Losing to My Substitute (Katerina and Joshu)

Chapter 28

Linda tilted her head back, gazing at the darkened sky. For a fleeting moment, the scene felt eerily

familiar.

Plop.

A cold raindrop landed beneath her eye, rolling down her cheek.

She reached up with her fingers, gently wiping away the raindrop from her face.

"Ivan, it's raining." Ivan, it's raining.

Her figure faded from his world, disappearing into the downpour. The rain fell in torrents, and Ivan heard nothing but the rumble of thunder and the pounding rain-except for that one phrase echoing endlessly in his ears. Ivan, it's raining.

He dropped to his knees in the rain, his body trembling as the downpour soaked his clothes and

chilled his heart.

The rainwater streamed down his face, mingling with his tears, as they flowed freely.

Those words-Linda had said them to him countless times before.

Ivan's knees sank deeply into the cold, wet mud, each breath dragging up a sharper pain from

within.

His heart felt as though it had been split open, the ache unbearable.

Nothing else mattered.

The sound of the rain drowned everything around him, pulling him back nine years to a memory-

He had just attended a computer science lecture he wasn't supposed to be in. Outside the classroom building, it was pouring.

Ivan stood at the doorway, hesitating, unsure whether to dash into the rain or wait for it to stop.

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Chapter 28

His earphones dangled from his shirt pocket, his head slightly lowered, his messy hair hanging over his forehead, making him look aloof and distant.

A pair of soft hands patted his shoulder from behind.

He turned around, only to be caught completely off guard by the gentle ocean of her eyes.

She smiled and said, "Ivan, it's raining. Want to walk together?"

The rain was heavy that day, and the umbrella was small. Yet, when he stepped under it, neither of

them got wet.

Later, they weathered many rainy seasons together.

At her grandmother's grave, Linda choked back sobs as she gazed at the sky and said, "Ivan, it's raining."

Back then, he could hold her in his arms and say, "Linda, you have me. I'll always be with you. Forever."

They braved countless storms together after that.

Until the day Linda lay in a hospital bed, barely clinging to life. Her hand rested on her sunken abdomen, tears streaming onto the pillow. Outside, thunder roared, and lightning streaked across the sky.

She forced him out of the hospital room, out of her life.

He knelt in the rain, bowing again and again on the mountainside, begging the heavens to spare his

wife.

At dawn, he returned to her side with two steaming bags of fried chicken.

Over time, those words became gentle reminders.

They became a voice of worry, spoken every time she waited for him to come home.

But his returns grew fewer and fewer. Morning was often the only time she'd see him.

Gradually, the words disappeared. She stopped saying them to him altogether. And now, those words had become a final farewell.

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Chapter 28

Ivan, it's raining.

Left alone in the rain, Ivan had no one but himself.