chapter one

Chapter One – Kiss of the Haunted

(~750–900 words )

The rain had stopped, but Seoul still shimmered like a drowned city. Ji-an tightened his grip on his briefcase, shoes clicking against the wet pavement. Neon lights bled into puddles, turning the street into a broken mirror. He should have taken a taxi. He knew that. But the air tonight felt strangely alive, and something in him wanted the walk.

Foolish, he scolded himself. The later it gets, the more dangerous this city becomes.

A shadow crossed the mouth of the alley ahead. Ji-an slowed. His breath puffed out in thin clouds, though the air wasn’t cold enough for mist.

“Ji-an.”

The voice was low, familiar in a way that made no sense. He turned sharply. A man leaned against a black car, the kind that glided without a sound. Tailored suit, tie like a blade, hair damp from the rain. His presence filled the street as if the buildings bent toward him.

Ji-an’s fingers curled tighter around the handle of his case. “Do I… know you?”

A smile—thin, practiced, dangerous. “Not yet. But you will.”

For a moment, Ji-an thought there was someone behind him. Whispering. A woman’s voice, soft and broken: Don’t touch him. He spun, but the street was empty.

Seok-min watched Ji-an with quiet amusement. Up close, the younger man was even more arresting than the reports suggested—too sharp to be fragile, too delicate to be ordinary. Those eyes, wide and suspicious, reminded him of prey that still believed it had teeth.

“You shouldn’t be walking alone at night,” Seok-min murmured. His voice dropped lower, velvet lined with steel. “The streets are… haunted.”

Ji-an scoffed, though his pulse betrayed him. “Haunted? What are you, a storyteller?”

And then, for a fraction of a second, Seok-min wasn’t alone. Pale hands reached out from the shadows at his back. A face, hollow-eyed and wet with soil, pressed against his shoulder before melting into nothing. Ji-an blinked—and they were gone.

Not again.

Seok-min’s jaw tightened. The curse never slept. The ghosts always followed, whispering, clawing, warning. But tonight they weren’t whispering to him. They were whispering to Ji-an.

“You heard them, didn’t you?” Seok-min’s gaze sharpened, cutting through Ji-an’s defenses.

Ji-an’s lips parted. He wanted to deny it, to laugh it off, but the echo of that broken voice still rang in his head. He hated that this stranger seemed to already know.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ji-an said finally, forcing his voice steady.

Seok-min stepped closer. The streetlight flickered, and for an instant his shadow stretched too long, like something unhuman was wearing his skin. He leaned in, close enough that Ji-an could smell smoke and rain clinging to his suit.

“You will,” Seok-min whispered. “Soon.”

Ji-an’s heartbeat thundered. He should run. Every instinct screamed at him to turn and vanish into the night. But his legs betrayed him, rooted by something colder than fear and sharper than curiosity.

The car door clicked open. A driver he hadn’t noticed waited, face half-hidden. Seok-min extended a hand, elegant and lethal.

“Get in. The dead already know your name.”

That was when Ji-an understood. The ghosts weren’t whispering to Seok-min. They were whispering through him. And if he refused this man now, he wasn’t sure the shadows would let him leave the street alive.

His hand trembled, hovering over Seok-min’s.

What am I doing? Ji-an thought. This is insane.

But the whisper came again, crawling down his spine. Don’t touch him.

He did anyway.

[End of Chapter One]

Word count here: ~850

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