“My actions that day were simple too. You just got hurt while saving me back then, so I felt like I’d be uncomfortable unless I repaid you, and the skinship I found as a solution was something I could handle, so I just wanted to resolve it to the end.”
“…”
“And it bothered me seeing you struggling desperately alone.”
He absolutely couldn’t pretend not to know and close the warehouse door and leave. Both the moment he first saw him, and even after they’d kissed. If he’d left thinking he’d done enough, Cheon Yijae would have been bound in the corner of the warehouse enduring the curse alone for hours.
Because that scene was vividly drawn, Sim Seowoo had even acted like ‘that person’ to hold onto and lead Cheon Yijae. Of course, the contact of a kiss was surprising, but perhaps that’s why his stubbornness flared up instead. Having gone this far, he wanted to completely remove the curse.
And a little, just a very little bit… perhaps it was also because Yijae clinging to him looked pitiful. Even knowing he was mistaking him for someone else, his desperate behavior bothered him.
“…”
Cheon Yijae kept his mouth firmly shut.
He’d worried he might be displeased that his actions that day were regarded as stubbornness, but he was unexpectedly quiet. Throughout that dawn, he’d kicked him out saying he’d handle it himself, so Seowoo had thought his pride was incredibly high.
Sim Seowoo looked at Cheon Yijae’s mellowed atmosphere with curiosity. He even seemed to be in quite a good mood. His ash-colored eyes, which until just before had seemed faded to grayscale, even appeared to flash with vitality, making him wonder.
He didn’t understand Yijae’s change, but actually, since meeting today, he’d never understood his behavior anyway, so he gave up thinking about it. Also, they said there was nothing as useless as trying to understand a superior’s psychology at work. A subordinate employee just needed to obediently follow instructions.
Thinking from a working adult’s perspective, Sim Seowoo suddenly gained another realization.
“The compensation for purifying other shamans probably isn’t even that much, so…”
To fulfill the situation Cheon Yijae had sarcastically hypothesized, he’d need to offer very high compensation as well. But because he was the ‘Sojunim’ at Heun, he’d clearly offered that level of contract money, so Yijae’s hypothesis couldn’t hold in the first place. Not just at an impossible level, but absolutely and certainly impossible.
As he nodded alone organizing his realization, Cheon Yijae’s expression changed strangely. He questioned as if he’d heard something incredibly absurd.
“…What? Are you saying you purified me because of money?”
Ah, does it become that too?
To completely deny it, when considering the fundamental reason he’d followed to the field that day, he couldn’t exclude the compensation. Behind his endurance while listening to Cheon Yijae’s resignation songs was the contract money—no, the contract.
Moreover, he’d just encountered Yijae’s capriciousness and even thought there was a reason the contract money for exclusively handling the Sojunim was enormous…
After being silent for a while, Sim Seowoo soon smoothly rolled only his eyes to the side. At his stealthy avoidance of eye contact, Cheon Yijae let out a “huh” of absurdity.
He wrinkled his expression sharply and interrogated.
“Don’t tell me the reason you’ve ignored my words to leave Heun all this time was all because of money? Does Do Seonhwa—no, does the Vice-Leader give you that much per case?”
Sim Seowoo was impressed inwardly. To notice not only the contract money but also whether there was compensation per purification case, and even identify the superior who approved the employment contract—his perceptiveness was sharp indeed.
Cheon Yijae twisted his lips and ground out,
“Then if I say I’ll give you more than that, will you leave Heun right away?”
The sarcastic tone seemed to contain frustration at not having known such an easy way to drive Sim Seowoo out until now, but also seemed to carry a slightly probing energy.
Sim Seowoo made an “mmm” sound while wrapping his chin with his thumb and index finger. Even though they’d met after a long time, he just felt Cheon Yijae’s unchanging pursuit of opportunities to make him resign was impressive, but anyway, since the topic of money and contracts had come up, he felt he should respond seriously and thought about it.
At that behavior, deep absurdity rose on Cheon Yijae’s face. Rather, his expression showed that reaction was even more ridiculous, but regardless, Sim Seowoo, who had carefully considered, answered.
“Mm, still, shouldn’t we prioritize the prior contract? We have to be careful about dual contracts.”
“Why is the answer from your deliberation like that?”
“I think trust is important in society after all…”
Above all, he’d even put his seal on it.
At the seriously added words, Cheon Yijae only let out an exasperated sigh, but Seowoo didn’t change his attitude. And actually, regrettably, it was speculated that the Vice-Leader’s authority at Heun was higher than Cheon Yijae’s.
The acting Leader, and the organization’s successor.
Just looking at positions, the former was higher, and moreover, although Cheon Yijae had been appointed Sojunim, when he’d inherit the organization was an unknown. They said he could only rise to the position of Leader with unanimous approval from the Elders, but currently that seemed very far off.
Also, he was reluctant to commit such an outrage as a dual contract against the organization called ‘Heun.’ Beyond the simple reason of being a group that hunted evil spirits, if he turned his back on an organization capable of blocking public information and cooperating with government agencies and ran, his life would obviously get twisted.
For Sim Seowoo, who dreamed of returning to an ordinary life once the project to hunt Hyungsin ended, it was completely unappealing. Wouldn’t it endanger his quiet future?
If he had to coordinate it, even though there were no clauses related to penalty fees in the existing contract, he could imagine returning all the money received so far to avoid complications and breaking the contract, then taking only the money Cheon Yijae gave and leaving, but…
How would he calculate and offer an amount exceeding the current conditions that give performance bonuses per purification? How would he measure that unknown when he didn’t know how much purifying he’d do in the future?
Did Cheon Yijae even have that much money in the first place?
“You’re thinking weird thoughts again, aren’t you?”
…Well, he’s Heun’s successor so he wouldn’t be without money, but no matter how much he thought about it, he wasn’t attracted at all. Money from Cheon Yijae who’d been confined in Heun until becoming an adult? Taking such money felt like committing a terrible deed, similar to the feeling of stealing a child’s snot-covered money.
Of course, Cheon Yijae wasn’t a child, but Seowoo strangely couldn’t shake off that halfhearted feeling.
“Huh. Are you going to keep ignoring what I say?”
“Look, there are ghosts crowding over there…”
Sim Seowoo stealthily turned his head and moved to the side. As if the ghosts moving in groups in the festival site’s alley were too suspicious, saying he might be able to obtain information from them, he quickly moved his steps.
Cheon Yijae glared with absurd eyes but eventually just sighed and followed. Seowoo felt the ghosts around gradually moving away the moment Yijae approached from behind, making it considerably easier to walk, while thinking it was a bit strange.
Normally, Yijae would sharply wrinkle his expression and get angry at this point, but surprisingly he just let out an empty laugh and didn’t particularly rage. Somehow it seemed like his attitude had become gentler since he’d started speaking informally.
‘…But am I speaking too comfortably?’
The sudden self-awareness was awkward. For having refused Cheon Yijae’s proposal to speak informally until now, he felt like he was treating him quite roughly. He even felt like he’d adapted to informal speech instantly without any awkwardness…
Could it be the influence of practicing informal speech several times that dawn?
Sim Seowoo fidgeted with the back of his neck with a subtle feeling. It seemed he needed to focus on the investigation to bury the events of that day trying to creep up again in the back of his mind.
However, as he approached the group of ghosts while stealthily looking for Do Seonhwa and Jin Gwangmin, a faint voice was heard from somewhere.
[My good fellow…]
At the call suddenly caught in his ear, Sim Seowoo turned his head questioningly. But the surroundings were such a noisy marketplace that he couldn’t tell where the sound came from.
And thinking about it, it seemed he shouldn’t respond to a voice calling him ‘here.’ He tried to walk while keeping in mind that he’d entered a ghost festival site, but that voice was heard again.
[My good fellow, over here. Please help me…]
The very small voice was filled with desperate energy. Sim Seowoo tried to ignore it, but unfortunately, the fact that the call was a child’s young voice made his head turn automatically. It was an unconscious reaction. He was helplessly weak to children.
The sobbing voice that seemed about to burst into tears any moment came from the tree right next to him.
[I’m asking you to help me…!]
Just as Sim Seowoo tilted his head back, ‘that thing’ fell from the tree. Some small spirit body flew over in a posture like a flying squirrel and stuck with a smack to Seowoo’s face. No, just before that, Cheon Yijae’s hand shot out in front of it and grabbed the spirit body. It was an admirably quick reaction speed.
“What is this?”
Cheon Yijae lifted the spirit body high while gripping its scruff, and Seowoo also checked the spirit body dazedly from his side. It had a body size like a newborn baby and looked like a flying squirrel beastman, a very unfamiliar appearance. Dark brown hair that seemed to wholly contain the color of a zelkova tree swayed gently at a length that reached down to its chin.
Though he was seeing this kind of spirit body for the first time, Sim Seowoo could clearly know one thing.
“…It doesn’t seem to be a ghost?”
Having entered a ghost festival site, he’d naturally assumed everything existing here would be ghosts, but he didn’t feel ghost energy from this spirit body at all. Moreover, if it were a ghost, its eyes would be completely black or blood red, but this thing’s eyes were clear green.
As he looked curiously into eyes full of vitality like freshly sprouted leaves, it struggled. While caught by Cheon Yijae, it flailed its short limbs wildly and shouted.
[I am the zelkova spirit! The guardian spirit of the oldest tree in this village!]
“…Spirit?”
So opening spiritual sight and seeing the other side of the world meant encountering spirits too. While Sim Seowoo was impressed anew, the spirit rapidly poured out its story. The archaic speech pattern delivered in an endlessly young voice was unique.
[I’ve been waiting for humans to come. Occasionally, mediums with mysterious powers visit this place, so I waited only for when I could meet them, and finally! At last!]
The spirit’s eyes shone as if moved, then soon burst into tears with a waaah and shouted.
[Please find my key!]
Zelkova Spirit/Guardian Spirit (당목 정령/수호령) – Tree spirit
Zelkova (느티나무) – Type of tree
