That night, Seo-yeon couldn't sleep.
She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, listening to the quiet rhythm of her parents moving through the house.
Alive.
Safe.
Because of her.
She should have felt relief.
She should have felt peace.
Instead—
She felt afraid.
Not of losing them.
But of losing herself.
She sat up slowly.
Her reflection stared back at her from the dark window.
Seventeen.
Young.
Unbroken.
This version of her had never experienced grief.
Never experienced abandonment.
Never experienced the slow collapse that shaped who she became.
Which meant—
This version of her wasn't her.
Not completely.
The woman she had been at thirty-two was born from pain.
From loss.
From survival.
From endurance.
That version of her was weak.
Broken.
But real.
This version—
Had never suffered.
Had never fallen apart.
Had never learned how to survive.
She touched her reflection gently.
"Who am I now…?"
The question lingered in the darkness.
Unanswered.
Uncertain.
She had saved her parents.
But in doing so—
She had erased the person she used to be.
And now she stood between two lives.
The girl she was.
And the woman she remembered.
Neither one complete.
Neither one whole.
She lowered her hand slowly.
For the first time since she returned—
She understood the true cost of changing fate.
She didn't just change the future.
She changed herself.
And she didn't know who she was becoming.