JKA 55

“M, me?”

“Yes, you.”

As if he couldn’t hold back his laughter, Jiwoon kept chuckling, and while Zeo was displeased by it, he didn’t take back his words. If it weren’t for that wretched shell, he would have completely ignored it, but how on earth did that crazy devil bastard end up buying and wearing Myeong Seonwoo’s shell of all things?

As far as he knew, Myeong Seonwoo had definitely died in a truck accident. He had passed away at too young an age, and such beings usually had few memories worth storing in the decision repository, so they were typically reincarnated right away. But to be in hell, did that mean he made a contract with a devil for his soul while he was alive? If that were the case, there was no way he wouldn’t know.

Myeong Seonwoo, who went to hell after dying in an accident, and Myeong Jiwoon, who witnessed the entire accident scene. The devil Egeci, who was running wild wearing Myeong Seonwoo’s shell, and himself, who came down to the surface to save Myeong Jiwoon. It felt like something was disgustingly tangled up, but not knowing its clear identity made him feel frustrated somewhere.

“Don’t tell me you’ve finished eating already?”

Zeo looked at Jiwoon’s bowl, which had a little rice left, unlike his own empty one, and deliberately changed the subject. At that, Jiwoon, who had been smiling, put down his spoon and said.

“I’m, I’m full.”

“I told you clearly. When you go to hell, they’ll mix all of that up for you.”

“…”

“Live diligently so you don’t go to hell.”

Zeo stopped the hand of Jiwoon who was reluctantly picking up his spoon to force himself to eat, and got up, gathering the shopping bags. Jiwoon hurriedly followed behind him. The fact that he was the one who left food, and that Zeo was the one who had cleaned his plate, was still unfamiliar.

“W, was it edible?”

“Yeah.”

“Then wh, where does all the f, food you ate go?”

“I don’t know, it probably disappears.”

“D, do you have a, a stomach inside you?”

“You only ask such stupid things. Do you really have nothing else you’re curious about me?”

The feeling of a full stomach was certainly unpleasant. His body felt a bit heavy, and his stomach felt like it was churning, which was a bad feeling. It wasn’t being digested, so it should have disappeared quickly, but that wasn’t happening right away.

“Are you curious about how this stuff moves around inside me? Is that the only thing you’re curious about?”

“N, no… I’m, I’m just curious.”

“Bullshit… I’ve been too nice to you.”

Zeo reached out and messed up Jiwoon’s hair wildly. It was a rough touch that could have been upsetting, but Jiwoon was chuckling, hehe. Finding that absurd, Zeo also let out a dry laugh.

“C, can I ask other c, curious things too?”

“Yeah.”

“R, really?”

“You’re speaking informally.”

“Then, yo, your age!”

Jiwoon asked, walking closely beside Zeo. As if he were a child, Jiwoon seemed extremely excited about the fact that he was allowed to ask a few questions.

“I don’t know, I’ve lived for a long time, roughly.”

“Y, you don’t know at all?”

“The time here is different from our world, and it’s not particularly important, so I’ve never counted.”

“W, were you an a, angel from birth?”

“Yeah. Angels are just born as angels.”

“C, can a person become an angel?”

At Jiwoon’s question, Zeo stopped walking and looked at him.

“Why are you curious about that?”

“J, just…”

“No.”

“…”

“Humans are humans, and angels are angels. An angel is an angel to some, and to others, a messenger.”

“L, like a grim reaper?”

“Similar.”

In the first place, angels and humans were beings that could be clearly divided by a line. If everything that exists in the world is born, angels were closer to appearing. For things that are born, it was possible to become something else after dying once. A cat becoming a human, and a human becoming a cat was possible. It’s even a fairly frequent occurrence.

“…Then wh, what kind of work do a, angels do?”

“Ha, is your future dream to be an angel?”

“That’s not it, but…”

Jiwoon’s voice trailed off. He couldn’t think of anything else other than that. Since he had insisted he had no preferences or hobbies, there weren’t many other things he could ask Zeo. If they were both human, he could ask things like where their hometown was, what their mom and dad did for a living, and things like that. But none of those questions applied to Zeo.

“It’s similar to an office worker. There are various departments, and each department does different work. There are angels who collect the souls of the dead, and angels who judge souls after death. There are angels who manage other angels, and angels who just sit and write records all day.”

“Ah…”

“Of course, there’s a complaint processing department, too.”

Zeo said that and poked Jiwoon’s forehead. Jiwoon rubbed the forehead Zeo had hit as he passed. The two of them looked around the inside of the department store, which had started to become more crowded as it neared 6 o’clock, and turned their steps home without any lingering attachment.

“Ah, I didn’t buy a blanket.”

As they pushed through the crowd of people moving busily, Zeo held Jiwoon’s hand tightly. A short silence followed. Jiwoon simply followed where Zeo led.

“We went to buy a blanket.”

“L, let’s buy it online.”

“I guess we’ll have to.”

“D, do you know how?”

“No.”

Come to think of it, he had bought most of the necessary items for the house himself. Since he didn’t have a mobile phone, that was probably the only way. I wonder how he knew how to clean, Jiwoon suddenly thought. Because the first thing he did when he came to his house was clean.

“Ah, so many people.”

He disliked too many people, so he had bypassed the bus stop and dragged Jiwoon to the subway, but both the bus stop and the subway were packed. It was because it was rush hour. The humans, their eyes devoid of light, didn’t even pay attention to whether Jiwoon and Zeo were holding hands or not, and were busy walking somewhere.

Zeo watched the subway pass by with a metallic screech, filled to the brim with people. In the blowing wind, the thin short-sleeved shirt Jiwoon was wearing fluttered slightly. Even though Zeo let the packed subway go without a word, Jiwoon didn’t ask why.

It was the subway that went home. Of course, another one would come in a few minutes, but he quite liked this moment, standing side by side against the back wall in front of the people who were looking down, staring only at their mobile phones, and holding hands. Jiwoon fiddled with Zeo’s hand for no reason. Was it because the weather was warm, or because they had been holding hands for a long time? Zeo’s hand felt a little warm.

“H, have you seen a lot of d, dead people?”

Among the bustling crowd, there were people on the phone, and people talking to the person next to them. On the platform, an announcement about the next arriving subway was continuously playing, and it was noisy as a subway was pulling into the platform opposite the one Jiwoon was on. Jiwoon, watching the people moving busily in the midst of it all, asked in a very small voice.

“They were all dead people.”

Zeo managed to hear Jiwoon’s voice and answered. His reaction speed was unhesitating, as if he could only hear Jiwoon’s voice.

“H, have you seen a, a lot of people l, like me?”

But at Jiwoon’s second question, instead of answering right away, he turned his head to meet his gaze. Jiwoon was blinking his eyes as if he were anxious about something. An unusual amount of strength was in their clasped hands. So this is what it’s like, the words about not letting him cling. Zeo recalled 17’s words.

“No.”

“…”

“You’re the first bastard like you I’ve ever seen.”

“…That’s not what I meant.”

“I know what you mean. You’re asking if I’ve gone through all this bullshit with other bastards besides you, right?”

Who do you take me for, a fool? Zeo grumbled internally. But he didn’t let go of his hand. Perhaps, at this moment, 17 would say he should let go. He might say that he had seen many bastards like him, and that this was merely a process to make him live, and that he should be told such a truth. But Zeo still thought differently from 17.

He didn’t want to make things up. Zeo had truly never met a human like Jiwoon before. The number of times he had met a living human could be counted on one hand. He had never been this close to anyone either. Most of the things Zeo was doing were a first for him with Jiwoon.