One More Day

Father

Detective Kwon did not hide his disgust when Si-ho and Do-yun implied that Sang-un and Hwal were in love with each other. He could not believe it. It was absurd. He could see how Hwal would easily fall for Sang-un just the way she is. She is like a ray of sunshine to everyone around her even in the most dire situation. But he found it ludicrous that she would feel the same way about him.

How could someone as smart as her, who managed to evade the entire police force for fifteen (15) long years with little to no resources, fall for the very same kind of monster who killed her family in 2006.

During those times she came to his rescue, to the point of even endangering herself, he thought she was just acting on her own guilt. He recalled their conversation at the restaurant near the hospital while they waited for Do-yun to wake up from his surgery a few weeks ago. She explained that Hwal used to be human, that her past reincarnation was the reason why he became a Bulgasal and how their story started six hundred (600) years ago. However even after hearing all of it, he thought it was still ridiculous.

How could she believe she really was a monster? How could she feel so guilty for a crime her present self did not even commit, or a crime she could not even remember herself? So he figured it was her own twisted way of atonement, that must be why she always went out of her way to accommodate him.

But what started out as that, looked like it had developed into something deeper. She jumped in front of the gun and shielded him with her entire body, as he was about to shoot him. With her actions, Detective Kwon saw that she was no longer acting out of guilt, but has come to truly care about the Bulgasal with all that she has.

"If that was not love, then I don't know what is."

He thought to himself as he held out his hand over the well, his own blood rushing out from his limb towards the one he yearned to kill himself for fifty (50) years.

He could already feel his entire body going cold. His blood pressure was now dropping, his heartbeat slowing down. He could barely feel any pain from the stab wound on his gut. Life was slowly slipping away. But just like how he thought Sang-un's actions were absurd, here he was doing the same unthinkable thing himself.

He could not believe how fickle-minded he was. Just last night, he was hell bent on getting his revenge against him when Ok Eul-tae told him the truth. That Hwal was the Bulgasal who killed his father and his sister a long time ago.

He understood that his father had to die. Being a reincarnated monster who poisoned and killed innocent people, someone had to stop him at some point. But the memory of his sister whom he watched helplessly bleed to death stayed with him even after all these years, even until he became an old man. His beloved little sister Kwon Sang-hui died as a consequence of the strong presence of the Bulgasal.

He could never let go of that day. He thought that if Hwal was doing a good deed for the society, he could've helped save her that day. But he did not care to help them even though he knew where they were hiding. Detective Kwon couldn't forgive him for that.

Yet such was the irony of life. Because here he was, giving up his own blood to save the very same monster whom he swore to kill, even if he waited his whole life for this chance, for this moment.

Why? For what reason? Because Sang-un made him realize that Hwal wasn't just a monster whom nobody cares about. He saved each and every one of them when their lives were in danger. They who had nowhere else to go, found themselves a home in his run-down house, and Hwal has become someone they all have become attached to.

And Min Sang-un. The name of the child whose case way back in 2006, sent his life on a downward spiral. Now once again, because of the guilt he felt towards her that he was giving his enemy his own blood, to gain strength before it would be too late for her too.