Chapter 67: “welcome To ‘your’ Funeral, Sulli”
Where is this?
Hearing the dense, drum-like rain sounds by her ear, Sulli was slightly startled.
She, being led by Lin Xiuyuan, stopped in place, her eyes still covered, but the shock of the rain sounds seemed to strike directly at her heart, more real than sight.
Thus, those emotions suppressed deep in her heart due to the darkness were, in this moment, knocked out by the sudden rain sounds.
Breathing suddenly quickened, blood boiling.
But before she could speak, Lin Xiuyuan’s voice came first, “Sulli, do you want to sleep for a bit.”
“Ah?”
Sulli was puzzled.
“Because it will take some time to reach the destination of your ‘funeral’.”
As Lin Xiuyuan said this, Sulli, who had been startled multiple times already, had her little hand wanting to remove the eye mask.
Luckily, Jung Soo Yeon, who was always by her side, called out, “Sulli, we’re all here.”
Although this sentence temporarily calmed Sulli, her voice still trembled slightly, “Older sister, where are we now?”
Where?
This question stumped Jung Soo Yeon, so she turned her gaze to Lin Xiuyuan.
Lin Xiuyuan thought for a moment, then softly answered, “We’re now in a future without ‘you’, so we’re preparing to take you to attend ‘your’ funeral.”
And as his answer was spoken, Sulli felt an unbelievable distortion, her heartbeat starting to accelerate uncontrollably, her fingertips involuntarily tightening slightly.
In such a mood, the group soon arrived at the garage, where Park Ji-yeon gently supported her and guided her to sit in the rear seat.
Then tightly gripping her hands, like protecting a startled little beast.
And after watching Lin Xiuyuan close the car door, Jung Soo Yeon standing outside curiously asked, “Why not tell her now.”
“Because I hope she feels the most profound, most shocking blow. If I want her to fully wake up, I can’t disperse this impact, but concentrate it and smash it hard into her heart.”
Lin Xiuyuan’s idea and approach regarding Sulli were very simple and crude, “Once this shock, enough to overturn all her misfortunes from the first twenty years, fully fills her heart, then the answer about her will basically resolve itself.”
He gazed into the distance, his voice soft yet like a hammer striking, “After all, what could be more impactful than seeing yourself lying inside a tombstone with your own eyes?”
Hearing this, Jung Soo Yeon incredulously gazed at the boy in front of her, and after a long pause, said, “You don’t seem as reckless as when you first found me. What’s up, did you study psychology here?”
Lin Xiuyuan chuckled, “Reckless is reckless, but that doesn’t mean I have no IQ. What are you thinking.”
As he spoke, he opened the front passenger seat car door for her, “Get in the car, time to set off.”
After some unknown time, the vehicle shuttled through the rain curtain.
Heavy rain pounded heavily on the windshield, making a brushing sound. The wipers swung desperately, yet still couldn’t fully clear the view.
High beams pierced the rain mist, wheels kicking up splashes, speeding on the slippery highway, as if time itself was left behind.
Compared to the stormy rain outside the car, inside was a silence.
Listening to the dense raindrops hitting the roof and car window, Sulli, wearing the eye mask, sat quietly in the rear seat, her interlocked fingertips wrestling with each other, the hair strands on her forehead gently swayed by the air conditioner.
Park Ji-yeon quietly stayed by her side, her gaze vacant, as if still lingering in that moment when she first learned everything that night.
And Jung Soo Yeon in the front passenger seat looked down at her palm, not knowing what she was thinking, yet suppressing an indescribable emotion.
Only Lin Xiuyuan, driving, kept his eyes forward, hands steadily gripping the steering wheel, his gaze focused like a rock.
Wind and rain flowed past his back, yet couldn’t shake his posture at all.
Until the car slowly stopped in front of a quiet cemetery.
Torrential rain poured, no human figures between heaven and earth, as if the heavens intentionally cleared this secret place for them.
“Have we arrived?”
Sensing the vehicle stop, Sulli spoke first.
“Mm, we’ve arrived.”
Lin Xiuyuan turned off the engine, took a black umbrella from Jung Soo Yeon, opened it, and got out.
Even with puddles everywhere underfoot, he didn’t care about his shoes and pants getting soaked, walked to the rear seat, opened the car door, and extended his hand to Sulli.
Hearing her say, “Can’t I take it off yet?”
“We’ve waited this long, what’s a bit longer.” Lin Xiuyuan, holding her hand, smiled in reply.
This made Sulli take a deep breath of the damp air mixed with rain and earth scent, then under Lin Xiuyuan’s lead, stepped out of the car.
Rain threads fell densely at an angle, icy chill hitting her face; all she could do was grip Lin Xiuyuan’s palm tighter and follow him slowly toward that “destination”.
Due to the torrential rain, the path became increasingly difficult.
Even though Lin Xiuyuan’s umbrella was already tilted toward Sulli’s side, her right hand still inevitably got wet from the rain, water droplets sliding from the windbreaker cuff, gathering at her fingertips, and dripping down.
The hair strands by her ear were also soaked by the rain, sticking to her cheek, curled and heavy.
“You can take it off now.”
Just as Sulli wanted to brush away the water droplets at her fingertips, a gentle voice entered her ears; it was Lin Xiuyuan signaling she could remove the eye mask.
But at this moment, she acted unusually, no longer anxious and worried to remove it like before.
As if some premonition enveloped her heart, making her stand rigidly in place, suddenly afraid to move.
Because in her heart, a voice was quietly telling her that after removing it, perhaps the entire world ahead would become different.
Perhaps, she would change too.
Watching the silent Sulli beside him, Lin Xiuyuan didn’t urge her, but quietly accompanied her standing there, holding the umbrella for her, waiting for her decision.
After a long time, Sulli, ending the silence, finally let go of his hand.
Slowly lowering her head, hands reaching behind, untying the bound eye mask.
A piercing light pierced through the dark crevice.
The first scene she saw upon opening her eyes was a rain-soaked lawn, raindrops hitting leaf tips, mud splashing up.
The rain was heavy, pouring from the horizon without gaps.
Wind carrying rainwater smashed onto the ground, onto the umbrella surface, emitting dense and suppressed sounds.
Looking up again, she saw a tombstone, a vigorously growing pine tree standing behind it, sheltering it from wind and rain.
And beside the tombstone were some flowers and a photo; the person in the photo gave Sulli a sense of strange familiarity.
Sulli, her feet as if nailed to the ground, began letting her gaze pass through the constantly swaying rain curtain, falling on the inscribed text on the stone.
Looking at the characters obscured by rainwater, she slowly squatted down, reaching out to wipe away those water stains.
Saint… Jinjin… Lord… and other words Sulli recognized, but combined together, she couldn’t react.
Staring blankly at that cold stone surface, her mind was blank.
Time seemed to freeze in that moment, ears filled only with the roar of the downpour and her suddenly surging heartbeat.
Especially after seeing the extremely familiar family names at the very bottom, Sulli immediately turned her gaze to the only two photos beside the tombstone.
That person who just felt strangely familiar, if not her, who else could it be.
Whether coincidence or not, just as Sulli recognized herself in the photo, a thunderclap flashed overhead, booming.
The next instant, she abruptly looked up at Lin Xiuyuan, who had been holding the umbrella for her all along.
This black umbrella, from getting out of the car until now, had been held over her head, silently shielding her from the pouring rain.
The angle tilted toward her side caused his shoulder and back to already be soaked by the wind and rain.
And seeing Sulli look up, Lin Xiuyuan finally spoke again at this moment, “Welcome to ‘your’ funeral, Sulli. Although it’s a few years late, at least we didn’t miss it again.”
“What exactly is going on here.”
Touching the icy feel of the tombstone, Sulli’s fingertips trembled over that familiar yet strange name.
Sulli knew this absolutely wasn’t a dream; the utterly real rainy scene beside her couldn’t possibly be a ‘prank’ set.
“This… is me??”
Her voice was so low it was almost swallowed by the rain, as if asking Lin Xiuyuan, or answering herself for him.
“This is you, but not the you from 2013, but the you from 2025. The time-space you’re in now is 2025, twelve years later; the you twelve years later is dead.”
Lin Xiuyuan’s voice slowly fell amid the rain, each word heavy like a stone dropping into a deep pool, stirring no ripples yet echoing layer upon layer in Sulli’s heart.
After hearing this, Sulli looked down again at the name in her hand, lips parting lightly, “So the future me is already dead.”
“Mm, dead.”
Lin Xiuyuan’s tone was firm and steady.
After this answer, Sulli, with trembling fingertips, fell silent for a long time, as if chewing on this sudden fate, then slowly swallowing it.
Then she took a deep breath, lifted her head, her tone calm yet with hidden firmness, “Then oppa, can I know my cause of death?”
“Of course.”
With permission, Sulli looked again at the tombstone in her hand and the photo on the other side, “This really is ‘my’ funeral.”
As she spoke, she slowly stood up, gritting her teeth, wanting to see clearly what this world of her “death” was like.
The rain continued, the world a gray white, the cemetery silently spreading in the rain mist.
All around were uniformly shaped tombstones, the grass slippery, soil deep and heavy, air damp and stuffy.
Gently turning, Sulli’s gaze caught Jung Soo Yeon and Park Ji-yeon who had come along behind her.
The two, like Lin Xiuyuan before, stood quietly in the rain, wearing dark jackets, damp hair strands sticking to their cheeks.
At this moment, the expressions looking at her or rather the tombstone carried an unspeakable sorrow amid the silence.
Before Sulli could think to say something, her peripheral vision suddenly caught another scene, then froze.
Not far away, a black umbrella stood alone in the rain curtain.
Under the umbrella was Krystal.
