Park bench

Evening, City Park

Days passed, and Han Chen and Hye Won grew even closer. Han Chen crossed 5th layer mid level foundation realm recently. Since being with her, he didn't choose those year long seclusion inside world bead for rapid ascension, but everyday he would meditate inside. The time chambers comes with a lower threshold for diminishing returns. So he can't go in for smaller periods of time anything below a month. The consumption is excessive.

His spirit sense and range grown considerably, but telekinetic range remained same. One day thinking about the upcoming troubles, he was with Hye Won and finally decided to discuss it with her. The sunset painted the playground in amber as they watched children chase each other through the fading light. On a park bench, he broke the silence in a low voice.

"There's something I haven't told you. And it needs some decision and its been bugging me recently."

Hye Won smirked, nudging him. "Shocking. I know you've got more secrets than a spy novel."

A pause. Then: "Two months from now, someone important is going to nearly die in a car crash. And I know because… I've seen it before."

Her smile faltered. "Seen it how? Seen who?"

"In another life." His gaze didn't waver. "I remember it all—the accident, the person, the years after. Like a life I already lived."

Hye Won's fingers tightened around her soda can. "You're serious."

"Dead serious."

She exhaled sharply. "Okay. So you're telling me you're some kind of… reincarnated ghost?"

"Not a ghost. Just a guy with memories he shouldn't have." He didn't fully uncover himself nor been truthful as he didn't feel the need to. He leaned back, watching a flock of birds scatter. "In that life, I was with a woman named Yue Lan after her accident left her paralyzed. Her family abandoned her. I became her caretaker. And then she died. "

Hye Won's breath hitched. "Jesus. And now?...Yue Lan... wait is it the boss lady we met few months before??"

"Yes. Now, she's alive. Unharmed. But the accident's coming unless I stop it. I have a regret—I didn't help her, I could have did something more. At least she was my wife in name in that life."

The playground's laughter faded as Han Chen's words hung between them.

Hye Won's soda can crumpled in her grip. "Your… what?"

A beat. Then her laugh cut the air—sharp, disbelieving. "Oh, that's rich. You drag me here to tell me you've got a soulmate now?"

"It wasn't like that." His voice was in a way as if when he was bracing for impact. "We were strangers forced together. She was—"

"....Paralyzed. Abandoned. And you played hero husband." She stood abruptly, the bench scraping concrete. "What am I, then? A consolation prize because she's not yet broken in this life and until you get her?"

Han Chen caught her wrist. "You know it's not—" She threw the can at his head. It bounced and fell. "Do I?" She wrenched free. "You've always been… more, mystical. But this?" Her voice cracked. "You expect me to just nod along while you chase some tragic ghost?"

He moved—too fast, inhumanly fast—blocking her path. "I'm chasing closure. Not her."

"Bullshit." She shoved him. He didn't budge. "You could've lied. Could've said she was just some stranger. But no—you had to make it personal. Do you know your words may lie, but your emotions don't? I can feel them through our connection."

A muscle jumped in his jaw. "I didn't know, you would.....hah, because you deserve the truth."

"The truth?" Her smile was all teeth. "Here's truth: you're terrified you'll save her and tell her truth and feel something. And I'm terrified you're right."

The silence that followed was a living thing.

Finally, Han Chen spoke, quiet as a blade sliding home. "I didn't love her. I pitied her. "

Hye Won stilled. "You think I don't know how fucked up that is?" He stepped closer, crowding her against the bench. "But you—when you laugh, when you fight me—that's the first thing in two lifetimes that's ever felt real."

Her breath hitched. "…You don't fight fair."

"Never claimed to." His thumb brushed her cheek, smearing a tear she hadn't realized fell. "Help me fix this. So I can be yours without ghosts."

"Tell me from the beginning. What happened in your memory—truthfully."

After a bit of explanation of his first life:

"Let me get this straight," she said, voice dripping with false calm. "You're telling me your tragic backstory includes being cuckolded by that bitch Xue Qing, orphaned, and then playing nursemaid to a vegetable wife in some past life?" Her fingers twitched toward his chest. "And now you're what—haunted by the ghost of that woman as regrets?" She kicked a pebble, watching it skid toward the swings. "What's next? A time-traveling ex?"

Her words really sting. Han Chen's shadow stretched long as he stepped closer. "I didn't come back to rewrite the past. I came to bury it." His voice dropped. "But debts don't vanish just because you ignore them."

"Debts?" She whirled on him. "You owe me honesty. You dropped this bomb like it's some minor detail—'Oh, by the way, I'm a widower, wanna share fries?' Oh, that's right—you enjoy dropping explosive news like this before, but that was entirely different. What debts? What does this have to do with present life? In fact, she owes you for f*** taking care of her!"

A child's squeal pierced the tension. Han Chen waited for the noise to fade before speaking. "I could've lied. But you'd have unraveled it eventually. At a high enough cultivation level, unresolved regrets poison your progress...."

"Then tell me, what is your regret?" Her eyes narrowed. "In fact, as brilliant as you are, you're a fool. Your regret was that you toiled away your first life in fear and uselessness. I always wondered why you dumped your first confession, Xue Qing, back then—and now you're telling me avoidance was your best approach? You didn't feel a trace of revenge… Your regret is your inaction, not some ghost."

He froze. She was right.

The pebble he kicked broke through a hole in the thick alloy swing and sounded like a gunshot after momentarily losing his control. Han Chen's stillness was unnatural—a predator frozen mid-lunge, as if faced with a bigger one. Among the panicking crowd and children's noises, he stood still.

After a few moments of introspection, he exhaled.

"You're right," he said softly. "The regret isn't her. It's me." His fingers flexed, as if gripping a phantom knife. "I let fear turn me into a ghost long before I died. Watched my girl cheat on me and get beaten by her partner. Allowed my parents' killers to smile at their funeral. Wasted my own future. Married a stranger because I couldn't say no. Spent years tending to that corpse because I thought suffering was penance, always questioning why life wasn't fair. And even when I got a new chance, I became a sage. And you—without understanding any of its intricacies—laid it bare with reason. And now I'm ashamed."

Hye Won's breath caught. The raw self-loathing in his voice was new.

He stepped into her space, eyes black as a starless sky. "The Han Chen who cowered in that past life deserved his regrets. But you—" His thumb pressed over her pulse.

Hye Won jerked back. "Don't you dare use me as your redemption arc."

Han Chen's laugh was bitter. "We already met Yue Lan, and I felt nothing back then. But if I somehow convinced her about her future, I can't guarantee what she would feel about me ... Or I could anonymously help her." He cupped her face, forcing her to meet his eyes. "She was a wound. You're my love."

"I won't be bringing her to our life, but if I don't help her properly it will result in some chaos back to myself."

"Fine. Save her. But if you so much as think about—"

Han Chen silenced her with a kiss—hard enough to bruise, soft enough to promise. When they broke apart, his forehead rested against hers.

Hye Won's bravado wavered. "What if seeing you changes her? What if I can't compete with a ghost?"

Han Chen's expression softened. "Like I said, for a long while I thought she was my solution. But you—when you cried over your mother to me, and just now when you threw that soda can at my head ~ my heart ached." A real smile now. "That's when I knew."

Hye Won's lips twitched despite herself. "Knew what?"

"That I'd rather be your punching bag than anyone else's prince."

The confession hung between them, fragile and true. Hye Won's fingers tightened around Han Chen's collar as another kiss broke. The taste of salt from her tears mixed with the fading warmth of their connection.

She whispered fiercely against his lips. "You're not losing me." The hidden symbol beneath his shirt pulsed warm under her thumb. "But no more solo martyr acts. We do this together. No more secrets."

A shadow crossed Han Chen's face. He knew what sharing everything truly meant - the ugliness of his true past laid bare might dissolve the last of her respect for him.

"Drunk on righteousness," he deflected, pressing his forehead against hers.

Hye Won snorted. "Please. I need proper alcohol for this madness."

A beat of silence. Then, barely audible: ".....I do have that at my place." They slipped through the confused crowds, moving together away from the chaos.

______________________________

On his rented place with a courtyard;

Her heel caught on the threshold as they stumbled inside. "Wait—" Hye Won spun slowly, taking in the sparse rented room. "You live like this while giving us your apartment?" Her voice cracked between laughter and something sharper. "Han Chen, ah, Han Chen..." She pressed her palms to his chest. "Next settlement cycle, you're moving in with us."

The world bead's liquor burned differently than earthly drinks. Hye Won coughed as the first sip hit her throat - even diluted hundred-thousand fold, the celestial vintage feel different in every drop. Energy poured over to her without her noticing.

"Tastes like... lightning and peaches?" She squinted at the shimmering flask.

Han Chen smirked, watching the flush spread across her cheeks. "Drink slowly. This was aged in a collapsing star."

As twilight deepened, he moved, visible only for her through the Drunken Immortal Steps, his sword painting silver fractures in the air. Hye Won giggled when he severed a falling leaf into perfect thirds mid-swing, the pieces hovering obediently until she blew them apart. He was relearning his regressed sword domain. His broken state of mind prevented him before.

"Showoff," she slurred, legs swinging from her boulder perch. "Collapsed star, my foot."

Han Chen's expression shifted suddenly. "I've decided," he murmured.

Hye Won blinked... "Decided what?"

" A visit in person "