Chapter 23: The Second Chance

The beginning of this story goes back one year and three months ago.

It was the time when Si-woo, along with many others, had just welcomed the new year and awakened their engravings.

‘Huh, could this be…?’

At the age of twenty, she awakened her engraving.

Just as Si-woo had received the Symbol of Allure, she too gained a new supernatural ability at the start of the year.

“Hmm, this won’t do. Your engraving hasn’t fully manifested.”

However, her engraving failed to reveal its true power.

A conditional engraving.

It was a phenomenon that occurred when the vast knowledge and inhuman abilities contained within an engraving exceeded the body’s capacity to process them.

As a result, the engraving could only reach its full potential once specific conditions were met.

At first, she was disappointed by the barely noticeable change. But learning that it was a conditional engraving filled her with hope.

“Conditional engravings, as the name suggests, require certain prerequisites to be fulfilled before they can fully manifest. However, they often grant powers beyond imagination.”

With just that one sentence, she set off for the Hunter Association headquarters in Seoul.

If she could just discover the awakening conditions with the detection system there, she might unlock an extraordinary engraving.

Holding onto that hope, she made her way to Seoul before January even ended.

And at the Hunter Association headquarters.

She found him.

“…Ah.”

Even in the crowded association, filled with newly awakened individuals and seasoned Hunters, he stood out.

Compared to the Si-woo of today, he was still lacking.

He had neither confidence nor the skill to naturally captivate people’s attention.

But even so, he was more than enough to attract the eyes of the opposite sex.

That was the moment.

That was when she fell in love.

It felt like a scene from a movie had come to life.

The noisy background faded into silence.

As if the two of them were frozen in time, an eternity seemed to stretch between them.

Her heart pounded loudly.

“Hey, oppa, do you have a moment?”

“Could I get your number…?”

Other Hunters and newly awakened individuals approached Si-woo, eager to talk to him.

They were women filled with self-confidence, women who saw themselves as chosen elites.

Even if they were rejected, they kept pressing forward, drawn to him.

But she.

She simply stood by his side, quietly watching.

Like someone who had forgotten how to speak, she simply sat beside him, occasionally stealing glances at Si-woo’s face.

That was all she could do.

<Awakener No. 312, please proceed with the awakening test.>

In the end, she did nothing.

She could only watch as Si-woo walked away when his number was called.

But before long, she too was guided to the testing room, where the condition-detection device was located.

And then.

“Huh? It looks like you’ve already awakened.”

“…What?”

The second shock hit her.

She turned toward the examiner, her gaze following his words.

The engraving that had been faint and incomplete just days ago now displayed its presence with striking clarity.

<Engraving Name: I Want to Always Be by Your Side>

<Rank test result: SS>

Your engraving has responded to your emotions.

Your actions become more discreet.

You can erase your presence.

The deeper your feelings for someone, the more you can erode your own existence.

Her engraving had been fulfilled.

But it wasn’t according to the conditions set by the engraving itself.

It was her.

Im So-yeon—the woman who had just awakened—had unknowingly altered the fundamental nature of her own engraving.

Throughout myths, folklore, and legends, countless women had sacrificed themselves for love.

However, an engraving like I Want to Always Be by Your Side, which embodied an obsessive desire to stay near someone, was incredibly rare.

More importantly, it had no abilities related to combat.

In stories, obsession was often linked to determination.

Because of love, hesitation disappeared.

It was an ironic ability—one suited for a bystander, not the heroine.

Yet, it had manifested within a woman who possessed the qualities of a leading role.

“… If this is it.”

Could it be that her engraving had no origin?

No—it wasn’t.

The skull-shaped marking on her shoulder was proof.

Her engraving had an original source.

It was an engraving based on someone’s story—a tale of brutality, meant to transform an awakened individual into a murderer or assassin, triggered by the act of killing.

“Even if I can’t meet him…”

A trivial catalyst.

If a storyteller had heard this, they would have scoffed, calling it nonsense.

Yet, it was a minuscule, insignificant event that had allowed Im So-yeon to twist the conditions of her engraving.

It was supposed to be impossible.

This wasn’t a skill, a talent, or a technique—it was a miracle.

Even if an engraving had not fully manifested, the fact that it had a motif meant it followed a predefined structure.

Im So-yeon’s role should have been to fit the right shape into the right hole.

But instead, she had done the unthinkable.

She had reshaped the hole to fit her own piece.

It was an impossible feat, an obsession-driven miracle that could twist even someone’s destiny.

The ability to erase her presence had evolved into the power to erode her existence itself.

Her means of attack had vanished.

But in exchange, her stealth ability had grown exponentially stronger.

And with this power.

Im So-yeon fulfilled her desire.

‘This… this is stalking, isn’t it?’

Watching Si-woo from a distance, she finally realized it.

It was something she shouldn’t do.

She knew she should stop.

But in the end, this was the only way she could express herself.

Twisted love and obsession could only lead to twisted results.

It was inevitable.

And from that point on—Si-woo knew as well.

“I did something I never should have.”

She had entered his house without permission.

She had followed Si-woo without his knowledge.

She had fallen in love—without permission, without reason.

“I knew it too. Even if I wasn’t the one who directly hurt you, if I revealed myself, you would surely suffer. Those terrible memories would resurface, and the past I treasure would only become wounds for you.”

So, she had tried desperately to forget Si-woo.

She resisted the allure, clawing her way through a personal hell.

To save the man she loved, she abandoned her twisted affection and pursued the dream she once had—becoming a Hunter.

“And then… I met you again.”

At the Academy entrance exam.

Her first love, the one she could never forget, was standing there.

A lot had changed in a year, but there was no mistaking him.

Because she still loved him.

She wanted to love him.

She wanted to be loved by him.

A wish so painfully ordinary for any woman.

The moment that feeling rekindled in Im So-yeon’s heart.

She had once again drowned in a river she could never return from.

“That’s what happened this time. No—this is the story of the stalker who has always been by your side.”

She confessed, taking full responsibility for her wrongdoing.

No matter how much she tried to deny it, the truth wouldn’t change.

Even if she hadn’t stolen anything.

Even if she had never physically harmed him.

Im So-yeon could never forgive herself.

She couldn’t forgive the version of herself that had committed crimes, driven purely by her own desires.

Her head hung low.

She couldn’t look into Si-woo’s eyes.

No matter what emotions he held, they couldn’t be positive.

Disgust.

Hatred.

Loathing.

She lacked the courage to face them.

And because of that.

She failed to notice the sympathy in Si-woo’s gaze.

“So this was the real issue all along.”

Si-woo glanced down at the engraving on his wrist.

After hearing So-yeon’s story, he felt no anger toward her.

Instead, he felt genuine pity.

“Of all people… why did you have to meet me?”

And at a time when he didn’t even know how to control his engraving.

He couldn’t condone the fact that she had entered his home without permission.

But beyond that, he sympathized with her.

He even looked back on their strange cohabitation as a good memory.

After a brief hesitation.Si-woo finally spoke.

“Forgetting everything and starting over from the beginning… That’s not possible, is it?”

…
“I have a conscience too.”

“Yeah, no matter how much I say it doesn’t matter, there’s no way you’d listen to me.”

Si-woo had never expected persuasion to work from the start.

She wasn’t the type to face problems head-on—she always chose to avoid them.

Even now, the only reason she had come was because Si-woo had asked her to.

If he had tried to force her, Im So-yeon would have rather erased herself completely than appear before him.

Because she loved him too much.

Because she feared being hated more than anything, she chose to run away.

‘And of all things, she had to see me during my worst phase.’

The Si-woo from back then.

The one who was utterly sick of women.

“If anything, this is already more than enough.”

Unlike the ranker-level Hunters around Si-woo, Im So-yeon hadn’t nullified his charm—
She had overcome it.

Without relying on any special abilities, through sheer force of will, she had resisted it.

At that moment, Si-woo had already chosen to forgive her.

He wanted to meet her not as a stalker from his past, but as a new connection in his present.

Even if she had made the wrong choice by stalking him.

He was willing to forgive her once.

At the very least, he was ready to open his heart to her as a friend.

“Then let’s do this.”

Si-woo reached out his hand toward Im So-yeon.

“I trust in your skills.”

The stealth ability that had evaded even Saria’s keen senses.

The power that had even slipped past Kitsunezawa’s deadly perception.

Si-woo was telling her that he believed in that ability.

That he trusted her.

“So, I want to accept you as a party member.”

“W-why?”

Im So-yeon asked, her voice trembling with disbelief.

Si-woo looked at her and answered calmly.

“Because I want to forgive you.”

If the Si-woo of the past had seen this, he would have dismissed it as the ramblings of a madman.

Not holding her crimes against her.

Overlooking the fact that she had committed stalking, a criminal act.

The victim himself had no desire to see her punished.

“It’s fine if you refuse. At the very least, I remember the short time we spent together as something good. I just want to give you a chance to forgive yourself.”

“I… I…”

Some people would call this the wrong choice.

‘Maybe it is.’

But Si-woo wanted to forgive Im So-yeon.

And because of that, he was making this foolish decision.

More than anything.

The memories of that time.

Their strange cohabitation.

To Si-woo, those days had been genuinely happy.

“Come on, stand up.”

He reached out his hand to the tearful Im So-yeon.