sahsol au wherein baek saheon's sister went to work for daydream; conversely, he stays back at jisan village. and kim soleum is an otherworldly variable he never accounted for. literally.
baek saheon's wretched rural life is filled with the anxiety of imminent death and the threat of losing his sanity like those occultist villagers; ease only exists within the texts his sister frequently sends. even if the content revolves around bloody anecdotes of her bizzare occupation.
every year the jisan festival comes up, he pulls various tricks to ensure he will never be the one chosen. he is sure his life would stay that way: constant dull farming, with the occasional twinge of thrill from exploiting strangers' ignorance to guarantee his own survival. he swears to hang on like that, quiet as a mouse, until he can crawl away to seoul at least.
then, enters kim soleum. a man who knows nothing of himself and this world, accompanied by a hazy look and a melancholy unique to a lost soul, begging to go back to someplace he can't even name. they share a strange sense of camaraderie, being the sole individuals yet to fall for the craze for an arcane deity.
citing the absence of his family members as the reason, the duty of looking after this unknown man falls on baek saheon's shoulders. by none of his will, of course. thus, they cohabit baek saheon's family home.
but the arrangement works out just fine. for an amnesiac guy dropped into a place faraway from his home, kim soleum is a surprisingly functional housemate. he keeps his distance and is polite enough to be conscious of his freeloader status. he voluntarily runs errands at home while saheon is out in the field plowing away his daytime.
soleum appears out of reach, a bit unfathomable to saheon. according to the raucous ravings of their elderly neighbours, soleum is a helpful, kind young man. his overall likeability earns them an extra tomato for dinner sometimes, so saheon doesn't dislike it. but what does ick him is that, towards him, soleum acts as if they're college backpackers locked into one motel room by the stingy owner. he is reclusive, skittish. and saheon lets him be, it's easier to not stick his nose into the other's business.
however, as you know, when straws stray too close to a fire, sparks shall someday fly.
it's a typical romance between a countryboy and a cityboy, if you may exclude the supernatural/amnesiac elements.
there is a gradual difference in baek saheon's texts to his sister. a 'we' in place of a lonely 'i'. a reluctant acceptance to his sister's invitation to her fancy metropolitan flat. a clumsy attempt to ask her if he could bring a one-plus.
maybe saheon boasts to soleum about having a way to come to the city, too. ('listen, we're going to my sister's, and i'm going to find that home you keep talking about.' 'hmm, i doubt that, but thank you, saheon-ssi.')
and that day is fast approaching. the train to seoul is scheduled for next week. they just need to spend one last festival in this village to get through this .
as soleum holds in his hand a golden ticket, fresh out of the very box saheon is carrying, the very one he has tampered with beforehand, they both know their sand castle has come crashing down.
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