"It's been almost three years now. Why have you come to me now?"
"Do you really need a reason?"
"Isn't this the sign that we're supposed to meet like this?"
"I was wrong. It's been too long, but I regret it."
"As you said, it's been too long. What are you going to do now?"
"I know it's late. I know, but I came anyway. To here."
"That won't change anything. Just like the past two years. Let's just live like that, without knowing each other."
Ong Seong-wu grabbed the female lead's wrist as she turned away.
"If I just leave like this, what will become of me?"
"When you said that to me, I couldn't say a word. I don't remember exactly, so I couldn't say a word in response. Your words stuck with me and tormented me for two years. Do I have to do more..?"
The strength in the voice actor's hand that was holding the female protagonist's wrist went out, and their hands and wrists completely separated.
"Huh? Where did Yeoju go? Team leader, where did Yeoju go?"
"I don't know."
"It seemed like someone contacted me earlier and was leaving..."
"I'll go and look for it."
Daniel went down to the first floor to look for the female protagonist, and what he saw was Sungwoo holding the female protagonist's wrist. He didn't know that the person who came to find him was the Sungwoo he had met earlier.
Soon, when the voice actor's hand was taken away from the female lead, he got off the elevator and walked away with long strides.
As the female protagonist turned around, she saw Daniel right away. Even with tears welling up in her eyes and her vision blurring, she could clearly see Daniel walking towards her.
"Dani.. Team Leader..?"
"What is it?"
"I was just about to go up..."
"You came all the way to the company. What was so urgent?"
Daniel, who had been spitting out sharp words as if the voice actor was annoyed by the meeting, seemed to be angry because he was annoyed.
"You said it was so hard for you for the past two years. You even brought a new person to sit next to you."
"what?"
The female protagonist narrowed her eyes at his words heard from behind and asked back.
"What the hell did you just say..?"
I couldn't believe my ears. Still, I felt like I had come to apologize and beg for forgiveness, so I had a lot to say, but I didn't. All I could say was that I couldn't forgive you.
But his response was not at all like someone seeking forgiveness. Bring in a new person and sit down? Then and now, all that came out of his mouth were vicious words that slandered people.
Daniel, who knew the circumstances of the female protagonist even though he didn't know the relationship between the voice actor and the female protagonist, couldn't control his anger as soon as he heard the voice actor's words and grabbed him by the collar.
The female lead, who should have stopped his behavior at work, was unable to stop him and only shed tears from her eyes.
"When Ui-geon became like that, I was so hurt that I couldn't remember a single thing that happened at that moment. It was a momentary shock, as if only that scene had been deleted. But you told me. Ui-geon died because of me. I didn't know Ui-geon was dead, and I didn't know why I was lying in the hospital, but you came to me and said that. Ui-geon died because of you. But why are you still alive? You told me to bring Ui-geon."
One man was listening to the woman's words while holding her by the collar, and the other was holding her by the collar.
"And during those two years, when I was so exhausted I wanted to give up everything, I didn't spend a single day thinking about what you said. Could it be true? Why can't I remember even a single last thing about Ui-geon? I was tormented by that thought for a long time, and I felt like I was going to die. I felt like I would die alone at home, without a sound. So I started turning away. It couldn't be like that. It was probably just an accident. He definitely didn't die because of me."
The voice actor didn't even try to break free from the hold on his collar. He just let out a breathless laugh.
"I resented you so much. But then, a scene just came to mind, and I think it might be true. Ui-geon was smiling at me until the very end. I was crying. That's when I realized something. Ui-geon had made a choice. So, what do you want to hear from me? Is this enough?"
The female protagonist stopped Daniel. Daniel listened to the female protagonist until the end and obediently let go of Seongwoo at her touch.
"If it was going to end like this, I wouldn't have come looking."
"Then do more. I'll accept it all."
For the first time, the heroine held Daniel's hand tightly. She spoke firmly, as if her wounds had completely healed, but all Daniel could feel was her hand trembling slightly.
"I know. That Eui-geon wasn't special to me alone. I understand why you did that to me. But Eui-geon said he didn't regret it. He said he would make the same choice again if he could go back to that moment a hundred times. That's what he said. So I'm okay now. I've met a good person, too."
The voice actor chose the most painful and sharp words he could muster and threw them at the female protagonist. But the female protagonist didn't. Perhaps it was because, while the image he had seen two years ago had seemed filled with hatred, he now seemed to show a hint of sadness.
"If it was going to end like this, I wouldn't have come here. I told you clearly."
After the voice actor left, Daniel helped the female protagonist, who had collapsed in her seat with her legs weakened, up. Then he hugged her with his wide arms.
"I'm sorry. I don't know everything about you yet, Yeoju. I wanted to ease your sadness, but I'm a little afraid that I might become your sadness too."
"You've relieved me enough. If you hadn't held my hand earlier, I wouldn't have been able to say anything."
Yi-geon, Yeo-ju, and Seong-wu were best friends.
While all three attended elementary, middle, and high school together, Yi-geon and Yeo-ju, who were best friends, had suddenly become lovers. Sometimes, the heart can be so confusing. The moment these two, who seemed destined to remain lifelong friends, discover that their feelings for each other were actually love disguised as friendship, they face an irreversible change.
Yeoju and Ui-geon were confident that they would not regret their choice.
Eui-geon told the female protagonist, who was attending the academy, that he would wait for her at the bottom of the academy when she finished school, and that he would take her home so she wouldn't have to go out alone late at night. After saying that, he waited until the female protagonist finished school and confessed while handing her a small bouquet of flowers.
"i like you!
"Will you go out with me?"
The female protagonist was smiling brightly while receiving a small bouquet of flowers.
"Hey, do you want to go eat tteokbokki after school?"
"If you leave me behind, I'll die~ Just try to sneak out without me knowing that you two are dating!"
After graduating from high school and going to college, the three of them didn't meet often, but their relationship remained unchanged.
But the accident shattered the relationship between the three.
"It's because of you! It's because of you that Ui-geon died! Hey, Kim Yeo-ju! Wake up! Save Ui-geon!! Why only you... Why only you..."
As she watched Seong-wu cause a ruckus in Yeo-ju's hospital room, Yeo-ju had no one to understand what he was thinking as he endured each day. Seong-wu was a friend to Eui-geon, but he was also a friend to Yeo-ju who had been with him for a long time.
But, even though the voice actor knew that the female lead was having a hard time, he yelled at her until his throat was hoarse, blushed, and blamed her. The female lead had no choice but to blame and regret herself for that moment that she couldn't even remember, and swallow her sadness alone.
Today, I met again with a voice actor I hadn't contacted since then.
Why did I think he came to ask for forgiveness?
The female protagonist thought that perhaps the voice actor had come to forgive her.
"It's not your fault. Absolutely not, it wasn't the heroine's fault. It was just a very unlucky accident."
At Daniel's one word, all the memories of the past in Yeoju's head stopped.
Those were the words I most desperately needed: It wasn't my fault.
It was more painful than I could have imagined to blame and scold myself for something I couldn't even remember.
Daniel always gives me the words I need.
Don't see me as I am seen, don't hear me as others say, but see me completely as I am, the person named Kim Yeo-ju.
In his judgment, everything was not my fault, and the words I needed most in his judgment were the consolation that it was not my fault.
He told me without hesitation.