Paper Plane
Paper Plane
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*Present*
Junho took a long sip from his glass. He had ended his tale but the pain was still there in his heart even after so many years. Minho had been quiet all this time, listening carefully.
"Why didn't you tell Gayoon or her grandmother about this?" he finally asked. "I'm sure they won't blame you for Ms. Yeeun's death."
"They won't," Junho agreed. "I do. I will always blame myself for her death."
A long silence followed those words as they quietly sipped their drinks. The puzzles had finally come to create a picture. All these years, Minho wondered why his father had killed his mother. He had been blaming the wrong person but Junho was also blaming himself.
And that entity…
"Did you ever find out what it was?" Minho asked.
"No," Junho admitted. "Strangely, it has been quiet for months. I know it's still around, biding its time. All I know is that it needs one stable body for a few years in order to keep its powers. While that body is being used, the entity can go in and out of it while searching for other Transporters. I never understood what sort of gates it was walking about. Then when your abilities were discovered, I realized that maybe it was talking about the World of the Dead-"
"It wasn't talking about the World of the Dead," Minho said. Junho frowned at him but Minho was fairly confident of his theory.
"How can you be so sure?" Junho asked.
"Mr. A," his son simply replied. "When I went there to save Gayoon, Seungjo talked about Mr. A. He was partnering up with some other soul to conduct something in that place. Mr. A already knows how to enter that world but the gates...the gates to whatever it is he's looking for is in that world. He's not unlocking something from the living world. He's unlocking something in the dead world."
"And to complete that," Minho went on. "He needs a Transporter. When Seungjo kidnapped Gayoon to that world, Mr. A wasn't after her. He was merely baiting Seungjo. He wanted to see if I could enter it."
"And he did," Junho realized. "But he couldn't use his usual tactics to possess any of you because Gayoon and Jina could sense ghosts. If it tries to possess you, they'll sense its presence. And you have a much stronger mental prowess than your mother had at that time. It'll be very difficult to possess you."
"It must be looking for another way to open the gates," Minho concluded. "All these years and it had continuously failed. So it's probably seeking some other method. A method which would not require a possession because it's already too conspicuous. One of the reasons why it's probably laying low. Maybe it found a way and is simply waiting for the right time."
He paused as another thought struck him.
"Gayoon's powers," he began. "She told me a few times that even for a Seer, her ones are unusual, right?"
"Yes," Junho said slowly.
Minho did not say anything but was lost in thought. The thing which possessed both their mothers was not a conventional spirit but they still did not know what it was. If he could only find out…
"There are many unanswered questions," he sighed. "I guess, we'll have to keep looking."
Junho observed his son for a while before speaking up. "I thought you'd hate me," he admitted. "Take me to the police if you ever met me."
"I wanted to hate you," Minho confessed. "Even when I was inviting you to the bar, it took me a lot of willpower to not hand you over to the cops. But after the events at the World of the Dead, I guess I had to open my mind to the possibility that there might be a truth beyond what we see."
Junho snorted. "Look at us. Tangled in this mess all coz of a guy who's looking for hell gates to open."
"I doubt he's truly looking for hell," Minho said. "If he is, then he's simply looking at the wrong place."
"You're saying that there is a hell?" Junho frowned. Minho could not help but recall someone's words in that question. There was only one answer to it.
"Yes," he replied. "There is. And it's in our own lonely minds."
Before Junho could ask anything else, Minho stood up to leave. "I don't hate you," Minho admitted. "I guess I was angry at you for leaving us. But I don't hate you."
Junho could not bear to meet his eyes but was taken aback when Minho gave him a brief hug. There were years of gap to fill between them and the father-son did not know what to tell each other. But the small hug said it all.
"I'll not tell Gayoon anything about her mother," Minho promised. "But I know you will. And she'll understand."
Minho let go of his father and turned to leave. He was almost at the exit when Junho said, "Thank you. For listening."
He turned to face his dad. "Thank you. For telling," he stated and left.
There were no tears nor any emotional reunion. Instead, an unspoken understanding was established between them which was much more impactful than any joy or resentment. When Minho stepped out of the bar, he felt as if a huge burden had been lifted off of his chest. Years of relentless search and questions were finally answered, freeing him from the shackles of his past.
And he knew that it was the same for Junho as well.
….
The fire at the hospital had finally been put out. The patients were shifted to another hospital. Gayoon and her team reported back to the headquarter about their progress. Since a body was not found, it was assumed that the fire had completely destroyed Danny.
Doyoung's statement was clear. She told the police that Danny attempted to take the hospital hostage by heating up the furnace beyond normal heat levels so the police worked to evacuate the place. Gayoon had saved Siwan and her while Danny slipped and fell into the furnace, effectively ending his reign of terror. The other staff said that Danny had entered the premises with a gun and tried to create havoc but when he was cornered, he escaped into the furnace room. This corroborated with Doyoung's story.
The next few weeks were hectic. The media reported the fire and many conspiracy theories surrounded Danny. Some tabloids reported that there were sightings of the children's spirits at the hospital who were wronged by Danny. Even though this particular gossip was correct, no one was going to believe it.
Gayoon and her team worked relentlessly to finish the case reports and finally, the police concluded that Kang Danny was dead. In the meantime, Minho revealed to her and Mina about Junho's relationship with them. Both the women were shocked but eventually accepted it. Mina even visited Junho on her own, this time as his daughter. The two of them never revealed what they actually talked about but one of the servants found a miniature dollhouse in Mina's room which was not there before.
The case was closed while Doyoung sold off the land to Minho. She used the money to set up a fund for the children who were killed by Danny.
Minho, on the other hand, was pleased to get the land. Shinjin had purified it after the police left but when he heard that many people were creating conspiracy theories around it, he indirectly fueled the flame. Leaving the ruins as it is, he turned it into a haunted site where amateur ghost hunters would come to investigate after paying a fee. Even though the poltergeist was gone and the place was now harmless, some people claimed they saw things moving there which were merely their imagination.
"Better to make money out of it than keep it completely barren," Minho reasoned when Gayoon threw him a dirty look after he told her about that idea. Not surprisingly, the idea was a hit and a few weeks after the incident, the new haunting spot became a place for youngsters to hang out.
Meanwhile, Jina had been discharged from the hospital. She even became friends with Siwan after the kid apologized to her ("Meh! I got to bunk school so it's okay!" was all she said). He even visited her almost everyday much to the delight of Shinho but to Yumi's chagrin.
"If he dares to fill our Jina's head with evil ideas, I'll rip his tongue off!" she warned one day when Siwan had come over to play with Jina. Casper made some hand gestures.
I think she already has many evil ideas in her head, he conveyed. Yumi scowled at him and turned her attention back to the kids. Siwan was teaching Jina how to build a paper plane.
"See, it's easy," he said as he held up the plane in his hand. Jina frowned at his perfectly made plane and then to her crumbled craft.
"It's too hard!" she complained. "I'm supposed to suck only at maths! Not at this!"
"Just try harder!"
He shook his head at her clumsiness. Jina scratched her head as she tried to make the plane. Shinho, on the other hand, was whispering instructions into her ears on how to make one. He wanted to send a message through the plane. If it flew high enough, it might reach his mother.
"Why do you want to make a paper plane anyway?" Siwan asked curiously.
"I want to send a message to someone in the sky," Jina simply said as she finally managed to make one.
"In the sky?" Siwan echoed.
"If it flies high enough, it might reach my grandmothers!" Jina claimed. Siwan stared at the plane in his hand.
"I want to send a message too," he murmured. "But will he read it?"
"Who?"
"My brother," Siwan revealed. "I wonder if he'll read it. I want to say sorry for not being able to protect him."
Jina blinked in surprise. "Are you sincere?" she asked softly.
"I am," he admitted. Jina glanced at Shinho who was now silently crying. The kid wanted to hug his brother but held himself back. She quietly held his hand as he wept.
"Then he'll hear it from here," Jina smiled. "You won't need a paper plane."
Siwan was confused by what she meant but Jina did not elaborate and simply went back to making more paper planes.