The Atrocious Tales of LOONA

HeeJin - Confessional 1/12

HEEJIN - CONFESSIONAL 1/12

"I was one who seeks, and I still am."

Jeonju Jeondong Cathedral, one of the most beautiful churches in the country, says one of the promising sites. The church is very popular among tourists, local or foreign. On one side, this church was built to honor Roman Catholic martyrs in the era of the Joseon dynasty, they built the place the same place where the martyrs die. 

The piece of land was bought by a French priest Baudenet in 1891 but was not constructed until 1908. Not long this church was designed by prominent designer Priest Pionel, the said priest also designed Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul, after 6 years, the church is done and opened for all people in the year 1914.

At 9 am, the mass isn't held, so the tourists can roam free around the place, take pictures, and many more. This gave a young 20 years old woman a chance to freely walk around the place, almost forgetting to take out her camera and take a picture. Heejin along with random tourists, walk inside and almost trip her foot into the long, wooden, rufescent chairs of the church.

Her eyes follow each pillar she passes until she reached the front, but there's a line stopping her, so she didn't bulge going away. Sitting in the middle, she just looks around and does nothing, but one thing caught her attention. She sees a woman, hiding her face in a brown veil, wearing fine but old clothes but it's long enough to hide her body. No matter how long her clothes are, you can still see it's a healthy body of a young woman.

Heejin watches her pray and pray and pray. It doesn't seem weird so she stops looking at the lady. About to get her notepad in her sling bag, the same woman she sees sat beside her and prays.  Heejin jumps in surprise, "How?"

"B-But y-you're right there... How?" Heejin utterly explains, pointing at how far the woman is to her, she's about to say how she walk that fast to sit with her.

The woman hushes her and murmurs in an unknown language and continues to pray. Heejin thought she might be praying in Latin, and moves a little away from the woman, still dumbstruck about it.

Heejin was only here to research a place that is related to her project, she loves photography and such, hearing this place she came over. She can't stand the aura of the woman, and so, she waited for her to stand up and leave.

It is like the Almighty God heard her prayers, the woman abruptly stands and bows down at her front, and walks away from the church, but she's like the rent is due, judging how fast she walked. Heejin finally breathes heavily after meeting that bizarre woman, feeling refreshed, she came back to look around the place.

One thing that stops her is confessional, the confessional that is located at each end of the church, the church has two sides, and Heejin went to the left side. A Confessional is a stall or a box, that fits two people inside, but they are divided with wooden walls and a screen or curtain in the middle. The outside had a small door and curtains to hide the priest and the penitent.

You can share your sins and confessions in these boxes and the only one who can hear them is none other than the priest. Heejin thought this box might be a part of her project so she takes a snap of the box. Investigative, Heejin thought going inside the confessional would not hurt.

Opening the box and she sits on there, she then closes the curtains and the box is purely dark, but there is some light due the curtains aren't thick enough, the light has its way to get inside. "Woah, the seat has foam though, it's incredibly dark but the only darkness I accept, I guess."

Heejin never opened her phone as she stays inside the confessional.

"Father, may you have forgiven me for the sins I have done." Heejin widens her eyes, as she hears a random woman voice from the other side. The screens aren't small enough but she's surprised to see the same bizarre woman earlier.

"What I did, is very very wrong, is wrong from the eyes of the Almighty God. I don't know what to do, I'm hopeless." The woman said Heejin is looking at her and the screen. The woman on the other side is waiting for Heejin to talk back.

The woman didn't mention the Act of Contrition before opening her sins. Heejin tried her best to sound exactly like a man. Which she started to let her continue, the bizarre woman replies to her and trusted her after that. The woman spoke in her softest voice, and that's the most beautiful voice that Heejin ever heard. Calm to know that the woman hasn't realized that she's a woman.

Or was she?

"I am just 23 years old woman, I started my career at a very young age. I am doing well then, I love what I am doing. Like a star, I am high and shining. I think my dilemma started when I turn 20, being an opera singer I've met a lot of people who're jealous and wanted to surpass me, I was lucky enough to surpass them. But I made a friend, she's very kind, bubbly and likes. her genre is quite different from mine, but we are still friends even the differences."

"We learned from each other, she's like a good young sister to me. But she quit as a pop singer after the accident. Then, she never lay a finger on her phone, she may be scared of me now." Heejin is curious about the whole story, but she patiently waits for the next, this woman's conflict with her friend is something.

The girl pulled out her veil and Heejin can only see her long black hair, it wasn't dirty she smells good and never looked bad, it just she's creepy. "That cold night, desperate to become more the way I am. I followed my other friend who's from South East Asia advice to whisper my wish to someone dead in the morgue, in my luck, it came true, everyone loves me till then."

Heejin never heard of that thing, but for her, that's the ridiculous and the weirdest thing she ever heard from this woman. Though in science there are no proofs that a dead body can make your wish come true, she heard the woman sighs and say. 

"Everyone, my loved ones were hurting and such. Until the day of my last play, everyone dies, everyone burning before my eyes. They call me a witch, a demon, and anything. I was bombarded with hurtful words in my social media.."

But then, the cold air hits them right after, she sees the eyes of the woman glow, and black-white gradient feathers appear to Heejin, it was like falling from the sky but they are inside of the confessional. The feathers burn as she murmurs in random languages and laughs after. Heejin prayed to God silently while witnessing these.

"But the feeling of people suffering makes me joyful, the joy is inside of my veins again. Their sufferance, their cries, their call for help, their skin burning from the fire, and their faces. They put so much pleasure on me as I sang until I stop! I'm so sorry father for saying unintentional words and inhumane feelings. May the heavens punish me for following the devil." Her transitions between words caught Heejin hard, she wasn't expecting any from these.

Now, this girl isn't just any other girl, she was not normal. 

"Thank you for listening to me, it is clear to me that no one will ever help me in my situation. May the Lord be with you." The woman sighs and gets out of the box, Heejin tries to follow her a stare. Taking a peek from the curtain, she sees the woman hiding her face with the veil again, looks at the box, and smiles at Heejin, the smile is beautiful matches her face, it's very alluring and scary.

She spreads her arms and feathers began to cover all over, from the very inch of her body. It takes seconds until fire from the top appears. In a blink of an eye, the woman is gone and nobody even saw what she saw.

Heejin got out from the box, everything she sees now hunts her, it keeps replaying and replaying until it is stuck in her head, not realizing she's only walking home. Her feet are sore as she stops in front of the apartment gate. Heading upstairs, she sees the new neighbor with her cats, lazily greeting her, and went inside the apartment.

Her days and nights went normal as usual, but she never got a chance to visit the church again, even her friends and the neighborhood forces her. She's scared to see the woman again, even she heard the news the woman died from the day she met her, the story of the opera singer is still with Heejin up to this day.

5 weeks after the news of the opera singer's suicide, Heejin got into a fire accident while one of the opera singer's songs played while the buildings were on fire and she's lying there. Heejin is fine after the accident, nobody injures, but she's diagnosed with PTSD, now in an international hospital together with patients who got mental disorders so like her.

Meanwhile, her neighbor from the apartment is the only person left there.