Chapter 31
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 31
Chapter Title: Heaven Sent 1
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"Blorp, blorp, blorp."
Kang Ibi soaked her body in the steaming bath and watched the clusters of bubbles rising before her eyes. A black shadow suddenly burst out from beneath them in the water. It was Mina.
"Splash."
With that, Mina's form slipped back under the water. More bubbles surged up wildly.
"Blorp, blorp, blorp, blorp."
Ibi wondered how she could make such clear sounds from underwater but decided not to ask. She was exhausted today. Utterly drained.
She could barely remember how she'd made it down the hill. She had so many questions for Nati that just firing them off had made the time fly by. Haewon hadn't said a word the whole time.
Finally reaching civilization felt like a miracle. In her daze, the men had all gone their separate ways.
Ibi was worried about Haewon, but she wasn't sure if she should follow him right away. Giving him some time alone seemed best for now. And if that woman had listened to Nati's warning, she probably wouldn't harm him just yet.
Before she knew it, only Ibi and Mina were left in the morning alleyway as the day began.
Mina had seemed furious the entire way down the hill. Ibi figured her pride must have been wounded.
Not only had she been thoroughly beaten by that woman, but her appearance was a total mess too. In the end, with nothing to cover herself, Nati had to give her his jacket. It must have been an utter humiliation for the usually proud Mina.
Watching that, Ibi felt she needed to cheer her up a bit. She couldn't deny feeling like she'd been thrown into the gutter herself, after all.
So she'd thought of the bathhouse. She'd gone fairly often a few years back but had stopped at some point. Her whole body was caked in dirt and rainwater anyway, so even if it wasn't just about her mood, she really needed a soak.
"No hot springs?"
"Be satisfied with this."
Mina was curt, but she didn't refuse.
Now that she was actually in the bath, her mood seemed to have improved, and she was playing around like that. Japanese people really do love their baths, huh. Even if she's not human.
"Settle down a bit. You're making me anxious."
Ibi scolded her, but she could barely keep her own endlessly relaxing body in check. She'd been rolling around on the brink of death from dinner until morning, so it was only natural. Would I fall asleep in the bath like last time? But maybe Mina would fish me out.
She wandered in a haze of half-delirious fantasies for a while before suddenly opening her eyes. Mina was staring at her intently. Wondering what was up, Ibi looked closer and saw Mina's gaze piercing right at her chest.
"What the hell, you? Why are you staring like that? It's creepy."
Even if they were both girls, staring that hard wasn't cool.
Ibi hurriedly covered her chest with her arms and turned away. Then the blank-faced Mina let out a snicker. It was clearly mockery.
A vein bulged on Ibi's forehead. Her lips twitched as she asked,
"Mina Shionji. What... do you think that means?"
"Means what?"
"Looks like you don't know shit. I was fourth biggest in our department, you know? You must be too young to understand the world yet, huh? This big sis has never felt inferior about these anywhere."
"Wow. An ambiguous ranking."
That little...?
Ibi shot her head up in anger, but Mina had already swum over to the cold bath and was splashing around. Her mood seemed fully recovered, but for some reason, now Ibi's was ruined.
Since it had been ages since she'd been to a bathhouse, they decided to hit the sauna too. As Ibi roasted her back a bit on the warm rocks, Mina buzzed around nonstop. It must have been her first time in a sauna.
Her body grew heavy, like a waterlogged cotton ball. Sleep came crashing over her irresistibly. Ibi gave in and drifted off.
It felt like she'd slept for quite a while. Her body, which had creaked along like it wasn't her own from exhaustion, was slowly regaining some vitality. Then a familiar voice rang in her ear repeatedly.
"Unnie."
"......"
"Unnie. Unnie."
"......"
"Gum-unnie."
"They're not small!"
Heat rushed straight to her head as she bolted upright, and Mina casually shrugged her shoulders. Apparently, she was hungry. Suppressing her rising blood pressure, Ibi headed to the vending area.
She bought a whole tray of boiled eggs and set them down. Sipping sikye through a straw and peeling a few to eat, she watched as the voracious Mina devoured them nonstop—shells and all, crunching away.
Eating was simple too. She'd just grab one in her hand, her palm would split wide open in the center, and down it went in a gulp.
If she just thought of it as buying a meal for a little sister she knew, it wouldn't feel so unfair—but why was she getting so irritated?
"I wonder if Haewon oppa's okay."
"Who cares."
Ibi almost snapped that she was one heartless kid, but she remembered their previous conversation. Something about stray dogs.
But Mina's actions this time contradicted that talk a bit.
"By the way, how did you know we were at the temple? I didn't tell anyone I was going there. Hell, I didn't even know I'd find Haewon oppa there."
Mina lowered her gaze slightly and spoke in a small voice.
"You looked at it so intently."
"Huh? Looked at what?"
"...The incident log."
Ibi tilted her head, then realized what Mina meant. Oh, when she'd been flipping through Nati's records in the underground storeroom, she'd paid close attention to the part about the temple?
She'd gone just in case something happened, and luckily run into them there... It was a perfectly logical explanation.
But if that was the case...
"What? You were worried about me?"
"No."
She denied it, but averting her eyes like that screamed guilty. Ibi ducked her head and giggled. Well, she has her cute side.
Ibi hugged Mina tightly from behind like a doll and started stroking her hair.
"I see. Our Mina came all the way there because she was worried about unnie. Don't be shy—come bury yourself in this big sis's ample bosom. Ample bosom, I said."
Mina finally got mad and bit hard on Ibi's forehead, forcing her to stop.
Two days passed since then. It was September 10th. Aerin returned after finishing her errands. Ibi went back to work at the Flower Mugwort Tea House, but Haewon was nowhere to be seen.
Aerin had heard about the recent events. Seeing Ibi's worry, she reassured her that if Nati had laid down the law like that, he'd be safe for the time being.
But that also meant he wouldn't be safe forever. Especially since this incident had a deadline? The "wedding day" seemed firmly set.
Problem was, no one knew the exact date. Haewon might, but she hadn't asked. She regretted not asking when they'd gone to the temple. Though there hadn't really been time that day.
Nati's rough explanation on the way down the hill had gone like this: The woman he called Taebaek was one of the ancient soul-wanderers. But in her current state, she was no different from a ghost—and there was good reason for that.
As a soul-wanderer, she had no physical body to walk the earth. But occasionally, she'd crave descending to the mortal realm for amusement.
Then she'd craft a false body to come down, one indistinguishable from a human's—but it didn't last long. Once that fake body died and was buried in the temple graveyard, she could exert immense influence in that area, like they experienced last night. So her claim of having "suffered a great misfortune" wasn't entirely a lie.
Ibi had asked: If she could come down in a human body like that, why not just marry Haewon and live here normally? It'd still be an unwanted marriage, but better than some sinister soul-wedding ritual, right?
But no matter how human-like, it was still fake. She couldn't build a marital bond with it, and she wouldn't want that anyway, Nati said.
At this point, it was frustrating. What the hell had this anti-Haecheon guy done to earn such obsessive love from a terrifying ghost like that? Haewon claimed it was an arranged marriage through his shaman mother, without his consent—but could that alone spark such frightening obsession?
The next day, September 11th, Ibi resolved to go see Haewon. She didn't know his address, but luckily, he hadn't dodged her calls. After letting him know she'd visit after work, she finished closing up, gave Aerin a quick bow, and headed to the address Haewon had given her.
And late that evening, Aerin was left alone in the shuttered Flower Mugwort Tea House. Sitting at an empty table, head tilted as she gazed outside, she heard the bell above the door chime.
Thinking Ibi had returned, she turned to see Nati standing there. It had been a while since he'd visited the tea house.
"Tea?"
"Mm... Sure."
Soon, they sat facing each other with two steaming cups between them. Aerin took a sip of her tea first and spoke.
"I heard the gist of it. About Haewon."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
"Something you want to say?"
A brief silence fell. Nati didn't touch his cup.
"Nothing much. Just... I thought you were being a bit harsh with him."