"Was letting him die the only option?" Koko asked softly as they walked through the ruined city beneath the crimson sky. Her silver eyes were fixed on Jinhwan's back, glinting faintly in the dying light.
Jinhwan didn't turn. He kept walking, his steps steady, boots crunching over broken glass and gravel.
"Well, he tried to kill us first. What did you expect me to do?"
His voice was calm, clipped. Cold even, but not cruel, just practical. His blue eyes flicked from shattered vehicles to crumbling houses, scanning the wreckage for threats, or perhaps, just something that still made sense.
Koko's footsteps slowed. She stopped on a rise, a hill made from the bones of the city, where houses and buildings had crumbled into a jagged mountain of debris. The wind whistled through hollow windows and twisted metal frames.
"Even so... didn't you feel bad for him?" she asked.
Jinhwan stopped near the edge of the hill, his eyes drifting over the ruined skyline.
"Nah," he said simply. "Why would I? I didn't even know him. I'd feel bad if he were a friend... or someone close. But he was neither."
Without another word, he sat down on a relatively flat slab of concrete, brushing off the dust with a sweep of his hand. Reaching into the bag slung over his shoulder, he pulled out a black fruit, round, unfamiliar, but ripe. He wiped its skin clean on the side of the bag, then took a bite.
It was sweet. Refreshing.
The tension in his shoulders eased as the juice ran across his tongue. Something about it made him feel less drained, like a slow pulse of energy had stirred in his chest. He exhaled through his nose, letting the flavour linger, the weight of the day briefly lifting.
Behind him, the city groaned in silence, and the sky burned red above them.
Koko watched Jinhwan quietly as he bit into the fruit. The crisp sound, the sweet aroma, it was too much for her empty stomach. A low growl betrayed her hunger, and her brown cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
She hadn't eaten anything since they left the village.
With a small sigh, she sat down a little distance from him, reached into the bag, and pulled out her own fruit. One bite, and her eyes widened slightly. The juice was rich, sweet and slightly tangy, but more than that, it was refreshing. It quenched both hunger and thirst in a single bite, as if the fruit itself had been designed to survive in ruined lands like this.
"You don't have friends, right?" Koko asked, glancing at him with a teasing smile as she chewed.
Jinhwan didn't look at her. He took another bite and answered casually, "I have."
"Really? So.. you're close?" she lifted her brows, amused and curious.
Jinhwan nodded. "Yeah. We're close. She's the only friend I've ever had. My first and only."
He looked out at the ruined city, scanning the distance, searching. His eyes lingered on the broken skyline, the red haze, the mountains of rubble. He was still looking for that red container, the one they needed, but in a place this massive, it could be anywhere.
"So.. is she your love or something?" Koko asked, brushing her silver bangs behind her ear as she bit into the fruit again.
Jinhwan chuckled softly, shaking his head.
"Nah, we're just friends. I've got a girlfriend. And those two? They're always at each other's throats. Always looking for an opportunity to put each other down."
"Why doesn't your girlfriend like your friend? Or your friend doesn't like your girlfriend?" Koko asked, her full attention now on the conversation.
"Well," Jinhwan started, chewing slowly, "back in the first year of high school, when I got into a relationship with my girlfriend, my friend got jealous because she had feelings for me. So she started bullying my girlfriend.."
He paused mid-sentence, then narrowed his eyes at her. "Wait, wait, why do you wanna know all that? What's with that look? You're acting like this is some drama on TV."
Jinhwan glanced at her. She was munching on the fruit, eyes glued to him with curiosity sparkling behind them.
"It's you who started talking about it, so I was just listening," Koko replied with a shrug, taking another bite.
"So, I noticed you act like some rich person," Koko said, still munching on the fruit. "Like, your attitude, the way you talk and behave.. So are you some kind of prince or something in your world, or is it just your personality?"
"Prince?" Jinhwan let out a laugh, wiping juice from his lip.
"Nah. But I do own a corporation, pretty big, actually. One of the most important ones back in my world."
"Sounds rich-" she started, but her words froze mid-sentence. Her eyes had shifted, locked on something just past Jinhwan's shoulder.
A red container.
Not just any container, it stood a few hundred meters away, tucked behind the collapsed skeleton of a billboard and the wreckage of an old bus. Its colour was faded, but still unmistakably red. Larger than a standard cargo container, it was packed tight against the slope of a crumbling building, like it had been wedged there on purpose.
And unlike the ones they'd seen before, this one had a door. Not a sliding metal hatch, but an actual door, like the entrance to a house, set neatly into one side, complete with a handle and a faded number stencilled just above it.
Koko stood up slowly, wiping her hands.
"Is that.... that container?"
Jinhwan turned, his eyes narrowing as he spotted it.
"Finally," he muttered, rising to his feet.
He placed the half-eaten fruit back into the fruit bag and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt.
Without wasting a second, he began walking toward the container. Minutes passed in silence, his boots crunching over rubble and dust until he stood right in front of the door.
Koko was just behind him, raising her hand slightly as she pouted at his back. Her silver eyes began to glow softly.
Jinhwan's blue eyes responded, glowing faintly in return. Then, without hesitation, he placed his right hand on the handle and pushed.
The door creaked open slowly.
[Episode 43 End]