Chapter 2

Within seconds, Abbie lunged forward a step and shoved me back violently, as if my earlier gesture had contaminated the air around her.

I looked down at the plectrums on the table. "We've been together for five years, and we still ended up like this. I guess we were never meant to spend our lives together."

Abbie slammed the signed termination agreement against my chest. The sharp edge of the paper scraped across my neck, leaving a stinging red slice.

Her voice was as cold as ice. "If you'd come to your senses five years ago instead of clinging to me like a parasite, we wouldn't have had to waste all this time on each other."

"My bad." I chuckled bitterly, forcing a faint smile.

Five years of giving her my heart and soul, and in her eyes, I was just a needy nuisance clinging to her.

"I guess the only way to pay for my mistakes is with my life."

"Your life?" Abbie let out a cruel sneer, as if she'd just heard the funniest joke in the world. "You'd actually die? I thought you'd stick to me like a leech, bleeding me dry and dragging me down forever."

I paused. A metallic taste flooded the back of my throat, and I kept my voice low. "If I die, I swear I won't love you in the next life."

"Tell me that when you're actually dead. Don't use death to threaten me. It's pathetic."

Abbie looked away, grabbed the agreement, and walked out without looking back.

The wooden door slammed shut behind her with a heavy thud, shaking loose a shower of sawdust from the ceiling beams.

She left again, refusing to spare me even a final glance.

The fake smile faded from my face. My knees gave out, and I slid down against a wooden stump onto the floor.

She really did hate me that much—so much that she thought even my death was just a cheap joke.

Steadied by my trembling legs, I dragged myself back to the workbench.

From a hidden compartment at the very back of the drawer, I pulled out another document.

At the top was the official seal of the city's best hospital. "Late-Stage Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Diagnosis Report".

The bottom line read like a countdown to execution. "Estimated life expectancy under six months."

I stared at those words for a long time, until my vision blurred.

Using all my strength, I tore everything into shreds.

The scraps fluttered down, mixing into the pile of sawdust on the floor until they were impossible to tell apart.

Just like my hidden love over the past five years.

At the crack of dawn the next day, pushing past the agonizing pain of muscle atrophy, I packed all my personal belongings into an old wooden chest and locked it in the storage room.

Not a single trace of my existence was left in the workshop.

Before anyone else arrived, I grabbed a ladder and climbed up toward the main ceiling beam.

My fingers were already turning stiff and unresponsive.

Clutching the wrench tightly, I made my way to the top of the beam.

A morning breeze blew through the workshop window, carrying the familiar scent of the paulownia trees from the hill behind us.

When I closed my eyes, a single tear slipped down my cheek. I whispered softly, "Goodbye, Abbie. I hope you find... your freedom."

I raised the wrench and loosened each of the three steel cables supporting the main beam by half a turn.

The moment I jumped off the ladder, the loosened beam let out a sickening crack.

Instantly, dozens of heavy, centuries-old paulownia wood planks piled on top came crashing down with crushing force.

A muffled impact echo filled the room.

The sound of snapping bones was sickeningly clear. The stench of blood mixed instantly with the scent of raw wood.

The excruciating pain lasted only a second. Before I could even gasp for air, my consciousness sank into total darkness.

In the final second before everything went black, I let out a soft sigh in my mind.

I had lied to Abbie.

I died in the year I loved her the most. Reason told me to wish we'd never meet again in the next life.

But if reincarnation were real, she would probably still be my very first choice without a second thought.

Only this time, I was finally done clinging to her.

She must be happy now.