❝ 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐥'𝐬 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐞 ❞ JEONG GUWON

⁰² the haunting is a bad dream

IT
WAS A
RIDICULOUSLY GIGANTIC promotional poster for the manhwa "The Ballad of the Black Rose", devouring space worth two walls and blinding every commuter around; the moment they levelled their sights on it.

The top four fan-favourite characters greeted Hyeri, rendered in the typical fantasy romance garb. The female lead was glaring in a fierce fashion, flanked by two of her suitors vying for her attention on either side. One grasping her hand reverently and the other playing with a strand of her lilac hair, shooting a smirk promising all kinds of trouble to the onlooker. Hovering protectively behind them, the pièce de résistance, a pet black dragon the size of a mountain, its obsidian scales gleaming with borrowed fluorescent light.

A couple had taken countless selfies with the characters already, and were urging one of the busybodies passing by to take a picture of them with the whole billboard in frame. The selfies didn't allow them to capture their entire fits, they reasoned. Just one, she hears them promise, we'd appreciate it a lot. The man agrees, despite seemingly being in a rush to leave. He's being polite.

It'd all be devastatingly admirable if he didn't get roped in to click several photos in a row, messing up a little every time the intercom announced a train to depart soon.

He should refuse, he looks sharp enough to realize that the couple's gratitude is superficial at best. 

She smiles against herself as she watches him conjure an excuse and leave hurriedly, a bit proud of his display of courage. The couple wave him off and immediately begin looking for their next photographer slash prey.

She hopes the man will be more firm in the future. Of course, the hope - that brittle thing with weak, webbed wings - sweeps down the drain when a few yards ahead he's roped into helping a middle aged woman with her luggage.

His train departs from the station. His face droops.

Hyeri shakes her head. Unlike her, some people never change.

The couple cheer at a particularly good shot of them, bringing her attention back to the poster on the billboard.

It's pretty; the setting is spring, the colour theory is colour theorying, the lighting is making every character's defining feature pop out and the text placement isn't distracting from the leads either.

If it were up to her then she would choose a darker theme, perhaps a mixture of armour over flowing silk, the moon in the background casting an ethereal glow over the cast.

It's been a long time since she picked up a webtoon, much less a web novel. She kind of misses staring at a variety of art styles and attempting to disassemble the intricate plots the leads faced in order to get to their endings. Hell, she even misses the butterflies when a lead confessed, the sweet anticipation when they held hands secretly. When they kissed after a nerve wracking battle past saving their significant other from unsurmountable perish at the claws of the evil witch or whatever villain archtype the author had opted to go with.

The book boyfriends, webtoon wives, the red flags and the amazon forests- she longed to immerse herself within the worlds of creativity, emotion and unforgettable adventures that reading webtoons and webnovels offered, again.

Her eyes glazed over, mind far away surveying a scene lost to memory, gloved fingers twitching over empty space, desiring for the phantom weight that followed when one held a pen or paintbrush hostage in their grip with determination.

"Do you read TBBR? It's my favourite manhwa of all-", The female half of the couple approaches her in confident strides, her camera screen held out towards Hyeri.