Chapter 12: The Blessing of Helping Yokai

“What the hell is going on over there?”

“They’re filming a drama.”

Lee Young gave a brief answer to Sa Hae, who had pushed his way through the crowd and entered the bookstore, and Sa Hae glanced outside with an indifferent look.

Lately, Lee Young had come to realize that Sa Hae didn’t seem particularly interested in humans.

As though he couldn’t care less, Sa Hae came inside and sat down in his chair, while Lee Young alternated her gaze between his face and that of the male actor filming outside the bookstore.

“Mister.”

“What.”

Sa Hae was already stroking Tori’s head as the three-legged dog sat at his feet.

“You like it? Living with him after living with that noisy Gwitae?”

Sa Hae answered Lee Young’s question without much interest, then casually stroked Tori as he asked.

Tori whined as though answering him.

“You’re more handsome than that actor, Mister.”

Sa Hae’s hand stopped.

“What?”

“I said you’re more handsome than that actor.”

“…”

“Master Sin is famous for being handsome, too, but if I had to choose, I think you’re more handsome.”

Sinseonbi had somehow become “Master Sin.”

There was Master Jade Rabbit, and now Master Sin.

It was ridiculous.

“But are all yokai handsome and pretty?”

“I don’t know.”

“Why don’t you know?”

“Why do I need to know?”

As he answered, Sa Hae turned his head and took another look at the male actor Lee Young had been watching.

There was no telling whether the human actor looked handsome to him.

The same went for the female actor standing beside him.

One might assume that a yokai’s eyes weren’t all that different from a human’s, but Sa Hae had never once looked at either a human or a yokai and thought they were handsome or pretty.

The same applied when he looked at his own face.

“What do I care whether that thing is handsome or pretty?”

“You’d still look at your own face and think you’re handsome.”

Lee Young said it with a puzzled expression as she arranged the books.

Sometimes, when she talked to Sa Hae, she could tell that he really did think differently from ordinary humans.

Just like now.

“I’ve never thought that.”

“Then how did you end up with that face?”

At Lee Young’s question, Sa Hae tilted his head.

In truth, Sa Hae hadn’t had a human appearance for very long.

Roughly a hundred years or so.

And even after becoming human, he had never changed that appearance.

More precisely, he had never had a reason to.

A Bulgasal’s fatal weakness was that its body became smaller when it couldn’t eat iron.

So even after taking on a human form, whenever Sa Hae went through periods of poverty, his body would shrink.

Because of that, he had only been living with his current appearance for a little over twenty years.

Of course, he had gradually been adjusting his appearance to look older, but unlike other yokai, he had never completely changed his outer shell.

Which meant that the appearance Lee Young now called handsome was, strictly speaking, Sa Hae’s natural appearance.

“I’ve always looked like this.”

“Wow.”

“What.”

“Just…”

“Just?”

Lee Young pressed her lips together before murmuring almost under her breath.

“You’re so annoying.”

At her words, Sa Hae burst out laughing.

Lee Young really was quite honest.

“Why am I annoying just because I look like this?”

“Because you’re handsome. Being handsome makes life easier.”

“Isn’t being cute what makes life easier?”

As he said this, Sa Hae lowered his head and looked at Tori.

By Sa Hae’s standards, out of the three of them, the one who had the easiest life wasn’t handsome old him.

It was the three-legged Samjokgu who was cute despite having three legs, and who had even been given the adorable name Tori despite being a dog yokai.

“Of course being cute beats everything, but being handsome still makes things easier.”

“Does it? You’re pretty, too.”

Sa Hae murmured that as he leaned back against his chair, sitting there languidly.

Lee Young’s gaze once again alternated between the actor filming outside the bookstore and Sa Hae.

Sa Hae’s languidly relaxed face was certainly striking.

His handsome features looked almost as though they had been drawn by hand, and Lee Young felt her face grow red before she even realized it.

It was only natural for her eyes to be drawn to a handsome face.

Especially a face that handsome.

“Are you going to stare a hole through my face?”

“I wasn’t staring that hard!”

“Sure, sure.”

Sa Hae nodded as though he understood exactly what she was thinking, and Lee Young glared at him with widened eyes.

That ancient Bulgasal somehow seems capable of reading human thoughts, too.

“Your face is such a waste.”

“What, only my face? My height’s a waste, too. And my money.”

Sa Hae spoke as though he could see straight through her thoughts.

“So why did you come today?”

“Why are you being so cold to me?”

Sa Hae slightly opened his eyes and looked at Lee Young.

His words made it sound as though he was hurt, but there wasn’t the slightest trace of hurt on his face.

“I’m not being cold.”

“You’re talking like, ‘Why did you come when you have no reason to and just bother me?’”

Lee Young flinched as though he had hit the nail on the head.

“Th-Then why did you really come?”

“Just thought we could have a meal together.”

“…”

“Shall we go?”

Sa Hae asked as though he would leave without hesitation if Lee Young gave him even the slightest indication to.

For some reason, Lee Young was weak to people who showed no attachment to her.

Perhaps it was because she had always been the one clinging to others.

Lee Young had always been starved for affection, and if she could hold on to someone, anyone, she had lived with the desire to do so.

“What meal? You don’t even eat. You just stare at me while I eat.”

“Watching you eat fills me up.”

It was only natural that Lee Young’s face turned red at Sa Hae’s words.

Naturally.

****

The second blessing Lee Young received for helping a yokai was that her bookstore became famous.

Of course, ever since she met Sa Hae and Tori, customers had never exactly stopped coming.

But after the drama filming, it went beyond simply having a steady stream of customers.

Her bookstore became a bona fide SNS hotspot, packed with people.

“Wow… Tori, if this keeps up, Mom’s going to make enough money selling books and postcards to build a whole building.”

It had been barely three weeks since she granted Master Sin’s wish, and in that short time, Lee Young had started handling daily sales figures she had never even touched in her life.

“This is so nice… I get to grant someone else’s wish and make money, too. Right? Did Grandma live like this every time?”

Lee Young murmured to herself as she stroked Tori lying on her lap.

As it happened, she had received a call from Sin the previous morning.

Gaeun still hadn’t eaten the pill, he said, but she was keeping it carefully.

And he thanked Lee Young for granting his request.

He had called because he felt sorry that he hadn’t thanked her properly the last time.

After receiving that one phone call, Lee Young had felt unusually proud and happy.

Helping someone.

The thought that she could change someone’s fate by helping them was both joyful and exciting.

She had never really understood what it meant to be fated to help others.

But after this incident, she felt as though she had realized that it was something rather meaningful.

“Tori, is there anything you want to ask for? I wonder what other yokai would ask me to do. I’m curious, aren’t you?”

As she thought about it, Lee Young fiddled with the pouch Master Jade Rabbit had given her, tucked inside her bag.

Master Jade Rabbit had asked her to eat it, so would eating it count as granting a request, too?

“Is Mister not coming today? Well, if he’s the CEO of a steel company, I guess he must be busy.”

With that thought, Lee Young closed the small laptop she used to keep track of the bookstore’s sales and picked Tori up into her arms.

“Let’s go home now, Tori.”

She had been a little frightened when Sinseonbi’s appearance changed into that of a giant snake.

But if all she received from now on were requests like these, and she could spend her life helping with them, she thought it might actually make for a pretty good daily life.

With that thought, Lee Young left the store.

“The other shops closed early today, didn’t they?”

Lee Young’s voice echoed through the darkness.

It was still a fairly busy commercial district, yet somehow, it seemed unusually dark tonight.

Tori, too, had shrunk smaller than usual and buried his face in Lee Young’s arms.

“Tori?”

Puzzled by his behavior, Lee Young hugged him more tightly as she continued walking.

An inexplicable chill brushed down her spine, but Lee Young had no idea what had caused it.

****

“Huh.”

Sa Hae came out onto the terrace with a cigarette between his lips and looked down before slightly furrowing his brow.

The shadows were unusually long.

Sa Hae didn’t like days when shadows stretched long.

Long shadows were never a good sign.

It meant a day when yin energy was particularly strong.

Days with strong yin energy were perfect for yokai to run wild, and ghosts, too.

It was nothing particularly special to Sa Hae.

But for Lee Young, it was different.

From somewhere in the distance came the familiar sound of a dog barking.

It was the voice of the Samjokgu who received all the affection in the world at Lee Young’s side.

Sa Hae raised his head toward the sky, and the shadow resembling a beast began to grow larger and larger.

The shadow spread until it covered his entire townhouse, growing without end, while the light radiating from his body spread farther and farther.

“He’s really doing all sorts of things.”

Muttering that, Sa Hae tossed the cigarette from his lips into the ashtray, then vaulted over the terrace railing and dropped straight into the garden on the first floor.

He flew from the second floor to the first as though he were something that did not belong to this world at all.

Then he passed through the front gate and climbed into his car.

“I guess I’ll have to bring her over here.”

Starting the engine, Sa Hae muttered to himself and began driving down the dark road.

If he was too late, Lee Young, who could practically faint at the sight of nothing more than a single snake, might actually pass out on the spot.

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