-Yul-ah.
There was something my master once said.
-There will come a time in life when it feels like the world is being cruel only to you.
He was a parent and a friend to me.
A friend and everything to me, he would often say this while sitting the young me on his knee.
Swish.
The hand stroking my head was rough but affectionate.
-And whenever that happens, try to remember this.
The voice telling me this was dry but soft.
-Even if the world makes things hard for you, it’s not your fault, Yul.
These were words spoken to comfort Seongyul, who had come back crying after being severely bullied.
The young Seongyul nodded upon hearing those words, but even after much time had passed, he couldn’t understand them.
Is it really not my fault?
The world gradually turning blacker.
Murderous intents that kept popping out without warning.
No matter how much he recited and recalled the enlightenments learned from the Taoist sect, they were things he couldn’t control.
I want to kill.
I want to kill everything in sight.
He didn’t know why he had to do that.
He didn’t understand why he was becoming like this.
But it felt like something he absolutely had to do.
As if that was the very reason he was born.
Around the time when he couldn’t hold back and bit his master’s hand with all his might.
His master always stroked Seongyul’s back with the same expression.
It’s okay.
You can endure it.
You can do it.
He tried to endure at those words.
He changed from biting his master’s hand to biting his own.
On days when it was utterly unbearable, he would crawl into the blankets and face the darkness.
That’s how he lived.
A cursed life.
His master who accepted such a him.
He somehow endured by thinking of that one thing alone.
His master was his fence.
A fence that…