An original tale written by Ji-Young Lee from Korea
There was a village named ‘Sa-rang’ in Korea. The village had two flowers that cried when a couple passed nearby. These flowers never died. Once upon a time, there was a couple, Soo-il and Soon-ae, living in Sa-rang. They loved each other so much that they wanted to get married, but Soon-ae’s father, who was very rich, never allowed her to marry Soo-il, who was very poor.
A few days later, her father lied to her. He told her that Soo-il got married to another girl and pushed her to marry a rich guy named Jung-bae. Although she was so sad, she believed her father and got married to Jung-bae. Yet, they were not happy because he also did not love her. He hung out with friends, met other girls and seldom came back home. While she was waiting for him, she often fell asleep.
One day, she continuously heard a strange sound from outside the window, so she slowly went near the window and opened it up. When she looked down, there was Soo-il. Her heart started beating faster, and she made up her mind to get to him. She finally jumped down from her room, which is on the second floor. And then, she felt big pain and fainted.
When she could open her eyes, she saw the people she loved. There were her families and Soo-il. They all looked at her with concern, but at that moment she discovered that she could not move at all and knew her father had lied to her. She cried every day.
After that day, Soo-il came to her every day, but her father did not let him see her, so Soo-il decided to take her to a small town in the country where nobody could see them. They went to the town. He cut trees and sold them for living and she tried to recover by moving her body.
One day while Soo-il was coming back home after getting trees, he saw a rose on the edge of a cliff. Because Soon-ae liked roses, he tried to pick the rose. Unfortunately, he slid and fell from the cliff. While she was waiting for her as usual, some people living in the town came to her with his possessions. Immediately, she went to the place where his possessions were found even though she could not walk well. However, when she got there, she could not find her husband’s body, only a strange flower.
After that, she never ate, drank or talked to anybody. She only thought about Soo-il, who could not return to her forever. A couple of days later, her eyes were closed forever and ever. She was buried near the place where the flower was found. After a while, the grave disappeared, and there was another flower the same as the first one.