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When Baek Saheon was young, there was one particular story he would ask his sister to tell him time and time again.
"Can you tell me about Ireum-nim?" Baek Saheon would ask, and they both knew he was not asking about their village doctrine, otherwise he could just ask the aunties next door. No, it was a different story, a dangerously sacrilegious one, a story about a different identity of Ireum-nim. He would only ever ask her to tell it on his birthday, the one day she could never refuse him.
"One day," she starts after midnight, having made sure the door was locked and all the village elders have long fallen asleep, "if you ever find yourself in an impossible situation, and have nothing left but hope, Ireum-nim will appear before you. It will appear in the form of a haloed white cat, but like no cat found on Earth. It will have long floppy ears and a white fluffy tail, light pink patterns and a cute smile, but its bright pink eyes will be cold and heartless."
"It's not actually a God," she would whisper under the covers to muffle the sound, and with only a single candle for light, ready to put out at a moment's notice if someone walked by. "But a creature from beyond this world. It has intelligence beyond human comprehension, cruelty that can't understand human empathy. However, if you ever run into Ireum-nim, be cautious but unafraid. You will have run into an opportunity, for it can grant you any one wish."
"Noona, what would you wish for?"
She lightly bops him on the nose, and he giggles as quietly as he can into his hand, because if someone walked by and heard them, they would both be in trouble. "One day, Saheon-ah, I'm going to wish us out of here."
The cat looks as his sister described. Mostly.
It doesn't actually have long floppy ears, but instead long limbs sticking out of its ears. And rather than being haloed, it had two halos, one around each ear limb.
But the important facts were correct: cold eyes, intelligence beyond human comprehension, no empathy to speak of. And most importantly: the ability to grant any one wish.
It appeared at the tail end of this year's Jisan Village Festival. Not that anything particularly special had happened that year. Just Baek Saheon, watching another outsider get escorted from the village by two agents in blue. Wishing that, he too, could be escorted from Jisan and never look back. But he was born in this accursed village, so he had turned back to join in cleaning up after the festival.
And behind him, there it was.
"You're remarkably decontaminated for someone in this village," it said, tail swishing languidly. "And you look like someone who wants a wish granted. How would you like to make a contract with me?"
It's the exact way out that Baek Saheon dreamed of even before he was old enough to understand the truth of Jisan Village. But he has since grown out of believing in easy solutions. If it were so easy, she would still be alive.
No, Baek Saheon knows very well: nothing comes without a price. "What's the catch, Ireum-nim?"
The cat cocks its head. "Ireum-nim? Isn't that the god worshiped in this Darkness? That's not me. You can call me Kyubey."
"Kyubey-nim, then," Baek Saheon says, already halfway through a bow. He knows when to lower his head. "What would you take in exchange for a wish?"
The air shifts, and Baek Saheon braces for something, anything. He doesn't know what he's about to lose, but he can accept the fallout, no matter what loss. No price is too hefty if it means severing him from Jisan. Then the wind blows back, nothing is missing, and Baek Saheon looks again into those cold, dead eyes.
"It won't be easy," Kyubey warns, but Baek Saheon knows better than to mistake it for benevolence. "You'll have to keep clearing Darknesses to maintain your wish."
"Darknesses… you mean other places like Jisan Village? Do I have to destroy them or something?" Baek Saheon hadn't imagined a future of fighting supernatural occurrences, but compared to what he's willing to do to get out of Jisan, it sounds like a small price to pay.
"Whatever method you find best. As long as you collect enough Dream Essence to sustain your wish."
Something in his gut tells him that there's some other catch to this, strings attached to a condition that Baek Saheon can't quite see yet. But as he looks down the hill — over to one side, with villagers content in their cult doctrine despite the looming 'blessing' of death creeping around each year, then to the other side, where three outsiders are counting each individual step towards a dried pine tree — Baek Saheon realizes he has nothing to lose.
There's only one reason to hesitate. But they both agreed they would rather be dead than stay in Jisan, and if she came back at the cost of his escape, she'd never forgive him.
I'll grant your wish, noona. I'm getting out of here.
Baek Saheon closes his eyes, and makes his wish.