JKA 82

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

But before Egarsia could get a proper answer, the sound of “Cut!” was heard, and Yeongeun shot up from her seat, clapping her hands. Egarsia looked at Yeongeun with a bewildered expression and realized that this strange situation 17 had created was over.

Yeongeun, her face filled with relief and joy, strode up to 17 and said in an excited voice.

“When did you practice so much? You did so, so well. This is the best scene we’ve shot so far.”

His acting was outstanding, making her worries seem foolish. Not only did he not stutter, but his emotional acting was also completely perfect. Of course, this was just 17 briefly deceiving the eyes of the people here, but no one had noticed that fact.

“Let’s call it a day.”

“What? What are you talking about? We should ride this momentum and power through the rest of the scenes.”

“Everyone’s tired from filming since this morning. It’s already night, and we have to factor in time to clean up.”

Heechan, too, seemed pleased with the scene as he suggested they start packing up. There were still more scenes left, but since they had wasted time here and there, it was difficult to linger any longer. Although the place was rented for filming, they had to tidy and clean up so the owner could get some sleep.

“Still…”

Yeongeun looked at Heechan with a disappointed expression, but he shook his head firmly and said.

“We need to review what we filmed today and get organized. It looks like the footage will be longer than we thought, so we need to go over the remaining scenes. We have to shoot here again tomorrow, anyway.”

“Then let’s not clean up everything and just make enough space to sleep. It’ll be a hassle to set everything up again tomorrow.”

A club member who had readily offered his studio apartment as the filming location said with a yawn. Everyone looked visibly exhausted from the continuous filming. Still, it was a relief that they had managed to shoot quite a number of scenes by dedicating the entire day to it.

Heechan said they just had to tough it out for a few more days and began organizing the scattered clothes. 17 also helped the members, preparing things swiftly. Only Egarsia stood tall, glaring at 17, before finally striding over and pulling him away.

At the sudden, rough touch, everyone looked at 17 and Egarsia with somewhat surprised expressions. At that, 17 smiled naturally and looked at Yeongeun as if he had been waiting for this.

“Um, we were going to p-practice some o-other lines. Can we go first? Seonwoo said he’d help me.”

“Oh, sure. Good idea. Don’t stay up too late, since you have to film tomorrow, too.”

“Okay. Thank you for your hard work.”

17, who was acting as Jiwoon, even finished with a polite bow, but Egarsia, seemingly with no patience left to pretend to be human, stormed out of the small room. 17 followed behind Egarsia, his expression changing in an instant. Then he tutted, tsk, as if the part of his arm that Egarsia’s hand had touched was dirty.

How long did they walk like that? Egarsia, having entered a secluded alley between the studio apartment buildings, spun around and stared at 17. His eyes, which had been pitch black to imitate ordinariness, glinted with a crimson, blood-red light. Facing the enraged Egarsia, 17 had also reverted from Jiwoon’s form to his original appearance.

“Can’t you just be reasonable?”

Egarsia burst out with the complaints he had been holding back. There were clearly designated territories for each of them, but 17 kept encroaching on his, and it was driving him crazy. This was wrong for this reason, that was wrong for that reason. It had reached the point where he wondered if 17 was looking for a fight.

“If the one you guys care about is Myeong Jiwoon, then just manage Myeong Jiwoon. Why do you meddle in every single thing I do?”

“If we were to be particular about the order of events, aren’t you the one who meddled first?”

“Ah, you’re so damn shameless.”

“Just look at what you’re doing right now. What do you expect to happen if you show up in front of Mr. Myeong Jiwoon with that face?”

“Did I know? How was I supposed to know this face belonged to that bastard’s dead hyung? And in the first place, who knew Im Hanbyeol and Myeong Jiwoon would get involved?”

“Even if you didn’t know at first, you should have backed off after you found out.”

“So why should I have to…”

As Egarsia jumped up in frustration, 17 strode toward him and looked down with a blank face. Even in the darkness, his clearly shining eyes held a startling, blueish gleam. A sudden chill ran down Egarsia’s spine, and he unwittingly flinched and stepped back.

“Why, you ask.”

“……”

“It’s because we’re the ones cleaning up the shit that Hell took in the first place, isn’t it? You broke the established rules and dragged two innocent humans into this, and now we angels are the ones going through hell.”

17 referred to the incident that occurred when the now-extinguished demon from Hell collected Myeong Seonwoo’s soul, and reached out his hand. He poked Egarsia’s forehead with his fingertip and pushed, thud, causing him to collapse onto the ground with a terrified face. A pressure far greater than what he had felt from 1129 before was crushing him.

“I am not idle enough to interfere with a demon’s work at every turn. There must be plenty of ways to take Mr. Im Hanbyeol’s soul, but you’re the one with a block for a head who keeps dragging Mr. Myeong Jiwoon into this, aren’t you?”

“D-Drag him in… I never did that.”

“Then why do you keep shoving that face in front of him?”

“……”

“You didn’t know at first, but you know now. You know that face is the face of the deceased Mr. Myeong Seonwoo, yet you crawled all the way here and are making a scene. Did you think I would just stand by and watch? I told you clearly. Don’t get on my nerves.”

It had all been decided when he erased the memories of 1129 from Jiwoon and took his place. To draw Hanbyeol into this plan, he had to stop Egarsia from approaching his family, and he had received cooperation from Hell on this matter a long time ago.

But this demon couldn’t just leave it alone and kept acting shabbily, loitering in front of Jiwoon. Egarsia was the decisive reason Jiwoon had collapsed that day. 1129 had been there at that time as well. He had held the collapsing Jiwoon in his arms and screamed that he couldn’t die.

No matter how shocked and mentally disoriented he had been, Jiwoon clearly remembered 1129 clutching him and crying at that moment. As 17 erased that memory, irritation had soared within him. Memories so deeply entangled with emotion were quite tricky to handle.

And yet, Egarsia, the cause of that incident, was still making a scene in front of Jiwoon. A single careless word from him could revive the erased memories at any moment. Egarsia was like a ticking time bomb.

“If anything, I am the one who wants to just do my assigned job. It’s because I know you have your work that I am being quite lenient with you. Don’t you see that I am the one trying not to encroach?”

“……”

“We, too, did not anticipate that Mr. Im Hanbyeol and Mr. Myeong Jiwoon would end up in this kind of relationship. That’s why we’re leaving you alone even though you’re walking around with that face. How much more, what more do we have to do for you here?”

“Who asked you to do more? I’m just telling you to leave me alone… And I didn’t do anything to Myeong Jiwoon! You guys were the ones who kept getting in my way by making a scene in front of Im Hanbyeol.”

“……”

“E-Even today! Saying you’d get what you want without lifting a finger, you were the one who provoked me. I was just curious what that meant. I only did my job. It doesn’t matter what happens to Im Hanbyeol, does it?”

Avoiding the gaze that was staring him down relentlessly, Egarsia struggled to his feet and shouted with his head completely turned away. The difference in their power was too obvious, and it was difficult to even face 17, who was emitting an aura that seemed to press down on him. He could feel that they were on completely different levels.

Seeing Egarsia staggering, unable to withstand his energy, 17 withdrew some of the power he had been projecting. At that, Egarsia took a slightly deeper breath and exhaled, as if he could live a little now.

“It matters if he dies.”

“……What?”

“Collecting dead souls is one of my duties, and I cannot just let that happen, can I? Furthermore, I can’t let a high-quality soul like that wander the earth.”

“……”

“If Mr. Im Hanbyeol had killed Mr. Im Gwanseok today as you planned, his soul would fall to your side, but what if it were the other way around?”

“……”

“Why do you not consider the option of Mr. Im Gwanseok killing Mr. Im Hanbyeol? You only considered two possibilities. Mr. Im Hanbyeol killing Mr. Im Gwanseok, and Mr. Im Gwanseok killing Ms. Kim Mihyang and Ms. Im Haneul.”

Mr. Im Gwanseok could kill the other three. Am I wrong? 17 added in a low voice, and at this, Egarsia’s eyes trembled violently.

‘How foolish.’

He was already well aware of the ignorance of low-level demons. They were so desperate to drag high-quality souls to Hell to raise their own rank and get rich that they failed to consider various possibilities. It was in the same vein that Myeong Seonwoo’s death had played a large part in ruining the lives of two innocent humans.

Why did God create so many beings who get caught up in immediate profit and end up ruining things? Why did things like demons have to exist in the world? If 17 had a single question, it was that. Why did such shallow schemes have to be rampant in the world? What benefit did they serve? He had existed for an eternity and still couldn’t understand it at all.

“If you truly intended to do something, you shouldn’t have been here playing human, but should have been at that place. Then you might have been able to do something.”

“……”

“You should be grateful to Mr. Myeong Jiwoon. Thanks to him, no one died, so you got another chance. Of course, you don’t know such an emotion.”

17 completely withdrew the power that had been threatening Egarsia. Only then was Egarsia able to take a deep breath, having been panting as if his throat were half-blocked.

“Taking high-quality souls may be one of your jobs, but isn’t cleaning up the trash also rightly your share?”

“……”

“So, for your own sake, it would be better for you to clean it up quickly.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. How is that for my sake? I need that bastard to be around!”

Realizing that 17 meant he should get rid of Hanbyeol’s father, Egarsia squeezed out his last bit of energy and shouted as if in protest. But such a pathetic act could not threaten 17.

“Do you think I’m going through all this trouble just to take that one thing?”

“That’s why I’m telling you to pick up the trash at least. Don’t you get it?”

“……”

“Then I’ll let it slide.”

“……”

“Generously.”

17 snapped coldly and turned his back as if he had no more business there. Egarsia watched 17’s retreating back, his face and eyes red with uncontrollable anger, but there was nothing he could do.

*

“What’s her hurry?”