v. Tale Keeper

Weakly Sunggyu went out from that damned place…

Climbed down the stairs with shaky movement. In rage he rushed to no one know where. His hands pulled on his own hairs. His mouth babbled complaining about how cruel the fate wrote for him. His eyes blared crazily.

Heechul ran, wanted to chase him.

"Let him, my husband. He needs time to be alone," Xue Fu held him back.

Of course Sunggyu needed time to be alone. Even at that time he really feel all the world are worthless. He didn't care about the world and everything. He just wanted to be alone.

Sunggyu regretted how coward he had been. How afraid he was to bring his dreams into reality. Look now he lost his most precious treasure he ever had. What could he did beside crying? Suddenly Sunggyu really hated himself.

Sunggyu let his feet brought him to the park. Like a craze his mouth kept spilling his wails. Made the people who passed him in the street stepped aside, avoiding. Jim screamed out loud at the big clock in the park. Made the sparrows flew away, startled. One regretful exhale, and Sunggyu slumped in a bench.

Sighed deeply. He was better off dead.

Had it been told in the beginning of this story? That day was the weirdest day ever in that city. The day after more than two hundreds years the happening in the old chapel passed, the day after two hundreds year the cycle never back, but that day the cycle reoccured.

Took the unspoken vow.

The day when the fate to this story happened.

Suddenly for a strange reason there was no more sparrows' chirp heard in the park. Vanished. No more winds's sough bringing cold air. The air stilled. No more movement in the fogs that whirled slowly under the morning rays. Stopped.

And somehow unexpectedly the park was now full with dragonflies, in multi colors. Fluttering their wings in a beautiful formation. Fascinating. Red. Yellow. Blue. And many other colors that was undreamed of humans' eyes. From where the dragonflies came was unknown.

Sunggyu was still slumped in the bench. Bowed his head down. Weeped and sobbed. For a very long time. He wasn't at the slightest realize the weird change around him.

Until a rhythmic bounce heard. The bounce sounded soft and pleasant. Like a music you never heard of.

Bounce? What was bouncing? Sunggyu raised his face.

An old man.

Sunggyu didn't know him. Not a man of this city. Not a man from across the country. His appearance was different. His face was bright. Looked appealing. Like when you saw a wise, kind grandfather. His eyes were calm and shining. He wore a robe and a shawl like the local people.

What made him different was his dark, black hair. Way too eccentric for that era, straight up. Like glued up. A hairstyle that was unknown for the resident of that city, not until hundreds years later. His hair was like quill of hedgehog.

That old man somehow already stood in front of Sunggyu. Stood gracefully. Stared warmly at Sunggyu --like a stare to an old friend. His left hand shoved in the pocket of his robe. The right hand, that hand played with a ball. Bounced it repeatedly to the grass in that park. That was the source of the sound.

What ball? Sunggyu squinted, staring. He never saw that thing before. Green in color. Some lines circling it. Some letters written there. Even Sunggyu (and the other citizen) never knew there was something that could bounce that easily.

"Salaam…"

Sunggyu regarded him with empty stare. His puffed eyes gazed at the person who said his greeting to him. Sad to say, Sunggyu's eyes was so lifeless. The greet was left unreturned. Sunggyu was clam up. Stared blankly.

"Ah, you should be able to answer it. Wasn't it what your lover always wrote as the opening and the closing of his letters? Salaam!"

Sunggyu kept stared blankly. Letters? The opening and the closing? What did this old man know and what did he want?

"May I sit?" The stranger smiled, kept bouncing the rubber ball in his hand cheerfully.

Sunggyu nodded weakly. No one could forbid anyone to sit in the benches in that park. Why should this old man asking for permission? The old man smiled warmly at Sunggyu's nod, his hand skillfully catch his green ball.

Sitting beside Sunggyu.

"Do you know where is the origin of this green ball?" The old man showed it to Sunggyu.

Alas the one who was being asked kept his silent. Silent because he didn't know, silent because at that moment there was only sadness in his brain. Silent because he didn't care. Not his business.

"One day you'll know. And you'll be lucky to know it," the man with hedgehog-like hair put in the green ball in his mantel pocket.

Sunggyu just observed him without speaking. Then back to stared blankly at the grass. He'd been thinking on the best way to kill himself. It was pointless to continue his live without his Woohyun. Really futile. He couldn't bear it even for a day. That old man who suddenly came and greeted him was interrupting the death plans that he was setting.

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