Chapter 200 - Small House-I

The rustling sounds the wind grew louder as wind blown most of dusts and Seoyeon stood up after a while. She dusted her hand which was holding dust after she had wiped the headstones. Pushing herself by her knees, she then looked at Jung Hwa to see how her eyes met as he had been staring at her whilst staying in the silence.

"Thank you for bringing me here," Seoyeon told him with a smile on her lips. She knew how considerate he was being despite himself never caring others. She could tell that she was an exception to him. "I have never seen my parents before not even in pictures. Maybe they look like me or maybe they don't."

"I don't look like my parents either," said Jung Hwa as he settled closer beside her. "There are still many things you don't know yet about your parents. Like if they are a witch, or were they aware of being a witch. Do you know in details how they died?"

Seoyeon shook her head, "I only heard it was a fire accident. They protected me so I would be able to escape the burnt hotel safely."

"So it happened in a hotel?" questioned Jung Hwa to see how Seoyeon nodded at him, confirming his questions. She can't remember anything and questioning the caretakers lead her no where as they would get angry if she ask them the same questions frequently. "But we have your relative's address. Should we go and visit them?"

"I don't think it would be good to come late at night. I have never seen them before, if we are going to meet it would be better at afternoon but what are we doing here?" Seoyeon find it hard to believe that they came only to visit the graves. 

"This," Jung Hwa pulled his hand from his trouser pocket to lightly point the graves, "I thought to dig your parent's coffin for a little while. Maybe we could find something if we dug on the coffin. A certain someone told me to search for your origin and as your parents is dead, I don't think we can talk to them. Although we could meet them..."

Seoyeon has a mixed feeling about opening the coffin again. In the first place was it alright to do that? Isn't that illegal? "Wouldn't we disturb their rest?" because she heard opening graves were forbidden for such reason.

"Their souls have passed away and I'm sure if it is for you, they wouldn't mind being dug out. But if you do not want it then we should not. I am curious but this is your respected parents that your hold dear, digging open their graves isn't something that could be done lightly. We can search another way," Jung Hwa proposed her another idea. He didn't like to push Seoyeon to do what she didn't like. It wasn't to his liking, he would rather put an ear to Seoyeon's words than nothing.

"No," Seoyeon said after some serious thought. If there is another way, Seoyeon would have chosen that but now they were too deep in the dark, knowing little to nothing about what she is or the power growing inside her that could be dangerous. "Let's do this but we don't have shovel," she said to see Jung Hwa left for a moment to come back with a pair of shovel. "You came prepared," she commented.

"I predicted it, though if you choose to say no which I respect," Jung Hwa passed her one shovel, "I would be giving this as a present to the graveyard caretaker."

"Right about the caretaker, would it be fine if we do this without his notice?" It may be her parents' grave but this broke rules.

"As long as we continue this without being noticed. The caretaker live right across there," Jung Hwa pointed the gate of the cemetery and she saw there was a small hut on the right corner of the tree. As there were no lights coming from the house and the sky was without scare moonlight, Seoyeon didn't know that there was a house even when she had passed by the place. 

"He seems asleep," which was a good thing or else they would be easily caught red handed here. "And you prepared two shovels."

"The fasted the better, right?" Jung Hwa said to her before they begin to dig the graveyard. Unlike how effortlessly Jung Hwa dug the soil, using the shovel was a lot of work to Seoyeon. Not only was the shovel heavy but it became tougher as they scoop the dirt.

As they divide the grave to each taking care of one grave. It took more than an hour until Seoyeon managed to dig half way to the coffin box which was buried inside while Jung Hwa had finished digging one and half grave.

Jung Hwa walked over the grave that Seoyeon dig with her standing near the coffin. which was still buried inside the hole they made. "Take my hand," offered Jung Hwa and Seoyeon took his hand to be pulled up to the surface.

"How will we take the coffins out?" It look heavy and doesn't seem like a job for two people possibly four. Even if the body inside has turn to skeleton, each coffin weigh more than ten kilos and she wasn't sure if it was the right job for them.

"I will take care of it, would you move there and wait, darling?" Jung Hwa said and she followed him obediently, knowing that there would be no use for her to be around.

It was after a few minutes Jung Hwa pulled the coffin alone, a work for four men was done alone and Seoyeon can't help but the be amazed by his power. When they have pulled out the coffin, Jung Hwa called her and she stood beside him.

The coffin appeared to be simple to Seoyeon's eyes. It was long like the height of a bed but narrow that almost make her claustrophobic. The color looked darker to black and she didn't know if it was because of the scare light or the soil that stayed for years. Seeing the date of their death, they have been there for almost nineteen years, the same years Seoyeon had never seen her birth parents before and now she would be meeting them.

Somewhere seeing the coffin buried under reminded her of the nightmare she had where people chasing and searching for a coffin. She wondered who was inside and whether if it was the catalyst of five hundred years ago as the timeline fit in. But why do they search if the coffin if the catalyst had died? 

"I am going to open the coffin now, are you ready?" Jung Hwa questioned her and he took her hand giving her a warm squeeze which effected her more than she thought it would be. "We can still stop here if you want. Not everyone would want to meet their parents in the coffin as their first meeting."

Seoyeon found his consideration was a warming one. Jung Hwa was always the way he was now. At one point he would corner her, not letting her go until he get what he wants but he was never rough to her and he let her hold her own opinion. 

She shook her head, "I am okay, I can get through this."

Taking her words, Jung Hwa started by pulling the lid to the side, removing the surface to see who was inside. They started by removing her father's coffin and when the coffin was pulled, Seoyeon's eyes quickly sought to the bottom of the coffin when she noticed something wrong.

Jung Hwa lifted the lid asides turning his head to see Seoyeon's expression and her face which looked stupefied before he shifted his gaze to see the empty coffin. 

What happened?

"Did we get the wrong coffin?" was Seoyeon's first question out of confusion. Why was her father's coffin empty. Was nineteen years enough for the skeleton to turn to dusts? But that was not possible.

Jung Hwa who found the coffin empty narrowed his eyes. He didn't put much concern on how light the coffin was because the body must have rot inside, turning to skeleton. He didn't expect the coffin to be empty.

"No, this is the right coffin. In the afternoon I asked the caretaker," answered Jung Hwa. "It seemed like someone buried an empty coffin for some reason."

"Empty coffin?" At first Seoyeon thought someone had stolen her parent's body which doesn't make sense but more believable to Seoyeon than burying an empty coffin. "Do you mean there was no one in the coffin by the time it was buried in the past?"

"When a body rot inside a coffin there would be traces and smell attached to the base of the coffin, even if two decades has passed. But there is nothing I could find.. There is no smell and rather feel like it's in a state that haven't been used before," explained Jung Hwa who then turn his eyes to the other coffin, "We should visit your mother now and see if her body is there."