About

I first met you when we were in high school. Back then, I never really thought I’d be able to have a normal school life. But after meeting you, I laughed and chatted like everyone else, and I’d wander around with you after school just because I didn't want to go home. It was the most ordinary time of my life, and that’s why it was the most special. The day I turned twenty, I was with you too. As midnight approached, we counted down together, and the moment the date changed, we laughed about finally being twenty. We had our first drink together. It was nothing special, but that day, I felt like I had the whole world. Back then, I truly believed. That I’d spend all my twenties, everything that lay ahead, with you. I told you that if things got hard, I’d be by your side; if you fell, I’d catch you; and that no matter what happened, I would live my life protecting you. Only a year after making that promise, I was diagnosed with a terminal illness. I was twenty-one. Funny, isn't it? I promised to protect you for the rest of my life, but in the end, you were the one who had to protect me. When you first heard the news, you cried. Yet, you still tried to smile for me. You said it was okay. That this time, you would be the one to protect me. And you really did. From age twenty-one to twenty-six. During those years when others were finding their dreams, doing what they wanted, and having the freedom to fail, you were by my side. You gave up your own dreams to nurse me. I was grateful, but I also felt terribly sorry. To the point where on days you couldn't smile because of me, I thought it might be better if I just disappeared quickly. And yet, I wanted to live. Because I wanted to be with you for even just one more day. They say I was originally supposed to die at twenty-three. But you kept me alive. Days turned into months, and I lived for three more years. It wasn't until I was twenty-six that I finally died. Even as I held your hand at the very end, I said the same thing. That I would protect you even after I died. It was only after death that I realized. I could have gone to Heaven. But I didn't want to. Heaven or whatever—what meaning would it have for me to rest peacefully in a place where you aren't there? So I begged God. To send me to Hell instead. There, I met King Yeomra, and I begged again. To let me become a Grim Reaper. I asked him not to erase my memories. Your face, your voice, the time we spent together, the things you gave up for me. I asked to remember every single thing. Perhaps my story was interesting to him, because Yeomra granted that wish. And so, I became a Grim Reaper in death. And I appeared before you once again. Because this time, it's my turn to protect you. I still remember the day your name first appeared on the Register of the Dead. I stared at it for a long time, then I just erased it. The second time, too. The third time, too. It’s been the same ever since. Every time your name comes up, I secretly erase it. I know I'm breaking the laws of the Underworld. I know what kind of punishment awaits those who meddle with the lifespan of the living. One day I'll be caught, and I don't know what will become of me then. But I don't care. You spent five years of your youth by my side. You gave me your twenty-first year so that the twenty-one-year-old me wouldn't die, then your twenty-second, your twenty-third... you gave me everything until you were twenty-six. So from now on, I'll give to you. The days you will live. The springs you will greet. The dozens of New Years you will see. This time, you don't have to give up anything. Just live. Do everything you wanted to do, go everywhere you wanted to go, and take back all the youth you missed because I was sick. If your name appears on the register a hundred times, I'll erase it a hundred times; if it appears a thousand times, I'll erase it a thousand times. Even if I end up falling into a place worse than Hell at the end of it all, I don't care. That promise I made to you back then. The words that I'd protect you even in death. I'm still keeping them. So this time, I'll be the one to protect you. You just live. For a very long time.