“……!”
How long had he been asleep? Mua, who suddenly opened his eyes at a sharp energy, realized his body wouldn’t move. He tried twisting his body this way and that in surprise, but all he could move freely were his eyeballs—he couldn’t budge even a finger.
Don’t tell me I’m… experiencing sleep paralysis?
A grim reaper experiencing sleep paralysis. Flustered only briefly at the unexpected situation, Mua, who soon realized something, stopped struggling and rolled his eyes around to observe his surroundings.
On a cot some distance away, the caregiver was sleeping soundly, and beyond the open hospital room door was only the dark shadow of night… wait a moment. The open hospital room door? Had the hospital room door been left open?
Mua searched his memory. The owner of this body, ‘Shin Mua,’ was practically Cinderella who had married a third-generation chaebol. The public’s attention would already be focused on the chaebol family’s traffic accident, so there was no way they’d have fallen asleep with the hospital room door open.
His heart began to pound fiercely. The excessively human reaction of his body was unpleasant, but that wasn’t what was important right now. Unable to turn his head, Mua stared at the hospital room door almost glaring, and began to see a heterogeneous shadow different from ordinary darkness in his eyes.
Of course! There’s no way they’d leave me like this!
Mua cheered inwardly. Of course, his body still wouldn’t move and no voice came out.
Soon the shadow gradually took form, and Mua immediately recognized that form.
Sangmyeong.
A colleague who had gone around collecting souls paired with Mua when going out to scenes that required multiple grim reapers. Mua, who tried to hurriedly call him, realized his mouth wouldn’t open and rolled his eyes. He felt like he’d die of frustration.
Having never experienced sleep paralysis even in life, Mua only now understood just a little bit the feelings of those who groaned while experiencing sleep paralysis with terrified faces.
[What kind of state is this?]
At that moment, Sangmyeong, who had fully taken form, approached Mua’s bedside and asked. It was what Mua wanted to say. I’m seriously dying here, but Sangmyeong’s somewhat provoking tone grated on him.
[Are you okay?]
Would you be okay if you were me? Does this look okay to you?
Instead of opening his mouth to speak, Mua just twitched the corners of his mouth and groaned. His bloodless, pale face grinned.
[Ah, you have sleep paralysis so you can’t talk.]
This bastard, really.
Mua’s eyebrows twitched. It seemed Sangmyeong wasn’t just seemingly provoking him but was really provoking him. Whether his opponent was angry or not, he continued speaking while examining the immobile Mua from various angles.
[Don’t be mad at me. This was the best option. The bond between the grim reaper’s soul and the body you entered isn’t complete, so I couldn’t appear before you unless it was in this state.]
Mua sighed inwardly. It was understandable. The beings of the Afterlife couldn’t reveal themselves before humans just any time. That too was only possible when the human’s state and situation, as well as the grim reaper’s abilities, aligned.
Mua squeezed his eyes shut. Really, what a state to be in. A grim reaper with sleep paralysis—like this, even after returning to the Afterlife, he’d clearly be teased for a full fifty years.
The problem was also that while he had many things he wanted to ask, Mua couldn’t actually speak. He tried repeatedly calling him and speaking to him in his head in case Sangmyeong might read his thoughts, but there was no response. Well, grim reapers weren’t mind readers, so he couldn’t blame him.
[Anyway… first, the situation we’ve figured out so far is this. Someone interfered with the Afterlife’s work. Hyung Gangrim said that when you tried to collect that soul that day, there was some kind of powerful ritual of unknown identity in the Living World. You were unluckily swept up in it.]
Mua recalled the tremendous wave of energy he’d felt before losing consciousness. That had definitely been unnatural.
[Lord Yeomra was incredibly furious. He said there was a human who broke a taboo. But even the Afterlife hasn’t fully figured out exactly what kind of gut they performed or what its purpose was yet. We’re continuing to investigate… but the other side seems formidable too. They’ve put up layers and layers of smoke screens, so it’s hard to find out.]
Well, those who performed such a tremendous ritual capable of exerting this much power on a grim reaper couldn’t have handled things sloppily.
Mua wriggled his shoulders hard. It was a signal to hurry up and get him out. Once he escaped this human body and became free, he planned to properly dig into this case.
[So here’s the thing….]
But the Afterlife didn’t consider Mua’s will at all.
[You’ll have to stay in that body for the time being.]
What? What kind of crazy talk is that!
Mua asked back vehemently. Naturally, in his mind.
[So, this is something humans did. There are inevitably limits to investigating from the Afterlife… you understand, right? Of course, I know well how much you hate humans. So I’m sorry too.]
Sangmyeong, who knew better than anyone how much Mua loathed humans, smiled awkwardly.
[But the order came down like that, so what can I, just a grim reaper, do? If they say do it, I have to do it. We’ll do our best to figure it out too, so… you also try to find out as much as you can while you’re there for the time being.]
What in the world is this? What does it mean to keep staying in a human body?
[You happened to enter a human from a family with lots of money and power, so it’s a good opportunity, right? You know what I mean? Don’t be too angry.]
Damn Afterlife bastards. No wonder they haven’t come looking for me until now—they were pulling this stunt.
As he became furious and tensed his body, sensation began to return faintly starting from his fingertips.
[Ahem, well then, I’m busy so I’ll be going. I’ll come visit again in a few days! Don’t cause trouble and stay stuck to that body, got it? I’m leaving!]
And the moment Mua’s fingertips moved, Sangmyeong, who hurriedly left his greeting, disappeared like smoke. What timing worthy of a grim reaper—ghost-like.
“You, can’t you come back here right now!!”
As soon as the sleep paralysis lifted, Mua bolted upright in bed and shouted.
“What?! Wh-what’s wrong!”
Because of that, the caregiver who had been sleeping well until now was startled and flustered. Mua sat on the bed fuming, then soon lay down as if collapsing, unable to bear the pain. Because he’d suddenly exerted force, his broken limbs hurt as if screaming.
“I won’t let this go….”
“Are you all right? Should I call the doctor?”
Mua couldn’t even stop the fussing caregiver and groaned. Just wait till I get back to the Afterlife. Gangrim, Yeomra—I won’t let any of them off. Writhing in unpleasant pain, Mua ground his teeth.
***
“This is so absurd I can’t even speak.”
Unable to bear the stifling atmosphere where even breathing freely was difficult, Jieon grumbled discontentedly. Next to such a Jieon sat Mua, who whether he did or not, just stared out the window with a serious expression.
Today was the day Jieon and Mua were being discharged from the hospital. The hospital would have coordinated it since the two’s recovery levels were similar and they were a married couple, but for Jieon, it was unnecessary kindness.
That said, he couldn’t just ignore Mua and be discharged alone. Anyway, the two were legally a married couple. For Shin Mua who had not a single relative, Cheon Jieon was the only guardian.
But to be discharged on the same day and move separately? Naturally, there would be talk. Jieon didn’t want to endure such a commotion. If the fact that they were divorcing became known, it would get noisy anyway—there was no need to be the subject of gossip already.
Even when divorcing, he had to do it as quietly and without problems as possible. Despite Jieon’s strong will, the reason the two’s divorce hadn’t happened yet was also because of the desire to minimize noise as much as possible.
Jieon knew. If it weren’t for his grandfather’s unconditional love, he would have grown up as a nuisance to be trampled on in this household.
Already facing severe checks as the eldest grandson, Jieon had to grow up without even a minimal fence because he’d lost his parents at too young an age. Not everyone in a family was a good person, after all.
The reason Jieon had pulled out of the succession fight early on and lived like a playboy was all because of that. He didn’t want to get involved in the mess, and more than anything, he didn’t want to be a burden to his grandfather.
Thanks to that, he became the subject of all sorts of rumors, but he didn’t care much. Not causing harm to his grandfather who truly cherished him—that was all Jieon cared about.
Anyway, Jieon wanted to finish the divorce as quietly as possible. If only Shin Mua had cooperated appropriately, it would have been that way. Then there wouldn’t have been the parallel traffic accident hospitalization today.
So from Cheon Jieon’s perspective, everything was Shin Mua’s fault. Even if it felt forced, it couldn’t be helped. But the very source of the problem, Shin Mua, was playing pathetic acting games and now was even setting the mood with a fierce expression.
“Why are you setting the mood? What did you do right?”
Unable to contain his irritation, Jieon finally complained openly next to Mua. Shameless didn’t even begin to describe it. It was absurd that he was still setting the mood when it was practically all exposed.
Only then did Shin Mua slowly turn his head to look at Jieon. Jieon’s brow furrowed when he confirmed that face. It was because Shin Mua’s complexion was deathly pale. Before Jieon could ask anything, Mua opened his mouth.
“I… don’t feel well.”
“…What?”
“I feel sick, urp…!”
Then he finally covered his mouth with one hand and started dry heaving. Jieon was shocked and pressed his back against the opposite side, shouting.
“Crazy, what’s wrong with you! What’s going on!”
“I don’t know. I feel really sick.”
At that moment, a thought flashed through Jieon’s mind and he asked.
“Don’t tell me, you didn’t eat breakfast?”
Mua tilted his head as if asking what that had to do with anything.
