Hyunjun leads Junhee over to Number 13, and Junhee can’t help but feel like an outsider when he watches the two of them glare at each other. Dae Hyuk and Sayuri slowly inch away. Junhee would do the same, if Hyunjun wasn’t holding onto him like he’d disappear if he let go.
Number 13 nods at Hyunjun, her features cold and unwelcoming. Somehow, she looks like a completely different person now, not like the one who smiled at the sight of a love confession. “Son.”
Hyunjun matches her emotionlessness, his lips twisted into a frown. But his expression looks less cold like hers, and more helpless. It makes Junhee want to hide Hyunjun behind his back and protect him, even though they are apparently both jeoseung saja and Junhee is a mere mortal. Hyunjun keeps eye contact, refusing to falter. “Mother.”
“It’s true, then?” Junhee asks. He takes a deep breath. “You’re really the Crow-ssi who saved me?”
“Let’s see how you dig your way out of this hole,” Number 13 sneers.
Hyunjun shoots his apparent mother a dirty look. “Maybe it’s better if I show you,” he murmurs. He presses his palm against Junhee’s chest, fingers splayed out on top of his heart. His hands are cold against Junhee’s thin t-shirt, and Junhee is sure the other man can feel the staccato beat of his heart. “This might hurt a little,” he murmurs.
Light flares out from his very being, and Junhee can’t help but gasp at the searing pain in his chest that overwhelms him. He would scream, but nothing comes out of his throat, only silence and a single crackling breath. He stumbles forward, but Hyunjun is there to catch him with steady hands. “I don’t- Hyunjun what’s happening? It hurts, I-”
The world tilts sideways. Junhee hears a worried cry of “Sunbaenim!” from Dae Hyuk before everything fades into black. “I’m sorry,” is the last thing he hears Hyunjun say. Junhee’s consciousness slips away from him, and Junhee slumps forward into Hyunjun’s waiting arms.
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“Son,” a cold voice says, “jeoseung saja have no time to show mercy. You will take that soul, as fate demands it.” It’s Number 13. She looks the same as she did in the cafe, even though Junhee doesn’t know where he is or why he’s here.
“I won’t do it.” Junhee’s mouth opens on its own, but the voice that comes out isn’t his, but Hyunjun’s. Is this… a memory? He looks around, and gasps. Number 13 and Hyunjun are standing next to a car. It’s crushed on one side, blood seeping out through the shattered windows. There are three distinct bodies in there, even though the face of the one in the driver’s seat is bruised and bloodied beyond repair, and the one in the back seat has his neck bent at an awkward angle. The last body is also in the back seat, almost crushed under the body. There’s blood oozing out of scattered wounds, glass shards embedded in their arms.
Junhee looks closer, and shudders. That last body belongs to Junhee himself. It’s strange to see himself motionless like this. If he didn’t know better, he would’ve thought he was asleep.
“I won’t do it,” Hyunjun repeats. “Not to him.”
“You’ve been slacking off on your duties for too long, son.” Number 13’s voice is bitter. “I’ve let you do this- whatever bullshit you call a life- for so many years, and you can’t even bring one soul to rest? I should’ve never let you join the human world. Staying around mortals has made you soft.”
“You don’t understand!” Hyunjun shouts. “I can’t lose him.” Junhee feels the echo of a distant memory, of a bright smile and an extended hand and a voice telling him hey, let’s be friends! Junhee doesn’t remember that voice, but something in his head tells him that the voice is his. Was his. “I can’t lose him,” Hyunjun whispers, “I can’t let you take him from me. I won’t.”
“You’re too attached,” Number 13 scoffs. “He’s just a mortal. If you want a mortal to get attached to you so desperately, there are millions more out there! This one has reached his expiration date.”
“Don’t talk about him like he’s just some job! He’s so much more than that, he has a personality, he has a life, he has friends, he has-” Hyunjun is slowly turning redder and redder, his fists clenched by his sides as he looks at Junhee’s body.
Number 13 laughs, mean as a cackling crow. Junhee wants to step away, but once again, he’s rooted to the spot, unable to move. The Number 13 from Hyunjun’s memory is bitter and resentful, nothing like the cordial Number 13 Junhee had met mere moments ago. “He has you? Don’t lie to yourself, son. He doesn’t care about you. Even if he did, he’d leave you once he finds out what you really are.”
“Stop it,” Hyunjun growls. “Stop talking about me like I’m some kind of monster, when you’re not so different yourself. You wouldn’t hate me this much if I was a full jeoseung saja, wouldn’t you? But no, I’m part human, because you-”
The temperature dips. Time is frozen, but it feels like the rest of the world is beginning to freeze too, hints of winter creeping into a midsummer’s day’s warmth. “How dare you? Talking about that is strictly forbidden, how many times must I tell you? Useless son!”
Hyunjun keeps his head held high. “Useless as I am to you, I’m just telling the truth.”
Number 13 fixes her gloves, so not an inch of skin shows on her arms. “Fine. If you won’t do it yourself, I will take his soul. The universe waits for no one.”
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“No!” Hyunjun steps in front of Junhee. “I won’t let you take him. I mean it.”
“Get out of my way. You are obstructing the will of the world.”
“What if we made a bet? I’m willing to be a diplomat. This is the only way things can go peacefully,” Hyunjun threatens. “If you hurt him in any way, I’ll destroy you, mother or not. I’ll destroy that pathetic system we all have to follow.”
“Fine, then. Give me the terms and conditions of this bet.”
“Give me six months.” The next section of the memory is muted, leaving Junhee clueless to what exactly the bet is. “Six months. If this doesn’t happen, you can take his soul, and I’ll leave the human world and become a jeoseung saja for good.”
Number 13’s eyebrows shoot up, but it’s like she’s trying not to look impressed instead. “You’re willing to sacrifice the freedom you’d fought so hard for, just for this one boy?”
“And more, if I had to.” Hyunjun looks over at Junhee, something unidentifiable bubbling in his chest. “Wouldn’t you have done it for Father if you could?”
“We do not talk about that, unfilial son of mine. But fine,” Number 13 says. “I accept. But I have my own terms - take his memory. If he remembers everything, it would be far too easy for you.” At that, Hyunjun looks like his mother had ripped his own heart out of his chest, although it’s Junhee who had his memories ripped out of his head. “Six months,” she repeats, “if you fail to make it happen within six months…” She draws a line across her throat with her nails.
“Don’t worry, I understand perfectly well. And I’m perfectly confident in my abilities.”
Hyunjun closes his eyes, taking Junhee with him into a dark space. Junhee can sense the presence of feathers flapping, a crow perched on his shoulder. “Song Junhee,” Hyunjun calls out into the darkness, “do you like mysteries?”
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Junhee chokes on a breath when he’s abruptly pulled out of the memory and back into reality. He gasps for air. The dots are connecting in his head - his past, the present, and his future. It feels like breathing after having your head submerged under water for the longest time. “Do you understand now?” Hyunjun whispers. His voice is awfully close, so close Junhee can feel his warm breath fanning against his neck. “Why I had to do what I did?”
Junhee looks up at him, this man who had gone from a stranger, to his closest friend, now back to being a stranger, albeit one who knows Junhee better than himself, one who holds Junhee’s life in his hands. He still can’t quite come to terms with what he’s feeling. It’s not betrayal, no. Maybe once upon a time, he would’ve been angry at Hyunjun for listening to Number 13 and taking his memory away just like that. So much of his life, gone in a flash, even though he was the one who wanted a second chance at life. Now, he’s just lost. So for this moment, he just stays in Hyunjun’s warm embrace, their hearts beating in synchronicity against one another. “Yeah.”
“I’m sorry,” Hyunjun murmurs. “I shouldn’t have done that to you without knowing what you wanted, but I-”
“I wanted to live,” Junhee confesses. “I was scared of dying. I still am. And so many things I am actually happy about wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t done that, so…”
Hyunjun smiles, and Junhee almost flinches when he sees that the other man’s eyes are teary. “I’m glad. I’m really glad you’re alive too.” He pulls Junhee back into his embrace, completely ignoring Number 13, Dae Hyuk and Sayuri. “I really don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”
"But now I'm here." Junhee swallows, looking up at Hyunjun. "And like it or not, I'm not going anywhere." You’d better stay too. Don’t think I don’t have any questions for you. Like how you managed to hide this side of you from me for so long. “I kind of owe you my life, after all.”
“Don’t say that. I don’t want you to owe me anything, not when you saved me first.” Junhee really doesn’t remember doing any saving. All he’s been doing is being saved, lately. “Thank you for being selfish enough to choose to live,” Hyunjun whispers. “I don’t think I could handle losing you again.”
Number 13 clears her throat. “If you two are going to be this way, I’m going to leave.”
“Suit yourself.” Hyunjun shrugs, peeling himself away from Junhee. He keeps himself between Junhee and his mother, like he’s trying to hide Junhee, who doesn’t need to be protected like this, really. Being saved from falling signs and being pushed onto roads is great if you overlook being pecked to the point of bruising, but he’s been holding up pretty well on his own against Number 13, hasn’t he? “I don’t care where you go, just leave Junhee alone. Don’t think I haven’t seen you sending your minions after him. You’ve been a jeoseung saja for thousands of years, don’t tell me you’ve forgotten about honor? You aren’t supposed to cheat and break deals.”
Number 13 huffs. Now, Junhee sees the resemblance - the high cheekbones, the silver eyes, the air of superiority following them around like a stormcloud. Junhee is starting to understand why Dae Hyuk had said he was too scared to approach Hyunjun, even if the older idol - and secret grim reaper - had been polite and courteous. “It wasn’t him I was testing. It was you.”
Hyunjun scoffs bitterly. “Don’t bother. You know as well as I do that none of the others will ever accept me, even if you have a miraculous change of heart, so there’s no point trying to groom me to be your heir. I’ll help you with the small things, but that’s as far as I’ll go. Quite frankly, I miss the days when you didn’t know or care about me.”
For a split second, Number 13 looks almost sad, but she wipes it away before Junhee can give it proper thought. “You’re still my son.”
“Maybe. But you sure don’t act like it.”
Dae Hyuk clears his throat meekly. “Sorry to interrupt whatever’s going on, but Minji-ssi’s coming over… I think she’s getting suspicious… ”
“Exactly.” Hyunjun’s features turn even colder, his gaze baleful. “You should leave, mother. Don’t you have other jobs to get to?”
Number 13 extends her hand to Sayuri. “Said all your goodbyes yet? No last regrets?”
Sayuri shakes her head gracefully. “If I leave anything important behind, I trust unnie to take care of it until we meet again.” She waves at Dae Hyuk and Junhee with a small smile. “I hope it takes a long time for us to see each other again. Junhee-ssi, Hyunjun-ssi, look after Yeonhwa-unnie for me, won’t you?”
Junhee laughs softly. “Of course.” They disappear into smoke and sparkling dust respectively, Dae Hyuk and Junhee watching Sayuri’s soul melt away into thin air.