Scar Of The Soul a BLK Taebin/Hyeon Su Fanfiction

Chaos From Harmony

     I've lost my position to the queen's new lapdog; how pathetic can I be? Hyeon Su let out a few choice words and sipped from his flask of soju. His throat felt raw and his stomach empty, but he didn't want to move from the piano bench. He always came to the old village concert hall when he felt upset. It was the only place that really felt like home anymore, even if it was half-burned by a fire; a fire he had started. For someone who couldn't even read notes, he sat here far too often. If I live another life after this one, I want to be fully immersed in music.

     Hyeon Su gently rested his fingers on the piano's singed ivory keys. They were now covered in ashy soot and some flats were chipped, but the piano he found still played a tune; a haunting melody that somehow resonated with his feelings at the exact moment he played them. Hyeon Su had swapped his trousers and blouse for one of the costume hanboks he'd found mostly unharmed in a wardrobe. It was white with the long draping sleeves of a god's robe from a painting he'd seen long ago. He supposed it was from one of the many plays that had taken place at this stage. Maybe one He'd seen with his father when He'd been younger. But after his parents had been killed, he'd felt the urge to unleash his wrath on this place of harmony.

     Why should others laugh and sing in a world so dark? He'd brightened it that night with the flames of his hatred. The fire had flourished till every instrument, except for this piano, were nothing but dust. Hyeon Su hands came down on the keys hard and the sound that emanated was chaos; the most familiar kind of melody. He cursed this place, he cursed how he'd used to be, and his good memories.

     "You have quite the sword for a tongue."

     "How did you find me here?" he said, his voice weary.

     "Chungho told me you come here often. I've been here once or twice myself," Taebin said. He walked up to the stage and lifted a piece of the floorboard. He pulled out a gayageum he hadn't known survived the flames and blew on it to release the dust. It seemed he really must come here often to know it was there.

     "I used to play on this stage," Taebin said. "Terrible what happened to it," he tried to meet his eyes, but Hyeon Su looked away, it was almost as if Taebin knew what he'd done to this place. In his silk hanbok and fastened hair, he looked in costume already, like a kings's son who had run away from the throne to become a minstrel. He stood on the stage with him, only the beam of light from the moon coming from the broken rooftop lit the stage, as well as the solitary candle he'd placed on the piano, its wax already filling more than half of its basin.

     Taebin sat on the stage and placed his right hand close to the bridge of the gayageum's twelve white strings and his left hand lower. Then he closed his eyes and plucked the instrument with elegant strokes, flicking the strings near the bridge with his right hand while his left pushed on the strings. The ends of his long hanbok sleeves moving with him. The melody stirred something inside Hyeon Su; it made him angry, it made him weep, it made him smile.

     He raised his fingers to the piano keys before him and this time he followed Taebin's tune. As they played, he felt even more hollow, like this had been the joy he'd wiped out of his own life and the lives of so many others. A life without music was hollow. Tears streamed from his face now even when Taebin had stopped playing and walked toward him; he kept on playing.

     "Do you feel this pain? This is how the souls you've sent to hell feel in their purgatory," Taebin said. "This is how the many demons and innocent blood you've shed spend their days." Hyeon Su froze and looked up at Taebin; his face, that had been lovely and peaceful only minutes before while playing, had turned hard, and his gaze pierced him with so many needles that he had to blink.

     "You know, Chungho never said anything about this concert hall. I can smell the blood of my people's murderer for miles." He placed one pale hand atop his head and stroked his hair as gently as he'd played the gayageum. "This moon-white hair was a beacon that lead me to you, it can be seen even from the pits of the underworld and most importantly, from my throne."

     Taebin's eyes turned from warm dark brown to crimson, the same blood-red eyes of the demon bear he had killed in the woods. Hyeon Su knew who this man before him was now. He knew why he'd killed one of his own servants only to corner him now. He was the king of demons, a reaper of souls who had come to collect his pay. He was Yeomra, the fifth king of the underworld. So many of his monsters had died by Hyeon Su's blade, whether he had known it or not, and Yeomra wanted compensation. Hyeon Su tried to move, tried to reach his iron short sword hidden in his hanbok, but Taebin no Yeomra's music had done something to his body. He felt paralyzed, and at this point his survival instincts were almost nonexistent. He'd done enough, killed enough to deserve this fate. If the king of the underworld had worked this hard to track him down, enough to disguise himself as an assassin, hypnotize an entire court and the queen herself in order to get to him, then he was ready.

     After all he was just like him, a demon hiding under human skin, clawing to release the hatred that always followed nipping at his heels letting him have no peace. Like a restless river that he waded deeper and deeper into till he'd surely drown. Hyeon Su could still hear the howls of the beasts he'd killed, all lecherous and iron-toothed. He could remember each of their names. As Taebin's teeth sunk deep into his soul, he smiled, at last he was home.

     Taebin's teeth elongated and he brought them down on Hyeon Su's neck braking flesh. His blood was sweet. Sweeter than any human's he'd tasted before and it smelled like lotus flowers. Hyeon Su was silent through his pain. It was as if he was ready to die, he was completely unafraid and that rattled him. Humans were always groveling and pleading for him to let them live. But Hyeon Su was different. He had bravely and foolishly hunted down that demon who had killed his parents. It was the first time Yeomra was truly impressed with anyone. This human before him now didn't even squirm or try to escape even though he knew the affects of the paralysis in the music had worn off. He looked down at Hyeon Su's closed eyelids, at his strange moon-white hair that even here on earth was an oddity. Taebin decided then that he would not devour his soul. He removed his fangs and carried a now limp Hyeon Su into the portal he had created sending them both to the underworld.