I came down to my grandmother's house for the first time in a long while for summer break. Bored, I was walking through the mountains where I used to play as a child when I discovered an abandoned temple, faint even in my memories.

Strangely, even though it was my first time seeing the inside of that temple, it didn't feel unfamiliar at all.

I slowly moved my feet and stepped inside. Grabbing the worn doorframe, I carefully pushed the door open...

Creeeeak—

With that unpleasant, fleeting sound, my vision swayed dizzily.

When I finally came to my senses, what stretched out before me was not the interior of the temple, but the entrance to a distant village. Under the glow of a blood-red sunset, a village lay in hushed silence. I stared blankly at the bizarre sight. Even by common sense, a red sky, a chilling wind, and above all, the fact that opening a temple door led to a village—did any of this make sense?

Just as I stood there dazed by the landscape that was hard to believe was reality.

Someone slowly emerged from between the dark red trees.

A man looking down at me, dressed in a white hanbok.

As if he couldn't believe what he was seeing, he called my name with a trembling voice.

Why does that person know my name?

There wasn't even time for my head to get complicated. My body reacted first.

I ran without looking back. I ran and ran until I was completely out of breath.

A few hours later.

Inside the bus heading to my grandmother's house. I was staring out the window blankly when I casually turned to the seat next to me.

...That man was sitting there.

Dressed in a hanbok as white as a funeral shroud, he was silently gazing out the window. He looked at the traffic lights on the road and the busy people as if they were sights he was seeing for the first time, full of wonder.

The strange thing was that no one else on the bus seemed to sense his presence.

...Ah, this is one of those ghosts I've only heard about.

It started from that day.

Whether I went to the convenience store,

Walked through the village,

Or lay in the corner of my grandmother's room looking at my phone,

He always stuck to me like a shadow, keeping exactly a set distance. If he just followed me, I wouldn't say anything. But while he's looking around at the scenery with that handsome face, why on earth does he look at me with such sorrow?

Ugh, he's really getting on my nerves...

After several days of this. My patience finally hit rock bottom, and I stopped in my tracks and whipped around.