Jaegyeom punched Yoon Taehee as he smelled the scent of perfume that penetrated the tip of his nose. Yoon Taehee’s body staggered as the fast-flying fist hit him, unable to balance himself. His tremendous blow hit him, and the mug he was holding shattered into pieces with a sharp burst. The coffee in the mug drenched his shirt brown in an instant.
Yoon Taehee withdrew and leaned his upper body against the railing of his stairs. Thanks to the splash of coffee, the scent of coffee swallowed up the aftertaste of his cologne. Yoon Taehee, who cupped the corner of his mouth with his palm, slowly raised his head. As he removed his hand, his lips spilled. With a hard face, he coughed.
“You…”
His jawbone would have been shattered had his reaction been even a little slower. Jaegyeom knew that, and so did Yoon Taehee. As Yoon Taehee wiped blood from his lips. He looked down at his blood-stained palm with a shocked gaze. He muttered to himself.
“Loaded… spiritual energy…”
His body reacted before he could even perceive with his head the fact that his spiritual energy was carried in his flying fist. In an instant, his body, accustomed to combat, sensed an approaching attack and immediately let out spiritual energy. It was an amazing reflex in the midst of defenselessness. His bones would have been broken if the shock had not been cushioned by his spiritual energy as a shield.
It didn’t matter why he was hit. The fact that the boy exposed his spiritual energy made Yoon Taehee perturbed. There was no way he would hit an ordinary person with this level of energy. Just as Yoon Taehee recognized it carried on his fist, Jaegyeom must have noticed that he blocked his spiritual energy. It was a kind of test. And Yoon Taehee recognized the message contained in this blow from him at once.
“So it’s true.”
Jaegyeom, who was clenching and unclenching his fists, looked down at his hands. His hands were tingling thanks to the collision with the blocking energy. The back of his hand was slightly grazed, but there was no blood.
“You were a gwijae.”
Jaegyeom noddedand muttered in a low voice. The dry voice sounded like a reminder to himself rather than something he was saying to Yoon Taehee.
“I guess exorcists are acquainted with ghosts these days?”
At Jaegyeom’s words, Yoon Taehee, who had been lost for a while, widened his eyes. The suddenness of the situation began to make sense.
Jaegyeom walked off with an indifferent face. He walked past Yoon Taehee without giving him a glance. Yoon Taehee, who had been frozen, came to his senses belatedly and hurriedly turned around. He grabbed Jaegyeom’s arm as he tried to move away.
“Friend, hold on.”
“Friend…”
Muttering, Jaegyeom looked at the hand that gripped his arm.
‘Would you like to be friends with me?’
He felt a firm yet warm grip on the fabric. Jaegyeom’s sleeves quickly became dirty because his hands were soaked in blood. Jaegyeom raised his eyes and stared at Yoon Taehee.
“Friend?”
Jaegyeom raised his eyebrows fiercely.
When the young man said he wanted to be friends he once asked why. He gave a simple answer, ‘Because I want to be close.’ But now that he thought about it, he never asked him why he wanted to be close.
If he had, what would Yoon Taehee say?
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.
“Right, you were looking for someone to be an exorcist, right?”
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Jaegyeom gestured outside.
“There is a garbage dump over there. Go and look there.”
Yoon Taehee brushed his hair with his other hand. The boy’s deep hostility was evident in the words that compared the exorcist to garbage.
How come…
Suddenly, he wanted to know the source of that hostility. But, that’s not what’s important now. Yoon Taehee let out a shallow sigh. The fishy blood mixed in his mouth ran down his throat. It tasted unpleasant and salty. He hardened his face and hurriedly opened his mouth.
“I don’t know where or what you saw or heard but…”
Before Yoon Taehee could finish speaking, Jaegyeom snickered. He shook his head slightly as if he didn’t need to hear it. He put his hand on top of Yoon Taehee’s, who was holding his arm and applied light force to remove it, but the hand he clenched tightly like a noose did not budge.
“Let go.”
“I will explain myself.”
“I said let go.”
“Are you mad?”
Mad? Why would I be?
Jaegyeom stood still and closed his eyes.
“I’ve said it twice.”
“Just a moment.”
“If I have to say it three times, I will break your wrist.”
After speaking, Jaegyeom opened his eyes. A sharp gaze penetrated Yoon Taehee. He could feel the intensity in the bland words he uttered. If he could hold on to him, it didn’t matter if his wrist was broken, Yoon Taehee thought. But he intuitively judged that it was time to let go for now.
“…”
He could tell by looking into those eyes. They were closed with all the bolts tightly fastened without a gap. After thinking for a while, Yoon Taehee squeezed Jaegyeom’s arm and slowly withdrew his hand.
Jaegyeom turned away without hesitation. If you don’t expect anything, you won’t be disappointed. And Jaegyeom, to his surprise, realized that he was disappointed. Why on earth? He himself didn’t understand. What did he want from the young librarian? He was not sure about that.
He was wondering what the gift he would get when he collected all the stickers. But he was no longer curious. Whatever the gift, it will reek of stench. Humans always betray his expectations. When he doesn’t expect anything, they put something in his arms, and when he expects something, they take it away.
Just like ‘the young librarian’ and ‘exorcist Yoon Taehee’.
***
A familiar spiritual energy hovered at the doorway.
Paehyeon and Saero, who were sitting as far apart as possible, each occupying a seat in the reading room, turned their heads at the same time, their eyes locked on the closed door. The door opened wide, finally revealing the long-awaited figure. Paehyeon and Saero jumped up from their seats with delight.
As always, they knelt down on one knee to bow and greet each other politely. As soon as they lifted their heads and checked the faces in front of them, Paehyeon and Saero’s faces stiffened in an instant.
“Taehee-nim!”
“Taehee-nim?”
Yoon Taehee’s appearance was a mess. There was blood all over his face and his hands, and his white shirt was stained with spilled coffee. Contrasted with the white of his shirt, the vivid bloodstains stained here and there created a strangely eerie atmosphere. His hair, which was always neat, was also disheveled.
Yoon Taehee silently stared at the two intelligent ghosts looking up at him with bewildered eyes. His face, which usuallt wore a slight smile, was surprisingly expressionless. Without expression, he looked chilling and threatening. He was like a different person. In an unusual atmosphere, Paehyeon and Saero exchanged glances.
“Hello, you’ve been waiting for me.”
After a while, the heavy silence was broken. Yoon Taehee, who had been silent all along, greeted the two in the same tone as usual. As if responding to the greeting, Paehyeon lowered his head and asked cautiously.
“Taehee-nim, what happened?”
“Work, as usual.”
Yoon Taehee, who responded simply, laughed silently.
“I didn’t know you were coming. I don’t remember calling.”
“Ah, that…”
Saero was about to explain something.
“Whatever the reason, thank you for coming.”
Cutting off Saero’s words, Yoon Taehee raised a hand and touched his chin. It’s because he felt a belated pain. His jaws throbbed and felt stiff. It felt like his chin had dislocated slightly from being hit by his fist.
“I got dumped damn well.”
Yoon Taehee, who added a short comment, raised both of his hands and covered his lower jaw. He shifted his jaws from side to side a few times before pressing hard with his hands wrapped around. At some point, with a knock, the jawbone that had been misaligned came into alignment. Hearing the word “dumped”, Paehyeon and Saero looked up at Yoon Taehee with bewildered eyes.
“That, what… do you mean?”
Yoon Taehee smiled and answered Paehyeon’s question.
“It means I got fucked up.”
Yoon Taehee turned slightly and locked the door to his library.
“Of course, this isn’t the first time I’ve gotten dumped. I’ve been turned down once before.”
At first, he intended to create an opportunity to get closer by feigning kindness and goodwill. Based on his experience, it was rare for someone to reject a gesture of kindness, especially a young gwijae who had weak ties to others, Yoon Taehee thought.
“He’s unnecessarily shrewd, holds himself back. He’s been out of touch for a long time, and he lost his temper once. At first, I didn’t know what to do, so I drew him in roughly, but I only got dumped. It ended up only fueling useless doubts, and looking at it as a result, that was my failure.”
However, the regular method did not work for the boy. As he abruptly closed the distance and approached him head-on, he felt rather burdened. Yoon Taehee decided to take a detour. He had to let his guard down first. For him to do that, it was important for them to be in the same space.
To melt naturally into the landscape that the boy saw.
That was the way Yoon Taehee chose.
Paehyeon and Saero were listening silently, with puzzled faces.
“They say that when the body is close, the heart naturally gets closer, so I barely bought time while doing all sorts of bullshit. I cut down on unnecessary questions, picked easy topics without much depth and sparked conversation like that. I was building a tower step by step like that,”
It was for this reason that he kept him in the library under the pretext of on-campus service. He deliberately made him read a book easily without having to do anything strenuous. To make it a harmless and comfortable space. Yoon Taehee felt like he was taming a wild animal, and he was approaching with bated breath so that the boy would not be startled and run away.
If he saw a gap, he would dig right into it. He was thinking of asking him to dinner today. Earlier, the reason he was talking to the teachers in the staff room was to ask if there was a restaurant nearby he could eat at. He figured that by today, the boy would give in and have a meal with him.
Before he knew it, the boy was talking quite comfortably with him, and even burst into laughter at his trivial jokes. It was progressing peacefully like a ship going with a fair wind. He was thinking of creating a special bond between the boy who would become the exorcist of ‘Yoon Taehee’, not that of Naryecheong.
“But you guys ruined it.”
However, Yoon Taehee’s carefully crafted scenario was discarded in an instant. The boy ran away as far as he had progressed. It was quite painful to miss it right in front of his nose.
“I don’t know how the hell you shot your mouths off recklessly, but I’m pretty disappointed this time either way.”
Paehyeon and Saero couldn’t understand exactly what Yoon Taehee was saying. They could only roughly infer; it seemed that things had gone wrong because of the conversation they had earlier. The only thing that could be known for sure was that Yoon Taehee was furious at the two of them. Normally, he rarely ever got angry. Even when they made some pretty big mistakes, he tended to be forgiving,
“Don’t worry, I still cherish you guys.”
Yoon Taehee now was quietly angry.
“But you’re much better than the foolish humans who roll and crawl without knowing their place. The water has already been spilled, and since the situation has become like this, there is nothing we can do about it.”
At the words he added, the two ghosts who were sitting on their knees lifted their heads with stiff faces. Yoon Taehee rubbed his dirty hands on his waist. The hem of his shirt, which had been straight, was wrinkled by his careless touch. Yoon Taehee muttered in an insignificant tone.
“Then… starting from Saero.”
Saero subconsciously glanced at Paehyeon with a puzzled expression. Paehyeon’s gaze was also puzzled. After roughly wiping off the traces of coffee and blood on his hands, Yoon Taehee brushed his hands lightly. Then he straightened his body and opened his mouth.
“It’s only fair that you both get hit too.”
Unlike the boy who threw his fist first, Yoon Taehee gave a kind notice.
Hes way too unyielding imo. I was more understanding before but jaegyeom is makin me dislike him.
I think I can understand where he’s coming from, like he trusted him and he betrayed his trust.
And also if you remember gwijae is what/who made him immortal
That does not excuse immediately resorting to violence plus no trust was really betrayed. Hes just overreacting and assuming everyone is like the guy he first met. Its immature and unfair especially considering how “old” he is..
He might be “OLD” but that doesn’t necessarily mean his mentality has also matured to that age (eg. his attitude towards Mesani and Jeongju) and that guy was the first gwijae he had ever met, which to me basically means he would classify every other one he meets like that guy
Doesnt make it right is all ive been saying.
We also dont kno sifton is the first hes met since his master. Others might just keep it to themselves like he does.
ikr… he was never educated like normal people would…i think he wants someone who can make him feel safe without hiding any other moves behind their actions. Both were not in the wrong.
Thank you?
best boy jaegyeom
Thanx 💜💜
The #100 Most Epic Anime Betrayals “>
Damn, I feel for Jaegyeom. It made sound harsh but yeah, Taehee was approaching with personal intentions so it makes sense that Gyeom would lash out. I am so curious about why Chief Yoon is so fixated in his own exorcist too.