Investigating
"What's wrong?"
The moment Rembrary flinched, CEO Im, who had been about to follow him straight through the doors, threw his gaze in the same direction Rembrary was looking.
"Something over there?"
Nothing met CEO Im's eyes. It was just the perfectly ordinary exterior of a hospital.
"Hey, if there's nothing there, let's go."
But seeing nothing didn't mean feeling nothing. Goosebumps creeping up his arms for no reason he could name, CEO Im tugged Rembrary back.
"Shall I go in first, then?"
At Rembrary's quiet question, CEO Im shook his head rapidly.
"No. What are you trying to do? Come on, hurry up."
Rembrary couldn't fathom why the man was so against letting him go in first, but the sentiment came from a firm conviction that you did not leave this one unsupervised. Whatever business had brought them here touched the entertainment world, so while the news outlets were having a field day with the gossip, the perpetrator was still a trainee and the victim a company employee — the kind of cutthroat coverage war that sent cameras storming into funeral halls hadn't broken out. Even so, that was no reason to let Rembrary wander around on his own.
"Stick close, will you."
"Don't cause a scene in a place like this," Taein muttered, tugging at Rembrary's sleeve and shaking his head.
'I'm not trying to cause a scene.'
Rembrary objected inwardly, but in the end he followed CEO Im obediently into the funeral hall.
Even after they returned from paying their respects, the dark, heavy feeling of having seen off the dead refused to lift. Taein and Hye-gyeol had each shut themselves in their rooms and showed no faces, while Rembrary sprawled across the sofa, listlessly mashing the buttons of the remote.
With every jab of his thumb, the screen turned over. He tried to summon interest in at least one of the programs, but it wasn't easy.
'Why the hell are you moping? You don't have a single memory of the guy anyway,' Taein had grumbled at him earlier, but Rembrary's turmoil was genuine. Though it ran in a somewhat different direction from Taein's or Hye-gyeol's.
'Why were the demons gathered there, of all places?'
Rembrary recalled the murmurs that had reached him with every step he took — "Over there?" "That human?" "Is it there?" "Is it human?"
Then one of the channels cycling past caught his eye. Rembrary sat up from where he'd been melting into the sofa and leaned forward slightly.
'That—?'
Rembrary's eyes went round. Someone was being hurried along somewhere by both arms, face hidden, while all around them fluttered a kaleidoscope of demons. Not at the funeral hall — somewhere else entirely.
The reporters, blind to where the demons actually stood, were shoving each other for position to fire questions at the person in their midst, but to Rembrary's eyes several demons were unmistakably visible.
The demons on the TV screen weren't looking out at the people beyond it. They were focused on something else entirely. And the person who had drawn every ounce of their attention — the one being dragged away by both arms — was the trainee turned murderer the news had been screaming about all day.
'So it isn't an ordinary case?'
Demons were drawn to such things, yes, but this was no incident worth swarming over like flies. When they gathered in a writhing mass like that, there had to be another reason beyond the mere fact of a killing.
Rembrary considered for a moment, then texted Lim Yu-han.
While Rembrary was busy deciphering what "sry" was meant to convey, some five minutes slipped by before another reply arrived.
So the tiger demon beast would have no trouble finding him, Rembrary went out to the veranda and waited.
How long had he been standing there? The tiger demon beast came racing through empty air like a gust of wind and clambered up onto the veranda railing on Rembrary's side.
"You called for this one?"
The tiger-headed demon beast asked, studying Rembrary's expression carefully. Perhaps because he'd been caught, the other day, secretly tailing another idol and smacking his lips at the sight of him, the beast was watching Rembrary's mood even more closely than before.
"Yes. You said you've been watching the news, didn't you?"
At Rembrary's question, the tiger-headed beast affected indifference, fussing with his own claws, and admitted that he had.
"Then did you see the news where the demons came swarming in a great mass?"
"I did indeed."
"Did you also see the person being dragged away while the broadcasters cried murderer and such?"
"Their face was covered completely, so I could not see."
"Could you pay that person a visit for me?"
Rembrary had assumed the tiger demon beast would agree without a moment's hesitation.
Instead, against all expectation, the beast turned his head away with wounded dignity.
"I like Lady Im."
Rembrary had no idea what manner of principle that was supposed to be.
"No one is asking you to kill. Go, observe the fellow's condition, and report back."
Only after Rembrary had patiently explained did the tiger head turn back around and ask:
"Observe what, exactly?"
'Yeon-woo, you lunatic, what the hell are you doing?'
Oh Jung-shin had stepped out onto his veranda for some fresh air, and now he grimaced and ground his teeth.
Of all the people to run into, it had to be that guy. A signal went off in his head: if he didn't get back inside right now, his peace of mind would be shattered beyond repair.
But then he saw Yeon-woo standing there, holding a one-sided conversation with thin air, and curiosity snagged him by the ankles. Don't go, don't go!
Grabbing curiosity by the hand, Oh Jung-shin crouched down behind the air-conditioning unit.
He absolutely could not afford to get tangled up with that lunatic — and that lunatic was acting even more unhinged than usual. He only wanted to hear what the guy was muttering about, then slip away.
"First, lean in close."
'Lean in close?'
"Press your face right up to theirs."
Oh Jung-shin's eyes went wide. Was that... kiss practice? Was the guy seeing someone?
He clicked his tongue for a moment — then stifled a whoop of triumph. The climbing rumor mill said Yeon-woo would date someone and get himself booted off the pedestal all on his own. Come to think of it, that worked out beautifully for everyone.
Besides, if that bastard started dating, his fans would be too busy crying to keep shipping the guy with him.
'That's it. Practice your kissing all you want, actually kiss someone, get a dating scandal, and then kindly drop dead in front of me.'
Meanwhile, Yeon-woo kept muttering to himself.
"Press your face up close, open your mouth wiiiide, and then—"
...That's a weird way to put it, Oh Jung-shin thought, his face scrunching up.
'Wait, what does this idiot think a kiss IS? Is he planning to eat someone? Why is the mouth opening that wide?'
The instant the thought formed—
"Aaaargh!"
"!"
The roar startled Oh Jung-shin so badly he choked and doubled over coughing.
'That absolute maniac—?'
Thumping his chest, Oh Jung-shin poked his head out.
Had Yeon-woo heard him? He'd stopped mid-mime of kissing the empty air and was turning his head this way.
Oh Jung-shin found himself waving and smiling before he could stop himself — then quickly killed the smile and leveled a finger at him.
"Yo, you absolute idiot, aigoo! You call THAT a kiss?"
Yeon-woo scowled, apparently stung in his pride.
"Sunbae, what are you doing over there?"
Oh Jung-shin, hoping to escape the embarrassment of having been caught eavesdropping, edged along to the end of the railing and launched into an explanation of how one did not kiss a person for his ignorant junior's benefit.
"Look, I was just passing by and heard you, okay? Heard you practicing kissing all by yourself. And that is NOT how it's done. You do that in front of a person's face, you're getting slapped, you little punk. So who is it?"
"I wasn't practicing kissing."
"Sure, keep denying it. Who were you practicing on?"
"I told you, it wasn't that kind of practice."
Once Oh Jung-shin, done muttering nonsense to himself, disappeared back into his own dorm, the tiger head, who had been standing there like a post, hastily clapped a paw over his own mouth.
"I refuse."
"What nonsense is this?"
"I do not press my mouth to just anyone."
Rembrary gave the tiger's whiskers a light tug, then demonstrated the roar once more.
"Who asked you to kiss anyone? Like this. You do this in front of the culprit. Face to face with him and then — Aaaargh! Fiercely."
The tiger-headed youkai tilted his head.
"Must I truly do such a thing?"
"Yes."
"Why must I?"
"To determine whether the culprit feels fear or not. That is all."
You're sending me all that way for a reason as flimsy as that? the tiger head grumbled, working his mouth in a sulk.
But Rembrary quickly shooed him off toward the culprit.
The reason Rembrary had set the beast on such an errand was this: watching the demons shadow the culprit and the victim had seeded a suspicion that this case might follow a very different track from ordinary crime.
And the moment that suspicion formed, the brush that Daeju had lost sprang to mind.
Then there was the line from the news — the culprit shows no sense of guilt whatsoever. That part had been gnawing at him too.
Hence sending the tiger head to check whether the culprit was capable of feeling anything at all beyond, say, guilt.
If that culprit truly seemed to have no emotions...
'It might be connected to the brush. I should tell Daeju.'
"Aren't you sleeping?"
It was past one in the morning and Rembrary was still planted in the living room, yawning, when Cathy asked on his way into his room.
Whether he'd been close to the trainee or not, Cathy had burst into tears the moment he got back to the dorm, and the skin around his eyes was now puffed up tight.
"You're one to talk. Get some sleep yourself. You look like a chestnut with both eyes half-cracked open."
"Hey! Hyung!"
"Sleep well."
Once Cathy slammed his door behind him, Rembrary returned to staring at his phone, waiting for the tiger head.
It was nearly three in the morning before the beast finally reappeared.
Rembrary sprang up from the sofa, stepped out onto the veranda, slid the door shut behind him, and asked:
"Well? Did the culprit show fear?"
The tiger head shook his head.
"A brazen creature, truly. He killed his own kind and never blinked once. At first the human police clucked their tongues, saying there simply had to be some story behind it all, but by the end I heard them saying they wanted to smack the back of his head."
"What of your face? Did you show it to him?"
"There was never a moment he was alone. Seizing an opportunity proved difficult."
"So you could not?"
"I had no choice but to do it while a detective was present."
Rembrary winced and clicked his tongue, but he reasoned the detective would survive the experience and pressed on.
"And what happened?"
"The detective screamed monster and bolted, but the human culprit remained perfectly composed. It was not curiosity, either. He simply seemed to have nothing in him that could be called emotion."
Having delivered his report, the tiger-headed youkai tilted his head, then added:
"Besides, there were far more demons gathered there than I had seen on the television."
Rembrary handed over a flower he had prepared in advance, and the tiger head, delighted, carried it off at a run toward Lim Yu-han's house.
Instead of returning to his room, Rembrary sat down on the veranda bench and texted Daeju.
"Just got off the phone."
The Team Leader spoke the instant her call ended.
The rat-a-tat-tat of keyboard strokes fell silent.
Noting that all eyes had turned to her, she pressed the power button on her phone and said:
"You all know about the case everyone's been screaming about all day?"
"The trainee who picked a fight with an employee out of nowhere... wasn't that yesterday?"
"Yesterday, today, whatever. You know it?"
Yawning, the Team Leader pressed a few more buttons on her phone, and the television flickered to life, showing the culprit being hauled into a police station.
"Those of you with the Sight will know who's in that footage. Right?"
"Wait, are you saying we go kill all the demons that showed up there? Do we even have the manpower?"
Eon Du-sin, who had only just been discharged after getting gored by the ox-headed beast, grumbled from his seat.
"No."
The Team Leader's answer was clipped.
"Those demons came to watch. Give it a day or so and they'll lose interest and wander home."
"That's 'today,' not 'tomorrow.' But why does it matter?"
"Looking at the recent news photos, one demon beast actually went inside. We're going after that one."
— End of Chapter 159 —