I Reject the villain’s ending.

Episode 62.

Tearing his gaze from the sky, Moringa looked down at Iros and said.

‘I’ve lived a long time, much longer than most half-man-half-horse. Don’t you wonder how I’ve lived so long?’

At Moringa’s words, for the first time, Iros looked away from his buried face in his hands.

Moringa held out the small pouch at his wrist in front of him.

Iros stared at it but didn’t take it easily.

‘What is this?’

‘A gem that will prolong your life.’

‘…….’

‘As a succubus half-breed, it’s easier to prolong your life than other half-humans. If you eat the gemstone forged from the energy, your life will be extended.’

Moringa smiled, her red eyes twinkling, her snow-white hair blowing in the wind.

‘I don’t know what kind of half-breed you are, but if you’re half-man, half-horse, it should work to some extent.’

Placing his pockets in Iros’s hesitant hand, Moringa retrieved his umbrella and disappeared into the darkness, smirking.

‘Consider it a gift from someone who has lived longer than you.’

‘…….’

‘Remember, only take one at a time, when you’re struggling and you think you’re going to die. There are side effects if you overdose. Your body won’t be able to handle the power in the gem and you’ll explode.’

‘Thanks…….’

‘If you’re grateful, go and confess. I’ve always found that confessions tend to bother people.’

Moringa smiled bitterly and shrugged uncharacteristically.

‘It’s a small piece of advice, but I mean it. Don’t duck, don’t hide, and if you back down, you’ll regret it later.’

‘Is that a rule of thumb?’

‘Yeah. It was a long time ago. So, kid, you don’t regret it.’

The scattered darkness vanished like an illusion on the wind.

Iros clutched the pouch in his hand, remembering Moringa’s advice as it vanished.

‘Regrets, I do not.’

How do I tell her of my love when she’s been hurt by it and doesn’t believe in it?

Iros’s mauve eyes flared hot for a moment.

‘If she doesn’t believe in love, you’ll just have to tell her until she does.’

‘Iros, where the hell did this pink go?’

He could hear Sierra’s voice and footsteps approaching in the distance.

‘If she’s going to go to another man, I’m going to make her focus all her attention on me.’

Iros stood with his head hanging low, his back arched as if he were crying.

His eyes, usually so gentle and relaxed, became wolfishly sharp.

‘I’ll make you think of me, fill your head with me, make you look at me.’

Iros’ face instantly changed to a pale color.., a vulnerable, wounded expression.

Finally, Sierra found him and opened her mouth in a small voice.

‘Pink…….’

Now the fight back begins. If the crown prince was going to come out like that, Iros would just have to win her over as Sierra’s cute little pinkie.

‘Because I can’t stand being taken.

I won’t be taken from you, ever.

* * *

‘Ha, ha……. I thought she ran this way, where did she go?’

I was out of breath and dizzy from all the running I’d done, feverish and drunk.

Still, I couldn’t stop my legs. I caught a glimpse of Iros’s upturned face through the crack in the door.

‘Last time I saw you, your clothes were wet and disheveled, and you ran to the palace to find me in this weather without an umbrella.’

And now that he’s seen me in the wrong place with the crown prince…….

Before I could say no, he ran off, so I didn’t even get to clear up the misunderstanding.

‘Where is he, where has he gone?

Where did he go, alone, with eyes full of pain, like a wounded animal?

‘It’s raining so hard, and I don’t even have an umbrella.’

I sighed and moved toward the garden.

‘Surely he didn’t come this way.’

He wouldn’t run outside in the pouring rain, I thought, but there he was.

Through the rain-slicked grass, I could see Iros’s tiny back, soaked to the skin and sobbing.

And yet there she was, crouching in the rain, breathless.

‘Pink…….’

I tried to call out to him, but I couldn’t find my voice at the sight of his tiny back, so I bit my lip hard and ran, fighting back the tears that threatened to overflow.

I run to him and wrap my arms around his back.

‘You’re cold.’

‘…….’

‘You idiot, why are you doing this, what did you do wrong to deserve to be out here in the rain!’

He’s doing this because of me.

Iros yelled at him, frustrated at his cold back for doing nothing wrong.

I closed my eyes tightly, leaned my cheek against his cold back, and let the rain fall.

I could hear the pounding of his heart through his back.

‘Be angry. Don’t cry, be angry! You should be in a warm room, not in the garden in the rain. You’re worried!’

‘…If you were worried about me, you shouldn’t have come to the palace alone.’

Iros’s voice, emotionally charged, escaped his lips as he fought back tears.

‘If you were worried about me, you wouldn’t be cuddling up to the crown prince like that, if you were worried about me……!’

Iros’s voice grew more and more furious.

Her voice grew more and more furious as she cried out, her breath coming out of her mouth in a choked, pent-up voice.

‘Don’t kiss another man.’

Her voice was drowned out by the rain.

Only the rain echoed in this garden, and it was unsettling, the silence terrifying.

‘Pink?’

‘…….’

I called out to him, and his back, which always seemed to be turned, turned slowly.

A steady stream of what I couldn’t tell was rainwater or tears rolled down Iros’s cheeks.

His eyebrows, which I love so much, drooped, and his eyelashes were wet, casting shadows as dark as the tears on his cheeks.

She looked like an abandoned puppy, so pitiful, so desperate, so pitiful that my heart felt like it was clenching.

Pale pink lips moved.

‘It hurts. It hurts so much here.’

Iros whispered, his eyes sad as he clutched his chest.

‘I’m jealous, Saint.’

Iros lifted his head and stroked my cheek with trembling fingertips.

His voice was as trembling as his fingertips.

He began a small, almost pathetic confession.

‘I was first. I was always first.’

‘…….’

‘The Saint didn’t find me, I saw you first, and I started this whole damned thing, this damned heart, this damned thing I can’t get out of my mouth.’

‘What the fuck are you talking about…….’

My eyes slowly widened as I listened to Iros’ words.

My chest heaved like a wine hangover.

‘Why is it that you don’t know, why is it that everyone else knows, but you don’t know, that I have you in my heart.’

‘……!’

‘So look at me, just look at me, Sierra. Look at me, not the crown prince, not that other guy.’

A single tear, this time unmistakable, traced a silver line across her white cheek and slid down her face.

‘I love you, Sierra.’

‘……!’

My heart thudded in my chest and my eyes widened.

‘Me… what?’

You? Me? Why?

‘Since when? No, why?’

‘Since a lot longer than you think.’

‘Why on earth would you like me, no, how could you like me?’

Common sense didn’t make sense. He doesn’t just like me, he loves me, when all the things I’ve done wrong to him up to this point are more than the stars obscured by those clouds.

‘I don’t understand you, how can you like me, after what I’ve done to you?’

I took him by force, spewing mean words to hurt him, throwing things at him, pleading with him in tears.

It’s not enough for you to take off your crane and spew words of hatred, and you like me?

Are you confessing to it because you saw me in the wrong pose and angle with the crown prince?

Like a puppy who doesn’t want his master to be taken away by another dog?

That sounds more believable to me.

‘You said it yourself, I’m a human being who would feel sorry for a scumbag to be called a scumbag, so why do you like me?’

I shake my head and laugh awkwardly, like a broken man, and Iros takes my hand in his and kisses it, trembling.

The slow, steady press and pull of his lips was almost reverent.

Then it dawned on me.

He was serious, not joking, not kidding, not just saying it out of conviction.

‘Why do you not trust me? Why do you doubt my feelings so much? I love you so much.’

‘Of course you don’t. There’s no one else in the world who could love me. I don’t believe in love.’

Born the illegitimate child of a count, I lived as an outcast. Like a wandering ghost, sometimes like a bored peanut.

My life of being treated as less than human wasn’t going to change if I suddenly became a saint and received attention.

I was still Sierra, unloved and unwelcome, and I couldn’t escape it. Forever.

‘I don’t even like me, and you like me.’

My response came out like someone who had just heard the strangest thing.

‘I love you.’

‘How…….’

‘I love you, very much.’

‘But…….’

‘I love you more, more brightly than the countless stars in this world.’

Now I don’t know if it’s tears or rainwater running down his cheeks.

‘Even if these are brainwashed feelings, I love you, and that will never change, ever.’

How can he be so sure?

Even if I become an evil woman who destroys this country, will my feelings last forever?

I constantly doubted it, constantly denied it, and pushed it away.

The moment I opened my mouth, I could feel my body trembling.

‘I don’t believe you like me, I don’t believe you love me.’

‘I know, because you always have.’

‘I can’t give you back what you feel, what you want.’

‘It’s okay, I’ll come to you slowly, I’ll teach you, these feelings.’

When I lived as So-won Kim, I have seen it many times. People who cried, laughed, and were broken by the emotion of love.

As Sierra, I saw them closer and more often.

I wondered if Iros was getting tired and broken like that.

I wondered if Iros would grow tired and broken like that if he would eventually resent me and leave me.

‘I’m scared. The feelings, the love. Everything that changes with time.’

Should I continue pretending? I don’t know what’s going on behind his back.

‘No. I already know, and I can’t go back to the way things were.

Even though I know, I keep going backward.

And Iros, who knows me all too well, quickly catches up to my retreating steps.

‘I’m not going to watch from the sidelines anymore, I’m not going to back down, and I’m going to make you love me even if you don’t.’

Iros’s voice, full of conviction, rings in my ears as if he’s speaking of a future so clearly foreseen.

‘I’m going to make love to you, Sierra.’