Chapter 1: A Fated Encounter

It was just another normal day for Jinseong. She woke up earlier than the sun rise to prepare the necessary equipments for their temple's morning ritual. Their head shaman decided that they would do the ritual regularly until the 'beast' lurking in the woods disappear. It was not much of a surprise for Jinseong that they had been doing the same ceremony for years without accomplishing anything. Still, the people insisted that the temple would keep on praying, in hopes that a miracle would occur anytime soon. As for Jinseong, she had already lost her faith ages ago but she continued on being a shaman in order to fulfill her deceased mother's wishes and maybe, just maybe, a tiny part of herself wished that prayers would be enough to kill that 'murderer'.

"Jinseong!" screamed a familiar voice as Jinseong entered the quarters of the shaman. It was Chiwon, her closest friend. They had known each other ever since they were little and the two could not be happier when both of them became a shaman. The two of them were also the youngest in the temple so they would stick together in doing the 'menial tasks'. Chiwon had a relieved expression on her face which made Jinseong confused.

"What's with the face?" She asked with a chuckle. "Did anything happen?"

"How can you laugh, seriously? I woke up and you're gone. How would I know if anything bad happens to you?" Chiwon's forehead were creased, worry all over her face and her friend felt guilty for causing that expression. "Did you go to the woods by yourself? You should have woken me up."

"You're thinking too much." Jinseong shook her head and smiled reassuringly. "I didn't go that deep into the woods and it's almost morning. Nothing could have gone wrong."

"Have you already forgotten? The last victim disappeared in the middle of the day in the middle of the village. It's way better for me to be overthinking things than being careless." Chiwon frowned.

"Fine, fine. I'll stick with you next time." Since it did not look like any words of reassurance would be able to convince her friend any time soon, she decided to give up in arguing. "Anyway, we should hurry up with the preparations or we won't hear the end of the head shaman's sermon." She said with a giggle and her friend giggled along.

The ceremony went on smoothly. A lot of villagers went to the temple to watch the ritual and afterwards, they all started to pray for the safety of their village and for the safety of every single person living there. There were a lot more people than usual and it was as expected by the head shaman. After all, the 'beast' would be hunting in their village any day soon. Everyone, although they would not talk about it out loud, had noticed his pattern. He would only hunt their village once a month. As to what happens in between or why he would do that, no one was certain but there were rumors that the same being would hunt the neighboring villages. Since more than a month had already passed since the last victim, they knew that any of them could be the next victim.

'A bunch of hypocrites.' were the words inside Jinseong's head. 'None of them really cares about others. None of them comes when we're praying for the other villages nor anyone comes when we're praying for the souls of the deceased. They'll just care if them or someone they know are in danger. It's so disgusting, watching them pray insincerely then later watching them let out a sigh of relief once they find out that someone else has died.' She was standing at the side with the rest of the shamans while the head shaman led the prayer and the rest of the ceremony. The few minutes of the remaining time for the ceremony seemed to have taken forever.

"Are you all right?" Chiwon asked her as the two of them entered the kitchen. Jinseong had that solemn expression on her face and she did not notice it was there until her friend pointed it out. 

"Huh?" Jinseong raised an eyebrow, taking a deep breath before relaxing. "Yes, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"No reason." Chiwon shook her head and began preparing their breakfast. Jinseong took a seat at the table, watching her friend do the kitchen work. "You see, I've been doing a lot of thinking recently."

"What are you thinking about?"

"Do you think our prayers work? As a shaman, I know I should not corrupt my mind with such thoughts but I can't help it. People are dying and it seems like a prayers never reach heaven." There was bitterness in her voice and Jinseong was aware where her friend was coming from. She had the same thoughts too after all. "You know, just forget what I just said. I'm just hungry so I'm spouting nonsense."

"No, I get it." Jinseong said with a gentle smile. "In fact, that's what I've been always thinking about, every morning ritual. That's also what I was thinking about a while ago so I could not focus on praying- Please do not tell the head shaman."

"It's a relief that it's not only me." Chiwon replied as she continued on cooking. "But I hope we're both thinking nonsense. The heavens must have heard us. It's just not the right time yet but soon, it'll be the end for that murderer."

"If I meet that murderer, I would kill him myself." The smile was still on Jinseong's face but it turned from gentle to a cruel one. Chiwon sighed but before she could speak to disagree with her friend, the latter rose from her seat and said, "I think we're out of drinking water. I must go fetch some."

"Wait, I told you not to go out by your--" But her friend had already disappeared before she could finish what she was saying. She took a deep breath. "She's never careful. Seriously, what must I do with her?"

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"Ugh" Jinseong groaned in pain as she tripped on the rocky road. Both her knees were scratched by the edges of the rocks making both of them bleed a little but what concerned the female more was the two jars of drinking water that she spilled. "Now, I have to go back and get some water again." She whined and bit her lips to stop herself from screaming because of the pain.

"Miss, are you all right?" A gentle voice came out of nowhere. She turned her head to look at the male who was walking towards her from behind. The male had a noble aura surrounding him or at least, in Jinseong's perspective. His voice was so gentle, like a mother talking to her child. He extended out his hand to offer her help.

"I-I'm fine." She could not help but stammer, embarrassed that a stranger witnessed her clumsiness. People would rarely pass by that road so she was not expecting to meet someone there. For the second time, she tried to get up but failed. Hesitantly, she grabbed the strangers hand and he carefully pulled her up. "Thank you very much. It was a huge help." She said, bowing politely. "Now, if you must excuse me, I must get going. I still have water to fetch and other things to do."

"How can you get going when your knees are bleeding like that?" Jinseong looked down on her knees, wondering if the blood was visible through her hanbok- it was not.

"What, how did you know my knees are bleeding?" She glared at him suspiciously. 'There's something odd about this person'.

"I don't know. I just guessed." He smiled and she could not help but admire her feminine features. Her glare had already disappeared. She found herself lost for words as the other spoke. "But since I guessed right, I should help you." He picked up the two jars that were lying on the road. "These are yours, right?" She nodded so he handed both of the jars to her before he knelt down on the grand on one knee, his back facing her. "Climb up. I'll carry you."

"Eh?" Jinseong quickly shook her head. "No, thank you but no. I'm fine. I can still walk and you've already been plenty of help."

"Please, I insist. You're embarrassing me since I've already knelt down and all." The stranger replied with a chuckle.

"Fine." She muttered under her breath, not helping but to comply. "Thank you, mister. I'll never forget that I'm indebted to you." He stood up right after she wrapped one arm loosely around his neck while one of her arms were holding the jars.

"Just think of this as a form of payment. You're a shaman, right?" He asked as he started walking.

"How did you know?" She raised an eyebrow.

"I saw you in the temple earlier, doing that dancing thing- I mean, ritual to get rid of the 'beast'. You shamans should be treated nicely for doing such good deeds." She could not help but smile at the statement but stopped herself from being too affected. People tend to praise them in their front and stab them in their back, not that she cared. 

"Well, we're accepting donations so if you feel really indebted, be more generous to us." She replied then she heard the stranger chuckle.

"I'll make sure to give a lot of donations later then." He was still laughing as he talked. "I thought you shamans need to at least hide that you're after our money. It scares people away, you know? Shamans should give off the image of someone who prays for the sake of praying not for material things."

"I don't know where you got the idea but we're people too except that we have no way of earning money aside from donations since we spend the whole day praying all your worries away."

"Sure, sure." She could sense the sarcasm on his voice but decided to ignore it. "How are the prayers going by the way? Is the 'beast' going to die now that a ritual is held?"

"You and I both know that's not true. We've been praying for ages but it seems like the heaven is on that murderer's side."

"Murderer, huh? You have some kind of personal grudge?" He asked with a chuckle. She felt offended by his light take on the matter but decided not to dwell on it too much. People have different ways of expressing themselves so his chuckle might not be what she thought it meant.

"Let's just say that I do." She replied, nodding. After a couple more minutes, they arrived at the well. The stranger put her down and let her sit on the rock. He silently grabbed the jars from her and fetched some waters for her. "Thank you." She muttered sheepishly then said, "I just remembered that I forgot to ask your name."

"Does that matter?" He asked, placing the jars next to her then handing her two pieces of cloth, one of them drenched in water. "Here, sanitize your wounds or do you want me to?"

"Thank you but I can do it myself." She proceeded to wash her wounds with the wet cloth while the stranger stood next to her, gaze fixed afar. She cleared to catch his attention once she's done. "Anyway, just tell me your name. I can pray for you as thanks."

"I don't need prayers as thanks." He replied, smiling cheekily. "But my name's Yein."

"Yein, " she repeated. "I'll remember that since you're a nice person and I'm indebted to you. I'm Jinseong."

"Jinseong, that's a nice name. I shall remember that too." He walked in front of her then extended out his hand to help her up. "I'll accompany you back to the temple."

"I don't want to trouble you anymore. I can really walk now." 

"Don't think of it as troubling me. We just happen to be going on the same way. I have some donations to give to the temple, you see" He said with a smile - a smile that looked so faultless in her eyes. Jinseong looked at him through squinted eyes, wondering if it had something to do with what she told him before but ended up giving in. 'How can I resist someone who smiles like that?'

"Fine." She answered.

The trip to the temple was a silent one except for the constant grunt that Jinseong would accidentally let out whenever the pain on her knees was too much. Yein was carrying the jars while she was limping next to him. She told him that she would be too embarrassed to face the others if he were to carry her again so he let her do what she wanted. Her relief could not be summarized in words once they finally arrived. 'Finally, I feel like my legs would give in any moment'. 

"Thank you so much and I'm really sorry for taking up too much of your time." Jinseong said while bowing politely.

"It's no problem. Like I said, think of it as a payment instead." Yein replied, bowing as well. "Anyway, I should get going now. I hope to see you around, Jinseong." With that, he left.

Little did she knew that it was the beginning... the beginning of the end.