Reborn as a Prophet in a Horror Movie

#044Reader Mode

#044

Some people just come into the world a certain way. They might be born as natural right-handers, stand head and shoulders above the rest like living giants or have wild, curly hair and captivating green eyes. Some are extraordinarily perceptive — as if they possess their own kind of magic.

Johan always felt like an average guy – he had his likes and dislikes, felt the butterflies of a first crush, and enjoyed his weekend hobbies. That’s probably why he dove right into telling his story, his deep blue eyes swirling with emotions.

“The day you first showed up in Wraithwood Warren, I had a major crush on you, Jun, from the very moment we met.”

“What? Don’t lie. I remember that day too. It was the worst. The most despairing day of my life, well except for maybe today. We threw this party at our place to celebrate moving in, and you came in with your parents. It was sunny, the kind of day that bleaches the pattern right off a tablecloth. There were these cupcakes with amazing icing on top. And me? I was holed up in my room, curled around my teddy bear, feeling like a big, chubby roly-poly bug. That’s when our eyes met, right when you were tying your bowtie, wasn’t it?”

Seojun squinted, rummaging through his memory, that day coming back to him clearer than any prophecy.

He remembered Johan’s crown of soft hair and his adorable little navy tie. The rest came flooding back: Seojun, eyes red and puffy from tears, sniffling and peeking out from behind the window. His gaze meeting a yawning Johan was just a coincidence. A six-year-old and an eight-year-old, their eyes meeting fleetingly, just for a moment.

“Back then, you looked at me like I was some annoying kid before losing interest entirely.”

Johan, in those days, wasn’t exactly the kind to steal the spotlight. His attention quickly shifted to the cupcakes nearby. Sneaking over, he sniffed at them. But instead of grabbing one of those sugar and carb bombs, young Johan just shook his head and walked off. The pale-cheeked kid with a dusting of boredom, not sugar, wasn’t one for sweets.

Seojun glanced at Johan. The young man, no longer just a boy, flashed an awkward smile.

“Ah… Jun, you’ve got an extraordinary memory….”

He tapped his chest pocket in a meaningless gesture. Trust and belief in this love story had already been shattered from the get-go. Too bad for Johan, Seojun’s memory of his first day in Wraithwood Warren was just as clear.

In other words, Johan, just like anyone else, knew how to twist the truth a bit. Caught in his little white lie, he quickly changed his approach.

“I’m really happy you remember our tiny first meeting. It seriously means a lot to me, Jun.”

“Tiny might not be the right word for a situation like this, right?”

Seojun gave Johan a skeptical look. The fading sexual tension was a relief, but Johan’s point still felt off. But to Johan, Seojun not understanding that moment wasn’t a big deal. Given the chance, Johan could talk with him endlessly if Seojun let him.

“No, Jun, everything about us matters. But right now, it’s important to see the bigger picture.”

“The bigger picture…?”

Why did they need a new angle to see they’d only briefly met as kids? Seojun was baffled. Johan stepped closer, a faint smile on his face.

“Our true first meeting was beneath the stars. Remember the meteor shower? Everyone was out, watching them streak across the sky. I was there, holding my parents’ hands, gazing upwards. But as a kid, I couldn’t stay still for long. I soon got bored and wandered off, and that’s when I ran into you, Jun.”

Johan’s long strides carried him closer to Seojun, and with each step, the faint smell of the day’s bloody adventures clung to him like a shadow, subtle but present. Seojun’s nostrils flared, caught off guard by the scent.

Johan’s voice was low, almost a whisper. “There you were, crying and yelling at the sky.”

In a neglected corner of the garden, distanced from the crowd absorbed in the enchanting moment, young Seojun stood alone. Veins bulged in his neck, emotions he couldn’t control surging through his adolescent body: anger, sorrow, and fear, all twisting together into a tangled knot.

“That was the moment, Jun.” Johan’s words carried a sense of urgency, his voice thickened with emotion as he licked his lips. “I was completely captivated by you.”

Seojun shot Johan a strange look, quickly averting his eyes from the other’s intense gaze. He could almost feel the man’s stare, like a physical weight on his skin. Seojun didn’t see what the big deal was. He had cried during the day and night, the only difference being the position of the sun that changed. But for Johan, it mattered, and the intensity in his eyes was unnerving.

Feeling the press of Johan’s presence, Seojun instinctively stepped back, slowly realizing what was happening. He was being confessed to. But he wasn’t ready to accept Johan Gentil’s version of love—whatever that even meant.

Johan’s idea of love seemed to lack… well, everything – context, a solid foundation, believability. Before Seojun could even think of rejecting him, he needed to understand it.

“Why?” he asked, his voice a soft murmur. His eyes drifted to Johan’s reddening ears, avoiding the other man’s intense, passionate gaze.

“Johan, shouldn’t you be telling all this to Christina?”

“What? Me, to Christina?”

Johan’s eyes widened with surprise, as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him before. He looked down at the ground, gathering his thoughts, before raising his head once more.

“Why?”

It was a simple question, but it left Seojun speechless. He swallowed hard, struggling to force out the words.

“Because Christina’s the protagonist….” It sounded kind of lame, given everything that was happening at the moment.

“Well, yeah. Christina’s the protagonist of her life. I’m the protagonist in mine, and Jun… you’re the protagonist in yours. No wait.” He corrected himself, cheeks flushing. “You’re the protagonist in my life too, Jun.”

He even suggested that Seojun could be a co-protagonist with him. Seojun’s mind raced, grappling with the implications of Johan’s confession. “But we’re both men,” he blurted out, confused.

“Jun,” Johan replied with a dismissive hand wave, “we’re living in the 21st century, not the dark ages. That’s not an issue anymore.”

Still, Seojun’s mind reeled, grasping for a counterargument. “Okay, even if I go along with your ‘love at first sight’ thing, that night when we were kids… it still sounds strange. You started liking me because I was crying? What, are you some kind of pervert?”

“Well, that was just the beginning, Jun. My love story for you… it’s a long one, you see.” Johan said, lifting a finger as if to underscore his point, oblivious to the blood and suspicious liquid staining his hands. Too bad his nails were still missing, otherwise it would have looked more impressive.

“Every epic love story starts somewhere,” he continued, undeterred. “The second time I fell for you was when I was fourteen.”

“Fourteen?”

Seojun was only twelve then. He couldn’t think of anything memorable. He glanced at Johan, who was clearly eager to share his story, and didn’t hesitate to start.

“Gentil, don’t climb that tree, that’s what you told me. I was set on climbing this massive oak, and there you were, appearing out of the blue. Oh, and you were wearing these big, thick glasses and a baggy sweater.”

“A tree? Oh, right.”

A vague memory resurfaced for Seojun: a swaying tree branch, the blur of a boy tumbling down. One phrase distinctly stuck out in his mind.

“Call me Johan. We’ve known each other for over a year, right?”

From that point on, Seojun started calling him ‘Johan Gentil’ instead of just Johan.

Johan nodded, “I stupidly climbed that tree and ended up falling. That was the day one of your predictions actually came true.”

“Wait, I predicted that?”

“Yeah. And you also said I’d end up stuck on the windshield of a truck you were driving.”

“……..”

Seojun blinked, at a loss for words. It sounded like something he might’ve said after binging on those flicks, but he couldn’t help but feel a chill down his spine. When would he ever be driving a truck with Johan stuck to the windshield? He rubbed his face, trying to shake off the feeling. “So, that’s it?”

“No, there’s more,” Johan insisted, “Remember the Snow White play we did the following year?”

“Oh, that.”

Now Seojun remembered it clearly. It had been a schoolwide production, spanning all grades. Christina was the queen, and to his surprise, he had ended up as Snow White. Not that it was important, but Bobby was a dwarf.

Seojun had his sights set on playing Tree 1, but a surprisingly democratic school vote had other plans. When Christina chose the queen role, a swarm of hopefuls vied for Snow White. The only guy in the running, thanks to Bobby’s nomination, was Seojun.

So, Seojun, winning with just three votes – thanks to Bobby’s relentless campaigning – ended up as Snow White. It was beyond weird.

“In that play,” Johan reminisced, “I remember picking you up and twirling you around.”

Johan, who was fifteen and already towering over most, thought of it as a happy memory. But for Seojun, it was anything but. Apart from his cringe-worthy acting, the entire play was a disaster – there was an accidental poisoning and the whole Florence-Gilbert-Jenia love triangle… that was a mess.

That day, Seojun, dozing off in Snow White’s glass coffin between scenes, mixed up a dream with reality and accidentally publicly exposed Gilbert’s two-timing ways with Florence and Jenia, sending the crowd into a frenzy of gasps and applause. The fallout had been even more dramatic: the next day, a bump on Gilbert’s head, courtesy of an unknown assailant…

Johan’s attempts to recount their history as romantic only served to deepen Seojun’s skepticism. “Yeah, I’ve said some strange things,” he mumbled, shoulders slumping, “But that doesn’t automatically create a ‘special bond’ between us. We’ve known each other a long time, true, but when did you start actually loving me?”

“Fifteen years isn’t a short amount of time, but…” Johan began, exhaling deeply. He looked down at Seojun, who was shyly biting his lower lip, looking completely lost. “Thinking that I know someone just because we’ve been around each other a while—that’s… arrogant, I get it.” He wiped his palms on his pants, trying to hide his nerves. “But, Jun, it was long enough to fall for you.”

Johan’s love for Seojun took time to develop. Their meeting beneath the stars was more significant than just an opening chapter. But like the first drop before a storm, it signaled the start of their love story and on that day, a seed took root deeply in Johan’s heart.