despite what most people, ji-su included, may think, he actually did have a friend in his human life. her name was song eun and she was a hunter, the lead singer of silver starlight. she was a beautiful woman, both inside and out, with a strength of spirit that most people could only dream of. eun reminded ji-su of a beautiful sunny spring day, so full of warmth that she easily chases all of the shadows away. she was his best friend and his platonic soulmate, the one person who didn’t make him feel cursed or like any of the nasty things that his family had told him all of his life.
if she had told him what she was, if she’d just said something, she could have saved him from his fate. she watched him struggle for years and helped him out the best that she could. she helped him be seen by various record groups, but it began to feel hopeless for him. this was around the time that gwi-ma came into the picture and ji-su made his fateful deal.
eun was so proud of ji-su when he finally signed a deal. she was oblivious to the truth of the matter at first, not knowing the dark path that he’d set himself on. he opened for silver starlight on numerous occasions and the two of them even wrote multiple songs together. he was actually one of the principal songwriters on one of silver starlight's best selling albums.
when eun learned about what happened between ji-su and his brother, she was instantly worried for him. she knew exactly where that blame lay and she made sure to tell his parents that it was their fault this happened. it was a self fulfilling prophecy. she cleaned out his apartment and made sure to keep all of his most prized belongings safe from his parents’ greedy hands and used her influence and power to take control of ji-su’s assets. she then spent that entire year looking for him.
she found him on his birthday, busting down the door of the hovel that he was living in. she was too late and found him when he was on the brink of death and barely clinging to consciousness. she was horrified as she realized that there was no saving him. the patterns fully covered his skin and she knew that when he drew his last breath, he would be in gwi-ma’s grasp forever. still, she held him close to her as he drew his last breaths and told him that she forgave him. that what had transpired was his family’s fault, not his. she sang to him as he passed, drawing his last breath with his head on her shoulder.
and the worst part about all of this? he does not remember her. gwi-ma erased all of the happiness that ji-su had had in his life, fogging it over. eun’s face is erased from his memory and so is the memory of her warmth, although the echo of it remains buried deep inside of him.
eun worked so hard to preserve the legacy of lee ji-su. she found all of his journals and silver starlight recorded an entire album of his songs. she wrote his biography and made sure that his name was etched into the record books as one of the best songwriters of his generation. his name is in the hunter records as well, immortalizing him as a friend and telling the women who would follow in her footsteps that he is not an evil deep down inside. she used his story as a warning of gwi-ma's influence and the kind of souls that he targets. there are pictures and even footage of them together, laughing and singing. she preserved his legacy in the hopes that maybe, just maybe, if they crossed paths again she could save him. her best friend, her platonic soulmate.
