Shamans Kim

Chapter 2 : The Path of Souls

    "Does that mean you've been making fun of me from the start?!" Jimin asked, stunned, as if it was the first time that someone dared to lie to him and that he discovered this blemish of humanity.

     Jungkook burst out laughing seeing the disappointment on Jimin's face and nodded.

     "I draw well but I didn't think you'd really believe that I have magical powers, you're really gullible, I find it weird that people around you don't take advantage of it!"

     Red with anger at Jungkook's mocking laughter, Jimin exclaimed:

     "It's because none of my friends have a soul as deceitful as yours! When you die and when my brother gives your soul the punishment you deserve, I will come spit on you and laugh at you, you demon!!"

     Jimin's words were unclear to Jungkook's understanding. Yet, taken aback, Jungkook suddenly felt uneasy. 

      His mocking laugh had turned Jimin's disappointment into a sudden rage he didn't know he has in him, as he was always so cheerful in school, and Jungkook even saw tears of rage streaming down his face. 

     He had just wanted to create a bond between him and Jimin tonight and now, his poor social skills had led him to alienate someone again. And that someone was Jimin. Again, he couldn't explain why since he never cared about people's opinions and their hostility towards him , but it hurt his heart.

     "Don't get mad like that, it was just a joke! I couldn't imagine that you sincerely believed in magic," he said in a desire to right his wrongs and dry Jimin's tears. But it didn't work

     "Keep your excuses to yourself, you deserve to be alone, be aware of that!" Jimin shouted who regretted having seen anything else in Jungkook than what people had told him about him. He was so desperate that he had placed his trust in someone who didn't deserve it. 

     Without any form of greeting, he collected his things and rushed out of the library, leaving the books untidy on the table.

     Jungkook suddenly found himself alone in the room. He knew that Jimin was right: he wasn't meant to have friends, he was incapable of being sociable and he deserved to be alone forever.

     As he went to put away the books left by Jimin, he suddenly saw a colorful object passed by one of the big books. Pulling it out, he saw that it looked like a lucky talisman such as was found in temples and festivals, which had served as a bookmark in Jimin's book. In his haste, he had forgotten it.

     Glad to have an opportunity to speak to Jimin again to apologize, Jungkook ran after him. Leaving Gyeongbok High School, he turned his head in all directions and ended up seeing Jimin disappear down an alley lit by the lit street lamps. He shouted :

      "Hey! Jimin, wait, you forgot something!"

     But Jimin did not retrace his steps, so Jungkook launched after him, going up the neighborhood in a maze of alleys. This whole part of the district was on a slope because it was close to the small mountain of Inwangsan.

      Many people hiked this mountain during the day, especially to admire the panorama of this part of Seoul. But Jungkook became worried seeing Jimin suddenly follow the old city walls and disappear on one of the many wooded hiking paths that led to the top of the mountain, swallowed up by the darkness of the night and the forest. Was Jimin going to this forest instead of going home only to sow him? Wasn't it dangerous to go in there alone when night had fallen?

     It didn't take him long to make a decision and rushed after him. He was already exhausted from his running when he was a sportsman and he wondered how Jimin could continue to run on these steep paths. It was almost as if he had trained his whole life to run through the mountain. It seemed absurd to Jungkook because Jimin was nothing like an athlete compared to him.

     Suddenly, he came to a fork: the path split in two and he couldn't figure out which one Jimin had taken. He couldn't continue to walk blindly up this mountain on a path where he had trouble seeing where he was stepping, what was Jimin going to do on the top when it was dark and he should have been back at home at this late hour?

     "JIMIN?!" he shouted.

      He shouted his name several times without success.

     "Where did he go? He must be completely crazy to go and hide in the forest in the middle of the night..."

      He wondered if he should turn back. Maybe Jimin was hiding in the dark waiting for him to leave to come down himself. Still clutching the talisman in his hands, Jungkook had just resolved to return it to him at school the next day when he suddenly noticed a faint halo of light at the end of the left path. 

     He smiled thinking it was Jimin's phone flashlight and he walked down that path. However, the more he advanced, the more the light appeared not white but orange and diffused, not like an artificial light from a smartphone but rather like the fading light of a setting sun. Yet, that's not possible since it had been dark and night for a long time in Seoul, Jungkook thought.

     At the bend of a grove of trees from which an intense light filtered, Jungkook, hypnotized, lost his attention and stumbled against something hard, sprawling full length on a hard stone surface.

      "Ouch!" he cried, painfully massaging his scraped knees.

      Straightening up, he realized with amazement that the night had disappeared. 

      He was at the bottom of an irregular stone staircase that seemed to climb to the top of the mountain and the end of which was impossible to see. The stairs were surrounded on both sides by the forest behind which one could still make out the darkness of the black night that had fallen on Seoul. An imposing stone stele indicated in hanja, the sino-Korean ideograms that Jungkook managed to understand thanks to his seriousness in class and his advanced level:

     你在靈魂的道路上，你旅程的終點就在附近。

     You are here on the Path of Souls, the end of your journey is near.

      "What the hell..." Jungkook muttered, bewildered.

     First, how could there be twilight where he was when black night reigned a few yards away, behind the trees? It was absolutely insane!

     And secondly, the name of this place was also strange. The path of souls? Jungkook had already hiked this mountain several times with the school and he had studied some maps of the area but had never seen these stairs listed among the hiking paths. 

      However, he knew that Inwangsan Mountain had in the past been considered a sacred mountain, so this stele must date from another era and be related to the ancients' belief in spiritual life after death.

     Thinking about school, the high school student suddenly remembered he had class the next day and he knew that climbing to the top of the mountain at such an hour was pure madness, even if he wanted to explore this incredible place. So he decided to go home and come back the next day immediately after class because these mysterious stairs intrigued him.

     As he was about to turn back and go back into the forest, he suddenly heard a voice in the distance, higher up the stairs. The voice was absolutely beautiful and it was singing with a deep melancholy that echoed in the silence of this secret place. Nevertheless, raising his head, Jungkook saw no one.

     "Jimin? Is that you?" he asked uncertainly, even though the voice was unfamiliar to him.

     Then the singing stopped and he heard the same voice whisper with a sad tone like a lonely autumn moon:

     I want to see the night...

     ...Come to me...

 ...And take me see the night...

     And Jungkook, as if drawn by a mysterious force, couldn't help it. He put his foot on a step, then on the other, unable to stop, and like this, he began the long ascent on the Path of Souls.