Last night, I was just a childhood friend who knew the past of the Heavenly Killing Star.
We shared memories of our childhood, but we were just friends who played together. As long as the Heavenly Killing Star was convinced, we could talk about those memories and shake hands before parting ways.
Isn’t that what most childhood friends are? You play together when you’re young, then meet years later, “Hey, do you remember the good old days? Take care! See you next time,” and that’s it.
You say, “Let’s meet again,” but you know there won’t be a next time. I had aimed for that, but things veered off course.
Now the Heavenly Killing Star would constantly doubt me. And I couldn’t placate all of her suspicions.
I’m not some con artist, how could I perfectly deceive someone in every situation?
But simply put, as a web novelist, I had my own methods. Ways to deepen the relationship between the protagonist and the heroine in web novels.
It starts with forming a bond of empathy.
Once you establish that bond, no matter how suspicious the Heavenly Killing Star gets, you can keep her from falling into a trap of doubt.
The question she asked earlier was the perfect opportunity to build that buffer.
“No. I didn’t do it well.”
When she asked if I was good at storytelling back then, I shook my head with a faint smile.
“Yeah,”
As soon as she heard that, the Heavenly Killing Star tried to bury her face in her knees again.
Is that all?
Be curious a bit more! I worked hard on my strategy, don’t just stop there.
If you’re going to do that, I’ll keep talking to spark your curiosity.
“When we were kids, I used to let you sit on my lap while telling you stories from back in the day.”
I recalled fond memories of reading fairy tales to my younger cousins.
“Fairy tales?”
The Heavenly Killing Star lifted her head, looking at me.
“Yeah. Fairy tales. You really loved it when I told you those stories. Seeing your reactions made me want to keep telling them. Every time I went back home, I returned with a bunch of old stories in my head. But when it came to telling you those stories, it just wasn’t as fun.”
“Why?”
You could feel a hint of doubt in her voice.
“To tell an interesting story, you usually have to stretch out the sad, annoying, or boring parts. But I wanted to see you have fun, so I’d skip over those parts and just tell you the fun bits quickly. That’s why the original enjoyment was lost.”
“It sounds like telling a half-baked story. If you want to kill a master, you have to confuse them with movement first and then stab.”
Seriously, she could only come up with such analogies.
“I’m not sure, but it’s somewhat similar. So, every time I told you a story back then, I felt both guilty and happy.”
“Guilty and happy?”
“I wasn’t very entertaining, but you always seemed to enjoy it. That’s what made me feel guilty and happy. So, every time I visited home, I memorized these stories, and little by little, I got better at storytelling.”
“Did I really enjoy it that much?”
“Yeah. I really worked hard to entertain you. Haha, thinking back, you were my first guest as a storyteller.”
I said to the Heavenly Killing Star with a smile, as if I had gained enlightenment from a nostalgic past. Sorry, Master Carpenter! Forget about the first guest setting, I’ll just say it’s the Heavenly Killing Star.
“I was your first guest…”
The Heavenly Killing Star seemed a bit hung up on the term “first guest” I mentioned.
You’re my first! How’s that for a nice little narrative twist?
But that’s not enough. This is merely a memory from the past. The deep bond I initially planned hasn’t been formed yet.
It’s risky, but I need to touch on the Heavenly Killing Star’s wounds.
I need to draw empathy from that pain.
“With every visit, I thought I was getting better, so I felt that soon I could tell you a really entertaining story. But after that horrible incident, I could never do it again…”
I calmly touched the Achilles’ heel of the Heavenly Killing Star. A wound that could make her pick up a knife at any moment. I had to show some pain from that past myself.
I put on a sorrowful expression, as if reminiscing about a sad and painful past in front of the Heavenly Killing Star.
“Are you talking about that incident…?”
Her eyes instantly frowned.
Was it an unconscious defense mechanism? The Heavenly Killing Star’s hand subtly moved towards the Hidden Knife on her thigh.
Well, in this case, she’s not just thinking of waving a knife around; she was actually going to draw it. Before she could restrict my words, I quickly spoke.
“So, I practiced even harder, so that when you, Souhee, were to come down from the heavens to listen to my stories, I wouldn’t be embarrassed. So one day when I die, I could tell those stories to the child Souhee waiting for me in the afterlife.”
“…”
The Heavenly Killing Star’s hand stopped. She looked at me in surprise with a bit of a dazed expression.
How’s that? The reason a Joseon outlaw got better at telling stories.
Longing for his childhood friend who passed away.
A great setup, don’t you think?
“The fact that Souhee, who I thought was gone, is actually alive and listened to my stories… just as I said before, it’s both embarrassing and touching.”
I deliberately turned my body, covering my mouth, and trembled as if I couldn’t control my emotions like a brother finding his lost younger sister.
This is the buffer I created.
Not just the Heavenly Killing Star’s setup, but my setup.
The painful past that only the Heavenly Killing Star suffers from.
What the Heavenly Killing Star didn’t know was that there was a man who felt the same pain from that past. And that man used that painful past as a stepping stone to grow from the immaturity of his childhood.
And that man is none other than the Heavenly Killing Star’s childhood friend’s older brother.
Wow. It’s awesome. Even thinking about it makes it a great setup.
With a guy like this, even if she has some doubts, she wouldn’t dare strike recklessly, right?
“…”
The Heavenly Killing Star didn’t say anything from behind. It wasn’t her setup nor mine, so how could she challenge it?
With this much, I thought I could sleep without worrying about my bed being stained for tonight, no, for a while.
Having finished organizing my clothes, I sat back on the bed. If there’s no reaction, I should just sleep early. I carefully looked at the Heavenly Killing Star.
The Heavenly Killing Star was watching me intently. Was there something she wanted to say? It felt like her lips were moving oddly.
“Do you have something to say, Souhee?”
If not, let’s just sleep.
“…… The story you told before.”
The words that came out of the Heavenly Killing Star surprised me.
“Hmm?”
“Please tell that story again.”
—
Now she wants me to tell a fairy tale.
Is it going to be like The Thousand and One Nights? If I’m not curious about the next chapter, will I die right here?
Since I mentioned I used to tell the Heavenly Killing Star stories, I guess she’s asking for it to recall some memories.
Telling her a fairy tale shouldn’t be too much of a problem.
Most people don’t remember when, where, and with whom they heard fairy tales, even if they know those stories as adults.
Let alone the Heavenly Killing Star, who has lost her past, wouldn’t suddenly recall her memories just from hearing a bit of a fairy tale. It would actually be better to tell her a story that she may not have heard but finds familiar.
What story should I tell?
I can think of a lot right now. However, most of them have a single protagonist. Is there a story that could establish a bond of empathy?
A sibling story.
An old folk tale.
There’s one that pops into my mind.
“I’ll tell you the story of the Sun and the Moon.”
I got up from the bed, grabbed a folding fan, and said.
“The Sun and the Moon?”
“Have you heard of it?”
“No.”
Fortunately, it seems she has no memory of fairy tales. Well, I certainly remember the story of the Joseon-era classic.
It’s a classic myth about the Sun and Moon. Plus, it’s a sibling story, so it’s perfect for this.
Alright. I need to make this grand before I start.
Snap! I elegantly displayed the folding fan in front of the Heavenly Killing Star and bowed.
“Greetings. I am Kang Yoon-ho, the storyteller from Joseon. Today, I shall become a storyteller especially for my long-lost younger sister. Please grant me your permission.”
Like a noble asking for permission to be a knight for a lady. It might seem ridiculous when done clumsily, but with my laborer’s physique, it actually looked rather impressive.
“Sure.”
The Heavenly Killing Star gave her approval, maintaining her typical expressionless face.
In this fantasy or martial arts setting, that’s when they’d go, “Wow, big brother! You’re so cool!” This is the minimum gesture to be made, right? Was that a bit too awkward?
“Today, the rice cakes didn’t sell well. I’ll just give them to the neighborhood orphans on the way home. Oh, no! Is that a… tiger?!”
The beginning of the Sun and Moon story is about a rice cake seller whose mother gets eaten by a tiger after losing her goods. However, starting that way might be too shocking for the Heavenly Killing Star, who lost her family.
It’s common to change the setup in folk tales. I decided to revise that the rice cake seller was a neighbor Uncle for the Heavenly Killing Star’s version.
“Roar! If you give me a rice cake~ I won’t eat you.”
I twisted my body and covered my face with the fan, adopting a sharp glare and a foolish tiger voice.
“Re-Really, if I give you a rice cake, you won’t eat me?”
“Is this your first time seeing a tiger? If you give me a rice cake, of course, I won’t eat you.”
“Here! It’s right here!”
I pretended to hand the rice cake to the imaginary tiger.
“Phew, I can’t believe a real tiger just passed by. Now let’s keep moving. There are five more hills left until home.”
The rice cake seller gasped, his voice filled with tension, as he hunched down and looked around cautiously.
“Wait a minute.”
Suddenly, the Heavenly Killing Star called out to me.
“Hmm?”
I was deeply immersed in my performance, why interrupt?
“Did you act like this when you were a child too?”
“No. Back then, I had you sitting on my lap.”
What kind of performance did a kid do back then? It’s much better to think of the setup of sitting little Cheon So-hee on my lap while I told stories.
“Then do it like that.”
The Heavenly Killing Star stood up.
What?
How do you want me to do that?
You want me to sit you on my lap and tell you a story?
This girl has really lost her mind. Back then, we were only kids, but now it’s different.
If I sit you, wearing that ninja outfit, on my lap, what would happen? Would I be able to focus on the story, or would I be distracted by gravity’s pull on… you know?
“Unpleasant.”
If my blood circulation gets too lively, that would be a problem. If the Heavenly Killing Star, annoyed, left me just like that, I’d be in trouble.
“Souhee is all grown up now, so isn’t it a bit inappropriate to sit on your brother’s lap? Let’s just sit beside each other.”
I needed to nip this in the bud. I quickly moved next to the Heavenly Killing Star and sat down. I even raised both my knees, placing my hands on top to make sure she wouldn’t sit there.
The Heavenly Killing Star glanced at me with disapproval, obviously unhappy her suggestion was brushed aside. However, she sat back down.
Good. I intentionally fixed my gaze ahead to avoid sneaking glances and began to speak.
“I’ll tell it in the way I used to, back then.”
With a soothing but engaging voice, like a late-night radio DJ, I began my tale.
On a starry night, I started weaving a story for just one listener.
—
“And so, the siblings became the Sun and the Moon.”
After quietly finishing the midnight story, I glanced over.
She’s asleep.
The Heavenly Killing Star had her eyes closed. Her breathing was steady, and it seemed she truly had fallen asleep. I guess my sweet, honey-coated voice served the role of a strong sedative.
She looked like an absolute beauty while sleeping. Who would have thought in a few years she’d turn into a crazy person?
Right now, the biggest worry is her impending madness.
This girl will become a psychopathic murderer in the future. I can’t tell if her madness will build up gradually or hit suddenly.
‘There’s a limit to reasoning.’
Even if I manage to rationalize things and make the Heavenly Killing Star understand, one day she might snap and stab me, and I’d be done for.
A bomb ready to explode if touched. A bomb that would go off even if you just wait there.
That’s the Heavenly Killing Star.
‘I should give her a blanket.’
I quietly tiptoed to the bed and fetched a blanket. If I’m trying to cover her, will I wake her? Since she didn’t refuse my kindness yesterday, even if I do, she’ll probably accept it.
I carefully covered the Heavenly Killing Star with the blanket.
She didn’t wake up. She must have been tired.
‘Time for me to sleep too.’
I was confident I had shown moves worthy of a US military bomb disposal team. If the Heavenly Killing Star had engraved my setup in her mind tonight, I shouldn’t have to worry about her exploding for a while.
I could only hope that until she eventually reaches a point of understanding and leaves me, her madness wouldn’t flare up.
I quietly lay down on the bed and sought out sleep.
In the quiet night of Chilgok County, not even a bug made a sound.
The night sky twinkled with countless stars illuminating the land below.
Among those stars shining down was the ominous star, the Heavenly Killing Star.
Though shining in the night sky, what set her apart from the other stars was that this star only shone for one person.
The Heavenly Killing Star opened her eyes.
Her red eyes, filled with the light of the ominous star, sparkled alone in the dark room.
Kang Yoon-ho was asleep, completely unaware that the Heavenly Killing Star had awakened.
No, from the beginning, the Heavenly Killing Star hadn’t slept for two days. She had only pretended to be asleep while observing Kang Yoon-ho’s every move.
Quietly, the Heavenly Killing Star stood up and hovered in front of the sleeping Kang Yoon-ho.
“You’re a con artist.”
It was the day that held the most worries for her in the past decade.
With determination, the Heavenly Killing Star pulled out the Hidden Knife.
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