Chapter 18: The Missing Dokkaebi

Sa Hae sat in his office, looking over the documents awaiting his approval.

The steel company Sa Hae ran was more famous and financially solid than one might expect.

He had spent such a long time living among humans that if he couldn’t even manage a company, he might as well die, Sa Hae always muttered.

Of course, the company executives had no idea that the previous chairman of Taebaek Steel, the man they believed to be Sa Hae’s father, had actually been Sa Hae in disguise.

As far as the company was concerned, there was only one person who knew that the man who had handed the position over to his young son and retired was Sa Hae himself.

“You’re leaving early again today?”

Sa Hae’s hand, which had been rapidly signing the documents, stopped abruptly in midair.

Since meeting Lee Young, Sa Hae had been putting his company work on the back burner.

To be honest, he was perfectly fine with that.

Unless someone was exceptionally bold, no one would dare try to steal away the company a yokai had built to make a living.

And even if someone did, there was no way Sa Hae would forgive such a human.

“You know.”

“I’m not the CEO.”

“You work almost as much as I do.”

“If I were going to work as much as you, I’d be the CEO, wouldn’t I?”

At his prickly secretary’s reply, Sa Hae looked at him askance.

“Secretary Woo.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You should live up to your name, you know?”

At the mention of his name, Secretary Woo’s face twisted horribly.

Secretary Woo.

In other words, the man working as Sa Hae’s secretary was a ureonggaksi.

Ah, correction.

Since he was male, it would be more accurate to call him a ureongsillang, a male version of the legendary snail bride.

By nature, the ureong clan loved doing other people’s work for them, so who could possibly make a better secretary?

“You know I’ve been busy lately.”

“Just because you’re using that family’s surname doesn’t mean you’re actually part of the family.”

“Why are you saying something so hurtful? You’re going to make me cry.”

Secretary Woo’s expression didn’t change in the slightest.

“Finish all your approvals today, attend the executive meeting later, and then leave.”

“Do you know why I gave you the position of chief secretary?”

“So I could clean up after you…!”

Sa Hae’s words had been needling him just enough that Secretary Woo finally raised his voice in irritation.

Of course, Sa Hae didn’t even blink.

This was exactly why he had made the ureong his secretary.

“You need to earn your salary.”

“Am I not doing that right now? Huh?”

“Do more.”

“Hey!”

“Fine. I’ll give you a bigger bonus.”

Secretary Woo froze.

At the word bonus, his entire body stopped for a moment.

After living in the human world for so long, even yokai were bound to become materialistic.

Especially when there was a sly little wife waiting at home like the ureong’s.

“Seriously?”

“When have I ever lied about money?”

Sa Hae looked at him as though he couldn’t understand why he had to ask twice about something so obvious.

The ureongsillang was a cousin of the ureonggaksi from the old folktale.

Perhaps being naturally inclined toward taking care of their loved ones was something all the ureongs inherited. Once they fell in love, they were desperate to fuss over and care for their beloved from close by.

Even the clever little ureong standing before Sa Hae had fallen in love at first sight with a woman and followed her around until he eventually married her.

These days, marriages between yokai and humans had become surprisingly common.

Of course, happy endings were by no means common.

How could there be a happy ending between humans who lived at most ninety years and yokai who could live for hundreds of years unless they deliberately chose to disappear?

Still, if someone wanted to spend even a few decades with the person they loved, what could anyone say?

Sa Hae thought such people were foolish.

But he never bothered saying it aloud.

“Hey, these days it’s not just yokai. There are ghosts swarming around her, too. I need to be there, don’t you think?”

“You’ll fall for her.”

“What the hell are you talking about with Sun-young’s granddaughter, you snail bastard?”

“You don’t think you will?”

“Do you seriously think it’s appropriate to say I’ll fall for a girl young enough to be my granddaughter? You bastard. You may have lived in a human shell for a long time, but your morals are still garbage.”

With that, Sa Hae tossed the documents he had finished signing onto Secretary Woo’s desk.

But Secretary Woo wasn’t looking at the documents.

He was looking directly at Sa Hae’s face.

“You call me garbage, but what are you imagining right now?”

One way or another, after being born a yokai and living this long, a creature was bound to develop enough intuition to survive without supernatural powers.

“Shut up.”

Sa Hae’s handsome brow furrowed sharply.

Which was practically an admission that the ureong’s words had hit the nail on the head.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have reacted like that.

Sa Hae had the kind of appearance that seemed perfectly suited to the mortal world.

But he himself had no interest in it.

His innate personality wasn’t suited to quietly meditating in the mountains like the Taebaeksan Dokkaebi or the mountain gods.

But neither did he indulge in the mortal world among humans like the more impure creatures.

He had simply amassed enough wealth to eat good-quality iron whenever he wanted.

That was enough.

Of course, after becoming thoroughly accustomed to sleeping on the streets, he had eventually bought himself an enormous townhouse.

Watching Sa Hae frown at his words, the ureong had a pretty good idea where his attention was headed.

Well, what else could he do?

“Nothing else needs your approval, right? I’m leaving.”

“Transfer my bonus.”

Sa Hae left the company to the sound of the ureong’s voice behind him.

He had no idea why Lee Young’s face had suddenly appeared so vividly in his mind at the ureong’s words.

The Jade Rabbit had definitely given him an antidote, and the sweet scent around Lee Young had disappeared after she took it.

Yet, strangely, Sa Hae’s gaze kept drifting toward her lips.

As though he were still intoxicated by something, the moment he relaxed even a little, he found himself thinking about Lee Young.

Imagining her lips.

“I’m doomed. Absolutely doomed.”

Sa Hae muttered that to himself and decided that he was simply acting strangely lately.

It had to be a side effect of whatever love potion the Jade Rabbit had given him.

He told himself that if Lee Young had been some other human woman, he probably would have reacted the same way.

With that thought, Sa Hae got into his car.

****

“What the hell is that bastard doing?”

Sa Hae stared into the bookstore without even realizing how rough his voice sounded.

These days, Lee Young’s bookstore had become quite popular after appearing in the drama, so there were more customers than before.

Sa Hae knew that perfectly well.

But what he was seeing now seriously rubbed him the wrong way.

Through the bookstore’s large windows, he could see an excessively polished-looking man holding the three-legged dog on his lap as though Tori were his own dog.

And Lee Young was sitting across from him, smiling at the man the entire time.

“Well, look at you. You’re practically dying of happiness.”

Sa Hae’s sharp eyes narrowed as he stared at the two of them.

Who the hell was this guy to be holding Samjokgu so affectionately?

Was he her boyfriend?

Impossible.

Sa Hae knew better than anyone that Lee Young didn’t have a boyfriend.

But the sight of Lee Young giggling at the man sitting across from her was more than enough to turn his insides upside down.

Who the hell was this guy to make Lee Young laugh like that?

****

The man sitting across from Lee Young was a famous actor.

He was the male lead of the drama that had been filming in front of Lee Young’s bookstore the other day.

To elaborate, he was Han Tae-yi, one of the most famous actors in South Korea.

It was surprising enough that he had come to her bookstore.

What was even more surprising was that Samjokgu, who had always remained quiet around humans, was barking at him.

“…Are you perhaps not human?”

Lee Young knew how crazy that sounded.

But Samjokgu didn’t bark at humans.

By now, Lee Young knew that very well.

If Samjokgu barked at someone, it meant that person wasn’t an ordinary human.

“…Can you actually see it? Can you see what’s behind me? Are you a shaman? I knew it…”

“I knew what?”

“Turns out he was right…”

‘He?’

Lee Young looked at the man in confusion, unable to understand what he meant.

“Can you see the dokkaebi attached to me?”

And the handsome man proceeded to say something so ridiculously clueless that it was hard to believe it had come from such a polished face.

‘So this is why you can’t trust a person’s face.’

Lee Young naturally came to that conclusion.

“Oh, Mr. Tae-yi, are you close with a dokkaebi?”

“Yes, yes. Are you close with a dokkaebi?”

“No. I’m close with a Bulgasal, not a dokkaebi. These days, doesn’t everyone have at least one dokkaebi or yokai they’re close to?”

Lee Young spoke as though she were making a grave and serious statement.

A look of surprise appeared on the man’s face.

“I see. Right? I’m not the only one with a companion dokkaebi, am I?”

“Of course not. I have a companion Samjokgu, too.”

She couldn’t bring herself to say companion Bulgasal.

If she was going to call anyone her companion, it felt more appropriate to use the word for Tori rather than Sa Hae.

As she said that, Lee Young lowered her head and pointed toward the three-legged dog yapping below.

The man’s eyes widened as though they were about to fall out of his head.

Then he noticed that Samjokgu had three legs and looked even more astonished.

Hmm.

To put it simply, this was a man who was fun to tease.

‘He’s kind of… hopeless, isn’t he?’

Lee Young found herself wondering how someone this innocent had managed to become an actor.

“My grandmother told me that I’d find the answer if I came here…”

“Yes, yes.”

“So please help me.”

‘Does helping humans earn me fortune points, too?’

Thinking that, Lee Young looked at the man before her, the most famous actor in South Korea, Tae-yi.

“…Please find my dokkaebi for me. It’s been missing for a month.”

Oh.

So this was a missing-person report after all.

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