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Seonghwa had always yearned for knowledge. River spirits were known for their curious nature despite their comparably short lifespans. But Seonghwa had been blessed to be incarnated into a glacier. His frozen waters were stuck in place for an unknown time until the sun would eventually melt him and his journey would start. Others of his kind might call it misfortune, being cursed to wait thousands of years to fulfil his destiny, but Seonghwa felt blessed. He never grew tired of the stories the old and wise travelling spirits had to tell and loved learning about the wonders of the world, knowing that he would see them with his own eyes someday.
The wind spirits that tended to get lost in his caves often stayed for a while to tell him tales about the world that was awaiting him. They told him about green grasses and forests, about animals he could not even begin to imagine, and the humans.
Seonghwa had had his fair share of encounters with humans. They came and left within days and sometimes, they got lost in his caves and crevasses. He always did his best to help them out, just as he did with the few animals that rarely visited. More often than not, he would ask a passing wind spirit for help, usually earning mocking laughter.
“There is no use in saving a human, young spirit,” they would say, “The human’s lifespan is short anyways and they are stupid and cruel. They are poisoning us, and you want to help a singular one? Boy, you will learn that a human is better dead than alive.”
But Seonghwa did not care about their bitter words. Every living being deserved to be helped. What if their soulmate was waiting for them?
Soulmates were another thing he loved to ask the winds about. They had explained to him that every being on this earth had a destined partner they were supposed to search for.
“Me too?” he had asked thousands of years ago, eyes wide in excitement.
“Yes, young spirit,” the wind had answered him.
It had been an old lady, slow, gentle and so full of love. She had come to him frequently. He had always known that her wind was losing power, that her time was almost up. One day, a few hundred years ago, she had visited him for the last time. She had barely been a light breeze of the warm air she had always brought from behind the mountain range. Seonghwa had liked her. She had loved to talk about her favourite things; how she gave the human fishermen’s boats the power to move on the sea and how the forest spirits danced in excitement when she passed by.
Seonghwa could not wait to see the sea one day. He knew, it laid at the very end of his journey. He knew, the sea was his destined grave, yet he wanted nothing but to see the little boats the lady had always talked about.
“So, there is a river spirit somewhere out there, waiting for me to find them?” he had asked the first time she had told him about soulmates.
A laughter had come in response.
“No, little spirit. Soulmates do not have to be of the same kind. Yours could be one like me, a wind spirit. You seem to like us. Or it could be a spirit of the earth, one that makes the grass grow and gives home to the forest spirits. Or it could even be one of the humans.”
“A human?” Seonghwa had responded in wonder.
He had received a nod.
“But how could that possibly work? Their lifespans don’t even come close mine.”
“Fate has its way, young boy. And if you are destined to only be with them for a few years. Fate does not know time. I’ve once known a sun sprite who had found her other half in a night pixie. They could only meet in the short time of dusk and dawn, when it’s neither day nor night but both at the same time, the time barely enough for a few hushed words and kisses.”
“But why didn’t they decide to follow the dawn around the world? They could be together forever?” he had asked sadly, earning a consoling smile form the wind lady.
“Because we spirits are bound to a place by fate. They tried but eventually, nature’s pull to return to the place they belong was too strong. Who would make the flowers bloom if the sun sprite decided to leave? Fate was gracious enough to make them share a territory, so they could meet daily.”
“That’s so unlucky,” Seonghwa had whispered with a heavy heart.
“Unlucky? Young boy, finding your soulmate is the luckiest thing that can possibly happen to us. Even some of the eldest beings on this earth have never met theirs. May fate be on your side to let your streambed lead you to your other half.”
It was one of the conversations that had never left his head. Spirits came and left, and he learned and learned, yet, that conversation was one of the few he pondered over again and again.
Another spirit had explained his future journey to him and as the time passed, he found himself impatient to melt, to finally start what he was born for.
“Fate will lead you down these mountains and will show you your path to the point where the rivers mix with the sea. That is where your journey ends. You might find the need to take a halt at some point for whatever reason. Do not fight it, it means you are needed. Let fate lead you and never forget to help and be kind.”
And so, the day came when a sun sprite finally set him free. Seonghwa, who had never had the chance to talk to a sun sprite before, had half the mind to ask her if she had a night pixie girlfriend but then he was already moving, rushing away in a sparking waterfall with no way back.
For the first time in his long, long life, he got to see something new. And it was all so exciting. Trees and their spirits greeted him at his riverbank, laughing and waving happily in response to his whoops and screams of joy. There was so much colour! Birds were interrupting the cloud’s peace, nagging the raindrops with disrupting their formation. Fishes let themselves be carried by his movements and sun sprites danced on his surface, making his waves sparkle.
He slowed down to watch a deer family drinking his waters. Carefully, he lifted his hands to splash the fawns that soon enough started a playful fight with their small antlers. That was when Seonghwa learned what the spirit had meant back then, when he had told him to never resist the urge to stop. As one of the fawns slipped and got pulled towards the centre of the river where it was doomed to drown, he was quick to help and brought it back safely, thankfulness written in the parent’s eyes. He learned from them that not every spirit was this helpful and that they had watched many water spirits cruelly luring animals into their depths.
Seonghwa continued his journey with a bit of a heavy heart, accompanied by a sky that started gathering dark clouds. And soon enough, he experienced his first rain. He watched as the tiny raindrops became too heavy and let loose one after another. They fell and fell and fell until they eventually splashed into him, mixing with his waves. He imagined that it would be exactly like this once he reached the ocean. Life for raindrops was short but he did not meet one that seemed to regret. Not even one seemed afraid of the impact because it was their fate and they followed it willingly.
Not long after his journey had started, Seonghwa met one of his kind for the first time. A little stream met his riverbed at the mountain’s foot and as he passed it, he saw a river spirit approaching. She seemed young, much younger than him and they decided to travel together for a while. Quickly, they fell into a conversation. She told him that she had just been born in the spring where the stream started a few days ago. When he told her about his origins, she expressed her pity, to which he just smiled and began to tell her about all the things he had learned. It felt great to share his wisdom, even though all his knowledge came from other beings.
It surfaced something in him he could not really pinpoint. It felt like the things he felt whenever he had to realize that a particular old spirit would never come back to him again. Only after a long conversation with his travelling partner, he began to understand what was going on. A small part of him yearned to grow old. There was a side of him that wished to become wise like the wind spirits, to share his knowledge with younger beings. For the first time, he doubted his fate. He struggled to comprehend his feelings, and so he yearned to ask a trusted wind friend for advice.
The opportunity came soon, when a stormy and grumpy old wind man messed with his usually calm waters. When he shared his plan with his friend, she decided to continue moving, seeing no use in resting to talk to the wind. And so, they wished each other farewell and he watched her being flushed downstream, waving in his direction until they could not see each other anymore.
He approached the wind carefully, not knowing of which nature he was, but he turned out to be overjoyed by his company. When Seonghwa revealed that he had come for advice, the wind swelled his chest with pride and howled loudly, which Seonghwa perceived as a little arrogant. But the wind listened carefully as Seonghwa voiced his concerns and when he spoke, he sounded calm and sincere.
“It is normal for intelligent beings like you and me to feel uncertainty. We are blessed with the ability to doubt. It makes us smarter in the end. The short-lived raindrops you’ve mentioned are not even able to grasp the complexity of fate. They just live by it, unable to even gather a fraction of the knowledge we carry. But you are smart enough to learn about different aspects and views, so naturally, you question your own. It is supposed to be like that, and you will grow from it. But eventually, when your time has come, you will be ready. I’ve seen spirits like you sitting at their delta for decades, waiting and pondering with no real reasons before they suddenly got up to jump into the sea.”
The encounter did not ease the clammy feeling, but it made him less anxious as he felt validated.
The days passed by in similar pattern. Seonghwa got to meet a wide variety of living beings, each with different stories to tell. Some of them accompanied him for a while, others just greeted him quickly. He stopped a few times, sometimes for days to watch things that made him curious, like a wolf pack that rested at his shore or a mad fire spirit that expelled every form of life from its grounds. When same life came to him to ask for his waters to fight the fire, he willingly gave it to them. He made sure to protect human children that played in his waters and liked to mess with the ducks that came in search for food. He saw wind spirits clashing and fighting, causing his waters to spill over his shores and watched birds circling on the far horizon.
Months after his journey had started, he met a human who was apparently building some structure at his bank. When he got closer, he could make out some kind of gigantic wheel attached to the structure a human called a house. In curiosity, he came to a halt and watched the man. As the days went by, the structure grew and soon enough, what the man named a mill was completed. But the man seemed frustrated as the wheel barely turned. Despite not understanding his goal, Seonghwa experimentally pushed a wave against the wheel and when it began to turn quickly, the human squealed in joy.
Seonghwa decided to settle for a while to help running the man’s mill. He learned that it was built to make certain kinds of food. Sometimes, the man liked to sit down at the waterside and spilled his heart to the waves. He was not aware of Seonghwa’s existence, yet he seemed to find comfort in his presence. Even if it was unconsciously. Seonghwa listened to his yapping about a town that was apparently hidden behind some hills. But he also learned that the man was in love, that he wished for a family.
And so, it happened that one day, a woman moved in. The couple was so in love, it warmed Seonghwa’s heart, and a few years later, children were playing in his waters again. For the first time, Seonghwa stayed long enough to watch them grow. More than once, he saved one of their lives while playing with them. It might have been the happiest he had ever been; helping the mill run, watching the kids grow old and leave the house one by one, until years later, the eldest came back with a woman on his side to take over the father’s mill. Soon enough, a new generation was playing in his waters.
The man had grown old and liked to sit in a chair near the water to watch his grandchildren. Seonghwa liked to sit near him to keep him company after his wife had died. And one day, his children gathered with heavy hearts to say goodbye to him. They held heartfelt speeches over his long and successful life which had seemed short like a heartbeat to Seonghwa. Still, he shared their mourns and when the man’s daughter mentioned how his best friend had always been the river, he cried for the first time in his life. When the man’s body was carried out of the mill to be buried in town, Seonghwa felt that it was time to leave. But years of his presence had caved a new waterline that provided a steady stream for the mill to keep going efficiently for generations.
Seonghwa said farewell with a hurting heart for more reasons than the loss of his human friend. He had learned how true love and care looked and how much it could fulfil someone. He yearned for it, as well. Once again, his thoughts were brought back to the old wind lady. He knew now that love did not only come from meeting your soulmate but was also born in the smallest nice actions and friendships. Seonghwa felt lonely and wished for some form of life to keep him company. He wanted to love someone, even if it was just platonically. Maybe, someone he could actually talk to, this time.
Decades started to pass like that. The next time, he settled for longer than a few weeks was when his riverbed passed through a city. With excitement, he watched the occurrences on the town square. The city was so full of life, but it also showed him the dark side of humanity. Sewage made him feel sick and nauseous, and people used his waters for cruel things like poison and murder. No children played with him as the water was deemed too dirty to swim in and fish avoided this area at all costs. The canalization, an artificial kind of stream that held no natural life, had become home to spirits of disease and death.
Seonghwa learned that it was possible to fight fate as he learned about murder. The people dying like that did not seem ready, lacking the satisfied face of having fulfilled their fate when facing death. While spirits out in the nature tended to clash and fight over territory and small nothings, they never took other spirit’s lives even if they had the power to do so. But Humans, who could not grasp the importance of fate, killed with no mercy. A forest spirit had told him about a time when the humans had begun to expand their city, mercilessly destroying an entire forest, depriving another forest spirit of its vital grounds. Humans, despite being so weak, short-lived and stupid, had the power to kill a thousands of years old spirit just like that. It left Seonghwa terrified.
But he also saw lots of love during the years he spent in the city. He watched children at school, the teachers teaching them their naïve human world view. He saw kind people that provided food for the homeless and elderly people that took their time to tell the children fairytales. He saw the humans gifting each other things as an act of love and found the most intimidating men feeding the stray animals when no one was looking.
Cities also seemed to be popular places for spirits to settle and soon, he befriended a few of them. Over the years, he became close to said forest spirit that took care of the trees that grew at his waterside. She had been a traveller for a long time until she had found her destined spot right in this town where she had been living for centuries.
Seonghwa also befriended a fire spirit that had found her soulmate in a young human girl. She stayed by her side to protect her. The girl was an outsider, often called an arsonist, a witch or other names. For the short time she was alive, the fire girl took care of her and provided her a haven when she needed it. Seonghwa was with them when she died of old age. It was another first for Seonghwa; as soon as she had closed her eyes forever, the fire spirit, who had become his best friend, turned around with a calm smile. She announced that her time was up, too. Seonghwa had lost a fair share of friends of his kind before but never had he seen one of them dying in front of him. With a weak voice, the fire girl declared that her job on earth was done now and that she wished for Seonghwa to find happiness. Her fire thinned out and she dissolved into thin air. And then, she was gone, no trace left.
Seonghwa mourned for a while, but he knew that his friend had left with no regrets. She had looked satisfied the moment she had vanished, and it helped Seonghwa to know that this was how it was supposed to be.
Like that, Seonghwa proceeded to travel down his stream for centuries. His desire for wisdom never decreased and he never grew tired of learning new things. He watched the humans fight and the nature lose against them. And he watched so much love happening around him. As the landscapes around him became more even and the stream began to slow down, nearing his delta, Seonghwa had learned that he did not need to grow old to share his wisdom. He loved to share it with whoever was willing to listen and at some point, the creatures of the planet started coming to him for advice. All the experience had calmed him down and despite his young age, he had gained the title of a wise spirit. All kinds of living beings came from far away to receive his consultation and he loved to help wherever he could. He was certain that this kind of life had always been his fate, and he was happy with it.
Even though he never stopped yearning to love. He knew that it was possible to love someone who was not your soulmate but no matter how often he tried, he never fell for someone. He befriended many beings on his journey, stayed together with some of them for long times and created lifelong bonds. They all left their imprints on his heart, shaped him and gave him wonderful memories but he never truly loved anyone.
As it became more apparent that his twilight years had come, he felt himself becoming sad because he would end his life without having found his other half. He was almost ready to leave and did not try to fight it, but his thoughts became gloomier more often. No matter how much he pondered over it, he failed to find peace. He yearned to ask someone with experience for advice, preferably one of the wind spirits that had always led him through obstacles safely. Seonghwa now rivalled them in wisdom and down here, in the flatlands, it was rare to find an old wind spirit. The even heathland that announced the closeness to the ocean was home to the young and restless winds that liked to play and fight on the wide plains. Hence why he failed to find one of his trusted friends to ask for a lesson.
It was a warm summer day when Seonghwa saw the ocean for the first time. His streambed made a curve and then, it was right in front of him; the endless blue of the sea, glittering under the influence of sun sprites in a number he had never seen before. It must have been thousands of them. And Seonghwa understood that this was where he belonged. As he followed his stream along the beach with a kind of wonder in his eyes that resembled his expression on the first days of his journey, he reached a small harbour. He recalled the tales of the old lady. She had not promised too much and Seonghwa realised that his lifelong dream had just been fulfilled. It was overwhelming. He watched the winds guarding the little boats and laughed and laughed and laughed. He had waited for this moment all his life and now, it was right in front of him.
He stayed in the man-made channel that connected the ocean with his river for a while. It would be his last major stop before he would move on to find his delta to fulfil his journey. Seonghwa never dared to get too close to the ocean, knowing how dangerous it was for him. As soon as his waters would mix too much with the salt of the sea, he would vanish. So, he stayed in the channel, helped the fishermen to push their boats up the river and watched the sea with all its life day by day.
Seonghwa felt himself falling in love with the sea in a way he had never felt before. Was that how actual love felt like? But how could he be in love with the ocean itself? No specific creature of the sea but just the gigantic accumulation of life that laid in front of him? He started feeling more and more ready to become part of it.
And one stormy night, the harbour was in chaos. Seonghwa heard the humans talking in panic about a pirate ship that had dropped its anchor in Seonghwa’s river delta. Wind spirits howled about an ocean spirit of the deep sea that was in the pirate’s following that caused the stormy weather. The curiosity got the best of him, and so, Seonghwa left the harbour without looking back to finally make the last part of his journey and see the pirates. He felt like he had to.
The delta appeared to be much closer than he had thought all the time and within a day, he could see his extremely slow and wide stream mixing with the ocean. In the centre of it laid a wrecked ship, intimidating and gigantic with a skull flag on its highest pole.
And then Seonghwa finally understood. He stopped in his tracks, as if he had been struck by a lightning, when his eyes landed on a dark blue, almost black spirit of the deep sea that circled the ship, dragging stormy clouds along. There he was. His soulmate. And he was gorgeous. He felt his soul being drawn towards the creature in front of him, his senses narrowing onto the overwhelming surge of love. It was the same feeling as looking at the ocean but much, much stronger. He stood there, unmoving, as if time had stopped for him, while the water and air around him was in constant restless movement.
Said spirit came to a halt as well, sensing the presence of another one of his kind and turned towards him. Seonghwa saw his eyes widening for a split second, before his pretty face evened out, a calm smile stretching over his face. Seonghwa had never seen such beauty before. His soulmate seemed to be petite, yet untamed and unruly, almost violent. But when he looked into his eyes, he saw the same expression of love he felt in his chest. There was a certain warmth in it, despite the frosty waters of the deep sea. It felt a little like the glacier where his journey had begun.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” the ocean howled.
Seonghwa did not know what to say, starstruck by the revelation, so the spirit continued.
“My name is Hongjoong. Finally, I’ve found you.”
“Seonghwa. My name is Seonghwa,” he whispered, still unmoving.
“I know,” came in response, Hongjoong’s high voice heavy with emotions.
And as sudden, as he had come to a halt, he started rushing towards Hongjoong who opened his arms, anticipating him.
The wind became stronger, the storm caused by two opposing souls crashing almost tripping the ship over. The warm, sweet breeze of a river near the sea hit the rough and salty winds of the ocean and it created chaos. Nature spirits around them were fighting for their lives, the wind pulling on their plants mercilessly as Seonghwa sighed.
“Finally,” were his last words before he kissed Hongjoong and the wind around them increased again, creating waves that were as high as trees. His insides acted the same way, the remnants of his memories and wisdom mixing with something new: Love.
As he felt the electrifying kiss that equalled the weather around them, he also felt the sting of salt in his waters. The taste of Hongjoong spread through his entire body, his fluids mixing with his soulmate’s as his thoughts became thinner and his body began to dissolve. He was ecstatic, satisfied with where fate had led him. Those were his last thoughts and then, he was gone and the storm was over.