Guest Ch 3

Invitation to the New Seoul (3)

I’m in a field of flowers. An endless sea of Red Spider Lily in full bloom.

When did I step into the yard? Wait a second. This isn’t the yard, it’s a field.

I looked up and saw not my grandmother’s front yard, but a vast flower field spread out like a bright red carpet. It was a sea of red flowers stretching to the horizon. The entire plain was scarlet.

Where on earth am I?

I looked down at the red flowers that were as tall as my calves. The flowers that were blooming and swaying looked like gaping mouths waiting for prey. Their stamens and pistils trembling as if they would grab anyone who passed by.

I raised my gaze higher. Dark clouds covered the sky, glowing red like a sunset.

Red sky.

Red land.

Red things swaying above and below.

“Hyunho?”

I turned my head toward the voice and smiled brightly, relieved.

“Grandma!”

My grandmother, who still looked young for her age, no, rather, resembled a white doll that had been preserved. If not for the deep wrinkles around her eyes, neck, and the back of her hands, the only trace of time on her was her gray hair. Even that seemed to make her look more childlike as she aged, thanks to her petite stature of around 140 centimeters and her beautiful soprano voice.

I was about to reach out to her in joy, but something felt off. Grandma spoke with a trembling voice, almost sobbing.

“Oh, dear, this is terrible. I told you not to come. It seems fate has clung to you until the end. Ah, this is something too heavy for you to handle alone, my dear.”

Grandma, dressed in a blood-red skirt and a light jade-colored jeogori, looked like she had stepped out of the field of red spider lily. Her skirt was so red it seemed like she could become one of the flowers if someone were to turn her upside down and plant her in the ground.

I tried to approach her, calling out to her, but my body wouldn’t listen. My voice was stuck in my constricted throat, and my legs sank into the soft ground.

My grandmother reached out and grabbed my outstretched hand in surprise. But her small, frail body couldn’t pull me out as I continued to sink. If she kept holding on like this, she would be sucked into the ground with me. I pushed away my grandmother’s hand, which was holding onto me, out of fear. My grandmother spoke urgently.

“It seems you’re the last one. It’s cruel, but since you’ve come here, there’s only one way to go back. Hyunho, don’t be afraid. You can do it. You can do it, Hyunho.”

“I guess you’re the last one. It’s too harsh, but now that you’re here, there’s only one way to go back. Hyunho, don’t be too scared. You can do this. You can do it, Hyunho.”

The ground, which had swallowed me up to my ankles, now engulfed me to my waist. Spider lily roots coiled around me, tightening their grip. A red flower began to take root inside my body. The roots pierced my skin, clenching my bones. My mind went blank.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, this old woman couldn’t stop it…”

The spider lily roots crept up from my waist to my chest, and then to my neck. As the ground that had swallowed me up to my waist reached my throat, I felt an overwhelming terror, gasping for breath.

Grandma!

I wanted to scream as tears streamed down my face, but no sound came from my mouth. My grandmother spoke urgently.

“Find the beast that you can command. That beast will help you until the very end. Do you understand? Hyunho, do you understand?”

The moment she finished, the spider lily root wrapped around my neck slid into my mouth. The roots gripping my bones now clutched my organs. My heart and lungs, tangled in vines and roots, exploded. A blood-soaked flower blossomed outside my mouth in brilliant red.

Bang!

Flowers bloomed from my eyes as well. Bursting from my sockets, they painted the world a more beautiful and vibrant red than any other bloom. The earth swallowed me whole, and the flowers that sprouted from my blood swayed gently in the wind for a while.

*

Both eyes snapped open at once, like I’d been struck by lightning. I was so startled that I just stared at the wallpaper on the ceiling, gasping for air a moment later.

“Haa…”

I inhaled deeply, like someone pulled from the depths of water, but it still wasn’t enough, so I clutched my chest, desperate for more breath. I breathed in and out, again and again.

“Ha… ha…”

Thump, thump.

My heart pounded violently, as if it was trying to break through my ribs. Cold sweat dripped down my forehead and past my ears. The back of my neck was damp in an instant.

It was a dream. It was definitely a dream… so why does it feel so real?

My limbs were numb. Even a case of sleep paralysis would’ve been better than this.

‘I guess you’re the last one. It’s too harsh, but now that you’re here, there’s only one way to go back. Hyunho, don’t be too scared. You can do this. You can do it, Hyunho.’

The image of the beautiful grandmother in her red skirt and jade-green top keeps popping into my mind. I still couldn’t make sense of her words.

Go back? What am I supposed to be afraid of? What exactly can I do? I couldn’t just dismiss it as a random dream—her voice, especially how it broke toward the end, felt too vivid.

‘Find a beast that you can command. That beast will help you until the very end. Do you understand? Hyunho, do you understand?’

Beast.

A beast I can command.

What could that mean? What kind of beast am I supposed to command…?

The more I thought about it, the more my temples throbbed with a headache. I pressed my forehead against the growing pain and decided not to think too hard about it anymore.

I glanced out the living room window. Red flowers were still swaying in the yard. They still looked like an overturned hanbok skirt. My gaze drifted past the yard to the tall wall and then to the sky above it.

It wasn’t midday with a bright sun in the sky. The sky was overcast, as though it were cloaked in fog. The sight startled me, and I opened my eyes wide.

“What?!”

I screamed like a seizure and jumped up from the sofa like a spring. I hurriedly glanced at the wall clock. It’s one o’clock in the afternoon.

“Huh? Phew, thank goodness, I’m not late.”

The sky had been so dark, I thought I’d slept for hours, but it had only been a few minutes. Just as I was about to feel relieved, I noticed the second hand of the clock wasn’t moving. The heavy pendulum clock, once dominating the living room, stood completely still.

I checked the hour and minute hands, which had been pointing to one o’clock all my life, and felt like blood was draining from my fingertips again. I took out my cell phone. It was 4 pm.

“Oh, damn it…”

This is worse than the dream. How long was I out? Missing the train is one thing, but why didn’t my friends call?

I hurriedly slung my backpack over my shoulders. I completely forgot my new sneakers and stepped into them with the heels crushed down. I dragged my half-worn shoes across the floor, dialing my friend’s number.

I didn’t hear a dial tone. Thinking I might’ve entered the wrong number, I pulled my phone from my ear to check. A strange message popped up on the screen.

[Out of service area]

Out of service? In the middle of Seoul? What the hell?

I flung the door open with a screech. The moment I stepped outside and saw what lay before me, thoughts of the train or my friends disappeared entirely.

The once-bustling specialty coffee shops, organic produce stores, famous bakeries, and celebrity-owned bars—all were in ruins. The signs were rusted, windows shattered. Stone dust filled the air, and the power lines looked as though no repairs had been made in years. The remains of crumbling buildings were strewn across the alley like grotesque monuments to decay.

The clean, well-kept shops had been completely devastated. Everything was a mess, as if the entire neighborhood had been looted. I stood there, gaping like a fool.

So…

…what is going on here?

“…Uh.”

I turned to look back at my grandmother’s house. The spider lilies were still swaying gently in the breeze. Beyond that, the house with its firmly shut glass windows remained unchanged. Just as it was when I arrived. Nothing was different. I turned back to the alley. The exposed steel beams, the flaking plaster scattered on the ground—it wasn’t a mirage. It was real.

“…Uh, what the hell is…?”

I had no idea what to say. I turned my head and saw a warning sign posted on the wall.

[Under Camera Surveillance].

The red panel was rusted, with streaks trailing down to the wall. It was an old brass sign, bearing the marks of time.

Am I seeing things wrong? How could this happen in just a few hours? It looks like months—no, years—have passed. How could everything have fallen into such ruin so quickly? Is that even possible?

I looked around at the desolate neighborhood. The sky above was overcast with thick clouds, like the kind you see during the height of the summer monsoon. You’d expect thunder, lightning, and heavy rain, but the clouds were eerily still.

I squinted, focusing on something falling beneath the clouds. It wasn’t rain. It was something else.

Red sand—or was it dust? A fine red powder fell from the sky like ash. What the hell is that?

I shifted my gaze to the skyscrapers near Seoul Station. They were blanketed in that red dust. The old lightning rods stood bent, pointing at the ground. Inside the shattered windows, flocks of birds flew in and out, nesting as if they had claimed the buildings. Once inside, they never came out. It seemed that those towering buildings no longer belonged to humans but to the birds.

Where did all the office workers, who packed the subways morning and night, disappear to? The strange sky from my dream, and now the sight of this ruined city… Could this still be part of the dream?

Caw, caw.

A flock of crows flew around the buildings. I had never heard such an eerie and aggressive caw in my life.

This wasn’t the Seoul I knew.

It was a ruin that resembled Seoul.