inch.

But…

“Why? Are you scared?”

“Yeon-ha…”

“I’ll be here.”

Choi Yeon-ha gently opened her eyes and looked at Kang Jin-ho.

“Until you come back, I won’t move an inch from here. I’ll stay like this.”

Looking into Choi Yeon-ha’s eyes, Kang Jin-ho couldn’t say anything and bit his lip.

“I don’t believe in words. I’ll be here until you come back, so you come and take me yourself.”

“Go.”

“I…”

Choi Yeon-ha looked at Kang Jin-ho with determined eyes.

“You said before that those heading to the battlefield need their own resolve.”

“Those who wait also need resolve.”

Choi Yeon-ha said firmly.

“Go. If you don’t come back, I’ll die here too. So… please come back.”

Kang Jin-ho looked at Choi Yeon-ha silently.

After a long moment of eye contact, Kang Jin-ho slowly nodded.

“You’re fighting too.”

“Yes.”

“…I understand.”

Kang Jin-ho clenched his fist.

Thud.

Kang Jin-ho opened the car door and got out. Snow fluttered in through the open door.

A world of pure white.

The world felt so unfamiliar that it made him want to cry.

He was afraid that the snow would completely cover Kang Jin-ho and take him to another world.

Afraid that she would never see him again.

“Then.”

A casual farewell.

The moment Kang Jin-ho was about to turn around…

“Jin-ho!”

Choi Yeon-ha reached out her hand without realizing it.

Her hand, reaching into the air, didn’t know where to go and slowly lowered. Choi Yeon-ha, placing her slightly trembling hand on her knee, smiled.

She forced the corners of her mouth, which wouldn’t rise, to twist upwards, and took a difficult breath.

She was an actress.

She should be able to make this kind of expression easily.

“Be…”

“Come back safely.”

It was snowing.

Pure white snow.

As if it would cover everything in the world.

In that snow, Kang Jin-ho smiled faintly.

That smile was branded into Choi Yeon-ha’s eyes like a seal.

“I’ll be back.”

Kang Jin-ho smiled brightly and slowly closed the car door.

“Ah…”

Before she could say anything, the car door was completely closed. The snow that had fallen on the seat slowly melted from the car’s heat.

Choi Yeon-ha quickly half-raised herself and wiped the fogged-up car window with her bare hand.

Through the endless falling snow, Kang Jin-ho’s back was getting further and further away.

Then, he completely disappeared into the snow.

Choi Yeon-ha slumped back into the seat as if collapsing and covered her face with both hands.

She hoped not.

She hoped that back wasn’t the last image of Kang Jin-ho she would see.

“…You bastard…”

The car, frozen and unmoving.

The snow piling up on it.

And through it…

Only Choi Yeon-ha’s low sobs spread out, chillingly.