His SINFUL DEVOTION

“He said he’d come… so I waited.”

And one day, I realized how quickly the city had changed.

The streets I once knew looked unfamiliar. The buildings had grown taller, the roads busier, and everything seemed to belong to another world. I convinced myself it was simply the progress of the country.

I was lost in those thoughts when he returned that night.

He had kept his promise.

But instead of coming toward me, he walked straight to the painting hanging above the table.

He stood there silently, staring at it.

Then I noticed something strange.

A few drops of water fell onto the carpet.

I frowned.

Rain?

No.

They were tears.

His tears.

But why?

I stepped toward him and tried to reach out.

Tried to hug him.

But my arms went straight through him.

He couldn't feel me.

He couldn't even see me.

And then—

A violent series of memories flashed before my eyes.

Faces.

A house.

A storm.

A pair of ice-blue eyes.

A scream—

And darkness swallowed me whole.

When I opened my eyes again, several people were standing around me.

My head throbbed.

I slowly looked around.

Then my gaze stopped on the man sitting beside me.

He was staring directly into my eyes.

There was something unnervingly striking about him—especially those cold, ice-blue eyes.

For a moment, I couldn't look away.

Then he spoke.

“Sumi. Are you all right?”

My heart stopped.

How did he know my name?

And then it hit me.

I knew him.

Jai.

My husband's older brother.

But that wasn't the only thing that terrified me.

Something was wrong.

Something was terribly, impossibly wrong.

I turned toward the side table.

A newspaper lay there.

I picked it up.

The date stared back at me.

1990.

My breath caught.

No.

That couldn't be possible.

I looked at the newspaper again.

Then at the room.

Then at the people surrounding me.

I was back.

Back to the time when I was nineteen.

Back to the day everything had begun.

The day I was supposed to meet Arav.

It had been an arranged marriage between our families, but there had always been something different about him.

His smile carried a warmth that made people trust him.

Even I had found myself drawn toward it.

But now…

Everything was different.

Because I remembered something I shouldn't have remembered.

I had already lived this life.

And somehow—

I had returned to it.

But why?

How?

And most importantly…

How had I died?

I couldn't remember.

All I remembered was waiting for Arav.

Waiting for him to come.

And then…

Nothing.

Perhaps that was the part destiny had chosen to hide from me.

For now.

I glanced at the newspaper again.

18th July.

The date made my stomach twist.

Today was the day I had first been introduced to Arav.

It was already past five-thirty.

I looked around the unfamiliar room.

A woman stood near the doorway.

Perhaps she knows what happened.

I took a breath.

Okay, Sumi. You can do this.

“Excuse me…”

The woman turned toward me.

“Can you tell me why I'm here? I… I can't remember anything. Can you tell me how I ended up here?”

The woman looked at me with concern.

“You don't remember, ma'am?”

I shook my head.

“You had an accident.”

“An accident?” I repeated, stunned.

“Yes. You fell from the building, right in front of Sir Jai's car. Sir Jai took you to the hospital. Since we didn't know who you were or where your family was, he brought you here after you were discharged. He was even going to file a police complaint to locate your family.”

She paused.

“But then you woke up.”

I stared at her.

I had fallen from a building?

And Jai had found me?

Why did that feel less like an accident…

…and more like the beginning of something I had already experienced?

“Thank you for telling me,” I finally said. “You can leave now.”

The woman nodded and walked away.

I let out a long breath.

“Gosh… this is exhausting.”

I looked down at myself.

The maroon-red dress.

Why am I wearing this?

Then I remembered.

Today was the day I was supposed to meet Arav.

Of course.

I walked toward the balcony.

Cool air drifted across my face.

I needed it.

I needed something real.

Something that could convince me that I wasn't trapped inside a memory.

I stepped outside.

For a few seconds, everything was quiet.

Then—

Footsteps.

Slow.

Measured.

Coming from behind me.

I turned.

Jai stood in the doorway.

His expression was unreadable.

“Sumi.”

I stiffened.

“Do you want to go home?”

I stared at him.

“Wait…”

He raised an eyebrow.

“How do you know my name?”

For the first time, something almost resembling a smile touched his face.

“I saw your identification card.”

“My identification card?”

“Yes. It was inside your purse.”

“My purse?”

I immediately looked around.

“Oh! My purse. Where is it?”

Jai didn't answer immediately.

He simply watched me.

And for some reason, the silence felt heavier than his words.

Then he said quietly,

“Why are you so afraid of finding it?”

I froze.

I didn't know.

But somewhere deep inside me, a terrible feeling whispered that the answers I was searching for might already be inside that purse.

And perhaps—

I wasn't supposed to find them.