🏵ყ૯ՆՆ૦ω ԲՆ૦ω૯Ր 🏵

Chapter 64

"Good evening, aunt."

"You have returned."

"Yes. What are you reading?' Chul asked.

"Solar's research records."

"What? Why do you have that?!"

"She gave them to me in return for knowledge of Byul's whereabouts. She is with Byul," said aunt, and Chul left the quarters and went running where Byul was.

<<NO! NOO!! SOLAR NO!!>> "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" Chul yelled when she enters Byul's quarter. She notices that Byul was naked and was full of her flower's bloom. "You've done it."

"She helped me through my bloom. I only wanted to help her in return," said Solar when Chul pull her to take her outside.

"Eun-Chul, Solar was just..."

"What Byul? You want to come, too, looking like that? I'm going to take Solar to her quarters. You stay put," said Chul leaving Byul there and taking Solar out. "You had no business feting involved. You did not need to concern yourself with Byul's bloom. It was up to me to take care of."

"But you weren't there on time. You don't know how unbearable blooming can be. She was desperate for help."

"It wasn't worth giving up your research records for!"

"Whatever I decide to do with my records is my choice. It's up to me to decide, not you."

"' Your choice?' All right. I'm going to make my own choices from now on, so I hope you don't regret what you just said. Guards take her back to her quarters and don't allow any visitors. Even if it is aunt," said Chul going back where Byul was. <<My rage is flaring out of control. Angry outbursts overtake my words. But this is exactly what Byul has been doing to this day. spewing out whatever that comes to mind in a fit of anger. What does it matter, now that I'm the real Byul?>>

"I did some thinking while you were gone. Do you hate me?" asked Byul.

"Did you just realize that? It must have been difficult for you. That goes without saying."

"So you want me to disappear, right?"

"Of course I do, Byuli."

"But I've cared about you-"

"As your slave?" said Chul interrupting her.

"As a friend, Eun-Chul!"

"Do you know what my favorite food is? Or what my least favorite is?"

"What is this nonsense? You like eggs, and don't eat cucumbers."

"That's you, Byul. I like cucumbers."

"You always said you didn't like them, either. You always left them uneaten."

"You thought of me as a friend? How could we ever be friends, Byul? I'm just a slave, raised to be your substitute. That's what am I to you. But you thought of us as friends?! It's never been that way for me! Then how come you don't know anything about me? Funny enough, I don't know a thing about me either. I know everything about you to the last detail, but I just don't know anything about myself anymore. Except for one thing," said Chul removing her hand from her face. "I know that I love Solar."

"What?!"

"When I'm with her, I feel like I'm Eun-Chul, not Byul's shadow. To me, she's a gift from heaven, a reward for a life I've spent living for someone else. But You want to take that away, too," she glared at Byul.

"It's not like that! Solar is special to me as well! I simply did not know that you felt the same way about her."

"Of course you didn't! Because you never think about how I might feel!" and there were Byul started to remember everything Chul has said.

"You didn't do something to Solar's antidote, did you? You didn't interfere with its development, in case I'm fully cured?"

"I wouldn't call it interfering. I just had a hand in the timing of things."

"HOW COULD YOU BETRAY US BEHIND OUR BACKS?!"

"I couldn't have the antidote get in the way of our plan. If you disappeared and I took your place according to the plan that when we'd planned on completing-" Chul said but was cut off when Solar fell from her positions she was. Solar was listening to everything they were talking about and didn't believe what Eun-Chul said. "Solar! What are you doing here!"

"So you were lying to me this whole time? You were pretending to be a good person while thwarting the development of my antidote?"

"NO, SOLAR! THAT IS NOT THE WHOLE STORY! IT'S ALL A MISUNDERSTANDING!" said Chul.

"What's a misunderstanding? WHO ARE YOU TO HAVE A HAND IN THE TIME OF MY ANTIDOTE'S COMPLETION? WHAT RIGHT DO YOU HAVE? So that's why the antidote suddenly lost its effectiveness, right before my bloom. Isn't it? How long has this been going on? You didn't interfere when Wheein unnie was still here, did you? YOU KNEW HOW DESPERATE I WAS TO COMPLETE THE ANTIDOTE! HOW COULD YOU, KNOWING HOW IMPORTANT IT WAS TO ME?!!" yelled Solar grabbing Chul's collar.

"Because if the antidote was to be completed now, it would mean the end of me. Because the only way for me to live is for it to be complete is once Byul is gone! I just wanted to be with y-," Chul was cut off by a strong slap on her face.

"Wake up. Stop whining about how you must die. It's truly pathetic. If you want to live, find a way. Don't cause other people harm."

"I DIDN'T HAVE A CHOICE!"

"Are you sure? Did you even try to find another way? You didn't just give up and accept things for the way they were, telling yourself that you had no other choice? You and Byul unnie are not only alike in appearance, but in the way you think. But what's different about this situation is that I trusted you, and you betrayed my trust," said Solar opening the door where Byul was. "Come on."

"I can't, looking like this."

"Then are you just going to stay trapped in there until you die?" said Solar and Byul grabbed her hand. "Let's go."

"No. You can't leave," said Chul with a knife.

"Get out of the way. I don't want to waste another second with a traitor."

"I can't let you go like this, Solar."

"Then what are going to do? Stab me with that knife?" said Solar leaning to the knife. "You said you loved me. Was that a lie, too? So you could get me to trust you?"

"No... it wasn't a lie," Chul said getting on her knees with tears. "I do love you, Solar."

"I don't need love from someone who's going to hurt me," said Solar heading out. They got outside and they saw someone there and Byul went in front of Solar to protect her when the person took her mask off.

"We're here to escort you, my lady," said Chungha.

"I came back for a reason. Hwasa unnie sent them to help us escape."