※ The characters, related organizations and groups, and events in this novel are all fictitious and have no relation to reality.
Episode 1
Fast-Forward
Sparks fell gently like a late summer shower. The beams of light that had been falling quietly as if announcing the end of summer faded away. However, the void didn’t last long. The fire demon had only paused to catch its breath before reaching out its hand, and the surroundings were soon engulfed in red light.
It spewed flames for the last time. Breath trembled heavily at the blinding hot flash. Heat wrapped around the face. In the darkness devoured by flames, the presence holds its breath.
It was a magnificent stage effect. The audience would feel an indescribable storm of emotions before the raging, howling flames in place of the protagonist.
An intense trio began within the flames.
My perfect life
(Remember you)
(I’ll be with you)
Disappeared in a single moment
(You are my)
(Everything)
It’s a crucial scene where love transcending death, betrayal, hatred, and missed connections intertwine and explode as one. It was the most powerful section of this musical.
The ghost ‘Sam’ learns that his death wasn’t a simple accident but something that happened at someone’s instigation. He falls into even greater shock at the fact that the person who commissioned the murder was none other than his own friend. His sense of betrayal grows even more when his beloved Molly is put in danger because of this.
You took everything away
Everything collapsed, finally at this moment
You stole everything from me
Even my dreams
There’s nothing left in my hands
The cries of the three protagonists explosively pouring out their respective emotions stopped. After the song that poured out all the arrangement, singing, dancing, and stage effects to drive the concert hall into passion ended, the stage went dark.
Only darkness again.
Right after the trio swept through, the agitated atmosphere still lingered, but the space was nothing but pitch black.
It’s suffocating. It feels like the breath is being choked. A barely audible breathing sound wheezes through the silence.
It’s such faint breathing that it’s impossible to tell whether it’s one’s own breath or that presence’s breath. It was when the sorrowful emotion weighed heavily on everyone’s hearts.
Oh, my love
A plain voice pierces through the moment. A solo number began along with the cello melody. Though it’s a famous song quoted here and there, at this moment, the audience focuses only on the sadness of the presence on stage. At a single line of desperate lyrics heard from a place where nothing can be seen, the audience inevitably gets their eyes moistened.
my darling
I’ve been longing for your touch
Blue lighting illuminated one spot on the stage. A presence that doesn’t exist in this world hovers around the woman.
He calls out to his lover with a tear-soaked voice, but the woman only shapes herself with a hollow gaze. But the presence has no choice but to sing. He has no choice. Because there’s nothing else he can do but sing a song that can neither be heard nor reached.
For so long, so lonely
Time passes only slowly
Time can change so many things
Are you still mine?
While concentrating intently on the ghost’s facial acting and emotional line, someone gently pressed down on his shoulder. Yeon Cheonguk turned his head and displayed his discomfort. To disturb his concentration during the highlight scene. Even if it was a staff member, he thought he should give them a piece of his mind.
‘…What? Did I see wrong?’
There was no one beside him. Yeon Cheonguk was standing near the exit door at the back of the audience seats watching the performance. It wasn’t a position where someone could approach and disappear without any sign.
‘Was there no one? It definitely felt like a hand pressing on my shoulder….’
He thought he saw a man wearing a black windbreaker too, but it must have been his imagination after all. Both sides were completely empty. It must have been an optical illusion caused by having his eyes stolen by the flashy lights in the dark place.
Yeon Cheonguk tilted his head and focused on the performance again.
I need your love
May your love reach me safely…
Yeon Cheonguk takes on the popular session cast of this musical gala concert. On the weekend, Yeon Cheonguk will be singing on that very splendid stage. Today, he came to watch the performance of his juniors who handle the weekday cast.
<Ghost> is a musical based on the movie <Ghost>. It’s a masterpiece that has already finished its second run in Korea, and it was a work that Yeon Cheonguk cherished as well. Though he had already shed tears several times during practice, he also had to check if there were any points to critique from the stage.
Fortunately, the juniors’ acting was to the liking of Yeon Cheonguk, who was notorious for being stingy with praise. Yeon Cheonguk looked fondly at the actors immersed in their roles.
When the curtain call began, the audience’s applause poured out. After the long greetings ended, the lead actor pointed to the back of the audience and shouted.
“Back there, Yeon Cheonguk sunbae-nim has come to support our first performance. Please give him a round of applause.”
“Waaah! Yeon Cheonguk!”
“It’s Yeon Cheonguk!”
Cheers echoed. To the audience’s cheers and the juniors’ respectful greetings, Yeon Cheonguk also bowed in response.
As he was sneaking out of the theater, Yeon Cheonguk looked back at the stage. In the deep blue smoke, the lingering presence of the ghosts still remained.
– We have musical actor Yeon Cheonguk-ssi with us. You’re the Korean actor who took over Broadway, right? If there was anything you particularly kept in mind while preparing for <Ghost>?
– Although I don’t have the experience of losing someone I love in an accident before me, I tried to feel it as if it were my own situation. I tried to empathize every day with what kind of feeling it would be to lose a partner you promised to spend your whole life with. So later, I even felt as if a ghost was always with me. Looking at an empty mirror, I even developed the habit of chattering like ‘Did you sleep well? How about food? I had a decent day today.’
– When did you start dreaming of becoming a musical actor?
– During my second year of high school, at the school trip talent show, I sang Park Ki-young sunbae-nim’s song <The Beginning> in a male version. No one in our class had any talent to show at the talent show, so I was pushed onto the stage, but the catharsis of receiving the audience’s cheers was tremendous. Still, I couldn’t imagine making singing my career. My family was very strict. I loved singing since I was young, and I always received praise during music class, but….
– The song <The Beginning> was literally the beginning, wasn’t it? Haha.
– Yes. That’s why even now I open my fan meetings with that song. And strictly speaking, I became interested in musicals a few months later. That summer, I ended up watching the movie <Moulin Rouge> with my girlfriend. I happened to watch it on video, and conveying hearts and emotions through song was so cool. I completely fell for musicals that day, but in the early 2000s, it wasn’t a time when the musical industry was booming like now, so it wasn’t easy to find my way.
– I see! Then it must have had special meaning when you performed as Christian in the second run of <Moulin Rouge>.
– Of course.
Playing an entertainment news interview while at a drinking party—so typical of the musical team. Yeon Cheonguk roughly flipped his phone over.
“Let’s just drink, great sunbae-nim.”
“Hey! This bastard and his temper, really….”
The junior cast members had already dropped out, and only a few old-timers who were personally acquainted with Yeon Cheonguk remained at the third round of drinks.
It was already dawn. Even more sensual music flowed in the bar. As he moistened his throat with strong yet sweet alcohol and listened to the music in a daze, his sunbae clicked his tongue.
“There goes that habit again. Why do you keep scratching the edge of your glass like that, just stay still.”
At those words, Yeon Cheonguk looked down at the hand holding his glass. Fiddling with the rim of the glass with his fingers was his unconscious habit.
“What can I do? Just as living things are born with instincts in their DNA, it’s a preference and habit that seems engraved in the nucleus at the center of the abyss deep in my soul and bones.”
“Stop pulling words from musical lyrics.”
“Sunbae-nim, nagging is now prohibited!”
“That rumor about you being a comic book nerd too. What if you get stuck with a weirdo image?”
“Do you know how great the thrill is of reading comic books stained with hand marks while smelling cheap paper?”
“Ugh. That’s why you still haven’t gotten married, perfect actor Yeon.”
Despite his sunbae’s scolding, Yeon Cheonguk rubbed the glass with the tip of his index finger without caring.
After being lost in thought for a while, Yeon Cheonguk took advantage of his drunkenness to pour out his grievances.
“I think I’ve become a bit strange while doing this work. I really sometimes feel like there’s someone invisible beside me.”
“What? Are you seeing things?”
“No, I don’t actually see them with my eyes. But strangely, I feel like someone is always together with me in an empty space.”
The tipsy sunbae frowned.
“If it’s not a hallucination, is it déjà vu?”
“Déjà vu… it’s similar. For example, you know the snack bar in the alley near our audition venue? Every time I pass by, I feel like I definitely ate fish cakes there with someone. I’m scared people might point fingers saying it’s auditory or visual hallucinations if it goes a little further. A feeling that something without form or substance is always beside me, you know? Just like… a person who’s living their life for multiple rounds…..”
Really strange, isn’t it? Memories that don’t exist shouldn’t be clinging to my heart.
Yeon Cheonguk swallowed his sentimental complaint inwardly. The sunbae, who let out a deep sigh, came up with a wise solution.
“Yeon. ……You’ve been solo for too long, you.”
“Right. Yeah, that’s the answer.”
Yeon Cheonguk laughed heartily then stopped and poured whiskey into his glass. The sunbae, who gently placed a hand on his shoulder, grinned while fiddling with his beard.
“How about me? As a partner to escape being single?”
“No matter what, we’re not in such an urgent state that we need to rescue each other between the same sex, are we?”
“Haha… getting all worked up. It was a joke.”
