“You shouldn’t have barged into the Welfare Center like that. You should’ve brought the proposal to me first.”
“Master, you wouldn’t have listened to me anyway. You would’ve just said that the Wia come here out of habit because the rental shop is convenient, and that the Welfare Center’s still new so people don’t know about it yet—and brushed it off nicely, right?”
No matter how he scolded them, it was clear they had no intention of accepting it, so scolding them further was pointless.
Iri tapped the table lightly with his finger, lost in thought.
After some time passed with no conversation at all, even the three who had been so bold and shameless gradually grew subdued.
Just as Dojin’s pride finally took a hit, Iri smiled faintly.
“Thank you. All three of you.”
“…Huh?”
“You stepped in for my sake, but I only got angry and never thanked you. Thanks to you, it looks like I’ll have more free time going forward. Truly—thank you.”
“……”
The divine spirits’ expressions wavered, eyes growing glassy, and Dojin bit his lip with the look of someone who’d just taken a punch to the face.
“No, Master! I’m sorry I acted on my own without your permission!”
Dojin shouted, his voice cracking.
“Immortal! We’re the ones who are always grateful to you…. If this causes you any trouble, we’ll go apologize to the Welfare Center ourselves….”
“Immortaaaal—! We’re the ones who should be thanking you. Ughh. We went and did this without permission—how can you thank us for that…….”
Kkiwoong…. Kkiwooong……
At Iri’s words of gratitude, the divine spirits—and even Kkiwoong—completely changed their stance. As expected, when dealing with a stiff-necked wanderer, the right approach was to shine warm sunlight down on them.
***
The deflated divine spirits left the rental shop, sniffling, leaving only Iri and Dojin behind to clean up the back of the shop. With a rare free evening on their hands, Dojin once again brought out a movie about romance between master and disciple and suggested they watch it together. He seemed to have an entire list prepared.
By the time the movie ended, it was around eleven at night. Perhaps worried Iri would tell him to go home, Dojin quickly ran up to his room on the second floor. Iri, who had no intention of sending him home at all, simply smiled.
The next day, and the day after that……. Even after four full days passed, Iri still didn’t send Dojin back to his apartment.
Dojin was in high spirits for the first two days, but by the third day he grew uneasy, and by the fourth, outright anxious.
“Master, I’m going to wash up.”
“Mm. Please, at least come out wearing clothes.”
“…….”
On the fifth night, Dojin stopped short on the second-floor stairs just as he was about to go wash up. Iri, working at the bench below, looked up at him in confusion. With more anxiety than excitement, Dojin spoke.
“Why aren’t you telling me to go home?”
True to his nature, he was blunt. As if he’d expected the question, Iri removed his gloves. Dojin stomped back down the stairs and sat in front of him with his arms crossed as if to say ‘Go on, explain.’ Iri spoke.
“General So is—”
“…….”
Dojin’s eyebrow lifted at the unexpected opening.
“When he was a Jangsa, he was almost carefree in temperament. But after becoming a General-class divine spirit, he grew hot-tempered.”
“…….”
“Among the General-class divine spirits of the True Mortal Realm, he’s currently ranked just below the Ten Kings of the Underworld and the Five Directional Generals of Paradise. Originally, the Underworld was ruled by the Great King. But when Yama King—a Heaven-and-Earth Divine Spirit—was born, he ascended as the King of the Underworld. That left one seat among the Ten Kings vacant, and naturally, they tried to place General So there. However, his explosive temper drew opposition.”
Dojin listened in silence.
“Then someone argued that since nine of the Ten Kings were already General-class divine spirits, one seat should go to an Immortal. Yama King, who had always been more attuned to Taoist arts, placed Immortal Hwadam in the final seat instead of General So.”
“General So must’ve been pissed.”
“That he was. And because of that, General So tries not to fight Immortals.”
Dojin tilted his head.
“Why? Shouldn’t that make him want to fight them even more?”
“General So knows very well just how strong he is. An Immortal’s weapon is Taoist arts, but most Immortals have poor physical ability. General-class divine spirits, on the other hand, possess innate resistance to Taoist arts.”
“Like the Evil Gods of the Demon Realm?”
“Yes. General So, in particular, is said to have extremely strong immunity to Taoist techniques. He’s afraid that if he loses his temper while fighting an Immortal, he might inflict a horrific injury—or even kill them.”
“…Don’t tell me. Even with you, Master?”
“General So considers me an Immortal weaker than himself.”
“Insane….”
Dojin shuddered—not out of fear of General So, but from disgust at his arrogance and foolishness. To think he’d consider Immortal Iri weaker than himself……. ‘A puppy ignorant of the tiger’s terror’—that saying might as well have been coined for General So.
“I’ll be honest—I admit I’m arrogant. But I’m not so arrogant that I’d sink into stupidity like General So. You think so too, right?”
“Yes. You, at least… have a grasp on reality.”
“Then what does all this have to do with you not telling me to go home and sleep?”
“General So will definitely target you.”
Iri’s brow furrowed.
“You caused trouble at the Welfare Center, yet he hasn’t demanded responsibility for it. He’s likely acknowledging his own fault—but also thinking of teaching an arrogant Jangsa a lesson. The divine spirits are too weak for him to touch, and I’m an Immortal, so he can’t approach the rental shop…. But you, Dojin—”
At present, Kim Dojin’s name was well-known throughout the Wia world. The young Jangsa of the rental shop who’d defeated mountain dokkaebi in ssireum, beaten Yama King in arm wrestling, and was approaching a Gido Ceremony.
General So, who’d likely already wanted to test his strength, had now been handed the perfect excuse to fight.
“I see. I understand.”
Dojin grinned.
“You’re saying General So will wait until I’m alone.”
“Exactly.”
By trying to avoid a fight with a so-called ‘weaker Immortal’, General So had instead chosen a more cowardly path. Unlike Immortals, who sometimes abandoned their firm principles to align with worldly norms, General-class divine spirits often brushed aside worldly ethics and conventions to uphold their own rigid rules.
“If you wait just two more days, General So will decide it’s not yet fate for a fight and give up on you. No matter how angry they get, General-class divine spirits don’t drag things out for a full week.”
“Two days, huh……. So you’re kicking me out of the rental shop after that.”
“Telling you to sleep in your own home isn’t kicking you out….”
“It’s all the same. Anyway, this young, fragile, weak me will enjoy my two-day limited lifespan to the fullest. And while I’m at it, I’ll soak up some of your worry, Master.”
Dojin stood from his chair and stepped closer. Spinning Iri’s chair around, he draped an arm over the backrest and leaned in.
“Dojin.”
As he drew close enough for their breaths to touch, Iri leaned deeply into the chair.
“What are you doing now?”
“What? Are you afraid of little, fragile, weak me getting close?”
“Afraid, you say…….”
“Then can’t you give little, fragile, weak me a kiss?”
“…….”
“Why not? I’m little, fragile, and weak, right? You’re treating me like a baby who needs to be coddled and protected in your arms—so why won’t you kiss me? Why are you so inconsistent, Immortal? If you’re going to treat me like a baby, then do the kissing properly too!”
Iri realized that Dojin was sulking over being treated as weak. It was exactly what he’d expected.
He lightly pressed a finger against Dojin’s chest, trying to slip out from under the chair. In response, Dojin’s other hand immediately reached for Iri’s waist—he’d anticipated this move as well. When Iri tried to smack Dojin’s wrist—slap—Dojin pretended to take the hit and reached for his waist again. After a brief skirmish between master and disciple—
“Master, that’s really cheap!”
“Didn’t you say you were going to wash up? Go on, hurry and wash.”
The heartless master, who had denied his young disciple even a chance at skinship, strolled leisurely out into the garden.
“Ah, fuck!”
As Dojin fumed, his eyes landed on Kkiwoong, yawning atop the workbench.
“Hey. You go wash too!”
Kkiwoong…!
Dojin grabbed Kkiwoong and stomped up to the second floor. In the end, Kkiwoong alone suffered the fallout of the whales’ fight.
***
“Dojin. I’m going to the True Mortal Realm for a bit.”
Lately, Iri had been visiting the True Mortal Realm frequently in preparation for the Gido Ceremony. There were still over a hundred Immortals whose schedules needed coordinating. Because this coordination took so long, preparing a single Gido Ceremony usually required at least a year in advance. However, Iri was one of the few beings who could freely travel between the True Mortal Realm and the Middle Realm, allowing him to compress that year into two or three months.
“Yes, have a safe trip. I’ll guard your body well, Immortal.”
Kkiwoong!
“Hey, you’re just going to lie around beside him anyway. Get lost.”
Seeing Dojin flick Kkiwoong with his finger, Iri smiled and went into his room.
Dojin watched through the crack in the door as Iri lay down on the bed. Soon, Iri lay with his hands folded over his upper abdomen and fell asleep. No—he wasn’t actually asleep. It only looked that way; his soul had departed for the True Mortal Realm. Drawn as if entranced, Dojin approached.
“Master.”
“…….”
“Master… your face is really soft.”
Dojin poked Iri’s cheek with his finger, then let his eyes trace over his long lashes and pretty lips before standing up.
Perfect.
Having waited for this moment, Dojin quickly returned to his own room. He threw off his pocket-laden work clothes and changed into something easier to move in. After strapping on knee and wrist guards, pulling on leather gloves, and donning a black mask, he looked every bit like a street gangster.
