“Shall I help?”
Seeing him standing there so completely at ease amid all this chaos only deepened the sense of unreality.
Siyun was bewildered. There was no room to think about something as basic as why this man was here. Right now, the only priority was getting out of this place.
“Cough, cough. R-run….”
Just as he was crying out, staggering as he barely managed to push himself upright, Jinwoong moved.
“Who are you.”
Jinwoong snarled at Gyohyun. More precisely, the possessing spirit inside Jinwoong wore a threatening expression. It crouched low, poised as if it might lunge at any moment, glaring at Gyohyun. Siyun’s skin crawled so badly he felt frozen to his core — and yet Gyohyun looked perfectly calm, which made it all the more unsettling. Any normal person would have turned and fled by now, but instead, he stepped further into the workshop.
“Such foul manners….”
Gyohyun clicked his tongue.
“Completely unruly.”
He let out a short, quiet laugh. Siyun, having barely gotten his burning throat under control, snapped out sharply.
“L-Lee Gyohyun!”
But he had no idea what to say after that. His body was one thing — his mind was in complete disarray, and he couldn’t think straight.
How on earth was he supposed to explain this situation to someone else? If he said his close friend’s body was possessed by a ghost, he’d obviously be written off as insane.
He fumbled, unable to string the words together. Gyohyun, entirely unbothered, stepped even closer.
“Don’t come any closer — ugh!”
“This one is mine!”
The possessing spirit screamed. It looked agitated somehow. It ground its teeth over and over, then moved to block Siyun from behind.
“Yours?”
For the first time, a crease formed in Gyohyun’s otherwise composed brow.
The air inside the workshop froze in an instant. Gyohyun let out a low laugh that resonated in his chest.
“Wait — it’s dangerous—”
Tight with anxiety, Siyun tried desperately to stagger upright, but his legs refused to cooperate at all. To make matters worse, his consciousness began to blur.
Eeeee — tinnitus rang through his ears.
Siyun’s vision lurched sideways and the world seemed to tilt and spin. His arms hung limp, his body folded like paper, teetering so precariously that even a breath of wind might knock him over. His breathing grew shallow and rapid, nearly cutting out entirely, and the edges of his vision darkened steadily. His eyelids grew impossibly heavy, as though his consciousness was about to blink out at any moment.
“Hah… hh….”
This sometimes happened after prolonged exposure to spiritual energy. His body stopped obeying him.
Gyohyun shot a sideways glance at Siyun, who was half out of his mind, then slowly turned his gaze back to the possessing spirit. The corner of his mouth curved.
“A worthless scrap that feeds on stray spirits — and it’s lost all sense of self-preservation.”
The vengeful spirit dwelling inside Jinwoong had grown its power by consuming other spirits around it. Compared to ordinary stray spirits, it was incomparably stronger — but to Gyohyun, it was nothing short of laughable.
Thud.
With each step he took forward, the air in the room reverberated with a heavy pressure. The possessing spirit faltered and stepped back.
“Wh — what.”
It tilted its head as though it couldn’t comprehend its own reaction.
Gyohyun took another deliberate step forward. The possessing spirit retreated again in response — a purely instinctive movement. It didn’t understand why, only that something told it it had to.
“D-don’t come closer.”
Gyohyun’s lips curved. But the smile faded quickly. Moving at a sharper pace, he closed the distance in an instant and seized Jinwoong by the hair. It happened so fast there was no time to register it.
“You were thrashing about so desperately, begging to die.”
Gyohyun gripped Jinwoong by the hair and dragged him along. As he moved, his eyes flashed.
“I’ll give you exactly what you want.”
The air around Gyohyun rippled and shimmered in a way that was hard to pin down. Nothing was visible — and yet there was an unmistakable sense that something was there. Sure enough. The things dwelling inside Jinwoong let out a scream.
“Aaaaaah!”
It was a grating, wretched sound, like metal being scraped. Siyun squeezed his eyes shut and clapped his hands over his ears.
“I — I’m sorry — aaagh!”
The voices that had been splintered into multiples converged into one. But even that ended not long after, with a final tearing shriek — and then silence. The bloodshot eyes of Jinwoong slowly fell closed.
Gyohyun released his grip on the hair. With the momentum of it, Jinwoong’s unconscious body crumpled and hit the floor.
Gyohyun glanced at him with an indifferent look, then turned away without a second thought. After that, he slowly peeled off the gloves he’d been wearing and dropped them, as if they had been soiled with something filthy.
Thud.
Inside the workshop, only the steady rhythm of Gyohyun’s dress shoes echoed through the space. Even then, Siyun was huddled in a corner, hands pressed over his ears, trembling. He couldn’t find the courage to lift his head.
“Cha Siyun.”
“Huh!”
He startled at the sound of his name and opened his eyes — and when he saw Gyohyun standing right in front of him, his breath stopped.
“Can you get up?”
“……!”
Something seemed to be blocking his throat, and no sound came out. Siyun shook his head. He realized his fingertips had gone ice-cold and were shaking. Even as he drew breath, it felt as though the air wasn’t reaching his lungs — like his body was gradually losing the ability to function at all.
Too weak to even stand properly, Siyun felt his eyes sting with tears.
The pain was one thing — but he had been so terrified. Ever since he had started seeing things he was never meant to see, he had been tormented by countless ghosts — but nearly being killed through a friend’s possessed body was something that had never happened before.
“…….”
Siyun swallowed down the tears surging up inside him and thought.
Why — why does it have to be me? Other people go through life perfectly fine without seeing any of this. Why do I have to see things I never wanted to see, and be targeted on top of it?
It felt so unfair.
And what made it even more unbearable was the knowledge that something like this could happen again at any time. Just the thought alone made his chest seize up, and his heart felt like it had dropped to the floor.
His body went slack. His arms and legs were heavy as stone, and dizziness clouded his mind. His consciousness began to drift, little by little.
Gyohyun had been watching Siyun in silence — and when Siyun’s body slowly began to tip sideways, he found himself reaching out without thinking, on pure instinct. The reflex surprised even him. But it didn’t feel as unwelcome as he might have expected. Skin that was just as soft as it looked wrapped against his palm.
“Didn’t I tell you. A Noble One isn’t something you confirm and then realize. The moment you see them, you simply know. Ah — this one is mine.”
Without pulling away from Siyun, Gyohyun reached into his pocket, took out his phone, and brought it to his ear.
His gaze drifted away for just a moment — but only just. The call connected before long.
“Chief Manager Seo, it’s me.”
— Yes, go ahead.
“I’ll need you to handle the cleanup here. The location is….”
Even as he issued instructions, Gyohyun’s eyes refused to leave Siyun.
3.
“There’s no need to worry too much. He only lost consciousness briefly — he should come around shortly.”
The doctor said as he packed away his things into his bag. He appeared to be in his mid-sixties, with a gentle, mild-mannered face, and despite having been called out so late at night, he remained composed.
“The bruising on the neck is the most visible injury, but the bump on the back of the head will likely hurt more. I’ll leave some ointment, so when he wakes up, apply it for him.”
“Yes.”
“By the way, who is he?”
