Chapter 24
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Letter Written in Starlight 2
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Haewon didn't get up until quite a while later. He staggered to the bathroom. From outside came the faint barking of a hungry dog.
He turned on the faucet and cupped water in his hands. He splashed his face with the cold water several times, but his head didn't seem to clear. After splashing his face two or three times, he suddenly jerked his head up.
Then he screamed.
"..."
In the edge of the mirror, the reflection of a woman with long hair hanging down gazed at him. Or so he thought.
But when he whipped around in a hurry, there was nothing there. Just to be sure, he peered back into the mirror, but no woman was anywhere to be seen. Only his own bloodshot eyes stared back.
"I'm going crazy now."
He rubbed his face dry with a towel and shuffled back to his room. Only then did he think to flick on the fluorescent light. As the room brightened, a box shoved into the corner caught his eye.
They were things his mother had used. Bells, hairpieces, and all sorts of other ritual gear. He'd tossed most of it out, but he'd kept some stored away like this. She was someone he hated, but she was still his mother, after all.
Today, though, he desperately wanted to burn it all. This curse weighing on him felt like it stemmed entirely from those objects. Of course, he knew doing that wouldn't solve a damn thing.
He'd received the letter yesterday afternoon. As always, he'd checked the mail on his way home, and even as he picked up the envelope, nothing about it struck him as special. He just thought something like, who even sends letters these days?
When he unfolded the stationery, the shock hit him like nothing else.
She knew about his curse. He'd harbored the thought that the day would come eventually. No... maybe not. Perhaps he'd been wishing it was all just his delusion.
The first time he'd heard about that curse from his shaman mother was five years ago. Back then, Haewon had been worn to the bone by one unbearable event after another crashing down on him.
So he'd brushed it off as his mother's ravings at the time. It had only fueled his resentment toward her even more.
Haewon started believing it was really true after he became an adult. The incident that convinced him happened in college.
Haewon, freshly enrolled in university, lived hectic days. Desperate to escape his mother, he never took a single day off. He threw himself into his studies and even earned his own tuition.
His natural affability won him good opinions from everyone around. Few realized it stemmed from a near-obsessive drive to force himself into happiness.
It was all to forget the trauma of witnessing Saetbyeol's horrific death firsthand. He wanted to reject the absurd notion that his bride had been chosen long ago. He'd do anything to make it untrue.
Before he knew it, he'd gotten a second girlfriend. A classmate named Lee Ji-hyun.
She was utterly ordinary in as many ways as her exceedingly common name suggested. But Haewon liked that about her. He wanted to be ordinary himself. By any means necessary.
Through their time together, he felt his old wounds knitting closed. He even dismissed the idea that his soul was pawned to some ghost as pure nonsense.
Then Ji-hyun died. They said she'd drowned after slipping into a stream valley while splashing around with friends.
The friends who'd been there that day gave eerie accounts. It wasn't a spot with rising water or a fierce current, yet she'd strangely floundered without escaping. As if someone underwater had grabbed her ankle. The time of death was just before dusk, as twilight fell.
At Ji-hyun's funeral, Haewon stood frozen in a stupor. The voice from before droned relentlessly in his head.
"Your destined partner has already been decided."
After that, Haewon's life spiraled into rapid decay. Those close to him said he seemed hollowed out somehow. Untouchable, like he'd erected an invisible barrier.
In the midst of it all, a junior named Kim Eun-ha approached him. But Haewon had lost any desire not just for romance, but for getting closer to anyone beyond necessity.
Two women had died in ridiculous accidents. And it might even be his fault. He still didn't want to believe the curse, but testing it by gambling with lives was unthinkable.
Yet even with his overt distance, Eun-ha wouldn't back down. Bluntly put, she came on strong.
With no other choice, Haewon laid out his situation. I'm a shaman's son, and I have a fiancée. A spiritual entity that's not even human.
He figured she'd leave him be after that. Mock him, write him off as insane, or put distance between them out of sheer creeped-out vibes.
But Eun-ha laughed it off. Superstitions like that? Don't worry, I won't die.
He should've shut her down cold, but those eyes brimming with conviction shook him. Maybe I can trust her. She seems unbreakable. She might stick around forever.
In the end, Haewon accepted Eun-ha. She boasted she could heal his scars herself. Three months later, she was dead. At dawn, just as the sun peeked over the horizon. A random murder.
Haewon snapped back to the present.
Someone was ringing the doorbell outside. Was anyone supposed to visit today? In his muddled state, he checked the intercom.
"Oppa? Haewon oppa! It's Ibi!"
It was the last person he expected. Haewon answered in shock.
"Why are you here?"
"I just couldn't let it slide. That letter from earlier."
"The letter...?"
That's when Haewon caught on to what Ibi meant and scowled.
"You didn't read it, did you?"
"That... I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. But it's not the kind of thing you read once and ignore. I can help somehow. Let's talk first. Yeah?"
"..."
Haewon wavered. Worry? He figured he didn't deserve that kindness, but gratitude bubbled up anyway.
Still, the other women who'd brushed past his life flashed through his mind.
Sure, Ibi wasn't deeply involved with him. They'd only known each other a week. Hard to even call her a friend, if he nitpicked.
But conversation should be fine. Right?
As if entranced, Haewon opened the door. Ibi stepped inside, a touch awkward.
"Ah... thank you."
Haewon gave a curt greeting, then turned his back on her and headed to the kitchen. Maybe there was something to offer.
"Sorry for dropping by out of nowhere. I planned to talk to Nati, but who knows when I'd see him. Couldn't wait around forever."
"Yeah..."
Haewon rummaged through the kitchen. Then a strange feeling hit him, and he knit his brows.
"How'd you even know where I live?"
A week since they'd met. Obviously, he'd never given her his address.
"Oh, the boss told me. Came straight from work."
"Sis hasn't... ever been to my place either."
That's when the clock caught Haewon's eye. He'd been so out of it all day he hadn't noticed time flying, but it was already past 2 a.m.
What had Ibi just said?
"Hmm, was it? Didn't realize."
Straight from work?
At 2 a.m.?
"Still, there's no way I don't know everything about you, right?"
A chill pierced deep into his chest. Haewon spun around fast.
Their eyes locked. Ibi had closed in so near their bodies nearly touched.
Ibi slowly reached out both hands. She clasped Haewon's hand atop her own, guiding it to her cheek and stroking slowly.
"You like this face?"
Over her cheek, to her lips, her chin.
"Tested it just in case. But inviting a grown man into your room alone at this hour of night, without a second thought. What were you hoping for?"
Already invasively close. Yet Ibi stepped even nearer.
No, it wasn't Ibi. Someone else wearing her face like a mask.
"Don't worry. I'm a generous bride. Though my heart isn't quite as vast as the sea. So if you keep straying like this..."
The ghost in Ibi's skin smirked.
"This girl will have to face fitting punishment too, won't she?"
Haewon wanted to yell. Ibi has nothing to do with me.
But he feared it'd look like he was shielding her. What if this ghost flared with jealousy at the sight?
Suddenly, the ghost threw her head back and cackled hysterically.
"Don't look so grave. It was a joke. You're embarrassing me now. Truth is, I can't touch that girl. She's protected by someone beyond my reach. So loosen up that face?"
The bride reached out both hands and gripped the back of Haewon's neck. Her eyes gleamed with unbearable adoration.
As if she'd kiss him right then.
"But it's not time yet. The day we unite is set. I'll take my leave today. Ah, that day is finally coming! I can't wait anymore. Make me hold out even one more hour, and I'd rather die!"
The hands around Haewon peeled away. Her body followed. Soon her form began to fade. The ghost waved farewell.
"So await that day eagerly. My dear husband."
And then she vanished.