“I heard it. What you say.”

“Pardon? You hear it? I’ve never told you my name, Seo Hwido-ssi.”

When on earth, and what exactly had he heard. She could not even begin to guess, but for now Yeon-ah set her questions aside and focused on what he would say next.

“I know it sounds insane, but I hear it. Talking to yourself, phone calls. Conversations you have with other people.”

Words… are audible to him? What… that’s impossible.

“Th… then, over there… do you hear what that couple over there is saying right now?”

Yeon-ah pointed to a couple just coming out of the restaurant and walking toward the parking lot. The man looked indifferent, and the woman was making playful, coy gestures.

The man said a few words, and the woman laughed, tapping her fists lightly against his chest as though embarrassed.

Seo Hwido stared at them for a moment, then let out a quiet laugh.

And then…

“You know I fed you all that meat on purpose, right? Oppa’s going to pound you all night long, so look forward to it.”

“……”

Po… pound? What?

Yeon-ah sat there with a blank look on her face, and Seo Hwido tapped her cheek lightly.

“Snap out of it. Where are we going.”

There was amusement in Seo Hwido’s voice. Yeon-ah finally came back to her senses and bit her lip as she looked at him grinning at her with that teasing smile.

So that was it.

In her heart she desperately wanted to go straight home and rest. But watching him smile with such ease while playing word games stirred up her stubbornness. The urge to get back at him in some way wriggled to life.

Yeon-ah steeled her eyes. Then she fixed her gaze straight ahead to avoid his persistent stare.

“You remember I said I had somewhere I needed to stop by?”

“Yeah, go on.”

“I heard from Yul that if you drive about an hour from here, there’s a really beautiful beach nearby. I’ve actually been wanting to go see it. Would you come with me?”

“Now? At this hour? Why the beach, are you trying to drown me?”

“Hmm… I mean, that’s not a bad idea either. But honestly, I’ve never really seen the ocean properly. Well… if it’s too much trouble, we can just go home.”

Under normal circumstances she never could have said something like this to him, but tonight she decided to borrow a little courage from the alcohol.

“Yul said he wants his dad and mom to get along well. He said his dad is someone who’s been through a lot of pain, so his mom needs to take good care of him.”

She had meant it half as a joke and half in earnest, but whether it was the enclosed air or the pressure he radiated, her breath quickened without meaning to and the alcohol crept up on her.

At that moment she thought she heard a cracking sound, and Yeon-ah turned her head.

“……”

Why is he… angry again? Does he really not want to go that badly? Yeon-ah saw the muscle in his jaw working and immediately lowered the tail she had been wagging.

“Don’t regret saying that.”

Regret?

The unexpected answer made Yeon-ah’s eyes go wide. She was about to ask what he meant when the car surged forward with tremendous force and her body was pressed deep into the seatback.

Could he be the tsundere type?

It had not been all that long, but that was the impression she had gotten from watching him in Songhak.

His usual way of throwing words around was cold enough to sting, yet the occasional gentle tone that slipped out offset the chill.

So she had come to think that being around him was not entirely unpleasant. Even if his words came out crooked, she knew he was not a bad person. More than anything, being with Seo Hwido meant she did not have to see ghosts, and the relief that washed over her from that alone actually put her at ease.

Maybe it was because of her father’s long absence. The relief she had felt back then, when someone had wrapped around her like a sturdy fence during a time when she had been especially prone to accidents, felt similar to the relief he gave her now.

Just being with Seo Hwido made it seem like any blade flying her way would veer off on its own.

Ah, I really am drunk. Flying blades, honestly.

Yeon-ah curled the corners of her lips at the absurd thought.

***

At first it was an inexplicable anger.

Kim Yul, who had not shown his face once all this time, had suddenly appeared and stolen Baek Yeon-ah away, and watching him chatter away at her side all day long twisted something inside him.

On top of that, the brat latched on and rubbed up against her at every opportunity, and when he thought about who was actually occupying that small eight-year-old body, a wave of revulsion rose in him.

What galled him most of all was that every time Baek Yeon-ah stroked Kim Yul’s hair and smiled, he felt ready to lose his mind.

Why on earth?

He had never had much interest in humans until now. Whatever they got up to, whatever karma came back to bite them for it, none of it concerned him and he had no desire to get involved.

Human affairs. He had sworn never to entangle himself in them again. It was a vow that had held from the moment the brand was seared into his back.

But from the time he met Baek Yeon-ah, or rather, from some moment he could not pinpoint exactly, he had realized he was already aware of her.

There was the matter of his mind, which kept getting drawn to her for no reason he could name, and then there was his c*ck, which had started rearing its head the moment he laid eyes on Baek Yeon-ah.

That was not to say he had developed any feelings for Baek Yeon-ah.

Then what was this reaction of his body supposed to mean. He could not make sense of a situation where he was getting aroused by the lingering scent she left behind in a room.

It was as though his head and his body were operating separately.

Last night’s incident had surely been part of that as well. He had not particularly intended it.

At that moment, Kim Yul’s nonsense about trying to love a human flashed through his mind. He would need to know what love was and how it worked before he could even go through the motions. He ground the curse between his teeth and burned through a cigarette in no time.

And it was just as he passed the main room where Baek Yeon-ah was staying and moved his feet toward the opposite room.

‘What kind of dream is this vivid…’

At the faint murmur that sounded ready to fade out at any moment, his body began to move on its own. As though being controlled by something.

He walked as though drawn by a spell and slid open the door to find the woman asleep. Or rather, listening to her uneven breathing, it seemed she might be pretending to sleep.

A faint smile crossed his lips as his hand reached out and touched her forehead. She had said a malevolent spirit appeared in her dreams, so she must have been tormented by a nightmare about one.

So that she would suffer no more nightmares. Just as he had promised to drive away evil spirits, he pushed his energy into her so that nothing wicked could take root in her.

It was not his full power, but as long as he was nearby, at least malevolent things would not be able to intrude freely.

Continuing his thoughts, he stroked her small forehead, and the woman let out a soft sound and sank into a deep sleep. But it did not last long.

Soon she was gasping and shedding tears, and the sight of her was so pitiful that he lost himself for a moment just watching her.

At first he had simply wanted to make her stop crying. Of course it would have been nothing more than mild pity, no more and no less.

But what kind of dream could make her look that desperate. Was she parting from a man she loved?

When his thoughts reached that point, fury surged all the way to the top of his head. Just as it had with Kim Yul, a raging fire ignited somewhere in his chest. He could not identify the emotion precisely, but it felt as though something invisible was cracking, little by little.

‘Sob, I… my lord!’

In that moment, seeing the woman sob and cry out for her lord, he felt confused.

If it had been a one-time dream he could have dismissed it as meaningless and moved on, but the Joseon dream was still continuing? It was clear that a malevolent spirit had done something to make Baek Yeon-ah suffer these nightmares.

But what did the malevolent spirit stand to gain by going that far. It would be more than enough to take direct revenge on him now that he had lost his power, so he could not help but wonder why it was tormenting a helpless human.

And on top of that, who was this lord she was crying out for so desperately. He felt a murderous urge boil up in him, a desire to cut off the man’s legs and drag them before her.

He wanted to shout at her that this precious lord she was looking for would come back a cripple and could not return, that there was no use in her wailing and calling for him.

F*ck. What is Baek Yeon-ah to me?

What on earth was she to him, that this scorching thirst kept rising in him?

The past five hundred years. From Joseon through to the present. He had brushed past countless human women, but among all of them, Baek Yeon-ah was the one with the least trace of docility.

She was so incapable of hiding her feelings that whenever something displeased her she bit her lip until it nearly split, when she was bored she twitched her eyebrows, and when she was happy or something pleased her, a pretty curve would form at the corner of her mouth.

In a word, she was a woman who expressed every joy and sorrow in vivid color.

And the voice that murmured toward empty air, pleading for someone not to go, crying so desperately. In proportion to that, something inside him only seethed and churned.

An intruder who had silently seeped into his tranquil life. An assassin quietly tightening around his throat.

She seemed too desperate to cast out coldly, yet keeping her close was draining him dry. In the midst of that confusion, if not for the small hand that had suddenly reached out, he might never have made up his mind.

The small hand that gripped his fully *rect c*ck, pleading for him not to go, snapped the tangled circuits of his torment one by one.

Every desire he had been suppressing while looking at the woman called Baek Yeon-ah surged up wildly.

A woman who grated on his nerves at all hours was also a first for him, and he found himself wanting to confront whatever lay at the base of the emotions beneath it all.

She was the kind that was hard to hold down and keep close, yet he could not understand why he wanted so badly to bend her and keep her near.

In the end he had reached out to her. Only after tormenting her until she fell asleep like she had fainted did satisfaction finally rise in him.

Scrunch, scrunch.

A soft sound tickled his ears. Hwido cut off his thoughts and took in, as though spellbound, the back of the woman hopping along the sandy shore.

She enjoys it that much. She had even taken off her shoes and was walking barefoot, looking exactly like a child untouched by the world.

“Baek Yeon-ah.”

At his call the woman stopped walking. Then, whoosh, crash. A wave scattered and broke the silence.