Paehyeon, the long-haired man, remembered the moment he first met Yoon Taehee.
Back then, before he was an exorcist, Yoon Taehee, who had a much younger face and was shorter than he was now, did not run away even though made eye contact with Paehyeon. At first, young gwijae mistook themselves for human beings, but when they saw their feet, they would run away in fear. However, even when Yoon Taehee looked at Paehyeon’s feet, he stood there unmoving. Paehyeon was an old intelligent ghost (靈鬼).
There were three kinds of ghosts.
One was a ghost with a grudge, called a vengeful ghost or a malicious ghost. Vengeful ghost was a case in which one could not leave this world with strong lingering feelings and resentment of their past life. The ghost was a being that moved with a clear purpose and harmed humans with malice. Most of the damage to the civilian population was caused by this ghost. However, the longer one stayed in the ninth heaven, the weaker the demonic energy they possessed, the weaker their grudge, until eventually they lost their intellect and forgot everything, leaving only their emotions behind.
Without knowing whether they were alive or dead, when they became an existence wandering the ninth heaven without any purpose, from then on one was called a miscellaneous ghost.
The other type was this ghost. A miscellaneous ghost not only lacked intelligence, but also often had a disfigured appearance. Because of this, it was easy to recognize it at a glance. Because they had no rationale, of course he had no consciousness, and their actions were close to that of a beast. Unlike a vengeful ghost, they had no malice, but were curious and played trivial pranks.
The last one was an intelligent ghost like Paehyeon. This was the rarest type unlike the previous two, and the number was also remarkably small. Intelligent ghosts had a clear sense of rationale, and had a normal appearance just like a normal human. Unlike the vengeful spirit, however, intelligent ghosts were powerful ghosts who retained a consciousness as a ghost, forgetting all resentment and memories of their life as a human. An intelligent ghost was a being left in this world after a human who possessed strong spiritual energy died. The difference between them and vengeful and miscellaneous ghosts was not that they couldn’t leave this world, but that they ‘didn’t’. And if there was one thing the three had in common, it was that they had no shadows.
The exorcists, who encounter spirits several times a day, habitually looked at their feet when meeting someone for the first time. If it was a miscellaneous ghost, it could be identified just by its appearance, but in the case of vengeful ghosts and intelligent ghosts, it was often difficult to distinguish them from humans.
Most of the exorcists harboured a deep resentment toward ghosts to the bone. It was kind of like a trauma. It was because their unfortunate pasts in which they suffered from ghosts remained in their lives like a scar. That was the reason why exorcists’ eyes blaze when they encounter ghosts and try to kill them or exorcise them. The exorcists who had aged to a certain extent had a sense of freedom and laxity, and sometimes let things slide moderately, but in the case of young exorcists, most of them hated ghosts and were hostile.
However, Yoon Taehee was an exception.
Yoon Taehee did not seem to care much about the distinction between humans and ghosts in the first place. In that respect, Yoon Taehee could be said to be quite an outlier. He was also ironically close to Paehyeon, an intelligent ghost, even though he was the Chief of the Exorcism Department whose purpose was to catch ghosts. He, of course, was familiar with him before he became an exorcist, but even after, Yoon Taehee treated Paehyeon with the same attitude.
The fact that Yoon Taehee was in contact with spirits was a story that the other exorcists, including Department Head Seok, did not know.
“Where is the young master?”
Therefore, this work involving ghosts was possible because it was Yoon Taehee. Paehyeon, who had escaped from Kim Seonghun’s body, handed over a stuffed rabbit stolen from the child’s hospital room. The child’s soul was in it. This doll was an object to which the child felt deeply connected and attached to for the past few years of life. This kind of thing was enough to be a vessel to contain the soul.
“I will restore him to its original state, you can now go and rest.”
Yoon Taehee was fiddling with the dirty doll and said.
The case in which Jukyung Construction accidentally touched a sacred rock and the child’s soul was kidnapped ended here. Of course, it was Paehyeon who stole the soul, not an angry spirit. Since it was Yoon Taehee who instigated the ghost Paehyeon, the culprit was Yoon Taehee and the one who solved it was also Yoon Taehee. There were no doubts in Naryecheong, since it was a matter that was solved by the Chief anyway.
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.
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“Gfqjgawfca Lfjv Vfbx vlvc’a rjs jcsatlcu?”
Tbbc Kjftff ifa bea j rwjii ijeut.
“Vtf tjv j iba ab rjs. Merrlcu jybea ktfatfg la wjvf rfcrf ab ajxf j ygfjx obg akb wbcatr pera ab olcv j remmfrrbg. Vtf rjlv rtf kbeiv jqqblca j remmfrrbg obg wf.”
“So what did you say?”
Yoon Taehee muttered as he put one hand in his trouser pocket.
“You know. I like valuable, precious things.”
“Yes, you do.”
“And, it must be untouched by anyone’s hands.”
The loyalty of each and every one of the people who became exorcists after the chorani period was overwhelming. Needless to say, they were very prideful. The successor brought by Department Head Seok must be the same.
“I’m not interested in a successor like that.”
“Then who do you want?”
“Someone who is willing to follow me wherever I go.”
Yoon Taehee slowly stroked the doll he was holding.
“Even if it’s a pit of fire.”
***
The boy was lying like a corpse.
He saw the same thing whether he closed his eyes or opened them. A deep, heavy darkness. Time seemed to have stopped. The boy wanted to be buried forever in this darkness. He didn’t hate this lonely and desolate moment, isolated alone. Rather, he wished it would never end.
Tweet tweet…
The boy, who had been stretched out motionlessly, frowned. A loud birdsong broke through the darkness. The boy closed his eyes and tried to ignore the bird’s voice, but as if mocking the boy, the bird raised its voice and began to chirp loudly.
“Fuck.”
In the end, the boy who couldn’t stand it raised his upper body.
“Hey! Mesan-ah!”
At the boy’s call, the sound of running from a distance could be heard, and then the door opened wide. The pitch-black room suddenly brightened and a child appeared. The child smiled and greeted the boy sitting on the bed.
“My lord, did you call?”
“Take those damn birds out of here.”
The boy irritably brushed his overgrown hair. His long hair ran gently down the nape of his neck. Even at a glance, the handsome face showed a hint of annoyance. The boy added in a fussy tone.
“You’re friends with them, aren’t you? Hurry up and tell them to shut up. I won’t let them go.”
“Yes? H- However… What if I said that and then they get scared and leave this place? They’re good kids… they even asked me… for some raspberries yesterday…”
Mesani muttered with a sullen expression.
“Then let them cry at night. Why are they messing with me from the window of my room every morning?”
Mesani was hesitant about what to do.
“It is natural for birds to chirp in the morning.”
Just then, a voice interrupted from beyond the door. Thanks to the man who intervened appropriately, Mesani’s embarrassed face suddenly brightened.
“Jeongju-nim!”
Jeongju stroked Mesani’s head, who was delighted. A man who appeared out of nowhere, Jeongju, was carrying a shopping bag that looked luxurious at first glance. Jeongju entered the room without the boy’s permission and opened the thick blackout curtains wide. Brilliant morning sunlight streamed in from the wide windows. The boy frowned and covered his eyes.
“Close the curtains while I’m asking nicely.”
“When have you ever said anything nice? You’re always cursing, isn’t that right, Mesani?”
Jeongju snorted at the boy’s words. It was a pretty charming smile, but in the boy’s eyes it was just plain condescending.
Jeongju was a man who carried a strangely alluring atmosphere. Even though it was early in the morning, he was dressed perfectly as if he had already been styled. His hair was also nicely trimmed, and his makeup was freshly applied.
“Don’t blame the baby birds, get up quickly.”
Either way, the boy glanced at Jeongju with his brows furrowed. The corners of his eyes, which had risen, were sharpened even more.
“Why are you here?”
“I figured you’d be like this. Get ready quickly.”
“Ready for what?”
Instead of answering, Jeongju took out a shirt from the shopping bag that was draped over his arm. It was the clothes he had left with the tailor a month ago. Growing up being spoiled, Jeongju preferred expensive handmade products instead of ready-made products, and the boy would often sarcastically say that Jeongju paid a lot of money for them.
“Did you forget?”
Jeongju lightly tossed the ironed shirt at the boy. The boy hesitantly caught the clothes. On the left chest of the jacket, three letters of the boy’s name ‘Kim Jaegyeom’ were embroidered.
“You were supposed to go to school.”
T/N: Since both protagonists have been introduced, let’s take a look at some pretty fanart! I’ve dumped a bunch into the fan-stuffs channel on discord so go see them before they get buried by other messages ^.^
TRANSLATOR OH MY GOSHHH I COULDNT STOP MYSELF AND STARTED READING ALREADY 😭 IM SO EXCITED FOR THE UPCOMING CHAPTERS
THANK YOU FOR YOUR HARD WORK
❤
this story is so good already thanks TN so much <33
I wonder how both of their attitude will clash haha. Who will come out to the top?
Ah ah I like this story. Thankyou for translating it for us, misacchi. Btw I cant find the fan art in CG dc. Where are they 😢
it’s in the fan-stuffs channel (a few channels below bl discussion)! I’ve posted quite a few twitter links
Thanks for the update 🤣❤️
💗💗💗