The moon was full, casting silver light through the thick canopy. Ji-hyeon stared at the strange girl. Her presence was still, but it stirred something ancient within him.
She stepped forward without fear.
"Don't lie," she said quietly. "You've heard them, haven't you? The voices."
Ji-hyeon's jaw tightened.
"Who are you?"
The girl tilted her head. "No one important... yet. I've just been waiting. For someone like you."
---
She glanced at the fragment of carved stone lying on the ground between them.
"You awakened it," she said. "Do you know what it is?"
Ji-hyeon shook his head slowly. "No… but I've been seeing things. Dreams. Pieces of a life I don't remember."
Her gaze sharpened.
"Then you're close," she whispered. "Closer than I thought."
---
A breeze rustled the leaves above.
Ji-hyeon studied her. She didn't look like a villager. Her cloak was made from deep blue fabric, woven with silver threads that shimmered when she moved.
"Are you from the capital?" he asked.
She shook her head. "Further than that."
Ji-hyeon narrowed his eyes. "What do you want from me?"
She smiled faintly. "Nothing. For now. I just needed to see you with my own eyes. The boy with the cursed soul… reborn in human flesh."
His heart skipped a beat.
"You know who I was?"
The girl didn't answer. Instead, she reached into her cloak and pulled out a tiny vial of glowing blue liquid.
"Drink this when the time comes," she said, placing it beside the stone. "Not before."
Ji-hyeon hesitated, then picked it up.
"What will it do?"
She met his eyes, then turned toward the forest.
"It will help you remember… when you're ready."
---
Before he could ask more, she vanished between the trees—like a shadow melting into the night.
Ji-hyeon stood there, alone, with the fragment and the vial.
---
> "The voices…" he murmured.
They were growing louder.
And he knew now—he wasn't imagining them.