Chapter 23 – Clarity Comes with Cracks
The Seoul morning was unusually golden, sunlight pouring through the windows of the hotel room like it had been saving its warmth for them. Erica sat by the open window again, breathing in the scent of the city—flavored by coffee from a nearby café and hints of rain from the night before. Her fingers traced the small changes in brightness and shadow she was starting to perceive.
She was beginning to see.
Not fully. Not sharply. But enough.
Shapes danced faintly in her mind when she blinked. The outline of a bed. The darker hue of the closet. The glow of a lamp even when turned off.
And colors. Faint, scattered, dreamlike—but real.
“I can’t explain it,” she said, turning slightly toward Jepoy, who was leaning against the doorframe with his arms crossed. “But it’s like my mind is adjusting. Like someone is slowly wiping fog off a mirror.”
Jepoy smiled, hiding the storm of emotions churning beneath his chest. “That’s what healing feels like, I think.”
She nodded. “I feel... new. And scared. And free.”
There was a pause.
She turned her face more directly toward him. “But I’m afraid, too. What if when I fully see again, I forget how it felt to trust things without proof? What if I lose that part of me?”
“You won’t,” he said, walking closer. “You’re still you—with or without sight. And you didn’t need your eyes to see what matters most.”
She reached up, touching his face again. Her fingertips moved gently—across his eyebrows, his cheekbones, the slope of his nose. He let her.
Then her voice broke the quiet.
“I think I see your outline, Jepoy.”
He froze.
She smiled. “You’re tall.”
He chuckled. “Only when I stand beside you. You’re pocket-sized.”
“Compact and dangerous,” she said with a smirk.
He laughed, but it faded quickly.
There was something unspoken lingering between them. It had been for days now. Since Jeju. Since the first time she said she might be seeing again.
“Erica…” he began, sitting beside her. “When your vision returns, what do you want to do first?”
She leaned her head against the windowsill. “Go to an art museum. Look at everything I missed. See my own paintings. See the sky with my own eyes.”
“And after that?”
“I don’t know,” she said honestly. “Maybe… move on. Finally let go of the things that broke me.”
That last part hit him harder than she knew.
Move on.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡY8QicixNQz
Let go.
Did that include him?
“I think you should,” he said quietly.
She turned to him. “What do you mean?”
“You were never meant to be stuck in shadows forever. I was just someone who… happened to walk with you in the dark. But when the light comes back fully—”
“Stop.”
She gripped his wrist tightly.
“Don’t say that.”
He looked at her, surprised.
“You weren’t just someone, Jepoy. You’ve been my comfort, my courage, my clarity when I had none. You’re not a phase. You’re a part of the light, not a shadow.”
He couldn’t speak.
Erica’s voice softened. “Don’t think I’ll leave just because I can see again. That’s not how love works.”
His heart stumbled at the word. Love. Did she mean it?
“I’m not going anywhere,” she whispered. “Not unless you push me away.”
“I never would,” he murmured. “But sometimes I wonder if I’m enough for you. You're this... incredible person, Erica. Talented. Beautiful. Smart. And me? I’m just a guy with drumsticks and calloused hands.”
“You’re the boy who helped me live again.”
She rested her hand over his heart.
“And if my sight comes back completely, it won’t change what I feel. It’ll only deepen it.”
Jepoy leaned in, forehead resting against hers.
“Promise?”
She smiled. “Promise.”
But outside their hotel window, the city kept moving. And somewhere, fate was beginning to stir. Because not all healing comes without pain, and not every love story is without cost.
A phone buzzed.
Jepoy reached into his pocket and frowned. It was a message from Minji Park:
“Emergency. Call me as soon as possible. It’s about your father.”
His heart dropped.
He excused himself quickly, stepping into the hallway. When he called Minji, her voice was tight and urgent.
“Jepoy… I’m sorry. But someone broke into the old apartment in Tondo.”
“What?!”
“There’s more,” she said. “Your father’s old neighbor found a package hidden under the floorboards. It was addressed to you. From your dad. He wrote it before he passed.”
Jepoy’s knees weakened. “Are you serious?”
“Yes. I’m sending it to you. You should receive it tomorrow.”
He hung up, overwhelmed. Emotions clashed—worry, curiosity, grief.
Back in the room, Erica was humming a familiar song—one he used to play on the rooftop back home. It grounded him. Reminded him that even when the world changed, some things stayed.
But as he watched her from the doorway, part of him knew:
Their story was far from over.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡPjCJdbul8r
But something was shifting.23Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡNNzaSH8vhx
Clarity was coming.
And it wouldn’t arrive without cracks.
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