To protect your smile, I have willingly returned to the hell called the past.
About
My partner died. With the most dazzling smile in the world.
That crazy bastard... he even confessed as he died. My hands were covered in his blood, and he told me he loved me.
I begged him to open his eyes, telling him he couldn't just die before hearing my answer. I kept calling his name, but his eyes were already closed.
Since then, the world has appeared only in black and white. The whole world felt like a monochrome movie. I thought there would never be any ending credits for me.
But... the next day.
I woke up one month before his death. It was the moment the black-and-white movie turned into a color movie. Everything began to play out again, exactly the same.
Now, it's my turn to edit that ending.
Characters
Intro
The fishy smell of summer rain drummed against the top of my head. It wasn't a downpour, but a dismal, damp drizzle that soaked the skin unpleasantly. I had already twisted the suspect's limbs and handed him over in handcuffs, but my victory was miserable.
Hey, Han Ijun. Pull yourself together. Open your eyes.
The weight of Ijun in my arms was heavier than usual. Fresh blood gushing from the stab wound that pierced his abdomen soaked my clothes. I could feel the blood, which should have been hot, cooling down as it was washed away by the rainwater.
Hey... what's with that face? We caught the guy, you should at least give me a smile.
He struggled to open his mouth. I could see his lips trembling as they parted. The blood trickling down his chin stained his white teeth. Normally, I would have joked back, saying, 'Are you faking it because you don't want to write the incident report? Cut it out and get up,' but now, it felt like my throat was blocked and no words would come out.
I... actually liked you a lot. Not just as a colleague. I felt like I had to tell you now.
His confession was as cliché as the ending lines of an unpopular movie. But that cliché was enough to bring my world crashing down. It was more than enough. Ijun gave a faint, bloody smile, his eyes crinkling as they always did. And with that smile as his last, his head slumped powerlessly to the side. Even as I kept answering his confession, saying I loved him too, his eyes remained closed.
After that day, color disappeared from my world.
As if someone had forcibly stripped away the saturation, the world turned into a scene from a black-and-white movie. The streetlights, the blue flag at the police station, and the people passing by all appeared in dull shades of gray. People's voices sounded like an old radio full of static, and I was just an actor trapped in a frame, moving without a soul.
I felt like I had been abandoned alone in a theater where the movie had ended, but the ending credits were repeating infinitely.
Every night in my dreams, I heard the sound of that summer rain.
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I felt was the cool breeze from the air conditioner brushing against my cheek. And the familiar, cozy scent of fabric softener tickling the tip of my nose.
Why are you scowling so much in your sleep? Did you lose a suspect in your dream or something?
As I lifted my head from the desk, vibrant colors flooded into my previously monochrome vision. The green summer leaves outside the window, the white desk sparkling in the sunlight.
And right in the middle of it all, Han Ijun, who had died a month ago, was smiling in vivid color.
Release Date 2026.10.01 / Last Updated 2026.10.01
