It Barely Touched...
"At last. We've arrived at the home I've missed so dearly."
"Yeah. It finally feels like it's over."
We'd been apart a day or two at most, and still it felt as if I were coming back after years.
"Dan Miryu's house has been restored, too."
"Money really is something else. They fixed that wreck in a blink."
The house the Shrine's attack had brought down stood neat and whole, as if none of it had ever happened. The bullet holes in the wall, the bloodstains on the street—all of it had been wiped clean.
"Fewer people will be staying here now. It was nice when the place was crowded."
"You like a crowd?"
"The more, the better. Living alone is lonely."
Pele shot me a look I couldn't quite read.
"I don't know... Sounds like a useless worry to me..."
She reached out and poked Hong Yumin's cheek with one finger.
"Nnngh."
"When is this one ever going to wake up?"
"Please wake her soon. My spine hurts."
"Not my problem."
Pele pressed a hand to her head and ambled off.
"O Great One, I have been waiting."
Tsushima Kana, who had become a freeloader in the house before anyone quite noticed, had come out to meet us.
"...It's all over, you know. Aren't you going back?"
"...I am sorry. I beg you, please kill me."
"Kneel, and I'll send you straight back just as you are."
"...And yet."
Kana looked up at me with the eyes of an abandoned puppy.
"I have become someone who cannot live without you."
"What nonsense is that? Please don't say things people could misunderstand."
"I have only spoken the truth!"
"I never did anything of the sort!"
She'd only gotten caught up in something I started because I was in a bad mood! And if I happened to gain an informant on the Shrine along the way, so much the better!
I never meant to remake a person!
"No! I have realized it in the depths of my heart!"
Kana pressed in close, eyes shining. Her gaze was so unfocused that anyone could see she wasn't in her right mind.
"O Great One, you are the master of this world—gack!"
"The dose wore off."
Pele smacked the back of Kana's head. Kana folded like a dead frog and hit the ground.
"Don't you have something stronger? She'll probably be like this tomorrow, too."
"That's why you should have gone easy. Why would you show a kid something like that?"
"I only let her watch..."
"By social consensus, we agreed to call that torture."
Pele heaved a long sigh, then dragged Kana into the house. She would roughly purify the girl's mind and toss her onto a bed.
"Krung."
San-gun nudged me from behind.
"Yes? Ah. I see. Understood."
I looked at Sipsado, standing quiet beside him.
She was here for a simple reason: I had said I would keep her myself. Headquarters had been at a loss, but when I asked whether they had a place to confine her and the people to watch her, they went silent.
A Korean prison for ability users would be no real obstacle to Sipsado. She would smash it with ease and walk out. No—anyone of her caliber would, wherever you put them. Laying hands on her body was too heavy a thing, and if she turned in a single instant, the result would be a massacre.
So I took responsibility for keeping her. San-gun and Pele had offered to help.
"......"
Dressed in a traditional hanbok and bound in ropes of fire, Sipsado stood without a word.
"Sipsado, it's a humble place, but please come in."
"......"
"Krung."
San-gun rubbed his face against hers. Only then did Sipsado take a step.
Sword, who had been watching her alongside me, clicked his tongue.
"Tch. Like standing next to a doll with no feelings."
"She's only shy."
"I wasn't talking to you."
He fixed me with a chilling look and laid down his warning.
"Don't forget. The job is done. You'd better hope you weren't lying."
"Yes, of course. You'll be thoroughly satisfied."
I offered him a trustworthy smile. Sword flinched, just barely. He said nothing more and turned away.
"Hnnn. I suppose I ought to see to our guests."
Both hands were spoken for, so it would have to be my feet.
I stepped inside, slipped off my shoes, and was just about to work Hong Yumin's off as well when—
Flash.
Hong Yumin's eyes flew wide.
"Oh. You're awake?"
Those beautiful eyes turned on me. She blinked, as if she couldn't make sense of the situation.
"What is the meaning of this."
"You're in my arms, Hong Yumin."
"Spare me the bullshit. Tell me all of it."
"It would be a long explanation."
The mask drew a picture: a middle-aged office worker, sweating, dabbing his brow with a handkerchief.
"Put me down first. This is uncomfortable."
"Uncomfortable? You've been asleep in my arms all day, so I assumed there was no problem."
"Wait... all day?"
Hong Yumin's lips trembled. She was flustered.
"Eight hours, forty-four minutes, and thirty-two seconds, to be exact. You clung so tightly it was hard to get this far."
"D-don't lie. No one can hold a person that long."
"I'll stake Pele on it."
"Hey, you punk! Why are you staking me?!"
The moment I invoked a god on a whim, Pele came charging out. Perhaps glad that Hong Yumin was awake, she broke into a bright smile.
"Child of Heaven, you're up! I was worried sick, the way you wouldn't come off that man all day!"
At Pele's words, Hong Yumin's head turned like rusted iron.
"Pele, is what you just said the truth?"
She looked desperate. As if she were praying the goddess had lied.
Pele rolled her eyes this way and that, then smiled, thin and wicked.
"Ehehehehe."
"Pe-Pele?"
"Well, if you simply must hear it confirmed from my own mouth, I suppose there's no helping it..."
Pele rubbed her hands together, alluring. For Hong Yumin, it was a deeply ominous sign.
"You don't have to say it..."
"I swear it upon my name..."
Too late. Disaster. To stake her name was to stake her divine station. It was a god's solemn word, and no mortal desperate to flee the truth could stop it.
Pele chattered on and on about everything that had happened in the hours I held her.
She had staked her divine station, so there was no lie in it. Only exaggerations that needed interpreting, and truths that sat a breath away from falsehood. It was a cunning sort of truth, subtle enough to fool even me as I listened. A god, after all. Her talent for drowning someone with nothing but her tongue was far from ordinary.
If it did that to me, what chance did Hong Yumin have?
"......"
Because she was Hong Yumin, she went red as a radish.
"Whew! I kept it rough! Well? You with us?"
"......"
Hong Yumin covered her face with both hands. It was the smallest rebellion she had left.
"Ehehehe! Got you, got you, got you!"
Pele spun in circles around her. Whatever dignity the teasing might have had was long discarded; the goddess was gone, and only a shameless child remained.
"Pele, please stop. I'm sure Hong Yumin never meant for any of it."
"Hey! A person! Huh! She's not a baby! A woman hundreds of years old! Huh! Clinging like a baby! All day, not even thinking of letting go! How is that not what she really feels!"
This goddess had watched far too many Korean dramas. The accents she kept punching in were not normal.
"Look here! You think I can't read a human child's feelings after all the years I've lived? The loves I've matched would fill a truck! Goddess of love! That's me!"
Goddess of love, my foot. Her own love life had crashed and burned.
"Pele..."
Hong Yumin called to her in a voice like something crawling.
"Yes, child. Are you ready to lay your honest heart bare?"
Pele leaned in and whispered at her ear.
"It's all right. First love is always like that. Nothing to be ashamed of. I'll advise you from experience—one-sided love is no good. Go on, be honest."
"......"
Hong Yumin glared at her, face flushed deep red.
"Pele."
"Huh? Uh...?"
Hong Yumin's anger had reached its limit. No—it had blown past that limit long ago.
"It's a joke. A joke. Let's not do this."
Sensing that the signs were bad, Pele backed away. A danger sharp enough for even a god to feel loomed right in front of her. Cold sweat slid down her back.
"This is the phantom thief's house, remember? If it breaks, we'll have nowhere to rest."
"...You needn't worry about that. I have a house."
"Hong Yumin?"
Crrrack.
Hong Yumin's hand closed on empty air. Pele's body lifted and floated.
Rrrumble.
The house shook as if an earthquake had struck it.
Done for. It was coming down.
"I understand that you're angry, Hong Yumin, but this won't do."
I shoved my face in to block her view.
"...Move. I'll only hit her a few times."
"In that span, I'd have to build a new house."
I was firm. It was the first house of my life. I couldn't stand by and watch it fall.
"Take this somewhere else. Pele won't dodge, either."
"Right! I won't dodge!"
Pele nodded at the speed of light.
Hong Yumin's hand came down.
A sigh of relief slipped out.
"See that you keep that promise."
"Of course!"
Pele, who had been floating in the air, came down.
"That prank went too far. You shouldn't do that to someone who's only just woken."
"Well, I mean..."
Aware of her own fault, Pele twisted the tips of her toes in little circles.
"Anyway, good thing you're awake. I'm off!"
Having set off everything she had come to set off, Pele fled in a hurry.
"By the way, your chest was touching him!"
That damned little brat?!
A chill.
Instinct warned me. My life was under threat, close at hand.
Hong Yumin was checking around her chest. One breast was pressed firmly into mine. I'd grown so used to it that I hadn't noticed, but the moment I paid attention, the soft give of it came through all on its own.
My eyes met hers.
I offered a gentle word, hoping to ease the mood.
"It barely touched..."
"Die."
Hong Yumin broke my skull.
It was summer.