Chapter Text
“We spent fifty years together… and still it wasn’t enough.”
Hyunjin can’t help the smile that forms on his face.
This is Yoon Okja, eighty years old, recently widowed — and recently deceased. Yes, deceased. Hyunjin, Architect of Neighborhood 032518Z, is here to welcome her into the afterlife he designed himself.
He flips through her file though he hardly needs to. Her story is familiar: a gentle woman who ran a small orphanage, making sure every child felt just as loved as the rest of the world’s children. Hyunjin already knows every detail of her life. Every detail except the one that fascinates him most — how she found her soulmate on Earth.
Because whenever the residents spoke of their soulmates, they carried a glow about them that no Architect could replicate. And Hyunjin, despite designing perfection, still didn’t understand it. How could love stretch fifty years and still not feel like enough?
From across the desk, Hyunjin watches as his assistant, Felix, helps Mrs. Yoon to her feet. His wings give the faintest flutter as he offers her his arm and leads her toward the glowing doorway of Neighborhood 032518Z.
“Is there anything else you need, Mrs. Yoon?” Hyunjin asks gently. “Felix here can fetch you anything with the snap of a finger.”
At the sound of his name, Felix beams, nodding eagerly.
Mrs. Yoon shakes her head. “No, not really. Yongsu is waiting for me on the other side. He can be an impatient man, you know.”
Laughter ripples through the office. But even as the sound fades, Hyunjin lingers on her words, the warmth in her eyes when she said his name. Waiting for me. Even death hadn’t broken that bond.
Moments later, Felix and Mrs. Yoon disappear into the portal, leaving Hyunjin alone once again.
He leans back in his chair, gaze drifting to the map of his perfect little neighborhood spread across the desk. Everything is running smoothly. Everything is exactly as designed. And yet… it still feels like something is missing. Something no blueprint could build.
“Hey, Hyunjin! I’m back!”
Hyunjin nearly jumps out of his chair as Felix reappears in a flash.
“Felix,” Hyunjin groans, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I have told you in every multiverse not to sneak up on me like that!”
Still, even as he scolds, the smile returns to his lips. Maybe it was silly. But a part of him wondered: when would he finally understand what Mrs. Yoon meant?
Felix plopped into the chair opposite him, swinging his legs like an impatient child despite being millennia old.
“You’re thinking about it again, aren’t you?” Felix asked, narrowing his eyes.
“About what?” Hyunjin tried to sound casual, fiddling with his map of the neighborhood.
Felix leaned in, lowering his voice conspiratorially. “Soulmates. Every time one of them mentions it, you get this goofy smile. You’re obsessed.”
Hyunjin sat up straighter, flustered. “I am not obsessed. I’m just… curious. Humans cling to the idea of soulmates like it’s the most important thing in their lives. But we Architects can’t recreate that feeling. Don’t you wonder why? We Architects usually know almost everything.”
Felix shrugged. “Not really. The Judge says humans make crazy choices. Sometimes they pick wrong and suffer for years. Sounds messy.”
“Messy doesn’t mean meaningless,” Hyunjin countered softly. His gaze drifted back to the door Mrs. Yoon had disappeared through. “Mrs. Yoon said fifty years still wasn’t enough. That has to mean something. I want to understand it.”
Felix tilted his head. “And how do you plan on doing that? Interviewing every dead grandma who walks in here?”
Hyunjin chuckled, though a restless ache stirred in his chest. He had already read every file, listened to every confession, and designed afterlife neighborhoods so flawless they could be mistaken for paradise itself. Yet none of it answered the one question that gnawed at him.
“I don’t know, Felix,” he admitted quietly. “It’s one of the greatest mysteries to everyone except the humans themselves. Not even The Judge knows for sure.”
They sat in silence, the weight of the thought pressing down on them both. Felix’s wings twitched nervously as Hyunjin’s gaze drifted toward the glowing map on his desk. And then, Hyunjin’s eyes lit up.
“Unless…”
Felix froze. He’d been Hyunjin’s assistant for a billion years, and he knew that word all too well. Nothing good ever followed Hyunjin’s infamous “unless.”
“We look for a book called ‘Soulmates for Dummies (Architect Edition)?” Felix nervously suggests with an awkward laugh.
“…Unless I find out myself.”