NTH 35

A few days passed like that, and just as he had decided to start absorbing energy directly through intercourse, an unexpected incident occurred.

One of Cheon Sagang’s underlings rushed in and reported that the organized crime syndicate to which Angel Cash Loan had lent a very large sum of money might soon be dismantled. To recover the funds as quickly as possible, he had to go himself. Cheon Sagang ordered the fellow whose gold chain around his neck looked just like a choker to watch Nana closely and left the office.

While the choker went to the restroom, Nana opened the window of the CEO’s office, stepped out onto the narrow windowsill like an acrobat, and escaped. The idiotic choker, perhaps afraid of having his fingers cut off by Cheon Sagang, wandered the area by himself, searching for Nana.

It was impossible for him, who couldn’t even properly remember Nana’s face, to find Nana. In the end, he finally called and confessed the truth long after the sun had completely set, and Cheon Sagang had rushed over to Haengseong Station without even having time to punish him.

When he found Nana again, he would take him not to the office, but to his house. Of course, he had no intention of treating him with affection and care. He had never had such human feelings, nor had he ever wanted to.

Without much effort, Nana would naturally come to love him, just as he had in past lives, and would even offer up his life for him.

All Cheon Sagang had to do was absorb Nana’s energy as quickly as possible and devise a scheme to make him end his own life, and promptly at that.

With rain falling on the shantytown, where more than half the residents had moved out after it was confirmed for redevelopment, the surroundings were indescribably dreary.

Walking through the rain that poured down as if a hole had opened up in the sky, Cheon Sagang recalled a conversation he had with Nana a few days ago.

「Heut…… I, I found a good part-time job…… they give me meals there every day, that’s why.」

「What kind of part-time job.」

「Th, that hou, hou, work…….」

「Housekeeping work? You mean the kind of housekeeper that cooks, does laundry, and cleans?」

「Ugh…… ye, yeah…….」

「Doing housework during the day, and serving with your body at night?」

「No, it’s not…… heu-eut……!」

In fact, for some time now, Cheon Sagang had assigned someone to follow Nana to find out where he was commuting to.

Since it was impossible to make his subordinate remember Nana’s face accurately, Cheon Sagang told him the location of Nana’s house in the shantytown. He ordered him to follow a person wearing a black hat, a black t-shirt, and jeans as soon as he came out of that house.

According to the report, the place where Nana went for his housekeeping job was a luxury apartment in Gangnam, and he went to work at that apartment complex around three o’clock every afternoon. As soon as Nana arrived, he would pick up the laundry and go grocery shopping at a nearby market before entering the building. However, perhaps because it was an apartment where only the truly rich lived, not some tacky nouveau riche, the security was so tight that it was impossible to tail him inside the building.

What kind of rich person would hire a suspicious guy with no ID and a face that seemed to change every day? And as a housekeeper, who could rummage through every corner of the house daily, no less.

He had tried to dig for information about the homeowner while he had Nana, but Nana would vaguely evade the questions, saying he knew almost nothing about the person himself.

Lost in these various thoughts, Cheon Sagang finally arrived in front of the house he had rented to Nana.

“Nana. It’s CEO Cheon. Are you inside?”

Cheon Sagang called out, pounding on the flimsy door, but there was no answer from within. He shook the door a few times, then inserted the spare key he had into the keyhole and easily unlocked it.

Opening the door and stepping inside, Cheon Sagang let out a hollow laugh. The small room was completely flooded. Water that had leaked through the moldy ceiling and the gaps in the ill-fitting walls had more than filled the room.

A thin blanket and pillow, and a few sets of clothes and towels in a basket were all submerged and scattered about, but the owner of the room, who should have been there, was nowhere to be found.

“Nana!”

It was right at that moment, as Cheon Sagang shouted in a voice filled with rage. He felt a sudden pain as if someone were pulling the bones from his body. Kneeling with a thud on the water-filled floor, Cheon Sagang clutched the area over his heart with his hand.

“Heok……, what, on earth is……”

His breathing became increasingly ragged, and a cold sweat broke out on his body.

There was only one thing that could put his body in this state. Someone else’s energy had flowed into Nana’s body.

Nana, having lived as the host of a parasitic soul for a long time, could not absorb another person’s yang energy simply by making physical contact. It was impossible unless Nana truly gave his heart.

But recently, other than going to work part-time at that apartment in Gangnam, Nana had not been meeting anyone else. That meant the culprit who had infused Nana with this useless and impure yang energy was right there in that apartment.

“Nana……, how dare you……”

The veins on the back of Cheon Sagang’s hand, which was clutching his heart, bulged. His bloodshot eyes contorted with rage.

“Things are getting very interesting……”

His three-white-eyes flashing, Cheon Sagang gave a chilling smile.

“Hee-hee-hing!”

Out of nowhere, the sound of horses neighing and their rough, snorting breaths could be heard. It was another dream of a past life.

In that life, Jeha was working at an office called the Sa-bok-si, which was responsible for caring for and training the horses needed by the royal court. His name was Im Yunhyeong, and he held the official post of ‘Bujeong,’ a Senior Third Rank official who was the deputy chief of the Sa-bok-si. Seeing that the scenery before his eyes was early winter, it must have been when he had just been appointed there.

“My lord, must you really go to the stables? That place is avoided by all the civil and military officials because of the smell of horse manure, it is the most foul-smelling place even within this Sa-bok-si.”

A young groom, one of the horse handlers known as ‘Geodal,’ said as if trying to dissuade Yunhyeong.

The Sa-bok-si was quite large and spacious, as it was raising not only horses to be supplied to the royal family but also superior horses to be offered as tribute to the Qing dynasty, brought in from provincial pastures.

High-ranking officials worked in a separate main office building built far away from the smelly stables, so they rarely went to the stables in person.

“It is because I wish to look over every nook and cranny of the Sa-bok-si. I have been to the veterinary office and the fodder warehouse, so is it not finished once I see the stables?”

“You will see it all later anyway, so why go to the trouble of going there now……”

Feeling that his superior, who was going out of his way to find trouble, was being peculiar, the geodal grumbled with a bothered expression and guided Yunhyeong to the stables. Horses with large bodies and glossy coats were eating feed or resting in their respective stalls.

“The smell cannot be helped, but it is much cleaner and better managed than I thought.”

“You are absolutely right, my lord. Do you know how hard we work, managing those lazy and ignorant servants.”

Letting the geodal’s boastful words go in one ear and out the other, Yunhyeong saw a man diligently brushing a very large, black-furred horse.

From his attire, he seemed to be of the lowest class, but perhaps because his skin was unusually fair, his side profile shone dazzlingly in the winter sun. Feeling an inexplicable inability to look away, Yunhyeong asked the geodal beside him.

“Who is that man?”

“That fellow? He is a boy named Makdong.”

“Is he a geodal?”

“Oh, no, not a geodal. Far from it. He is just a commoner.”

“What work does he do?”

“He does menial chores like feeding and washing the horses, and cleaning up their dung. That fellow takes good care of the horses, but he has a nasty temper and does not know his place, and his body is quite frail, so he is sick and groaning once every three days.”

The geodal scrunched up his face as if in great displeasure.

Having finished brushing the black horse’s coat, Makdong was now diligently putting a padded, cloth-like garment on the horse’s body. Even though Yunhyeong approached, Makdong did not notice and continued to look at the horse’s face, stroking its mane repeatedly.

Only after the geodal next to him cleared his throat with a loud “Ahem,” did Makdong turn around and bow his head toward Yunhyeong.

“Have you ever seen such a disrespectful punk. The honorable Lord Bujeong has personally come all this way, and you do not even greet him? Are your earholes completely clogged with horse dung?”

When the geodal roared, Makdong sharply lifted his head and retorted in a shrill voice.

“And you, did you get horse dung in your eye-holes? How could I have seen the lord coming when I was only looking at the horse? Do I have eyeballs on the back of my head?”

“What, this son of a bitch! Where do you think you are, spouting such nonsense, huh?”

“Who’s a son of a bitch! My father? Do you know my father, whom I have never even seen myself?”

As Makdong shot back without yielding an inch, his jet-black eyes darting around, the thoroughly provoked geodal swung his fist.

“This ignorant servant bastard, in whose presence do you think you are!”

“Ack!”

Before Yunhyeong could stop him, Makdong, who was struck square in the face by the geodal’s rough and large fist, crumpled to the ground. Suddenly, the horses in the stables began to snort and let out sharp breaths. It was as if they were sympathizing with Makdong’s pain.

Yunhyeong reprimanded the geodal in a stern voice.

“That is enough! Why do you rebuke him so for not noticing your presence while he was working!”

“I, I am deeply sorry, my lord.”

“And, you said his name was Makdong? You too should not talk back to your superior so informally.”

Makdong, who had been sprawled on the floor, raised his upper body and spoke without hesitation.

“This hyung-ssi started it first.”

“Look at this fellow, he still hasn’t come to his senses!”

Yunhyeong calmly restrained the geodal, who was jumping up and down in uncontrollable anger, and looked at Makdong’s face. The left cheek he had just been hit on was already swelling up with a bluish tint, and his small, soft lips were split and beaded with blood.

Staggering to his feet, Makdong pressed his face against the forehead of the black horse, which was still breathing roughly, and stroked its mane.

“There, there, Heukpung. Hyung is alright. Yes, don’t you worry.”

“Dammit, what kind of ridiculous act is he putting on……”

The geodal, who had been spewing curses, shut his mouth after catching Yunhyeong’s eye.

Looking at the skinny back of Makdong hugging the long face of the horse, Yunhyeong’s chest felt tight, as if he was on the verge of remembering something. But he could not figure out what it was.

The next day, Yunhyeong sat with other high-ranking officials in a high place at the Sa-bok-si main office, watching the horses run in a circle in the large courtyard. Intense training was being conducted every day for the king’s upcoming procession.

When all the training was over, the servants rushed in to take the horses to the stables, and the officials also returned to their own places.

For a walk, Yunhyeong deliberately turned his steps toward the path by the pond. As he passed a secluded shed where horse feed was stored, he saw a very familiar face.

The delicate features, the characteristic cynical expression, and the bruised cheek and split lip were clearly visible to Yunhyeong’s exceptionally good eyes. As if to prove the words that he was sick and groaning once every three days, Makdong’s eyes were sunken and his face was pale, looking as if he would collapse at any moment.

But his gait was very strange. He thought maybe his back was hurting from being hit and falling the day before, but as he continued to watch, a certain scene came to mind.

Makdong’s awkward gait was exactly like that of men who had been tormented all night, offering up their backsides to noblemen with peculiar tastes. Yunhyeong unknowingly furrowed his brow and glared at Makdong.

It was then.

“You worm-like servant bastard, I’ve been looking all over for you! I’m so glad I found you!”