The Fireworks That Ignite a Witch
The Blue Flame Fireworks Festival. Being a world-renowned event, the place was absolutely packed with people. Yet there was one area noticeably sparse in the crowd: the VIP seating. That was where Lee Seol and Kim Jihun stood. Jihun was dressed in a sloppy jersey, while Seol wore a thin white dress, her eyes darting around restlessly. It looked like she was searching for someone. Her face was filled with anxiety.
The festival was due to start in ten minutes, but the person who had promised to come was nowhere in sight. Then, someone entered the VIP section.
“Seol! Jihun! Hey!”
“Huh? Ahyeon!”
“You’re here.”
Choi Ahyeon waved vigorously at the two of them as she approached. Seol smiled and asked, “Ahyeon, where are Hyun and Yuri?”
“Uh, um… well…”
Ahyeon quickly recalled the favor Lee Seonghyun had asked of her earlier.
“They said they’ll come later! He told me to go ahead first, so I did!”
“…I see.”
For a moment, Seol’s expression darkened. But she quickly returned to her usual self.
“Then let’s sit down first. Seonghyun isn’t the type to break a promise.”
“R-right! Let’s head in!”
As Ahyeon gently pushed the two toward their seats, Seol’s eyes remained fixed on the mountain across from them, her gaze heavy and sunken.
<First Round — Lee Seonghyun’s Memory>
A man lay collapsed in the middle of a barren wasteland. His body was covered in wounds, and his eyes burned with such rage they no longer looked human. A woman stood over him, gazing down.
“Seonghyun. Do you hate me?”
“Cut the bullshit. If you’re going to kill me, just do it already.”
The man growled. He wanted to swing a fist at her, but his body wouldn’t obey. Only his fingers twitched uselessly. The woman approached and pulled his face into her embrace. He gnashed his teeth in disgust. Still, she stroked his hair, then pressed her lips to his disheveled strands and whispered softly.
“It doesn’t matter if you hate me. It doesn’t matter if you curse me.”
She held him even tighter.
“For your sake, no matter how many times it takes… I will drag you down to hell.”
Thousands of meteors and comets hanging in the sky rained down upon them.
Han Yuri couldn’t believe her eyes. Someone who shouldn’t be here was standing right in front of her.
“How did you…?”
“Came to catch a guy who ran off with his pants down.”
He grabbed her arm and pulled.
“Let’s get some air outside.”
But Yuri dug her heels in, refusing to move. Without hesitation, Seonghyun hoisted her over his shoulder like a sack of rice.
“Are you crazy?! Put me down right now!”
“Man, you talk too much.”
He gagged her mouth with a cloth he found nearby and strode out of the building. It was the perfect setup for a misunderstanding, but Seonghyun used every blind spot to slip away smoothly.
The place he headed toward was…
‘The mountain…?’
Yuri had long since given up resisting. She looked around. Even though it was a small mountain, there were almost no people. She spat out the cloth and bit down hard on his arm.
“Hey now?”
“Put me down. I’ll walk on my own two feet.”
“Fine.”
Only then did Yuri regain the use of her legs.
‘Should I make a run for it?’
Her rebellious nature reared its head, but she quickly shook it off. She didn’t have the strength for that right now.
“So where are we going?”
Seonghyun just shrugged.
“You’ll see when we get there.”
“Haa…”
Whether she sighed or not, he simply kept climbing in silence. After about thirty minutes of wordless ascent, they reached the summit. He turned to her with a smile.
“I saw the video. You were bawling your eyes out. What are you, a three-year-old?”
“You crazy… Why the hell did you watch that?! You perverted bastard! What’s so fun about watching someone cry?!”
Yuri’s face turned beet red as she shrieked. Seonghyun held out his hand to her.
“Let’s go back. If Ahyeon and I put our heads together, we’ll come up with at least one strategy.”
His voice was serious. It was a tone she had never heard from him before.
“I’m not going.”
“……”
“I was unsure before, but after this test, I’m certain. This is as far as I go.”
“……”
“The daughter of the Portan Guild Master can only reach D-rank.”
A twisted smile. She let out a self-mocking laugh.
“I worked myself to death for two years. I cut my sleep to train. And yet my status window never changed. My status… my time…”
“……”
“It’s been frozen since two years ago.”
Her face looked like she might burst into tears at any moment. Seonghyun, sensing the mood, tried to change the subject, but instead she grabbed him by the collar.
“Even your bullshit has limits! If I’m a genius, then what the hell are you people—monsters?!”
“To become an S-rank Hunter, I slept only four or five hours a night since elementary school and suffered like crazy. But apparently Choi Ahyeon worked twice as hard as me? Then what the fuck is she?! And you!”
“You caught up to me in less than three months! No, from the start, your other abilities were already above mine!”
A scream filled with pent-up rage. Everything that had been building up inside her came pouring out. Tears streamed down her face, and her voice trembled violently.
“Remember when I told you to kick Ahyeon out?”
“Yeah.”
“Hah… Even a crazy bitch should go crazy in moderation. She’s the biggest defective product of all, and she had the nerve to say who should be kicked out? Just thinking about it makes me…”
She ground her teeth. Tears stained her face. She looked like a vengeful demon cursing herself.
Seonghyun let out a short sigh and looked up at the sky.
“Yeah. I get it. Then I’ll quit too.”
“What…?”
“I said I’m quitting too.”
Seonghyun continued calmly, still staring at the sky.
“I know how brutally you’ve run for two years. You must be exhausted. So take a break and come back later.”
“Huh…?”
It was the complete opposite of the scolding she had expected. Yuri’s face went blank. This was the same Seonghyun who had been rushing upward as if someone were chasing him from behind. The man who had staked his life on ranking up more than anyone else was saying this?
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing.
“When you’ve found some peace of mind, we can start again.”
“……”
“Rest well.”
Seonghyun looked at the sky and smiled faintly.
“I’ll wait for you.”
At that exact moment, fireworks exploded in the sky. One by one. Dozens of fireworks shot upward, filling the heavens with light. In that glow, Seonghyun looked almost dreamlike.
And then—
“Aurora…?”
Color began to paint the dark night sky. Light poured into the dull, sticky darkness. But that wasn’t the end.
“What the…?”
Countless tails of light rained down from above. They were comets. A sight she had never seen before. To Yuri, who had only known books and monsters, it was so beautiful it felt alien.
The night sky, now filled with every color, was showered with white meteor trails. Fireworks greeted them like a blessing. A brilliant meteor shower.
‘Ah……’
Goosebumps spread across her entire body. And at that moment—
Skill: Meteor Shower
The second hand that had stopped two years ago began to move again.
She rubbed her eyes. She blinked. But the message in front of her didn’t disappear. It floated there proudly, as if to prove what she had seen wasn’t an illusion.
Something surged up from deep within Yuri’s chest. Something that couldn’t be put into words. Something that defied definition.
She looked at Seonghyun. He wore his usual carefree expression. Seeing that, she let out a hollow laugh. Whether he knew how complicated her feelings were or not, Seonghyun simply gazed at the breathtaking spectacle.
“Hey. Seonghyun.”
“What?”
He turned around to look at her. Her smile, illuminated by the brilliant light of fireworks and comets, looked refreshed and relieved. At the same time, she was wiping away the tears that had pooled in her eyes.
“Nothing. You’re ugly.”
“Wow. Sorry my face offends you.”
“Pfft.”
The two of them stayed there until the very last firework bloomed in the sky.
“Hey, Ahyeon! Shooting stars! Make a wish!”
“Oh, hold on.”
Choi Ahyeon sent a quick text, then looked back up at the sky. It was a truly spectacular sight. As she took photos, she thought to herself,
‘I hope it went well.’
The call she had received from Seonghyun earlier. He had asked her to attend the fireworks in his place while he went to persuade Yuri. She had wanted to go to Yuri too, but Seonghyun had begged so earnestly that she had no choice but to come here.
‘Still, it was worth it.’
She had only expected to see fireworks, but she had witnessed a once-in-a-lifetime natural phenomenon. She was satisfied. And it was all thanks to Lee Seol.
‘Hm?’
“Jihun, have you seen Seol anywhere?”
“Huh? She was here just a second ago. Maybe she went to the bathroom?”
“Maybe… I’ll go look for her real quick.”
There were too many people, and the signal was terrible, so she had no choice but to search on foot. She headed for the VIP-only restroom.
“Seol? Are you in there?”
No answer. Maybe she had gone to one of the food stalls? She looked outside, but Seol wasn’t there either.
‘Did she get lost…?’
Her anxiety grew. She even used Wind God to scan the area, and then—
‘Huh?!’
“Seol!”
There she was, standing on a slightly elevated hill.
“Seol! What are you doing over there?!”
She shouted to get her attention, but Seol didn’t seem to notice. Ahyeon had no choice but to walk over. When she reached the top of the hill, she saw Seol staring fixedly at one spot.
“Seol? What are you doing here all alone?”
“…Hyun. He didn’t come after all, did he?”
“Huh? Yeah! He must’ve had something urgent. Let’s pick another day and come back together later.”
“…Okay.”
It was a low, subdued voice—nothing like the usual Seol. Ahyeon stepped closer and studied her face. It was completely expressionless. The smile that had always been there was gone.
“Um, Seol…?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Seol…?”
“Yeah.”
“……”
Seol continued staring blankly into the distance with a vacant expression.