Though his tone was indifferent, Sim Seowoo stared at him who ultimately wouldn’t meet his gaze. Right now, he couldn’t tell whether he was being sharp with him, annoyed, or embarrassed about what happened the other day. Maybe all three.
On the other hand, he recalled what Jin Gwangmin had said at lunch.
‘Since the Young Master hasn’t deployed for several days, strange talk is going around among the members. They’re saying maybe something went wrong from being bitten by the yokai and poisoned at the last site. The Elders are also keeping an eye on it…’
Since the Young Master used to force deployments no matter how much they tried to stop him in the past, this rest was even more noticeable. While the background was understandable, not even half a month had passed since that day, yet already having suspicions seemed too much.
Of course, Jin Gwangmin didn’t agree with such doubts at all and rather raised a strange speculation: ‘It seems the Young Master got pissed off about the Jaegui running wild and is trying to properly discipline those bastards.’…
Perhaps that’s why the Vice-Leader had deliberately sent the Young Master to the field too? To silence the noise circulating within the organization?
Anyway, Sim Seowoo nodded. Though he said in words that he was reluctantly looking after him, in any case, Cheon Yijae had blocked the ghost that had clung to him just now and also said he’d continue to protect him. Even though he’d been avoiding him because it was uncomfortable to meet, he’d still kept an eye on his condition, so it seemed he should thank him.
“Okay, thanks. Still, I’ll be more careful. …Yo.”
He’d unconsciously used informal speech. Though he’d often barely maintained honorifics by just attaching the ending before, this seemed to be the first time he’d blurted out irreversible informal speech like this. He’d even committed it three times in a row and only realized it at the end.
Of all times, in the first conversation with Cheon Yijae since “that day.”
‘If you really want to help me…’
‘Speak to me casually.’
Though Cheon Yijae had told him not to use honorifics first at that time, the person he’d truly wanted to speak casually to him probably wasn’t himself.
It must have been what he’d wanted from the person he’d overlaid onto himself that day.
He’d made a mistake while clearly knowing that Cheon Yijae had been avoiding him because he found what happened that day uncomfortable. If he wanted to treat that dawn as if it never happened, he should have returned to honorifics.
When Sim Seowoo awkwardly corrected his speech and closed his mouth firmly, Cheon Yijae made an extremely strange expression. As if seeing all sorts of peculiar behavior, he looked him up and down then soon shook his head.
“Forget it. I don’t care even if you speak casually. And isn’t it funny to return to honorifics now after speaking informally that day?”
“Still…”
“Besides, you speak honorifics strangely anyway.”
Mm, he couldn’t deny that…
Sim Seowoo awkwardly rolled his eyes to the side. Thinking about it carefully, it was really strange.
Originally, he was more comfortable and familiar with honorifics. He used honorifics to maintain an appropriate boundary and distance with others, and even at university, he only spoke informally to classmates he’d become acquainted with, and he’d also used polite speech with juniors until they felt too uncomfortable and then used informal speech.
Still, thinking he should naturally use honorifics at work, it had become ingrained like a habit from doing many part-time jobs since he was twenty, yet strangely, he kept speaking informally to Cheon Yijae. He used honorifics just fine with Do Seonhwa who was the same age, and also with Jin Gwangmin who was younger than Cheon Yijae, so why only with him?
He couldn’t understand the reason himself and was confused, but somehow Cheon Yijae’s gaze was fixed intently on him. With a look that seemed to force him to follow his words, in the end Sim Seowoo nodded as if pushed.
“Mmm, well, if it’s okay with you…”
Honestly, he himself had also tried to avoid it because using informal speech seemed like it would remind him of what happened that dawn, but there was no way to evade it.
Instead, he offered a condition that suddenly flashed in his mind.
“Ah, but I’ll use honorifics when we’re in the organization or with other people. You’re still the Young Master, after all.”
“…Do as you please.”
I should hurry and rejoin Do Seonhwa or Jin Gwangmin and move around with them.
As soon as he got Cheon Yijae’s consent, Sim Seowoo resolved inwardly. From now on, he absolutely wouldn’t move around separated from them and should stay close wherever and whenever. The problem of the ghost clinging to him just now might not have occurred if he’d been with them in the first place—his vigilance as a newcomer had been lacking.
Just as he was searching for the two with his eyes, Sim Seowoo paused at Cheon Yijae’s expression caught in his vision.
“…”
Cheon Yijae was smiling slightly. Though it was just a very faint smile with the corners of his mouth stretched slightly, Sim Seowoo could tell his mood had improved quite a bit. Like someone satisfied at finally obtaining informal speech.
Looking even relieved for a moment, Sim Seowoo reinforced his speculation again.
‘Do I really resemble “that person” a lot?’
Perhaps the reason he was accompanying him like a guard now was also because of that? Though he’d been reluctant to face him directly because of what happened that dawn, still worried that someone resembling “him” might be in danger?
The story he’d heard from Do Seonhwa a while ago came to mind.
‘From the moment the Young Master joined until now, there’s been no Purifier exclusively in charge of him.’
Until now, he’d speculated that his special person must be a Purifier based on the reactions Cheon Yijae showed whenever he received purification, but they’d said there was no Purifier who’d been close to him in the past. Still, it seemed certain that there was someone special to him, but maybe he shouldn’t limit it to just Purifiers?
Sim Seowoo was setting up various hypotheses when he suddenly sighed. Thinking he should also be careful since it was so apparent that Cheon Yijae considered that person special, he opened his mouth.
“Ah, just so you know, I haven’t told anyone about what happened that dawn. Not even about you being cursed by the Gwaeoggong. And, um…”
“…And?”
“It seems like the person you like is a man, but I don’t think that’s strange at all, so I wanted to tell you that you don’t need to worry about it.”
In reality, in an industry dealing with ghosts and yokai, would same-sex romance be anything special, but still, just in case, he said it. Cheon Yijae hadn’t revealed his orientation voluntarily but had ended up showing his emotions because he’d become confused after being cursed by the yokai.
So he spoke calmly, but somehow Cheon Yijae’s reaction was strange. As if hearing incomprehensible words, he tilted his head sideways and asked.
“What are you talking about?”
“Hm? I’m talking about how you mistook me for ‘hyung’ that you saw in your dream that day…”
That because of that mistake, he’d tried to embrace him at first, and afterward had also requested that he speak casually to him, and ultimately ended up kissing him, right?
At the gaze containing such questions, Cheon Yijae slowly sighed.
“…I see. That’s how you think about it.”
His attitude of organizing and accepting the realization was straightforward, but somehow his voice remained lowly sunken. The ash-colored eyes that had been directed at Sim Seowoo smoothly rolled away to the distance, but in the end returned to Seowoo again. The gaze that kept returning as if drawn by irresistible force ultimately remained on him as if resigned.
Slowly, Cheon Yijae, who had been leisurely rolling his eyes as if tracing Sim Seowoo’s outline, finally let out a pfft laugh. It was a small, dry chuckle.
“You thought I was mistaking you for someone else, yet you still managed to kiss me.”
“…?”
“If you don’t find ‘that aspect’ strange at all, can you kiss just anyone?”
At the question tossed out indifferently, Sim Seowoo blinked. In fact, at first he was belatedly reflecting that his behavior of adding words about his superior’s orientation seemed wrong, so he thought he was being sarcastic.
But looking at his attitude now, it seemed like he was questioning him with dissatisfaction.
“No, I’m the Purifier assigned exclusively to you, so of course I had to remove the curse…”
“Ha, if you’d been assigned to another practitioner, you would’ve kissed that bastard too.”
Cheon Yijae sneered while tilting his head. At the behavior of mocking him as if a truly great Purifier had appeared, Sim Seowoo became flustered. Because he’d never thought at all that he would mention what happened that dawn—that is, the kissing—so openly like this.
Hadn’t he been avoiding him all this time because it was uncomfortable?
Yet now he was directly bringing up what happened that day and being sarcastic. Unable to understand the reason for Cheon Yijae’s twisted mood and just bewildered, in the midst of this, as his silence lengthened, Yijae’s eyes gradually became fiercer.
The atmosphere had already become sharp, and Sim Seowoo answered, as if chased, bewilderedly.
“That… would be the case, right…?”
“…What?”
“In a situation where I’m assigned exclusively to another practitioner and the only way I can remove the curse is kissing, I would’ve done the same…?”
“What bullshit are you—”
Cheon Yijae’s face transformed like a yaksha, but Sim Seowoo just tilted his head sideways.
“But aren’t there too many prerequisite conditions? We’d have to be stranded alone with no other solution available, it would have to be a serious curse with life at stake, and above all, since that curse was a problem arising from a situation of saving ‘me,’ there would need to be the justification that I should repay the favor.”
“…”
“The probability of an ‘if situation’ that meets these same background conditions seems not just low but impossible. Is there a need to worry by setting up such a meaningless hypothetical…?”
For Sim Seowoo, whose top priority goal was preserving his own mental strength, it was behavior he absolutely couldn’t understand. The reason for letting everything pass as “it can happen” was all to preserve his own impoverished mental strength—it was like an effort to let everything flow away and not contain it in his head.
So Cheon Yijae’s behavior of deliberately, deliberately setting up hypotheticals and being sharp was honestly just strange. Wasn’t it wasting mental strength and becoming tired for nothing?
Yaksha (야차) – A fierce demon/spirit from Buddhist mythology
