Martial Soul World

After noticing that he was in an alternate world all along, Kim Jae-hoon couldn utter a word from his mouth as he was stunned by the truth.

Upon sensing his friend acting weird, Park Sun-jae called out to him. ”Kim Jae-hoon, whats wrong? Are you alright? ”

As the young man was lost in thoughts, he couldn hear what the ghost was saying to him.

”Kim Jae-hoon!! ”

”Hm? ”

Sometime later, when Park Sun-jae increased the volume of his voice to call out to him, Kim Jae-hoon came to his senses.

”Are you alright, Kim Jae-hoon? ” he asked.

”Nothing. I was just missing my family back home. ”

Kim Jae-hoon was 99% sure that he was in another world. The remaining one percent was to believe the credibility of Park Sun-jaes words. Its not like he trusted a stranger that he met today 100%. Even though his body and face resembled the ghosts, he was still wrapping his head around how was this possible. He needed to check everything in person before believing anything. As they say, what you see is the evidence of what you believe. So, he decided to wait and see the proof of his claims in order to trust him.

”Oh I see. But, wait a minute, I thought you said you don have any family. Was that a lie? ” He looked at Kim Jae-hoon suspiciously.

Since his mind was elsewhere and was in shock a bit, Kim Jae-hoon unknowingly blabbed something unnecessary.

Since the arrow has already left the bow, he couldn revert back his actions.

He smiled bitterly and spoke. ”Ah, I only said I was an orphan. I never said I didn have any family. ”

”What do you mean? ”

”I had a wife and we were expecting a baby. Those two were my family and my world. ”

”Had? Why are you talking in a past tense though? ” Park Sun-jae twitched his eyebrows.

”Because they are dead now. ” He said with a sorrowful look on his face.

”Oh, I am so sorry. I spoke without thinking. ”

Park Sun-jae understood why this young man didn want to bring up the topic about his wife and unborn child to a stranger that he just met. If he knew about it beforehand, he wouldn ask about them so recklessly.

Darn it! Me and my f***ing mouth! Always a troublemaker. Park Sun-jae cursed himself inwardly because of the mistake he made.

”No need to blame yourself for it. I was the one who brought their topic first. So, chill. ” Kim Jae-hoon said calmly.

After hearing his heartfelt words, the ghost relaxed a bit and asked something unexpected to the young man that made him hateful towards the person.

”Kim Jae-hoon, if you don mind me asking, can you tell me how they died? ”

This sudden question took him by surprise as Kim Jae-hoon looked at Park Sun-jae with an annoyed expression on his face and thought of cutting his cursed tongue off of his mouth.

Meanwhile, Park Sun-jae stared back at him with an innocent look on his face and unaware about the fact that he hit a sore spot of his friend in front.

However, Kim Jae-hoon held it in, all of his anger and replied calmly before taking a deep breath. ”They were murdered. ”

”Oh my god, my apologies. I asked something that shouldn be asked. My bad. Hope you forgive me. ” Park Sun-jae immediately knelt down before him and bowed down three times to ask for his forgiveness.

Seeing his reaction, it felt genuine to Kim Jae-hoon and realised this person didn ask the question on purpose as he let him off easy this time.

”Hey, what are you doing? Get up! Its nothing to worry about. So, relax. ” He reflexively tried to grab his shoulders to get him up but then remembered Park Sun-jae was not a person as his hands were going through him like he was touching a smoke.

After some pleading, Park Sun-jae stood up and started floating again with his smoke like legs touching the ground. ”Im really sorry this time though. I never thought your family had a tragic story like this. My condolences! ”

Kim Jae-hoon looked at him for a brief moment before shaking his head and looking away to the stars in the sky.

Sometime later, he deeply sighed and sat on the sand in a relaxed manner. First, he brought his legs closer to his thighs by folding his knees and then he held them tightly together with his hands in a criss-crossed manner.

While gazing the shiny stars in the sky, he finally spoke to Park Sun-jae who was busy sulking by himself. ”My wifes name was Yoo Mi-ra. She was a florist in a small shop called – Little Garden. ”

Upon hearing that, Park Sun-jae shifted his attention to him and listened to the story he was telling carefully without any interruption.

”When we first met, I was 21 years old and she was two years younger than me. I was working as a patrol officer at a nearby station where her shop was. One day, one of her customers ran away without paying the bills for her flowers. So, I helped her getting the full payment at that time. ”

”Later, we started hanging out often and finally got married two years later. After six months of my marriage, Mi-ra got pregnant and I was re-assigned to the violent crimes unit as a junior detective. Everything was going so well for the time being. But two months later, serial murders started happening in our area and more than a dozen women lost their lives because of this murderer. ”

”After realising the seriousness of the matter, our team was entrusted by this case. We were adamant on catching the culprit behind these murders since he was a psychopath who took pleasure in killing these innocent women. We were afraid that if we let him be, his next target would be our wifes. Due to that reason, we worked day & night to find any traces of this bastard. Two weeks later, our team was able to figure out his killing pattern and you know, we were this close to catch him. This close… ” He looked at Park Sun-jae with teary eyes as he showed the one inch gap between his thumb and index finger.

”Nevertheless, he was able to escape from our clutches at that time. We were so incompetent that we weren even able to see his face. Thats when something unexpected happen which shook the entire police agency to its core. ”

”What… happened…? ” Park Sun-jae asked curiously.

”That psycho of a bastard… ” Kim Jae-hoon paused for a moment and replied with a dreadful look on his face.

”… That son of bitch started murdering our wives instead. The one thing we were most afraid of happened. ”

Park Sun-jae was stunned as he gulped nervously. ”Then… your wife… ”

”Yes. That mothe****ker killed my Mi-ra too and she was the last victim. Also, did you know why he killed her last? ” Kim Jae-hoon asked while glancing at Park Sun-jae with a disturbed expression on his face.

”Because I was the youngest in the team. ” He said while beating his chest vigorously and gritting his teeth with sadness portrayed on his face.

After listening to this, Park Sun-jae was rendered speechless. He just stared at him with a blank face as he trembled in shock and unknowingly, tears started flowing out of his eyes too.