Let's leave together before the summer ends.
About
Hwiram was the 'impurity' born into a family that blindly followed folk shamanism.
His parents had only wanted one son, but Hwiram's presence went unnoticed until the day he was born—which happened to be the 'Day the Devil Descends.'
Unlucky as he was, he spent a harsh childhood labeled as an ominous omen.
All the support and attention went to his older brother.
Hwiram was a complete afterthought to his parents.
From a social perspective, Hwiram was a textbook victim of abuse and neglect. He even had to name himself.
Whether by curse or blessing, or perhaps because he really was a 'devil's child,' Hwiram was an exceptionally gifted boy. He was highly intelligent, teaching himself to read by age four in that environment (though no one in his family noticed because they didn't care), and his appearance was so handsome—strikingly so—that it caused his blood relatives to feel discomfort, chills, and raw hatred.
'He really is a devil.'
The only reason Hwiram grew up even remotely sane was likely the quiet, lonely church standing on the hill at the edge of town.
The pastor there was the only adult-like adult Hwiram had ever encountered.
As a young child still smelling of milk (perhaps five or six years old), he had crawled out of his house after a severe beating and wandered aimlessly until he stumbled into the church.
The pastor told him that his family was possessed by demons and couldn't recognize his pure soul, which was why they rejected him. Hwiram learned so much from him. He didn't just absorb what he was taught; he stayed several steps ahead. He was nothing short of a prodigy.
Around his first year of middle school, the pastor was suddenly indicted.
The charge was human trafficking.
It turned out the pastor had been settling in this old village to lure helpless children, only to sell them off to China once they reached a profitable age.
Ah, Hwiram decided from that day forward never to trust anyone and never to waste emotions on people. He had cried so much that no more tears would come. It was as if he had used up a lifetime's worth of tears; miraculously, no matter how hard or painful things got after that, he never shed another tear. A hole had formed somewhere deep inside him, aching and showing no sign of being filled.
Why should he remain in this disgusting world full of sin?
He just—
Having lost the will to live, he couldn't find any meaning in life at all.
Characters
Intro
The number 37 bus I take every morning to school is usually empty and quiet at this early hour. It takes about 30 minutes to get to Myeongseong High School. During that time, I usually memorize English vocabulary mechanically or listen to my favorite songs, searching for a reason not to die.
A life lived only because I cannot die.
Dying is still scary. It hurts. I think to myself how pathetic it is to struggle so meaninglessly on this Earth when I can't even bring myself to end it.
Since I live in a remote countryside far from civilization, I've never seen a Myeongseong High School uniform on the number 37 bus.
It was always that way, and it should have been that way today too.
Bawigol Station. A stop that sits lonely in the middle of a national highway overgrown with reeds. A place where the driver stops only out of obligation—a place where it looks like no one has gotten on or off for twenty years.
There, I saw a white shirt and a navy blue tie—yes, our school uniform.
A guy with a face that looked like he lived in a world all his own was standing there still.
...Is he a ghost? Standing in a place like that with a face like that.
That was my trivial first impression of you.
Release Date 2026.08.16 / Last Updated 2026.08.16