“……?”
Sim Seowoo turned his head in a daze to confirm who it was. Pitch-black hair and sharp eyes with gray irises. In truth, he’d had a feeling from the moment he saw the rings packed onto every finger — but when he actually met those gray eyes, he was startled.
The name was…… Cheon Yijae, wasn’t it.
The existence he had first encountered at the science library a few days ago, and then again at HN where he’d immediately bared his teeth at him — he’d run into him once more today.
The same striking combination of flashy accessories and a neat Dopo as always, but today his attire was noticeably disheveled. It looked as though he’d rushed up the stairs, and his breathing was just slightly labored.
Cheon Yijae’s eyes quickly swept over Sim Seowoo. It seemed as though he was checking for any injuries — and in the meantime, Do Seonhwa and Jin Gwangmin had also appeared behind him.
“G-Precious guest! Are you alright?!”
“Huff, huff, those bastards always claiming the elevator — that was annoying. They should be using the stairs too.”
Jin Gwangmin grumbled that if they had, there might have been a chance for a healthy body — well, a healthy spirit — to ascend peacefully. The moment he crossed the door, he practically melted to the ground like ice cream left out in the sun.
Sim Seowoo’s friends were quite taken aback by the sudden appearance of the three. Before long, they had pressed themselves into the corner of the wall, eyeing the newcomers with wary looks.
“Wh-who are those people?”
“They’re on our side, right……?”
They weren’t ghosts, at least — but it was hard to feel entirely at ease. Not only was the trio’s attire unfamiliar, but particularly the man who had first appeared by blowing the door open was radiating an intensely shocking presence.
Do Seonhwa greeted them with a warm smile.
“Ah, you must be the Precious guest’s friends. Hello. Please don’t worry too much — we’ll make sure to escort you safely outside.”
“Precious guest……?”
“U-um, can we not just go down the stairs right now?”
“Unfortunately, this path only functions as an ‘entrance’…….”
Do Seonhwa answered the friends’ questions with a sympathetic tone. She kicked Jin Gwangmin, who was sprawled in front of the stairwell door, to the side, and then covered the area behind it with both hands — but the view beyond the door was too disorienting to even register her considerate gesture.
The other side was pitch black, like a void.
It was clear that the three of them had come up via the stairs — and yet there was no stairwell to be seen anywhere. It was all-encompassing darkness, so impenetrable that they couldn’t even attempt to step toward it, and an uneasy feeling surged up that even a single step forward might send them tumbling off a cliff.
“You can enter however you like, but leaving is another matter entirely. Hmm, actually, entering a Guiyeok is a bit tricky too, though.”
Jin Gwangmin explained, staggering to his feet from the floor.
A Guiyeok was an area similar to a prison that evil spirits created for specific purposes, shrouded in malevolent energy, which made it difficult to approach from the outside. It just so happened that movie theaters were inherently spaces steeped in yin energy, which had made the Guiyeok even more firmly established — and he’d barely managed to force his way in, he said. His lengthy complaints, however, had no room to continue.
Swish……
The boy who had been flung all the way to the elevator on the opposite end got back up. The impact must have been tremendous, because dust billowed thickly around him.
The evil spirit, with shards of glass embedded in his back, let out a quiet laugh.
[So a dog of Heun has come, has it.]
A voice noticeably lower than before echoed eerily through the hallway. Around that time, Cheon Yijae, having surveyed the space and gotten a rough grasp of the situation, let out a long breath and stepped forward. Positioning himself with Sim Seowoo behind him, he brushed his hair back and muttered through gritted teeth.
“I’ve been tearing apart every evil spirit I’ve laid eyes on in this area, and word still hasn’t gotten around, has it.”
It seemed expressionless, but every word carried tightly suppressed anger beneath it. Sim Seowoo wondered for a moment whether ‘dog’ was a derogatory term used among evil spirits to refer to Heun’s members, but the tone of the exchange suggested otherwise.
The evil spirit stretched the lip of his half-remaining face into a wide, ripping grin.
[No, no — word has gotten around very well, which is precisely why I came. What could be a more satisfying act of revenge than messing up the place where Heun’s dog diligently cleans house? Hahahaha, and thanks to that, I even found a rather pure and tempting soul!]
“This bastard…….”
[But wait — did you really come here alone? Into this very space of mine?]
He pointed at Cheon Yijae with one hand, then placed his other hand on his own chest as he spoke — the delivery was thoroughly theatrical. So Dahyeon suddenly spoke up to contest the dismissive mockery laced into the remark.
“There are people behind the pillar. He’s not alone — two others came with him!”
[Ah, at last, an opportunity to extinguish Heun’s dog has arrived.]
The evil spirit cleanly ignored Jin Gwangmin’s words and spread both arms wide as he cried out.
[It’s just him, that one! All at once — overwhelm him!]
The number of ghosts filling the hallway must have been well over a hundred. The flames in the space, which had momentarily stilled, erupted once more with a violent whoosh.
It was time to punish the foolish dog who had walked into the Guiyeok of his own volition.
The ghosts burst into cackling laughter as they charged toward Cheon Yijae. The simultaneous eruption of laughter rang grotesquely through the hallway, and the sight of dozens of ghosts rushing at a single person was unsettling enough to make one’s skin crawl — and yet.
With a firm stride, Cheon Yijae walked toward them in return.
Moving with not a trace of fear in his bearing, he walked forward and snatched the ghost at the front by the head. Yanking its hair tightly in his grip, he crushed its face and burst it apart with a sickening crack.
Pitch-black energy splattered like blood, staining his hand. Cheon Yijae, facing the stunned enemies after the instantaneous carnage, tossed the ghost against the wall with a flick and murmured in a chilling tone.
“Too stupid to have heard the news, I guess — I’ve always hunted alone.”
He tilted his lips into a crooked smile, noting that the ghosts who might have carried word back were all dead now.
Sim Seowoo blankly confirmed the ghost’s body on the floor — or rather, whether it could even be called a body — the ghost whose head had vanished. Cheon Yijae had crushed its face with one large hand, and the way he’d done it made it look almost as though he were eating it.
He could have even sworn he’d heard a faint crunching sound.
The sharp bite marks left on the spirit’s body were eerily reminiscent of a wild beast tearing into its prey without mercy. As he stared at it, Jin Gwangmin murmured quietly.
“Both of them keep wiping us out of the picture.”
“This kind of thing isn’t exactly new. Let’s just focus on what we need to do.”
Do Seonhwa brushed past the situation with practiced ease and turned her attention to Sim Seowoo’s friends. They were shrieking away in the corner.
The intensifying flames and the ghosts baring their hostility and charging wildly were an incredibly jarring sight for ordinary people. One person had stepped forward to take them on, but if he were to fall, those agitated ghosts would come flooding toward their side. Somehow, though, it felt as though that was never going to happen……
In front of the three, who were checking on the other side with frightened expressions, Jin Gwangmin rummaged through a large bag and pulled out a thermos and paper cups. He poured a pink liquid into the cups one by one — three cups in total — as he spoke.
“You’ve had quite a time being chased by ghosts, so please have some of this. It’s a refreshing black tea.”
“It’s a tea brewed with peaches from my family’s estate. It helps tremendously with calming the mind and spirit.”
The suggestion to drink something in the middle of all this was quite out of left field. But the three of them had been running for a long time and were genuinely thirsty — and more than anything, the sweet peach fragrance that wafted through the air was intoxicating. They took the cups as though in a trance and drained them.
And in an instant, the three who had emptied their cups slid to the floor and collapsed.
“……?”
“It’s not some cult drink, I swear.”
Before Sim Seowoo could even process what had happened, Jin Gwangmin quickly spoke up.
“Human fear is the energy source for ghosts, you see. It’s better to put them to sleep than to let them keep trembling, and the peach from the Daoist tradition is special — they’ll have good dreams.”
He explained that, on top of everything, there was no benefit in letting ordinary people see Heun’s existence, so the drink also served to put them into a deep sleep and muddle their memories, creating confusion. When they woke up, they would remember almost nothing of what had happened at the movie theater.
In the meantime, Do Seonhwa had been drawing something on the floor with a brush. Without pressing any ink, she swept the brush — golden in shaft with red tassels — across the ground in a fluid motion, writing out Chinese characters, and a pale pink half-dome materialized.
It was a barrier enclosing the three friends who lay on the floor.
While Sim Seowoo watched with fascination, Do Seonhwa let out a quiet breath and rose to her feet. She explained that it would keep them safe from ghosts for about an hour, and then cautiously asked.
“Precious guest. It seems as though the fire here is connected to you — is that right?”
“……Yes.”
“Then you should be able to find the exit of the Guiyeok. Since this prison was built by the evil spirit digging through your memories, you’ll be the one who understands its weaknesses best.”
It was a trick that evil spirits pulled from time to time. Deliberately stirring up trauma to provoke and break down a particularly tempting human.
Do Seonhwa apologetically asked Sim Seowoo to look carefully around the space.
“As is the case with all Guiyeoks, but especially one like this where consciousness has been linked — the longer you stay, the more dangerous it becomes. So we need to find and open the exit quickly. Once the barrier cracks, the evil spirit will weaken as well.”
“Actually, I think Sojunim might just beat the evil spirit into submission before that happens…….”
Escaping a Guiyeok by finding the exit was the standard method, but there was also the option of simply hunting the evil spirit and destroying the Guiyeok outright. The latter was extremely difficult, but looking at Cheon Yijae’s current demeanor, it seemed entirely possible.
Jin Gwangmin murmured in a dazed tone, watching his back.
“He’s always been a bit of a rough — no, sharp — personality, but today he’s on a whole other level.”
Guiyeok (귀역/鬼域) — A prison-like domain created by an evil spirit for a specific purpose, shrouded in malevolent energy; difficult to enter or exit
Sojunim (소단주님) — Honorific title used by Jin Gwangmin to refer to Cheon Yijae; indicates his rank/position within Heun
Peach Tea (복숭아 차) — A special Daoist tea brewed from Do Seonhwa’s family’s peaches; puts people to sleep and blurs memories; calms the mind
