Forgotten [2/?]

[honou_no_izumi]

Title: Forgotten

Series: 블랙/Black

Characters: Kim Joon/Reaper #444, Je Soo-dong, Kang Ha-ram, Leo/Kim Woo-sik, Jang Hyunsoo/Reaper #416, Reaper #007

Summary: In the end, everything turned out well. Yet, Leo couldn't help feeling that there was something amiss.

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When he arrived at the hospital room Kang Ha-ram was already receiving some visitors. There's her mother... and then there's Oh Mansoo. He carefully let himself inside while trying to not act too out of character towards them. He smiled awkwardly at Ha-ram.

"Err... hello. It's been a while, Miss Ha-ram," he turned towards Mansoo. "She all right, is it? I've been so busy with filming so I didn't manage to come visit and I heard the news..."

Mansoo shrugged. "Well, you can see her now... right?"

Leo sighed. "That's good to hear. I thought she would still be distraught after what happened to Detective Han."

He turned to smile at Kang Ha-ram as the young woman stared at him blankly.


"Detective... Han?" Ha-ram spoke softly.

Leo frowned. "Miss Ha-ram, w-what're you talking a—what?"

Without warning, Oh Mansoo dragged him out of the room before he could say anything more.

xxx 

Oh Mansoo was glaring at him angrily the moment they were out of the room. "You idiot! You should watch your mouth before you say anything stupid!"

He blinked. Puzzled. "What did you mean? Am I not supposed to say anything about Detective Han in front of Miss Ha-ram?"

Mansoo made a face at him. "Yes! Because Ha-ram no longer remembers anything about him. So you shouldn't do anything to make her remember that person. It's better for her, she seemed better now anyway."

Je Soo-dong gave him a surprised look. "Wait. What did you mean that Miss Ha-ram don't remember who Detective Han is? What happened?"

Mansoo glared at him as if he was asking about something ridiculous. "She lost all of her memories prior to her jumping off the cliff. And right now I'm trying to help her out with her current situation." Mansoo hissed to himself. "Why on earth that Detective Han had to do something so stupid? After all his hard work to solve the Moojin Time Mart case and scandal, to end his life like that over some random unknown kid... I just don't get him."

His 'friend' shook his head in frustration before heading back into the room. Je Soo-dong stopped him.

"Wait, what did you mean about a 'random kid'?"

Mansoo made a face at him. "You said you've listened to those news reports, right? I'm talking about some random kid that was mentioned in Detective Han's mother's suicide note. Ish, I don't get that guy..."

Je Soo-dong remained frozen as Mansoo got back into Ha-ram's hospital room. He still couldn't process what he just heard. 

A random kid? Yet another instance where any trace of Kim Joon disappeared from someone's memory just to be replaced by a vague description of a 'boy' that everyone seemed to not be able to remember. What does this mean? Why did everyone forget about Kim Joon yet he still remembered him?

"Whoa, this is strange... and mysterious! I get the whole memories being erased thing... but Ha-ram even lost the ability to see us! How did that happen?"

Je Soo Dong turned his head towards the voices as he saw two grim reapers walking past Ha-ram's room. He could recognise the grim reaper who was clad in a black Joseon-period attire as Grim Reaper 007, but he didn't recognize the other. Although the style of the other grim reaper did look familiar to him. Je Soo-dong kept staring at them as the younger grim reaper kept peeking in and out of Kang Ha-ram's room. He watched as 007 kept hitting the other with his fan.

"Well, if she could still see us... wouldn't that mean that she could still remember 444's existence then? Even if Ha-ram wasn't aware that Kim Joon was 444, if she still had that eye ability of hers, she could still cause more disruption in the future. So, of course, the High Council wouldn't let this matter pass. Other than the punishment sentenced on 444, memories of everyone who knows about Ha-ram's abilities were also erased. So now, even the mother didn't remember anything about the previous 444. So she wouldn't remember that her daughter had the ability to see the shadows of death."

xxx

Reaper 007 slapped Jang Hyunsoo with his fan again. "Forget about that... but aren't you finally going to heaven now? Everything has settled on this plane now, you should already leave this world!"

Hyunsoo shook his head. "I already said that I'm going to do so when 444 could return to heaven as well! But now that things turned out like this... unh, wait. 444's still around in the Underworld, isn't it? Does that mean that he could still resume his grim reaper's duty then? Would his soul still be able to leave for heaven once his punishment ended? Would his punishment ever end? Also... isn't 444 the grim reaper assigned to pick up Ha-ram's soul when she died? What'll happen to her when she died for real? Would 444 be able to complete his duty or would other reapers be sent instead?"

007 hit Hyunsoo's head again angrily. "Aah! You got too many questions! Can't you already leave my side now? My duty was not to babysit you and your duty as a grim reaper has already ended when your body was found. So why are you not leaving?"

"I told you already that I–" Hyunsoo paused as his attention turned towards Leo. "007... is it just me, or did that human just stared at us all these times?"

007 turned to look towards Leo as well. "Well, I'd be... let's go!"

The two grim reapers hastily left the corridors as Leo gave chase.

xxx

The moment he got to the emergency stairs, Je Soo-dong hurriedly close the doors behind him.

"Wait!" he hollered towards the fleeing grim reapers, "I wanted to know too! What happened to 444? Why is everyone forgetting about him? Forgetting the fact that he still existed?"

The two grim reapers froze just as they're about to teleport away through the door on the floor below. 007 and the other 'younger' reaper turned around to face him. And for some reason, Je Soo-dong suddenly recalled that 007 had been paired to 416 the last time he saw them. Would that young one be 416?

"Y–you can see us? W-wait... how did you even know 444?" 416 started to say.

007 also was about to say something but then he stopped himself, as if just remembering a memory. "You... by any chance, are you 444's partner that ran away before?"

416 turned his attention towards his older reaper partner. "444's partner?  You mean that 'loser' that Black's had constantly been chasing after?" The young reaper turned his attention back towards Je Soo-dong. "Oh My Gosh! The loser's here! In plain sight! BAM!" he exclaimed before making a pose.

Yeah, that's definitely 416...

Alarms shot inside his head as Je Soo-dong hastily cried out. "Don't call the Death Squad on me yet! 444 made me promise that I'll look after Ha-ram before letting me go. I can't do that if you take me back!" He paused, when he realized that neither 007 and 416 were going to do anything to him. He looked up.

"Unh... back to what you two were talking about, what happened to 444?"

416 glanced towards 007 as the Joseon-clad reaper let out a cough. "The High Council sentenced him to the maximum sentence for breaking heaven's rule. Instead of dissipation, his existence would be erased from the memories of the world. No one in this world besides us grim reapers would have any memories of him ever existing."

Je Soo-dong blinked. "Erased? B-but... he still existed, right? I mean, that body that was found in the sea... that's him, right? I mean, if he's gone... if Kim Joon never existed, 444 wouldn't even... heck I shouldn't even be able to stay inside Leo's body right now—!"

007 simply nodded silently. He gave 416 an irritated glance, as the shorter reaper kept tugging on his sleeves.

"After a while, he'll most likely be allowed to resume his grim reaper's duties. But he'll be in an even stricter monitoring now that the Council knows what he's capable of if left unchecked." 007 turned to face both 416 and Je Soo-dong. "And as for whether or not 444 would be allowed to collect Kang Ha-ram's soul later when she died or if he could go to heaven, that's up to God's will to forgive his sins. And I should ask both of you to leave the matter as is. It's not for us to decide or question."

Je Soo-dong sighed. "I guess you're right," he started to say before a door slammed open behind him. He turned around in surprise as Oh Mansoo appeared in front of him.

"Hey, Leo! What're you doing here? Ha-ram even started wondering where you've gone!"

xxx

Hyunsoo started laughing before a thought crossed his mind. 

"Hey... come to think. If the loser is still inside that body, what happened to Leo's real soul?" he said aloud. 007 gasped as both of them turned their glance towards Je Soo-dong, just as Mansoo dragged him away.