Being forced to stay between heaven and earth. Kim Woobin lived a life like that, a pitiful life. Not able to speak to anyone, not able to touch anyone, not able to eat, not able to sleep, not able get out of it. That was the life a gatherer had to live. Of course, Woobin hadn’t chosen this path himself. He was forced to. There were a few wretched souls who had to stay between life and dead, working for either god or devil. God did not judge the humans way of living and didn’t plan to divide them after death either, but the devil did, so they had to establish rules to divide the souls into good and bad. However, neither devil nor god followed these rules for their own reasons and had to find a way to collect the souls. That’s how they decided to use a few souls they “owned” to create workers. The gatherers, god’s workers, and hunters, the devil’s servants, had to stay on earth to collect the souls of the dead, leading them to heaven and hell. It wasn’t an easy task though. Neither god nor devil knew when exactly a human was to die. They knew a certain period, but never an exact date. God was scared of losing too many souls, so he gave every gatherer an order to follow a specific human for the individual period of time and make sure they’d collect the soul right away and lead it to heaven. He said that it was an honor and helpful for the pure innocent souls, who’d fall in the devil’s hands otherwise. Still, it was a torture for them. Wandering around on earth as if they were still alive, but not being able to be seen or heard by anyone, not able to touch anyone, having to see countless humans die, no matter how old they were, no matter how they died, even if they were murdered, not being able to help them, it was a real torture. On top of that, not even gatherers among themselves were allowed to talk to each other. Each one had their own room with a postbox in it. They got their orders in the form of letters, so they couldn’t even talk to god himself. It was a real torture.

Woobin clearly remembered the day when he opened his eyes, standing in this almost empty, white room. He couldn’t exactly remember what happened. In confusion he looked around the room and felt an urge to open the postbox. The tall, dark-haired guy found a letter in it and opened it. “Kim Woobin, my son. Your soul is safe, I will protect you. Until the day you can pass the gates of heaven, you will save other poor souls.” The following was an explanation of the rules and how he had to collect the souls and also information about the hunters. One had to simply lay one hand on the chest of the dead body. The gatherer got a warm feeling if he was successful. Woobin shook his head in confusion and laid the letter back into the box, turned away to leave that room, looked back to the box one last time. He froze. The letter had disappeared. He gulped heavily as a new letter suddenly appeared. He hesitantly took and opened it. “Don’t be scared. Everything will be alright.” A small note said. There were also a photo of a young man and another note saying “two weeks;[address]” and on the back of the note it said “close your eyes, concentrate and I will lead you to this place”. Though he was scared, Woobin decided to take his orders. He had a horrible experience. Wandering around for the first time made him feel lost. No one noticed him. He tried to avoid the bodies approaching him, just to find out they went right through him. He gasped for breath because he was in a shock. After he calmed down a little he looked at the photo and saw his target in front of his eyes. He followed him around for eight days. On the ninth day that young man got shot in front of his eyes and he could do nothing. He screamed and tried to push him away as the killer came closer, but the victim couldn’t hear him, nor could Woobin touch him. He panicked as he saw the blood pouring out of this boy’s body. His body trembled and he couldn’t move. All of a sudden black smoke formed and a thin figure appeared. The smoke surrounding her disappeared slowly and the frozen man could see her clearly. A dark haired, red eyed woman stood in front him smirking. She must be one of these hunters…Woobin thought. At that moment the woman started to run towards the dead. He was still shocked, but gathered all his strength and courage, kneeled down in a hurry and laid his hand onto the chest of the dead. After a short moment warmth spread through his body, he closed his eyes. As he opened them again he stood in a plain white corridor. Hundreds of people walked towards a warm light coming from the end of the corridor. Woobin was confused, still trembling from the shock. Then he saw the young man who just died passing him, following the other people to the light. Woobin watched the poor soul disappear as a door, which hadn’t been there before, opened beside him. He took the hint and went inside, standing in the room he woke up in once again. “What’s this?!” he screamed angrily, hitting the postbox and opened it afterwards, knowing no one would answer him otherwise. He took out a letter again and read it right away. “You did well, my son. Now go and save the next soul.” From that day on Woobin was stuck between heaven and earth.

Almost 60 years had passed since then. Woobin got used to the situation, but it caused his character to change. He didn’t care anymore why people died or how they died. He’d quietly follow them until he could collect their souls. A never ending circle. Again, he stood in front of this white postbox to get his next order. “Lee Jongsuk; two months; Seoul[address]” He looked at the photo once before he closed his eyes and opened them again, standing in front of a restaurant. Woobin stood there, sometimes asking himself he was just having a long, long nightmare as a bunch of people went through him. Although he had those moments when he liked not having to deal with those bunches of idiots, it clearly made him feel lonelier every day, wondered if he ever had existed anyway. A gatherer forgot about himself the more time passed. Woobin didn’t even remember anymore how he looked like. There were no mirrors which could reflect his appearance, too. Only remembering his name, he kept on “living”. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jacket and went inside the restaurant, searching for the man he had to follow.  A bright young man played the piano, singing with a gentle voice. The man was called Lee Jongsuk. Sometimes he got to perform there and usually got free meals there, too. He felt comfortable in this place. Woobin spotted him immediately, started to observe him. After a while the brown-haired man finished his work and stood up, leaving the room quietly. Woobin followed him quietly. It was a windy night today. Jongsuk’s hair became a mess and he slightly trembled as the cold wind his skin. He wanted to go home quickly. The calm, tall figure following him didn’t mind the weather; at least it was something he could feel. Keeping an eye on Jongsuk was the only thing he cared about, he had to care about. Actually, he wasn’t really interested, but he wanted this torture to end someday, so he followed the rules obediently and collected the souls no matter what. Jongsuk suddenly stopped, so did Woobin. The bright young man turned around, knitting his brows slightly and tilting his head. “Are you following me?” he asked. No reply. Woobin didn’t bother looking around to find out who he talked to.

“Tall man, I’m talking to you!” he chuckled. Jongsuk got no reply again and headed towards the person he meant, stopping right in front of Woobin. He didn’t care, was even used to people standing within his body. Jongsuk looked a bit confused as the man standing in front of him still stared into space. He smiled brightly, reaching out to ruffle this man’s hair, giving Woobin a dead shock as he was feeling this smaller man’s hand. “Are you a fan?” Jongsuk asked with a gentle voice looking right into Woobin’s eyes, dumbfounded him.



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so here is the first chapter i hope it's understandable and that you like it :D i appreciate every comment I get *~*