Today was the fourth day of school service. Jaegyeom submitted three book reports over the past three days, and each time the young man nodded his head in satisfaction and give him a compliment sticker saying, “You did very well.”
‘Did you keep stickers well?’
Yesterday, the young librarian said this while putting a sticker on the back of Jaegyeom’s hand.
‘Yes? What?’
‘Compliment sticker. This is the third one.’
Jaegyeom frowned slightly. Even so, he obediently gave the back of his hand.
‘Why should I keep them?’
‘Don’t you know you get a present when you collect all the compliment stickers?’
‘…’
Of course, it was the first time he had heard that.
‘What present?’
‘Curious?’
When Jaegyeom wriggled his eyebrows instead of answering, the young man smiled slightly.
‘I’ll let you know when you get all five stickers in the remaining two days.’
What kind of bullshit present would it be.
Thinking so, as soon as he went home, he gently peeled off the sticker and loosely pasted it on the mirror. He didn’t mean to keep them, but somehow he ended up collecting them together as the young man said. The first thing he did after returning home was to go to the sink and wash his hands, and whenever he tried to wash his hands, he always saw the sticker.
To be honest, it was bothersome to throw it away, so he roughly took it off and stuck it on the mirror. He thought that Mesani might have taken it off and thrown it away. Because of this, he had no expectations at all, but as soon as he saw the stickers huddled in a corner of the mirror, he felt glad.
He didn’t really want to receive a present, he was just curious about what it was. So, Jaegyeom thought he should collect the stickers and find out, since it was already like this anyway. He was thinking of throwing it away if he received it and didn’t like it.
He had collected three stickers so far, and the librarian would give him a gift if he collected two more. At some point, Jaegyeom had been looking forward to going to the library. He couldn’t stop thinking about going to the library all day. He even thought beforehand what book he was going to read. As soon as Jaegyeom finished the day-end assembly, he quickly headed to the library.
Jaegyeom strode into the library. As soon as he opened the door, the desk he stared at out of habit was empty. The young man was nowhere to be seen, as if he had been away for a while.
Did he come too soon? He should wait while reading…
Jaegyeom took out the book he had picked out in advance and sat down in the reading room.
“Are you sure he’s really in this place?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Ah, seriously! I said yes!”
Fcojwliljg nblmfr mjwf ogbw yftlcv atf ybbxrtfinfr. Lf atbeuta atfgf kjr cb bcf, yea la rffwfv batfgklrf. Ajfusfbw wbnfv tlr eqqfg ybvs rilutais ab mbcolgw atf lvfcalas bo atf nblmf. Ycf kjr tlvvfc ys atf ybbxrtfio, jcv atf batfg kjr rajcvlcu klat tlr yjmx ab Ajfusfbw, rb bcis tlr yjmx kjr nlrlyif. Ccv,
It was a ghost.
After confirming that there was no shadow under his feet, Jaegyeom blinked. Judging from the conversation he just heard, it seemed that he had a pretty clear reason. In addition, the clothes seen from the back were quite unique. In early summer, he was wearing some fur. Was it an intelligent ghost? He didn’t remember seeing such ghosts near the school, but Jaegyeom, who stared at the fur for a while, headed for the reading room anyway.
Jaegyeom normally would not touch ghosts that were not harmful. Just as he passed by the miscellaneous ghosts of the school with ignorance, he’d mostly stayed out of their way, even if they were malicious ghosts, as long as they didn’t cause conflict. Ghosts stayed in spaces as diverse as humans.
Well, it’s a library, so he probably came here because he wanted to read. Just when Jaegyeom, who had been thinking so, was sitting in the reading room and flipping through books without thinking, a passing thought caught him. He suddenly remembered the young man. If those ghosts really came to read, they would be quite disturbing.
Did those intelligent ghosts come to the library often?
Surely they were not playing pranks on or harming the young man?
“But why isn’t he coming already?”
“Looks like he has been away for a while. Just wait patiently?”
Jaegyeom started to be unnecessarily concerned about an ordinary, annoying, and weak human for no.
“I’m perfectly calm, Saero you’re the one who’s noisy.”
“Paehyeon, as always, you speak like a dog.”
Jaegyeom, who overheard the conversation, frowned. Rustle! He flipped through the pages of the book, trying to make a sound on purpose. It was to let them know that there were humans in this space. He was thinking if they knew that there was a human, they would avoid the place on their own.
“Saero, did you hear something just now?”
Sure enough, the two ghosts standing at the back of the bookshelf appeared after hearing Jaegyeom’s sound. The two intelligent ghosts, who had walked towards Jaegyeom, stood in front of the reading table and began to look at Jaegyeom openly. The ghost that had been hidden by the bookshelf and invisible was wearing an old-fashioned outfit. Judging by the way he dressed and spoke, he seemed to have been around for quite a while.
Jaegyeom quickly finished a sidelong glance and fixed his gaze on the book.
“Eh, what? It’s a young human child. I thought it was Taehee-nim.”
‘Taehee-nim?’ Jaegyeom’s pupils moved slightly at the unfamiliar name that flowed from the ghost’s mouth.
“Gasp! He just looked at me!”
“…”
Fuck, how annoying, Jaegyeom cursed inwardly. He had moved his eyes without even realizing it, but it seemed that it was noticeable because the gaze was slightly off. One of the ghosts began to make a fuss, pointing at him. At those words, he felt the other ghost standing beside him watching him.
“He just looked at me!”
“It’s just you. He can’t see us.”
Jaegyeom thought for a moment about chasing them away, remembering the talismans on hand, but then he pretended to look into the book with a calm expression. If he did that, it seemed that it would create a troublesome situation for no reason. Besides, the young man would come any minute.
“Besides, he looks oddly familiar…”
At that moment, the intelligent ghost called Saero muttered to himself and tilted his head. Then he started to get closer to Jaegyeom. Just as Saero tried to reach out to Jaegyeom, Paehyeon, who was standing behind, tugged at the hem of Saero’s clothes and said firmly.
“Taehee-nim hates it when we touch innocent humans.”
“Hmph, I know that too. Who asked?”
Saero stopped and grumbled, shaking off Paehyeon’s hand. Paehyeon, who was standing next to him, let out a small sigh. Getting a little tired, Paehyeon lightly changed the topic.
“I’m asking just in case, but you sent him a message in advance that we’re meeting him, right?”
“I didn’t. Wouldn’t it be much more pleasant to show up as a surprise like the old times?”
“Saero, how can you really be so careless?”
When Paehyeon frowned as if he was dumbfounded, Saero protested.
“This isn’t Naryecheong that exorcizes ghosts, so why shouldn’t we come?”
“This place is no different from Taehee-nim’s workplace. It’s a place where you shouldn’t visit without permission, and if you come in unannounced like this, what if it’s disrespectful to Taehee-nim…”
Saero shrugged and retorted.
“He has called me here many times. So didn’t I say that I would come alone? You’re the one who insisted on coming with me. If it bothers you so much, why don’t you go back first?”
Paehyeon stiffened his face coldly and raised his voice.
“Taehee-nim came here to find an exorcist, the successor at Naryecheong. Then, the successor must be a gwijae, so don’t you know that there is a possibility of them seeing us? What if we get caught and mess things up? Knowing how much effort Taehee-nim put in to create an excuse to get out of Naryecheong…”
Saero cut off Paehyeon angry rant.
“Isn’t that why I purposely came to this place where there are no people? I’ve been here a few times, and each time, there was always no one else here, only Taehee-nim. Today, there is that human child, but usually only Taehee-nim is here!”
As the quarrel between the two ghosts escalated, Jaegyeom abruptly rose from his seat, with the sound of a chair being pushed.
“…”
“…”
The voices that had been running wildly cut off at the same time. The eyes of the two ghosts naturally focused on Jaegyeom. He ignored the gazes of the two and put the book down on the table in the reading room. Then he strode to the doorway, not even carrying his bag.
Without hesitation, he opened the library door and stepped out into the hallway, immediately expelling the stuffy air inside the library that had filled his chest. For some reason, his eyes kept trembling. He got out of his seat because he could no longer sit still, but when he came out he had no idea where to go.
The profile of the young man sitting at the desk came to mind. He would occasionally ask him, ‘Is it interesting?’ referring to the books, and Jaegyeom would answer ‘yes’, ‘so-so’, or ‘no’. Whatever he felt like, regardless of the content, and the young man would just laugh quietly.
In fact, Jaegyeom wanted to ask again very occasionally.
What about you? What’s the book you’re reading today? Are you enjoying it?
When he sat still and read a book, he fell asleep without realizing it. It was only about 30 minutes, but when he woke up after a blink of an eye, he felt strangely languid and peaceful. The young man sat with his legs crossed and quietly read a book, while he laid on his stomach halfway and watched the sunlight dyeing the reading room…
When he was in the hazy scenery, it seemed as if time had stopped. It was nice that for once he didn’t have to think about when this life began, when it got ruined, and how he ended up here. It didn’t matter.
“Hello.”
Jaegyeom, who was slowly going down the stairs, stopped. A few steps down, the young man with a mug in one hand was smiling. A sweet aroma rose from the coffee that filled the mug more than halfway. Standing tall, Jaegyeom looked down at the young man’s face without saying a word. He was going to ask him something, what was it?
“Since I had to talk to someone for a while, I’m la…”
“You’re late.”
Jaegyeom suddenly stole the words. Then the young librarian’s eyes widened.
“What is your name?”
At the immediate question, the young librarian’s eyes widened slightly.
“… Me?”
“Mm.”
“…”
The young man made a puzzled face for a moment, then lowered his head to stare at the mug he was holding in his hand. It had cooled down a bit, but he could feel warmth through the earthenware. The young man, who had been silently looking down at the coffee, raised his eyes again and looked up at Jaegyeom. Their gazes met precisely.
“I’m Taehee.”
At the answer that came after a while, Jaegyeom smiled slightly.
“Last name?”
“Yoon.”
“I see.”
Jaegyeom nodded and went down the stairs one by one. Accordingly, the gaze of Yoon Taehee, who was looking up at Jaegyeom, gradually lowered. As their distance narrowed, Yoon Taehee stared at Jaegyeom who was approaching. Gradually, the heights of the two became equal.
One step, two step, three step, four step, and five step…
Jaegyeom punched Yoon Taehee as he smelled the scent of perfume that penetrated the tip of his nose.
🙈🙊🙉 what a cliffhanger. Thank you!
Punched? Huh
Omg 💀
he just did not….oh my god…
Lol Jaegyeom is so quick to action
What?!!!!! 👀
Very good jaegyeom. I applaud you! HAHA!
Oh, that’s not…
Well, I kind of not blame him??? Just when he was starting to soften up…