You see, my dear Joon-Ho, that I was confronted with things at a very early age that no child should experience. Things I wanted to protect you from. You see, our hometown carried a history that probably goes back further than one can imagine. I am now certain that there were many things in that place that would make anyone doubt their sanity, and I realize that soon, I will seem like a mad woman to you. You might think that I'm making something up to gain your sympathy, but that's not the case. I only want you to know the truth, which I have never told anyone else. My childhood, as I have hinted at several times now, was very difficult at times, and there were many things that traumatized me. Things like my father's behavior or that of old Young-Soo, but also things like the whispering of that terrible Gosa which I believed to have heard. But after I grew into a young woman, found a fine man in your father Eun, and eventually had a child... it got much worse. Much more terrible.

All the disturbing and unbelievable events that eventually drove me out of the country began at the end of an autumn with long, cold nights and storms churning the sea. The weight of those days crept into our home, and even the feeble fire in the fireplace couldn't ward it off completely. We often sat together in the living room, crowded around the small hearth, providing each other with additional warmth. Your father and I, my old mother, and... you, Joon-Ho, just a year old.

Gipeun was not the place where one wanted to raise children, not a place where a family could live happily and carefree. But there was no other choice because inland was worse and more desolate, so the only option was to stay near the sea. The salty beaches and steep slopes where our town lay seemed rather bleak and dull. But when I stood at the top of the slopes and let my gaze sweep over the houses, a treacherous hint of doom always crept into my thoughts. You were too young, Joon-Ho, to be aware of the environment you were born into, but you were unusually restless, as if you felt the despair around you. But at home, there were mostly peaceful times because your father was of the opinion that a family of our social status had to stick together and couldn't afford to get lost in trivialities.

Therefore, your grandmother still took it upon herself to look after you for an hour or two in the evenings so that I could take a walk and relax, at least for a short time. Most of the time, during my evening strolls, I managed to forget the harshness of the world around me for a while. However, on the night I want to tell you about, it was different.

The sky outside the house was overcast and gloomy, but it wasn't raining that day. I walked away into the approaching night, hoping for a change of thoughts. I sadly regarded the wilting sunflowers that grew at the edge of our small vegetable garden and stepped through our narrow wooden garden gate, which was essentially just a few tied-together branches. My evening walk led me past the small, rundown, white-painted houses of our neighbors, which were essentially old wooden frameworks with mud walls built between them. I quickly walked along the narrow, sometimes foul-smelling path illuminated by weak fires and dim oil lamps behind veiled windows and by the late evening sun. The path wasn't paved but had been trampled into the ground by thousands of feet and had been further covered with some gravel by some of the children during some of their community work in the mornings. Brown tufts of grass also sprouted from the ground here and there, and dirty water trickled from some of the roofs because it had rained not long ago. The road ascended and led me higher and higher, with fewer houses and greater distances between. Slowly, the overgrown nature replaced the city, and eventually, I had reached the edge of our small town without knowing why I had walked this way. I don't remember exactly why I went so far, but many thoughts must have raced through my mind, making me lose track of time. I was probably worried, the worries I always had during my walks. Worries about our future, which seemed bleak. Worries about your father, as he hadn't returned from fishing yet, and the storm in the morning had been unusually strong. And worries about you, Joon-Ho, and whether you would ever have a better, somewhat carefree life. Despite the vegetation, the surroundings were bleak and barren, and in the distance, higher up on the hill, I could see the steel towers and halls erected to steal the earth's dark treasures. The mines and drilling rigs located uphill had caused more and more people from the surrounding areas to move to this town some years ago. Everyone wanted a secure job and perhaps a little wealth, wanting to get away from hard fieldwork or poorly paid craft businesses. It was ironic that almost all of them had now, as the sources seemed to dry up and they couldn't repay the debts they owed the government, condemned their descendants to those very jobs. Beyond these relics of the industry, denser, fuller trees and vegetation sprouted, indicating the beginning of pure nature. That's where my walk took me on that evening. I wanted to be in nature, I wanted to go where I had spent the only moments of peace and joy in my childhood and youth.

When I finally reached my destination, the sun had completely set, and my gaze swept over the city. I was on a small gravel plateau with some large stones shaped like chairs, and I could see the lights of the houses along the coast, like hundreds of fireflies perched there, enduring their sad existence. This little viewpoint, which me and my friends had always referred to as a viewing platform in my childhood days, was somewhat of a place of peace for me, a place where I could forget my daily life and reminisce about the beautiful days of my past.

I had always lived in the same small house nearby, a few streets down the hill, where the city ended at that time before the burgeoning greed for oil and natural resources allowed the buildings to sprawl further up the hill. My friends and I often played on that slope, frolicking around, building hideouts with straw and bushes, broken branches, and creeping vines – at least on Saturdays and Sundays when we had the time and weren't needed for household chores or community services. Those moments on the wooded hills that led to steep cliffs remain fond memories, and I often thought back to the days when I wasn't busy scrubbing pots, cooking, or doing laundry. Back to the days when I wasn't sent somewhere before sunrise to help the community clean railbeds, fill roads, or clean the beach. I would have preferred to go to school, but my parents didn't have enough money to bribe the teachers, so they gave up on education altogether and I had to teach myself all I know in my later years. I'm glad, Joon-Ho, that I spared you the same fate, even though you often resented me for forcing you to do homework and extra studies...

Standing on our viewing platform, I traveled back to the afternoons or evenings when I spent the time in this area with my friends Jia and Deiji, and sometimes the neighbor's boy, Hyeon. We would hunt for butterflies and grasshoppers, catch dragonflies, and collect all kinds of flowers. We would pick greens for the rabbits and sometimes even gather berries so our mothers could make jam.

I cherished my group of friends above all. Jia was a plump girl with coarse black curls and always had a smile on her face. Deiji was slender and not very tall – she only reached my shoulders – and often tied her long straight hair into a ponytail. Hyeon, a muscular, relatively good-looking boy, often helped out at the small shipyard where many fishing boats were maintained and sometimes even constructed, but he still somehow found time for us. The four of us had known each other since we could remember, as we lived in the same neighborhood, and our mothers often took turns looking after us.

As I stood there on that gravelly plateau, where we had sat so many times and stared into the distance, it was almost as if I could hear and see us, as we sat there first as little children and later as young adults, asking ourselves where the sea ended and how far the horizon was. I remembered how we cut through the thickets nearby, how we climbed the hills and the trees in hopes of getting a better view of the sea.

This enchanting area... we had thoroughly explored it and had ventured deeper into the wilderness each time, despite the stories we had heard again and again. Like old Young-Soo, the others had also experienced someone among the Elders who vividly spoke of things that sent shivers down one's spine and made hints that led one's thoughts down eerie paths. Over time, however, these stories turned into silly fairy tales for us, and we didn't pay much attention to them anymore. Even I had slowly started to forget and repress them, probably because of my experience with Young-Soo.

With a smile, I sat down on one of the stones that Hyeon had worked into a more or less comfortable seat for us with a lot of sweat. It's been a long time ago, Joon-Ho, but I remember how he wanted to impress us and had stolen a chisel and hammer from the shipyard to work on the old rocks. He worked hard, but in the end he turned them into stone seats that almost looked like thrones to me and I just loved them. The seating had since been weathered and eroded by time, and the once bright edges had faded. Nevertheless, I thought of Hyeon, who had sat right there and cursed while pounding on the rocks until we were satisfied, constantly looking over at us to see if we were watching him...

I leaned back and closed my eyes.

Hyeon, Jia, Deiji... I remembered us as we explored the area... How we paid no attention to the stories because we were young and foolish, in the end just stupid teenagers... How we enjoyed our weekends, which occasionally provided a brief respite from all the hard work...

I flinched painfully as I remembered how one day we ventured too far. How the stories caught up with us... The memories came back as I sat on the stones and my gaze was forced away from the bay and towards a half-hidden path, that led to the mountains. When I saw that little track, terrible memories suddenly washed over me. Down that path was the most horrid place I had ever been to in my childhood, more horrible even than Young-Soo's stinking hut... But you have to know about it to understand some of the crimes I have committed... To see why things turned out the way they did in the end...

It was an early autumn day a long time ago, and I was already fourteen years old. We had set out together late in the afternoon to play on the hills and find new places to discover animals and explore hidden spots. The sun was still hot, scorching our skin, and the wind carried the salty scent of the sea up to us, refreshing us. We knew, of course, that it was not well-liked to linger so far up by the adults, so far from home, but we were at an age where we believed we could do anything and didn't have to follow any rules. We knew better, despite what we had been told.

In those days, the hills were still covered with thick deciduous trees and entwined trunks, full of dense bushes, as winter was still far away. Large, ridged rock walls frequently interrupted the lush greenery, and nearby, the ground suddenly dropped steeply into the cold sea, which continuously crashed against the cliffs. It wasn't just the four of us there on that day because the twin sisters Ayeum and Joo had also joined us. The two were never seen apart and always wore the same clothes, differing only in various patches and holes, always had the same hairstyles – shoulder-length straight cuts – and always wore somewhat arrogant expressions.

They had probably come only because of Hyeon, as the two had been trying to get closer to him for some time: with his job at the shipyard, he would probably earn an income that wouldn't require worrying about food every day, and he was straightforward and mostly honest, making him an even better catch. Plus, he was muscular and all in all very handsome. I knew that Deiji had also taken an interest in him for the same reasons, so things sometimes got a bit uncomfortable between the three of them. I myself did not like to ponder on those things, as they reminded me of the monotonous life I would have once I got married. So, I preferred to focus on looking for dragonflies in the grass and searching for colorful flowers that I could bring home to decorate our living space.

On that early autumn day that was pushing its way back into my memory, we sat on the hewn stones and watched as the twins struggled up the dirty path to our viewing platform, their faces red and sweat on their foreheads.

"So, there you are! We thought we'd run into you here again...," Ayeum said.

I could only distinguish her from her sister by the long scar over her eye, which she had acquired when trying to mediate a fight between her parents.

"Are you looking for dragonflies again? I hope we find some. I like the blue ones," Joo added dreamily.

Jia straightened up a bit and studied the two. We all noticed that the sisters were looking at Hyeon for suspiciously long, with playful smiles.

"Maybe. Actually, we wanted to explore the cliffs near the coast. Over there," Hyeon said cheerfully, pointing to a narrow path, partially hidden behind dense bushes, which wound its way higher up the mountain and towards the sea.

"Would you like to join us?" Deiji asked politely, though her expression appeared far from pleased.

Naturally, the two agreed. So, they soon sat down next to us on the dirty ground and joined into our discussions about how far from the town we should venture and how long we could stay away from home. It was Saturday, and we didn't have to get up early the next day, but we also didn't want to risk being caught by the autumn darkness.

"We need to start heading back in about three hours, I would say. Otherwise, we won't be able to see our hand in front of our eyes when we go back," I said as we began to argue about how long the outing should last.

"Three hours? Are you serious? That's not nearly enough! We'd have to turn around shortly after reaching new territory. We might as well not do it, then!" grumbled Deiji.

"We just need to walk fast. We can do it!" Hyeon was confident and nodded in agreement with me.

"Yes, great idea, Hyeon, we can do it!" Ayeum also agreed.

"I don't know. I don't have that kind of stamina..." Jia interjected a bit sadly.

"We'll wait for you, don't worry! But we need to head out soon, or it will really be too late. I'm sure we'll find some beautiful flowers there. My mother always says she saw the most beautiful ones in her childhood up on the hills near some rock slabs! I would love to see them!" I urged.

Hyeon stood up and nodded at me again with enthusiasm.

"So it is settled, then! Let's go! Don't fall asleep! We will find those flowers!" he said decisively and walked briskly toward the cliffs, casually kicking some stones aside, which rolled down the slope and disappeared into the thicket.

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We hurriedly stood up as well and followed him as quickly as we could. The path was covered with rubble, and we had to step over small streams to make progress. I could already smell a strong scent of salt after a short time, and I felt light and buoyant as I looked for flowers on the walls next to me that I could pick. You probably didn't think I was like that, did you, Joon-Ho? You wouldn't have thought that I was also once just a young teenager who ventured away from home to pick flowers, right? The memories of that day make me realize how much I've changed over the years. Back then, I was so excited that we had quickly reached the cliffs and were able to continue on a broad, natural stone path high above the surf, always looking for exciting discoveries. Today, there's only the coldness inside me, coldness that has hurt you too many times...

"Hey, Hyeon, isn't this a bit dangerous? If we slip and fall... No one would even find us. The current here leads away from the city towards the open sea, I think..." Jia cried out, groaning and anxiously looking down beside us.

"No, this is quite safe. You'd have to fall three times your length to go over the edge. Don't worry..." Hyeon said, but he still stopped and waited for the rest to make sure everyone was far enough away from the cliff.

We had finally arrived at a small hollow that opened up to a hidden, overgrown spot. It was a small plateau where unusually lush green shrubbery grew, and it smelled wonderfully sweet. Some purple flowers peeked their heads out here and there from thick moss and underbrush. They weren't the flowers my mother had mentioned, but they were still incredibly beautiful. We all stood there for a few minutes, marveling at the little spot we had discovered hidden high above the sea.

"This is a dream! I am in a dream!" Ayeum exclaimed, grinning broadly.

"Yes, truly wonderful! I couldn't have imagined finding something like this here," admitted Joo, lost in thought and smiling.

"Let's take some of them with us, like we planned! They'll surely look good next to the sunflowers near the stream. Then we'll have something to look forward to when we fetch water," Deiji suggested.

I nodded, and Hyeon joined in. Ayeum and Joo had already entered the plateau and were slowly walking across the moss-covered ground towards the overgrown rock walls. Hyeon and I followed close together behind them, then came Deiji, and finally, a hesitant Jia. I enjoyed the scent which the flowers wafted into my nose more and more. The others seemed to be ecstatically happy as well. Even Ayeum, who could be moody at times, kept a smile on her face. Joo had finally gotten so close to the flowers that she could start picking them.

"I wonder if dragonflies live in here too. How is it? Can that be? Or do they only lay their eggs in water? I think...-"

Suddenly, the ground gave way under Joo. She had stepped on a small shrub to reach one of the purple flowers, but it seemed that the overgrown greenery had sprouted from a hidden hole, concealing it. Joo flailed her arms as she plunged into the depths and let out a piercing, chilling scream before disappearing.

Not even a second after she had vanished from our sight, we heard a gruesome, muffled noise and an ear-piercing wail. The sound sent a shiver down my spine and stunned me like a punch to the face. It didn't even sound like a human but more like a dying animal. Joon-Ho, I had never heard such a sound before! Not even when our dreadful neighbor slaughtered his rabbit when we were walking by and the animal squealed like hell as it bled out... Joo's scream cut straight through my thoughts and numbed everything.

For a moment, time stood still, and no one moved, shocked and frozen in fear. Then, Ayeum rushed forward, stumbled, and fell to the ground, letting out a faint moan. However, she immediately got back up, stumbled again, and finally crawled the last few steps to the hole her sister had disappeared into. As if she was possessed, she began tearing away the old undergrowth to clear the view downward.

"NO! JOO! JOO, WHERE ARE YOU? WE'RE COMING! WAIT FOR US, WE'LL GET YOU OUT!" she screamed madly into the abyss, but all that came back was a mocking echo.

The rest of us still just stood there, frozen, but after a short while, Hyeon broke free from his shock and ran toward Ayeum, pulling her away from the hole and holding her with an iron grip.

"Stop it! AYEUM! She's... she's gone!"

"JOO! JOO! ANSWER US!"

"Ayeum, you're going to kill yourself too, stop it! STOP IT!"

For a brief moment, it seemed like Hyeon wouldn't be able to hold Ayeum, who was flailing and screaming wildly, but then he abruptly turned her around and threw her down to the ground, where he finally sat on top of her to keep her under control.

"What were we even doing here... What were we even doing here... WHAT WERE WE EVEN DOING HERE?"

Jia sat near some bushes, staring into emptiness, trembling, her face ashen. She repeated the same words, occasionally shaking her head in disbelief. Deiji had rushed to Hyeon and eventually helped him keep Ayeum in check, who was about to plunge into the abyss as well. I, on the other hand, saw everything through fog, unable to believe what had happened. The icy wind blew across my face, and the scent of sweet peace still wafted into my nose.

"Let me go... Please... Let me go... I want to be with her... Joo..." Ayeum whimpered now, her limbs slackened, and she began to cry pitifully.

"Let me go... Please... I have to check on her, please..."

I couldn't believe it. I felt trapped in a dreadful nightmare, along with my friends. I wanted to wake up. Then, a faint, distant voice startled us.

"Aye... um? Hyeon... Are you... are you there? Are you still there? Help..."

The voice came from the hole.

Joo was alive!

As the words reached her ears, Ayeum began to thrash and struggle once more. Hyeon hadn't expected it, or perhaps he was just too shocked to hear Joo's voice, but he was thrown to the side and slammed backward onto the moss-covered ground.

Ayeum hesitated only for a moment and crossed the few steps that separated her from the dark opening in the ground. I'm sure she contemplated jumping down, but I think the little reason that was still left in her prevailed... and I was grateful for that! She knelt down and peered down with squinted eyes while calling out for her sister. I snapped out of my stupor and ran to her as well, while Deiji tended to the trembling Jia, while Hyeon lay moaning and semi-conscious on the cold ground not far away. He had probably hit his head on one of the stones.

As I knelt next to Ayeum, close to that now gaping hole, I felt uneasy. I could see several meters down, but then the tunnel curved away, blocking all sight. A musty smell reached my nose from below, and the air felt even colder. It was madness to attempt to descend down that hole; we wouldn't get back up without a rope. Just as I was about to suggest that we get some equipment to rescue Joo, her voice echoed up once more.

"Ayeum... I'm... I can't see much. Everything hurts, hurts so badly... Please help me..."

"Where are you? Joo, where are you? What happened to you? How badly are you hurt? Please, answer me, can you still move?" Ayeum shouted down.

"Can you see anything? Are you bleeding?" I added fearfully.

We had to determine how serious it was. And we had to keep her mind occupied.

"I'll get help!"

Deiji had suddenly appeared next to us.

"I'll get someone; we need to get her out of there! Right now! It will be night soon!"

Without waiting for our response, she went back to Jia, pulled her up, and led her away silently but quickly. I briefly considered joining them, but Hyeon was still lying nearby, groaning and holding the back of his head, and I was horrified to see something red seeping between his fingers.

I couldn't leave him alone... couldn't leave Ayeum alone.

And not Joo either.

"Can you see anything? How are you? Where are you injured?" I shouted again into the depths.

"I... there are only sharp shards here, a pile of dark shards, I've cut myself all over, I'm bleeding... I'm bleeding, I think, but it doesn't really hurt... At least, not the cuts. They're just very wet and somewhat slimy... But my body... Everything feels shattered. Oh, heaven, my bones... heaven... PLEASE HELP ME!"

"What do you see? What do you hear? Describe it to us!" Ayeum screamed, and for a moment, I thought she was about to jump down after all.

But instead, she turned to me.

"We need to calm her down. We need to distract her; she must stay awake! That's what my father always says. He's had to witness accidents before and told me... both of us... about them. It's important that she stays awake... Please, help me... Please, Haru..."

Tears welled up in her brown eyes. I swallowed, nodded, and called out to Joo again. This time, it took longer to get a response, and the words sounded weaker, more exhausted. Fear gripped my heart as I heard her faint gargling voice.

"I can hear the sea. Beams of light fall through some cracks in the wall... higher up... I think they lead to the sea. I can't see much, just small parts of the... cave... There are flowers here too, between the shards... They're very beautiful... so beautiful... so red... they're so beautifully purple. So many leaves. They're like a carpet, they look like velvet... So beautiful... It's beautiful here... I'm sweating... I'm sweating so much... I'm getting tired..."

"Stay awake! YOU MUST STAY AWAKE! PLEASE!"

More and more restlessness seized Ayeum, and her fingers clenched so tightly on the edge of the hole that her knuckles turned white.

"I'm getting sleepy... Perhaps I should try... Who... Who is calling me? Who are you? WHO IS THERE?"

"Joo, it's me, Ayeum! Your sister! Please stay with us, tell me about earlier! Tell me about our garden! About the sunflowers by the stream!"

Tears dripped into the abyss. Both of us began to sob. I couldn't take it anymore. I wanted to get away. But I also wanted to save her. Joos's voice faintly drifted to our ears once more, this time more indistinct, as if she had water in her throat.

"Ayeum... I remember. I remember you... We were together, always together... Ayeum... I remember, but only faintly... So long ago..."

Silence. Only the distant sounds of the sea, the whistling wind, and the rustling of the shrubs. Suddenly, it felt as if a cool hand gripped my neck, like a lump of ice running down my back. A squelching noise was faintly sounding in the distance. But it grew louder.

It was coming from the hole! This couldn't be! Joo must have noticed it too, as she began to scream, just like her sister had before.

"There... there is something... in the darkness... it's coming... It's coming, I hear it..."

I heard Joo, from afar, crawling, sliding over the wet ground, panicking and out of her mind.

"I hear it... see it ... OH GOD! WHAT ARE YOU? Help... HELP! I WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE! I WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE! WHERE... WHERE AM I...? OH, GOD, WHAT ARE YOU! HELP ME, HEL..."

She started to shriek inhumanly before something silenced her, something that was now with her. I was relieved that I couldn't see it. I just heard its dull, squelching noise and watery gurgling.

Then... nothing.

We never heard a sound from Joo ever again.

But after a few moments, the squelching noise reached my ears again. It... grew louder. Approached.

Something was coming towards us from beyond the darkness beneath us.

In a daze, I stared into the blackness, only noticing that the putrid stench was getting stronger. Something grabbed my arm, pulled me up, along with Ayeum, and I almost fainted from fear.

Had it caught us?

"RUN," Hyeon yelled, dragging us away.

I don't remember much about the following minutes. I think that's for the best. We ran through the forest, just the three of us. I'm still surprised that Ayeum fled with us and didn't stay there. But a part of her remained in that cave under the mountain, a part that had been with her since birth... When we reached our viewing platform, we collapsed onto the stone seats. I checked Hyeon's wound and tended to him, while Ayeum stared into emptiness with lifeless eyes.

It didn't take long for the men from the town, whom Deiji had alerted, to arrive to safe Joo from the cave. Her father and grandfather were among them, too. At first, they were livid, but when we recounted what had happened, they grew uncomfortably quiet. They didn't deem us crazy, didn't scream at us anymore, and demanded to know what had occurred in more and more detail. When we finished, they just looked at us with deep sadness in their eyes. In their gazes now lay the certainty that Joo was dead. And something else was in there – a distant fear of what we had heard down in the mountain and what had torn Joo away from us in the end.

Ayeum couldn't believe they weren't going to search for Joo. She screamed at her father, but her grandfather grabbed her shoulders and forced her to look directly into his old eyes.

"You foolish, stupid kids! What have you done? You can count yourselves lucky that you're still breathing. That you're still who you are! Don't you know what lurks here in the hills down in the caves? Haven't you listened to what I told you? You stupid, stupid children! Do you seriously believe the old stories are just fairy tales?"

Ayeum had started crying again, and tears were running down my cheeks as well. She did not even seem to hear him.

"We have to go back; we have to get her... What am I going to do without her? She was always there, always with me. Since the beginning... What am I going to do without her? How can I live without her...?"

"Old stories? What are you talking about? You don't seriously believe we encountered a Mulgda? Joo is dead, and you give us that shit?"

The words had come from Hyeon, who had spat on the ground beside him. He got up and walked towards Joos's grandfather.

"Those are just tales to warn us about foolishness like this. About gaps in the mountain or slippery cliffs. But there are no monsters anywhere. Don't treat us like children; we're not kids anymore. We can still go back and get her..."

Joo's father, his expression marked by deep grief and suppressed anger, stepped up to him and slapped him across the face. I screamed, and Ayeum screamed too.

The men surrounding us, who had looked bewildered and shocked until now, erupted into wild chatter. But Hoon, one of Ayeum's father's coworkers, who had joined group to help him save his daughter, thundered through the air, silencing everyone.

"QUIET! BE QUIET! This, right here, is a moment you should never forget! Remember Joo! Remember her and remember what took her in the end! Foolishness and recklessness led her to fall into that hole, but in the end, it was something else that ripped her away from us! You're allowed to be angry; you're allowed to grieve! I grieve too! My heart is torn apart when I think about what a wonderful girl Joo was, the joy she brought us. My soul burns with anger at this injustice."

Joo's father also spoke to us now, and his gaze often wandered to Hyeon, lying on the ground.

"Children, if the circumstances were different, I'd be filled with hatred for you because you were so foolish and arrogant, venturing into places where you had no business to be! Places you had been warned about!"

He looked into my eyes, and I almost threw up from guilt.

"I'm angry and sad. But I also know that something like this happens every few generations. It happens to remind us that something endures in the mountains. Deep within the rocks. That the past is still here, resting beneath the hills, and occasionally, it sends its nightmares up to us..."

The twins' grandfather nodded bitterly, and Hoon added with a shudder:

"When I was little, something similar happened. Back then, someone was also lost. It happens every few generations and reminds us: This place... something is here! Listen to the stories people tell! And pass them on, so they're not forgotten..."

With these words, which still echo in my ears, they turned and silently walked back to the town below. After some time, we followed them and didn't look back. The loss of Joo spread like wildfire, and a new story has been told to the children in Gipeun before bedtime since then.

In the following years, as oil drilling rigs were erected and mine shafts were dug into the rocks, men also disappeared in the tunnels from time to time, but that was mostly dismissed as an accident. They couldn't afford to stop working and return to hunger. I never ventured further into nature than our viewing platform again. Despite the experiences, I could remember Joo there, whenever I wanted. So that I didn't forget her.

You're probably wondering why I told you in such detail about that experience, probably thinking I'm crazy. Oh, Joon-Ho, maybe I am. But I had to tell you. I had to tell you what I heard deep down in that hole, had to tell you what happened to me in old Young-soo's house. Both events were important and taught me something: There was a lot of truth in the old stories told in Gipeun. Stories of Gosa, the remnants of people who took their own lives, of Mulgda, the creatures in the tunnels. And of the Whisperers in the Night. You've probably never heard of these things, at least not from me. I've always kept you away from fairy tales and legends, forbade you to read them. You've always hated me for that, for not allowing you to read anything exciting, even though you wanted to... My dear Joon-Ho, I was just afraid of what might be true in those stories you wanted to see.

I hope you understand that, especially after what I'm about to tell you. About your father, what happened to Gipeun, and how I managed to bring you to South Korea to see you grow up safely and without hunger. I'm sorry for going off on a tangent, Joon-Ho, but I want to tell you everything that might be important to understand it all... To understand me...