Hopping 7

Bongun's mother grew worried. It was minutes before the start of the ceremony and Sohee would be coming in with her entourage soon.

She excused herself to look for Bongun. The guests were murmuring.

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On the other side of the temple, the man with the sakkat chanted.

Bongun was barely alive and his breathing was shallow. Blood was all over his shoulder and chest. He could feel himself slipping away.

"Munak and Hyegun…want me to live…" he willed himself.

"I…must… live…"

"I must…live…"

"I MUST LIVE!!!" Bongun screamed at the top of his lungs, startling the man, who was about to say the last words of the chant.

Bongun tore the amulet that was in his face, and then he instantly felt his life slipping away. He sunk to his knees, close to death.

The man with the sakkat chuckled.

"You are a very stubborn boy. You will become a good leader in my army."

Bongun could barely make out the words. He just looked up at Munak and Hyegun. Their arms were stiff and tears rolling down their cheeks.

"BONGUN! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Bongun's mother's shrill voice said.

"I guess I'll come to pick you up later," the man with the sakkat steered his Pecopeco and ran into the woods, with Munak and Hyegun following behind.

Bongun was left there, with only a shred of the amulet left on his blue hat. His breathing was shallower than before but the piece of amulet kept his soul unwillingly tied to his body. His balance gave in to the pain and he fell, his hat falling off.

Bongun's mother and some bodyguards came around the temple. And before them was Bongun, bloody and on the ground.

His mother screamed and the guards went to alert authorities. Bongun's mother kneeled beside him and cried.

"Bongun! Bonguuuun!!!", she screamed, holding his hand.

"Mom…" Bongun breathed. His eyes were closed.

"Are you still here? Who could've done this?" his mother wiped her tears. Bongun didn't answer.

Three doctors arrived on the scene. They quickly performed CPR and applied first –aid on his deep gashes.

A few other relatives, guests and servants went to check out the scene, just to receive a horrifying shock. Princess Sohee and her family came and were watching at the sidelines.

"B-bongun….please…please don't leave us…" Princess Sohee prayed; her hands clasped together and tears welling up. Hua-Ling and her other sisters watched with fear.

The three doctors desperately tried to keep Bongun alive. They wouldn't be able to carry him to the local hospital fast enough and doing so would just hurt him even more.

"He's…gone." One of the doctors sadly concluded after around five minutes of trying. Bongun's parents held their only son in their arms. His body was turning cold, limp, and his face expressionless.

His mother wailed. His father wept silently.

Princess Sohee dropped to her knees and wiped her eyes with her embroidered sleeves.

"Bongun…" she said, her voice choked with tears.

Everyone wept bitterly. What bad luck it was for a groom to be bloodily murdered on his wedding day!

"Cancel the wedding and make arrangements for a funeral. But first alert the police." Bongun's father said to the servants as he gingerly picked up his son.

The servants wiped their tears and went back to the temple to make arrangements. A servant went back to give a white cloth. Bongun's father wrapped his son in the cloth, which was immediately stained by Bongun's blood.

Bongun's father carried him to the temple, with the other family members and Princess Sohee's family following.

Princess Sohee glanced back at the crime scene. There was blood on the grass and on the walls of the temple. Then she noticed Bongun's bloodstained hat sitting on the grass. She went back and picked it up, holding it to her tearful face, weeping in private.

She turned the hat around and she found a piece of paper stuck to it. It wasn't bloodstained, for some reason. She carefully ran her fingers over it. Her tears just flowed more.

Then suddenly a dark flash passed by Princess Sohee in less than a second.

"What's that?" she looked around. No one was there.

Princess Sohee wiped her eyes. The blue hat was gone from her hands.

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Bongun's body was laid on an altar in the temple. Joy and anticipation had suddenly turned into sorrow and despair. Everyone cried and wailed bitterly.

"Why? What did her do to deserve this?"

"Who could have wanted him dead?"

"Noooo!!!!"

Princess Sohee ran back to the temple. She met up with Hua-Ling at the front of the temple.

"Wh-where'd you go?" Hua-Ling sobbed.

Princess Sohee didn't answer. She just leaned on her sister and cried. Who cares about the stupid hat? Might as well have been an illusion…

Princess Sohee let go of her sister's hand and went up to the altar. Bongun's body was covered with the white cloth, which was stained by his blood.

She felt the side of the cloth for his hand. She clasped it and let her tears fall on to the cloth.

Then the same dark flash passed by and by the time Princess Sohee reacted, Bongun's body was gone.

She screamed and soon the whole temple was in an uproar.

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"Bongun? Bongun?"

"Ungh…"

Bongun found himself awake in the middle of the woods. Munak and Hyegun were staring down at him, with paper talismans on their hats and their faces still expressionless.

"You're awake now?" came Hyegun's voice.

Bongun looked up at his friends.

"I thought I was dead…" he told them through his mind.

"I…I saw a light…and two doors. One was white, shiny and had an angel beside it and one was red and black and had a demon peeking from inside…"

Munak's corpse awkwardly kneeled down and tried to hug him with her stiff arms. She leaned her head on his shoulder.

Bongun's corpse closed its eyes. And with some trouble with his stiff arms, he sat up on the grass and moss.

"Then I got dragged back here…"

Hyegun's corpse blinked once.

"Do you want me to explain to you what's going on right now?" he told him mentally.

Bongun's corpse nodded.

"We're under a curse. We have become jiang-shi," he explained. "We can't communicate with people, only through telepathy with other jiang-shi who were made by the man with the sakkat and the Pecopeco. We can't walk, only hop. We can't express emotion in our faces.

"These paper amulets…they're the only things keeping us tied to the earth. We cannot even touch them. Our talismans are on our hats so if our hats come off, we die again. So we cannot touch our hats either.

"His name is Raughn. Moreover, no matter how much we want to, we cannot escape his orders. We have to follow him no matter what. He's planning on a take-over mission but I don't know the details. All the children he's been kidnapping were turned into jiang-shi and are hidden somewhere in the fields of Comodo.

Bongun's corpse only stared.

"This is horrible…I hate this!" he thought. Munak's corpse closed its eyes.

"You ripped your amulet…" Munak's corpse looked up.

"I tried," Bongun's corpse hung its head. "Hey, I ripped my amulet off. I was able to touch it."

Hyegun's corpse blinked once. "You must have had some control over your body then. Either your panicking and you quickly ripping it hindered its immediate effect or your hat was partially off your head because of you moving.

Then he kneeled down beside Bongun's and Munak's corpses.

"But either way, we're all still dead. Once your body is killed, your soul has doesn't have a right to stay on Earth. Our bodies will still decompose but slower."

Silence…

"I'd rather die now than live to help kill…" Munak murmured mentally.

The three friends kneeled together in silence until their master called them.