INV 17

The moment he was about to say he was sorry but couldn’t make it due to unavoidable circumstances, his junior asked cautiously. Like someone who knew exactly what was happening. As if any reason didn’t matter, and he just wanted to sympathize with Kwon Yihyeon’s situation, just like that.

“Sunbae, are you really okay?”

For some reason, the answer didn’t come immediately. Even though the question of whether one is okay is a type of formality. When someone asks if you are okay, answering that you are is that very formality. It should have been enough to just answer that he was fine.

When Kwon Yihyeon remained silent for a long time, the junior spoke.

“I didn’t call to pressure you, it’s just that everyone is worried. We wondered if something happened. You aren’t the type of person to ditch a tournament without a word.”

He realized late. The question just now was not a formality. It wasn’t something said just to hear a mechanical “I’m okay” in response.

Kwon Yihyeon was being worried about by the people in the club, by those around him.

Kwon Yihyeon liked Seoul and he liked the university he attended. In this place, no one knew about Kwon Yihyeon’s past, and that alone made him free. His body felt light. He could go anywhere and leave for anywhere. Because there was something somewhat floating and empty about him for him to become attached to the relationships from his university days.

It didn’t feel like he was truly connected to them.

But perhaps they were connected more strongly than he thought. Kwon Yihyeon’s daily life, the routine he had created for himself, was already holding onto him. The one who was floating and empty might not have been their sincerity, but Kwon Yihyeon himself.

He wasn’t alone.

Am I okay? Perhaps not. Because he realized that, Kwon Yihyeon was able to answer.

“I’m okay now.”

For a farewell greeting received from one’s daily life, it was quite decent.

⋆˙⟡

Just because Kwon Yihyeon had put his ordinary daily life into a coffin and covered it with graveyard dirt didn’t mean he had forgotten his duties. Duty means the righteous path a person should properly follow according to their position. For a grandson to tell the grandmother who raised him all his life the news of his employment was a proper duty.

“Grandmother, are you there?”

Kwon Yihyeon doesn’t particularly like the shamanic shrine.

Still, thinking he would have to stop by the shrine to encounter all his relatives at once—since they had recently been spending all day just offering prayers—Kwon Yihyeon opened the door at the right timing. Inside the spacious shrine, his grandmother was there first, and behind the hanging scroll at the very back, there was definitely a massive energy.

His senses flared at the rushing wind, and the chill followed a beat late.

It was a good thing he had pre-emptively cut off the switch to his newly acquired “senses”, for if he hadn’t, he would have been more than overwhelmed. The energy, which somehow didn’t feel benevolent toward Kwon Yihyeon, seemed in a way to be grieving, and also seemed to be pitying him. Just as his consciousness was turning mushy like a palette of various colors turning black—Ting.

His grandmother shook a bell and woke Kwon Yihyeon up.

“Ah.”

“I wondered what it was about.”

Grandmother spoke with a double-layered expression.

“So you have decided to do so.”

One was a face that seemed unable to understand, and the other was a face that looked sad.

He couldn’t understand why two expressions appeared overlapped on a person’s face. But at the same time, Kwon Yihyeon understood.

Somehow, he felt he knew.

The fact that his grandmother hadn’t actually made either of those expressions.

‘Those are the expressions of the gods Grandmother serves.’

As he lowered his senses even further, he could finally see his grandmother’s face.

In the meantime, Grandmother seemed to have aged more. Sadly. He wondered if the matter regarding her grandson had made her sorrowful.

“What… what do you mean? Did something happen to Yihyeon again?”

His aunt-in-law, who was always good-natured, asked in a hushed voice. As her voice, steeped in terror, tore out in a long stretch, Kwon Yihyeon unknowingly gained certainty in his choice. That it was a good thing he was going to the Afterlife Company. The vibrant smile had completely vanished from his aunt-in-law’s face. These are the family members who have come to fear him this much. At the same time, they are the family he loves, and the family who feels sorry for him.

He couldn’t keep imposing on the Great Mountain forever.

Kwon Yihyeon slowly looked around the inside of the shrine. Some avoided his gaze, some were afraid, and some felt guilty.

He felt that he wanted to reassure these people, at least.

Kwon Yihyeon, having taken off his shoes, stepped into the shrine.

“…And so, I’ve ended up getting a job as an intern.”

When he explained, the reactions were varied. Some people’s mouths fell open, some clutched the backs of their necks, and some burst into tears.

In any case, there was no one in this place who didn’t know about the Afterlife Company internship.

Some were relieved, but those who were quick at calculating were different.

‘Even the Great Mountain is being cornered as an enemy of the Celestial Realm for protecting the Jae Angshin’s contractor; will the Company protect Kwon Yihyeon?’

Well.

They would monitor him, be wary of him, and keep him at a distance.

‘In the worst-case scenario, they’ll use him as a shield.’

They couldn’t even guess how harsh a beating the Grand Shaman’s grandson would have to endure outside the Great Mountain. It was excessively tragic.

His aunt-in-law asked cautiously.

“I-is the Underworld okay with it?”

“Yes. I passed the interview. Tomorrow is my first day of work.”

“By any chance, the interviewer was…”

“They said his name was Gwak Deukcheon…”

Gwak Deukcheon. As soon as he mentioned the name of his boss, several of the elders who had been respectively appalled instantly exchanged strange glances.

Kwon Yihyeon hadn’t had any major complaints since he was young about the elders exchanging stories he didn’t know, but now that he had stepped into this world in many senses, he was also curious.

He wondered what kind of person Gwak Deukcheon was that they all had such puzzling looks in their eyes.

“What were you thinking…!”

At that moment, his cousin noona, Kwon Haseon, flared up in anger. She looked ready to actually throw punches at Kwon Yihyeon. A second cousin tried to stop Kwon Haseon from the side, but Kwon Yihyeon signaled with his other hand to leave her be and took a few hits to his chest. They were punches that didn’t even have proper strength behind them anyway. At the blows that would only hurt her own hands if she kept hitting him, Kwon Yihyeon belatedly pulled her by the sleeve of her forearm. Kwon Haseon tried to shake him off and land a few more hits somehow, but she collapsed, exhausted by her own efforts.

And she began to wail, prostrate on the floor.

“Why! Why didn’t you ask me anything? Why didn’t you ask for help? Why! You could have at least sent a text. You could have just called!”

“…”

“Why, why do I! Why do I have to just stay here and pray? Why do I have to do nothing when my brother might die!”

The sound of mourning broke out. The piercing screams gathered like nails.

Kwon Yihyeon couldn’t say anything.

The truth was, ever since the Great Mountain was driven as an enemy of the Celestial Realm for the crime of protecting Kwon Yihyeon, all sorts of gods had been threatening them. That was the reason Kwon Yihyeon’s family members hadn’t stepped outside the shrine since the wedding night of the Jae Angshin and Kwon Yihyeon. Kwon Yihyeon knew now, too—no. He could feel it.

‘Well. Even if time were turned back, I wouldn’t have asked the family for help.’

He was prepared for their resentment. But even if time turned back, Kwon Yihyeon had no intention of dragging his family into his affairs.

Kwon Yihyeon didn’t want to return to Cheongna.

However, he loved the people of the Great Mountain. He truly respected and admired the way his family members lived their lives as themselves.

Kwon Yihyeon wanted these people to live happily just as they were.

To do that, he couldn’t apologize to Kwon Haseon.

Kwon Yihyeon stood up from his seat.

“Where are you going? Where do you…! Don’t go! I told you not to go! You idiot! Do you think we’ll be happy if you do this? Do you really think that once we abandon you, we’ll—we’ll be jumping for joy just because we’re the only ones who survived…?!”

And he simply placed a hand on Kwon Haseon’s shoulder once.

“Be healthy, and be happy.”

“Kwon Yihyeon…”

“Because I will be, too.”

“…”

“It’s a promise.”

Kwon Yihyeon turned around and walked out just like that.

“You crazy bastard. Hey! Don’t go. Don’t go! Please. Yihyeon-ah…!”

Kwon Haseon tried to rush out, but the family all grabbed and clung to her together. As he walked down the mountain, the sound of crying grew distant. The scent of incense that had stung the tip of his nose was also quickly scattered and blown away by the wind.

He didn’t say he would return. It was because he didn’t want to tell a lie.

⋆˙⟡

‘…I didn’t understand before why humans are said to be slaves to pleasure.’

Now he felt he knew. If it was pleasure that could evaporate all the trivial worries in his head, he was at the point where he wanted to offer up anything.

“Ugh, relax. Are you trying to snap it off, or what…?”

“Your cock is… disgustingly huge.”

“Congratulations. It’s better than being disgustingly small.”

“…”

Setting aside the fact that his life was ruined in a single marriage stroke, the sex with the Jae Angshin was thrilling.

Kwon Yihyeon, in his honest heart, wondered if it was okay to be like this all night when he had to clock in tomorrow morning, but since the bride’s mood upon hearing the news of the interview success seemed utterly unpleasant, he intended to humor him.

Despite that intention, he ended up doing as he pleased in the end.

“Ah, ah…!”

He thinks that if one takes a vigorous twenty-something as a groom by force, it’s something they must be prepared for.

Above all, the Jae Angshin must be much stronger than a human. Right?

“Don’t make me feel too much… just, stop it…”

“You don’t have to praise me that much. Thank you.”

“…Hngh. How insolent. You… on the day your hip work doesn’t satisfy me, you might get a scolding that draws tears. Aren’t you afraid…?”

“How could I not be afraid? When my spouse says they want me. How could I not tremble? I should work hard at ramming you today, too.”

“You’ve gone mad… ugh!”

The next day, after finishing the night with pleasant sex, Kwon Yihyeon began to prepare for his first day of work.