‘Hyung! I really like you the most in the whole world!’
‘At least wet your lips before you lie.’
‘I’m not lying! I really like hyung the most! The most!’
‘Really?’
‘Yeah, really! When I grow up, I’ll earn lots of money and make you live well, hyung. I’ll make you the happiest person in the world!’
‘You won’t forget those words, right? You’ll definitely keep them, right?’
‘Yeah! Should I write a pledge?’
‘What, where did you learn the word pledge?’
‘Of course I know it. It’s a promise that I’ll definitely do this for you.’
‘Oh, our ■■ is smart. Okay, write me a pledge. That way you won’t say something different later.’
‘I’m someone who keeps promises well, like you, hyung.’
‘……’
‘I’m going to become a smart, cool, and amazing person like you, hyung!’
***
“Hah…!”
Mua opened his eyes while gasping for breath roughly. He’d had a terribly horrifying nightmare after so long. Being possessed in a human body was already irritating to death, and now he had to have nightmares too. Anyway, there was really nothing good about being human.
He couldn’t tell if what was flowing down his eyes was tears or sweat. His stomach churned and he felt miserable. He felt fortunate that he couldn’t remember well the face of the child who had lovingly called him hyung in the nightmare, but then his heart ached because that too was grievous.
How did I escape from this pain, only to feel these feelings again? Frustrated and wronged, while also wondering if I’d ever really escaped this pain at all, I just wanted to cry my eyes out.
Not wanting to fall asleep again, Mua tried to rise, and only then realized his body wouldn’t move as he wished. A light of realization briefly appeared over his moistly wet eyes. It seemed he had sleep paralysis.
Mua didn’t try to move forcibly but rolled his eyes around. He saw a black form standing at his feet as if it had been waiting. It was his fellow grim reaper, Sangmyeong.
What were you doing to only come now!
Mua glared at him and shouted inwardly. Since he had sleep paralysis, he didn’t know if his glare actually showed. Naturally, not even a bit of sound leaked out.
Still, perhaps because they’d spent about 70 years together, Sangmyeong seemed to recognize Mua’s energy and rolled his eyes. Sangmyeong said.
[Hey, I had my circumstances too.]
It was frivolous speech hard to see from a grim reaper. It wasn’t strange since it was words to a friend. Most grim reapers except Mua all spoke normally like Sangmyeong.
Mua stirred his body, hoping the circumstances he was talking about would please be about how he’d been busy finding a way to escape him from this shitty human body. Though trapped in a human shell, he was a grim reaper belonging to the Afterlife, and not being able to converse freely even with a colleague was frustrating beyond measure.
[Anyway, we’re continuing to look for the person who pulled this stunt, but it’s amazing how we can’t catch any traces. As if they’ve completely evaporated from the world.]
However, contrary to Mua’s wishes, Sangmyeong’s following words only made things more frustrating.
[If they caused something that greatly deviates from the natural order to this extent, surely that person also took a blow. But seeing how their tail can’t be caught even like this, maybe someone intentionally erased the traces.]
In the end, it meant they hadn’t found out anything yet. Mua sighed inwardly.
In truth, the Afterlife wasn’t much different from the human world. While there were those who silently did their assigned work well, there were also bastards who slacked off out of sight, and bastards who just killed time wandering around aimlessly—all sorts.
At least rewards and punishments were fairer than the human world, but anyway, it meant even the Afterlife couldn’t comprehend all worldly affairs and solve every problem through will alone. The Afterlife was also part of the universe bound by the law of cause and effect, after all.
Then exactly how long should I wait?
Just as Mua listed his complaints inwardly, Sangmyeong answered simultaneously.
[However, there’s a high probability that the owner of that body you’re occupying is involved in this matter. I don’t know if they targeted you specifically, or if there was another purpose and you got caught up in it, but there’s a high probability the ritual that occurred that day is related to ‘Shin Mua.’]
Mua tried to nod as if agreeing, then realized his body wouldn’t move and just blinked.
[So Shin Mua’s memories are important… but you’re completely cut off from that kid’s memories, right? That’s because your soul and body haven’t properly bonded yet. Time will probably solve it.]
Mua grumbled in thought. So nothing was resolved and he had to keep staying in this body, right? A sigh naturally leaked out. Of course, he couldn’t actually exhale it.
To think sleep paralysis was such a frustrating thing. He felt like he understood why humans who occasionally noticed the grim reaper’s existence and got sleep paralysis made such a fuss trying to wake up.
[Anyway, so… even if it’s hard, just hang in there a bit. If ‘Shin Mua’ is involved, the culprit might be among those around him, so look into it.]
Oh, my poor fate. Mua mocked himself. Being suddenly possessed was wrongful enough to die, but now he had to work in this body too. Whether as a human or as a grim reaper, anyway, he was blessed with work.
[Then I’m going. I’ll come again if there’s something to tell you.]
With those words, Sangmyeong’s form gradually became hazy and soon disappeared. Mua released all the strength in his body and closed his eyes. Now that Sangmyeong had left too, he didn’t care whether the sleep paralysis lifted or not.
The bonding of soul and body. The words Sangmyeong left behind lingered in his mind.
The reason he couldn’t peek at his memories despite possessing ‘Shin Mua’ was probably because he wasn’t the owner of this body in the first place. But could he truly be reborn as the body’s owner just because time accumulated while occupying it?
If time really passed as Sangmyeong said, would Mua come to feel this body ‘as his own body’? Just imagining it felt dirty and left a bitter taste.
If ‘Shin Mua’ was really involved in this matter, reading his memories would be a great help. However, at the same time, Mua was worried. Even when that time came, could he maintain his identity as ‘Mua the grim reaper of the Afterlife’?
Meanwhile, he felt his rigidly stiff body gradually loosening. Mua didn’t open his eyes but lay on his side and curled up. It was a movement as natural as an old habit, but he couldn’t tell if it was the body’s habit or his own habit as a soul.
Because memories from when he was human had now almost disappeared. What remained was only the reason he’d reached death and the rage of the moment he’d thrust a knife into his own neck with his own hand.
‘Just how long do you intend to carry the karma you created yourself?’
He recalled Yeomra who clicked his tongue with a pitying face every time he faced him. Perhaps that person deliberately wasn’t taking him out of this human body to enlighten him.
Stingy bastard. Old fart.
Mua spewed out all sorts of complaints inwardly and curled up more. It was a spiteful dawn when there was clearly someone he wanted to see, yet now even that face was too faint to come to mind.
***
“Just white rice… he was just scooping it up and eating…?”
Suchan, who had rushed over from the morning wind carrying coffee at Jieon’s urging, made a dumbfounded face after hearing about last night’s commotion. No wonder he’d dragged him into his room as soon as he arrived home. It definitely wasn’t something to say in the living room.
“I’m telling you! Without even turning on the light, just sitting blankly at the table, expressionlessly eating rice with a spoon like this, like this.”
Jieon nodded vigorously and personally mimicked Shin Mua’s appearance that he’d seen last night. Jieon’s reenactment of blankly bringing a spoon to his mouth as if his soul had left looked like someone not in their right mind no matter who saw it.
“So you mean with absolutely no side dishes at all?”
“Ah, how many times do I have to say it? He just ate rice, I’m telling you! With just one bowl containing white rice!”
“No, it’s because it’s too strange. Hey, I’m getting goosebumps.”
Suchan trembled his shoulders in a way that didn’t suit his large build. Jieon also shook his head.
“How do you think I felt? Me, who was in the same house as that psycho.”
“And after that, nothing else happened? Like he tried to enter your room or something.”
“As if he’d dare come in.”
“No, I’m asking because I thought he might have suddenly turned around and tried to do something.”
“There was nothing after that, but….”
He couldn’t bring himself to say out of pride that he’d locked the door because he was scared he might come into his room. Suchan began walking around the room with a serious face, muttering.
“At that level, didn’t something really go wrong with his mind? Amnesia isn’t the problem.”
“I don’t know either. He was originally kind of strange and creepy, but not to this extent.”
Jieon had entered into a contract marriage purely because of his grandfather. Three years ago, his grandfather, who had reached death’s threshold from a myocardial infarction, had become markedly weaker afterward.
His grandfather’s biggest worry, showing anxiety as if he’d die tomorrow, was his grandson who had no parents and wasn’t married. At that time, Jieon was only twenty-four, excessively young to marry, but his grandfather rather hoped he’d marry quickly, establish a family, and live a stable life.
It was probably because of the anxiety that once he died, no one would truly take care of Jieon like real family. He knew better than anyone how Jieon would have been treated growing up in this fierce household if he hadn’t been there.
His grandfather said it was his last wish before dying and told him to marry a good companion. Since he could give him wealth anyway, he desperately hoped he’d just meet a ‘good person’ who would sincerely love and cherish Jieon and spend a lifetime together.
And at that time, all that mattered to Jieon was only his grandfather. There was nothing he couldn’t do for his grandfather.
If his uncle hadn’t presented the solution of a contract marriage then, he would have chosen someone from a household his grandfather would like and married them. Looking back now, perhaps that would have been the better choice.
That’s how Jieon contracted with Shin Mua with his uncle’s help. Not that he had any mind to blame his uncle. Like himself, his uncle couldn’t have dreamed Shin Mua would be this kind of person either.
