Chapter 959
The harsh wind whipped across the rooftop, violently tangling Noreen’s hair around her face.
She desperately racked her brain for a way to talk this stranger off the ledge, but having zero experience with something this dark, all she could manage was a clumsy, “If you jump… your mom is going to be so heartbroken.”
A heavy, suffocating silence dragged out before a hollow voice finally drifted back to her.
“My mother is dead,” he said.
Realizing how badly she had messed up, Noreen was consumed with guilt and immediately backpedaled. “I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry!”
The man completely ignored her apology, leaning dangerously forward until his toes were perched on the absolute edge of the concrete drop.
Just one more inch, and he would finally be free of all the pain.
He was so incredibly ready to jump. Hitting the pavement meant the end of the inescapable nightmares, the end of the suffocating black tar of despair that was constantly dragging him under.
In Noreen’s blurry, tear-filled vision, the dark silhouette swayed forward.
“Wait!” she screamed, pure terror seizing her throat. “I just won the Gold Medal at the International Mathematical Olympiad today! Hey, stranger… can you at least congratulate me?”
Her frantic, tear-choked voice was like a slender silver thread, suddenly wrapping around his ankle and pulling him back from the brink.
That voice didn’t belong in his agonizingly dark world. It was a voice entirely devoid of the abyss, untainted by the rot of absolute despair.
“That competition was incredibly hard, but I got a perfect score! Aren’t I amazing?” Seth didn’t say a single word, but his body stopped swaying toward the drop.
“I’m going to give this medal to you! Can you keep it safe for me?”
“When I grow up and make a ton of money, you can bring this Gold Medal back to me, and I’ll trade you for any present you want!”
She had absolutely no idea how to negotiate with a suicidal person; she just prayed that offering him something to look forward to might anchor him to the living world.
What if the promise of a future reward was enough to make him hesitate?
After a long, stretching pause, the man finally spoke, the ironclad resolve in his voice beginning to fracture. “Can I trade it for something really expensive?”
“Of course! As long as I can afford it, you can have literally whatever you want! You pick!” she yelled back instantly.
Terrified he would change his mind and jump anyway, Noreen carefully placed the gleaming medal on the cold concrete. “I’m leaving it right here! Can you just step back over the ledge and grab it?”
Leaving the prize on the floor, she immediately took several large steps backward to give him space.
The dark silhouette finally shifted.
But this time, it moved backward.
In Noreen’s unfocused vision, the man slowly swung his legs back over the ledge, stepping onto the solid, safe concrete of the roof.
As he bent down to retrieve the medal, his eyes were violently bloodshot, the depths
of his gaze an endless, suffocating void of absolute ruin.
But the very second he looked at Noreen, a tiny, glowing fracture shattered the impenetrable darkness in his eyes.
“So it’s a promise, then! You
absolutely have to bring this medal back to me so I can buy you that gift Noreen called out desperate for his confirmation.
She stood completely still, terrified to breathe as she waited for his reply.
After what felt like a lifetime, the man finally offered a rough, barely audible “Yeah.”
Noreen let out a massive, shuddering breath of relief. “I have to go back and check on my mom now. Until we meet again, stranger.”
Seth didn’t say another word, just silently watching her fragile figure disappear down the dark stairwell.
His fingers unconsciously tightened, completely crushing the heavy medal against his palm.
On that suffocating, sweltering
afternoon, Seth held that prize in a
death ip, letting the sharp metal
edges bite deeply into his skin to prove he was still alive.
For the very first time in his miserable life, he realized that maybe, just maybe, this world wasn’t entirely beyond saving.
Because a completely random teenage girl had used her most prized possession to violently drag him right back from the gates of hell.
In the present, Seth meticulously cataloged every single shift in Noreen’s expression.
His striking, masculine features
softened with an overwhelming, burning devotion as he rested his forehead gently against hers. His voice was a mix of a longing complaint and a reverent sign. “U we meet again, Noreen.”
Until we meet again.
“Until
Those words made hot tears instantly prick at the corners of Noreen’s eyes.
So, this was actually their very first meeting.
She couldn’t explain why her heart was thrashing so violently against her ribs. His
intense, searing gaze felt like it was physically branding her soul.
“So… I’m the one you’ve been entirely obsessed with all these years?”
“It was always you,” he murmured.