The Full Moon Comes

The doorbell chimed.

"I'm home!"

The front door ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠opened, and Mi Soryeong came in. Dan Miryu and I had both gone out to meet her.

"Welcome home."

"You're back?"

"Yeah! It was so much fun."

She was as giddy as a girl. Both hands were crammed with shopping bags, the look of someone who had played to her heart's content, and she had even forgotten the polite speech she usually kept.

"Give those here. I'll carry them."

"Thanks."

Dan Miryu ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠took the bags as if he had done it a thousand times.

"Why'd you buy so much?"

"If I'm finally going out, of course I should buy at least this much."

He peered into a bag.

"What is all this."

He looked a little closer.

"Wow."

Cosmetics, clothes, heels, shoes, hats, headbands, and more. The sheer mass of it stuffed into those narrow bags was enough to make a man's courage fail.

"I didn't buy that much."

"You call that not much!"

"We've got plenty of money. What's the problem?"

At his wife's breezy answer, Dan Miryu let out a sigh.

"This is really all of it?"

"No. More's coming by delivery."

"There's more?!"

He looked ready to faint.

"We don't have anywhere to put it!"

"It's not all for me, you know. There are presents, too."

Mi Soryeong grumbled. Her husband, catching that her mood had soured, hurried to mend it.

"It's just more than usual, so I was a little surprised."

"Keep talking like that and people will think I've got a spending problem."

"That's not what I—"

"What do you think you're doing in front of a guest?"

She shot him a glare and swept inside.

"Soryeong! Soryeong!"

Faced with the chill of her retreating back, Dan Miryu clutched the shopping bags to his chest and chased after her.

"Ah! You'll ruin everything if you hold them like that!"

"S-sorry! I'll be careful!"

Still a pair of lovestruck newlyweds, those two.

"......I am going to die."

Hong Yumin drifted in, swaying on her feet. Her ceremonial robe was nowhere to be seen. She wore jeans that clung to her and a top cut to follow every curve, and she had put on makeup besides: lips red, cheeks glossy, brows drawn with care.

"You seem to have enjoyed yourself."

"Enjoyed? Enjoyed?"

Her eyes flashed wide and white as she glared at me. It was a beautiful face wearing an expression that was anything but.

"I did not enjoy myself. I was dragged about like a slave!"

"Slave might be a little......"

I had been dragged around myself, but slave was pushing it.

"You would not understand."

Hong Yumin trembled.

"Endless changes of clothes. Endless makeup. A pilgrimage of dessert shops. A pilgrimage of food. Opening a smartphone line. Viewing flowers. A walk in the park. A drive. Buying furniture. Buying cosmetics. Buying ornaments. Buying jewelry. Chattering......"

Her eyes sank, deep and dark. She muttered the list at a feverish clip, like a woman gone mad.

"All of it in a single day! A single day!"

The madwoman wailed.

"Th-that must have been hard."

Had she really done all of that? They called it a day, but it had only been a few hours. A woman's sense of time was truly something else.

"Even the Buddha's austerities would have to concede a point......"

The look on her face was pure enlightenment.

"Never again! I never wish to do it again!"

She shuddered from head to toe.

"But wasn't it fun?"

"Fun? You call that fun!"

She looked about to have a fit, so I cut in.

"From what I can see, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Mi Soryeong only went that far because she was happy to be with you."

"......Was I the only one who failed to enjoy it?"

The moment Mi Soryeong entered the conversation, Hong Yumin's voice shrank.

"You truly didn't enjoy a single moment?"

"Th-that is not quite true, but......"

She pressed her index fingers together and squirmed, and the sight was unfairly cute.

"If you hadn't enjoyed it, you would have come back long before now. Mi Soryeong isn't someone who wouldn't notice."

She had run a little wild today, but she was not the sort to burden someone else just because she was having a good time. She would have watched Hong Yumin at every step and tested the waters.

"......That is so."

Hong Yumin nodded. Even I could see it. There was no chance she did not know Mi Soryeong.

"Next time, ask her to pace herself."

"Next time?"

She sounded puzzled.

"You don't mean to go again, Master?"

"......Ah."

"You'll be seeing her often from now on. You'll have to get used to it."

"From now on......"

Hong Yumin blinked.

"Yes. There is a from now on."

A brightness returned to her eyes.

A good sign.

The shell was cracking. Without meaning to, she had loosened the knots that bound her, and time that had stood still was trying to flow again.

Not much longer.

The time was coming to make a person of someone who had become an immortal against her will. Watching Hong Yumin walk away in good spirits, I made up my mind. I would not let her die the way she did in the original.

A phantom thief is a greedy creature.

No phantom thief turns his face from a treasure. He gets his hands on it, one way or another. That is what a phantom thief is.

I walked after her, waiting for the moment I would become one.

"It's late. Why don't you stay the night?"

"Would that be all right?"

Hong Yumin asked around a mouthful of ice cream.

"Of course. This late, how would you carry all of that home?"

She looked at the boxes piled in the living room and nodded before she realized she was doing it.

"......I suppose so."

"Then you'll stay?"

Hong Yumin looked at Dan Miryu.

"You are welcome to. We have plenty of rooms."

"Hmm......"

She considered it. If she meant to go, she could go at once. She was an immortal. A few steps, and home would be a simple matter. The luggage she had to take? The wind could carry it.

There is rather a lot, though.

Gifts stacked high enough to look larger than the house were a headache. Where was she supposed to use all of that?

"Well?"

Mi Soryeong pressed in at her side. Those bright, sparkling eyes left no room for a refusal.

"......Very well. I shall stay the one night and go."

"Yay!"

Hong Yumin gave a bitter smile at the brilliance of Mi Soryeong's laugh.

Are you that pleased?

Mi Soryeong tapped at her smartphone.

"Let's see. What is there to watch all night......"

An ominous note crept into her voice.

"I will be able to sleep, will I not?"

Dan Miryu looked elsewhere.

"......You should be able to sleep soundly."

"Haa......"

I am tired......

Nothing in particular had happened. Even so, today she was tired past all reason.

"Haa."

"How was the bath?"

Mi Soryeong greeted Hong Yumin as she came out from washing.

"Good, and comfortable."

At home she could not manage it so easily. She either dealt with it by power, or went to the lake she had made on the mountain and bathed there.

"Hehe. We put a lot of care into the bathroom."

"Certainly......"

For a place meant only for washing, it was very fine.

"But what are you doing now?"

"Looking for something worth watching."

Mi Soryeong lay on the bed in her underwear, scrolling through Netflix.

Looking, is she?

At the speed of a hand that passed things by without watching for even a second, Hong Yumin broke into a cold sweat. Was there actually anything to watch?

"Why is there nothing to watch these days?"

Mi Soryeong pouted.

"It seems more than enough to me......"

The thinking of modern people was beyond her.

"Ugh, forget it. I'll look later."

She tossed the remote onto the bed and came over ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to Hong Yumin.

"Sit here. I'll dry your hair."

"Hm? There is no need."

A snap of the fingers, and a little dampness would vanish in an instant.

"There's a mood to it, you know. A mood."

"Mm. Very well."

Hong Yumin sat at the vanity, and Mi Soryeong stood behind her.

Whirrrrr. The hair dryer sang, and a warm wind moved over her.

"Wow. Your hair is alive. Is it because you live out in nature?"

Mi Soryeong was honestly startled. Every single strand brimmed with elasticity and life.

"I have been this way from the start."

"That is a fatal thing to say to me."

Mi Soryeong sighed.

"I get older, and I age."

She said it while possessing skin and hair that ignored the years, and a quiet laugh escaped Hong Yumin.

"There is no need to worry about aging."

"What do you mean?"

"What else. It is because of Dan Miryu."

Life itself was always at her side. Even if aging came, it would come very slowly.

"Ah...... so that's why his skin was better than mine."

Then maybe......

"Could I also......"

"Cease. You will die."

"I was only saying it."

"You looked terribly disappointed."

"Ahaha......"

Hong Yumin offered something else.

"If you bask in the light now and then, that alone is enough."

"Really?"

Mi Soryeong's eyes lit with an uncanny gleam.

Something about this feels wrong......

She would manage on her own.

"Not often. You will harm your body."

"Hehe. Thank you."

Mi Soryeong set the comb down.

"Doing this, it feels like being with a friend."

"Have you no friend?"

"Ugh...... that one stings a little."

Mi Soryeong scratched her cheek.

"It's hard to have any, I suppose. Given the position."

"I imagine so."

Memory stirred. The lady of the Dan clan she had met long ago had looked lonely, too. Women had been near her, but they were followers, or servants.

"It is practically an occupational illness."

"Well, yes."

A lonely look crossed Mi Soryeong's face.

"Still, I wish I had a friend."

Why was she showing weakness? The lady of the Dan clan was supposed to stand always unshaken.

She does not do this with just anyone.

If she did, her husband would not have been so at ease.

Does she like me?

They had met for the first time today. Hong Yumin could not understand it. Why was this family kind to her?

They are simply good.

Like the village people who had held her when she was small.

I do not understand.

She looked at Mi Soryeong in the mirror. The woman was smiling, but the smile was dark, and that darkness was not unfamiliar. Hong Yumin's mouth opened before she thought.

"Were we not friends?"

"What?"

Mi Soryeong's eyes went wide. Hong Yumin cleared her throat.

"That is...... we went out and ate together, so are we not friends?"

"Wha— ah—"

Mi Soryeong clapped a hand over her mouth.

"Really?"

"Bah. Enough. I said nothing!"

"Aah! No! I like having a friend!"

She rushed the words out.

"......You may call me Yumin."

"Then please call me Soryeong, too."

"Very well......"

Hong Yumin's lips trembled.

"......Soryeong."

"Yes...... Yumin."

Neither woman could meet the other's eyes.

"......I wish to sleep."

"Me too."

The mirror showed their ears. Both had gone red.

In the dark of the cave, the evil spirit's eyes caught the light. Gazing at the faint glow leaking in, it dreamed of freedom.

Can I get out? I can get out. Nature was weak, somehow. Was it because of that thing from a few days ago? A boon. A boon.

Through the crack, it looked at the moon. Ah. Not long now. The moon flickered.

The full moon is coming. The full moon that will blaze in splendor—the full moon!

The evil spirit threw back its head and laughed......