SATURDAY 92

“Mr. Inyoung?”

As I entered the lounge and looked around, a tall Alpha stood up from a window seat in the back and waved their hand.

“Hello….”

Even though no one else was listening, I greeted them with a lowered voice and sat across from Ms. Song Sihyeon as she gestured with her hand. Contrary to the ambiguous first impression, she was a very well-mannered Alpha.

The lounge was nearly empty, except for a staff member standing at the drink bar far away. Further off, a group in suits who seemed to have no interest in us at all were merely whispering something secretly and privately. Ms. Song Sihyeon smiled broadly.

“Have you ever listened to the stories of people like that up close?”

“What? No….”

“It’s fun. They know a ton of information that ordinary people don’t—like where an apartment complex will soon be built, or where a bridge will be placed. Information all follows the hierarchy, you see.”

Inadvertently thinking about whether such information would be helpful to Mr. Taeseon, I couldn’t help but glance that way. As if she expected that, Ms. Song Sihyeon let out a small laugh.

“He doesn’t need it. That fellow Taeseon not only knows that level of information already, but he doesn’t really want it either. Like I said, information follows the hierarchy.”

“Yes….”

Ms. Song Sihyeon smiled broadly and reached out her hand again. Her hand, which I took cautiously, was similar in size to mine, warmer, and a bit on the dry side.

A strong Alpha energy that she didn’t bother to hide wafted from her. In the eyes of an observer, we might perhaps look like an ordinary couple out on a date, or a pair of blind date partners meeting for the first time today.

‘No, for a blind date, the clothing doesn’t quite match, but….’

“Sitting here like this, it really feels like we’re out on a blind date.”

“….”

I looked at Ms. Song Sihyeon with a blank face for a moment. She continued.

“Even if the clothes don’t quite fit the occasion.”

It was as if she had read my mind. While I flinched, Ms. Song Sihyeon laughed in a small voice, ha-ha.

“I’ve always been a bit quicker on the uptake than others.”

On the uptake…? I wasn’t sure if this was something that could be explained by being “quick on the uptake.” I laughed awkwardly and answered, “Yes….”

“That’s why I knew back then, too. I’ve seen him before, even if we weren’t close—Mr. Yoon Inha. But because of complicated circumstances, Taeseon’s fiancé was changed to Mr. Yoon Inha, and since I heard he was even following along to the party to find my fiancé, I didn’t think of him very fondly, but….”

She tilted her head and said.

“Lo and behold, everyone is calling a person I’ve never seen before Yoon Inha. Even Lee Taeseon.”

“….”

“But the person himself… had a face like he was about to cry.”

Was I? Did I have a face like I was about to cry? I had thought about how I wanted to escape from the crowd of people and go back quickly.

“So I figured there must be some circumstances. Hmm. And even now.”

Ms. Song Sihyeon cast a glance behind me for a moment. I inadvertently turned my head to see if someone was passing by, but there was no one.

Nevertheless, Ms. Song Sihyeon looked behind me again as if intrigued. Just as I blinked to say something to her because it was getting a bit eerie….

I was reeling and collapsing.

The place where I fell with a thud was into Mr. Taeseon’s arms. Mr. Taeseon was sitting on the sofa without even taking off his coat, looking at me with a peculiar expression.

“…Mr. Taeseon?”

“Inyoung.”

With a smile that felt a beat late, Mr. Taeseon adjusted his hold on me. I looked down at my body and raised my eyes to look around. My clothes were the same, but only the location had changed.

A bizarre fear flashed through me, making my head feel dizzy. Could it be that while I was meeting Ms. Song Sihyeon, I… had become Inha?

“Mr. Taeseon, today I….”

“I know. Sihyeon met you knowing everything, too.”

“Did I… no, did Inha, say something?”

“Inyoung.”

I blinked while listening to Mr. Taeseon’s voice. I might be a bit surprised. To still be this afraid of Inha’s existence, I am truly pathetic.

However, Mr. Taeseon smiled quietly as if to reassure me and stroked my head.

“Inyoung, I told you before. The dead cannot defeat the living.”

Was that so…. I don’t remember well. To begin with, my head is currently hazy as if filled with fog. Perhaps Inha is crouching inside this thick fog that fills my head.

I lowered my head and buried my face in Mr. Taeseon’s chest. The scent of his pheromones, the faint scent of perfume, and the familiar fragrance stabilized me a little.

“Hello, Mr. Yoon Inha.”

“What… do you mean?”

‘Inyoung’, who seemed to reel for a moment, straightened his posture and blinked while staring still at Song Sihyeon. An innocent face, an expression like he knew nothing. However, in Song Sihyeon’s eyes, that wicked creature hidden beneath that appearance… no, that thing which wasn’t even a creature anymore, was clearly visible.

She had never particularly gone around telling people, but she had good intuition. That was why even at the shipboard party, she had noticed the strangeness of ‘Yoon Inha’ at once.

She had heard that the twin brother—that is, the fiancé of her longtime friend—had died in a car accident and ‘Yoon Inha’ had taken that place instead. As far as Song Sihyeon knew, her friend Lee Taeseon was not the type of person to accept such a marriage. Thinking there must surely be a reason, she had waited for the day to meet ‘Yoon Inha’.

Of course, since it was the famous ‘Yoon Inha’, it wasn’t that she didn’t have a desire to avoid meeting him at a party.

And on the day of the party, Song Sihyeon did indeed see ‘Yoon Inha’.

Behind the young man with the exact same face, who was standing hesitantly while being called ‘Yoon Inha’.

He had a face full of poison and was glaring at the young man who was likely ‘Yoon Inyoung’. Even for Song Sihyeon, who had seen countless things of that nature in her life, it was a face so unpleasant and full of malice that it gave her goosebumps, and his body was covered in wounds.

Seeing that, she knew. Something had gone wrong. She had heard Lee Taeseon grumble several times about how that family over there worshipped shamans too much. A shaman, a ghost, switched names, and everyone except himself calling him ‘Yoon Inha’.

“We aren’t meeting for the first time, are we? We saw each other once a long time ago at some recital for an Omega who played the harp. And we also saw each other at the shipboard party to find my match.”

“….”

‘Inyoung’, no, Yoon Inha, smiled broadly and then slowly withdrew the smile. When both the smile and the hesitating air vanished from the innocent and soft-looking face, the impression became cold as if he were a different person.

“What is the reason you asked to meet on purpose? Do you… seem to be able to see something, and are you going to perform an exorcism or something?”

“How regrettable. I don’t know how to do things like that.”

“Then why do you want to see me, acting like there’s something? Are you trying to blackmail me or something?”

“Yoon Inha.”

Just then, a low voice was heard from behind, and Lee Taeseon revealed himself along with the sound of footsteps. He naturally sat down next to Song Sihyeon and crossed his legs. Yoon Inha felt his body shrink in spite of himself.

When it was just Song Sihyeon alone, he could at least hold his ground. However, when Lee Taeseon was added to the mix, it was a bit difficult to handle. The energy of a living person was like a wind blowing over ashes; the stronger it was, the harder it made it to keep one’s feet planted on the ground.

Because that was irritating, Yoon Inha ground his teeth hard. With a screeeech sound, the lights hanging from the ceiling swayed slowly. The middle-aged men in suits who were absorbed in conversation stopped talking for a moment, as if they felt a strange atmosphere.

The moment Yoon Inha opened his mouth again was when they moistened their throats once and began to chatter.

“This was originally my body.”

“I’m curious why you think that.”

“Because the one who should have died back then was Yoon Inyoung.”

“I am also truly curious why you think that. Did Inyoung do something wrong? Even a wrong deserving of death?”

“That’s because I’m not the kind of person to die in a place like that! If someone dies, it should be Yoon Inyoung!”

“Lower your voice, will you? People will think we’re filming a drama.”

At Song Sihyeon’s sarcastic remark, Yoon Inha’s eyes snapped open sharply. It sounded like she meant his words were as ridiculous as lines from a protagonist in a drama.

What nonsense; he was only speaking the truth. If such a situation occurred, shouldn’t Yoon Inyoung naturally throw his body to save him? Because he was that kind of existence.

It wasn’t that Yoon Inha believed the Shaman’s words literally. Especially the part about a ghost stealing the fate of a baby that already existed to be born; he thought that was some kind of nonsense with an ulterior motive. Yoon Inyoung was just a hidden baby, his twin who was discovered late. But….

But, fate is such a thing.

If there is no one being exploited, the world does not turn smoothly.