Chapter Text
POV: Father Osaki Shotaro
The parish was quieter now.
Not in the way of peace—but like something had gone missing. Or perhaps had only just been revealed, and no one dared speak of it.
Shotaro had been assigned only two weeks ago, but he already felt the heaviness. The walls murmured at night. Candles burned out faster than they should. And the Virgin Mary statue at the altar—her eyes seemed... mournful.
They said Father Lee Anton vanished without a trace. That he left during the dawn Mass and never returned.
But Shotaro found the first letter on his third night, hidden beneath the confessional floorboards.
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I. The Letters
There were seven letters in total.
All signed:
“L.A.”
All addressed:
“To whoever comes next.”
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Letter I – The Garden
"You will not understand at first. You will believe him to be possessed. You will think he needs saving. That you have been called to cast out the serpent.
But the serpent does not force the bite. He whispers.
And if you're honest, you'll realize you’ve wanted it all along."
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Shotaro wiped sweat from his brow. He didn’t know why his hands were trembling.
He looked out through the stained glass, where the red of Christ’s robe bled into the floor in ribbons of light. The Virgin’s eyes seemed to follow him.
He pressed on.
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Letter III – Blasphemy of Vision
"The pregnant belly of the Virgin statue? The swelling of Wonbin’s own? That was never real. It was mine. My hidden longing clothed in holy symbols."
"I saw the Virgin swell because I wanted her to bear what I was not allowed to speak. I saw Wonbin with child because I needed him to carry me—carry my sin. My desire."
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Shotaro had seen that same statue. In the evenings, under moonlight, the light curved shadows around her stomach. He thought nothing of it. But now—he shuddered. Had he seen it, too?
Was he already beginning?
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II. The Recording
The cassette tape came days later, inside an old missal. The spine had been hollowed. Inside: a labeled recording. The sharp, shaky writing:
"Confessio Ultima – F. Anton"
He borrowed an old player from the sacristy and listened.
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Anton’s voice was hoarse.
"I began with the intention of salvation. I thought he needed holy water. But he—he cried when it touched him... and whispered: don’t stop.”
"He never denied God. That’s what made it worse. He wanted Him. He wanted all of us—in our vestments, whispering Latin, with trembling hands and hard cocks."
Shotaro paused the tape. The air was thick, unmoving.
He continued.
"Wonbin is not possessed. He’s human. But he has this... way of exposing something in us—something we bury under incense and scripture."
"He is the serpent in Eden. He does not bite. He invites."
"And what if the fruit we eat is not his, but our own hunger reflected back at us?"
"I came inside him during Communion."
Shotaro's breath caught.
"He bent over the altar. Moaned like the Gospel was being read into his spine. And when he looked back at me, his eyes—his eyes weren’t evil. They were understanding."
"He held every sin I gave him like a sacrament."
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III. Father Eunseok’s Diary (Fragment)
Found in a locked drawer beneath the tabernacle. Pages ripped, but legible.
"We all touched him. Not one of us can deny it. Sungchan wept afterward. I couldn’t even feel guilt. Only awe."
"He makes you feel chosen. Even as you unzip your cassock."
"He is human. But sacred in his undoing. As if God gave us flesh just to fall into him."
"He whispered Latin back to me as I fucked him in the confessional. Corpus meum... He begged me to make the Eucharist out of him."
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Shotaro dropped the journal.
His head spun. He couldn’t tell if he was horrified or aroused. Or both.
The Virgin’s face—on the statue—was weeping. He swore the cheeks were wet.
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IV. The Serpent
In his final letter, Anton wrote:
> "It is too simple to call him a whore. And too false to call him cursed."
"He is the Garden. The fruit. The invitation."
"The holy men fall because they see themselves in him. Their guilt becomes flesh."
Shotaro thought about the stories of old—the desert fathers, the saints tempted by visions, the monks who fled into caves just to be spared lust.
What if the temptation wasn’t sent?
What if it was summoned—from within?
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V. The First Time Shotaro Sees Him
Wonbin was seated in the third pew during Shotaro’s first Eucharist. Crisp white shirt. Collarbones framed like an open invitation. His hands were folded in reverence.
But his eyes.
They didn’t blink during the homily.
He watched Shotaro—through Shotaro.
When Shotaro raised the chalice and whispered "hoc est enim corpus meum..."
Wonbin closed his eyes and exhaled like it was his body being lifted.
Shotaro felt his pulse rise. Felt the sweat bead between his shoulder blades. Felt the ghost of something ancient curling in his chest—not fear.
Want.
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That night, he reviewed the final letter.
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Letter VII – Et Homo Factus Est
"He is not possessed. He is not divine. He is not evil."
"He is human—and that is the most dangerous thing of all."
"Because if he can make holy men fall… maybe we were never holy."
"Maybe we built churches to contain the things we dare not admit: that we ache, that we hunger, that our God came in flesh not to erase desire, but to reveal it."
"And now he waits. For you."
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Shotaro sat still in the sacristy, the candle on his desk burning low. The words echoed, but he didn’t move.
He thought about Wonbin. The intensity of his gaze. The way he mouthed the Latin prayers as though he already knew them by heart.
But he did not return to the letters.
He did not play the tape again.
He did not go searching.
Instead, he rose.
He cleaned the altar linens.
He refilled the cruets.
He polished the chalice, steady-handed.
And when he walked past the pew where Wonbin had sat, he bowed his head in quiet acknowledgment—but did not stop.
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He did not touch the confessional.
He did not return the gaze.
He did not pray for purity.
But he remained.
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He didn’t flee.
But neither did he fall.
And for now—that was enough.