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Join the Server<Missing Companion Dokkaebi Report>
<Reporter: Han Tae-yi>
Lee Young scribbled those words into her notebook while stroking Tori, who was sitting comfortably on her lap, and looked at Tae-yi.
“This puppy is really cute.”
At Tae-yi’s words, Lee Young nodded and twirled the pen between her fingers.
“Um, Mr. Tae-yi? What does your companion dokkaebi look like?”
At Lee Young’s question, Tae-yi abruptly lifted his head and looked at her.
He had come to report his missing dokkaebi, yet here he was happily petting Samjokgu. Lee Young briefly thought that the man was remarkably carefree.
“Okbanji!”
“Okbanji?”
“Yes, Okbanji!”
‘Okbanji? A dokkaebi named Okbanji?’
For a moment, a dokkaebi cartoon she used to watch while sitting beside her grandmother came to mind.
Wasn’t Okbanji the pretty dokkaebi the chief dokkaebi liked the most…?
A round-faced dokkaebi with large, slightly coy eyes appeared vividly in her mind.
“Round eyes, kind of coy-looking…?”
“You know our Banji…?”
Tae-yi asked her as though she were the rope thrown down to save him.
His eyes were clear and glistening like they had been filled with water, but Lee Young gave a small shake of her head.
“Our Banji is…”
“Looks like you’re having a nice time.”
A rough, thuggish voice cut Tae-yi off.
It was Sa Hae, dressed in an immaculate suit.
He looked perfect from head to toe as he walked into the bookstore.
Lee Young didn’t know it, but Sa Hae had been watching the two of them from outside the entire time.
The moment his already-thin patience finally ran out, he had flung the bookstore door open and stormed inside like an invader.
“What are you looking at?”
Even Sa Hae himself didn’t know whether those sharp words were directed at Lee Young or at Tae-yi, whose polished face looked almost irritatingly perfect.
He simply hated seeing Lee Young smiling and chatting with another man.
It twisted his insides as though someone had taken something that belonged to him.
“Mister!”
Whether she knew what was going through his mind or not, Lee Young greeted him brightly and waved.
“Get lost.”
“…Excuse me?”
“I said get lost.”
Sa Hae coldly stared at Tae-yi, who was sitting in the wooden chair Lee Young had prepared especially for him—the chair that had always been reserved for Sa Hae alone.
“That’s my chair, so get lost. Can’t you hear me? Do I need to clean out your ears for you?”
‘Is he drunk?’
Lee Young wondered that as she grabbed Sa Hae’s arm.
Come to think of it, the aura radiating from Sa Hae’s body was much colder in color than usual.
It almost looked like blue fire beyond the usual red glow.
“Mister, um… did you drink?”
“What?”
At Lee Young’s cautious question, Sa Hae’s frightening eyes immediately landed on her.
‘Oh. I said something wrong.’
Lee Young took a step back, intending to put some distance between them.
Of course, she never managed to.
Sa Hae caught her wrist.
“What’s this?”
Before Lee Young could wonder what he meant, Sa Hae pointed his chin toward Tae-yi.
As though asking, Who the hell is that bastard?
“Oh, right! He said he lost his companion dokkaebi.”
“Companion what?”
“A dokkaebi. He says its name is Okbanji.”
Contrary to Sa Hae’s intention, Lee Young answered every one of his questions.
Yet she kept sneaking glances at the hand gripping her wrist.
It was only her wrist in Sa Hae’s large hand, but Lee Young’s cheeks kept turning red.
“If he lost it, he should find it himself. Why come here?”
‘No, Mister… You were perfectly happy to welcome that virgin ghost with open arms when she hadn’t even had her first kiss. Why are you so cold only to humans?’
Flustered by the cold reaction from Sa Hae she had never seen before, Lee Young looked up at him.
“Wow, your body is practically glowing.”
Tae-yi spoke as though Sa Hae’s cold words and hostile behavior didn’t affect him in the slightest.
Apparently, just like Lee Young, Tae-yi could see Sa Hae’s body glowing.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
Tae-yi looked at Sa Hae with an innocent expression.
Sa Hae stared straight at him, his gaze seeming to pierce through Tae-yi and see something beyond him.
“What are you?”
“Ah, I’m Han Tae-yi. I’m twenty-seven years old, and…”
“You can see ghosts, can’t you?”
At Sa Hae’s words, Tae-yi, who had maintained his bright voice all this time, suddenly went still.
Lee Young’s attention, which had been distracted by Sa Hae holding her wrist, shifted to Tae-yi.
And in that instant, she felt the warmth disappear from his large eyes.
The change happened so quickly that a chill ran down Lee Young’s spine.
“What? Is he your type? You said I was handsome before.”
“Nooo…”
Sa Hae had noticed like a ghost that Lee Young’s attention, which had been fixed on him all this time, had shifted to Tae-yi.
He tightened his grip around Lee Young’s wrist.
This stubborn, single-minded Bulgasal simply dragged Lee Young’s attention back toward himself.
“Isn’t it normal to know one or two ghosts?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Oh! So I’m the only one who can see them!”
Clap!
Tae-yi brought both hands together with a loud clap, raising his voice as though he had only just discovered this fact, like the protagonist of some television drama.
Anyone who wasn’t an idiot could tell that it was an act.
“You’re not very good at acting…”
The words slipped out of Lee Young’s mouth before she could stop herself.
Tae-yi’s gaze turned toward her.
His eyes were difficult to read.
When she had first seen him, she had thought he was simply an innocent, cheerful person.
But now it was obvious that cheerfulness had been an act.
“Please find our Banji. I really need our Banji to be here.”
Not long afterward, Tae-yi sat in another chair Lee Young had brought out.
Sa Hae sat right beside Lee Young, legs crossed, staring at Tae-yi.
He clearly didn’t like the man.
“Our Banji… I found her when I went into the mountains to pray back when I was still unknown…”
Tae-yi’s voice was genuinely desperate.
There was even a faint moisture in his eyes.
“She’s the one who brought me all the way to where I am now. To me, she’s truly family. And a friend.”
Lee Young nodded repeatedly as she wrote something down in her notebook while watching him.
Sa Hae, however, continued staring at Tae-yi with a ferocious expression.
The look on his face made it painfully obvious that he didn’t believe a word the man was saying.
“But, um… why did she disappear? Did you two have a fight?”
“A fight? No. Banji and I have lived together for more than three years, and we’ve never fought even once.”
“Then she just suddenly disappeared?”
“Yes. Just like that. One day, she was gone.”
Tae-yi nodded and met Lee Young’s eyes.
To Lee Young, he looked quite sincere.
“I really need our Banji.”
There was such desperation in Tae-yi’s voice that Lee Young found herself nodding without realizing it.
“Please, please find our Banji for me. Okay?”
“But how did you know about me?”
“Ah… There’s a virgin ghost I see quite often…”
At Tae-yi’s words, Sa Hae’s face twisted violently.
‘That damn ghost.’
She had already stolen Lee Young’s first kiss, and now she had left behind one last load of trouble for her before disappearing.
‘Damn it.’
Sa Hae continued glaring at Tae-yi.
His hand was still wrapped around Lee Young’s wrist.
As though he had absolutely no intention of letting go.
Tae-yi continued telling them all sorts of things about his companion dokkaebi.
He had found her while going to Bukhansan to pray.
After they began living together, his career had started going well.
That was why he loved Banji so much.
Why he absolutely needed her.
He didn’t know why she had suddenly left, but he needed her back.
After saying that one last time, Tae-yi left Lee Young’s bookstore.
“He seems to love her a lot.”
Lee Young closed her notebook as she spoke.
Sa Hae released her wrist and gave a disbelieving snort.
“Who? Him? Love whom? A dokkaebi?”
Love?
Who?
That human who was less than a yokai, loving a dokkaebi?
There was no way.
Using one was another matter entirely.
Sa Hae remembered Tae-yi’s eyes and sneered.
Those eyes hadn’t belonged to someone searching for the person he loved.
They were the eyes of someone searching for something he considered his property.
Love was such an easy emotion to change.
It could flip over as effortlessly as turning a hand.
“Yes. If he loves her, isn’t that why he’s searching for her so desperately?”
“Bullshit.”
Sa Hae cursed harshly and raised his large hand to rub his face.
“That damn virgin ghost. I want to drag her back here and tear her apart.”
The anger that now engulfed him was even greater than what he had felt when the ghost had appeared before Lee Young and frightened her.
“Why are you so angry? Huh? Is he a bad person?”
“…”
“He’s really famous, too…”
“Does being famous make someone a good person?”
Sa Hae’s gruff response came out abruptly.
Lee Young’s face immediately crumpled with hurt.
“What did I do? I didn’t even invite him here, so why are you getting mad at me?!”
“…”
“You’re annoying.”
Lee Young glared at Sa Hae with wounded eyes.
From the moment Tae-yi had arrived, Sa Hae’s irritated words and behavior toward her had been upsetting her.
You’ve got to see this next! The Phantom of the Library will keep you on the edge of your seat. Start reading today!
Read : The Phantom of the Library
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