CHAPTER 1: MOURNING TREE

Eun-soo sat still on the chair, feigning nonchalance or sudden death. Her face remained expressionless, mask-like. Her eyes sailed away from her—static, glassy. Her proud mother strutted around in her room, humming and brushing imaginary dusts from several dresses. An ‘aha’ sound was heard. The mother’s round eyes widened. Something clicked inside her.

“Eun-soo ah!” A repetitive call drifted into the background. “Tell me which of these do you like.”

Eun-soo kept shut and gave her mother a defiant look in her eyes. She really didn’t want to respond. Instead, she hid herself behind her blonde tresses.

“I think this red dress would bring out the fire in you!” the mother chuckled and tossed back her coffee-brown ringlets. “Or perhaps this silky black dress would stark in contrast with your flowing, flaxen hair? Oh, Eun-soo dear, tell me! Which of these do you like?”

“None of them.” Eun-soo replied flatly. That was the only act of rebellion she could afford right now.

“Aishh, this girl! You must look the best tomorrow because Konstantin is finally coming to our house! You haven’t seen him before, right?” The mother grasped her daughter’s petite fingers in hers. She brushed them gently. “You haven’t seen Konstantin yet!”

Eun-soo bit her lip. Konstantin, Konstantin, Konstantin. It’s constantly about Konstantin. Even the thought of that name enraged her. Konstantin was the symbol of her fixed future: her future as envisioned by her parents. The future was never malleable. The name started as a gift when she was a child, but as a young woman it sounded more like a swear word. The name was a proof that she was just an offering for her father’s friendship.

Why?

Konstantin Jung was the son of her father’s childhood friend, Jung Seung-yeol. This Seung-yeol later became a wildly successful industrialist, so to speak. Later he met a lovely German woman, Anna Maria Neumann. Konstantin, therefore, was half-German. Her parents convinced her that Konstantin was the epitome of perfection: rich, tall and handsome. Thank God for his wealth and good genes. That’s why he was so perfect for her.

Wasn’t Eun-soo a good offering? Wouldn’t her father sacrifice more to keep this friendship going?

The worst part was even though she was imprinted with the idea of Konstantin since she learned to speak, she had never seen his face.

How can you love someone you’d never seen, even if he’s your perfect half-German fiancé?

No, she wanted to light her own path. It’s her life and hers alone.

However, when she tried to speak for herself, her mother’s machine-gun of a mouth would fire at will, telling why she should marry him and hoping that she would hit any targets. Maybe machine-guns are invented to increase a soldier’s self-confidence rather than increase his killing efficiency. Truth be told, a ‘normal’ gun would hit its target with more precision than a machine gun could. Eun-soo shook her head. Her thoughts were getting alarmingly off-topic.

“Okay, then.” The mother shrugged. “I guess you just need to wind down now. Tomorrow is going to be a big day, so go get some beauty sleep!” she grinned and switched off the light.

The door clicked close.

Eun-soo threw her blanket over her and cradled her head in her hands. She closed her eyes, hoping to erase the dark thoughts from her mind, but instead, the dark thoughts were wrapped in darkness. Fear crept into her heart again. The sick feeling returned and was stronger than ever. She couldn’t even breathe properly. Her head felt lighter and she started to cough violently. Tears swam through her eyes.

“Are you there, Baekhyun?”

Moments that passed felt like an eternity. The darkness had never lasted this long. She didn’t know how long had it lingered. A minute? An hour? Half a day? How long should she wait? She couldn’t wait any longer. Waiting is a torture multiplied by boredom. Gathering all courage left in her, she stood up and took several steps forward. There must be a way out of this wicked dreamscape. She just had to find it.

“Eun-soo?”

A pair of warm hands gripped her shoulders. She stopped walking at once.

“Eun-soo, it’s me.”

She lifted her head and saw the man haunting her dreams in his clearest glory. He stood before her, his warm eyes welcoming and his angular smile soothing. She was awash in light. His face radiated a playful air, chasing all her fears away. For the first time in her life, she could hear his voice.

He was calling her name.

“Can you please save me?” Baekhyun looked into her eyes. His eyes were melancholic and hopeful, like an abandoned puppy. “Please?”

“H—h—how?”

“You’re the Key of Fire. Only you can set me free from this sorry state I’m in.”

“The Key of Fire, you say?”

“You are the key that awakens a warrior. In a faraway land, there will be a warrior to end the Reign of Fire. As long as the Fire reigns, I shall be in peril. My land needs you.”

She was frozen to the ground. The Key of Fire was not an object and it was embodied in a physical form: her. The key was a girl, nothing like the ring in Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen or Lord of the Rings. She gulped.

“I’ve been trying to reach you for so long, Eun-soo, but only today can I speak. Only today can my words reach you…” Baekhyun’s voice trailed off as he struggled to speak. He eventually couldn’t even utter a single word. He started to fade.

“Wait, Baekhyun! Don’t leave me!” Tell me more, Baekhyun! Tell me more—“

Eun-soo woke up with tears staining her face again. The Key of Fire? Balderdash! What a strange dream!

She rubbed her head. After a bad night, her radio alarm clock sounded too loud for her ears.

It wheezed, crackled and spoke.

“Konstantin Jung, rising actor and heir to Jung-Neumann Industries was in a coma after a tragic car crash that claimed three other lives…”