Composing his tangled thoughts as best he could in the face of the man’s unruffled demeanor, Siyun continued.
“But I have a backlog of orders, so it would be difficult to start work right away.”
“That’s a problem.”
Siyun flinched.
“…Pardon?”
Gyohyun slowly began to move. Every time his wet shoes pressed against the wooden floor, the creak rang out particularly loud.
Siyun instinctively stepped backward without thinking.
“If you could p-put in an order form, I can get back to you tomorrow—”
“Today.”
The man cut him off with a single, clipped word.
“Today seems like the only option.”
There was a strange pressure woven into the man’s voice. A tone that hadn’t anticipated refusal — as though he simply assumed it would be granted. And overwhelmed by that force, Siyun ended up letting the man inside after all.
“P-please, come in.”
* * *
Siyun stood in the break room, waiting for the water in the kettle to boil.
His mind had gone blank, as if he’d been bewitched.
Standing before the break room, Siyun’s hands trembled finely. He had been so startled that his heart was still beating faster than usual.
He still wasn’t sure whether this was a dream or reality. Siyun recalled the scene from just a few minutes ago.
“I’m Lee Gyohyun.”
The moment he took the business card the man extended to him, Siyun’s breath had stopped.
Lee Gyohyun — Executive Director, Hyosung Group.
Even someone with no interest in business would know Hyosung Group. So why on earth would an executive director of a company like that come looking for him?
“Huu.”
He poured hot water into the mug and the teabag floated up. Swallowing down the sigh that threatened to escape, Siyun turned around.
The man sat with his legs crossed, lazily scanning Siyun’s workshop. The shabby little space — not even thirty square meters — felt completely full because of his presence alone.
“…Please, help yourself.”
The man reached his hand toward the mug, and beneath the light, his shadow stretched long across the workshop floor. Seeing that brought Siyun a quiet sense of relief. He was definitely human.
Supernatural entities — the kind commonly called ghosts — mostly lacked a clear, defined form. But occasionally there were those whose appearance was so distinct it was hard to tell whether they were a ghost or a person. Those were extremely dangerous.
The shaman had told him that Siyun’s energy was so pure and strong that wandering spirits might play tricks on him but wouldn’t be able to cause him serious harm. But paradoxically, that also meant spirits with real power could cause harm. The shaman must have worried about exactly that, because she had told him that in such cases, he shouldn’t look back — just run.
“…….”
Now it was pure curiosity that had Siyun stealing glances at the man. The man called Lee Gyohyun was beyond handsome — he was like a meticulously crafted piece of artisan work.
In all his life, he had never actually seen someone who looked like that in person. Neatly arranged dark hair swept smoothly over a clean forehead, and his features were so close to perfect that the man himself felt unreal — as though he had stepped out of a painting.
Is he actually human? The doubt surfacing again had Siyun narrowing his eyes — and then he heard a quiet, low laugh.
Startled by the sound, he lifted his head — and those mismatched eyes, he didn’t know since when, were staring straight at him.
Siyun’s expression went blank. Just moments ago he had nearly buckled at what he thought was the gaze of a wild beast. But seen in the light, the man’s eyes were less frightening than they were otherworldly.
“Cha Siyun.”
“Yes— yes?”
At the delayed response, Gyohyun let out another soft laugh.
“Interesting.”
“?”
“I was curious what the person who nearly made a fool of me would look like….”
More simple-minded than I expected.
The last part was spoken so quietly it was nearly inaudible. Siyun blinked his large eyes, completely at a loss.
“Pardon?”
Had he heard wrong? Siyun tilted his head — and the man drew something from his pocket.
“I’ll get straight to the point.”
Siyun snapped to attention at what followed.
“Was this made here?”
What the man showed him was a car keyring. Roughly two finger joints long — the leather was plain and rectangular, the space unassuming. And yet Siyun recognized it immediately.
“Oh?”
He would, of course — the keyring was decorated with gold and diamonds.
It must have been about two months ago. A customer had come to the workshop in person, wanting a keyring made. He usually took orders online, so the fact that this person had come in person made it more memorable. The client had presented a design they’d drawn themselves along with the materials, and asked him to make it exactly as shown.
But their request had put Siyun in a difficult position. The making itself wasn’t particularly hard — it was the materials the client had brought that tripped him up. He had thought at first they might be cubic zirconia, but when he realized they were actual diamonds, he nearly dropped them on the floor.
Siyun had hesitated, feeling like he couldn’t possibly handle something like this. But in the end, he’d had no choice but to accept. Of all people, the one who had referred this client to him was the landlord of the building where the workshop was located.
He had taken on the job with a sense of reluctant resignation, but anxiety had clung to him the entire time. What if I lose one? What if it gets scratched?
All of that had made the work take twice as long as usual.
“Yes, that’s mine — I made it. But….”
Siyun felt a sudden pang of worry. Had something gone wrong? Like the diamond count being off, or perhaps—
But that couldn’t be. When he had handed it over, he had verified the count together with the client and kept photographs. Siyun pictured the photos of the finished piece he’d saved to the cloud. Then had a diamond come loose and fallen out because it wasn’t set securely enough?
The materials had been so valuable that the worry hit him immediately. He’d used thicker leather just to be safe, secured the metal plate firmly to the leather before setting the stones — and even then, unable to trust that alone, had gone so far as to do a full bezel setting to enclose each diamond completely.
With a nervous heart, Siyun carefully examined the keyring the man had handed over. Then he tilted his head with a puzzled look.
“It doesn’t seem… like there’s anything wrong with it.”
Contrary to his worry, the diamonds were firmly set into the leather, and there was no distortion in the leather itself. Siyun started to hand the keyring back — then stopped.
Come to think of it, the client at the time had asked for a personal initial stamp instead of the workshop name. It wasn’t an unusual request, so Siyun had agreed without any issue.
“Oh?”
Siyun quickly checked the inside of the keyring. And his expression stiffened. If this belonged to Lee Gyohyun, it should read L.G.H — but the initial stamped into the leather was Y.H.S. His thoughts grew complicated, and his eyes flickered with unease.
The man extended his hand to take the keyring back. Siyun closed his fingers and held it in his grip.
“Excuse me, this… is this actually yours?”
He asked — and immediately regretted it.
“What I mean is—”
“No.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s not mine.”
“…….”
Siyun closed his lips.
“There is an owner — but if it goes missing, they probably won’t care.”
The corners of Gyohyun’s eyes curved faintly.
