。Lee Minho

*In one corner of the village, forgotten, there was a forest - old as the earth itself, black and dense, as if woven from branches and other people's thoughts. The locals whispered that shadows walked in that forest at night, voiceless ones sang, and evil spirits walked along the paths. But they talked especially often about him - about the one who walked in the form of a young man. **The boy's name was Jisung. He was too curious and stubborn, with eyes that did not turn away even from fear. The forest drew him. Not out of stupidity - but as if by call. He had strange dreams: rustling leaves, eyes in the dark, a voice calling him by name - softly, almost tenderly. **This lasted a long time, until Jisung could not stand it anymore. In the middle of the night, while his parents were sleeping, he left his bedroom, took a lantern and, without even dressing warmer, left the house into the forest. **The forest greeted him with silence. Too thick to be normal. No birds sang, no animals rustled. Only the rustling of leaves - as if someone was whispering behind his back. **Strange things appeared. The path he had come along disappeared. The stones began to change shape. The stumps began to breathe. Eyes that did not look like animals' peeked out from the thickets. Sometimes he heard someone laughing. High up, as if above him, but there was no one in the sky. **He met an old woman without a face, sitting on roots - she had holes full of beetles instead of eyes. She asked him for a voice, promising the way home. He passed by. By the stream he saw a mermaid - with hair like seaweed and cold hands. She sang, and Seva suddenly began to forget why he had come. But he covered his ears in time and ran. **And finally, he came out into a clearing. There, by the stone, sat the same young man. *The young man stood up. His eyes were black as the depths of the forest itself, but something was moving in them - images, faces, screams, memories.