The Flower Field of Jeoseung, Seocheon Flower Garden.
Since Sara became the Ggotgam Officer at the Jade Emperor’s summons, the place had never been so lively.
At the center of every issue was the Promotion Team.
“Did you watch the Theater of the Afterlife? It was so fun!”
“How did you film Hell like that? Weren’t you scared?”
In the past, the Shinsomi would only glance warily at the Promotion Team from a distance.
But with the Promotion Team’s continuous successes, their favorability had skyrocketed.
“Haha, it’s just another place where people live, you know….”
Recalling the moment he realized he was standing on the tongue of a sinner, Mujae smiled awkwardly.
Hallakgoong quickly changed the subject.
“The Research Team Leader did the narration, and it fit perfectly, didn’t it?”
“Oh, so that was our Team Leader’s voice?!”
They had been searching for a calm and composed voice to suit a human documentary, and thought of her.
The Research Team Leader had unexpectedly agreed readily to the Promotion Team’s request.
‘I’ll ask you next time, too.’
Right after the recording ended, she gave a bright smile and left after saying something scary….
As Zack sipped the Shinsomi’s beverage and his eyes went wide, he asked.
‘What is this? I usually hate wine, but this is delicious.’
As Hallakgoong quickly relayed Zack’s words, a young Shinsomi answered with a bright smile.
“It’s Omija Syrup! We made it ourselves.”
“Really?! The color is so pretty.”
“Zack thought it was wine.”
The Shinsomi burst into cheerful laughter at these compliments.
“Oh, but we’d never serve alcohol to you during work hours~!”
“We’ll invite you next time we make makgeolli.”
The laughter filled the Promotion Team office with a bright atmosphere.
Mujae felt his heart warm at a scene he never could have imagined just a few months ago.
Not long ago, the Promotion Team had the reputation of being “nothing but trouble.”
“But, um….”
Before the laughter faded, one Shinsomi spoke up hesitantly.
“Uh… Are we not filming videos about Seocheon Flower Garden anymore?”
The unexpected question made every member of the Promotion Team go wide-eyed.
Mujae, flustered, asked back.
“Why do you think we’re not filming Seocheon Flower Garden anymore?”
“Well, you’ve only been going on business trips lately….”
The Shinsomi looked around, unsure.
“I guess it must be more fun to go to new, unpredictable places than the same old Seocheon Flower Garden….”
The Shinsomi who said that looked downcast.
It was at that moment.
- Dding!
- Ddirong!
- Buuuuung~
Several people’s phones rang at once.
It was a notice email.
[Official Notice] The 1st Seocheon Flower Garden Sports Day
Date: This month, whenever
Location: Somewhere within Seocheon Flower Garden
*All departments must attend
*Operations, Planning, Filming by Promotion Team
– Ggotgam Officer Sara
“…What is this?”
Hallakgoong muttered, baffled at the astonishingly brief and absurd notice.
But in the next moment, he was left even more speechless.
“Kyaaa!”
The young Shinsomi in front all screamed together.
And then they bombarded the Promotion Team with rapid-fire questions.
“What is this?”
“The Promotion Team is handling Operations, Planning, and Filming?!”
“…Uh, so it says?”
When Mujae answered on the spot, the screams grew even louder.
“Kyaaaah!”
Their feet pounded in excitement and their eyes sparkled with joy.
Before the Promotion Team could even protest, cheers poured out rapid-fire.
“Were you preparing something like this behind our backs?!”
“This is crazy, a sports day! I’ve always wanted to do one!”
“What are we going to do?! Is there a relay race? I’m really good at running!”
The Promotion Team had no chance to get a word in.
All they could do was nod and smile….
“Hahaha… We’ll think about it….”
“Kyaa! I’m so excited!”
The young Shinsomi left, saying they’d go tell the others.
But even long after they were gone, a heavy silence still lingered in the Promotion Team’s office.
“…When we actually need her, she’s nowhere to be found.”
At last, Hallakgoong spoke up.
His sigh, mingled with pent-up anger and disbelief, seemed to make the ground sink.
“This person, really….”
“Should we go talk to her?”
Even for Mujae, who loved new challenges, this was too much.
“We just got back from a business trip, you know. We were supposed to get a week of vacation, and she hasn’t even shown up. Then she gives us a unilateral order like this… what are we supposed to do…?”
“…She’s gone.”
Hallakgoong replied with a look of despair.
And his recent hardships seemed endless.
“I started looking for her as soon as I returned to Seocheon. I checked The Hall of Purity and Elegance and Hall of the Flower’s Heart, turned them both upside down. I asked the other Shinsomi, but no one knows….”
‘…How can that be? Doesn’t she do any work?’
Before coming to Seocheon, Zack had only ever seen the back of his Father, who was always working, and asked, confused.
Hallakgoong replied, almost spitting.
“No, she works.”
“How??”
“She leaves a ‘Note’ at her desk. A ‘Note’!”
Hallakgoong, looking about to burst, drew a small square in the air with his finger as he yelled.
“Is this a joke? She dodges everyone and does her work with notes so we don’t even see her shadow? She’s obviously avoiding us on purpose!”
‘Does the Ggotgam Officer also have something like a Helmet?’
“What? A Helmet? Why would you say that?”
Hallakgoong asked, baffled by the sudden remark, and Zack explained.
‘My Father has a magic Helmet. If he puts it on, he becomes invisible so no one can tell where he is….’
“No! My Father doesn’t have anything like that.”
Hallakgoong waved his hands as if the thought gave him chills.
And then he sighed again.
“She just slips away. My Father doesn’t have a Goblin Mask or anything.”
“Then….”
Mujae’s big eyes rolled round.
“…Why did she only leave us alone?”
‘…To drop a bomb like this on us?’
At Zack’s words, everyone looked back at the notice.
Just then, everyone’s phone rang again.
- Dding! Dding!
[Notice] Emergency Department Heads Meeting, 10am tomorrow.
Sender: Agriculture Team General Team Leader
“…….”
A heavier silence than before fell between them.
Mujae clutched his head as if he would tear out his hair.
“…For now, we’re on vacation.”
Hallakgoong scratched his head, looking thoroughly exhausted.
“Can’t we just gather after vacation, everyone?”
“Let’s do that, then.”
Hallakgoong staggered up from his seat.
Mujae and Zack exchanged glances.
The world never goes as one wishes.
‘Just where am I supposed to find my Father, who’s gone and disappeared so brazenly….’
Hallakgoong’s insides burned.
For hundreds of years, he’d been searching for a way to save his Mother.
He’d finally gotten a real clue from his senior, Princess Bari, who had used the Soul Rebirth Flower before him.
The reason his Mother couldn’t use the Soul Rebirth Flower properly.
And the diagnosis that his own Soul Vessel was broken.
Princess Bari had told him not to go through with it, but once he returned to Seocheon Flower Garden, Hallakgoong searched for his Father Sara first.
He wanted to confirm whether Sara knew all this.
‘I didn’t expect her to just vanish.’
He could have imagined her shamelessly feigning ignorance, but to just disappear like this….
But there were some upsides.
“Seyoung. Is there some secret storeroom or entrance in Hall of the Flower’s Heart that I don’t know about?”
Hallakgoong had begun openly poking around The Hall of Purity and Elegance and Hall of the Flower’s Heart.
Though he hadn’t found any real clues.
Seyoung, his Mother’s attendant, shook her head.
Then she scolded Hallakgoong in Sign Language.
‘How many times are you going to ask? You could build a secret storeroom faster than you could keep asking about it.’
“…I’ll stop asking.”
Leaving the prim Seyoung behind, Hallakgoong sat on the wooden floor of Hall of the Flower’s Heart.
It was the hour when the new moon barely peeked above the horizon.
As Seyoung passed through the Entrance Gate leaving Hall of the Flower’s Heart, she turned back again.
Her gaze at Hallakgoong was quite irreverent.
‘Are you sleeping here again? Please, just go and sleep comfortably!’
“A son wants to stay by his Mother’s side, what’s wrong with that?”
Ever since returning from Hell of Verbal Sins, Hallakgoong had been staying in Hall of the Flower’s Heart, using his Mother as an excuse.
He had spent days crouched in the corner of his Mother’s room as she slept.
Seyoung shook her head in exasperation.
‘What kind of son pulls an all-nighter crouched in the corner next to his Mother? It’s not like you’re an assassin!’
“…Sorry for scaring you.”
It had happened when Seyoung had come to check on Wongangam in the middle of the night and been startled by Hallakgoong.
Seyoung still seemed peeved.
‘I really thought you were a ghost!’
“You keep forgetting, but this is the afterlife. There are ghosts everywhere….”
Seyoung revealed she hadn’t fully gotten used to the fact that Hallakgoong was a human brought to Seocheon Flower Garden.
Seyoung’s face turned firm as she waved her hands.
‘Enough, just go! Stop scaring me in the middle of the night.’
“…I’ll go when I see my Father.”
For the first time, Seyoung’s stern expression softened.
A son wanting to sleep next to his Mother, a son saying he wants to see his Father—she had nothing more to say.
‘…I hope you see him soon.’
In the end, Seyoung left Hallakgoong with a message of support.
As Hallakgoong watched her go, his face cooled again.
Princess Bari’s words echoed in his mind.
‘Do you still trust your Father?’
She must have known this would happen.
So even though he’d been warned, Hallakgoong couldn’t think of any way except to ask his Father.
A Father who, after coming to the afterlife, had never once told him anything first.
He had been alone, even in the afterlife.
Now, in the darkening room of Wongangam.
Hallakgoong lit the lamp.
The room brightened, and his Mother Wongangam’s beautiful face, so like his own, glowed softly.
“…Mother.”
If only his Mother had awakened, how would things be?
If he could do everything right, if his Mother could smile here in Seocheon Flower Garden….
Would his Father, his Mother, and he himself all have been happy?
Or would there have been new worries?
One thing was certain.
He wouldn’t have been alone.
‘No more useless thoughts.’
His Mother had said there was still time.
Hallakgoong quietly placed his hand over his left chest.
Princess Bari had told him to set things straight and start anew.
Her words had been ambiguous, but Hallakgoong was beginning to understand.
He had always been like a broken compass.
‘I need to fix my compass. And for that, I need to see my Father….’
He wanted to meet his Father.
He wanted to lay out everything he had never dared to ask before, all the things he’d been too afraid to mention.
If he could, then maybe just a bit more….
Hallakgoong eventually drifted off to sleep.
Only the sound of his deep breathing filled the quiet Hall of the Flower’s Heart.
Meanwhile, a thin shadow passed silently outside the door.
Night slipped by with no one the wiser.