INV 71

If someone intentionally bullies, harms, and hurts others, is he a being who was born wrong?

Partially, that might be so. Because intentionally wounding others is a wrong action. However, the existence itself cannot be wrong. Such a thing was impossible.

One could criticize a person who intentionally harms others as a “wrongful being.” Yet, essentially, he could not cease to be human. He could not cease to be a living thing. You could sentence him to death, but you could not insist that he had been inorganic matter from the very beginning.

This was because he had already been born. That which exists cannot be denied. Existence simply is what it is (Wu-wei).

It is the way of the world that even a person who intentionally carves wounds into another’s heart was not born wrong.

But what if, by any chance, there were a being who was born to be harmful? What if someone had harbored poison from the moment of birth? What if, through no intention of his own but simply because he was born, someone died or fell ill due to his existence?

What if he, too, were a living thing with a sense of self?

“…”

Perhaps almost everyone would think he ought to disappear. Because I, or those around me, might get hurt. Because people dislike that sort of thing. They would ostracize him. They would deny his existence. But what if the word “poison” were a metaphor? What if he didn’t harbor actual toxic substances, but his innate appearance was merely hideous to the eyes of others? If so, is he allowed to live? Does he deserve not to be denied?

No, there is a question that must take precedence over that.

“Where does the authority to judge that come from?”

No one can deny the existence of another person. Even if they do deny it, that denial cannot become reality.

There was no sin in being born. Since there is no being anywhere who chooses to be born, birth could not be a mistake.

There was no person anywhere who was born wrong.

“Just as I was.”

So, how had Kwon Yihyeon been thinking of Chacha all this time?

Kwon Yihyeon had thought of Chacha as little more than a foreign substance that had invaded his life. Later on, they somehow formed a spiritual connection, and his heart would swell strangely whenever he saw him, but the fundamental thought that he was an intruder had never vanished. A foreign substance. A monster that ruined a peaceful daily life. Something that was not an object of hospitality…

Until not long ago, he had regarded him that way. However, facing the most extreme form of his own emotions right before his eyes made him feel like he was going to vomit.

“Have you lost your mind? This is why humans are…”

Just as Kwon Yihyeon is ignored because he was born human, Chacha is being denied because he was born as a Jae Angshin.

Someone might think that is only natural, but…

For his entire life, Kwon Yihyeon was not treated like a fellow human being simply because he was the child of a shaman’s house. He was bullied. He was treated like a transparent human. He became an object of ridicule. He had to eat his school lunches alone, and in classes where they had to pair up, he always had to face a peer who was on the verge of tears just because they had become his partner.

And now, Kwon Yihyeon could scream it out. Was that the right thing to do? Was it okay to do that?

“Being born isn’t a sin. Birth cannot be a sin.”

You cannot deny what already exists…

However, Chacha is being denied. His very existence. The world demands from all quarters that he be erased.

Even though there is no act more cruel than that.

“It’s not that I didn’t know… just how painful that is.”

“What nonsense are you talking in front of Pungbaek-nim…”

“How dare a mere human…”

No matter who said what, he no longer felt they were worth dealing with. Kwon Yihyeon suddenly felt a sense of futility and looked up at the empty sky. Above the clouds. The immortals and the tiny handful of Underworld Reapers who were peeking at the gathering of the Great Yokai through a screen. Kwon Yihyeon once again felt like a misplaced puzzle piece. However, if there was one difference from the past, it was the fact that Kwon Yihyeon now knew which puzzle piece he wanted to be with.

“Team Leader Gwak.”

“…Yeah.”

“What do I have to do to go over there right now?”

The surroundings, which had finally reached their flashpoint, became insanely boisterous, but Kwon Yihyeon didn’t even cast a glance elsewhere and stared deathly hard at only one thing: the screen.

Did his desperate longing reach its mark? The first puzzle piece responded.

“With the resolve to die… jump off!”

“And what if I die?”

“I’ll pray for your soul. You brat. What, should I even light some incense for you?”

Kwon Yihyeon turned back to Gwak Deukcheon and smirked. Only then did Gwak Deukcheon raise his lips in return.

With his back turned because he was looking at Gwak Deukcheon, Kwon Yihyeon set his foot upon the empty air beyond the clouds.

And he took a step.

Naturally, there was no foothold in midair, and—

“…!”

A terrifying emptiness swallowed him whole.

It was the start of the fall.

He felt like he was going to lose his mind. Light scattered and sparkled above his head, and the wind whipped his entire body crazily. Water droplets gathered in his cold eyes and floated up toward the sky. Because Kwon Yihyeon was falling, his tears were soaring.

If Gwak Deukcheon had told him to jump out of malice, he would burst and die without even retaining a human shape. He would become pieces of flesh rolling around and become food for beasts. Horrible delusions were coiling themselves quite well in his mind right now.

However, even in that moment, which might be the last of his life, Kwon Yihyeon was thinking of Chacha.

“It must have been very hard all this time, right? Perhaps you became so desensitized that you couldn’t even feel the pain as pain?”

People understand others through pain. Because they lack the ability to understand what they haven’t experienced, they imagine it.

Something that was painful for “me” must be painful for “you” as well; even if it’s something “I” haven’t experienced, if “you” say it’s painful, then it must be painful just as the pain given to “me” was. Like that.

By virtue of pain, a person can fathom a wound that is not their own.

Some loves are connected by shadows, not light.

Therefore, the emotion Kwon Yihyeon feels might also be love. Even this thing that is damp, dark, and dry. Even if it cannot be sweet like others’. If the single sentence of simply wanting to understand you is enough.

If, even this is love…

In the blink of an eye, the horizon circled by a golden ring grew closer and closer until the sun was no longer visible. Instead, the ground began to fill his vision. In the middle of a lush forest densely planted with grand trees. Among those building-sized bulks whose crowns sat at the same height as the mountaintop despite being crouched at the foot of the mountain… a single white dot was visible. Even with his wildly shaking vision, he could recognize that it was you. Even though it was just a small dot. It would be unbelievable if it weren’t love.

Kwon Yihyeon, who had fallen through the clouds, poured down like light and shouted.

“Chacha!”

Then, at that moment, their eyes met. He saw him. From a distance and a vertical drop where it should have been impossible to see.

Yet, Kwon Yihyeon could see.

His expression was no different than usual, but his eyes wavered.

Then, for a brief moment, Chacha smiled as if he were about to cry.

Immediately after, his arms opened wide. And just as all his senses screamed that a terrible crash ought to follow, Kwon Yihyeon felt a person’s warmth. That must be the proof that Chacha had embraced Kwon Yihyeon with his whole body and clearly caught him. Accepting the hot breath pouring over the nape of his neck, Kwon Yihyeon wrapped both arms around Chacha. He hugged him with all his might.

It’s strange. How can they call this a lie when you exist right here like this? How could I call you inorganic matter when you are alive right here like this? When you are smiling. With your eyes shining, more brilliantly than anything else…

“What happened? Why suddenly from the sky…”

“Because I missed you, Chacha.”

“…”

“I think I like you a lot…”

At that moment, was it light that dampened the corners of Chacha’s eyes? Or was it a shadow?

However, Kwon Yihyeon decided not to investigate.

Whatever it was, Chacha existed in reality at this very moment.