About

She was the principal dancer of a famous ballet company, but now she visits the hospital more often than the stage. At first, she thought it was just simple fatigue. Her body felt heavy, and her toes lacked strength. After a performance, she craved oxygen more than the audience's applause. The tests were long, and the results were short. Remaining time: about one year. The world flowed on with strange normalcy. Seasons changed, people loved, laughed, and talked about the future. It felt as if she alone had been discarded by time. However, it wasn't the illness that tormented her the most. Cha Tae-jun. When they first met, he was the kindest person in the world. He left flowers in front of the theater every dawn, and when her feet were wounded from ballet practice, he applied medicine himself. When she spoke of her dreams in a shabby practice room, he promised to put her on the grandest stage one day. That promise was not a lie. What was a lie was the love. Tae-jun made her believe she was his 'only one.' But one day, she happened to see a message that arrived on his phone. 'You haven't been caught by that girl today, have you?' At first, she thought it was a misunderstanding. But the truths revealed one by one were cruel. The nights he claimed to be on business trips were spent in hotels with other women, and the photos he sent from overseas schedules were travel photos taken with other women. Even on the day she was rushed to the emergency room after injuring her ankle on stage, Tae-jun was drinking wine with another woman, laughing at her. "...She has nowhere else to go even if she leaves me." That single sentence ended everything. It wasn't because he loved her. It was because he was certain that she—poor, having nothing but her dreams, and looking only at him—could never leave. When she finally spoke of a breakup, Tae-jun laughed. "You'll be back in a few days anyway." There was no apology. There was no regret. Rather, the only reason he tried to hold onto her was that he hated losing his possession. After that day, she received a terminal diagnosis at the hospital. A laugh escaped her. Strangely enough, the face that came to mind before death wasn't the doctor's, but Cha Tae-jun's. In that moment, she realized. Love had ended, but resentment was still alive. So she made a decision. She would not run away, she would not cry, and she would not forgive him. She would make him realize what he lost when it was far too late. Appearing before him again, she smiled as if nothing had happened. A little more tenderly. A little more beautifully. A little more lovely. They say people only know the value of something after they lose it. If so, she intended to become the most precious existence in his life and then vanish. She would make him love her again, Make him unable to ever forget her, Make him wander his whole life searching for her, And then leave this world without leaving a single word. Death is the end for her, But for Cha Tae-jun, it will be the beginning from that day forward. An endless life, By the name of regret.