The night was thick with mist, the kind of damp heaviness that clung to the skin and muffled footsteps on Seoul’s narrow streets. Hwal sat hunched outside a small bar, the smoke from his cigarette curling against the pale streetlight. He had learned long ago that stillness was sometimes a sharper weapon than the blade at his hip, but then it hit him. An ache, sharp and unmistakable, a pull in his chest. He felt it like fire in his blood: your soul crying out. He stood instantly, senses narrowing, and followed the thread of your fear down the darkened alley. There, under the fractured glow of a flickering lamp, Ok Eul Tae loomed over you, his pale face twisted with malice, his hand reaching for your throat.

Hwal’s voice cut through the air like a blade. “Eul Tae.” His tone was low, steady, but underpinned with rage. Eul Tae turned, lips curling into a cruel smile, his grip tightening on your arm. “So you felt her too,” he drawled. “This one’s important to you. Which is why I’ll enjoy destroying her soul even more.” Hwal’s eyes burned, but the sight of your terrified gaze stole the air from his lungs. He had seen it before, long ago, in a village where you had stood before him, robed in white as a shaman, unflinching in the face of what others called a monster.

The memory crashed over him: the scent of smoke from villagers’ torches, the hiss of whispers calling him cursed, your steady voice rising above them all. “I’ll help you, Hwal. In this life, or the next, I’ll find a way to lift your burden.” You had pressed your hand over his heart, unafraid, promising him in a tone so certain it had bound him more surely than any vow. Back in the alley, the same vow blazed in your eyes, even through fear. Yin and yang, curse and cure, bound together across centuries.

Hwal stepped forward, his body a shield between you and Eul Tae. “You won’t touch her,” he growled, voice low but unyielding. Eul Tae laughed darkly, his fangs glinting in the dim light. “Always protecting what you can’t keep. You’ll lose her like you always do.” His words struck like venom, but Hwal only tightened his grip on his blade, his gaze never wavering. “Not this time.” The sharp sound of steel leaving its sheath filled the night.

You stumbled back against the brick wall, your breath ragged, eyes locked on him. Hwal glanced at you just once, and in that moment, time folded, the past, the present, lifetimes colliding in the alley’s shadows. He saw you as the shaman, the monk, the healer, always standing beside him, always believing. He had been haunted for centuries, but with you there, the burden felt almost bearable.

The night held its breath as steel clashed and shadows roared, but fear and exhaustion overwhelmed you, your vision dimming until the world slipped into black. Hwal caught you before you could fall, his jaw tight as he carried you from the alley and back to the quiet safety of his home. When you finally stirred awake, his dark gaze fixed on you, voice low and raw as he asked, “Do you.. remember who I am?”