Timekeeper

Outside, the sky is a stormy grey; lightning strikes and makes the room glow a fluorescent yellow. The thunder rumbles so loudly that the coffee table in front of Mina shakes. She has her knees drawn up to her chest and her chin resting on her arms. Her heart jumps when the thunder strikes. It seems as if she’s closer to the storm here – as if the sky is wrapped tightly around this tiny little village. Tugging the sleeves of a grey sweater she found in the closet this morning down her arms, she tries to pay no attention to the storm and wait it out.

Yoseob has his hands pressed against the window, his breath fogging up the glass from his close proximity. When the thunder strikes again and Mina flinches, he grins and peels himself away from the window.

“C’mon,” he says, motioning for her to follow him upstairs.

“What?” she asks, confused.

“Get dressed,” Yoseob tells her, pulling her off of the couch with his two hands. She frowns as he leads her up the creaky stairs, his hands pushing lightly at her back. “Find something black in the closet. Only black. And something warm.”

“Where are we going?”

He laughs from behind her. “On a field trip.”



Mina finds herself at the door, clad in black, with her chin tilted upwards and her left cheek being streaked with black paint. Yoseob takes his finger and smears another streak onto her right cheek. He steps back. His cheeks are covered in matching black streaks as well.

“Is this really necessary?” she huffs, scratching the area around the drying paint. It itches.

“It’s your ticket to the outside world,” Yoseob replies, wiping his finger with a towel from the table next to him.

“Really?” she asks, frowning.

“Yes, no, maybe – it’s not like you’d know, would you?” he laughs and Mina mumbles, annoyed, underneath her breath. “Anyways, before we go, let’s lay out some quick ground rules, yeah? One, don’t run off. Two, follow me. And three, don’t get caught.”

“How do you know that I won’t try running off again?” Mina speaks up, eyeing the boy in front of her.

“Because you know that running off wouldn’t do anything,” he replies, quirking his eyebrow up. “And if you do, you wouldn’t have anywhere to go…. no way to get back home…” Yoseob tugs loosely on the golden chains, and they dissipate at his touch. She tries not to look surprised. “You’re smart. You won’t.”

She folds her arms in front of her chest. “And what if we get caught?”

“We won’t get caught-“

“No,” she says firmly, repeating. “What if we do get caught? What happens then?”

“Then we’ll be sent off to Pyeongsan and be put to death,” he says wryly.

“Really?”

Yoseob sighs. “Listen, I don’t know, okay? I told you, this is the village side of the whole soul empire and if anything ever did happen, I didn’t hear about it. But I’m guessing that it isn’t going to be pretty so – y’know, just don’t get caught, yeah?”

He unlocks the door and the sound of heavy rain is thundering. Mina takes her first glimpse outside; it’s windy and the grass is twirling in sharp circles. The musty smell of rain hits her and the wind carries in a drizzle. She feels an uneasy feeling stir in her stomach as Yoseob points towards a stretch of road.

“We’re going to go past there,” he points, “and at the bottom of the hill, there’s another house. And that’s where we’ll be going.”

“What … what are we looking for, anyways?” Mina asks, pulling her hood over her head and tucking her hair into the fabric. “I don’t want to-“

Yoseob reaches over and tucks in a loose strand of hair. “You’ll find out soon.”

“I know but-“

Again, she doesn’t quite to finish her sentence, as Yoseob tugs onto the sleeve of her black sweater and pulls them both into the heavy rain. It’s cold and hits them hard. Yoseob pulls on her sweater and runs even faster.



Mina clamps her mouth shut and squeezes her eyes tightly because water is going into her eyes. Her sneakers pound into the pebbled ground. All she can feel is the rain water soaking into her clothes and the tugging of her sleeve from in front.

She opens her eyes and sees the boy in front of her grinning widely. He’s completely drenched and the blonde of his hair is now a dirty, dark blonde colour.

“Shit!” Yoseob exclaims, half laughing and half screaming. “It’s so fucking cold!”

Mina wants to tell him to be quiet, but the rain keeps pouring down heavily and she can’t quite do anything else but run, run, run.

They make it to the house, collapsing onto the wall, panting and wheezing for air. Mina presses the back of her head to the bricks and coughs. She pulls off the hood, runs her fingers through her hair and wipes the rainwater off of her forehead. While she does this, Yoseob stands up and peers into the small window at the top.

“This guy was…. always a lazy ass,” he comments, while trying to catch his breath. “He… He never gets up before noon, and he sure as hell… won’t be up during a rainstorm. He’s a heavy sleeper, he is.”

“H-how do you… know?” she asks, her teeth starting to chatter from the cold.

He shrugs. “I just do. Plus, he doesn’t have… an assignment, so he’s basically hibernating in his own room right now. Doesn’t really get out much – unless he’s out of food.” And then he snorts. “He’s like a bear.”

He stoops down to her level and pokes around at the bricks. One of them loosens and he pries it out with his hands. Stretching his arm into the gaping hole, he retrieves a golden key from inside.

“How did you know that there was a key there?” Mina asks, with her eyes widened.

“I’m a regular visitor,” he chuckles, while easing the brick back into the wall. He walks over to the door and motions for her to follow. He works the key into the lock while he takes her through the plan. “I’ll take the upstairs, and you’ll take the downstairs. We’re looking for something that’s in a small, brown box. You’ll know it’s the right box if there’s a copper lock on the front. Once one of us finds it – run.”

Mina nods and then Yoseob pries the door open, slowly and carefully. With his hand on her back, he leads her through the door. He gives her one last look, before going up the stairs and leaving her alone.

She breathes; the house reeks of medicine, oils and lots of other unpleasant things. She wrinkles her nose and gets down on her knees. Wet denim sticks to her skin as she tilts her head down, searching the bottom of the couch. Nothing. Getting up quietly, she takes a look around the expanse of the room that she’s in, before deciding to go to another.

Her shoes are squeaky and she tries not to make too much noise. Upstairs, she notices that it’s quiet – dead quiet. She figures that she should hurry up and look around, as Yoseob must’ve moved onto another room. So she tiptoes across the room and presses her back against the wall, before slowly making her way into the next hallway. She turns the corner, only to regret it immediately.

“YAH!” a voice screams.

She turns back, her eyes wide and body paralyzed. She doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t know at all and she looks around frantically for any signs of Yoseob - nothing. And so she sticks herself to the wall, her mind working as fast as it can. When she hears the sound of heavy footsteps, she decides to run.

But it’s too late.

He yanks at her arm and her back slams against the wall, hard. She squirms and tries to escape from his grip, but keeps both of his hands on her shoulders. He’s gripping onto them so tightly that she gasps in pain. The man doesn’t budge. His eyes are dark and musty and glaring into her. His jaw clenches.

“Who are you?”