Please Forget Me - Chapter 229

‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.

He had been staring straight ahead. How did he know?

This was also why I never left him. No matter how busy he was, his heart was always with me. This man loved me—not like the memory of him who had seemed to use me rather than care for me.

‘Strange.’

I shook my dizzy, jumbled thoughts away.

‘Don’t panic alone—ask later when it’s just the two of us.’

Only then did I notice:

‘His hand is cold.’

The hand that had always been warm like spring sunlight felt like icy creek water. Even on a hot day, it was so cold. Was he really that tense?

Even not knowing the circumstances, it was a wife’s duty to support her husband. Just as he held my hand to ease my anxiety, I needed to help ease his.

‘Whatever you’re worried about, don’t be so tense.’

I wiggled my fingers and massaged his hand, gently stroking the inside of his palm with my thumb.

The stiffness at Killian’s lips began to soften. He glanced at the front seats, confirmed no one was watching, and turned to smile at me—this time, a genuine smile.

His gaze was so intense it made me want to kiss him right there. My heart raced every time I looked into those eyes.

But because others were watching, he quickly withdrew that gaze, and the warmth in his smile vanished.

Just as the fluttering thrill was fading, his thumb began drawing something on my palm.

‘A heart?’

Love, love. Repeated over and over on my palm, expressing what he could not say aloud. I, who had wavered between trusting past and present Killian, now found my heart settle toward him.

‘I love you too.’

Tracing a heart onto his palm in return, I was suddenly reminded of the days when I was Rize and he was Johann. During church, while pretending to listen to the priest, we would secretly trace hearts and smiling faces on each other’s hands, playing hand games.

I oddly missed those days. Somehow, I began to understand why Killian had wanted to remain in enemy territory, impoverished, abandoning his status and homeland.

‘Those were happy times.’

Times that felt like they would never return.

We would have those times again. This time, under our real names, without the lurking unease ready to devour us.

‘We can love each other purely again, like back then.’

I kept drawing hearts on his palm, praying silently, when…

‘…Huh?’

Killian abruptly pulled his hand away. As the car entered the village where the military base was located.

“Here we are.”

The car stopped in front of a brick building that appeared to be a school. The soldiers exited first, and even before Killian could finish his instructions, someone opened the door for us.

We stepped out, receiving utmost courtesy, when a man in an officer’s uniform approached, almost running.

As he came close enough for me to clearly see the lieutenant’s insignia, he stopped in front of Killian and saluted.

“I am Lieutenant John O’Brien, commanding officer of 1st Company, 5th Infantry Battalion. It is an immense honor to meet you.”

“Delighted to meet you, Lieutenant O’Brien.”

Killian said, extending his right hand. O’Brien lowered his saluting hand and grasped Killian’s hand with both of his, as if one hand wasn’t enough and held it as though it were a precious treasure.

“I was astonished to receive your letter. I’m relieved you’re alive.”

The lieutenant looked at Killian like a hero, though his eyes had the unease of someone seeing a ghost.

“Is it true that you are immortal? Truly a man cherished by God…”

“Thank you for such warm hospitality, Lieutenant.”

Judging by how Killian withdrew his hand, he seemed slightly uncomfortable with all the attention. Only then did the lieutenant, having recovered from the awe of seeing a man thought dead, turn his gaze to me.

Perhaps because I was a woman, he became even more deferential.

“Then, madam, you are… Dana Man-…”