Yeon-ah stormed out of the kitchen, marched up to the main house, and raised her voice.

“If you’re in there, could you come out for a moment?”

She barely managed to tamp down her agitation. Surely not, surely he wasn’t the kind of shameless person who would just help himself to someone else’s things.

She tried her best to settle herself.

Because she didn’t think she had caused him any trouble since coming to this house, either.

Just then the door swung open and a tall man appeared.

Was he heading out? A black tie hung long beneath the collar of his neat shirt.

“I’m a little busy right now.”

Seo Hwido finished speaking and stepped closer. He looked down at Yeon-ah’s flushed cheeks and continued.

“I’d like you to move.”

Yeon-ah let out a scoff, too dumbfounded to speak.

“Sure, then let me ask you one thing before I do.”

The man tilted his head to one side and a shallow crease formed between his brows. At the same moment he reached up and pushed the loosely hanging tie into place.

“The buckwheat jelly in the refrigerator, and the makgeolli. Did you get rid of them, Hwido-ssi?”

“You already know. Why ask?”

“Ha… why are you doing this to me? I’ve been faithfully following everything you’ve said up until now. I even did housework on top of it. You don’t want me staying here long, I know that. And I don’t want to keep inconveniencing you either, so I was just going to try praying to that tree, so why are you getting in the way?”

Did he think she was here because she wanted to be? All she wanted was to shake that ghost loose as fast as possible and get as far away from this man called Seo Hwido as she could.

Why was he being so uncooperative?

“You saw that ghost yesterday. You said it was a vengeful spirit. I want to be free of that vengeful spirit and the dreams too. Is that so wrong? Am I causing you any harm, Hwido-ssi?”

Of course she could just go back into town and buy more buckwheat jelly and makgeolli. But what made her angry was that every effort she had put into holding her ground here had been dismissed in one stroke.

Before she knew it, tears spilled down relentlessly. Her head was already muddled enough from the confusing dreams, and looking at him constantly poking at her nerves made a surge of anger rise up inside her.

Yeon-ah glared at him with the sharpness of a cat with its claws out. Whether it moved him or not, he clicked his tongue low and finished pushing up his tie as he spoke.

“Whether it’s a god or a ghost. The moment you get carelessly tangled up with one, your life is basically f*cked. You think goblins dig in the dirt for a living? You think they grant wishes without taking something in return?”

“Whatever the price is, I’ll just pay it. That doesn’t seem like something Hwido-ssi needs to worry about.”

“That so? Who do you think you are.”

“……”

Yeon-ah stood there blankly, and Seo Hwido stepped around her and positioned himself in front of the gate. Then he turned back.

“Let’s get one thing straight, shorty. Whatever happens to you? I don’t care. I just want to rip that d*mn goblin tree out of the ground and burn it.”

He let out a long breath and went on.

“So if you’re in my house, you follow my rules. Don’t go stirring up trouble. Feel wronged? Then you can leave. How about it.”

“You’ve got to be kidding…!”

“Seems fair to me.”

“Why, what’s the reason? I need a reason before I can accept any of this. Seo Hwido-ssi, do you have some kind of grudge against that goblin tree? If I can act as a go-between for you…!”

Seo Hwido gave a light shake of his head and turned away without a second thought. The gate swung open roughly and he vanished beyond it.

“Ha… how is he so different from the Seo Hwido in my dreams?”

Yeon-ah suddenly found herself wondering why she was having those dreams at all. Why, what was it trying to show her, that it kept appearing like this.

Seo Hwido’s past life? Bun’s past life? Or else…

“My…”

The past life of Shim Hwiryeong, the lady Bun had served.

A sigh escaped on its own. She hoped it wasn’t something like a past life, but no matter how she looked at it, there was no other answer.

Yeon-ah revised her plan for the time being. She would just go up the mountain and pay a brief visit to the goblin tree, nothing more.

Once the decision was made, she had no hesitation. She was moving quickly toward the gate when it happened.

Knock knock knock.

Someone was at the door. Who could it be? The grandmother from down the road? Or the one with dementia?

But no answer came from the other side.

“Who… is it?”

She moved closer and opened the door, and a small, slight child was staring up at her.

What? Had there been a child like this in Songhak? The little boy’s eyes went wide and he blinked several times before his lips began to move.

“Noona… who are you?”

“…Huh?”

A visitor who turned around and asked who she was. Surely this child wasn’t a ghost… he couldn’t be.

“Oh, right, noona lives here. Who are you? Where are your parents? Did you get lost?”

A flicker of mild shock crossed the child’s wide-eyed face.

“Huh…? So the man who was here before… did he move away?”

His eyes were clear, untouched by any trace of the world’s grime. Like glass marbles, you might say. She was gazing at him almost in a daze when she noticed his eyes going glassy and quickly spoke up.

“Oh, no. He didn’t move. Did you come here to see the owner of this house?”

Eight years old? Nine? He looked like he had only just started elementary school. A little boy with plump, fair cheeks so round she wanted to give them a pinch.

“Oh… is that so? Hehe, what a relief! So then… noona, who are you?”

A strange gleam flickered in the child’s dark eyes as he asked. Was she imagining things?

“Oh, right. Noona is at this house…”

Yeon-ah suddenly thought of the home care worker who had been coming and going from Seo Hwido’s house. Since the day she had staged that kiss with Seo Hwido in front of the woman, there had been no particular movement, but the thought crossed her mind that this might be a child sent by her.

Surely it wouldn’t go that far, but…

Yeon-ah cast her gaze past the child. If it was a stalker, sending a young child alone like this wasn’t out of the question. She might be hiding somewhere out of sight, watching.

Ha, Baek Yeon-ah. Do you actually want to help that awful man right now?

No, it wasn’t about helping him. It was an instinct, a wish that after she left this place, he might run into some kind of trouble.

Yeon-ah steadied her breath for a moment and slowly continued her answer.

“Noona is the person who’s going to be this house owner’s wife. Not married yet, but soon to be his wife.”

She wanted to spread some petty gossip about a bride running off.

Let him get some pointed fingers asking how terrible a man must be for his bride-to-be to disappear. Her only regret was not being able to see that composed face of his crack in person.

It was at that moment. The child’s wide dark eyes sparkled and shone.

“…What? My uncle is getting married?”

…U, uncle?

“Oh… no, that’s not what I…”

Yeon-ah wanted to take back what she had just said, but the cute child with the slightly wavy hair curved his eyes into crescents.

Seeing that satisfied smile, it seemed he thought his uncle who had only ever caused trouble was finally getting married.

Yeon-ah chewed on her lip and smiled awkwardly. She absolutely could not let those words reach Seo Hwido’s ears.

“My uncle is marrying such a pretty noona…! No way! Noona… do you happen to have something on our uncle?”

The child’s mind was sharp, and his perceptiveness was remarkable. And not only that, the way he spoke was so charming.

He was a child who chose only the sweetest words, enough to make her wonder whether he and Seo Hwido, who launched blades every time he opened his mouth, were truly related by blood.

Yeon-ah burst out laughing and ruffled the shorty’s hair in praise.

“By the way, shorty, did you come here alone? What about other adults?”

“They dropped me off right out front and left. My parents have been so busy lately! So I asked them to send me to my uncle’s this weekend so they could get some rest! But where is my uncle right now? Uncle? Uncle!”

While she had been briefly lost in thought, the child whooshed into the yard. Then he trotted off toward the main house.

Yeon-ah followed after him, feeling oddly like the visitor herself.

“Shorty, your uncle isn’t here right now. He just stepped out a moment ago. What do we do? Looks like you’ll have to wait inside for a bit.”

She had been just about to head out herself, so what now. Did she have to stay home with the child…

She was mulling it over when it happened.

“Did he go up the mountain? For the tree?”

“Hm? The tree?”

“Yeah! The tree my uncle really really loves! What was it called again? He said something like… the hunk tree¹“존잘 나무” is a slang short for 존나 잘생긴 (extremely good-looking). The nephew mishears it misinterprets.?”

“Pfft!”

A laugh burst out of her before she could stop it. What on earth had he been teaching a small child? Though knowing his usual nature, she could easily imagine it being worse, not better.

Yeon-ah was briefly lost in thought. The child’s little lips moved as though he had something he wanted to say.

She was watching that adorable sight warmly when an unexpected line tickled at her ear.

“So, pretty noona! Will you… help me find my uncle? I’ll… treat you to candy! Okay?”

Pretty noona and candy. It was thoroughly scatterbrained flirting, but Yeon-ah cheerfully nodded at the cute child’s invitation.