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The smell of smoke still clung to San's shirt by the time they returned to Wooyoung's apartment.
Kai had bandaged his shoulder with gauze while muttering dramatic complaints, Lyra had curled up in Wooyoung's sunroom with her tail twitching anxiously, and Hyme had refused to leave San's lap since the moment they collapsed onto the couch.
Wooyoung placed a tray of warm drinks on the table and looked between all of them. "What the hell happened down there?"
San didn't speak. He was still staring at the small metal cube in his hand—the Archive's core data. The thing Lys had told him to take before unleashing that terrifying storm of power.
Kai answered instead. "Lys used himself to stop those synthetic hybrids. He… might not have made it out."
Wooyoung's eyes narrowed. "Did you see a body?"
"No." Kai looked at Lyra, who shook her head. "Just rubble."
"Then he's not dead."
Everyone turned to Hyme's voice.
He was curled up with his head buried in San's chest, arms clinging around San's waist like a vice. But when he looked up, his golden eyes were fierce.
"He promised me I wasn't a mistake," Hyme said quietly. "He said he'd prove I was the future. That means he's still out there."
San slowly brushed Hyme's hair back. "Then we'll find him. But right now, we need to figure out what the Archive wanted us to see."
He plugged the cube into his laptop, and a hologram projected into the air above the table.
Text scrolled across the screen—research logs, blueprints, hybrid experimentation data. Everyone leaned in.
One file was highlighted in red: "Eden Initiative: Project Final Phase."
San clicked it.
A video played.
A human scientist appeared on screen, pale and wide-eyed. "—the Eden prototypes were never meant to be merged. The moment they connect, we lose control. This is not salvation—it's extinction wrapped in beauty. We must destroy the final copy of the gene—the hybrid who carries both the royalty key and the synthetic code…"
The video cut out.
Silence fell.
Hyme slowly turned his head toward San. "That's… me, right?"
San didn't answer. His grip tightened.
Kai cursed. "So Lys was supposed to be the original, and Hyme is the perfected combination?"
"Not perfected," Wooyoung muttered. "Hunted."
Lyra growled. "They're still out there. The ones who want him gone."
San stood and gently adjusted Hyme's legs, lifting him into his arms. "Then he's not sleeping alone tonight."
Hyme blinked. "Huh?"
"I'm not letting you out of my sight."
Kai whistled under his breath. "Damn, domestic much?"
But neither Hyme nor San responded. The seriousness in San's expression shut everyone up.
Back in the bedroom, San placed Hyme on the bed and sat beside him. He reached over to gently cup Hyme's face, brushing his thumb under his eye.
"You okay?"
Hyme hesitated. Then nodded.
But San didn't move.
His hand stayed on Hyme's cheek. His other slowly slipped under Hyme's waist, pulling him close.
"I was scared back there," San whispered. "Really scared."
Hyme's heart thudded. "Of what?"
"Of losing you."
There was no smirk this time. No teasing. Just raw honesty in San's voice.
Hyme leaned in.
And they kissed.
Slowly.
Softly.
Like they had all the time in the world now that they had survived hell together.
And that night, wrapped in San's arms under the blanket, Hyme finally let himself believe he was loved—not just as a hybrid, not as a key, but as someone worth holding onto.
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