TCBW C25

Chapter 25

As soon as Professor Eun left the house in Balhwa‑dong, Hae-eon, now alone with Suhoe, glanced over him.

After tidying Suhoe’s clothes and making sure his needs were in order, he spoke.

“Madam, I’ll be taking my leave now. Ah, and the president has a lot of urgent matters to deal with today, so he probably won’t be able to return home.”

Hearing that, Suhoe let out an involuntary sigh of relief.

Seeing this, Hae-eon smiled.

“Ah, I didn’t mean it like that.”

It was an instinctive reaction. After experiencing the intensity of the previous night, he honestly felt that two days in a row would be impossible.

“Ah, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to. Madam, for today you shouldn’t worry about anything at all—just rest comfortably and focus on recovering.”

In truth, Hae-eon’s mention of Dowoon’s “urgent matters” referred to a meeting with Han Sara, but Suhoe had no way of knowing that.

After saying this, Hae-eon looked as if he was about to leave. But at the doorway, something seemed to occur to him, and he turned back toward Suhoe.

“Madam, if it’s all right, may I ask you something?”

“Yes?”

“When you first spoke with Professor Eun—your expression seemed to stiffen for a moment, and you appeared to study her face closely, especially her mouth. Was something troubling you… or is there some other issue?”

At Hae-eon’s perceptive question, Suhoe was momentarily at a loss for words.

He kept his gaze on the floor, fidgeting aimlessly with his fingers in place of an answer. His lips parted several times, as if to say something, but no sound came out.

After a long moment of hesitating, he finally met the eyes of Hae-eon, who had been waiting silently, and parted his dry lips.

“The truth is… and this is embarrassing to admit… for a moment, I couldn’t tell if she was human or not. So without realizing it, I was checking.”

“Pardon?”

For the first time that day, Hae-eon’s carefully maintained poker face faltered into open astonishment.

“You… you mean you were checking because you thought she might be one of those beings you told me about on Mount Unbang? But you’ve said you can’t see such things…”

“Yes. Normally, I can’t. I don’t have that kind of ability. But on very rare occasions—only when my body is in extreme pain or so weakened that my energy is drained—I sometimes… can see them.”

His voice had dropped to little more than a whisper.

“Unhyo‑nim, who raised me, used to say the same. That even someone with no spiritual power like me can sometimes see ghosts or gods when the boundary grows thin from extreme weakness.”

“…”

“I’d heard it only applied within Mount Unbang’s bounds, but this time my condition was bad enough that I thought, ‘maybe.’”

“But surely… Professor Eun is obviously alive, isn’t she?”

Hae-eon’s voice carried a mix of unease and disbelief.

“Of course. But ghosts and gods often take human form. And besides… you’ve experienced it yourself on Mount Unbang, haven’t you?”

Gulp. Suhoe’s last words brought a rush of memories back to Hae-eon—a sudden appearance of an old man, the unexplained stalling of the car halfway up the mountain, that strange and unpleasant day. A chill ran abruptly down his spine.

“Gods, they only punish when we wrong them first. But ghosts… as I’ve said before, they play tricks for no reason.”

“But if it’s just tricks like that day… it can’t be that dangerous… haha…”

Hae-eon forced a laugh, but the trembling at the corners of his mouth was impossible to hide.

“The problem is, they aren’t always harmless tricks.”

Suhoe’s voice sank low.

“They can drop something heavy on you from above… lead you to a dangerous cliff… they can injure you, even kill you.”

“…”

“That’s why Unhyo‑nim strictly warned me—if you ever meet such a being, never answer them or take their hand. Doing so is seen as granting permission for their ‘game,’ and much worse things can happen.”

In that moment, Hae-eon thought the tone of Suhoe’s voice sounded almost chilling.

“Didn’t you say ghosts were once human?”

“Yes. But they say that once you die, you forget the pain of the flesh. While the living react intensely to pain—ghosts find that… amusing.”

As he added this, Suhoe’s thoughts strayed to a past memory.

In the end, to them, people are just toys they can harm without consequence.

That’s what Unhyo had said to him long ago, on the day he, feverish and bedridden, had gone to the window because a hand had beckoned outside—and Unhyo had saved him.

Coming back from the memory, Suhoe opened his eyes and met Hae-eon’s gaze. Something in the pained composure of the young man made Hae-eon unconsciously hold his breath.

“And to avoid them, you have to be able to tell them apart. Unhyo taught me how.”

“Th‑that method… is it related to why you looked at the professor’s mouth earlier?”

“The most certain way is to look for their shadow. If they’re alive, they’ll always have one in the light.”

At this, Hae-eon glanced reflexively around the room. The curtains were drawn, and only some of the lights were on.

“But… in the dark like this, it’s hard to see a shadow, isn’t it?”

“Yes. That’s why I tried the other way.”

“Other way?”

“Check whether they’re breathing. Only the living breathe. Though in pitch dark, even this can be useless.”

A chill crawled down Hae-eon’s spine.

Almost mechanically, he strode to the wall and flicked on all the switches, brightening the room, then went to the window and flung back the curtains.

Outside, the snowy city skyline spread before them in a blaze of lights.

Suhoe took it in, then let his gaze drift back to Hae-eon, who was breathing heavily.

Perhaps the story had been too unsettling for him, Suhoe thought.

So he gave a gentle smile meant to reassure.

“Secretary Choi… you don’t need to worry so much. In a place like this, it’s unlikely.”

“By ‘a place like this’… you mean Seoul?”

“Not only Seoul—anywhere with this much light.”

“Pardon?”

Suhoe’s eyes turned back to the brightly lit city.

“They naturally dwell in darkness. To them, the souls of the living shine like lamps. But in a city blazing like false daylight, the true light of a living soul is lost in the glare—it’s hard for them to pick a target to torment.”

“…”

A hint of embarrassment touched him then—he’d known this, yet he had still instinctively suspected Professor Eun the moment he met her in the dark.

For Hae-eon, this was the first time he truly saw that the seemingly delicate and naïve Suhoe was an extraordinary figure with the calling of an aegbaji.

The calm way he spoke of a world Hae-eon couldn’t see, and the traces of maturity that surfaced briefly on his young face, gave Hae-eon a dim sense of the weight of the life he bore.

“Madam, I’ll be off now.”

Housekeeper Kim, arriving later than usual at the Balhwa‑dong residence that day, called out as he was slipping on his shoes.

Sitting blankly on the living room sofa, Suhoe startled at the sound and quickly got to his feet, hurrying to the door.

Kim, seeing him follow out to the entryway, gave a cheerful grin.

“Honestly, you don’t have to come see me off every time.”

“I want to. I’m fully recovered now, after all.”

“Haha, that’s true. You couldn’t even move on the first day.”

The “first day” Kim referred to was the morning after Suhoe’s wedding night with Dowoon. Whether from the unfamiliar surroundings or the fatigue from sleeping through the day before, he hadn’t slept a wink that night—and by midday, he had met Kim for the first time.

‘Madam! Hello! President Lee Dowoon sent me. I’ll get your meals ready and tidy up the house, so you don’t need to worry about a thing!’

That had been Kim’s breezy greeting when Suhoe, hearing the front door open and vaguely thinking Dowoon might have returned, had leaned on the upstairs balcony railing.

A middle‑aged male omega appearing out of nowhere, cheerfully introducing himself.

Suhoe had nodded dumbly to Kim’s words and watched as he headed for the kitchen, soon putting together a meal with practiced ease and bringing it to the bedroom.

Afterward, Kim had moved about the house with the familiarity of someone long accustomed to it, cleaning every room.

He even knocked before entering Suhoe’s bedroom—and seeing him then, Suhoe had suddenly flushed, remembering that on the day Professor Eun and Hae-eon had visited, his body and bed, sticky with all manner of fluids until dawn, had been inexplicably clean when he awoke.

Could it have been him?