Dangerous Deal
Rain was pouring down that night. On a road, the shrill wail of sirens stabbed at the ears. Smoke rose here and there, cars were crushed beyond recognition, and paramedics in orange uniforms ran frantically about. People lay limp as the paramedics carried them away, while onlookers murmured as they watched the whole scene unfold. All of it entered Yeon-woo's field of vision as she lay motionless on the road, her eyes barely open and her breath faint.
Yeon-woo tried desperately to keep her eyes open, but they kept closing no matter how hard she fought. Her body would not move even a single finger at her command. A splitting pain shot through her head, and a viscous red liquid trickled down her forehead to the edge of her face. Raindrops pouring from the sky continued to strike her cheeks.
"Hey! Hey! Can you hear me?!"
She could hear them. She definitely could, and yet it didn't feel like she could. The voice of the person speaking to her sounded muffled and echoing, as though she were trapped in a space surrounded by an invisible wall—a transparent barrier separating her from the outside.
Unable to force out even a single proper word, Yeon-woo's body temperature plummeted. Cold enveloped her, and her vision gradually blurred.
'Am I going to die like this?'
As her consciousness repeatedly faded, the emotion Yeon-woo felt most strongly was not fear or sadness, but resentment. She was thirty years old. Abandoned by her parents when she was young, she had grown up as what people commonly called an 'orphan.' Her life had been difficult, but she had endured for the sake of her dreams and lived diligently, believing that perhaps a more brilliant future awaited her than her past.
And the result of living so diligently was this worthless death on the road? It was unbearably unfair. There were still so many things she had never done. She had dozens, even hundreds, of things she needed to do and wanted to do, but what felt most unfair of all was that she had never even experienced something as ordinary as romance.
'Please save me.'
Yeon-woo prayed to whatever god might exist somewhere. She wanted desperately for God to take pity on her and answer her prayer. She knew it was an absurd hope, even by her own standards. She knew it was impossible. Still, she prayed that something so ridiculous might happen at least once in her life.
As her consciousness grew fainter, she reached a state where she could no longer even imagine hoping for anything. The thread of awareness she had been clinging to slipped from her grasp. Yeon-woo closed her eyes, and at the same time, the hot tears pooled at the corners of her eyes rolled down her cheeks.
Beeeeep—
A sharp sound, the kind that might come from a heart monitor when a person's pulse stopped—or perhaps the kind of ringing found in one's ears—echoed beside Yeon-woo's ears. Her eyes flew open. Her upper body rose on its own, and the pain that immediately spread through her entire body twisted her face into a grimace.
"Ugh... What is this...? Was it a dream...?"
Yeon-woo gasped for breath. Then she looked around. It was an unfamiliar place. Judging by the hospital gown she was wearing, this was a hospital.
She checked the packet of medicine on the bedside table. The three syllables of her name, 'Seo Yeon-woo,' were written on it. Only then could she finally relax. She was alive.
The moment relief washed over her, a sharp pain struck her left arm and forehead. Her left arm was in a cast, and when she touched her forehead, it seemed to be covered with gauze. She was in pain, but she was grateful to be alive instead of dead. At the moment of the accident, she had truly thought she was going to die. The realization that she was alive with all four limbs intact brought a sudden surge of emotion to her chest.
"Thank you. Thank you so much, God!"
"You're thanking the wrong person. You should be thanking me."
"Ah! You scared me!"
As Yeon-woo continued offering thanks to God, a figure suddenly appeared in front of her, startling her so badly that she nearly jumped out of her skin. Once she had calmed her racing heart, she looked at the unfamiliar woman.
The woman was petite, with a youthful face. Her hair was so black it looked as though someone had poured ink over it. Her face was not merely fair but deathly pale, which seemed to make her hair look even darker. Dressed in a black suit that did not match the chubby banana milk—known as 'Chunky Bba'—in her hand, the woman stared intently at Yeon-woo while slurping on it through a straw.
"Who are you?"
"Isn't it a little rude to speak so casually to someone you've just met?"
"You're speaking casually too."
"Oh. Right. Okay."
"So who are you? Why are you here? Are you with the hospital? Then do you happen to know how I got here?"
"Could you ask one question at a time? Well, since you've already asked, I'll answer. I'm Jung Han-gyeol. I'm here because I'm in charge of you."
"Your attending physician?! Are you a doctor?! Ah, no. Doctor, are you a doctor?!"
Yeon-woo had mistaken 'in charge' for 'attending physician.' Han-gyeol shook her head, then narrowed her eyes as she continued speaking.
"You're an impatient human. Let me finish talking. I'm not your attending physician. I'm in charge of you—more precisely, I'm your reaper. And the reason you're here is because I saved you."
Yeon-woo clicked her tongue at Han-gyeol as she spouted absurd nonsense about being a reaper, being in charge of her, and saving her.
"That's the most ridiculous joke I've heard lately."
"Why do you think it's a joke?"
"This may be rude, but are you feeling okay? Are you a patient admitted to the psychiatric ward here or something...?"
"Hah. Unbelievable."
"I'm the one who can't believe this! I've heard of reapers taking living people away, but I've never heard of one bringing a dead person back to life! If you're going to joke around, at least make it believable enough for me to pretend to play along. Don't take it too far, you little brat!"
Yeon-woo spoke to Han-gyeol as though scolding a child, then smiled. Han-gyeol began chewing irritably on the straw between her lips, her eyebrows twitching. Clearly displeased, she set the banana milk in her hand down on the windowsill with a sharp clack.
"This is why humans are such a problem. You don't believe us even when we tell you the truth."
After letting out a short sigh, Han-gyeol vanished from Yeon-woo's field of vision without a trace. The smile disappeared from Yeon-woo's face. Her already large eyes doubled in size, and her mouth hung open in shock. Completely unable to make sense of the situation, Yeon-woo closed her eyes and opened them again, then rubbed them vigorously.
"What the...? Am I still dreaming?"
Wondering if it was a dream, she pinched her cheek as hard as she could. It hurt terribly. It wasn't a dream. As she rubbed the cheek she had pinched, Han-gyeol reappeared and shook her head at the sight of her.
"Tsk."
"You—you—what are you?! What the hell are you?!"
"I told you. I'm a reaper."
"No, seriously... You're really a reaper?!"
"Think about it. Have you ever seen a human vanish right in front of you, then reappear? Do you really think humans with that kind of supernatural power exist in this world?"
Han-gyeol was right. Unless she was some supernatural being like a psychic or a magician, it was difficult to explain what had just happened in front of Yeon-woo. That meant Han-gyeol really was a reaper, just as she claimed. But according to Yeon-woo's common sense, reapers were beings visible only to the dead.
It would have been easier to believe that the being in front of her was a Hogwarts graduate rather than a reaper.
'Then am I dead? No, wait. She definitely said she saved me earlier...'
Confused, Yeon-woo began feeling all over her body. She could clearly sense everything. When she had pinched her cheek a moment ago, it had even hurt. Her injured arm throbbed, and the area around her injured forehead stung sharply. She was definitely alive.
"You really saved me? Why would a reaper...?"
"You asked me to save you. You were praying so desperately."
Yeon-woo was dumbfounded. She had never heard of a reaper actually saving someone's life in response to a prayer to be saved—not even in fiction, whether in novels, movies, or dramas.
"You saved me because I asked you to? Reapers are supposed to kill people."
"Hey. That hurts to hear from a reaper. We don't kill humans. We escort dead humans to the afterlife!"
"Oh... Well, okay, let's say that's true. The reapers I know wear traditional hats, have dark circles under their eyes, and... wear dark-colored robes. Are you really a reaper?"
"How many times are you going to make me say the same thing? I am a reaper!! And what is this, some old ghost story? What era do you think this is, the Joseon Dynasty? We change with the times too! Who still walks around in robes and traditional hats these days?!"
Han-gyeol raised her voice at Yeon-woo as though she found her utterly ridiculous. Yeon-woo still couldn't believe the situation.
'Come to think of it, she's floating in midair right now...!'
Indeed, from the moment she had vanished and reappeared, Han-gyeol had been floating in the air with her legs crossed. It was absurd, but Yeon-woo had no choice but to believe her now. As she stared at Han-gyeol, Yeon-woo let out a small, amused laugh. It was because Han-gyeol seemed far too cute to be a reaper. Yeon-woo had always thought all reapers would look terrifying, so the discovery was surprising.
Han-gyeol pressed her thumb and middle finger together and snapped. The TV screen switched on, and Yeon-woo's gaze naturally turned toward it.
"Last night, a five-car pileup occurred on a road in Seoul when a drunk driver's vehicle skidded on the rain-slick pavement. A total of eight people—including the drivers and passengers in each vehicle, as well as pedestrians crossing at a crosswalk—were killed. Only one person miraculously survived."
The news that happened to be airing covered the accident Yeon-woo had been involved in the night before. The crash site visible behind the reporter was absolute chaos. No word came to mind except horrific. The moment she saw it, Yeon-woo remembered the accident, and a sudden headache caused her to clutch her head in agony.
"Everyone except you died. You were the only one who survived. Because I saved you."
Yeon-woo looked at Han-gyeol while holding her aching head.
"You're probably wondering why I saved you by now, right?"
Yeon-woo slowly nodded. Han-gyeol lifted the corners of her mouth as if she'd expected that, then picked up the banana milk she had set down earlier.
"You said it was unfair to die without ever experiencing love, so I decided to let you have it. Even if a person has to die eventually, shouldn't they experience true love and romance at least once?"
Yeon-woo couldn't help thinking that this reaper was pointlessly romantic.
"That's why you saved me? Why on earth...?"
"Well, I'm kind of bored these days. You could say I needed some fun in my identical day-to-day routine. A hobby where I make use of the abilities I've been given? Let's call it that."
By the time she finished speaking, Han-gyeol had emptied the entire carton of banana milk and walked over to the refrigerator. She opened the door, took out another carton, popped in a straw, and began drinking. Yeon-woo stared blankly at her, then let out a hollow laugh at the sheer absurdity of it all.
"I've never seen a reaper drink banana milk before. You must really like it."
"I just think it tastes really good."
"So what do you want from me?"
"Right. I knew that question would come up at this point."
"You don't want to possess my body and live through me or anything, do you?"
"You watch too many movies. I like the way I look."
"Then what is it? You wouldn't save me for nothing."
"Of course not. Now, let's get to the point."
Han-gyeol floated into the air again with her legs crossed, straightened her back, and looked Yeon-woo directly in the eye.
"From this moment on, you're making a deal with me. You have exactly one month. Experience true love within that month, and I'll let you live for a long, long time. The collateral for this deal is your life."