They were Edward’s grandparents.
The dates read: June 8, 2014.
Suddenly, fragments of memory surfaced–the faint recollection of a news report I had barely registered at the time, lost as I was
in my own heartbreak.
A fire in the Greyhole neighborhood. Two dead, one injured…
At that moment, everything fell into place.
I looked at Edward, my throat dry. “The night of the college entrance exams… Something happened to your family, didn’t it?”
He didn’t respond, and I pressed on anxiously, “Was there a fire at your house?”
Edward lifted his head to look at me, but his expression was vacant, as though he didn’t recognize me.
His once–handsome, refined features were now haggard beyond belief. His usually bright, lively eyes were bloodshot and empty,
and he looked like a discarded doll–broken and forgotten.
I remembered what Emma mentioned about his mother, and my mind jumped to something Edward had once told me about his parents divorcing and starting new families abroad.
If his grandparents had died in that fire, then everything else suddenly made sense.
ALL 2/4
Chapter 6
Back then, he hadn’t reached adulthood, so his mother must have taken him in.
No wonder he disappeared after the exams.
That night, when I sent him those messages, it must have been when everything happened.
Edward only had me as a friend. No one else would have known what he was going through.
+15 BONUS
Which meant, from his perspective, one moment I was confessing my feelings to him, and the next, I was with someone else,
cutting off all contact and blocking him entirely.
Guilt hit me like a wave.
Compared to what he endured, my actions seemed far more cruel.
I crouched down in front of him, and Edward blinked at me as if only now realizing who I was.
“Yuna,” he murmured.
There was a fragile look on his face, and his voice turned soft and uncertain. “I don’t have a family anymore.”
His eyes were hollow, his expression lost and helpless, and my heart ached for him.
After learning the truth, all my resentment had already dissipated. Now, looking at him like this, I could only feel an
overwhelming sadness.
His grandparents were gone, his mother had recently passed, and his father never wanted to acknowledge him.
He truly had no family left.
I opened my mouth, but the words caught in my throat. After several attempts, all I could manage was a quiet, “Don’t be sad.”
I didn’t know how to comfort him.
In situations like this, there were no words that could truly help.
“I’m sorry,” Edward said instead.
His voice was slurred, and it was clear he wasn’t entirely sober.
“I didn’t mean to ignore you back then.”
He lowered his head, looking like a child, sadness and grievance etched into his expression.
“The fire broke out so suddenly. My grandparents were old. They couldn’t bear to leave everything behind. After pushing me out,
they kept trying to put out the fire. But it was no use.”
His voice grew quieter, distant. “The flames were too strong. The house was full of cardboard boxes and plastic bottles… There was nothing they could do.”
3/4
By the end, his tone cracked with a hint of sobbing.
I hesitated for a moment before stepping forward and wrapping my arms around him. “I know.”
It wasn’t until I got closer that I realized his body was burning hot, radiating an alarming heat. He was still mumbling
incoherently, lost in his haze.
A fever?
Panic surged, and I had no time to listen further. I shouted urgently, “Emma! Come quick! He’s burning up!”
The words had barely left my mouth when Edward’s head slumped forward, and he collapsed into unconsciousness.
