Seonoh hid inside the half-closed chest, listening to the stories flowing in from outside.
Fire? I'm the one who set the fire. But why all of a sudden...?
"I don't know. How would I know that?"
Yoon Wonjoong had been laughing heartily as he replied.
"Please don't do this. I didn't want to do this to you either, senior."
"Haha, I told you I don't know. Are young people these days hard of hearing?"
The other person seemed to realize they couldn't get anywhere, so they called for a colleague.
"Manager Chae!"
"Yes, Chief! You called?"
Immediately, a lively voice joined in.
"How many gwijaes live in this neighborhood?"
"Hmm, I did a thorough investigation, and including this man, there were four."
It was a familiar voice. From that moment, Seonoh's heart started pounding.
"Mr. Yoon Wonjoong. If you don't talk, I'll kill every gwijae living nearby."
This voice was unmistakably....
"Oh, but there's a kid who lives in this house... Come to think of it, where's the kid? Grandpa, where's your grandson? You have a grandson, don't..?"
Manager Chae, who had been tilting their head in confusion, suddenly seemed to remember something and added
"Oh? Wait a minute. Could that kid have set the fire? He's a gwijae too, right?"
At the mention of his grandson, Yoon Wonjoong smirked mockingly.
"Yes, I set the fire."
"What? You just said you didn't know... Anyway, where's the kid?"
"Talk some sense. How could a legally incompetent person like me raise a child?"
"What? I clearly heard you say it back then. What are you talking about? Chief, he's lying. If it weren't for that kid, I wouldn't have even known this man was Yoon Wonjoong. At first, I thought he was mute, but then the kid said his grandfather was sick..."
Yoon Wonjoong cut Manager Chae off with a hearty laugh.
"Our house is only full of miscellaneous spirits. You look like a drifter yourself. No wonder you can't even tell the difference between ghosts and humans."
The person called Manager Chae flared up and started yelling,
"What did you say?" But the previous voice interrupted, "Stop it. Go see the commissioner," and sent Manager Chae out of the room.
The person called the chief asked in a low voice.
"Mr. Yoon Wonjoong. I'll ask one last time. Did you really set the fire?"
"Yes! I set it because I wanted to burn this wretched world to the ground!"
With Yoon Wonjoong's shout, it went quiet outside.
All was silence, silence.
Seonoh couldn't understand what was happening outside. Why did everything suddenly go silent? Just as he was thinking this—
Creak....
The chest opened with a chilling sound. Suddenly, light poured in. A person in a black mask looked down coldly at Seonoh, who was wrapped in a blanket.
"..."
Seonoh said nothing and held his breath, staring at the black-masked person's eyes. The masked person only had their eyes exposed, and there was blood splattered near them.
"..."
And then—
"Juryeon."
A soft voice called from the yard. The black-masked person flinched and looked back. Then the masked person glanced at Seonoh again before closing their mouth.
"Juryeon-ah, did you kill them all?"
For a split second, the person's gaze wavered violently.
"Juryeon?"
"..."
The black-masked person looked at Seonoh once more.
"Yes. I killed them all."
Clack.
The chest closed.
"..."
And then, there was only darkness.
***
An eerie silence like that of a dead rat settled outside. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed. At some point, the smell of something burning filled the air. Seonoh crawled out of the chest. The house was engulfed in flames, and the floor was soaked, as if flooded, with blood.
"..."
Seonoh stood blankly in the thick smoke. He stared vacantly at the jackknife lodged in Elder Yoon's chest. He approached the old man's prone figure and knelt down. The still-warm blood soaked through Seonoh's knees as he knelt.
"This... this is the Sain Sword(a sword made during the Year, Month, Day, and Hour of the Tiger in the twelve zodiac signs).
It's said that if someone is killed by the Sain Sword, they can't become a ghost, no matter how much regret or resentment they have; they simply vanish."
Before the flames spread any further, Sisi urgently suggested they leave.
Seonoh, who had been staring at Elder Yoon, gripped the sword's handle and pulled out the blade.
"..."
He gazed blankly at the sword's hilt.
They will come... they will come!'
It was only then that Seonoh realized: everything had been true.
"Kijun-ah, yes... it's Dad..."
Yoon Wonjoong's face twisted into a smile. He laughed through his tears. Seonoh knew who Kijun was. Yoon Wonjoong often cried out that name at night.
"..."
Seonoh buried his face in Yoon Wonjoong's chest. His hand, gripping the sword's hilt, was trembling violently. Seonoh wretched, and Sisi shouted from his wrist.
"What are you doing! We need to get out of here quickly before the fire spreads further."
Yoon Wonjoong, who had been gazing up at Seonoh with dim eyes, weakly pushed him away.
"Hurry, go now. Go somewhere, forget everything, and live..."
Seonoh staggered to his feet. His vision was hazy, and he could barely see ahead. All the doors in the house were wide open.
The moment he stepped out through the side door, he started running. His body trembled violently like an aspen tree. His legs nearly gave out several times. Seonoh ran across the snow-covered ground. He quickly climbed up behind the house,
"Seon... oh..."
A faint sob made Seonoh freeze.
"Read... book..."
He slowly turned around. Someone was stumbling after him from below. Seonoh laughed like a madman and hurried back down the way he had come.
"Ha... haha... haha..!"
But he twisted his ankle and rolled down the slope. The water ghost, holding a book in its arms, was walking toward him. Seonoh, panting, grabbed the ghost's hand and pulled hard.
"Alright, it's okay, let's go! Let's go together... Come with me from now on!"
Seonoh tried to pull the water ghost along but stumbled and fell. His hand passed right through the ghost's body, causing him to lose his balance. Seonoh, bewildered, groped at the ghost's body.
Something was wrong. He could touch the left side of its body, but his hand passed through the right side. Seonoh frantically inspected the ghost's body.
The water ghost was holding a book in its arms. Seonoh snatched the book away and threw it aside. That's when he noticed the talisman that had been hidden behind the book. The talisman was a sacred talisman, a charm that sends ghosts to the afterlife. With the talisman attached, the ghost's form was slowly fading into transparency.
"Yoon Wonjoong must have stuck the talisman on you to send everyone off peacefully, afraid they'd fall victim to the others. The ghost is holding on purely by its own will. It must have wanted to see you one last time before disappearing," Sisi said calmly.
"This... this... No... wait..."
Seonoh, with trembling hands, covered the talisman. Just as Sisi had taught him, he pressed his hand against the talisman and closed his eyes. He tried to focus and recall the strokes several times, nevertheless, the talisman wouldn't come off. Seonoh, who had been frantically rubbing the talisman, yelled into his wrist.
"Huh? This... why, why isn't it working.!!!"
He looked at Sisi with panicked eyes. From his wrist, Sisi replied.
"That talisman was written by Yoon Wonjoong using all his spiritual power. It's several times stronger than the ones you're used to. Your power isn't refined enough to break it."
Seonoh's eyes shook violently. He was not in his right mind.
"Seon... oh..."
The now much fainter ghost picked up the book that Seonoh had thrown away.
"Hang on. You can't go."
"Read... book..."
"No, no! Don't!"
If I just break this talisman, you won't disappear! Seonoh repeatedly reached for the talisman, but in the end, he was like a child throwing a tantrum, clawing at the water ghost's chest. Nothing worked.
"You said I had the mark of hometown! You said hometown cared for me-!!!"
Seonoh screamed, clutching the ghost's body.
Thud, the book fell onto the snow.
All that remained in his arms was the cold, empty wind. The sensation was gone, leaving only the book that had fallen at his feet.
Seonoh knelt there.
On the book's cover, in crooked handwriting, was a name.
Yoon Seonoh
Once, when they had laid side by side, the ghost had scribbled on Seonoh's most cherished book. The foolish ghost with no name had clumsily copied the letters. It was more of a drawing than proper writing.
"Why..!"
Seonoh hugged the book and collapsed into the snow.
"Why.!!"
The black snake, Sisi, said nothing.
"You said I had the mark of hometown..."
A sense of helplessness crept through his bones. Seonoh's shoulders shook violently as he lay in the snow. He clenched his fists as if in prayer. The words the ghost had whispered in his ear while stroking his hair echoed in his mind.
Seon... oh...
Take... care...
"I'm sorry..."
The miscellaneous ghost had no name. He should have given it a name, at least. He should have given it a name. He shouldn't have done what he did back then. He should have said he was sorry. No, he shouldn't have been mean from the start. He should have let it
stroke his hair. He should have thanked it when it brought him books...
"I'm sorry..."
Why did you stay on this earth instead of going to the afterlife? He should have asked that at least once. Seonoh slowly lifted his head and looked down at his wrist.
Seonoh raised the sword to his wrist. It was the Sain Sword he had pulled out earlier.
"If only you... you hadn't told me how to break the talisman...."
Then he wouldn't have gone outside in the first place, wouldn't have gone to the cabin and started the fire. Then those people wouldn't have found grandfather, and if he hadn't known how to break the talisman, he wouldn't have captured the ghost. If only that had been the case...!
Hot blood gushed from his wrist.
"Are you blaming me?"
Sisi's eyes narrowed.
"You wished for this."
The black snake flicked its tongue.
"I heard everything, how you wished for everything to disappear."
Ah.
That's right.
"You really meant it back then, didn't you?"
"..."
"That's why it happened. Keke."
"..."
"It's all because of you."
"..."
"See, hometown is still on your side, isn't it?"
"..."
Kekeke... Sisi was mocking Seonoh.
Seonoh stared down at Sisi with vacant eyes, then looked up at the sky, gray even with the blizzard raging. Warm blood dripped from his wrist onto the white snow. Seonoh staggered as he walked into the dark forest.
"Yes, that's right...."
Seonoh shivered, not from the cold, nor from fear.
It was hatred.
Directed at himself…