Hotel del Luna

Chapter 48:Pure White

"Y/N." Sana prompted gently, her expression was knowing when Y/N turned to look back at her, "You need to make a choice. Will you go back to the human world, or pass on?"

Y/N blinked in confusion, "What do you mean? I'm dead, right? I can't go back."

"Technically, you have not passed away," Sana explained, "You did not cross the threshold between the human and spirit world as a departed soul, and so, because your life force and body still coexist together, you have the option of returning to the human world in the same way that you left it."

Despite the good news, Sana seemed to be a little withdrawn and Y/N felt her heart beat fast, "But there is a catch, right?" Y/N mumbled.

Sana smiled sadly, "Unfortunately, you cannot go back without an equivalent exchange for your soul."

A trade-off, Y/N thought. A deal, like the kind her father had made with Nayeon.

Y/N let out a shaky sigh, "I won't trade my life for somebody else's."

Sana shook her head, "You misunderstand. You just need to trade something that is of equal value to your life. What do you care about the most?"

Y/N's breath caught in her throat. Instinctively, she glanced at Nayeon who was waiting by the beach, Nayeon's face tilted up to the ever-changing sky.

Sana smiled, "I see."

Y/N's eyes widened in panic, "Did you not hear me? I won't take her life, okay? Not when I worked so hard to save it."

Sana held up a pacifying hand, "You don't have to. But as the most important person in your life, you must somehow give her up."

Y/N noticed the emphasis in her sentence, "Somehow?"

"You can choose to erase your memories of her," Sana suggested, "From this life and life before. To you, that would be an equal exchange for your soul."

Y/N felt her blood run cold, "Erase my memories?" she repeated, scared, "But... I don’t want to go back to a world where I didn’t know her."

Sana placed a sympathetic hand on Y/N's shoulder, "It's up to you, Y/N," she told her gently, "Whatever choice you make, know that I am proud of you."

Tears unwillingly gathered in Y/N's eyes. There was only one possible option she could take, and they both knew what her decision would be.

Sana placed a soft kiss on the top of Y/N's head and smiled, "Be well, Y/N." she said, and left for the other side of the bridge.

Y/N roughly wiped her eyes and went in the opposite direction, approaching Nayeon by the river bank.

Nayeon didn't turn to look at her as Y/N stopped beside her.

"So you remember." Nayeon said.

Shame made Y/N's voice small and she swallowed the lump in her throat, "I do." her hand went to her heart, the same organ she had pierced in another life, "I betrayed you."