Chapter 85: Reunion with Gina
Yuto stood at the edge of the familiar road and found that his feet refused to move.
His house was there.
Right in front of him.
Close enough to touch.
Close enough to reach within minutes.
Yet somehow this final stretch felt harder than surviving the First Tower.
Harder than fighting cryptids.
Harder than facing death.
Three months.
Three entire months.
His stomach twisted painfully.
The journey back from the Ethereal Association had passed in a blur. He barely remembered the streets he had crossed or the people he had passed.
His thoughts had been elsewhere.
Always returning to the same person.
Jina.
As he stared at the distant house, questions swarmed his mind like vultures.
Was she free?
Had the Masaru Clan actually honored their promise?
Or had they lied?
Had they found some excuse to keep her?
Had she suffered because of him?
The thought made guilt twist inside his chest.
Then came another fear.
One he hated even more.
Would she be happy to see him?
Or would she hate him?
Would she look at him and only remember the day he disappeared?
The day he left her behind?
Yuto swallowed.
A darker thought followed.
What if she had moved on?
Three months wasn’t forever.
But it wasn’t nothing either.
People moved on.
Lives changed.
Circumstances changed.
What if she had met someone?
Someone stable.
Someone safe.
Someone who didn’t disappear into deadly towers for months at a time.
What if she was already engaged?
Already married?
The thought hit him with surprising force.
His stomach dropped.
A bitter taste filled his mouth.
No.
Don’t be stupid.
Even so, the fear lingered.
By the time the house finally came fully into view, his palms were damp with sweat.
Yuto stopped walking.
For several seconds he simply stood there.
Looking.
The sight struck him harder than expected.
Nostalgia washed over him first.
Memories surfaced instantly.
Shared meals.
Late conversations.
Laughter.
Arguments.
Quiet evenings.
Moments that had once seemed ordinary.
Moments he now realized he had desperately missed.
Relief followed.
Then sadness.
Then joy.
Then pain.
All of it mixing together until he could barely tell where one emotion ended and another began.
His gaze wandered across the property.
The grass had been cut recently
Someone had cared for this place.
Someone had maintained it.
Someone still lived here.
Jina.
The realization made his chest tighten.
A shaky breath escaped him.
She’s here.
She’s really here.
Before he could lose his nerve, he forced himself forward.
Step by step.
Up the path.
Past the flowers.
Toward the front door.
His heart pounded harder with every step.
Then he raised his hand and knocked.
The sound echoed through the house.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Silence followed.
A few seconds later, footsteps approached.
Yuto’s heartbeat nearly stopped.
The door opened.
And there she was.
Jina.
For a moment neither of them moved.
Neither breathed.
Neither spoke.
Time seemed to freeze.
Her eyes widened.
Shock spread across her face so quickly that it almost looked painful.
She looked like someone staring at an impossible miracle.
Or a ghost.
"Yuto...?"
The sound of his name nearly broke him.
His throat tightened immediately.
Months of fear, guilt, loneliness, and hope crashed together inside him.
"Jina."
Her expression changed.
Not gradually.
Instantly.
The shock vanished.
Something colder replaced it.
Her jaw tightened.
The warmth disappeared from her eyes.
And before Yuto could process what was happening, she started closing the door.
His stomach dropped.
"Wait."
He shoved a hand against it before it could shut completely.
The door stopped.
Jina’s eyes narrowed.
"Leave."
The word struck harder than any punch.
"Jina, please."
"I said leave."
"I can explain."
"I don’t care."
Those three words hurt more than he expected.
More than Tami’s gauntlets.
More than the tower.
More than any injury he’d suffered.
Because this was Jina.
And hearing her speak to him like that felt wrong.
Painfully wrong.
"I really can explain."
Her jaw tightened.
The silence stretched.
Finally she stepped back from the doorway.
"Fine."
Her voice was cold enough to make him flinch.
"Explain."
Yuto swallowed.
Then he began.
At first the words came slowly.
Awkwardly.
But once he started, everything poured out.
The prison.
The mysterious prisoner.
The certainty of his execution.
The realization that killing a noble as a commoner carried only one punishment.
Death.
He explained how hopeless the situation had been.
How becoming a Paragon had represented his only chance to survive.
How the prisoner had convinced him to run.
How he had argued.
Resisted.
Refused.
Because leaving meant abandoning her.
Because every instinct had told him to stay.
Even if staying meant dying.
His voice trembled as he continued.
He explained the promise.
The assurance that Jina would be released.
Protected.
Compensated.
How he had clung to that promise because it was the only thing allowing him to leave at all.
"I wasn’t trying to abandon you."
His voice cracked.
His vision blurred.
For a moment he hated himself.
Hated how desperate he sounded.
But he couldn’t stop.
Tears threatened to fall.
"I was trying to survive."
The confession hung between them.
Raw.
Honest.
Painful.
Silence followed.
A long silence.
"So you’ve been in the First Tower this whole time?" Jina finally asked.
"Yes."
"And you only got out today?"
"Today."
A weak laugh escaped him.
"I thought I’d only been gone a few weeks."
His smile faded.
"Apparently three months passed out here."
Jina stared at him.
Really stared.
Not at the boy she remembered.
At the person standing before her now.
The differences were obvious.
His shoulders had broadened.
His body had become stronger.
More defined.
More capable.
There was confidence in the way he stood now.
A quiet edge to him that hadn’t existed before.
But beneath all of that she saw something else.
The dark circles beneath his eyes.
The small scars scattered across his skin.
The tension hidden behind his smile.
The exhaustion buried deep in his posture.
He looked older.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
Like someone who had lived through years rather than months.
The anger she’d held onto suddenly became harder to maintain.
"...You look terrible."
For the first time since arriving, Yuto smiled genuinely.
His eyes still glistened.
"It’s nice to see you too."
Jina immediately looked away.
"I’m still angry."
"Come on."
"No."
"I explained everything."
"So?"
"Isn’t that enough?"
"No."
Yuto laughed helplessly.
The sound carried a strange mixture of relief and defeat.
Then he reached forward and gently took her hand.
Her fingers stiffened.
"What do I need to do to earn forgiveness?"
Jina finally looked at him.
The answer came immediately.
Without hesitation.
"Give me back the last three months."
His smile faltered.
The pain in those words was impossible to miss.
He lowered his gaze.
"I can’t."
"Exactly."
She tried to pull her hand away.
Yuto held on.
Not tightly.
Just enough.
"I missed you."
Jina froze.
The words were quiet.
Almost fragile.
But they carried more weight than anything else he’d said.
"Every day."
His voice dropped lower.
"There wasn’t a single day I didn’t think about you."
Images flashed through his mind.
The wasteland.
The cryptid.
The tower.
Every terrifying moment.
Every lonely night.
She had been there through all of it.
A constant presence in his thoughts.
The reason he kept moving forward.
The reason he wanted to survive.
Jina turned her head away.
But not before he caught sight of the smile trying to appear.
The tiny crack forming in her anger.
"You’re annoying."
Yuto stepped closer.
"So I’m forgiven?"
"No."
A pause.
"...Maybe a little."
Another pause.
Then she sighed.
The fight left her shoulders.
"Fine."
Before Yuto could react, she grabbed the front of his shirt.
Then pulled him forward.
Hard.
Her arms wrapped around him.
Tightly.
Far tighter than he expected.
As though she was afraid he might vanish again if she loosened her grip.
Yuto froze.
Then slowly wrapped his arms around her.
The familiar warmth nearly shattered what remained of his composure.
Neither spoke.
Neither moved.
They simply held each other.
For a long time.
Eventually Yuto felt something warm soaking through his shirt.
Tears.
Jina’s shoulders trembled.
Just slightly.
Enough.
Enough to tell him everything she wasn’t saying.
"Don’t leave me again."
Her voice was barely a whisper.
Yet it carried more emotion than anything else.
Fear.
Loneliness.
Pain.
Relief.
Love.
All tangled together.
In that moment Yuto finally understood.
Not intellectually.
Not logically.
Emotionally.
He understood how frightened she had been.
How many nights she had spent wondering if he was alive.
How many mornings she had woken up hoping for news.
How many times she had imagined the worst.
His chest tightened.
He pulled her closer.
As close as he could.
Buried his face in her hair.
And closed his eyes.
"I won’t."
The words came easily.
Because this time they were true.
Not a promise born from hope.
Not a promise born from desperation.
A choice.
A decision.
One he intended to keep.
He tightened his embrace.
"I won’t."
