AUTHOR'S NOTE: There is a little known and quietly followed manhwa called Antique Gift Shop that is among my favorite series from Korean artists. It preaches of cosmic balance and destiny told through possessed and haunted antiques but really, the beautifully worked pages are about two soul mates. I wanted to tell that story. Enjoy.

-Kero (04/01/10)

Chapter 1: The Invisible Red String

aka The Tale of Chae Eunji

The break lounge seemed more full and livelier than usual. Tired from his shift, Dongnam took off his hat and placed it on a nearby shelf. As he sat down at one of the vacant square wooden tables, a servant brought him wine. Nearby, some of his co-workers were playing a noisy game of Go-Stop. Farther away, a larger group was having an unruly drinking game. It had been this way in the lounge for quite a while. Whenever their Chief was away, the underlings would play. Dongnam remembered when his organization was regularly this unruly and barely functional. When their Chief came on, the hierarchy was redone, lazy workers were purged, and the hard working were rewarded. Their entire system of information gathering and storage became categorized and organized in chronology on miles and miles of scroll paper.

The entire operation became efficient as break times were cut in half and each worker had to account for themselves by flipping their name tags on a giant wall to indicate if they were coming in or going out. Everyone was accounted for at all times. More workers were assigned as desk clerks as opposed to actual field agents, which helped the organization a great deal. Also, they now had forms for everything; taking time off, requests to switch shifts, requests to be transferred, applications for promotions and written reprimands for poorly done work. Everything was recorded and in perfect order.

Dongnam had received his first bonus ever for a job well done and he was still a little uncertain as to how to spend it. It's not like he actually needed anything. But, being recognized for his work was rewarding in itself.

"Man, I wonder if the Chief will mind that we're slacking off while he's gone?" asked a co-worker, Daesun.

"Bah, the Chief has gone out on his little excursion again. Who knows when he'll be back? Shuffle the cards, darn it," said Taewoo, chewing his dried bean curd noisily.

"Is he out looking for her again?" asked another.

"Shhh!" said the group around them. This topic of conversation was forbidden. It's not that the Chief forbade them to speak of it, but whenever the subject was broached in his presence the expression on his face would change and he would go silent. They never saw that expression unless she was the topic of conversation. It was all rather frightening to them, so they decided to abandon the topic altogether and pretend they knew nothing. Their Chief could be scary and formidable even without trying. To have him wear such a wistful, contemplative expression was just plain uncomfortable.

"Still," said the other quietly, so the others wouldn't hear. "I wonder why he doesn't just give up and let things run their course?"

"He used to be human," shrugged Taewoo. "He still has human sympathies."

"This organization runs itself, really," volunteered Daesun. "He'd probably be bored silly staying at HQ all the time."

"Maybe he has a sense of obligation towards her?" said Taewoo. "Lingering regrets?"

"Well, according to the Death Scrolls, she was the one who ran out of the town gates knowing that a raiding party was on its way. It was only natural that they would take her life. Where did she think she was going to go in that day and age? She had it coming. He had nothing to do with it."

"Also," said Daesun, arranging his Go-Stop cards on one hand. "I think I read somewhere that she betrayed him in the end as well. Didn't she let slip that her town's defenses were a ruse? The Gogureyeo raiding party burned the town to the ground right then and there, leaving no survivors. I remember that was a huge job for us to collect all those souls. We were even running back-to-back shifts. Just processing all those people at HQ was a nightmare. But I'm guessing now she's got some payback coming to her."

"Karma," they all said in unison.

"That's why I think he's still helping her," said Taewoo.

"You mean shielding her?" asked the other Reaper.

"Is that allowed? We're not allowed to interfere with the natural course of things," said Daesun.

The other Reaper shrugged. "He's the Chief. Besides, he has Lord Yomra's ear. You can do almost anything if the King of Hell is behind you."

"And, the Chief is deified to boot," said Daesun. "There are certain allowances for gods."

Taewoo answered thoughtfully, "He might be helping her indirectly. I don't think he would really interfere. I mean seriously, he's such a stickler for rules at HQ. Regardless of what happens to her physical body all he needs to do is make sure her soul isn't being damaged. Anything short of that, I think, would be acceptable. Even if she was being burned at the stake as a witch, I don't think he'd help."

"I would beg to differ," said the other Reaper. "If his soul and hers are connected, he would know if something happened to it. Why would he go out of his way to take such long sabbaticals whenever he finds out she's been reincarnated? I think he still has a soft spot for her. How much do you wanna bet I'm right?" The other Reapers nodded their heads slowly in agreement as they started to place their cards on the table.

"What would he do if her soul died?" ventured Daesun.

"That would be sad," said the other Reaper.

"I bet you fifty ¥500 Hell Bank Notes that he'll be able to save her soul until she reaches Nirvana," smiled Taewoo.

"I raise you another twenty-five that she's not going to reach Nirvana before her soul is destroyed. That girl's a magnet for misfortune and the supernatural," said the other Reaper.

Dongnam stared at the reflection of the moon in his wine cup as he sat amid the crowd in the ceiling-less lounge. The roof stretched up endlessly and even encompassed the moon, and but for the current noise level, he found the Reapers' Lounge a very relaxing place to be. He looked up at the celestial light and hoped that Chief Kang Rim found the soul he had been in search of for many centuries now, and that he would be able to keep it safe.

-0-

Eunji looked up woefully at the moon through the bars of her holding cell. Tomorrow, her fate would be decided if she was going to be sold to a kind or evil master. Due to the unfortunate circumstances of her being born the youngest female of her destitute family, she was sold into servitude the other day to help pay her family's debts. Women of her class were not educated and if there was not enough money to feed them, they would be sold. That was the reality of life under Emperor Sejong. Though the current ruler had forced his incompetent brother to abdicate, the country was still doing quite poorly due to neglect and mismanagement and the people were undoubtedly poor.

Poorest perhaps in all her village was the name she was born under, the Chae family. Her father was a drunk who beat on their mother, and as the youngest of four children, she was usually the one to witness it while her siblings were old enough to marry well enough to leave his abuse. Since she was born rather plain, with no accomplishments to recommend her, no contacts and no dowry, she was still unmarried at sixteen. Much of her existence was devoted to being her mother's helper or her father's alternate recipient of mistreatment. Eunji was almost always kicked or hit whenever her father got that way. She hoped silently to the gods that she would not endure more of that with her new master.

Just as she was pondering her fate, the door to the holding room opened and the sound of clanging irons and chains shuffled its way over the dirt floor and into the holding cell next to hers. She stared wide-eyed as a group of young women, some rather pretty, sadly sat down on the ground while their captors locked the cell with a square padlock. When the guards had left, Eunji crawled her way to the bars between the two holding cells and watched them curiously.

"What are you staring at?" asked one of the girls sadly.

"Why are all of you in here?" asked Eunji.

"Probably the same reason you are, idiot," answered another. "Our parents sold us to pay off their debts." One of the younger girls in the corner started to cry.

"Someone shut her up," said the first girl. She turned to Eunji. "What's your name?"

"Chae Eunji," she replied.

"Well, Chae Eunji, since you're not all that attractive, perhaps they'll leave you untouched."

"What do you mean?"

"Are you stupid? Didn't you know? Our parents, yours included, have sold us to a brothel."

Eunji's eyes went wide with horror as her voice disappeared.

-0-

He slowly opened his eyes from where he had been sleeping. He could see the perfect, round sphere of the moon glowing peacefully in the starless sky through the tree branches and leaves. His long, silken and embroidered robes hung gracefully from the crook of the tree branch where he had been resting, unseen by the eyes of the passers by below. Kang Rim closed his eyes again and recalled the dream of the past he had been indulging in.

It was long, long ago, one-thousand eight hundred and eighty six years ago to be precise, when he thought he had lived the span of his destined life at the tender age of twenty, that he first met his employer. He had been forced to kneel by his captors who had just finished setting his entire town on fire and was staring at the broad side of a very shiny sword that was about to kill him when he met the King of Hell, Yomra. The arrival of the hideous ruler of the underworld and his army of Reapers sent his captors running and screaming into the forest. As Kang Rim watched, the Reapers started to claim the souls of his town, all of whom had just died in the raid.

"Why have you spared me?" Kang Rim had asked. He watched the sad, ghostly cortege of reapers and human souls walking past and disappearing into the forest. Not a few were familiar faces, including his mother's.

"It was not your time to go," responded the god Yomra simply. The King of Hell reached across his face and removed the hideous mask to reveal the face of a beautiful man. "That thing is effective but it's terribly heavy. I weary of making excursions like this."

Why are you telling me this? asked Kang Rim.

"You seem a pious person. I know you are learned and your family is pious. You've memorized the Bhuddist sutras and you've a sharp intellect. I'm in need of someone of your ability to help me run the underworld."

Kang Rim looked at him incredulously.

"I'm serious," said Lord Yomra. "I have loads of work to do and I can't always be doing stuff like this. There are hundreds of thousands of souls that need punishing in the various circles of Hell right now and I'm not there to judge them. To tell the truth I'm a little short staffed. I've tried to petition the Emperor of Heaven but no one up there wants to work with me down in Hell."

Kang Rim furrowed his brow. "Do you think I will be able to help you?"

"I know you will," responded Lord Yomra cryptically. "The choice is, of course yours. So, if you want to continue in this mundane world where life is nasty, brutish and short then by all means. I'll just come for you some other time."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Help me reap souls."

"You already have--"

"No, ALL souls. I need them to be regulated. Every member of your town was just murdered. Their souls are reluctant to go since they were taken so suddenly and without finishing what they had intended. Lingering attachments to mortal ideas keep them trapped between one world and the next for an eternity. My Reapers are useless to that effect. I can't keep them all straight while managing Hell. The problem is getting worse ever since mankind started waging war on one another. I need someone who can manage them, control them, purge them or help them find The Way. If they can rest in peace, the Reapers who will be at your service and take them to the River of Oblivion to be reincarnated. You are pious. You follow The Way even at your tender age. You are intelligent and resourceful and you're good at math to boot," Yomra had said carelessly with a toss of his long dark hair over one shoulder. "I hate math."

The god looked at Kang Rim in a scrutinizing manner. "Don't tell me you don't want to work for me? I'm ten times better than working for any mortal king. At least with me, there's job stability."

"No," responded Kang Rim. "I am honored that you've personally come to solicit me. But, there is someone I have to look for. My betrothed. I am responsible for her while her father is away."

"I wouldn't worry about that. She's already passed on."

Kang Rim looked at Lord Yomra in shock. His heart was not a little crestfallen.

"She's the one who indirectly had her townspeople killed. Some might have escaped if they followed your plan, but for her. Kim Hanna got what was coming to her. She's crossing the River as we speak and sipping its sweet waters to forget everything. Even you." Lord Yomra picked off some dirt from his beautifully golden embroidered robes on starchy black silk and flicked it off his fingertips.

"Then, I will never see her again," said Kang Rim sadly.

"Not Kim Hanna, anyway. But since you and she are tied by that invisible red string of fate, you will know when she is reincarnated. The two of you are bound by the Powers That Be. Ever since the beginning."

"So I will see her again?" asked Kang Rim thoughtfully.

"Unless her soul dies, there will always be a next time," said Yomra simply.

"Wait, how can a soul die?" asked Kang Rim.

"It can be eaten by a malevolent power, it can be corrupted by evil until its wasted to practically nothing, it can be cursed into oblivion, or it can be destroyed by the gods. An extinguished soul is gone forever. If something happens to her soul, you will feel it."

"Will I be able to help her?" asked Kang Rim.

"If I employ you, you will be a god with a human soul. I am counting on your compassionate nature to help many souls, not only hers. Unfortunately, her soul is immature, and it may take several cycles before she even sees The Way. But since she is especially connected to you, if you choose to help her, I can look the other direction."

Lord Yomra extended his hand and offered it to Kang Rim. On the palm of his open hand was the character for 'contract' etched in fire. "What do you say?"

Kang Rim inhaled and exhaled the musky scent of night slowly. He recalled that day as if it were just a moment ago. Truly, being immortal severely changed one's perspective on the concept of Time. After leaving the human realm for a millennia or so, he had almost forgotten its quick pace governed by the moon and sun cycles.

Then, he heard the rattling of keys and the drunken footsteps of a guard stumble his way to the holding cells where the women were being kept. Kang Rim's eyes narrowed as he watched the man go in and shut the door behind him. A moment of silence passed as the god of the soul reapers listened. His suspicions were confirmed when Eunji started to scream fearfully at the top of her lungs.

Notes:

Yomra: ruler of Hell, opposite of the King of Heaven. AKA Enma (Japanese), Yaluo (Chinese), Yama (Indian/Buddhist).

The Way: refers to the path towards Nirvana, when a soul has reached its final destination towards godhood as opposed to re-education through reincarnation.

Reapers: commonly known as grim reapers, soul reapers, or Green Ruperts.

Hell Bank Notes: paper money burned in Asian cultures for the dead. Used as currency in the underworld. 500 yen = a pack of gum or dried bean curd.

Death Scrolls: magical scrolls that record and predict every human being's origins of birth, as well as date/time/method of death. Predicted using complex math calculations using birth dates and dependent on the constellations that oversee one's birth. You can change someone's destiny if you change their death date on the scroll.

Red string: refers to the invisible connection between two souls, usually romantic in connotation, suggesting a cosmic, unbreakable connection that transcends life spans.