Love Was Never Idle

[Everything he does for her is a sign that her death is drawing near…]

She is afraid of everything, but most of all, she is afraid of dying.

He wants nothing. To achieve his goal, he has no choice but to let her die.

Seated in a soft chair, he looks her way, his gaze full of purpose and calculation.

She returns his look, unaware of the unseen forces at work.

He says, “If you want to call it a debt, then I suppose I do owe you. It’s just that I can’t repay you in this life.”

She smiles. “Even if there is a next life, I don’t want to meet you again.”

She follows him through countless hardships and dangers, helping him fulfill an obsession he has carried for years, while her own burning passion slowly grows cold.

In the end, things go as he wished, and she leaves after accomplishing her goal.

But fate has never favored anyone. After searching for her for so long, he sees her again. He wears silver, his gaze clear and bright; she is wrapped in plain clothes, unmoved.

They still look as they did before, yet when they look back, it feels as though a hundred years have passed.