“Hey, are you okay?”
Jieon reflexively asked while checking on him. Normally he wouldn’t have worried about Shin Mua, but perhaps because he’d suddenly witnessed such an abnormal scene, he instinctively checked on the person before his eyes.
However, Shin Mua, the recipient of Cheon Jieon’s concern, had a rather dissatisfied expression.
“What are you doing?”
“Huh…?”
At the unexpectedly cold voice, Jieon made a stupid sound before finally coming to his senses and looking at Shin Mua. He had a strangely annoyed, indifferent expression.
“I’m asking why you suddenly barged in.”
Moreover, the question was strange. Without even knowing what had just happened, Shin Mua was reproaching Jieon as if he’d interrupted something important.
As his surprise faded, absurdity filled its place.
“What are you even saying? Hey, do you know what was just here?”
At that moment, Mua’s eyes flashed.
“Here? You, did you just see something here?”
“Uh, what…?”
Mua asked with such fierce eyes that Jieon was flustered again. Mua urged him to answer.
“I’m asking if you saw Sangmyeong.”
“Sangmyeong…? That, that black shadow that was here… do you know them?”
Even as Jieon spoke, he was utterly bewildered by what he was even saying. Honestly, he couldn’t even be certain whether the form he’d seen earlier was a hallucination or had truly existed, yet Shin Mua was referring to it as if it were a friend.
“Not someone I know, but a fellow Grim Reaper who worked with me in the Afterlife.”
“Fellow… Grim Reaper….”
“But how did you see him? You, did you have an innate spiritual sense?”
“No, well… I didn’t see it clearly, it just seemed like there was something shadow-like… and it suddenly reached its hand toward you, so I thought it was dangerous and…”
Jieon obediently rattled off his answer as if he’d never shown his sharp edge toward him. With situations beyond common sense continuously occurring, even Jieon found it hard to keep his wits about him.
“You say you didn’t see it properly, but even so, this isn’t common….”
Mua was just as frazzled in his own way. Though he hadn’t brought any great information, Sangmyeong had come to visit and Mua had been rather glad, when Cheon Jieon suddenly barged in and woke him up. Because of that, he couldn’t hear Sangmyeong’s words to the end.
That alone was surprising, but hearing Jieon’s words, it seemed he’d even seen Sangmyeong, albeit faintly. Ordinary people can’t sense a Grim Reaper’s presence even if one is right next to them.
That wasn’t the only surprising thing. Though brief, Jieon had clearly been worried about him. He might have done it because in his own way it was an urgent situation, but usually one’s true nature shows more at such times.
“I know you and yet I don’t.”
Mua didn’t hide his puzzlement and spoke his thoughts.
“Wouldn’t it be better for you if Shin Mua just died?”
It was an honest question. If Cheon Jieon loathed Shin Mua that much, if Shin Mua had made Cheon Jieon’s life that terrible, Jieon might have even wished for him to die.
“Huh?”
Cheon Jieon answered with a still-dazed face. Since he wasn’t frowning, it finally felt like Jieon’s real age was showing. A face that hadn’t even reached thirty yet, that looked far too young and youthful in Mua’s eyes.
“Whether I’m really Shin Mua or not, anyway, if this body just died, you would be able to completely escape from Shin Mua as you so desired.”
“What on earth are you saying…”
“But why do you worry about my well-being?”
It wasn’t necessarily about what just happened. Mua had seen it. Cheon Jieon’s face as he held the bleeding wound that ‘Shin Mua’ had inflicted on himself, desperately trying to stop the bleeding somehow.
If he’d left him alone, if he’d pretended it was an accident and helped just a little later, Jieon would have become more easily comfortable without coming this far. Even if there was some noise in the process, didn’t his family have the ability to easily bury it?
And yet, why was Cheon Jieon still now, still unable to even divorce Shin Mua, struggling so desperately? That fundamental question arose.
In the dawn air, the two looked into each other’s eyes. Jieon quietly opened his mouth.
“Do you think I’m some kind of psychopath?”
It was quite a gentle tone compared to his usual one.
“No matter what, how could someone wish for a person to die?”
Mua’s lips twitched. A strange emotion welled up. Some humans kill people without a second thought over just a few pennies. There are humans who leave dying children on cold floors, afraid they’ll be punished.
Mua had seen such humans countless times. He wanted to say that. Aren’t humans originally like that? Your family that raised you must have made their wealth in just such ways too. So what makes you different that you act noble all by yourself? Such sharp words thrashed about on the tip of Mua’s tongue.
“…I see.”
But Mua swallowed back those blade-like sentences and quietly murmured.
At the same time, he had also experienced other kinds of humans. Humans who sacrificed for others, humans who gave up their last spoonful of rice for an injured animal, humans who jumped into flames to save a child not related by blood, and he’d seen countless humans who held a Grim Reaper’s hand and crossed the river of the Afterlife.
It wasn’t that Mua hated humans without knowing such people existed. It wasn’t that.
“Anyway, the form you saw earlier is my colleague, so you don’t need to be too frightened. He won’t cause any harm to you or me.”
“Hey! Who, who said I was frightened? I just, I just didn’t know what it was.”
Jieon snapped back loudly as if he’d never answered obediently. This child still hasn’t grown up. Mua unconsciously nodded.
“Right. You just didn’t know what it was. Now that you know, go to bed.”
It was somehow a tone like coaxing a child. Jieon felt that strange sense of disconnect, but unable to retort further because the atmosphere Mua was giving off now was unfamiliar, he turned away.
A difficult dawn was passing for both the human of the Living World and the being from the Afterlife.
***
“…Jieon!”
“Huh?”
Jieon was startled and turned his head at Suchan’s voice suddenly calling him. Suchan, sitting in the driver’s seat, was looking back at him with a puzzled expression.
“What were you thinking about so deeply that you can’t even hear someone calling you?”
“Huh? Me?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh, I guess I just spaced out for a moment. Why did you call me?”
Suchan let out a hollow laugh.
“It’s not why I called. We’ve arrived at your home, young master.”
Hearing Suchan’s playful words, Jieon looked around. Only then did familiar scenery enter his eyes.
“Ah, we’re here already….”
Jieon muttered awkwardly and unbuckled his seatbelt. He truly hadn’t realized they’d arrived home.
“Do you really have something going on?”
At Jieon’s appearance, still seeming half out of it, Suchan asked in an even more worried voice.
He’d been like this all day. It was good that he’d moved enthusiastically, saying he’d go to the company after a long time, but in between he kept seeming spaced out, making Suchan wonder if he was okay.
“If you’re still not feeling well, don’t push yourself too hard.”
The hospital said there were no major problems now, but separately from that, Suchan had some lingering anxiety. The accident aside, his health had been so poor even before that his worry was considerable.
Right before the accident, he’d been getting nosebleeds several times a day even while just sitting still. An accident on top of that, so even if the hospital said he was fine, it was only natural not to feel at ease.
“It’s not like that.”
Jieon waved his hand dismissively and got out of the car. Push himself? His condition was at its best—he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d felt this good. His head had just been complicated since what happened with Shin Mua yesterday, but it seemed awkward to explain in detail, so he just kept his mouth shut.
“I welcome that you’re thinking of working properly, but your body is important first, so there’s no need to strain yourself unnecessarily.”
Still worried, Suchan walked close beside Jieon, muttering.
“I told you I’m not unwell.”
Jieon repeatedly reassured him while trying to organize his still-chaotic thoughts.
Honestly, the reason he’d bothered to leave the house with Suchan today was to think while away from Shin Mua. Shin Mua kept hovering before his eyes, making his insides noisy so he couldn’t make rational judgments, so he’d wanted to clear his head somewhere without him.
It had failed. Even with Shin Mua not by his side, his insides kept being noisy, so it wasn’t much different from having him right there.
“I really don’t know what the problem is either.”
Jieon muttered in a small voice so Suchan wouldn’t hear and walked gloomily. Then he opened the front door of the house they’d arrived at and entered.
“Ah, holy shit, you scared me!!”
It was right then that Jieon’s scream suddenly rang out through the living room.
