SATURDAY 54

The speeding car and Inha’s eyes, looking at me as if something had gone wrong.

I froze, my eyes widening. Memories that had been submerged rose to the surface like a bloated, rotting corpse. These were memories I hadn’t even been aware of, having stayed buried due to the shock of the accident. Now, as if some detonator had been triggered, they revived vividly.

Inha couldn’t move. Like someone whose ankles were being held by someone else, he stood frozen with his mouth agape.

“Inha!” I screamed, running toward him and reaching out my hand. Inha grabbed my cuff and laughed. I couldn’t understand why he was laughing.

The car, headlights flashing as it sped along, plowed straight into Inha and me. I was positioned slightly to the side of the vehicle, while Inha was directly in front of it.

Inha’s body rose into the air like a doll before slamming into the rain-soaked ground. The pouring rain pelted down on Inha’s severe wounds, and blood mixed with the rainwater, creating a flowing puddle on the asphalt.

The old domestic car that hit us barely slowed down before crashing into a roadside tree. A tremendous sound, loud enough to be mistaken for thunder, echoed through the rain. The car was mangled and crushed; looking at that wreckage, it didn’t seem likely the driver would be alive.

I stood up slowly from a spot a little distance away from Inha. Glancing at my sleeve, I saw a button had fallen off. Even with a side-on collision, I had been hit by a car traveling at an immense speed. There was no way there wouldn’t be an impact.

Yet, strangely, I was able to stand. I staggered to my feet and approached Inha.

‘Inha, Inha…. Are you okay…?’

‘…How did it, end up, like this?’

A horribly hoarse voice flowed from Inha’s mouth. Inha spat out the rainwater and blood entering his mouth all at once with a pfft sound. It sounded almost like a laugh. Inha’s face, however, wasn’t smiling at all.

‘Ah, right, something went wrong….’

‘….’

I sat beside Inha, unable to bring myself to shake or even touch him, just staying still. Inha’s body convulsed occasionally. I was terrified. I was scared. It felt as if I could see black hands gripping Inha’s neck.

‘Ha, haha…. Right, since it, ended up like this….’

Inha glared at me with glinting eyes.

‘You, live, as me… for the rest of your life.’

‘What…?’

‘The preparations, are, all finished…. Anyway, even if, I, di… die…. Ugh, aaaargh…!’

‘Inha!’

Inha let out a painful scream. Startled, I tried to touch him, but I despaired upon realizing there was no part of Inha’s body I could actually lay a hand on.

‘You, while being… hated, by the person, you, love, for the rest of your life, huh? Live… Yoon Inyoung.’

‘What on earth are you talking about?’

Inha giggled at my frustrated words. Red blood was clumping and streaming down the hair matted to his forehead.

‘Yoon Inyoung, is, dying…. You are, dying. And, I will li… live again.’

‘….’

Had delirium set in? He didn’t seem sane. The way he spoke while smirking was chilling.

‘Do you, know? Yoon Inyoung, you….’

‘…What, exactly….’

‘Yoon Inyoung, you are the one dying here!’

Inha screamed with a tremendous voice, though I didn’t know where the strength came from. I jumped up from my spot, startled. Along with the raindrops hitting my body, intense tinnitus and dizziness overwhelmed me. I heard the sound of sirens in the distance.

As I stood in the rain, staggering, the sirens grew closer, and finally, paramedics jumped out of the arrived ambulance and loaded the near-death Inha onto a stretcher.

At that time, there was no tattoo on Inha’s ankle.

This is the memory I had forgotten for a while. I had no memory from the moment Inha pulled my sleeve until the moment I was standing on the road.

“Inyoung!”

“….”

My body lurched backward. Mr. Taeseon immediately supported my waist, but strength drained from my entire body and goosebumps broke out as I trembled violently as if having a seizure. Even though my eyes were open, I couldn’t see clearly. Then….

「Do you remember now?」

“Ugh….”

「Do you remember now?」

Inha’s face was appearing everywhere. Beside Mr. Taeseon’s face, beside my uncle who had approached unnoticed, in the empty air where nothing should be, in the shadows of the bookshelf—and then, cold hands thud, thud grabbed my ankles.

“…!”

The hands fumbled upward as if stroking my legs, grabbing my waist beneath my clothes. An impossible chill spread from my waist through my whole body, bringing back the goosebumps, and I shivered with the cold.

“Inyoung, Inyoung! Pull yourself together!”

「Would Lee Taeseon suddenly be nice to you? He has hidden motives for everything. Aren’t you curious what they are?」

“….”

My breath hitched. Mr. Taeseon isn’t that kind of person. He doesn’t hide his motives. But… I was curious about the reason he suddenly came to think of me as Yoon Inyoung. Just because of a pheromone test and a few investigations he did? But,

Isn’t it possible he might not believe it?

「That’s right, he might not believe it. It’s absurd, isn’t it?」

“Ugh….”

“Inyoung!”

「To treat you so coldly and then one day suddenly flip his attitude like a palm? It’s strange. Even you think it’s strange, right?」

“N-No… it’s not….”

Before I knew it, my eyes were rolling back. Inha is standing on my chest. I heard the sound of my uncle calling an ambulance. Inha pressed down on my face with feet that were pale and blue-purple, with veins bulging like spiderwebs.

「Inyoung, why are you so stupid? Well, it’s not like it’s a new thing. Why would Lee Taeseon suddenly be nice to you?」

I shook my head from side to side to avoid the foot. However, Inha followed me, continuing to step on my face. Being stepped on the face was something I had experienced and was used to, but those feet were so eerily cold that it was terrifying and sickening.

「Hey, ghost. Doing this right now is useless. I’m going to take your body anyway.」

That’s impossible, how could such a thing be….

「You know how incredible the Shaman is, don’t you?」

Inha stomped hard on my chest. Inha in front of me was clearly a hallucination, yet the impact came as if something had slammed into my chest with physical force. When I screamed, Mr. Taeseon pulled me into his arms in shock. The space where Inha could stand disappeared, and Inha vanished.

「Mark my words. Take good care of my body.」

A hand appearing from somewhere grabbed mine. It was so cold that when I shook it off, I heard a giggling laugh that gradually moved away. My heart pounded crazily. My eyes grew hot and it became hard to breathe.

“Mr. Chaein, do you have the medicine?”

“Ah.”

After a clattering sound, Mr. Taeseon took something from my uncle. It seemed to be medicine. Mr. Taeseon took a sip of the water on the table, put the medicine in his mouth, and then kissed my lips. Following the tip of his tongue, the medicine that began to spread bitterly went down my throat.

Mr. Taeseon fed me a few more sips of water the same way. Even so, the trembling and shortness of breath did not subside. The thought that Inha would take my body and I would end up dying dominated my mind. My body felt as if it were tingling and shriveling up.

I curled my body as much as I could into Mr. Taeseon’s embrace. Mr. Taeseon reached out his arms and hugged me tightly. I felt a moment of relief, but even that soon transformed into anxiety.

Inha’s words lingered in my ears. As the strength left the hand that had gripped Mr. Taeseon’s clothes, Mr. Taeseon instead tightened the arms holding me even more. He also seemed to be anxious about something. However, that could not completely wash away my anxiety.

Perhaps, both of us were being consumed by anxiety over problems that surely had the same root if traced back.

How much time had passed?

Like coming out of water after struggling, my whole body became comfortably relaxed as if it were a lie. As I went limp, Mr. Taeseon loosened the strength in his arms slightly, checked my face, and swept back my bangs.

My uncle also approached and peered at my face. Mr. Taeseon was holding me so tightly that my uncle’s face appeared only dimly.

“Are you okay, Inyoung?”

“Yes….”

Come to think of it, my uncle gave me medicine earlier. Unlike that time when he thought I was Inha and looked on coldly even as I had a seizure. I found myself feeling relieved by that fact.

“Sorry, Uncle… I’m sorry, Mr. Taeseon.”

“Don’t apologize.”

My uncle’s expression clouded, and Mr. Taeseon said that with a complex face. I felt my body being lifted, and before I knew it, I was sitting on Mr. Taeseon’s lap with my legs stretched to the side. It naturally became a form where my head leaned against his chest.

A fast heartbeat echoed in my ear. Listening to that sound, I let out a long breath. From some point, Mr. Taeseon’s pheromones had been heavily laid out around us.

Both my body and mind became completely relaxed. The afterimages of the anxiety I felt until just now remained, but still, I thought I was okay, as if the previous fear were a lie.

As if to erase Inha’s voice, I opened my mouth.

“It’s something the Shaman said.”

The eyes of the two men gathered on me.

“…He said there would be a property dispute in the family.”