There was no breath.
The blood had gone cold.
My eyelids were heavy.
And yet—
My heart was still beating.
"Why… am I still alive?"
---
A hospital room.
A white ceiling.
Bandages soaked in blood.
An IV drip.
And beside the bed, a girl sobbing.
It was Joohee.
Her eyes, red from crying.
Her dry lips murmured a single name.
"Taemin... please, open your eyes..."
---
I thought I had forgotten that name.
But the moment I heard her voice,
everything returned in a flood.
The impact on cold asphalt.
The shattered motorcycle.
My bloodstained hands.
And the last thing I heard—
"Take my blood if it means you'll live..."
---
In that moment,
my heart responded.
Thump—
Thump—
Thump—
But it wasn't mine.
"This… is Joohee's heartbeat..."
---
I had died.
But her blood brought me back.
That blood gave me life,
and that life unlocked something inside me.
"The contract is sealed."
---
A voice from the void.
A being without eyes, without a mouth,
spoke from the darkness.
"You received her blood.
Now you must live for her."
---
"Then… who are you?"
---
"You are Zero.
The one who was revived.
The one who returns to the beginning.
The seed of time.
The sperm of judgment."
---
I didn't ask why I had to live.
I didn't ask why I was chosen.
I simply trusted this one truth—
the heart beating inside me.
Because that heart… never lied.
That day, when she was alive.
That moment, when she smiled at me…
To reclaim that memory—
I return to the beginning.