“What exactly did you come here for?”
“To see his face. When an old person injures their bones, they might never get up again.”
Meaning he came to see his face because this might be the last time. Old Man Kang seemed like he’d live long, having lived his whole life buried in medicinal herbs, but human life and death couldn’t be guaranteed. Humans who met with smiles today often died tomorrow. Moreover, Old Man Kang was well over eighty. That age meant he could grasp the Reaper’s hand and head to the underworld at any time.
“Human time passes quickly.”
Shim Iyul muttered quietly as he got in the car. Would they really live even a hundred years at most? Though Shim Iyul lived among humans and had chosen a human as his companion, sometimes he resented his mother. Why did she raise him like a human? Why did she, a Fire Fox, fall in love with his human father? Back then, human lifespans were even shorter than now. Compared to the life of a Fire Fox who lived for several hundred years, his human father’s lifespan must have been a mere instant, yet why did his mother willingly take his father as her husband? Looking back at their days together, his mother was always happy and never showed anxiety about parting.
During the 99 days he chose Mr. Park and lived with him, Shim Iyul was always anxious. The more he held him in his heart, the more he feared the approaching separation. His feelings toward a human made Shim Iyul weak.
‘Ah, I should check if the fox bead is safe.’
Shortly before being killed by the White Fox, his mother had passed down the fox bead to him as if she’d sensed her death, and he’d hidden it in the ginseng field. It was the size of an adult’s fist, so it was cumbersome to carry around.
“You must have been quite close.”
Eun Seonmyeong spoke listlessly as he started driving. Shim Iyul, putting aside his thoughts, looked at Eun Seonmyeong.
“I suppose so.”
Because he was the first human I befriended.
“Did you seduce him and sleep with him?”
“Hey, do you think I seduce just anyone? And Old Man Kang is a friend. I don’t sleep with friends.”
There was a time when he went around seducing humans indiscriminately, but it was just a phase. After meeting the Master, he didn’t sleep with anyone. During the long years of befriending Old Man Kang, he’d gone through heat cycles three times, but he’d never once thought to easily get through his heat by mating with him.
“A friend to a fox—how funny.”
“Are you jealous? That I have a friend. You said you don’t have friends.”
“Who said that?”
“The shaman. It makes sense though. Your temper is so foul.”
Eun Seonmyeong muttered, “Ban Hanseong, that bastard, he blabbered all sorts of things,” and gritted his teeth. He was only the Gaju in name—Ban Hanseong was someone who would confess even his weaknesses if the Fire Fox asked.
“Want to experience that foul temper?”
Eun Seonmyeong changed lanes toward the shoulder.
“Hey! This is a highway!”
Eun Seonmyeong looked ready to abandon Shim Iyul on the highway.
“Don’t provoke my temper, okay? I’ll abandon you.”
“Yes.”
Shim Iyul answered obediently, then grumbled, “Acting all high and mighty with just one car. I should just buy one myself, damn it.” In his own way, he’d turned his body toward the window and grumbled without showing his face, but it was all heard.
“I can hear everything.”
“Oh my, Hunter-nim. You have such sharp ears. This isn’t flattery, it’s provocation.”
Shim Iyul stuck out his lips in a strange expression and confessed this was provocation. Eun Seonmyeong, who had stopped the car after entering a traffic jam, grabbed and shook Shim Iyul’s lips.
“Exactly how much time is left until your heat? You said a few months, right?”
Shim Iyul, who had been rubbing his lips, folded his fingers one by one to count the remaining time.
“About 4 months left.”
“That’s long.”
Four months—longer than expected.
***
As soon as they arrived in Seoul, he summoned Ban Hanseong, saying he’d do as promised, and he arrived as if flying. Then he bowed deeply to Shim Iyul.
“Thank you, Fox-nim.”
Shim Iyul, who’d been sitting on the hall swinging his legs, nodded saying, “Good.” Eun Seonmyeong, coming out with a porcelain bottle the size of his palm containing the Spring of Memory water, was flabbergasted at the sight.
“Why are you thanking the fox? I’m the one doing the work.”
Maybe I shouldn’t do it after all.
“Surely Fox-nim must have worked various schemes to persuade the Gaju. So it’s right to thank Fox-nim.”
“You just live with Seolju forever.”
He’d naturally planned to call Han Seolju once the fox’s heat ended, but it would be better to leave him at Ban Hanseong’s house. Naturally to torture Ban Hanseong. Ban Hanseong jumped in horror.
“Wh-what kind of terrible thing are you saying?!! Just one night yesterday and I think I lost about 5kg. Don’t you see my skeletal appearance?”
Ban Hanseong thrust forward his face, which was plump and glossy.
“Skeletal, my ass. You’re chubby.”
“Chubby? Look again properly!”
“Shut up. Kid, come here closer.”
Eun Seonmyeong pushed away Ban Hanseong, who kept thrusting his face forward telling him to look, with his palm, then beckoned to the Dongjagwi. Lee Seungjin approached hesitantly.
“Drink this.”
After dropping a few drops of spring water into a teacup and holding it out, Lee Seungjin looked between Shim Iyul and Ban Hanseong’s faces. He seemed to be asking if it was okay to drink.
“Seungjin-ah, drink it quickly. Quickly.”
Only after hearing Ban Hanseong’s affectionate words did Lee Seungjin seem reassured and tilted the teacup to drink the spring water. The child’s eyes, which had been clear, became hazy. Eun Seonmyeong attached a protective talisman to his back so the spiritual energy wouldn’t extinguish the child’s body, then placed his palm on the crown of his head. Then he gradually poured in spiritual energy.
“U-uuuuh…”
Even though he’d attached a protective talisman, the Hunter’s spiritual energy couldn’t be harmless to the Dongjagwi’s body, so soon the child’s face twisted in pain.
Eun Seonmyeong removed his hand when Lee Seungjin’s soul began to waver. Then the child collapsed with a thud.
“Seungjin-ah! Are you okay?”
Ban Hanseong quickly approached and embraced Lee Seungjin.
“Do you remember anything? The day you died.”
Lee Seungjin remained dazed for a while longer, then muttered, “Grandmother.”
“Grandmother?”
“Grandmother said she’d take me to Mom. So we went to the department store together. Mom was busy, so she bought me tteokbokki!”
“There was a grandmother?”
“The landlady grandmother!”
Ban Hanseong still seemed confused, but Eun Seonmyeong and Shim Iyul immediately understood who he meant.
“Who’s the landlady grandmother?”
Ban Hanseong asked in a puzzled voice.
“Who is that? Hyung, when can I see Mom?”
“Didn’t you just say landlady grandmother?”
“The memory scattered. There’s no use asking anymore.”
The forcibly recalled memory had scattered immediately.
“Already? If we use it one more time…”
“Then the kid’s soul will crumble to dust. The spring water was used from the beginning to obtain what was desired even if it meant shattering a ghost’s soul.”
Though it drained the Hunter’s stamina since spiritual energy had to be poured in, it was a greater burden on the ghost who had to receive the spiritual energy. He’d read records of using the spring water to find hidden money from a miserly ghost who only had greed and didn’t know how to give, to learn the names of comrades from a traitor who’d been executed for treason and become a ghost wandering the king’s bedchamber, and so on. Naturally, souls that drank the spring water and were forcibly made to recall memories from when they were human turned to dust and scattered. It was an act solely for human convenience that didn’t consider the ghost’s circumstances at all. The Eun family were exorcists and a Hunter clan. Naturally, they could only be thoroughly on the side of humans.
“Wh-why didn’t you say it was such a thing?!”
Ban Hanseong touched various parts of Lee Seungjin’s body to check if he was okay.
“I was careful when using it, so the kid will be fine.”
“Haah, we took such a risk but learned so little.”
Ban Hanseong’s shoulders drooped in disappointment.
“Why is there little?”
“What is there?”
“He said he went to a department store with the landlady grandmother. He must be talking about the old woman from the landlord’s family where Seungjin lived.”
Eun Seonmyeong frowned, recalling the old woman who’d said Lee Seungjin had a serious illness and was talking nonsense.
“Then that landlady grandmother person abandoned Seungjin at the snack bar and left?”
“We’ll have to look into that now.”
“That old woman seemed to have dementia.”
Shim Iyul, recalling when he’d spied on the old woman through a sparrow, spoke. She seemed to have dementia, believing a memory completely different from her daughter-in-law’s to be the truth.
“Dementia… Then we’ll have to tamper with the old woman’s memory too.”
Eun Seonmyeong, who had prepared goehoangji infused with spiritual energy cut into a bird shape, left the house. He planned to tamper with the old woman’s memory to find out how the Dongjagwi died, then immediately take him to his mother who’d been wailing so much. And then send him off.
“I’ll stay behind, so please send Seungjin off well.”
Ban Hanseong said in front of the gate. Eun Seonmyeong, who’d guessed he wouldn’t come along, nodded silently.
“Are we going to see Mom now?”
When Ban Hanseong nodded at the question full of anticipation, Lee Seungjin jumped around like a rabbit in joy.
“Seungjin-ah, farewell.”
“Hyung, goodbye.”
“Yes. Go well. Meet your mother well.”
Eun Seonmyeong looked pathetically at Ban Hanseong, who was finally sniffling and crying, then got in the car. Then he headed to the old woman’s house.
