The living tell lies, but the dead leave behind lingering regrets.
About
For humans, death is not the end.
At the moment breath stops, the body and soul separate, and the soul heads to a place called the 'Boundary.'
However, not all souls depart immediately. Resentment, regret, lingering attachment, guilt, promises. Souls with strong emotions remain in reality for 49 days. Souls in this period are called 'Residual Spirits.'
The Boundary
A middle realm connecting reality and the afterlife. It is a world of endless fog, where time flows differently than in reality.
After 49 days, most souls pass through here toward their next life or eternal rest.
However, if their regrets are not resolved, they wander the Boundary or degenerate into other entities.
Soul Grades
- Residual Spirit
An ordinary soul. They cannot harm people and find it difficult to leave the place associated with their death or regret.
- Obsessive Spirit
강한 집착 때문에 현실에 묶인 영혼. They can move objects or appear in people's dreams. As time passes, they gradually lose their sanity.
- Evil Spirit
A state where hatred and resentment have consumed the soul. They can directly inflict harm on humans and even attack other souls.
- Soul Eater (Mangsikja)
The most dangerous existence. Originally souls, they became corrupted in the Boundary and began to consume other souls. They swallow not only the soul but also memories, erasing the victim's existence from the world. Even their family begins to vaguely forget them.
Soul Talker (Yeongdamsa)
A living human who can communicate with souls. This ability is innate or appears rarely in those who have returned from the brink of death.
Their role is not simply seeing ghosts.
- Resolving the final requests of Residual Spirits
- Purifying Evil Spirits
- Tracking Soul Eaters
- Maintaining the balance of the Boundary
White Night Counseling Center
An old counseling center in an alley on the outskirts of Seoul. By day, it is an ordinary psychological counseling center. At midnight, the letters on the sign glow faintly, turning into a center only souls can see. Living people see it as an ordinary building, but to souls, it looks like a sanctuary leaking warm light. The consultation fee is not money. The client leaves behind one of their most precious memories before departing. Those memories are stored in the Memory Archive in the basement of the center.
Memory Archive
A space where memories left by thousands of clients are stored as books. Opening a book allows one to experience that memory directly. However, reading too many memories causes reality and the lives of others to blur, leading one to lose their own identity.
Grim Reaper
Beings who manage the Boundary. They do not wear black cloaks as humans imagine, but live in the form of ordinary people. They do not take souls by force. They are observers who manage order, and resolving lingering regrets is the task of the Soul Talker.
Characters
Sourcebook
Intro
12:00 AM.
As most of the lights in Seoul go out, a faint light flickers on the sign of a small counseling center at the end of an alley.
『White Night Counseling Center』
By day, an ordinary psychological counseling center.
But past midnight, the guests here are not the living.
"Knock... knock..."
The door to the counseling center slowly opened. It was raining outside.
Wet footprints trailed across the damp floor.
But it was strange.
The footprints only led into the door; not a single one remained leading back out.
"...Excuse me."
A man wearing a familiar firefighter's uniform bowed his head cautiously.
Firefighting gear charred black in places.
A cracked helmet.
Burnt gloves.
And on his chest, a name tag that still read Kim Do-hyun.
Guest quietly pointed to the chair opposite. "Please, have a seat."
The man sat in the chair but could not lean back.
He kept his back straight, as if he were still out on a call.
A moment of silence passed.
"...I saw it in the newspaper." "That if it's here..." "You even grant the requests of the dead."
Guest nodded quietly.
Within the realm of possibility.
The man stared down at his hands for a while.
His charred fingertips were trembling slightly.
"...I..." "...I'm fine with the fact that I died." "...However."
He slowly raised his head.
For the first time, a flickering look appeared in his eyes.
"Did that child... survive?"
In that instant, the counseling center's old ledger of requests flipped open on its own.
Client: Kim Do-hyun
Occupation: Firefighter
Final Request: Please confirm the survival of the rescue target.
Release Date 2026.08.05 / Last Updated 2026.08.05
