Witch's Time (4): A Mechanical Smile
A few days had passed since I’d been dragged into that unreal event known as Walpurgis Night. Thankfully, nothing out of the ordinary had happened in the meantime. That changed when a friend mentioned visiting Seonghun, and we headed together to the apartment where Kang Seonghun lived.
“That idiot Seonghun. He hasn’t picked up any of my calls. Is he really that sick?”
“He hasn’t been answering you either? Weren’t you going because you heard something?”
“No? I’m just tagging along.”
“Crazy bastard.”
What was I supposed to do with this lunatic? The whole thing was absurd, but I swallowed the urge to say anything and let out a quiet sigh instead.
“What floor does Kang Seonghun live on again?”
“Seventh, right?”
“Seventh? Oh, unit 704, wasn’t it?”
We rode the elevator up and I pressed the button for the seventh floor. The car rose without hesitation. With a bright ding, the doors slid open, revealing the hallway beyond.
“...?”
The moment I faced the corridor, something felt wrong. Even though it was still bright daylight, a chill seemed to hang in the air, cold and unsettling.
What is this?… Something’s off…
“What are you doing? You coming or not?”
“Huh? Yeah.”
The friend beside me didn’t seem to sense anything. He strode forward without a care. I had no choice but to follow, pushing the nameless unease to the back of my mind.
We stopped in front of the entrance to Seonghun’s apartment. My friend knocked first.
“Hey, Kang Seonghun. You still alive in there?”
No answer came from inside. We exchanged glances. Had something actually happened to him? Just as that worry took shape, we heard movement on the other side. The door opened—but it wasn’t Seonghun who appeared. It was a woman I had never seen before.
“Who are you?”
She wore a black dress that fell to her knees. Her dark navy hair was perfectly arranged like a doll’s, and her eyes held a slightly cloudy tint. One thing was certain: this stranger was standing in my friend’s doorway.
“Uh… isn’t this where Kang Seonghun lives?” my friend stammered, clearly flustered.
The woman stared blankly for a moment, then offered a bright smile.
“Oh, you must be Seonghun oppa’s friends. My name is Kang Serin. I came to take care of him because he wasn’t feeling well.”
“Ah, I see.”
“…”
At the girl’s gentle smile, my friend gave an awkward grin and laughed along. But I couldn’t smile. For some reason, the smile on this stranger’s face felt strangely mechanical.
“Didn’t know Seonghun had a relative like you. I’m Jo Semin. This guy’s Han Doyun.”
“Is that so? Then may I call you Semin oppa and Doyun oppa?”
Kang Serin kept smiling sweetly. Semin, clearly pleased to be called “oppa” by a pretty younger girl, beamed back.
“Is Seonghun inside?”
“Yes, he is, but… he’s sleeping right now. Should I tell him you came by?”
“No need. If he’s not feeling well, we shouldn’t wake him. Just let him know we stopped by when he wakes up. Is it pretty bad?”
“Yes, a little…”
Kang Serin’s expression grew somber. Semin panicked and quickly added, “H-he’ll be fine. The guy’s stupidly healthy. He’ll shake it off in no time. Tell him to rest up. We’ll get going.”
“All right. Seonghun oppa will be happy to know he has friends who worry about him.”
She smiled again. Then, for a split second, her eyes met mine. In that instant, I felt as if thousands of thorny vines were crawling up from my feet, wrapping around my entire body and squeezing tight.
“Urk…”
“You’re… Doyun oppa, right?”
“Y-yeah. Why?”
“No reason. Just…”
Kang Serin fell silent and simply stared at me. In the end she never finished her sentence. Instead she looked at both of us and said, “See you next time.”
Gretchen walked through the supermarket with a shopping basket in hand. Instead of her usual flashy witch attire, she wore ordinary clothes and blended in among the shoppers while picking out groceries. Because of her contract with Doyun, she had been staying at his place, and in return she had taken on household chores like cleaning and cooking. Doyun had told her she didn’t have to, but Gretchen had insisted. She simply liked this kind of life.
Peaceful days without any worries—she wanted to keep living them. With Doyun.
With relaxed steps she circled the market, bought ingredients, and returned to his rented apartment.
“Ah… Doyun-nim said he was going to visit his sick friend.”
She looked around the empty room, then put away the newly purchased food, keeping out only what she needed for dinner. As she finished the dinner preparations, she heard the front door open.
“Doyun-nim, you’re back?”
Like an eager puppy, Gretchen hurried to the entrance. Doyun was setting down his bag.
“…Doyun-nim? Did something happen?”
His expression was far from calm. Had something bad occurred while visiting his friend? Gretchen gazed at him with worry, but Doyun shook his head.
“No. Nothing.”
“I see…”
His face said otherwise, yet Gretchen chose not to press further. Instead she smiled brightly.
“Would you like dinner?”
“I’ll take a bath first.”
“Of course. I’ll prepare your clothes.”
She trotted back to the room with light steps, took out the comfortable loungewear and underwear Doyun usually wore, and laid them neatly by the bathroom door. Then she finished setting the table so dinner would be ready the moment he finished bathing. Once everything was done, she waited quietly.
The sound of running water filled the apartment, followed by the noise of him washing. Not long after, the water stopped and the hair dryer hummed to life. The door opened a crack. Doyun, still damp, fumbled for the clothes, changed quickly, and stepped out.
“You really don’t have to do all this…”
“This is more comfortable for me.”
Gretchen gave him a gentle smile and led the embarrassed Doyun to the small table she had prepared in the living room.
I ate the dinner Gretchen had made. Over the past several days her hearty meals had raised my standard of living far beyond what it had been when I lived alone. But this couldn’t go on forever.
“…”
The only reason Gretchen stayed by my side was the contract. I couldn’t keep putting off the decision whether to maintain it or break it. The time had come to decide.
If I tell her I want to cancel the contract…
According to the rules of the festival, she would have to flee from the other witches for six days without a contractor. She would be chased again, just like the day we first met. If she was lucky, she might find another contractor. If not…
“It’s all right.”
Gretchen’s gentle voice broke into my thoughts. She had been eating across from me and now looked at me directly.
“Whatever choice you make, Doyun-nim, I will be fine. So please do not carry any burden. As I told you before… I am very good at running away.”
She set her chopsticks down for a moment.
“Besides, canceling the contract will not bring any great harm to you, Doyun-nim. On the contrary… maintaining the contract will bring far more dangerous situations.”
“Because you have to fight other witches for that festival, right?”
“That is part of it, but it is mainly because of the Inheritance of Desire I mentioned a few days ago.”
Right. We had talked about it. I hadn’t fully understood at the time.
“You said it was inheriting the lingering desires left behind in Solaris—on Earth. What exactly does that mean?”
“It is exactly as the name suggests: the lingering attachments and desires left in this world. For some it was the final hope that sustained their lives. For others it was an ugly craving that invited destruction. For still others it was a desperate wish they could never reach… We witches engrave those colossal egos and obsessions into the contractor’s body. That is what we call the Inheritance of Desire.”
“…”
“Which is why it is dangerous. Because you are allowing a mighty ego that persists even after death to reside within you… whether your mind is weak or strong, you may be devoured by the inscribed desire and lose yourself completely.”
Gretchen spoke with genuine concern. Even though losing a contractor would cause her serious trouble, she was truly worried about my safety.
Whatever the case, I couldn’t postpone my decision about the contract any longer. I was about to tell her so when Gretchen stood up.
“You may take your time answering. As long as you do not use the power, you will not be eroded by the desire.”
“Uh… right.”
Having missed my chance to speak, I could only poke at the rest of my dinner.
11:57 p.m.
Gretchen remained awake, staring out the window. Ever since she began staying at Doyun’s home, she had never slept between midnight and 3 a.m. No matter how well she had erased her traces with magic, there was no telling when or where information might leak and bring an attack.
11:58 p.m.
Soon the witches’ festival—Walpurgis Night—would begin. Yet Gretchen suddenly recalled the look on Doyun’s face earlier. He had seemed as if he had witnessed something unpleasant.
11:59 p.m.
What had that expression meant? At that moment, a thought flashed through her mind. Doyun had not yet properly encountered another witch.
“Ah, Gretchen.”
“…Yes?”
“Actually, earlier today during the day…”
12:00 a.m.
What if Doyun-nim had sensed an unfamiliar flow of magical power and felt something was wrong because of it?
“That strange feeling…”
The purple moon has risen.
A sharp explosion tore through the wall. Concrete fragments rained down. Purple moonlight poured in through the collapsed section.
“W-what?! What the hell is going on?!”
Doyun burst out of his room in a panic. His eyes landed on the living room, now wide open where the wall had crumbled.
“Doyun-nim!! It’s an ambush!!”
“!!”
At Gretchen’s urgent cry, Doyun looked up past the ruined wall. There, floating in the air on a broom like a storybook witch, was the girl he had seen earlier that day—Kang Serin.
“Kang Serin…?”
“Aha. You actually believed that?”
Her black hair slowly bled into a deep shade of purple.
“My name is Ceres.”
She pulled a lollipop from her pocket, unwrapped it, and slipped it into her mouth.
“The witch who’s going to kill you.”
BOOM!
Something leaped high and landed inside the room with a heavy crash.
“Gruuuuh…”
“…Wait a second. This is a joke… right?”
Standing there, drooling with unfocused eyes and bloated muscles, was Kang Seonghun—his mind completely gone.