Chapter 8
“I saw you get butterflies just now.”
Junmo, leaning close to her, peered teasingly into her face.
Seungri wiped a glass, glancing sideways at him.
‘Look at that leaning angle. He’s really got a knack for it.’
“Your face is red?”
“It’s a little hot today.”
“Looks like it’s going to rain?”
“That’s why it’s so muggy.”
“Heh. You’ve got a surprisingly cute side to you?”
“I’m originally cute…”
Cute was something she’d never heard, even when she was little.
Seungri, afraid someone might have heard, craned her neck like a meerkat, looking around.
Just then, Sungjae returned from the bathroom, so she quickly thrust the glass and dishcloth she’d been wiping into Junmo’s arms.
“If you’ve got nothing to do, why don’t you wipe some glasses?”
She fled into the kitchen and immediately peeked outside.
She was embarrassed that he seemed to have read her mind.
‘Oh, I messed up, I messed up. I should have been more on guard. He’s like a wolf, a fox, a hyena, a cat… if you cut him open, there’s a whole zoo inside.’
She smacked herself on the head and let out a long sigh.
“What’s wrong, Sis?”
Yuri, who was making a cake, looked at her quizzically.
“No, it’s just… Yuri.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you ever think I look cute?”
She knew it was a childish question, but maybe she had a charm that only others could see.
“Why the sudden question? You were chic even as a baby, they say. I’m the one who heard I was cute.”
Yuri blinked her adorable eyes.
‘Yeah, that’s what cute is.’
Seungri only felt more embarrassed by the comparison.
“R-right?”
“Why? Did someone say you were cute?”
“Huh? There’s no way any man would be that blind.”
Just one. Except for Pee Junmo.
“Man? Did Sungjae say that?”
“Is Sungjae a man?”
“Then who? Detective Pee?”
“…”
She messed up again. She definitely didn’t want to say who it was.
“Puhahahahaha!”
Seeing Yuri burst into laughter, Seungri was convinced. He was definitely just teasing her.
That evening, an old man approached Suho, who was lying uncomfortably on a park bench, trying to sleep.
It was the same old man who had appeared before Seungri before.
He was a grim reaper who had lived in the human world on a special mission and had returned to heaven.
“Long time no see.”
Suho sat up abruptly at the familiar voice.
A rare smile touched Suho’s lips as he saw him, then vanished.
The old man patted his shoulder and sat down next to him.
“You’ve been through a lot.”
“Is my punishment… being lifted?”
“Well, that depends on what you do.”
“What do you mean?”
The old man looked at Suho with calm eyes.
Suho, an excellent grim reaper. But that didn’t mean he could bypass the laws of heaven. They could give him a chance, like now.
“This is a one-time opportunity. A chance for you to return as a grim reaper. If you miss this chance, you’ll have to continue living as a human, like now. Never aging, forever isolated. You’re at a crossroads: become an eternal grim reaper, or an eternal human.”
Eternal human? It was a curse too terrible for Suho. He swallowed hard without realizing it.
“…”
“A year ago, you made a big mistake. You changed the fate of Han Mi-jeong and Han Sungjae, didn’t you?”
“It was also the mother’s wish to save her son.”
“But you, as a grim reaper, shouldn’t have interfered. Humans have their own order. Don’t you still understand that their lives are not ours to control?”
“What can I do? How can I return?”
“Protect Han Sungjae. That child is alive in place of Han Mi-jeong. If that child dies, it will be another innocent death, following Han Mi-jeong. Then you will have to take responsibility for it.”
“Protect Han Sungjae?”
“The way to save Han Sungjae is to catch Cha Si-woo.”
How long had he waited for this day?
He had been hiding because of his punishment, so this was what he had been hoping for. Suho’s eyes flashed fiercely. Until the old man spoke again.
“But, not as a grim reaper, but as Pee Junmo’s partner.”
“Excuse me?”
“Help Pee Junmo catch him. Never act alone.”
Help that slick detective?
Suho couldn’t understand the old man’s words at all.
“Why do I have to do that?”
“Four years ago, Pee Junmo almost died in a hit-and-run accident. The culprit was Cha Si-woo.”
“So, they had a bad history?”
“It was something the two of them had to resolve anyway. Or, is it three people?”
“Three people? Don’t tell me, that exorcist?”
“That’s right. Jegal Seungri. Pee Junmo holds that woman’s lifeline.”
He felt like he had been hit hard on the head. It was ominous that the two people’s lives were connected.
“That’s also a bad relationship.”
“Help them. So that they can resolve the bad relationship themselves.”
“Will they accept me?”
“The only way to truly understand humans is to be with them.”
Suho shook his head negatively.
He had been living here for a year, but humans were something he really couldn’t understand.
They create laws and order and pretend to help each other, but humans are inherently selfish.
They thought nothing of trampling on others to save themselves.
Suho was deeply hurt by the humans who were trapped in such abnormally vertical relationships.
That’s why he didn’t want to mingle with them even more.
“Is there no other way?”
The old man looked at the despairing Suho with pity.
“Haven’t you ever thought that your stubbornness is hindering your adaptation to the human world?”
“Are you saying it’s my fault that I can’t adapt to the human world?”
“The human world is as rotten as you think. But even so, your sense of justice can’t change the human world. We just help humans solve it themselves. Your biggest problem is that you’re trying to change the human world with your own power.”
“You think I’m a dangerous guy.”
“Haha. You see well. You and Cha Si-woo are just one piece of paper apart. Wanting to change the human world and wanting to take over the human world. Can we simply define it as the difference between justice and greed?”
“If it’s not that, then what is it?”
“Because of that sense of justice, you keep doing things you shouldn’t do. Seungri’s case four years ago, and Sungjae’s mother’s case a year ago. If you go against the principles of heaven one more time, you won’t be safe. That justice will ruin you.”
‘Justice will ruin me?’
Suho, who had never thought of that, had a miserable expression. The old man continued.
“And one more thing.”
“Yes.”
“From now on, you must never reveal your identity. As soon as the three people know who you are, your return will be ruined.”
Ding-dong~ Ding-dong~
Junmo, who was lying in the living room watching TV, got up at the sound of the doorbell. When he looked at the intercom screen, a familiar face came into view.
Even so, what was this intense sense of incongruity? Was it because it was someone he hadn’t expected at all?
“Huh? Why are you here?”
As soon as he opened the door, Suho slipped inside.
Junmo was dumbfounded by Suho, who went straight to the entrance.
He left without saying goodbye as if he would never see him again, but suddenly came to visit after only half a day.
“What are you?”
Suho looked around the house and lay down on the living room floor. Junmo looked down at him in disbelief.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to have to live here from today.”
A fact that was newly realized.
He’s a nutcase.
He was so dumbfounded that he couldn’t even laugh.
“This is my house. Are you just going to live here as you please without the owner’s permission? Get out, you jerk!”
Suho turned to his side but didn’t seem to budge.
“The neighborhood is a paradise for crazy people.”
Junmo, who was at a loss for words, called Seungri.
“Come up here. Some crazy guy has broken into my house.”
Soon Seungri, Yuri, and Sungjae came up.
Everyone stared at Suho lying on the floor and opened their mouths at the same time.
“Hyung, what are you doing here?”
“He suddenly broke in and said he’s going to live in our house from today.”
As soon as she heard Junmo’s words, Yuri looked pitiful.
“Huh? Really? I guess he really had nowhere to go.”
Seungri, with her arms crossed, looked down at Suho with a troubled look.
“Let’s go to our house. Sungjae is the one who saved you, but it’s not right to do this here.”
“Hey, you guys! Who do you think he is to let him into your house? No way.”
When Junmo said sternly, Seungri looked at him in disbelief.
“We’ll take care of it. Don’t judge people arbitrarily.”
“Is it okay to let a strange man into a house where women live?”
“What’s wrong with it when I’m here?”
Sungjae confidently stepped forward, but Junmo didn’t seem relieved.
“Okay, everyone go back.”
“You’re not going to kick him out, are you?”
Yuri’s eyes welled up as if to say never do that.
Junmo, seeing her innocent eyes, flinched and turned his gaze to Seungri.
She was glaring at him fiercely with eyes that said, ‘Just try to kick him out.’
He couldn’t refuse the requests of these puppies, so what should he do?
“Damn it. I’m not going to kick him out, so everyone go back. It’s my house, but I can’t even do what I want.”
“We have a spare room in our house too.”
Sungjae was very disappointed.
Suho, who hadn’t moved until then, opened his mouth for the first time.
“It’s uncomfortable living with women.”
“Huh, you’re so picky for someone who’s getting a free place to sleep.”
Everyone went back, and the house, left alone with the terribly picky crazy guy, was filled with silence.
That was only for a moment, as Junmo kicked the lying Suho.
“Hey, get up.”
“I’m tired.”
“I’m more tired because of you. Get up before I drag you to the police station right now.”
Suho reluctantly got up and leaned against the wall.
Junmo felt a surge of anger inside at his indifferent face, as if saying, ‘Go ahead and eat me.’
Junmo, who was sitting down in front of him, began to argue.
“You said you didn’t need my help earlier. What’s the reason for suddenly doing this?”
“You’ll need my help soon.”
Junmo’s question was answered with a response that didn’t feel even 1% sincere.
Seungri was like that too, so did they plan it together?
“Hey, just say you have nowhere to go. If society is going to be transparent, people have to be transparent first.”
Suho stared at him with an expressionless face despite Junmo’s passionate speech.
‘Because I’m not a person. But I’m more transparent than humans.’
How irrational it was to be partners with someone who couldn’t communicate. But this was also part of the punishment.
‘I have to endure it. That’s the only way to shed the human shell and return to my original place.’
That didn’t mean he could be servile. Because there was no reason to be, and no need to be.
“I won’t do anything that will harm you.”
“You’re already harming me. You trespassed.”
“I’m going to protect Sungjae here.”
“Then you should have gone to that house, so why is it my house?”
“Because it’s enough here.”
It felt like he was endlessly repeating himself.
It was already absurd that he had moved to such a ridiculously large house, but now he had to take in a crazy homeless man. It really felt like he was possessed by a ghost.
‘What should I do?’
Junmo was in trouble. There was nothing to steal, and it wasn’t a big deal to take in one crazy homeless man. Just looking at the fact that he saved Sungjae, he wasn’t at a level to be too worried about.
‘It would be better to keep him for a few days and check his identity, right? I feel a little sorry for him to kick him out right away.’
Junmo, who had already felt pity, calmed down his excited heart.
If the police didn’t take in a poor ‘crazy homeless man’, who would? As Yuri said, he must have come because he had nowhere else to go.
Okay, I’ve decided!
“Okay. I’ll let you stay for a few days. Only until you have a place to go. Got it?”
“It’s not that I don’t have a place to go…”
“I know, I know. You have a place to go, but you can’t go. You’re still proud even if you die… Instead, you can’t just play around and eat. You have to do the cleaning and cooking. Got it?”
Suho closed his eyes as if he was annoyed by Junmo’s story and replied.
“I don’t want to.”
“What?”
“I don’t know how.”
“What a lousy!”
He was a homeless man full of pride. Or he was out of his mind.
“What can I expect from you?”
Having seen him as someone incomplete from the start, Junmo gave up on any further expectations.
It’s abnormal to expect normalcy from a guy whose surname and age you don’t even know.
“Did you eat?”
“No.”
“Want to eat ramen or something?”
Before the words could even finish, Junmo’s phone rang. It was Seungri.
[Come down if you haven’t had dinner.]
“To your place?”
[No, to the cafe. It closes at 9. I’ll order something. Gotta feed the flower beggar too, you know.]
Junmo had no reason to refuse.
“I’ll be right down.”
Yes!
He got up cheerfully after hanging up. As expected, doing good deeds always brings helping hands.
“Let’s go eat dinner.”
Suho’s face, as he groggily got up, was expressionless.
But deep down, he found it quite bothersome. Eating with humans was awkward for him.
He had willingly come of his own accord to avoid punishment, but now it was his responsibility to make them understand him.
The life he was least confident in, living with humans, had begun.
“Unnie, I’m leaving work first.”
When part-timer Eunji said she was going home without eating, Yuri made a fuss.
“Oh, why? Eat before you go. Aren’t you hungry?”
“I think the lunch I had earlier gave me indigestion. It’s been like this lately.”
Even without her saying, she hadn’t looked well recently, as if she had some worries.
“Are you very sick? All the pharmacies will be closed, what will you do?”
“It’s okay. I have medicine at my goshiwon. I’ll go now.”
Eunji, a college student, lived in a goshiwon. As she worked the afternoon shift, she usually ate dinner before leaving. But lately, she, who was usually quiet and good at her job, had been lacking energy.
“You worked hard. Make sure to take your medicine and sleep. Call me if you’re very sick, okay?”
“Yes. Thank you.”
After Eunji left, they all sat around in the empty cafe and ate together.
Suho, overwhelmed by everyone’s attention, didn’t even make eye contact and focused only on eating.
He devoured his food as if he were born only to eat.
‘How starved must he have been? But how can someone be so perfectly symmetrical? Is he even human? I’m full just watching him.’
Yuri sat next to Suho and warmly took care of him.
“Eat a lot.”
While eating, Seungri stared at him intently.
‘He must have a reason for suddenly barging into my house.’
She didn’t know what it was, but she felt a different aura from him than from ordinary people.
It was a similar feeling to when she first met the Grim Reaper Grandpa. Of course, Grandpa wasn’t human.
‘What is this unsettling feeling?’
Feeling the aura of a Grim Reaper from a person meant that something was wrong with his soul.
That was why Seungri was interested in Suho.
“Hyung, is the Mister giving you a hard time? You can just sleep in my room with me.”
Sungjae was happy as if he had gained an older brother, but Suho remained silent.
“Hey, do you think I’m the kind of person who would mistreat a beggar?”
At Junmo’s protest, Sungjae pouted.
“Hmph, you look like you would.”
“Can’t you tell just by looking? I’m a kind police officer.”
“Tch. Be kind twice and you might even kill someone. And what about the tea bill? You’re not planning to skip out on it, are you?”
“Sungjae, that’s…”
Seungri stopped him at Sungjae’s irritated question.
“How are you going to live in this harsh world being so soft?”
“Pfft!”
Junmo burst out laughing. He was dumbfounded by Sungjae’s attitude of treating her like a fragile woman.
‘She sees ghosts? She’s an exorcist? And you’re saying she’s soft?’
“Seriously, you’re all so unique, so unique.”
Seungri, already embarrassed, glared at him.
“You’re not any better.”
“You’re the one who made me a conscienceless cop.”
“If you’re so wronged, go buy a car with me tomorrow.”
Seungri frowned at Junmo’s confident words.
Then Sungjae chimed in, as if he had forgotten.
“Oh, right, tomorrow’s the motor show, isn’t it? I’m going too. It’s Saturday.”
Seungri, who usually enjoyed speed, was a car enthusiast.
The reason she hadn’t bought a car after the accident was actually because she was waiting for the motor show.
“What about the cafe?”
At Seungri’s worry, Sungjae became anxious for no reason.
“I’m uneasy about leaving you alone with the Mister.”
“Hey, am I going to eat her? What’s there to be uneasy about?”
Junmo was dumbfounded, and Sungjae glared at him with displeasure.
“Isn’t the Mister a man?”
“You brat, you’re constantly using informal speech. Speak respectfully from now on. Call me ‘Hyungnim’. Got it?”
“Tch. Dream on. Once you’re a Mister to me, you’re always a Mister.”
Suho didn’t even know if the rice was going into his nose or his mouth.
Junmo and Sungjae kept bickering, Seungri was watching with eyes that seemed to be trying to figure something out, and this chubby little bean was stuck right next to him, meddling.
So many words and so much trouble with these humans. It was impossible to mix with humans after all.
Eventually, Suho’s patience ran out, and his hand holding the spoon involuntarily tightened.
Thanks to that, the spoon bent, but no one noticed it yet.
“Be quiet.”
At the low, angry words, everyone shut their mouths and brought their spoons to their lips.
Then Junmo, realizing that the only guest here was a flower beggar, stared at him in disbelief.
“What a joke. The guest is acting like the host. Am I not allowed to say what I want while watching your face? Convince me why I should.”
Suho couldn’t understand why he had to convince him. He was just dismayed that he had to be partners with someone like this.
Rumble.
Finally, Suho pushed his chair back and got up, leaving the cafe with a disgusted expression.
“Oh, please eat more. What should I do…”
Yuri looked longingly at Suho, who left without looking back, then turned a resentful gaze to Junmo.
She wanted to say something to him, but her weak heart only made her bite her lip.
“He’s a really weird Mister. Is it so bad to ask to eat quietly? What kind of cop is he if he doesn’t let a beggar eat?”
Following Yuri’s resentful gaze, Sungjae also shot arrows of blame, and Junmo felt very wronged.
“Ugh, everyone hates me.”
Belatedly, Yuri saw Suho’s spoon and her eyes widened slightly.
When she lifted the spoon, the middle part was bent.
“Oh my, why is it like this?”
Everyone checked the bent spoon. Sungjae even tried to bend the spoon himself, but it was impossible.
Seeing the spoon that wouldn’t budge, the bent spoon looked even more mysterious.
“What is it? Is Suho Hyung a psychic?”
Even at Sungjae’s absurd words, Junmo and Seungri couldn’t even manage a light laugh.
It was because their suspicion about Suho’s identity had only increased.
“Were you here?”
Seungri, who found Suho sitting on the rooftop platform, approached slowly. He wouldn’t have been able to enter the house without the password, and she had come just in case, and sure enough.
Suho glanced at her and coldly turned away.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
As if avoiding conversation, he got up from his seat.
“Did you do something bad?”
“What?”
He only reacted to questions like this.
“Sit down.”
Suho, who couldn’t even manage an absurd laugh, sat back down.
“I guess you did do something bad?”
“I didn’t.”
“Run away from home?”
“No.”
“I want to help you.”
She was sincere. She needed to know what happened to help him.
But Suho flatly refused.
“I don’t need your help.”
So someone like that came here on his own? Pride is usually self-centered.
“Treating you, letting you sleep here. That’s commonly called help.”
“Do you want to hear a thank you?”
“Tell that to Detective Pee. Oh, do you know the landlord is a detective?”
“I know.”
“Seeing as you’re still here knowing that, I’m sure you didn’t do anything bad. What’s your name?”
“Suho. I won’t answer any more questions.”
“I wanted to say thank you.”
“……”
“Thank you so much for saving our Sungjae. I was too flustered earlier to properly thank you.”
Suho’s gaze lingered on the pattern that peeked out slightly from outside the necklace strap.
That pattern, which only Grim Reapers had, was created when he poured his energy into saving her that day.
Thinking about that day made Suho very uncomfortable with Seungri.
“But… haven’t we met somewhere before?”
“……”
Seungri watched him with sharp eyes as his face hardened with tension.
“Suho-ssi, perhaps…”
