Uncle Yoon’s father had passed away and it had been fourteen days passed after he left the world. The ritual that Grandma just mentioned was where the family made noise in the last place deceased stayed in order to force his soul out.

…Out from the house so that the soul could not roam around the house but had to find the right direction a death person should follow.

The ritual is usually done when the sun sets and sky had turned completely dark and the ideal time would be at the evening. The noise is created by banging empty plastic bottle to all of the areas in the house, like walls, the cupboard or anything that could be reached while making noises with their voices, in attempt to scare the soul away.

If they happen to see the figure that had exactly looked like the deceased in the house, they must and should scare him away by chasing him out and no light should have been lighted up during the ritual. At the beginning of the ritual, explosion started first from inside a bamboo stick and some even use fire cracker to start the event.

Teenagers were especially love this ritual of all the ritual since they could hit their own friend in the dark but the elders took this even seriously. The decease’s soul should have not stay and trap in the house.

At this time, the decease had no choice but to leave and ran out to the nearest road or path out of their house and any souls that happened to live around the house that heard the noise had to leave their place and ran out to the pathways.

That was why, Grandma asked Jooyoung to return home fast before they started the noise because of the possibility Jooyoung got knocked down by any of the souls was there. It was dark and human had no capability to see any of those running souls, and that was why the villagers were warned about the ritual beforehand to avoid any collision with the souls.

Jooyoung’s jaw dropped as she listened to Grandma’s story, goose bumps felt all over her body and sudden chill blew passed her. She hugged herself, too astonished to say something. Grandma saw the quick change in her granddaughter’s face, and she felt sorry for telling Jooyoung the senseless story.

She found it hard as well to accept and process it when she first heard it, but what can she do? She lived in the village and no matter how bad and silly a tale might sound, she had to learn it.

Grandma never heard of any villagers being ran into by any of the spirit or ghost out there but as one of the villagers, she still held the belief and had her guards up. She didn’t want one of her family happen to be the first person to be the proof of their beliefs.

“But then why they repeat the ritual, grandma?” asked Jooyoung in curiosity. Grandma saw the fascination in Jooyoung’s eyes as she cleared , “I’m not sure about that honey. Perhaps, they want to make sure that the decease’s soul really had left the house?”

Jooyoung gave a small nod as she stared at her grandmother’s face. Her eyes may fix at Grandma’s face but her mind wasn’t there. She couldn’t stop thinking about the incident that happened at the pathway earlier. Could it be that she just collided with an escaping soul?

She shook her heard right away to brush out the thought.

“Do you hurt anywhere else?” Grandma asked as she checked at Jooyoung’s legs. Jooyoung instantly shook her head, “No grandma, that’s all. I want to get wash first.”

Jooyoung got up from the couch but Grandma stopped her before she could leave, “Are you sure you didn’t feel as if something had ran into you?”

A flash of concern passed her grandmother’s eyes; Jooyoung stared at the pair of eyes before she managed a nod and forced a chuckle. “Grandma, don’t you know me? I’m Shin Jooyoung, a pretty girl that doesn’t take any of the strange and beliefs or superstitions of this village into her head.”

Grandma laughed hearing that from Jooyoung’s mouth as she nodded satisfied, “I guess I don’t have to worry about those senseless things then. It is just stories made by your ancestors just to scare us off. You know bedtime stories…?”

Jooyoung smiled, “Then, thank you for the scary bedtime story, grandma!” Jooyoung then hugged her grandmother before she walked to her room.

As soon as she got into her bedroom, she the light quickly before she let her eyes wandered around her room. Her heart raced and the feeling of being watched emerged from within her, she chanted in her mind that it was just her feeling, the after effect she got from hearing her grandmother’s story.

Her mind then suddenly drew her to the face of the person who she just met at the pathway earlier on. She remembered how the guy insisted her to show her the mark that he claimed he had and she suddenly recalled how cold his skin felt…

Why did it just come to her that he had icy cold skin? The thought suddenly caused the breeze from the window to blow, sending her chill all over her skin. Quickly, she walked to the slightly opened window and closed it before she covered it with its curtain.

Without wasting more time, she moved to take her hanging towel, bringing it into the washroom. Perhaps, a brief shower could bring her ceasing energy back and the fresh feeling could help her be optimistic again and stop making herself thinking that she just knocked down by a ghost.

---

Hongbin took a long walk, passing the house where the grandmother lived and where the girl claimed to have stayed. His mind still couldn’t get rid of the girl, he doubted about her existence. What was she? Who is she? Why her?

He believed that she is a human being, just like the other villagers but there were still parts of him that didn’t want to accept the fact he just concluded. Someone then passed through his mind; he glanced back at the house where the girl stayed before he turned back to the pathway and ran away.

Perhaps that someone could help him and stopped the increasing questions in his mind?

As soon as Hongbin arrived at the hiding place of that someone, his eyes scanned the dark place. He didn’t see anybody around there and he couldn’t help but to frown in disappointment. Did that someone ran away too? The hiding place was far from the house that was making the noise, could it be that the owner could hear it from there?

But that person is different…

“Looking for me?” a voice interrupted Hongbin’s thought. He spun around to see the face of that someone he really needed.

A smile developed on his half covered face, “I thought you’re gone.”

The person in front of Hongbin jumped down the branches one by one until ground met the bottom of her feet. A genuine smile carved on her face as she took a look at face of the young and lost boy in front of her, “I will, but not today. What is it Lee Hongbin? I thought you’re fine now? Are you going to say goodbye to me?”

Hongbin shook his head in response, “It’s not about that.” He looked hesitated for a moment as he avoided her eyes. “You’re the first people that popped in my mind… Lee Sunmi.”

Lee Sunmi placed her right leg in front of her left leg as she rested both her hands on her hip. She gave an amused look to the boy in front of her, “I love it when you pronounce my name, Lee Hongbin.”

Hongbin brought his hand at the back of his head before he slowly lifted his chin to make an eye contact with Sunmi who was waiting for him to see her in the eyes, “Tell me Lee Hongbin, what it is in your mind?”

Hongbin stared at the pair of eyes that was staring back into him; he swallowed a couple of time to get rid of the nervousness. “I-I-I,” he began, stuttering.

Sunmi lowered her head gradually and then moving her head side to side in a very slow manner, she could feel it, she could sense it, his time was coming but she didn’t want to spoil the fun to him. She loved to see the lost boy to go through his time with no regret.

“What is it Lee Hongbin?” she asked, her eyes showed the hint of her getting tired of waiting for him to finish. He felt guilty immediately and ended his sentence with a breath, “I met a girl that looks human.”

Sunmi’s eyes widened in an instant, shock clearly spread throughout her face, “You fall in love with a human? Is that you’re trying to tell me Lee Hongbin?” She then crossed her arms against her torso as she paid him her attention.

Hongbin pressed her lips into a straight line, he inhaled deeply before he tried to explain detail fully, “A girl, she looks very human to me and I can’t find any mark on her, and she can see me, she can touch me… I can feel her…”

Sunmi sent a blank stare to Hongbin and Hongbin looked back anxiously, “Is it possible for a normal human being to be able to see and touch a lost soul like me?”

There was still no response coming out from Sunmi as she stood still like a mannequin, Hongbin turned flustered to see her reaction and he added more to his explanation, “I know this is so odd, I know some human that had the power to see and capture the wandering souls like us but from a fragile looking girl like her? It’s impossible!”

A blink could be seen from Sunmi’s eyes, she then flashed a meaningful and mysterious smile, and her dark red lips parted, “Maybe she hides it?”

Hongbin narrowed his eyebrows, “H-hide?”

Sunmi eagerly nodded as a spark of excitement flashed on her face, “You know? She’s a girl. We never know the reason she left at the first place? Maybe she moved her mark to elsewhere or had something to cover it, just like you!”

“Is she?” Hongbin blinked several times. “But she looked very clueless when I insisted her to show it.”

A bright smile plastered on Sunmi’s face as she walked, circling Hongbin, “Perhaps… She was just playing a game with you Lee Hongbin? She really wants to see you next time, and by doing what she just done will peaked your curiosity, making you want to find and see her again?”

Her words began to sink into him, it was just assumptions made by the spirit of the huge and hideous oak tree but her words might come true. The rest left to him to make the real conclusion.

Who knew? Moreover, he never met a young girl like her to be a restless soul. Most of them were vengeful and wicked soul… Unlike him, and they came back not to make friend. He could safely say that, Lee Sunmi was like her guardian angel.

“What do you think, Lee Hongbin?” Sunmi questioned as she stopped in front of him, a finger lifted his chin so that his eyes were on the same level with her. Even in the dimness of the night, Sunmi always look beautiful, he admired her eternal beauty; soft milky white skin, round eyes, pointy nose and dark red lips.

“I don’t mean to read your mind, but your eyes scream me every word clearly. Thank you, Lee Hongbin for the appreciation,” she pulled her finger away leaving a flushed Hongbin. He sometime forgot that Sunmi is not one of them and more powerful than any of the weak and struggling souls like him.

He watched as Sunmi was about to jump up the lowest branch of the oak tree, “So… Do you think I should go back and find her?”

Sitting on the tough and old branch, Sunmi pulled a heart-warming smile, “What do you think, Lee Hongbin? What do you think?” She swung her long and beautiful legs to and fro; Hongbin couldn’t help but to watch the moving legs.

“You’re welcome, Lee Hongbin,” Sunmi greeted and Hongbin’s eyes averted to her smile before he nodded, understood and vanished from her eye sight.

Sunmi watched as Hongbin disappeared, swallowed by the dark of the night, her smile vanished and she stared at the direction he had gone with a thoughtful look. Glancing up the night sky, she could saw how round the moon was, lightening her down there beneath the oak tree.

---

Jooyoung slept facing the door; she avoided facing the window as her grandmother’s story still haunting her mind. If she didn’t act tough earlier on in front of her grandmother, she would have been sleeping beside her grandmother by now but she had this thing call pride in her.

She wouldn’t fall down by a non-sense creepy tale from the village. She wouldn’t!

If there was no scientific or solid proof to support any of the odd tales, she wouldn’t accept and believe on any of them. They lived in a modern and in advanced technology age, why was it so hard for the modernisation to reach at the village?

That still made her wonder till this day.

Was the village not a part of the country?

She had her blanket up to the top of her head and she lay still, unmoved. Her eyes were closed but her mind was still processing. She couldn’t bring herself to sleep.

The blanket slowly and gradually suffocating her and heating her up, she could feel sweat seeping to her clothes, she needed the fresh air. She couldn’t stay like this forever or she would end up soak in her own pool of sweat.

The thought disgusted her.

Pushing and kicking the blanket away from her body, she got up and ran to the curtains and her eyes widened as her eyes met with a face outside of the window.

“Grandma!!!” screamed Jooyoung, causing Hongbin to panicking in front of her, at the same time trying to shut her down.

Jooyoung squeezed her eyes shut as she screamed for another time, deafening Hongbin as he slid opened the window and swiftly pushing her to the nearest adjacent wall. “Hush,” he growled in his deep voice, shutting her up.