The rain just wouldn't let up. It kept pounding the city for three straight days. It wore everything down. The world felt washed out, drab, quieter than usual, as if the sky itself had a grudge against the ground and wanted to crush every color flat.
Han Taehyun stood alone under a sad little streetlight that flickered and buzzed, but didn't do much to push back the gloom. He didn't bother moving. Rain soaked him right through until his clothes clung to his skin. Drops ran down his face. he couldn't tell if it was sweat, tears, or just the rain making everything run together.
He stood in front of a grave that barely counted as a grave, just a mound of dirt. No headstone. No name. Not even a scrap of memory to hold onto except that raw patch of earth.
"That's all they gave you," he muttered. The words hung in the air. He sounded collected, but that didn't mean he felt it. "They said there was no body."
Empty words. He could barely swallow them. They didn't make sense. They sounded rehearsed, the kind of thing someone says when the truth's too ugly to share.
He kept his eyes on that piece of ground way longer than made sense. Then, quietly, he kept going. "They said it was an accident." His hands balled up. The rain tapped on the earth, hiding the sound of his anger.
.He refused to believe it then, and he refused to believe it now.
He waited. God, he waited. He'd always waited for his father to come back from god-knows-where, banged up but smiling, tossing off the same line every time: "You worry too much." Taehyun used to hate that smile. Now he'd do anything to see it again.
But this time, the man didn't come back. Not after days, or weeks, or months. He just didn't.
Somebody finally showed up, long after hope had packed its bags and left: a faceless man in dark clothes, voice like grit on stone. "Han Jisoo is dead," he'd said. No expression. No comfort. No story.
Taehyun had stood his ground. "…How?" he asked, needing something they'd never give him.
"There was an incident. That's all you need to know."
Nonsense, really. "Where's his body?" Taehyun pressed.
"There wasn't one." Eyes sliding away, voice colder still. That's the moment a spark caught fire inside Taehyun. Nobody could lie that well unless the truth was worse.
The rain finally faded, leaving behind nothing but shivering silence. Taehyun stepped forward, knees sinking a little into mud, reached out and put his hand gently over the grave.
"I found his name," he whispered to the dirt. "Seo Kael." The name was sharp, dangerous. He said it slow, like it could cut his tongue.
As soon as he'd heard that name, everything clicked. He started to see the fear on faces, the silence when he entered a room, the tension that didn't need words. Nobody wanted to talk about Seo Kael. That itself was an answer.
"You didn't lose," he said even softer. "You were betrayed."
He pressed his palm a little deeper, feeling the cold through his skin. "I'll find out everything. And I'll finish it."
By the time Taehyun left, night had wrapped itself around the city. Streetlights scattered broken reflections in puddles. Most people would see just another rainy night but for Taehyun, things finally had shape. He'd spent almost his whole life digging for scraps of truth. Now he had a name. He had a goal. He walked, footsteps echoing hollow in the empty streets, until he found himself in front of a run-down building nobody cared about. Cracked windows. Faded walls. Someone else would see a shelter for ghosts. He knew better.
Inside: hush. He walked in, and all the conversations died at once. That always happened in places like this, shadows tightened their grip and every eye watched for trouble. A man stepped out of the darkness, tall, scarred, hard-looking.
"You're not supposed to be here," the man said.
Taehyun didn't flinch. "I need information."
"That's not what we do here."
"Really?" Taehyun stepped forward, a challenge. The room froze that much more.
"We don't deal with outsiders."
"Then stop treating me like one."
The tension was thick enough to taste. The man finally caved enough to nod. "Say your piece. Then go."
Taehyun took a breath. "Seo Kael."
The whole damned place reacted. Someone cursed. People shifted. The scarred man's eyes narrowed.
"You shouldn't say that name."
"I know," Taehyun replied, and his voice was so calm he sounded like someone else.
"So why are you here?"
"Because I'm going to kill him."
Laughter broke like glass. "This kid is insane!" someone barked. Voices piled on. Taehyun just waited for the noise to die. If anything, the leader's eyes looked colder.
"Why?" the man pressed, no mocking in his voice this time.
"Because he killed my father."
That silenced everything.
"What's his name?" he asked, his voice soft and searching.
Taehyun's reply was steady. "…Han Jisoo."
Now the scarred man looked at Taehyun with something like respect. Or fear.
"You're his son?"
"Yes."
The man's breath hissed quietly. "Then you should leave."
Taehyun scowled. "Why?"
"Because if you keep pushing," the man said, dropping his voice so only Taehyun would hear, "you'll end up worse than dead."
Taehyun stepped closer, refusing to blink. "How?"
A pause. The man's gaze slipped sideways. "There was a sword."
This shifted things. "A sword?" Taehyun repeated.
"The only thing that could kill Seo Kael."
That stopped everyone. History hung in the air.
"My father had it."
"Yes."
"Where is it?"
The man hesitated. Any hope flickered away.
"No one knows."
That truth settled on them all, grim and heavy. Taehyun didn't move. He let it soak in,a sword that could end the life of an immortal, and now it was lost. Someone, somewhere, was afraid. Maybe even Kael.
He finally spoke, voice burning low and dangerous. "Then I'll find it."
Nobody laughed now. He could feel their uncertainty, maybe even a little awe. The room was different; something had shifted inside him. This was no longer a child chasing revenge. It was something sharp, unbreakable.
Now they believed. Even if they didn't want to.
That was how the night ended and how the hunt really began.