CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE!
────past experiences.

❝PLEASE, LISTEN TO ME.❞

TRUST WAS A FICKLE THING. trusting someone meant that even at your worst, you'd let someone into your heart.

and [y/n] [l/n] was doing exactly that.

the last time she trusted someone with her heart, it was broken beyond belief. to her, her heart was impossible to fix.

then he came into her life.

sun jin-woo came into her life like a tidal wave. his kindness, his care, his love was unimaginable.

for as long as she can remember, [y/n] thought she was undeserving of those things. she didn't deserve the kindness she got and called herself disgustingly selfish that she would accept such things.

but as time went on, he showed her that she could. that she could accept the kindness she was given.

time and time again, he would show her that she can accept it. his words, his actions, his everything reassured her of every doubt she had.

and soon, that kindness turned into love.

[y/n] [l/n] had come to realize she'd fallen in love with sung jin-woo. she didn't hate the idea of it, she wanted to be with him.

she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.

it wasn't because she was afraid. it was because she kept her heart guarded. the love she got in the past was evil. what she thought was roses turned into thorns.

the love she experienced was nothing more than a ruse.

but with him, his love felt free, warm, safe. it felt like a perfect spring day in a field full of flowers, a soft breeze in the wind.

his was love was what she expected love to feel like and will continue to feel like this.

WITH THIS, [Y/N] [L/N] HAS DECIDED TO TRUST SUNG JIN-WOO WITH HER HEART

───── ⋆⋅ ☽ ⋅⋆ ─────

THE SILENCE WAS deafening.

jin-woo wanted to say no. he wanted to tell her she didn't need to tell him.

because her existence was enough. her being in his life was enough. she didn't need to repay him with her trust.

what he needed was her, just her.

"i want to tell you, cause i decided i wanted to." [y/n] starts, putting her hands at her sides. "don't think i'm telling you for the sake of telling you. it was my choice woo. please, understand that."

his expression was unreadable but he understood. he has never once gone against her wishes and he wasn't going to now.

"i'll listen." jin-woo declares, shoving his hand into his pocket out a habit.

a look of gratefulness appears on her face. she takes a sharp inhale, she wanted to sit down but that would only make her more nervous.

so she stands there and puts a hand over her heart, trying to steady it. she then takes a deep breath and looks to the ground, not being able to look at her friend in the eye. to which he accepted.

if he was going to listen, it will be on her terms. not on his.

"remember when i told you about why i never felt comfortable around men? what i'm about to tell you is the reason why i don't feel safe." she begins, her voice shaky.

it's been almost half a year since it happened. the thought of it was still a bit fresh.

but she needed to be strong. she needed to tell him.

[trigger warning up ahead.]

he has trusted her with everything he had, she wanted to return that. she wanted to show him that all his actions towards her weren't for naught.

jin-woo hums to signal a yes, that he does remember. he doesn't do anything else as he was obligated to stay quiet and only listen.

"when i was in the double dungeon..."

[y/n] bites her lip, feeling tears pool in her eyes. pausing to get herself collected as jin-woo waits patiently.

she looks up to the sky and takes another deep breath. she lowers her head and her glassy [e/c] eyes gaze at the ground.

"when i was in the double dungeon, i was raped."

what felt like hours, jin-woo finally registers what she had said.

and everything clicked for him.

when she told him the bare minimum about what happened in the double dungeon when they first met, made sense.

when she was cautious of groups of men around her, made sense.

the information she asked for from the hunter's association, made sense.

everything finally made sense.

───── ⋆⋅ ☽ ⋅⋆ ─────

HIS FIRST EMOTION was anger.

he wanted to know who it was, immediately.

[y/n] could sense that and she shakes her head. getting the message across, he holds himself back.

his best friend needed him to listen. she needed for him to be with her.

she feels her right hand shake out of pure nerves and anxiety. then suddenly, someone slides their hand into hers.

she looks up to meet the eyes of her friend who only looked at her with love and patience. "take a deep breath for me [n/n]." he whispers, his tone soft and comforting.

she slowly nods and does what she's told. instinctively she rests her forehead on his chest. she feels his hand lay on the back of her head and starts to soothe her.

it was his way of saying, "take all time you need. i'm here to listen."

he didn't know how grateful she was that he was in her life now. no words could amount to that.

yet, she still had more to tell him.

"i lost both of my parents to the eternal slumber when i was younger. i couldn't keep paying the hospital bills anymore so they had to cut off their life support." she explains, letting out a choked sob.

he feels her tears wet his shirt but he doesn't pay attention to that, he only squeezes her hand.

"my older brother didn't let me see them, not once. they only thing i have left of them is just old pictures." she continues, her voice barely above a whisper. "he kept saying it was my fault they ended up dead. that i was the reason my parents died."

by now, she had wrapped her arms around him. letting her tears fall down her cheeks as she spilled out all her pain to him.

"my brother left me to rot after they died. i had to sell the house i grew up in to keep myself alive. i asked my guild members for help but they told me to live on the streets instead." she says, remembering all the cold nights she had to endure alone.

jin-woo could feel her body shake and brings her closer as if to protect her, as if to keep her warm.

"all my guild members used to harass me because i was weak and useless." she pauses to stop herself from stumbling over her words. "because i was just an e-ranker. they left me to die in dungeons, shoving me first into monsters."

she lets out a pained cry, as it was her first time spilling her experiences to someone in over half a year. it being jin-woo, made her all the more emotional.

"i was all alone, i was so scared! i had lost everything i had! i wanted to leave this world, i wanted to end my misery! i wanted to end it all!"

it was then tears started to fall from jin-woo's eyes, he holds her tighter. it got to the point that [y/n] couldn't speak anymore as her sobs didn't let her.

she could only let out all of her pain and past experiences to the person she loved most.

it didn't matter if he didn't have the right words to comfort or reassure her. he didn't need to erase all her pain and heartache.

ALL THAT MATTERED MOST WAS THAT HE STAYED.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE END!
────past experiences.