The alarm went off, and Jung Yong Hwa woke up. Though groggy, he got up to fix his bed. To his surprise, the beddings did not seem crumpled, like no one had ever used it. He scratched his head and jumped off of bed. His pillow was as smooth as the cement road outside.

He decided to forget about it and went to the bathroom to bathe. Nothing particular happened, except for the fact that the mirror in his bathroom was foggy the whole time that he could not even see his own image.

After bathing, he went back to his room to change. Still, nothing strange. What perplexed him was just the fact that his bed was orderly.

"What happened?" he thought half-heartedly.

He stepped out of his room and went to the dining room to eat. He wondered hungrily what his eomma was cooking for breakfast. But when he stepped in, all he saw was his cousin Hani eating alone. The table was pristine clean, and only the bowl of cereal that Hani was using was all he could see.

"Hani-ya, Eomma eodiya?" he asked her. He could not even see where his mom had been, and he knew that at this hour at 7AM, his eomma would be busy at the kitchen.

But Hani gave him the cold shoulder.

"Hani-ya!" he raised his voice, but Hani paid him no attention.

And her phone rang. She took the call as she continued eating breakfast.

"Yeoboseyo? Ah, annyeong Jin Woon-oppa!" Hani excitedly greeted the man in the other line.

Yong Hwa started to get perplexed. Why did Hani not greet him at all? He knew they had a fight last night about Dasom, for Hani never liked Yong Hwa's ex, who was being clingy even after the breakup. And Yong Hwa told Hani last night that he was willing to give Dasom a second chance. So, is Hani still angry at him? Just because of that?

And here Hani was, happily talking to Yong Hwa's younger brother. He knew Jin Woon was not at home because he's in Australia, studying in a university.

"Ah, Auntie went out to buy veggies for lunch... Na? Nan joha (I'm fine)," Hani said over the phone. "I'll be hanging up now, Oppa, because I'll be late for school."

Yong Hwa watched Hani drop the call, take the cereal bowl to the sink, and wash the utensils. In his anger, he stepped out of the house and shut the door. Hani turned around without a word, shrugged her shoulder, and continued washing.

****

Yong Hwa took his place in his class. It was a major quiz for a certain subject in university, and he had been studying for this. Before the exam, the professor did a roll call, but then, Yong Hwa was not called, so he raised his hand. To his concern, the professor did not give him his attention.

"Who's making a prank on me?" he started to panic.

It seems no one noticed him, so he raced out of the room and into the school grounds. He knew he was there, but no one greeted him. Then, a female figure, a milky white maiden who was walking along the curb, caught his attention.

"Dasom-ah!" he called out.

But Dasom did not hear him because she was talking to three guys. But to his confusion, Dasom was as perplexed as he was. He knew the three guys, Lee Jong Hyun, Kang Min Hyuk, and Lee Jung Shin, because these three are his band mates outside of school when they do gigs along Hongdae. He approached them.

****

"Have you seen him?" Dasom asked the three guys, worry etched on her fair face.

"Nugu?" Jung Shin asked.

"Yong Hwa," Dasom told them.

The three guys exchanged perplexed expressions before turning to her.

"Nugu?" Jong Hyun asked.

"I said, have you seen Jung Yong Hwa?" Dasom asked again.

"Jung Yong Hwa-ssi...nuguya?" Min Hyuk asked.

Dasom was dumbstruck. Yong Hwa flared up. This isn't funny anymore. First, Hani did not notice him, and so did his professor. Now, his own friends did not acknowledge him, like they did not even know him.

"You guys.... do not know who Jung Yong Hwa is?" Dasom asked, hoping they were joking.

But unfortunately, they were being serious.

"Nuguya? Your new boyfriend? A new classmate in town?" Jong Hyun asked with a smirk.

Dasom sighed. It seems something was off, so she lied, "Ne... A new guy in campus."

And before Jung Shin or Min Hyuk could even pester her, she walked away, and walked past Yong Hwa. Yong Hwa was consciously disturbed because Dasom did not even know he was just listening behind them. And the three friends...

It seems Yong Hwa was invisible, like he... doesn't exist.

And it dawn upon him that he might have died in his sleep and was a walking ghost. His eyes widened in fear and started to panic as he looked at his palms. His skin was not transluscent whatsoever, but it seems he was non-existent.

"They do not remember a thing about you," a soft female voice spoke to Yong Hwa.

He turned around to see who was speaking to him, and he looked up to see someone floating on air.

"OMO SESANGI!" Yong Hwa blurted out in fright.

He saw a woman in hanbok. Her jeogori, the cardigan of the hanbok, was white. The dongjeong (the collar of the jeogori), was off-white, as was her otgoreum. And she had a pink chima (skirt). Unlike unmarried maidens who had to dress their hair neatly to keep hair off their faces, the woman had her hair down. She looked so sober that Yong Hwa thought he was seeing a ghost.

"A ghost!" he screamed.

"I am not a ghost," the woman replied. "I am the Grim Reaper."

Yong Hwa halted for a bit before laughing out loud. He knew she was joking. How could a grim reaper look as pretty as that? He knew the Grim Reaper wore a black cloak and held a scythe, and had the face of a human skeleton.

"Agasshi must be kidding, geureohchyo?" he asked.

"Animnida," the woman said solemnly.

Yong Hwa was curious and confused, so he asked if he had died. The woman grabbed a pair of scissors from her chima and some thread. She showed them to him.

"These pieces of thread belong to the thread of life of people who died at the hospital this dawn," she said. "I cut the thread from their hair the moment they have to leave. But none of these has your strands."

Like the Fates of Greek mythology.

Yong Hwa was confused. "Does Agasshi mean that..."

"Yong Hwa-iss is not dead, not ever," the woman told him.

"Then, how come no one could even see me?" he asked in dismay. He wanted to cry, to shout, to lash out.

"Yong Hwa-ssi does not exist."

"What does Agasshi mean? That they don't remember me?"

"Animnida. It means they do not know a thing about Yong Hwa-ssi. I say that Yong Hwa-ssi never even existed in their memories."

Yong Hwa was beginning to understand.

"It's not that you had died. It's not that they forgot about you. It's just that you, to them, never existed to start with. If you had some memories with them, they will remember. Or forget. The thing is, they have nothing to forget because you do not exist in their lives."

So that explained why Hani did not react to him. His professor skipped his name, and his friends did not know him. He was non-existent. But Dasom...

"But, how about Kim Dasom?" Yong Hwa asked, with some spark of hope.

The grim reaper was startled. Kim Dasom?

"She had a rather strange dream last night, so strange that she remembers it vividly," the woman told him.

"So... what am I going to do now?" he asked.

"To follow Heaven's Will," she soberly told him.

"But, what will can I follow? I am not even dead. I am non-existent. What am I supposed to do?" Yong Hwa screamed and wept.

The woman felt sorry for him. After a few seconds, she went down and comforted him.

"Yong Hwa-ssi should know a thing or two about grim reapers and his mission here on Earth," she said. "Jeon Park Shin Hye-imnida," she introduced herself and extended her hand for a handshake.

But Yong Hwa, who was still crying, did not take her hand.

"Sigh," Shin Hye thought.

And she felt some vibration in her chima, so she grabbed a smartphone and read the message. It was from Junhwan-hyungnim.

"Bad news! Bad news!" Hyungnim messaged out. "I accidentally left one person to remember Jung Yong Hwa!"

"Eh???" Shin Hye gasped in a silly manner. She thought that Hyungnim had wiped off the memories of anyone who knew about Yong Hwa. Even his legal records were made non-existent. So, it was no wonder that Dasom remembered Yong Hwa.

Yong Hwa stopped crying and turned to Shin Hye.

"Can Shin Hye-ssi please tell me what is going on?"

Shin Hye put a palm in front of his face, as if to halt him.

"I am going to help you in one condition," she told him.

"Mwoyeyo?" he asked.

"You have to listen to me to learn what we actually are," she told him. "And do as you are told."

 

~~~~