Chapter 108
* * *
“…Eun-hwi?”
Yeo Moon-beom stared at the fading blue energy that disappeared like a mirage, leaving only a moment’s warmth.
The sweet scent of candy that brushed his nose. The touch of soft, warm skin.
That infinitely lovable and harmless presence—sometimes so pure it became blind—was undoubtedly Eun-hwi’s energy.
‘Don’t die. Please survive and come back to me, Yeo Moon-beom…’
For days, he’d felt a strange sensation of not being alone despite being by himself. It was as if the half-dokkaebi had transformed into a soul-fire and remained by his side.
He had dismissed it as merely his imagination, as traces of their lovemaking lingering like residual heat, creating a sense of unity. But why would he hear Eun-hwi’s voice in such a critical moment?
…It must be an illusion.
There was no way the half-dokkaebi, who should be happily using the credit card he’d given him and enjoying worldly pleasures, would be here.
Yeo Moon-beom tried to shake off the strangely creeping anxiety and focused, channeling all his strength into his arms. The dokkaebi fire, spread wide like an ocean, followed the movement of his punching fist and became a massive wave, beating back the white fur that rained down.
Bang—!
With an ear-splitting explosion, the two powers with different energies collided and exploded in midair. The tail hairs, their momentum weakened by the tremendous impact, fell like withered leaves before turning to powder and disappearing without a trace.
“This can’t be!”
The white fox hastily plucked out two of his tails and hurled them at Yeo Moon-beom. However, the tails transformed into long arrows were caught in his hands as if being sucked in, rather than piercing their target.
Not missing the opportunity, Yeo Moon-beom launched himself forward. The arrows, infused with dokkaebi divine power, pierced into the white fox’s abdomen.
“Aaaarghhh!”
The white fox desperately reached out to recall his tails, but it was useless. The ghost, whose belly had been pierced in an instant, writhed in agony and screamed. Viscous blood, like burst pus, splattered up and dissolved Yeo Moon-beom’s clothes.
“Fortunately, I don’t have to reach into your mouth that stinks of rotting corpse. Don’t you agree?”
Even as his skin burned away, Yeo Moon-beom maintained his composure with a lazy smile and extracted the fox bead embedded in the white fox’s shoulder.
Just like with Jang Gitae, one could obtain the fox monster’s bead with its spiritual power intact either by receiving it with consent or by taking it before its life ended.
“Farewell. To hell. No, to the realm of nothingness.”
Having finally obtained the fox bead, Yeo Moon-beom sliced the white fox’s neck without a moment’s hesitation. The blade on the back of his hand, forged by dissolving the whiskers of a three-legged dog and peach branches together, mercilessly penetrated the body wearing a dead person’s skin.
Whether he had lost his mind completely or had accepted death in resignation—the white fox’s red eyes looked not at Yeo Moon-beom but at the empty space beyond him.
“Baby. The curse has not disappeared. Kuhahahahaha!”
The bloodshot eyes turned black. As if too proud to meet his end at human hands, the white fox burned himself and cast a curse with his dying breath.
The outer skin he had been wearing burned away with a foul smell. Soon after, the fox’s true form, showing filthy teeth and laughing eerily, lost its shape and crumbled into gray ashes.
Yeo Moon-beom quietly responded to the being that vanished without leaving even a handful of small fragments:
“Don’t talk nonsense. There is no curse.”
“Oh really? Is that so?”
Even in the final moment as his soul disintegrated, the white fox maintained his arrogant attitude. A line formed between Yeo Moon-beom’s straight eyebrows as his thick eyebrows twitched at this absurd stubbornness.
He had confirmed the true power of the dokkaebi and the effectiveness of his specially made weapon, and had obtained the fox bead. Nevertheless, it was a fight that left him with many unsettling aspects rather than a satisfying completion of revenge.
Shaking off the sticky blood on his gloves, Yeo Moon-beom headed to where he had parked his car. In this state, going to the department store would surely raise suspicion, so he planned to return to the hotel, change clothes, and go out again.
Buzz. Bzzzzzz—
As soon as he opened the driver’s door, he noticed his phone vibrating urgently as if an earthquake had occurred. The caller was Professor Bang Ki-bong.
“What is it?”
He asked, barely managing to steady his uneven breathing. Professor Bang Ki-bong’s voice came through the receiver, hitting his eardrums.
— Director Yeo! The young master collapsed, coughing up blood!
“What are you saying?”
— I don’t know either. He was sleeping after shopping, then suddenly blood… His entire body is like ice, as if he’s been cursed. It must be the work of a ghost! There’s no other explanation!
The work of a ghost.
A curse.
Was this the source of that creeping sense of unease?
‘The curse has not disappeared.’
The sound of the white fox’s laughter as he faced death echoed in his ears. Biting his lip until it bled, Yeo Moon-beom’s prominent Adam’s apple bobbed as he replied:
“I’ll head there right away. Let’s return to Wolhwa Island immediately.”
He had planned to kill Jang Gitae tomorrow and then reunite Eun-hwi with Kim Gabi who would have returned to being a jangseung. All while pretending to search for the jangseung dokkaebi every night.
He would need to stay in Seoul for at least another month to handle Jang Gitae’s accidental death and the group succession process.
In such a situation, the only way to keep Eun-hwi by his side as he desperately waited for the jangseung dokkaebi was to play the card he had been saving.
Eun-hwi would be sad at first, but once he confirmed Gabi was alive, he would trust and follow Yeo Moon-beom even more.
‘Beom. You will stand at a crossroads of choice. Gaining one thing means losing another—that’s the way of the world. Don’t defy this principle and choose what is most precious to you. This is all I can tell you for your sake.’
“Don’t be ridiculous, fuck.”
He spat through clenched teeth. He had no intention of giving up his revenge, nor would he let go of Eun-hwi. His pride wouldn’t allow him to bow to the principles of the world at this point.
After mentally going through all possible scenarios, Yeo Moon-beom started the car, trying not to lose his composure.
Blood formed again on his torn lips. He felt no pain beyond the metallic taste.
* * *
“Director Yeo!”
The moment he opened the door to the personal shopping room and stepped inside, Yeo Moon-beom was greeted by a thick palm. Professor Bang Ki-bong, his eyes rolling like a madman’s, slapped him with all his might.
“I told you not to make the dokkaebi sir shed tears. And now you’ve made him shed not just tears but blood?”
Professor Bang Ki-bong seemed to have deduced the entire situation just from Yeo Moon-beom’s condition—clothes with holes in various places and hair covered in dirt.
He was indeed a person with a remarkably sharp mind, befitting his profession as a professor.
“Where is Eun-hwi?”
Despite the unexpected slap, Yeo Moon-beom didn’t flinch and stepped forward. His vision filled with a lifeless face, devoid of any color, like a porcelain doll.
“Ugh… ungh…”
The groans escaping between purple lips were as precarious as a flame about to be extinguished. Choi Eun-young, kneeling on the floor and massaging the cold limbs, quietly handed over a shopping bag containing heat packs instead of suggesting an immediate visit to the emergency room.
“Take these. A person needs warm hands and feet.”
“…Thank you.”
Ghost, curse, dokkaebi.
With her keen perception and after overhearing the conversation with Professor Bang Ki-bong, she must have quickly realized that Eun-hwi wasn’t an ordinary human. Yet Choi Eun-young pretended not to have heard anything and helped put wool shoes on Eun-hwi’s feet.
“Let’s go, Eun-hwi.”
“Ungh…”
Yeo Moon-beom lifted the half-dokkaebi, tightly wrapped in blankets. The small, limp body felt light, as if his soul had departed. A cold feeling settled in his heart, freezing it.
“I’ll contact you soon, Auntie.”
“Be careful going down. I know you’ll handle it well, but let me know if you need any help.”
Instead of answering, Yeo Moon-beom nodded slightly and quickly left the shopping room, heading to the basement where the car was waiting. Professor Bang Ki-bong, following behind, opened the back door of the car and said in a gruff tone:
“I’ll drive, so Director Yeo, you take care of the dokkaebi sir.”
“Thank you.”
Professor Bang Ki-bong flinched momentarily at this docile response before getting into the car. The noise of the engine, silence, and occasional faint groans filled the car.
Despite his jolly appearance, Professor Bang Ki-bong’s driving was extremely rough. Only after entering the open highway did he stop his stunt driving and examine the back seat through the rearview mirror, asking Yeo Moon-beom accusingly:
“Tell me, Director Yeo. You went to get the fox bead today, right? What on earth happened to put the dokkaebi sir in this state?”
“…”
“Director Yeo!”
Soul resonance.
There was no other explanation.
After briefly looking down at Eun-hwi, who was still unconscious, Yeo Moon-beom quietly voiced the hypothesis he had been contemplating throughout the journey:
“When bodies and minds are united in a state of oneness, the greatest effect can be achieved during the practice of spiritual techniques.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying! Explain it clearly!”
Professor Bang Ki-bong’s eyes in the mirror twisted with confusion.
“It wasn’t a one-sided absorption of Eun-hwi’s divine power. It was shared. Both you and I were mistaken.”
He had thought that when two bodies and minds became one, they could obtain power closer to the source.
Forgetting that divine power is a force possessed by the soul, not the body.
“So you’re saying that instead of you gaining power through your intimate connection, the dokkaebi sir was using power through your body as a medium?”
“Probably.”
Alone yet not alone—it seemed the white fox’s curse had been redirected to Eun-hwi through their mental connection. Yeo Moon-beom roughly ran his hand through his hair and let out a deep sigh.
“So what are you going to do now? What do you plan to do after returning to Wolhwa Island?”
“I’m going to the Mountain God.”
“Mountain God?”
“There’s no other immediate way to break the curse, so I’ll have to go and beg if necessary. Ask for the immortality herb.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
