Revenant Resonance Ch 13

Chapter 13

“Make sure to go to the hospital tomorrow.”

“…Yes.”

In that moment, Yu Jiha thought he must be out of his mind. To even think that he wanted the other man to go to the hospital with him.

Embarrassed, he quickly climbed into bed and lay down. Still unsure of how to address the other man, he awkwardly opened his mouth.

“Aren’t you going to sleep?”

“You go ahead. I need to organize some things in my head.”

“You’re not… planning to eat me, are you?”

It had taken some courage to crack that joke, but the response he received was strange. Je Ilheon didn’t reply—he simply smiled serenely.

Feeling his heart pound with unease, Jiha carefully asked again, just in case.

“…You’re not… right?”

“Haha.”

“…?!”

“At this rate, the sun’s going to rise. Close your eyes and sleep.”

Why… why won’t he deny it?!

Even though Je Ilheon tucked the blanket around him with care, Jiha’s heart continued to pound loudly in his ears until he finally drifted off.

It was a strange dream.

In it, he was a child, walking down a white corridor beside a man whose face he couldn’t quite make out. He was just about to study the man more closely, curious about his identity, when the world—previously occupied by just the two of them—twisted grotesquely.

Mutilated people, missing limbs, began crawling out, and a red-faced man pounded on the elevator doors, demanding alcohol.

Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang—

At the same moment that man tore into Jiha’s neck and began to suck his blood, Jiha woke from the dream.

“…….”

Even with his eyes open, the darkness remained. For a moment, Jiha questioned whether he was still trapped inside Palsang Psychiatric Hospital.

The entire situation had felt absurd from the beginning—meeting a man in a hellish place where monsters hunted and consumed people, a man who helped him without demanding anything in return. That kind of scenario was far too beneficial to him—it bordered on a delusion.

Maybe he was hallucinating, seeing a fantasy in his final moments as an alcoholic tore his throat open—like the Little Match Girl lighting her last match¹.

But then, he heard it: the faint sound of breathing.

Someone’s presence—not his own—rested quietly beyond the darkness.

Jiha subtly moved his eyes. There, he could see Je Ilheon’s side profile, seated on the floor with his back against the bed, exactly as he had been when Jiha had fallen asleep. Unmoving.

Ah.

He finally understood. Je Ilheon had never needed to stay.

But he had chosen to, lying about needing to think just so he could stay by Jiha’s side—because he knew Jiha would have nightmares.

A normal person who had lived his life unaware of the hidden world (the “Reverse Side”) couldn’t possibly fall asleep peacefully after retaining memories of it.

Jiha acknowledged that this was his reality.

That broad back, the one that had protected him, was not some hallucination, but real.

The violent pounding of his heart, stirred by the nightmare, gradually calmed.

The scream caught in his throat faded away.

His tense muscles slowly relaxed, and he began to understand what peace truly felt like.

Je Ilheon’s left eye, glowing faintly in the darkness like the monster he had once encountered, was no longer frightening.

Jiha closed his eyes once more and drifted into sleep.

This time, there were no nightmares.

Returning to her quarters, Kang Suk-young recalled the image of Je Ilheon—too human-looking.

He had once been the Chief of the Eradication Division and both her senior and her teacher.

She had trusted him enough to entrust him with her life.

When Je Ilheon had gone missing, the entire Bureau was thrown into chaos.

They had searched for years, but not even a single strand of hair had been found.

Eventually, they had assumed he was dead and stopped searching.

The grief of that day still felt fresh to Kang Suk-young, as if it had happened just yesterday.

Now, after 22 years, he had returned alive—yet she could not bring herself to feel joy.

Je Ilheon, who had been trapped in the “Gweso”² for 22 years, was too human.

How can he be exactly the same as before?

Not just in appearance, but in personality and speech, he was identical to how he had been 22 years ago.

A man who had supposedly been imprisoned in the Gweso for 22 years.

During their conversation, Kang Suk-young had to grit her teeth to avoid showing her unease.

Unless one had a protective talisman³ against monsters, even a few days in the Gweso would break the mind of any untrained ordinary person.

To remain isolated in such a place for over 20 years—no matter how exceptional Je Ilheon was—should have driven him mad long ago.

Or, worse, he should’ve completely turned into a gwaemae⁴.

Even though she had verified his identity through memories only the two of them would know, and despite the fact that he had removed his identification charm (jihwan) himself and entered a barrier zone without it—

Her suspicions remained.

Naturally so.

Doubting everything perceived through the senses was a fundamental trait of a Bureau agent—and she was their leader.

I’ll have to use his power to confirm whether Senior is really human.

I hate to awaken someone who only just fell asleep last month, but there’s no other choice.

Until then, Je Ilheon would need to be confined within the main building.

He likely knew he was under suspicion, so he would comply quietly without causing unnecessary resistance.

The only thing that had changed about him was the way he treated Yu Jiha.

It was far too warm to be his usual self.

Back in the day, he would have emotionally detached the moment a victim was rescued from the Gweso.

Wait… Come to think of it, wasn’t Yeojin’s child named Jiha too? Nam Jiha.

The thought that came to her was quickly dismissed.

Even if Yeojin had survived, her child would now be in their mid-to-late twenties.

More importantly, the child was a girl.

She distinctly remembered Yeojin joking that her only daughter looked nothing like either parent.

Suddenly overwhelmed by a fatigue that felt as vast as eternity, Kang Suk-young covered her forehead with a hand.

Yeojin… even Senior has come back. Where are you? If you’re dead, then at least show up as a corpse.

[Record of the Reverse Side World]

Name: Palsang Psychiatric Hospital

Classification: Gweso – ㅇ – B.Ho-057

First Reported: December 31, 200X

Survival Rate: 71%

Exploration Rate: 99.7%

Unexplored Zones: Room 404 (door will not open) and underground entrance.

Note:

Even if one fully understands the symbolism of the hospital’s name “Palsang”⁵—8 being associated with wealth and elephants symbolizing good luck—entry is impossible without someone of Chinese descent.

The reason remains unclear, but it may be due to the hospital director being ethnically Chinese during their lifetime.

Alternatively, it may reflect the current reality of increasing numbers of Chinese nationals fleeing their country.

We urgently need countermeasures against the monsters crossing over with them.

Everyone remembers the issues during the Japanese occupation, don’t they?

Please increase our budget.

Anyway, research must continue until this entity naturally vanishes.

Can we really guarantee that no future gweso will require someone from a different cultural background?

This entry hasn’t been updated yet, but it was closed early this morning.

What the hell?! Who did it?!

Talisman papers covered the surroundings.

The countless talismans created a strange scene, as though blocking something from escaping the inside—or from entering from the outside.

Within that space, the one and only “thing” present raised its fingertip.

A black flame, shaped like the word “Je Ilheon,” flickered faintly—then vanished.

The moment the flame disappeared was exactly when the gwaemae known as “Blind Eater”⁶, identified and named by the Bureau, was fully annihilated in the real world through Yu Jiha’s call.

A pair of deathly pale lips curved upward at the corners.

“Oh my, it died.”

The entity murmured, resting its chin on its hand.

Though its form closely resembled that of a human, no one who witnessed it would ever mistake it for one.

“I assumed he’d already fused with the gwaemae I had corrupted. I didn’t even bother keeping tabs on him… So he’d been holding on to his sanity all this time? So he was still human? Fascinating. How did he kill that gwaemae? And why now, of all times? Well, no matter. If he’s come back to the surface, I’ll assume he’s ready to pay the remaining price.”

Muttering to itself like a whisper spoken to empty air, its eyes rolled sideways.

“If you kidnap someone’s child, paying the proper price is just basic human decency, right? Why do you think I let you live 17 years ago? You can’t die easily, Senior.”

Its slanted mouth curled into a wide grin.

That same wide smile was the very one painted on the Blind Eater that had tried to consume Je Ilheon.

And now, it lingered long on the entity’s face—longer than any human smile should.

Footnotes:

Little Match Girl – A reference to Hans Christian Andersen’s tragic tale about a poor girl who lights matches in the cold to experience fleeting dreams before dying. Used here to emphasize the hopelessness and surreal nature of Jiha’s experience.

Gweso (괴소) – A fictional type of facility or space where supernatural phenomena or monsters exist. Not a real Korean word, possibly a coined term for the setting.

Talisman (호부) – In traditional East Asian belief, these are protective paper charms that ward off evil spirits or monsters.

Gwaemae (괴매) – Possibly a coined term. “Gwae” (怪) means “strange/monstrous,” and “mae” (not a standard word in this compound) might refer to something cursed or abominable. Contextually, it’s a monster-like being.

Palsang (팔상) – The hospital’s name, where “8” (팔) implies wealth in East Asian culture, and “elephant” (상) symbolizes good fortune.

Blind Eater (블라인드 이터) – A monster named in English for stylistic impact. Most likely a unique entity tied to Je Ilheon’s backstory.