Year 2029
It has been ten years. Ten years since my life became a thriller filled with ghosts and evil spirits.
It took a while to get used to seeing them roam around everywhere, but now I don't even spare them a glance. They are aware of who I am and what I can do if they cause trouble. They're supposed to go to my hotel once they die, but they couldn't be guided there just yet because of unknown reasons, particularly the evil spirits.
It makes me wonder if I had encountered such things back then when I wasn't given the sight to see them.
Was there a time where I roamed this exact park more than ten years ago and there was a ghost following me? I guess that question is pointless to ask now.
I try to get out as much as I can. I know that I can't be apart from the hotel for too long, so I sneak in around three hours everyday of my schedule to come to the park.
I sat down at an empty bench, letting the warm rays of the sun touch my skin. I look across and see a family of four. The father, the mother, and two toddlers with pigtails and dresses that were matching except one was wearing blue and the other one was wearing red. I see them every Saturday and Sunday morning, and I come here just for this view.
“Appa! I'm hungry!” One of the baby girls said after stopping the swing she was on. “Can we go see Mr. Lee over there?” She asked, pointing to the chicken shop behind my back.
The woman laughed. “Just because Mr. Lee likes to give you free food, doesn't mean you should take advantage of his kindness,” she scolded playfully.
The child groaned. “Appa!” She whined to her father, who apparently was whipped for his daughter.
“How about you, Yeon Na?” he asked his other daughter. “Are you hungry too?” She nodded shyly. It was obvious who the more dominant twin was.
“Okay then. Let's go to Mr. Lee, girls!” The girls cheered. Yeon Na quietly stuck to her mother's side and followed the direction of her father who was running full speed with her sister on his back.
The woman looked worried. “Careful, Young Min! Na Won looks like she's going to fall!”
Young Min laughed. “I got her. Don't worry!”
The family run past me and made their way inside the chicken shop where I spent many of time with.
I didn't worry about being recognized. I looked a lot different from how I used to look. Long gone are the baggy shirts and pants I used to wear, as well as my messy hair and bangs that practically covered my eyes if it weren't for my glasses protecting my irises.
It's no surprise that neither Young Min nor Mr. Lee could recognize me when I come into the shop.
I would sometimes have a meal at the chicken shop where Young Min and his family would sometimes be in.
It's nice to know that even after ten years, Young Min was still friendly to our old boss even if he had found another higher paying job to pay his bills.
I looked gingerly behind me and saw Mr. Lee serving the Choi family some snacks to nibble on with a grin on his face. He may have aged, but the youth was still in the way he moved and he hadn't changed a bit whenever he was scolding his employees.
I wonder how he spends the money I send in his account. Young Min too.
I look at his family once more. It was crazy when I found out he had gotten his girlfriend pregnant some years ago. And it was just as crazy looking at my friend become a devoted father.
My mind tends to drift off to the possibilities if I were alive. And it makes me ache when I see Young Min with his family.
Young Min, who was sitting next to the glass window, suddenly turned his head outside and made eye contact with me. I immediately get up and leave the park and out of his sight.
°°°°°
Narrowly escaping Young Min's questioning look, I let my feet take me to the place I went to every time I left Hotel Blue Moon.
Looking at Mr. Lee and Young Min's family always makes me think about the future I could have had. If I hadn't been taken in by the deities to serve my sentence. I knew why I deserved such a fate. I just didn't know how I could free myself from it. Even if I had nowhere else to go that night ten years ago, I still resented the deities for making me suffer for ten years. Never having to grow old while the people I had left behind would surely be greeted by me and accompanied by me to the afterlife, never to be seen again.
Not being seen by anyone, I entered the columbarium swiftly. I see Sun Won's picture again. My heart ached again.
I didn't know what happened to my mother and frankly, I don't care anymore. I just know that she never bothered coming back home to Korea because every time I came back to Sun Won, she would have the same amount of flowers and little trinkets placed next to her picture. Just as I had left it the previous week.
I changed the flowers every week. Orchids, her favorite. She said she liked the smell and of course, the color. I smiled softly.
I don't say anything every time I visit her. She knows what I would want to say anyway.
In a way, my fate stemmed from Sun Won's accident. From Sun Won and Anna's-
No.
Not again.
I clenched my fist and gritted my jaw every time my mind accidentally drifted over to that girl.
Anger always overcame me. Anger at her. And anger at myself.
Anger at her for leaving my sister behind. Anger at myself for letting myself fall so low because of her.
I continue to be so low because of her. I became a coward. I was a coward for not returning to the Songs. I was a coward for not giving in to my curiosity about Anna's death. I didn't even know if she was buried or if she was in this very columbarium with Sun Won. Although, I would love it if she had stayed as far away from Sun Won as possible.
Thankfully, Anna passed just before I became the owner of Hotel Blue Moon. I didn't have to face her.
Unfortunately, that meant I couldn't see Sun Won one last time. But that's okay because I wouldn't want her to see what her big brother had become. A murderer.
°°°°°
Ma Go
She watched as the poor Kang Yeon Joon left the columbarium. Once again changing the flowers beside her sister's picture and trying not to let any more tears fall from his eyes.
Just like with Jang Man Wol and the other hotel owners before him, Ma Go always kept watch over him. Even when they didn't know it.
Ma Go couldn't help but think that Kang Yeon Joon was another one of those rare cases. He was bitter and angry, sure, but there was a softness to him that was unlike many of the previous owners of the Guest House of the Moon.
Though he was as pitiful as the rest of them. A wandering soul lost in this world. A soul that had come to hate love because they couldn't have it when they were alive. At least, they couldn't keep that love forever.
To Ma Go, Mr. Kang's reign wouldn't be as long as Ms. Jang's. It would take some time, but it wouldn't be long.
Because although Mr. Kang had striked Song Anna all those years ago, he left quickly. Not enough time to have seen her die.
Although Mr. Kang had perfect aim, the deities are much more powerful.
Unbeknownst to Mr. Kang, when Song Anna was driven to the hospital accompanied by her hysterical parents, the doctors as well as the One From Above, had gifted her with a second chance.
Ma Go's lips twitched upwards in amusement.
Mr. Kang would walk around this earth not knowing that Song Anna's heart began to pump again. Song Anna's eyes fluttered open to life after death.
Ma Go was excited for the events that will unfold before Mr. Kang's unsuspecting eyes.
°°°°°
A/N
Okay so that will really be the final chapter. I love the gift of cliffhangers as long as I'm not at the receiving end of it 😊 jk
I treated Yeon Joon, Anna, and Sun Won as my children already even if this story didn't even reach ten chapters and I'm kinda sad that I won't be writing these characters anymore.
Well, I love you all (my loyal 3 or so readers lmao). (I sincerely hope y'all won't get mad that I had the audacity to write another cliffhanger after the previous chapter 😏)