Always on Your Side
"Tsk."
Sensing footsteps that sounded like someone climbing the stairs, Seohyun clicked her tongue and brushed past me as I knelt there, beginning her descent.
"I'll keep tormenting you from now on, so look forward to it."
I watched her back recede into the stairwell—leaving behind that sadistic smile and those cryptic words—then slowly rose to my feet.
Thump… thump…
My heart, still burning hot with the rage that had burst out of me, refused to cool easily.
That had been dangerous.
As I steadied my emotions, a genuine relief washed over me.
If the sound of someone approaching hadn't reached my ears, I would have raised my hand against Seohyun. No… it might not have stopped at mere violence.
The moment I'd wrapped my hands around my younger sister's neck flashed through my mind, and I could feel it viscerally—my emotional limits were warping into something deeply wrong. And the instant I realized that change had taken root after my encounter with the demon, an unnameable dread closed in around me.
"That was a pretty close call, huh?"
"What the—"
I'd been staggering down the stairs lost in thought when an unfamiliar voice suddenly closed in on me, and I jerked my head around in surprise.
Ryeonhwa stood leaning against the corner wall, arms crossed.
The sound of someone climbing the stairs had already faded into nothing, and watching her speak as though she'd been waiting for me all along, one realization clicked into place.
That noise just now, like someone coming up the steps… had she made it on purpose?
"Guilty as charged. The stench coming off you looked like it was heading somewhere dangerous, so I made some noise on purpose. I figured if I'd left you alone, it would've ended badly."
My suspicion must have shown on my face, because Ryeonhwa answered before I could ask.
Stench?
My guess had apparently been right, but I couldn't begin to understand how she'd read my emotions.
"Lee Seohyun—that woman reeks of a demon's aftertaste. Recently, I mean."
Ryeonhwa said this while staring down the staircase Seohyun had vanished down.
My stomach lurched at the word demon, but I knew exactly what face I needed to show.
"A demon? I have no idea what you've been going on about since the other day. Could you please give it a rest?"
Ryeonhwa studied my expression, then said coldly, "I can't tell whether you're playing dumb or genuinely don't know, but one thing is certain, isn't it? The fact that Lee Seohyun is blackmailing you over Yoon Jia being your sister."
"Well, that's…"
This time, I couldn't hide my shock.
"While digging into your background, your sister's came up naturally along the way. She's quite famous, your sister? For being the person who went missing a few years ago, among other things."
Caution prickled up my spine at this second mention of my sister.
For some reason, Ryeonhwa sniffed at the air a couple of times, then smirked and waved her hand dismissively.
"Don't worry—I have no intention of using your sister against you like that woman does. Honestly… I did consider whether your sister might be a demon. Because demons are often born from situations that defy all reason. A sister who vanished years ago comes back alive… doesn't that strike you as strange? By any normal standard, it's impossible. Your sister's a demon, you've been influenced by her, and that's why her demonic residue is leaking off you… on the surface, it all fits. So I investigated her thoroughly too, but the conclusion was: no."
Huh?
Jia isn't a demon?
This made no sense to me.
Was it true? Or had the demon simply hidden its existence that well?
For now, there was no way to know.
"So what's your point? What's the conclusion here?"
When I voiced my irritation, Ryeonhwa looked me dead in the eye.
"I couldn't find hard evidence, but everything tangled up with you still reeks of suspicion. Not a demon—but a sister who vanished and came back after years all the same, and secret meetings with a woman who's in contact with one… isn't that enough to count as reasonable suspicion?"
When I glared back at her in annoyance without answering, she said evenly, "Tonight, I'm going to tail Lee Seohyun. She may not be a demon, but it's clear she's in contact with one. Come with me. Do that, and I'll clear away at least some of the suspicion hanging over you."
"And why exactly should I have to go that far? To escape suspicion that only exists inside your head, in a fantasy I know nothing about?"
At the absurdity in my voice, Ryeonhwa replied without so much as blinking.
"Fine, then let's set demons aside entirely. You said Lee Seohyun is blackmailing you with a weakness of yours, didn't you? Then wouldn't your problem solve itself if you got your hands on a weakness of hers?"
That was a reasonably persuasive argument.
But there was more than one thing that felt off about the way she was so desperately pulling me into this.
"Now that's actually tempting…"
"No. Why should I follow the word of someone who throws around nonsense like 'demons' and suspects me one-sidedly? Besides, you never even told me why you need me involved. By that logic, you're the one who looks suspicious."
The smug smile on Ryeonhwa's face crumpled in an instant.
"The demon in contact with Seohyun has its sights on you. It's only circumstantial, but still. That's why I'm trying to protect you. There's also the matter of keeping you under close watch."
She'd explained it about as calmly as she could, but there were still parts that were hard to swallow.
"If that's true, wouldn't it be better to go to the police and request protection? Give me the information on that demon—or rather, that person. Or… you're not planning to use me as bait, are you?"
"…Fine. Given your position—insisting you know nothing about demons—that's a perfectly normal reaction. I'll grant you that. But understand this one thing: I believe you're connected to demons, whether directly or indirectly. So here's my advice. Never trust a demon. If a demon is showing you favor, offering you something—material or emotional—there is always an intent behind it. Think hard about why we call them demons in the first place. Seohyun, that human, is just being used by the demon as well. There's no such thing as unconditional kindness. No unconditional love, no unconditional devotion, no unconditional goodness. Humans can't even manage that—do you really think demons would?"
Could it be…? Was the "him" that Seohyun had been murmuring to earlier the demon Ryeonhwa spoke of?
As I listened, an image of Seohyun surfaced in my mind—lost in that figure, forgetting herself entirely, worshipping someone with blind faith.
If that were true… then were she and I, right now, really any different?
Being used by a demon while devouring every sweet thing it handed over…
To bury the tangle of my feelings, I put on a cold expression.
Whoosh.
After a long silence in which we only stared at each other, Ryeonhwa tossed a phone my way, and I caught it on reflex.
"I'll send the time and place for tonight to that phone. If you want to know what kind of thing a demon really is, come there tonight. And don't go blabbing to anyone else and making this difficult for me."
Leaving only those words behind, she walked away. I looked back and forth between Ryeonhwa's retreating figure and the phone in my hand, feeling how my ordinary life was becoming more and more entangled with the unreal.
Come to think of it, everything—every last bit of it—had involved Jia or the demon.
"Dohyun."
I was walking through the hallway after changing floors for my afternoon lecture when Sihoo spotted me from across the way, called my name cheerfully, and then abruptly froze.
Seohyun, then Ryeonhwa, and now Sihoo.
The string of encounters left me feeling drained, but this one didn't seem to involve the demon, which let my shoulders loosen a little.
"You've got a pretty grim look on your face… class starts soon. Is something worrying you?"
Hanbyeol had said the same, and now Sihoo too—apparently my expression had been sour enough all day for people to actually voice their concern.
"No… I'm just a little tired. Thanks for worrying about me."
"Really?"
When I forced a smile, Sihoo pressed no further and fell into step beside me.
We walked down the hallway in silence for a while before she asked carefully, "If something's weighing on you, or you'd like someone to talk to, I think it's worth opening up to the people around you. Someone you can really trust. Do you… have someone like that?"
Sihoo's words hung with a strange weight, and I found myself reading between the lines.
Was she… indirectly asking me to come to her, if I ever had something on my mind?
"I dunno? Haha… but I really don't have any worries. Just tired, that's all."
"…Really?"
At my evasive answer, Sihoo made no effort to hide her disappointment.
It had indeed been her way of asking me to come to her, and a pang of guilt stirred in my chest. At the same time, there was something pleasant about receiving this much goodwill from a girl I'd only known a short while.
"If anything's ever too hard, tell me anytime. I'm always on your side."
Just before we stepped into the lecture hall, Sihoo's words caught me so off guard that my eyes went wide on their own.
"…Thank you."
With a soft smile, she offered that reassurance with such sincerity that I felt steadied by it, and I smiled back at her in kind.
The courage I drew from her was what steeled my resolve about what I had to do tonight.
Always on your side, huh…
As I took my seat, I turned Sihoo's words over in my head—and remembered that I'd heard those very words from someone else recently, more than once.
* *
When I watched that human woman spit in his face and bring him to his knees, I had to miraculously suppress the urge to tear her limb from limb.
I wanted to wipe out, to the last one, everything around him that bothered him—everything that tangled up the inside of his head.
I wanted to seal them away in a world more horrifying than anywhere else imaginable, and make them regret ever being born into this one.
But.
I couldn't do that.
I was not allowed to.
He had to want it first.
Only when he said the words himself, with his own mouth, asking me to do it—only then could I move.
At least where the humans connected to him were concerned, I had no other choice.
Acting on my own judgment and spoiling what he truly wanted—that terrified me more than anything in existence.
Merely imagining him reproaching me—why did you do that? I never asked—was enough to bring the tears spilling out.
Being hated by him was the worst terror there was; fear itself, in its purest form.
Whenever I glimpsed the anger in his face, my body shrank in on itself like a child scolded by her parents, and all my confidence drained away.
I want to be loved.
I hope for nothing—nothing—but to be loved by him alone.
Craving that love, the moment my thoughts touched somewhere deep, my whole body began to burn.
I want him to love me soon.
I want him to use me until I'm a complete wreck.
"If anything's ever too hard, tell me anytime. I'm always on your side."
At my words, he looked startled for a moment—and then smiled.
"Thank you."
That single word of gratitude made me feel as if I were floating through the sky.
My love—the one who should be thanking them is me.
Your very existence is a blessing to me, and a grace.
Do you know that?
To grant what he desires and make him happy—that is the meaning of my existence.
And in return, I want his love.
And…
also…
I want his ■■.