‘Huh?’
But right then, Jeong Seyeon’s hand suddenly invaded my field of vision. Looking up, I met his eyes as he stared at me with an indifferent gaze.
“You want me to hold your hand?”
At my question, he slightly nodded. I took a short breath in surprise.
It might not seem like such a shocking thing to hold hands, but the Jeong Seyeon I had known until now wasn’t the type to suggest holding hands first.
Feeling a strangely ticklish sensation, I took the hand he offered. As if he had been waiting, his warm, large hand gripped mine firmly.
“…”
Though it was Jeong Seyeon who was holding my hand, I was the one who felt reassured by confirming his presence. Jeong Seyeon took a step while still holding my hand, and I followed his movement.
I stole a glance at his profile by just moving my eyes. The rain must have stopped while I was asleep, as the clouds had cleared from the sky, revealing a bright moon. The blue moonlight suited his appearance very well. If not for the hand I was holding, the atmosphere would have felt dreamlike enough to mistake for a dream.
‘Come to think of it, how did hyung know I was here?’
He appeared so naturally before me that I hadn’t questioned it, but finding me in the middle of the night, hidden in a rock crevice on a mountainside—no matter how I thought about it, it seemed too unlikely to be coincidence. I tugged slightly on Jeong Seyeon’s hand and called out, “Hyung.” Jeong Seyeon looked down at me while continuing to walk.
“How did you know I was here?”
“That… I’ll tell you when we get home.”
It wasn’t a question I had asked with much significance, and I certainly wasn’t expecting a grand answer. But I hadn’t expected him to avoid answering like this.
‘What’s going on? This feels odd.’
I lowered my gaze while looking at Jeong Seyeon’s firmly closed lips. Seeing my dirty feet from the wet soil, I suddenly felt a strong sense of reality.
‘Wait, it’s still nighttime. Is it okay to move around like this? Isn’t it dangerous?’
I have the basic physical strength of an Esper, so I’m confident I wouldn’t get hurt even if I fell from not seeing where I’m stepping, but Jeong Seyeon doesn’t. Although I was floating fire to light our way, it was meager in the face of the pitch-black darkness that had settled on the mountain. Worried that forcing a night hike might lead to a misstep or getting lost, which would be even more disastrous, I hastily spoke up.
“Is it okay at night? Moving around like this.”
“It’s fine. I know this mountain.”
Since he said he knew it, I had nothing more to say.
I let out a short “Ah” and then asked again a few seconds later.
“What mountain is this?”
“It’s the ancestral burial ground my family manages.”
I appreciated his prompt answers, but their content wasn’t comforting at all.
‘Ancestral burial ground, as in the mountain where ancestors are buried?’
A chill ran down my entire body at that moment.
“It’s right behind our family home, so I come here often… Woo Jeongjae?”
Before I knew it, I was clinging to Jeong Seyeon’s arm, trembling. For Jeong Seyeon, it might be his family’s ancestral ground, but to me, it was simply a cemetery.
“Are you scared?”
“A little.”
I was too frightened to say no. But I immediately regretted my answer, feeling it was disrespectful to be so afraid of his ancestors’ resting place. I hurriedly offered an excuse in my terrified voice.
“With people, at least my abilities work on them, but with ghosts, abilities don’t work at all. I’m not saying your ancestors are ghosts, Seyeon hyung.”
“It’s okay.”
Looking down at me clinging to his arm, Jeong Seyeon replied nonchalantly.
“When I first saw the fire Jeongjae-ssi was floating, I thought it was a will-o’-the-wisp too.”
“…”
I was so surprised that the typically stoic Jeong Seyeon, who never spoke more than necessary, had bantered with me that my mouth fell open. The corners of his straight-lined lips turned up slightly.
‘Oh? He smiled.’
As I stared blankly at his face, he wrapped his hand around the back of my head and pulled me toward him. Jeong Seyeon’s face suddenly came so close that I was startled, thinking he was going to kiss me. But at the same time, I felt the tip of a branch lightly brush against my hair. If not for him, the branch would have scratched my cheek.
‘This isn’t even a time for guiding, so why did I think he was going to kiss me?’
I unconsciously covered my mouth, embarrassed by my own thoughts. Despite this, I was still scared, so I stayed close to Jeong Seyeon, but the heat in my face wouldn’t easily subside.
Unlike me, who had wandered for half a day, not long after I started walking with Jeong Seyeon, a small mountain path appeared. Though there had been no trace of it when I was desperately searching, it had been closer than I thought.
Following that path downward, we came to a stone-walled path alongside a bamboo forest. The walls were too high to see inside, but just the seemingly endless stone-walled path suggested this was no ordinary hanok house.
‘Whose house is this? It’s incredibly grand.’
I inwardly stuck out my tongue in awe, but soon had to revise that thought.
It was because Jeong Seyeon casually opened the main gate of that hanok house and entered.
“Since it’s late tonight, please rest at my house, and we’ll head up to Seoul tomorrow.”
So this magnificent place was Jeong Seyeon’s house. I knew from his refined face that he must be from a wealthy family, but this was beyond my expectations.
“Wait, this is your house…?”
“Yes, it’s our family home.”
“Where is this family home located?”
“Uiseong County, North Gyeongsang Province.”
Ah, the Jeong family of Uiseong.
Family and ancestral burial ground. The two pieces fit perfectly, but my thoughts froze again as a map unfolded in my mind.
“So I’m currently in Uiseong County, North Gyeongsang Province?”
“That’s right.”
“Why?”
I stood rooted to the spot without crossing the gate, looking at Jeong Seyeon’s face. When I thought about it, it was strange. When Jeong Seyeon found me, he should have first asked what had happened. But he didn’t ask me anything. That meant he already knew what had happened to me. If the mountain I had been wandering on and the hanok house located not far from it were all related to Jeong Seyeon, as if they had been arranged, then there was only one answer.
That what happened to me was related to Jeong Seyeon. Or that it happened because of him.
“Hyung, I just had a thought. Perhaps Jeong Se-eun…”
“Welcome home, sir!”
Just as I was about to ask if he knew someone named Jeong Se-eun, my head turned at the booming voice from inside the gate. A burly man was bowing at a right angle toward Jeong Seyeon. Seeing this man who looked like a gangster at first glance, I inched closer to Jeong Seyeon.
“Why are you here?”
“I apologize, sir. We received word that the Dongrak faction has released their men.”
“What is Sapsalgae doing?”
“He’s being monitored by the cops who’ve got their eye on him.”
“Send Yongchil.”
As I listened to their conversation, question marks and exclamation points jumbled in my head. It was strange to see Jeong Seyeon speaking so condescendingly, yet their conversation flowed so naturally.
‘Is hyung’s job not an office worker but a gangster?’
It was a moment when the flawless, perfect image of someone who could live without laws shattered completely.
“But sir, your clothes…”
As the man’s gaze was about to reach me behind Jeong Seyeon, Jeong Seyeon took a step forward, blocking me from his view.
“Never mind that and go.”
The man bowed respectfully and withdrew as soon as the words fell, and Jeong Seyeon turned to look at me.
“Why, why are you looking at me?”
“Wasn’t there something you wanted to say?”
The conversation between the man and Jeong Seyeon had been so intense that I couldn’t remember at all what I had been about to say before.
“Hyung. Are you a gangster?”
Jeong Seyeon put his hand to his forehead at my question. He avoided my gaze and let out a small sigh.
“Let’s talk inside the room.”
Jeong Seyeon led the way, and I followed. We passed through a spacious courtyard and garden that explained why the stone-walled path had been so long, and several hanok buildings that seemed to be multiple structures even at a glance, arriving at a separate building located deep inside.
“You can stay here.”
Though the exterior was traditional hanok, the interior didn’t feel old. Rather, the neatly organized room created a cozy and serene atmosphere.
I entered the room first, and Jeong Seyeon followed. The creaking sound of the door closing behind me made me realize I was in a room with him.
‘There can’t be just this one room here.’
Given the size of the house I’d seen on the way, it wasn’t like there was nowhere else to sleep.
‘He must have come in because he has something to talk about?’
This must be right, since Jeong Seyeon had said he would answer when we got home.
‘Should I suggest we talk tomorrow?’
Of course, conversation was necessary. Before entering the room, I had wanted to have a proper talk with Jeong Seyeon. But now that I was in this cozy room, washing my uncomfortable body and having a warm bed felt more urgent than conversation.
“Seyeon hyung.”
“Woo Jeongjae-ssi.”
We called each other at the same time, so we both fell silent simultaneously. I was about to take the lead but shook my head. Though I was tired, this was ultimately about me and no one else. Once I realized that avoiding the conversation now wouldn’t benefit me, what followed was easy.
“Hyung, go ahead and talk.”
At my words, Jeong Seyeon knelt in front of me. Flustered, I knelt down as well, just like him.
“Jeong Se-eun is my younger sister.”
Only then did I remember the question I was about to ask at the gate. It was somewhat expected.
Suddenly, the conversations I had with her flashed through my mind.
‘Yes. We used to live together, but after he got caught by the vixen, he doesn’t come home, rarely contacts me, and always says he’s busy and won’t meet me.’
‘If it were just that, I wouldn’t be this angry. That vixen sees many other people besides my brother.’
‘So that octopus vixen she was talking about was me. And I didn’t even realize it.’
Remembering how I had smugly asked if she was my fan, I let out an involuntary groan. I had no idea when my self-consciousness had grown so much, but I had a feeling I’d be kicking the blankets for a while in embarrassment.
‘Now I understand everything.’
If the identity of the brother she had talked about was Jeong Seyeon, I could understand why this situation had occurred.
‘She deliberately approached me wanting to get back at me for taking her brother away.’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
