An Uncomfortable Meeting
Jin Gyeo-wool was the first to pull herself together. She turned to the old woman.
"Ah… anyway. Do you still have this incense candle? I need it pretty urgently."
"This one? Sold out!"
Sold out? You've got to be kidding. Gyeo-wool's face fell at once.
"Is there any way you could get more in? You're still making them, right?"
"The fellow who made 'em kicked the bucket~. Won't be seein' any more."
"…Ugh."
The old woman cackled as she shuffled over to the counter and pulled out an ancient ledger that looked more like a diary. It was a metal-bound notebook stuffed with paper scraps so brittle they seemed ready to crumble at a touch.
"Here. Take a look. See? Gone."
"……."
No names were written down, but the drawing was unmistakably the same incense candle Gyeo-wool and Lee Bom had bought.
Handmade? Limited edition? Was it impossible to make another one just like it?
Where else was she supposed to find an incense candle that could separate body and soul in the first place?
The despair on Gyeo-wool's face showed plain in the way the corners of her mouth had dragged all the way down.
But she still had to find a lead. Going back empty-handed would leave her with nothing.
Clutching at straws, Gyeo-wool asked about the numbers written in the ledger.
"So… you only made three of them?"
"That's right."
Two of the three had gone to Gyeo-wool and Lee Bom, one each. So what about the last one?
"There wasn't one left over, was there?"
"There was."
"Who bought it? When?"
"Few minutes ago. A young buck about your age."
A few minutes ago. Gyeo-wool slammed her palm down on the counter like a detective who had just uncovered a fragment of the truth.
"Do you remember what he looked like?"
"What he looked like, you say?"
The old woman hummed thoughtfully and stroked her chin. Compared to Gyeo-wool's desperate eyes, she looked thoroughly at ease.
Please. Just one clue. A few minutes meant he could still be nearby.
If I at least know his face, I can find him. Please.
"Well, he was a shifty-lookin' little thing. That's about all I got."
"…Ah."
The old woman was no help at all.
Gyeo-wool let out a low sigh and hung her head.
"Actually, he looked a lot like that one over there."
Suddenly the old woman was pointing toward the entrance. Gyeo-wool's gaze followed the tip of her finger—and there stood Gong Je-hyeon.
"Him?"
"Not that one. The one standin' in the doorway!"
A slight shift in angle revealed someone leaning against the warped iron doorframe.
Gyeo-wool knew exactly who he was.
Debuted at the start of the year and signed with Falcon. Widely regarded as the strongest dark horse in the current CCK, tearing through every other team's top laner.
The man who had begun rewriting the history of the CCK top lane.
"Jang Jae-hong…?"
"Jang Jae-hong? Odin—Jang Jae-hong?!"
Gong Je-hyeon whipped around late and practically shouted.
"Whoa! It's really him? What are you doing here?!"
Je-hyeon bounded over and thrust out his hand. Seeing the offer of a handshake, Jae-hong reached out to meet it.
Gyeo-wool caught the strange current running between the two of them and scrambled over to plant herself right in the middle—a silent warning not to mess with her player.
Je-hyeon was oddly moved by the gesture.
She needs me this much? All those times she yanked me around by the hair weren't for nothing after all, he thought, like an idiot.
"Jang Jae-hong. I hear you bought an incense candle here?"
The two of them were meeting for the first time. More precisely, Jang Jae-hong and Jin Gyeo-wool were.
But of course Jae-hong had no way of knowing that what lived inside Gyeo-wool was Bae Do-hyun.
Realizing that a beat too late, Gyeo-wool frantically tried to take back what she'd just said.
Lee Do-jin had warned her over and over to watch her mouth, and here she was dropping straight into casual speech. So much for the lesson.
Awkwardly mixing in honorifics, Gyeo-wool dipped her head slightly and asked again.
For some reason her heart had been hammering since the moment she saw him, as if she were about to explode in rage at any second.
"Ah—Jang Jae-hong. Sorry. Um… did you happen to buy an incense candle here?"
He hadn't been the direct cause, but Jang Jae-hong was the reason Jin Gyeo-wool had nearly died. And Hon Gyeo-wool was seething because the Lee Do-jin she loved kept getting dragged through the mud because of him.
The synergy between the two of them was so intense that heat started boiling up through her body.
Gyeo-wool fought to hold the anger down. If she just stood there, the furious beast inside was going to break loose and take a swing at Jae-hong.
"I did."
"…!"
To run into the final buyer this luckily. Gyeo-wool reined in the rush of emotion and pressed on.
"Would you… consider selling it to me? Double—no, five times. I'll pay ten times if that's what you want!!"
She couldn't hide how desperate she was; it poured straight into her voice. Her tone climbed higher and higher toward the end until the pleading in it was unmistakable.
Jae-hong listened all the way through, then tilted his head a fraction and answered flatly.
"Me? Why would I?"
"…Ah… well…."
The truth was, Gyeo-wool couldn't give him a reason. That would mean exposing the secret she'd been keeping.
And if Jae-hong found out Bae Do-hyun was inside Jin Gyeo-wool, he might not be quite so calm about it.
In the end she had no choice but to fall back on a vague excuse.
"It's just… I really love the design. If you don't absolutely need it—"
"Bae Do-hyun."
The heart that had always stayed so steady in Gyeo-wool's chest dropped like a stone.
She didn't let it show on her face. But the instant her words dried up, she might as well have answered him already.
"I figured. I thought so. That playstyle was exactly what hyung would show off the second his physicals got better."
"……."
If she just rolled over and admitted it here, Gong Je-hyeon standing right beside them would learn the secret too.
Gyeo-wool scrambled to change the subject and defuse the situation.
"What are you talking about? Who's Bae Do-hyun…?"
At least here, she had to pretend she had no idea what Jae-hong meant.
Later she could meet him alone and ask why looking at Jin Gyeo-wool made him think of Bae Do-hyun.
But not right now. Not in this place.
Jae-hong watched Gyeo-wool blinking at him in apparent confusion and let out a short laugh.
"Ah. So that's the concept? Got it."
"…I don't know what you're talking about. Stop saying weird things. Are you selling the candle you bought or not?"
"You mean this?"
A familiar-looking incense candle slid out of Jae-hong's pocket.
It was identical to the one sitting on the nightstand back in the room.
Gyeo-wool nodded and reached for it—but Jae-hong pulled the candle back behind him and spoke with a mocking curl to his mouth.
"One hundred million."
"…What?"
"Give me a hundred million won and I'll sell it."
"A hundred million? That's ridiculous. How much did you even pay for it?"
"Ten million. You said you'd pay ten times, didn't you?"
"…What?"
What kind of bullshit is this? Gyeo-wool's face twisted as her gaze snapped toward the old woman at the counter.
"This incense candle costs ten million won?"
The half-lidded old woman chuckled.
"Special order. Price is whatever I say it is. That boy paid ten million, so it's ten million."
"…."
Jae-hong shrugged as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Je-hyeon scratched his head in sympathy, but ten million was still ten million.
Gyeo-wool was certain it hadn't cost anywhere near that when Hon Gyeo-wool and Lee Bom bought theirs on the school trip.
"Pay me a hundred million and it's yours. Though… I suppose coming up with a hundred million on the spot might be a little hard for you?"
The deliberate way he asked the obvious just to get under someone's skin. Gyeo-wool felt Bae Do-hyun's old memories slowly fusing with the anger rising in her.
"Then give me your phone. I'll put my number in."
"…."
Annoying as he was, at least he was saying he'd sell if she paid. The fact that he'd named a clean hundred million probably meant that amount would satisfy him.
Gyeo-wool exhaled short and sharp, pulled the phone from her pocket, and unlocked it.
"Surprising. I figured you'd be on a J-Phone."
"…."
She had to hold it in. The second she took the bait, she'd lose the war of words.
Jang Jae-hong was a man with a devil's mouth. Back when he was Bae Do-hyun, Jae-hong had screwed him over more times than he could count.
Agreements that turned into backstabs. Smiles to his face and curses behind his back.
One by one, he'd peeled Do-hyun's people away and pulled them onto his own side.
That was the kind of devil Jang Jae-hong was.
For all I know… he'll say a hundred million now and jack the price the second I call him back in Korea.
If it came to that, was there even a point in shelling out that kind of money? It might be better to just hand the body over to Hon Gyeo-wool and talk through the notebook.
But a new question had started nagging at her.
Why was Jae-hong acting like he already knew about the incense candle?
It felt like he was holding it over her head on the assumption that she needed it to see Hon Gyeo-wool.
And given that he'd used similar tactics to blackmail Bae Do-hyun's people in the past…
Don't tell me… this bastard too?
What if Jang Jae-hong also possessed a soul assimilation ability, just like her?
What if he, too, had gained monstrous skill by staking his Memory Erosion Rate?
The thought flashed through Gyeo-wool's mind like lightning.
"Here's my number. Make sure you call once you're back in Korea."
Jae-hong smiled and started to leave.
Gyeo-wool couldn't just let him walk. After a moment's thought, she played her trump card.
"But why did you buy that incense candle in the first place, Jang Jae-hong? Normal people don't just casually drop ten million on a candle. Not unless they're rolling in money like me."
Jae-hong's feet stopped dead. She'd hit the mark.
Gyeo-wool drew a breath to press the attack—only for one line from Jae-hong to cut her off.
"I am rolling in money. I bought it as a hobby. Does that answer your question?"
Damn it. The answer had been sitting right there in the first thing she'd said.
Any chance of pinning down a solid lead had just sailed out the window.
"Still, I'm surprised. I didn't realize Jin Gyeo-wool was well-off too."
"…."
"Anyway, I'm looking forward to this tournament. Show us a great match."
With a bright little smile, Jae-hong stepped hard on the iron doorframe and walked out into the street.
Gyeo-wool stared at the empty doorway for a long time, then ground her molars together.
That bastard is definitely a soul assimilation user…
Why did it have to be Jang Jae-hong of all people?
But if that was true, did it mean Jae-hong had already been a soul assimilation user from the moment he first appeared in front of Bae Do-hyun?
Then the way a perennial Platinum player had rocketed straight through Diamond and Master all the way to Challenger suddenly made sense.
The meteoric climb that had been incomprehensible when he was living as Bae Do-hyun was finally starting to click into place.
"Uh, noona? You okay?"
"…Yeah."
"Sheesh. You two don't get along? I was standing right there and the sparks flying off your eyes were like—zzzt. Crackling."
While Je-hyeon flailed around describing the scene, Gyeo-wool quietly pieced together everything she'd just learned.
Nothing was confirmed yet, but Jang Jae-hong was a soul assimilation user. She couldn't know his Memory Erosion number, but his skill was at least on her level—maybe higher.
The fact that he'd come ahead of her and bought the candle almost certainly meant he'd already clocked her as a soul assimilation user and come to confirm it.
Just as Gyeo-wool had sensed that Jae-hong wasn't ordinary, Jae-hong would have sensed the same about her.
Next time we meet, there's no way we don't talk about this…
But even if they did face each other again, Bae Do-hyun had no intention of ever revealing himself.
Knowing someone was a soul assimilation user was one thing. Knowing whether the one in control was Jin Gyeo-wool or Bae Do-hyun was another entirely.
He could suspect all he wanted. He could never be sure. So if she denied everything to the bitter end and dared him to prove it, Jae-hong would never get the truth.
As long as she could keep the rage in check, she could keep her insides locked down.
"…Huh? What?"
The thought had barely formed when Gyeo-wool's eyes landed on Gong Je-hyeon.
"Ah—ow! What the hell?! Out of nowhere!!"
"Sorry. I was getting pissed off."
"Ah—ah! Augh! We came all the way to Taiwan for this?!"
"Hoo… okay. That helped a little."
If she could just drag Je-hyeon along every time she had to talk to Jae-hong, she could bleed off the anger whenever she needed. But then Je-hyeon would learn her secret.
So she needed another way. A way to quiet the rage coiled inside her body and stay calm.
"…Ah. Why is my body so hot all of a sudden…."
"Noona, you catching a cold?"
As they left the incense shop with nothing to show for it, Gyeo-wool felt something ominous settle over her.
She counted the days in her head. One week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks.
Remembering what had happened four weeks ago, Gyeo-wool smacked her own forehead.
"Ah, shit…."
No cold. Just a body running hot and a mind going soft. Mother Nature's monthly horror was on its way.