Legend [YEONBIN] ✓

one ; soobin

My with the moon was complicated, as are most relationships centered around power. My muscles vibrated with anticipation as I balanced on the edge of the roof. The moonlight made my skin itch, like a string pulled too tight. I breathed deeply to steady my speeding heart, and the stench of rotten trash filled my nostrils.

My mother told me to be grateful for the power of the moon. It gave me strength, but sometimes I resented being strong.

I scanned the roads below. The streetlights were burnt out and had probably been so for a while. I didn’t mind. I saw as easily in the dark as most did in broad daylight. In my opinion, the broken lights only helped the aesthetic of the buildings. Cracks spidered across the crumbling facades, decorated with blooms of mold. Perhaps a more optimistic soul would see a strange beauty in the pattern, but not me.

U pulled out my phone and dialed one of the two numbers saved in it.

“Did you find him, Sunbae?” Sunghoon asked as soon as I picked up.

The way he stuttered out sunbae made the respectful title sound suffocatingly formal. As if he were speaking to an elder twice his age, instead of me, who was only a year or two his senior.

“I tracked him to the same alley. He’s been coming here all week—just haven’t figured out which apartment he goes into.”

“I’ve been trying to use the phone location app,” Sunghoon said helpfully. “It says you’re right on top of him. Or is that your location? Click on your GPS.”

I wanted to tell Sunghoon to stick to communing with the spirits.

“Wait, now there are two of you.” Sunghoon fell into muffled mutters. I rolled my eyes to the heavens as I held my tongue. It wouldn’t help to yell. Sunghoon was nervous by nature, a side effect of his ability to see ghosts since birth.

Plus, I knew Sunghoon meant well. But I didn’t need good intentions; I needed a target.

To stop myself from pacing, I sat on the edge of the roof and let my feet dangle over the six-story drop. Gaining the high ground allowed me to stake out the area as well as my prey.

Still, I’d only seen him from a distance, going on the vague description from Sunghoon.

I closed my eyes and counted to ten to settle my nerves.

Before I lay the cityscape of Seoul. The skyscrapers of Cheongdamdong, a mecca of entertainment and glamour, the home of fashion and K-pop. The soaring height of 63 Building, a symbol of the modernization of the capital city, sitting sentry beside the Han River. And the lights of Namsan Tower, where lovers and tourists went to see the world at their feet. I sneered at my own worn sneakers, dangling over a trash-filled alley.

“What is he doing here?” I mumbled, mostly to myself, but Sunghoon answered.

“The spirit says he goes there every night. Her death was too violent.” Sunghoon words became morose. “She needs justice before she can pass to the afterlife.”

I  wasn’t sure if what she did was justice. Still, it was better than nothing. And if I  had to kill, I might as well help a few wayward ghosts settle their grudges.

Not for the first time, I wondered whether putting all my faith in Sunghoon’s spirits was a bad idea. I couldn’t feed without the power of the full moon. No, that was a lie. I wouldn’t feed without it.

The full moon increased my senses, opened me up to energy, allowed me to absorb it without ripping a man apart. So if I didn’t feed tonight, I’d have to wait another month or I’d have to become a monster. I almost let out a laugh because I knew that even though the prey I chose were vile men, it didn’t mean I wasn’t a killer.