Elqueeness [EN]: Chapter 1

Prologue

‘April 26th of some year. I died.’

…Saying it like that makes it sound kind of cool. I’m just imitating the beginning of a cartoon I saw recently, but I think it was a pretty excellent choice of words. Because, no kidding, I could actually see my dead self right in front of me.

“Huh…….”

I stared at the familiar figure sprawled out in the middle of the road with a slightly bewildered feeling. A thick mop of black, unruly hair and thick horn-rimmed glasses that covered more than half of the face. A skinny body in a drab navy blue school uniform. It was definitely the image I had seen in the mirror before leaving for school this morning.

“Is this… real? Really? For real? Seriously?”

Unable to believe the sight before my eyes, I repeatedly slapped and pinched my cheeks. But the bizarre reality unfolding before me (yes, this was definitely reality) still didn’t seem to disappear. Me, floating in the air, watching my dead self lying right below… that was the situation.

“Uwaaaah— I’m going crazy! Why do I have to go through something like this!”

My name is Kang Jihoon.

I’m an ordinary high school student of Korean nationality, 17 years old this year. I had never once doubted that I was ordinary. My athletic ability is average among my peers, my grades are average, my body size and appearance are nothing special compared to others. If someone like me isn’t ordinary, then who in the world could be called ordinary!

Although being ordinary is said to be the most difficult thing in the world, I thought that being ordinary for me was easier and simpler than anything else in the world. This morning, no, until just a few minutes ago, my thoughts hadn’t changed. Until that ‘accident’ just now.

From the beginning, the cause of the accident was nothing special. Korea is a country with a small land area and complicated traffic, so traffic accidents are common.

The root of the problem was that I was carrying around an English vocabulary book and memorizing it, trying to study for the mock exam [a practice test] that was coming up soon, something I don’t usually do. Who would have known that I would be hit by a car that ignored the signal without even being able to do anything about it?

‘Heh, so that’s why they say you die when you do something you don’t usually do…….’

Old sayings are never wrong. The wisdom of the ancestors wasn’t just made up out of nowhere. So, is this a punishment for ignoring the words of the elders? Even so, don’t you think the punishment is too harsh?

Besides, it wasn’t like I was hit hard, it was just a light bump. Of course, even though it was light, I was shocked enough to be thrown far away, but outwardly, nothing seemed to be broken or bleeding. But to die from just that much. Something must be wrong. Definitely.

The surface of the corpse was so clean that even the perpetrator who hit me, as well as the police who arrived, didn’t initially realize I was dead. So much so that I even tried to return to my body myself.

But despite several attempts, the body repeatedly rejected my soul, and now that it had been more than 20 minutes since I had stopped breathing, I had given up.

Ah, I really ended up dying so absurdly.

Chapter 1

It’s already been three days since I ended my absurdly short life. But my life hasn’t changed much from before. I was still walking around in my school uniform as usual, participating in school classes, and even watching the process of my body being recovered and my funeral being held.

These days, I’m standing in front of my portrait, pretending to know the friends who come to offer condolences, and it’s actually quite fun. You could say I’ve been able to confirm the true nature of my friends that I didn’t know before. In particular, the sight of guys who are usually frivolous or taciturn, not revealing their inner thoughts, shedding tears and snot during the condolence visit was quite a fresh shock.

But unfortunately, no matter what I say or do here, they can’t see or hear me at all. The stories that often appear in cartoons, where ghosts become spirits after death and interact with living people, were possible only in cartoons.

No one alive here was aware of my existence. I haven’t even met another ghost (?) yet. The former is understandable, but the latter is a bit strange.

Given the nature of a funeral hall, I can’t be the only dead person here. As evidence, there were countless funerals being held in this building at the same time. There were even many funerals that started later than mine. But I’ve never seen another person’s soul, so how can that be?

For the first few days, I took it easy, thinking that a grim reaper would come someday. But it’s already been three days, so I can’t help but become more and more anxious.

‘Could it be that when you die, you just wander around alone like this? Forever?’

At this point, it wasn’t unreasonable to think this way.

I bit my lip with a nervous feeling. As always, I really hate being alone. Especially in a situation like now, where I’m buried among so many people, but no one recognizes me. In times like these, things that you don’t necessarily have to be aware of come to mind. For example, the fact that the person who is the chief mourner [the person who leads the funeral proceedings] right now is not my family but my friend.

‘Well… I didn’t expect those people to be sad for me, but.’

Parents and siblings who are already unfamiliar with even calling each other family. They were people who hadn’t shown me much affection even when I was alive. Still, I thought they would hold a formal funeral at least for the sake of public perception.

But their gaze towards their son and brother who had returned as a corpse was extremely cold. They were going to cremate me without a funeral and scatter the ashes on any mountain. It was Ha Taejin, the friend who is now the chief mourner, who found out and stopped them. The funeral expenses being paid are also all from the money raised by the classmates.

I smiled bitterly as I watched Taejin, who was wearing the chief mourner’s badge and had a white, hardened face, clenching his fists. He was a friend whose cheerful and energetic nature was usually seen as a disadvantage, but now his face was so fierce that it looked like he was going to kill someone. I didn’t feel comfortable thinking that I was the one who made his face like that.

‘Ugh, this won’t do. Positive mind, positive mind!’

I shook my head hard from side to side, trying to shake off the 잡 [jap, meaning miscellaneous or distracting] thoughts that had crept into my head.

I didn’t want to drag the worries of my past life even after death. I’m sorry to my friends who are crying for me, but I wanted to forget everything and have fun as soon as possible. To do that, I needed new experiences and new relationships.

‘That’s it! Let’s go out! Go out and find comrades in the same situation as me somehow!’

I hadn’t even seen a glimpse of another person’s soul, let alone a shadow, but it was too early to be disappointed. It’s only been a little over three days since I died. I couldn’t rashly judge that the things I’ve experienced so far are all that will happen in the future.

Besides, if there’s no connection, you can just make one! If it’s hard to find a soul after death, then just wait next to someone who’s about to die and wait for the soul to come out!

Fortunately (?) a hospital is a place where people come and go several times a day, with life and death constantly changing, due to its nature. Saving someone who is about to die was as easy as pie. I’ll be happy to have a friend, and the new ghost won’t be lonely either, so it’s really a win-win situation!

‘I think I’m a genius!’

“Okay! Shall we go then?”

I made a decision at once and jumped up from my seat. But before I confidently turned around, there was one face in my sight. It was Ha Taejin, standing as the chief mourner. That guy.

He was the only one who maintained a calm expression among the crying friends. But the person who was mourning my death most deeply in his heart was also that guy.

“I’m going to be happy.”

I smiled bitterly and patted Taejin’s shoulder, which he couldn’t even feel.

“Forget about it, Ha Taejin.”

* * *

If someone were to ask me to express my current feelings in three words, I would answer without hesitation: absurd, absurd, and absurd. Have I ever had such an absurd experience in my life!

Finding the intensive care unit in a general hospital was surprisingly easy. Thanks to being a soul that can freely pass through walls, there was no need to climb the stairs one by one or wait for the elevator. So, when I first found the intensive care unit, I was still burning with the will to make a comrade (?). Even now, before that thing that would make me feel absurd happens.

The intensive care unit was a place with a chilling atmosphere, just like I had always imagined. Unlike ordinary hospital rooms, the patients here were literally on the verge of life and death, so most of them looked to be in serious condition at a glance. It was a concentrated place of all kinds of sadness and pain, only tormenting the suffering patients themselves and the watching families.

Most of the patients were lying down unconscious, wearing oxygen masks or dangling complex devices on their bodies that made me seriously doubt whether they were being used. It wasn’t a sight worth seeing, so I tried not to look directly at people who seemed to be in serious condition as much as possible.

Even though they were in a position where they had to rely on machines to prolong their lives, they must be enduring because they ultimately wanted to live. I felt a pang of conscience for coming with impure intentions in the midst of all this, but I tried to be confident.

Anyway, I’m already dead. What’s wrong with coming to find a comrade because I’m lonely? I’m not wishing for them to die, I’m just trying to make friends when someone dies. From the dying person’s point of view, it would be much better to meet a senior (?) and adapt than to be alone and anxious in an unfamiliar environment. Yes, that’s right.

“Sangmin-ah! No! Open your eyes, Sangmin-ah!”

“Oppa!” [Older brother, used by females]

Was my wish too great?

It didn’t seem like much time had passed since I came up to the intensive care unit, but there were already signs (?). A boy who looked to be about my age was wearing an oxygen mask, but he was breathing roughly and writhing his whole body uncontrollably. The boy seemed to be seriously injured somewhere, as he was wrapped in bandages from head to toe.

Doctors and nurses rushed over and tried various measures, but there seemed to be no way to stop the boy’s fading breath. And even to me, who has no medical knowledge, it was clear that the boy was already hopeless.

Because the soul was rising.

“Huh…….”

The process of separating the body and soul was quite shocking in many ways. Above the cooling body, another transparent body that looked exactly like him floated into the air. It was a chilling sight, like watching a horror movie.

The moment the soul completely separated from the body, the doctor shook his head with a gloomy expression, and the boy’s family began to wail. He was completely dead.

“Alright, shall we take a look at your face?”

I felt a little sorry for the boy’s family, but I was looking forward to this moment, so I happily approached the soul that wasn’t moving yet. But that was the moment.

Faaaaaah.

“……Huh?”

Suddenly, a group of pure white lights burst out from the wall opposite the bed. It was clear that it wasn’t ordinary light, as the crying people didn’t notice it at all. Surprised, I stopped approaching the newbie (?) and immediately hid behind the wall. It was an unconscious action.

After hiding, I realized that there was no need to do this, but then it was already too late to come out again. Something suddenly appeared from within the light.

‘What, a person?’

Surprisingly, two men walked out from within. They were incredibly handsome Westerners who looked like they had come straight out of a movie.

They were wearing flamboyant clothes that were quite different from modern attire. And their hair was so long that it seemed to go past their butts and down to their toes. If it weren’t for the lack of wings on their backs, they might have looked like the angels that people often describe.

Those beings, whether they were angels or something else, approached the boy sitting blankly on the bed as if they were familiar with the situation. And they started exchanging conversations that were hard to understand among themselves, with the boy in the middle. Mainly, one side would explain something, and the other side would ask questions.

“Aquarius, Choi Sangmin, nationality Korean. A 16-year-old high school student. The cause of death is a traffic accident. The death certificate has been completed.”

“The transfer?”

“He will have to walk the path of the afterlife. He has too much karma to bear.”

“Then he belongs to the central department. Handle it that way. Is this the last soul for today?”

“For our part, yes.”

At the answer from the reporting side, the other man nodded as if he understood. Then he grabbed the boy who was still sitting blankly and lightly lifted him into the air. Even then, the boy’s soul didn’t seem to be aware of the surrounding situation.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes, Preunius-nim.”

Faaah.

That was the last thing I saw at the scene. When I came to my senses, they had already disappeared without a trace. I stood there blankly for a long time, feeling lost. To be honest, I even doubted whether what I had just seen was real.

“……I thought there were no grim reapers because they didn’t come to pick me up.”

Yes, I really thought so. But whether they were angels or grim reapers, they were definitely beings who came to pick up the boy’s soul. Although I couldn’t understand most of the conversation they had, it was clear from the fact that they appeared right after his death.

But why me? Why didn’t they come to pick me up?

“What is this…….”