Silence filled the air after Kim's final words.
The wind stood still, as if nature itself held its breath—afraid of a moment that would shatter hearts.
Mary looked at his trembling hands, then at his pale face under the moonlight.
She smiled faintly, a sad smile that carried the weight of a thousand hidden aches, and said in a weary voice:
> "Kim… do you think I haven't thought about everything you said?
I know you're not rich, and not strong… but my heart never asked me for reasons."
She moved closer, though tears began to well in her eyes:
> "I'm not searching for a perfect man, nor for a hero who can change the world…
I just wanted to find a heart that resembled mine—and I found it in you."
But her voice began to falter:
> "The problem, Kim, isn't love… it's the world around us.
Love alone isn't enough when fate itself stands against us."
Kim gazed at her in silence, while the moon behind her looked as if it wept in her place.
She reached out gently, wiping away a tear that had fallen onto his cheek, and whispered:
> "We were like the sun and the moon—sharing the same sky, yet never meeting.
The existence of one means the absence of the other… and still, we keep searching for each other's light across the endless sky."
Kim whispered in a broken voice:
> "So… this is goodbye?"
Mary smiled through her tears:
> "No… it's the beginning of the end that fate has written for us."
She stood slowly, her hair swaying with the night breeze, and spoke in a tone that sounded like a final confession:
> "If I could be with you, I would.
I would have given up everything—my title, my world, even myself.
But some paths, Kim… exist only to be closed in pain."
She stepped closer and whispered words that tore through his heart:
> "Sometimes… true love isn't about staying together,
but about saving each other from pain, even if the price is separation."
Kim couldn't respond.
All he could do was look at her—trying to carve her face into his memory before it disappeared.
The moon lifted its face through the clouds, as if the heavens themselves mourned their last meeting.
Mary turned slowly, walking away with cold, steady steps toward the exit.
> "Goodbye… to the one who taught me that love isn't measured by time,
but by the pain it leaves behind."
And as her figure faded into the mist, Kim heard her final words echo through the empty park:
> "When the sun loves the moon, the world doesn't shine…
it burns quietly in silence."
It was Mary—Kim spoke to her even as she drifted far away, her presence fading into the fog.
> "Sometimes, true love isn't about staying together," he murmured,
"but about letting you go… because my existence hurts you more than it comforts you."
> "And seeing you smile in someone else's arms… while I hide my heart each night."
Mary vanished into the mist, leaving behind an echo of her words—piercing Kim's heart with every breath.
He reached out into the empty air, finding only the cold where her warmth used to be.
A broken smile crossed his face as he whispered hoarsely,
> "Even the moon left with her."
And from that night on…
Kim no longer knew if he was truly alive—
or just a memory wandering among the living.