by JiUn Yun, 211 pages
There's rent to be paid and clients to help, so Ho-Yeon drags a reluctant Baek-On out to investigate a ghost appearing in a young girl's room. It's a simple enough matter to resolve, but the encounter unexpectedly dredges up Baek-On's most painful memories and breaks his heart all over again.
Owy. Beautiful and wrenching, this. I cried when I read it the first time and then cried again when I re-read it. The series' title suddenly makes sense as we finally learn what weighs so heavily on Baek-On's soul and why he both wishes to die and refuses to kill himself, choosing instead to live tortured by the past and the futures yet to come. Both he and Ho-Yeon have experienced such personal tragedies, yet their friendship now makes at least this one life a little more bearable and their solitary paths less lonely. I can only hope that Ho-Yeon's soul reincarnates close to Baek-On's in all their next lives, too, so the former can keep the latter company through the too-familiar tragedies ahead and, just maybe, help him someday lift the curse that follows him. Hopefully, Ho-Yeon will find his own peace along the way, too.
I also hope JiUn Yun keeps writing such lovely books and that they make it to these shores so I can linger over their pages and sigh happily-sadly as I have over these.
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