Just the day before, or rather the day before that, he had been a man with a sharpened blade held between his teeth. He had been on edge, ready to cut at the slightest misstep.

And now he wanted to eat together.

What kind of mentality did a person need to say something like that without so much as a change in expression? They had only met twice, and yet this shift in temperature was something else entirely.

It was no different from a con artist switching his story without batting an eye. And how did he know her name, on top of everything.

She replayed their conversation from the day before yesterday in her mind, but she had no memory of giving him her name.

Which meant, could it be, he had come into the room while she was sleeping? Gone through her bag and checked her ID…

In that instant her eyes moved on instinct, sweeping over her own clothes. A white shirt with one button undone, black slacks, and most importantly, her underwear. Everything was in place, and only then did a wave of relief wash over her.

“Hold on, sir, first can you let go of this hand…”

“Not sir. Seo Hwido.”

The voice slipped into her ear without warning and she looked up. He was so tall that she had to tilt her head back quite a ways, and the eyes that met hers were radiating the same indescribable light she had seen the night before.

Seeing him up close at a distance where she would bump her nose if she leaned forward, his clean-cut, flawless looks seemed like the kind that had left more than a few women in tears.

What on earth did a person have to eat to end up with a face like that? Those irises especially, that indescribable color that defied definition, were a weapon perfectly suited for bewitching people.

How many women had she seen give up their liver, their gallbladder, their entire fortunes, all because they were taken in by a pretty face like this?

Cult leaders who gathered followers and took women’s bodies and their money. Con artists who wrapped themselves in a handsome exterior and came close enough to drain a person’s soul dry. Psychopaths who worked people like livestock and treated them as less than human.

All three types were more than enough to lump together into one, and the wise words of the elders, that you should look at a person’s inside rather than their appearance, were worth taking to heart.

So just you wait. The moment Sora’s message comes through, I’ll rip off that arrogant mask and throw you out.

Yeon-ah studied Seo Hwido’s face for a moment, then pulled up a bright smile.

“Oh… yes, understood, Seo Hwido-ssi. Could you let go of this hand before we talk?”

She raised her voice loud enough for the woman standing outside to hear. It was to make clear that the two of them were nothing to each other.

She would be staying in Songhak Village for the time being, getting to know the neighbors, and the last thing she needed was to get swept up in some unwanted love triangle and come across badly.

At her words, Hwido leaned his upper body forward and looked down at her. Then he tilted his head to one side.

“You were grabbing and squeezing away to your heart’s content, and now you’ve finally come to your senses?”

“…Gr, grabbing? Who, what?”

“You were clinging on like you’d grab my trouser leg if I let go of your hand. You, yourself.”

“What kind of nonsense is that!”

She should have been furious, demanding to know where he got off making things up, but Yeon-ah’s lips only moved soundlessly as a memory surfaced in her mind.

Surely not…

She had been told since birth that her ki¹Ki (기) is the life force or spiritual energy that, in Korean folk belief, flows through every living person. Those with weak ki from birth are considered more open to supernatural influence, making them easier targets for spirits and harder to protect. was weak. That it would naturally improve as she grew older.

Whether that was the reason or not, sometimes when she fell into a deep sleep she would get up and go to the kitchen for water, or try to go outside, and there had been nights her parents had to stand guard until dawn.

Time passed, and she thought she had been living ordinary, uneventful days.

But on a school trip in middle school, she had shown signs of sleepwalking, and her classmates had treated her like she was possessed, and the bullying had gone on from there.

It wasn’t as though she had done it on purpose.

No matter how many times she explained the medical term somnambulism, it made no difference, and she had spent her school years being called possessed Baek Yeon-ah, white-robed ghost Baek Yeon-ah.

But not once since then had it happened again. So why now? Had she worn herself out so much getting here? Was that why she had fallen asleep like she had blacked out?

No, wait. Why was she letting herself be taken in by this con artist’s words?

Hwido had been quietly watching her face contort through a series of expressions, and now he murmured in a low voice.

“Two nights’ lodging, plus labor fees for holding your hand all night. For that much, a little cooperation shouldn’t be too much to ask.”

The absurdity of it hit her like a blow to the throat. Lodging fees? When he hadn’t even properly shown her the deed. And holding her hand all night, what…

A man and a woman were not the same, and he had walked into a room where a woman was sleeping alone and held her hand without permission? That was practically a crime in itself.

Did this man even understand what he was saying? There was no proof she had asked him to hold her hand. The nerve of him. It was the kind of thing she could slap a charge of indecent conduct on him for and hand him right over.

Psychopathic gangster, plus cult leader. And a con artist on top of that. There was a limit to how much a person should lie.

So she could not afford to lose this. Especially if it meant driving this con artist out of her grandmother’s house where he was squatting illegally.

All she had to do was deal with this cult leader until Sora’s message came through. A police officer of the Republic of Korea could not afford to be played by a low-grade con artist.

But at that moment.

Yeon-ah’s eyes met those of the woman standing motionless in the yard, staring in their direction. In an instant the woman’s face crumpled completely, flooded with shock, and the space that left behind filled just as quickly with jealousy.

“Huu…”

She looked up at Seo Hwido, and the man smiled back pleasantly, wearing an arrogant expression that said he would parry whatever she threw at him.

Right, so that’s how you want to play it.

“I’m sorry, si… no, Seo Hwido-ssi. I have a habit of getting indigestion when I eat with strangers. And looking at you, it seems like you’re quite hungry. Why not have a meal with that woman over there?”

She folded the corners of her eyes into a warm smile, and the man’s eyebrow twitched ever so slightly upward. The voice that followed, sounding amused, was ice cold.

“Do you want to leave this house? If that’s what you want, I can make that happen right now.”

“…Then you’ll need to prove you’re the owner of this house. I showed you my grandmother’s deed, and I offered to drive away whatever is on your shoulder. You’re awfully relaxed about all this. I suppose you plan on carrying that young woman on your back for the rest of your life?”

She fired back with both eyes wide open. No matter what, how could someone not even blink when told there was a ghost on their shoulder. Weren’t they even afraid?

Well. Judging by the force of that man’s presence alone, he looked like he could devour any ghost that crossed him.

Yeon-ah tried to shake off the hand he had caught hold of, but the firmly locked grip showed no sign of budging even slightly.

“And do you have proof? Proof that I clung to you and begged you to hold my hand. If not, are you trying to make a move on me right now?”

She had meant it as in trying to recruit followers, but the man seemed to have taken it a different way entirely, and a blatant smirk slipped out.

Why? Why was this so unpleasant?

It was clearly a sneer. Yeon-ah put force into her eyes and shot him a sharp glare, and at last the smirk faded and the corner of his mouth curved at a slant.

“You’re quite pretty, I’ll give you that, but I don’t particularly have a thing for little ones.”

He seemed like a man who had made up his mind to get on her nerves.

“Who said anyone… wanted to be your type?”

Truthfully, she was a little bit his type. Being under 160 centimeters tall meant her eyes naturally drifted toward men with a good build. And that clean face of his was undeniably the face of a handsome man who caught the eye.

From his perspective, standing what had to be close to 190 centimeters, she probably was no better than a little squirt.

But even so, calling someone little to their face. She could not begin to imagine where his manners had gone.

She was chewing on her lip, lost in those stray thoughts, when he finally let go of her hand and extended one long finger to point at her cheek.

“It’s written right there on your face. That I’m your type.”

Yeon-ah felt a prick of guilt for no good reason and kept her voice measured.

“Now listen here. You look exactly like a cult leader to me, and aren’t you ashamed of coming all the way out to a place like this to take advantage of innocent people? How do you plan to deal with the consequences? Starting from illegally squatting in this house, all the way to indecent conduct. If I file a report!”

Ring, ring!

Her phone rang loudly from her pocket. Yeon-ah pulled it out in a hurry, saw Sora’s name on the screen, and declared with force.

“What perfect timing. So let’s settle this right here, right now. Which one of us needs to be packing their bags today!”

She let out a sharp breath and pressed the call button. And she prayed desperately. Please let this be what gets this lunatic thrown out of here.

“Yeah, Sora. Did you check?”

—Oh goodness, you startled me! Why are you suddenly so fired up? Are you still at that house?

“Yeah. I am, so what did you find out?”

—Baek Yeon-ah, have you lost your mind? Do you know you’ve been sleeping in someone else’s house for two nights? Get out of there right now! Unless you want to get sued!

“…What?”

Yeon-ah, who had been holding her head high until now, quickly looked away from Seo Hwido. She turned her back to him completely and answered in a voice barely above a whisper.

“What do you mean by that? Explain it so I can understand.”

—Ugh. From the looks of it, your mother seems to have sold it the moment she inherited it. I’m sure she had her reasons, but regardless, the current owner of that house is the Seo Hwido you mentioned.

“Th, that can’t be……”

The strength drained from the two legs that had barely been holding her up, and she sank straight to the floor.