They were sitting on a broad flat space near the edge of the hill. The sun was lazily cruising across the sky towards the horizon. It was the same hill Myungsoo had described – the end of the earth.

They had spent the night at the edge of the ditch and in the morning, they had started their journey towards the end of the earth. It had been naturally decided between them, no one said it allowed but they were both headed towards the hill.

Sungyeol had gathered some dry wood from the forest and he was trying to light a fire with the matchbox he had brought along with him. So far, his efforts were proving futile.

“You know, there’s something that has been bothering me,” Woohyun said, looking into his eyes. He looked disturbed as he fidgeted with his fingers.

Sungyeol nodded to show that he was listening.

“The day we danced at the bar, on the first day…we er… sort of made out.”

There was no mistaking the ‘we’ Woohyun was referring to.

Sungyeol’s mouth fell open and the matchstick dropped out of his hand. He knew he was capable of a lot of things but making out a complete stranger that too with freakish green eyes didn’t seem up his alley. Even more than shock was the feeling of betrayal that stabbed his heart. For some reason, he felt as if Woohyun had broken a pact between them.

How could you?

“I – I regret it, I promise but…well I sort of saw more skin than I should have and well – right below his collarbone, he has a tattoo.”

Sungyeol didn’t understand why Woohyun was recounting Sungjong’s anatomy to him. He was utterly disgusted as it was and he didn’t want to hear more.

“No Yeol, listen to me,” Woohyun insisted while he looked for the fallen matchstick. “It didn’t bother me then but the more I think about it…that tattoo looked like the symbol on the front of the book. Now I’m positively certain.”

Sungyeol looked at him intently, trying to determine if Woohyun was making it up. He saw candid honesty in his eyes though – that meant Sungjong indeed had a tattoo shaped like the symbol of the Sacred Secrets.

He wondered why he would have that tattoo – he had seen pictures of lots of Sacred Secrets fanatics and read about them – no one mentioned having tattoos of the Secrets on their bodies. The only ones who were branded with the tattoos were the questers who successfully completed their Sacred Quest.

Other than that, the tattoo was very rarely found. Since the tattoo was said to possess immense power, no everyday object or person was branded with the mark of the Secrets.

But the objects the quests refer to are branded!

As the information hit him, he jumped to his feet. He was shaking all over. He tuned out Woohyun’s worried voice calling out to him. Covering his face with his hands, he let the blood pound his ear drums noisily.

Sungjong had a Sacred tattoo. He had unusually green eyes. When Sungyeol had decided to use his tracking method to track the star, Sungjong had run away from them. Sungjong had stolen the Sacred Secrets to impede their quest. Sungjong was even more powerful than a spell-caster.

All this information put together added up to one conclusion – Sungjong was the green star they were looking for.

Sungjong is Inspirit!

However, here he faced a dilemma – Inspirit couldn’t come down to earth even in another form if it wasn’t blue moon. Myungsoo himself had confirmed that the blue moon wasn’t until tomorrow and Sungjong had been with them for a while. Also Sungjong was most definitely a female star, but stars could disguise themselves as anyone so it wasn’t that important.

There was a small miscalculation somewhere and he knew only one person who had the answer.

“We have to go to Myungsoo’s, right now.”

He didn’t give Woohyun any reasons. They picked up their bags and ran madly towards the way they had come. Sungyeol prayed that they would be able to find his house; he was their last hope.

They ran for what seemed like hours before they stumbled across a familiar threshold. Struggling for breath, they burst through the door but it didn’t look like they had taken Myungsoo by surprise. He sighed as he rose from his chair and ushered them in.

They drank a cooling drink, which also helped to ameliorate the fatigue. When they had calmed down enough, Sungyeol said, “I guess you know why we’re here.”

“You figured it out.”

“Yeah, but I’m kind of confused.”

Woohyun looked completely confused as he looked from one to the other, trying to catch the conversation.

“Sungjong is the star. He has the Sacred tattoo. He ran away when we decided to track the star. He is the one, isn’t he?”

Woohyun’s eyes widened but he didn’t say anything. Myungsoo leaned back in his chair and nodded.

“But I thought Inspirit cannot come down to earth until the blue moon so …”

Myungsoo his lips.

“Sungjong isn’t Inspirit.”

“What? You said Sungjong is the star we’re looking for, but you’re saying he isn’t Inspirit?” Woohyun asked, thoroughly puzzled.

“Yes and yes.”

“Please,” Sungyeol said, covering his eyes with his hand. “We’re tired.”

Myungsoo nodded resignedly.

“Sungyeol, you translated the quest instruction right?”

Sungyeol nodded in agreement.

“You got it right, except at one part. You mistranslated smaragd as green – it’s supposed to be emerald.”

“Umm…aren’t they the same?”

Myungsoo shook his head and smiled sadly.

“Green stars are young stars. Emerald is one specific star; Sungjong is the Emerald star.”

They exhaled together, covering their faces simultaneously.

We were so close, Sungjong was right here with us…

“I’m so sorry Woohyun, it’s all my fault. I’m a stupid, idiot -”

His words were cut short as Woohyun hugged him tightly. He sighed and relaxed his body, melting into the hug. He was so glad Woohyun was there with him. But it wouldn’t be for long. Soon, everything would be destroyed and he could have saved the world, stopped it from happening, but he had failed miserably.

“I would have told you if I knew where Sungjong is. But trust me, he’s a lot more powerful than me and I don’t know how to track him. My bet is he went back.”

Can’t we summon him?

“That’s beyond my powers. The Emerald star is a very powerful star. Even more so in his star form.”

“So-so this is the end of the world?” Woohyun asked sadly.

“I’m sorry,” Myungsoo muttered.

He looked genuinely apologetic.

“What should we do?” Sungyeol asked Woohyun.

He remembered his parents, his brother – they would all disappear. He thought about how much Woohyun loved his sister, Jihyun. He had failed them all. He had failed his grandfather.

I’m so sorry.

“Hey, let’s go back to the end of the earth. Since the world is going to end anyway, let’s go there and we can watch apocalypse together. It will be quite the show, eh?”

Sungyeol knew Woohyun was trying to cheer him up and he didn’t want his best friend’s efforts to go to waste. He smiled at him.

They turned to face Myungsoo, who had a painful expression on his face.

“I’m sorry, I really couldn’t interfere even if I wanted to.”

“We understand. It was nice meeting you, Myungsoo.”