The Thirty-Fourth Assignment — Novice Teacher, Novice Student (2)
Grim Reapers did not live forever. Compared to humans, though, their years stretched toward the infinite. A few centuries at the baseline; over a thousand if they gathered enough power. A hundred years? Long enough in the mortal realm. In the Underworld, it was barely the length of a single hell's sentence.
There was a gulf no amount of feeling could fill.
"Does Changmo know all this and still go through with it?"
"That I couldn't tell you. They say you can know ten fathoms of water and still not know a single fathom of a person's heart. Only Changmo himself knows what he's thinking."
The two of them were curious. Was Changmo simply unable to master his feelings even knowing all this? They wanted an answer. Neither possibility sat well. If he didn't know, he failed as a Grim Reaper. If he did…
"If he knows, that's a little bitter."
"You're telling me. So even if you don't like it, leave him be. It's a dream he'll wake from anyway."
A pitiful soul, drowning in a short-lived dream.
"Alright. I won't lecture him to his face."
Yuhwa answered in a noticeably softer tone. She knew where the line was. She might not like it, but she wasn't cruel enough to shatter the dream. He was a junior colleague, after all. Simyeong smiled and ruffled her hair.
"That's enough. Our role is the same as always. Just being there as seniors is plenty."
When it came to romance, they were both equally incompetent — practically illiterate in this particular field. Encouragement, persuasion: that was best left to people with actual experience. Yuhwa hated having her hair ruffled, but at the same time, she felt a little more at ease.
"You're right, Senior. Still, it's pretty galling, isn't it? Trying to get a girlfriend before their seniors do."
"Doesn't sit well with me either. Yeoni's already been rubbing it in enough to sour my mood, and now Changmo's going to pile on? Those damn kids."
"We'll have to worry about how they rub it in, too. Just Yeoni alone felt like having sugar dumped down your throat. If Changmo joins in… ugh! Just thinking about it is horrifying."
With the tension eased, playful thoughts surfaced — and they were half-serious, too. If things went well, the Underworld Post Office would have two postal workers with significant others. Sugar-dumping in stereo… At that thought, both of them shuddered.
Even Director Heukchi would probably get the chills.
"We're going to have some pretty cold sides for a while."
"Cold? Try freezing."
The two singles ended up making miserable faces. Even Grim Reapers got lonely when they were unattached. With their juniors pairing off first, that loneliness hit even harder. They nodded at each other without a word.
Today's a drinking-until-we-pass-out kind of day.
Agreed. Let's at least burn something in our guts.
It had been a while since they'd craved a drink this badly.
And so the day slowly faded.
"Did you finish reading?"
"More or less."
Evening. Yeoni and Dayeong were utterly drained.
A mountain of magazines had piled up in Yeoni's room — all of them related to dating. Wading through content they'd never given a second glance before was enough to turn their stomachs. Dayeong had put as much distance as possible between herself and the books. She rolled around on the bed as she spoke.
"I'm not looking at a magazine for a long while — not even the first letter of the word. Cramming them all like this is exhausting."
"Alright, alright, stop rolling around. We have to sleep soon. Geez, I can barely tell whose bed this is anymore."
"Stingy over one little bed."
At his not-so-subtle hint that she should get off, Dayeong just stuck out her tongue. Then, of all things, she wrapped the blanket around herself and luxuriated in the coziness. Yeoni was already dreading how he'd have to remake the bed later. No — the fact that she was still here at this hour was weird in the first place.
"Shouldn't you be heading home? The sun's already down. It's dangerous to wander around at night."
They'd used studying together as an excuse to eat dinner as well. If she lingered any longer, they might end up pulling an all-nighter. Yeoni plopped down on the edge of the bed and tried to reason with her. Dayeong shook her head playfully.
"It's already dark, so yeah, it's dangerous. I don't feel like going. Can't I just sleep over tonight?"
"We did that in elementary school. The house isn't big enough to put you up now. I'll walk you home, so just go."
"I can just call home. They won't even mind if I say I'm sleeping over."
That's your argument?!
A lecture surged up his throat and he barely swallowed it back down. Even if it was her boyfriend's house, how could she bring up sleeping over so casually? Yeoni found himself newly worried about how unguarded she was. He grabbed the blanket and tried to pull it off her.
"Quit arguing and get out of there. Go home and sleep."
"No. I'm tired, so I'm just gonna sleep at your place."
"I told you not to be stubborn!"
A tug-of-war erupted over the blanket. Yeoni and Dayeong pulled in opposite directions. Dayeong's arm strength was so formidable that even as Yeoni held on, his body slowly started to tip. And then — in a single instant — he lost his balance.
"Whoa!"
Yeoni flailed desperately, trying not to collide with her even as he panicked. Fortunately, they avoided a head-on crash. Falling onto the bed, however, was unavoidable. He toppled onto it face-first.
"What are you doing? At this rate the bed's going to collap—"
Yeoni started to protest in an irritated tone. But his voice promptly vanished back down his throat. Dayeong, too, pulled her arms free and went still. Both of their faces flushed scarlet in an instant.
The position they'd landed in was extremely compromising.
Yeoni had ended up covering Dayeong like a human blanket. The only thing between them was a single thin layer of comforter. Their heartbeats were vividly audible. And it wasn't just the position — after all the tumbling, their clothes and hair were a mess.
Oh no.
It was the kind of tableau that would invite every possible misunderstanding.
Both of them tried to move at once, neither waiting for the other. If Hyeonhui or Mrs. Bae walked in right now, it would be over. But perhaps they rushed too much — instead of getting off the bed, their arms and legs tangled together.
"W-wait. Don't rush. If we make noise they'll hear and come in."
Dayeong, belatedly grasping the situation, stopped him. Yeoni finally quit thrashing, and the two of them listened for any sign of movement outside. Fortunately, there was none.
"Whew."
Yeoni scrambled up and locked the door. His face was still bright red. Even out of that compromising position, looking like this would raise suspicions. Dayeong kicked the blanket off and sat beside him. For a while, they sat in silence.
The atmosphere in the room had suddenly grown warm.
"I swear, you make me sigh more every day. I really do."
"S-sorry. I didn't think we'd actually fall."
It wasn't just the compromising position that had them like this.
Figuring books alone wouldn't cut it, they'd gone to their own parents and listened to firsthand accounts. People who'd made it all the way to marriage would have plenty of experience, right? That had been their extremely simple logic in choosing their teachers. And it had taken them all of a few minutes to regret it.
Ugh. Now I'm thinking about it again.
Had the explanations been lacking? Quite the opposite. Both sets of parents wanted their kids to date well, and they were cheering them on in more ways than one. When asked about romance, they'd decided this was their chance.
And so they'd shared every story under the sun.
Both of them being adults, after all, there had been no holding back. The "progress" lecture had gone from A to Z. They'd left absolutely nothing out, speaking with genuine enthusiasm. A hearty do your best had been thrown in as a bonus.
"I thought people from their generation dated all proper and modest…"
"We were so, so wrong, huh?"
"I finally get how the seniors feel. It was like eating a mouthful of sugar."
Most of it had been useful advice. The intensity, however, had far exceeded their expectations. Just listening had been enough to turn their necks red. In one sitting, they'd thoroughly demolished every assumption they'd held about their parents. One thing had become crystal clear.
"We're the kids here. We really are."
"No argument."
Their parents, too, had been plenty passionate. They'd loved fiercely.
"The wedding-night stories felt like a bit much, though."
"Just how far ahead of themselves are they getting? Hahaha."
Just as their parents were cheering them on in more ways than one, the two of them were embarrassed in more ways than one. They felt sheepish about how passionate they'd thought themselves. And their parents' wildly forward-looking enthusiasm had set their hearts pounding. That was why they'd overreacted to what had just happened.
"You heard all that and you still want to sleep over at my house? Unbelievable!"
"Ow. That hurts."
"It doesn't sound convincing when you're smiling."
Yeoni gave Dayeong a light rap on the head. Acting all innocent after blushing just as hard as he had. Dayeong didn't even flinch — she just kept smiling, as if it didn't hurt at all. Was she not even paying attention? Yeoni gave up on lecturing her further and let out a snort of laughter.
"Ah, whatever. Do what you want. I'm tired of arguing over every little thing."
"They say giving up is the easy way. You held out way too long."
Dayeong stroked his hair, then stretched his cheek out with her fingers. That damn hair and those damn cheeks had become bestsellers at this point. Their giggling filled the room.
"We heard a lot, but I'm not sure I can actually explain it properly tomorrow."
"We've got plenty of notes. If you have to, just read from them as you go. The point is to get the necessary information across. You don't have to wrack your brains trying to sound polished."
Dayeong offered the advice in a thoroughly unbothered tone to a worried Yeoni. Just take it easy, she was saying. It wasn't a serious problem — no reason to be tense. Yeoni took the advice and let himself relax.
Just enjoy it.
That was the mindset he settled on.
"Give it your best. Who knows? Maybe after this you'll turn into a more romantic guy."
There was a note of genuine expectation mixed into the teasing. Apparently rubbing it in to everyone around them still wasn't enough. She might not be satisfied until they were sprinkling sweetness around the clock. Faced with that greedy little look, Yeoni felt both pressure and fondness at the same time.
"You talk like you're not doing the same thing."
"You're the one who needs it more. You dummy, Seo Yeon-ui!"
"Sure, whatever you say. Alright, get up already. I need to make the bed."
She really was a painfully straightforward girl. Feelings, thoughts, anything and everything.
"So where are you going to sleep? Sharing a room like we used to is… well."
Having roughly sketched out a lesson plan (of sorts), Yeoni started worrying about where to put Dayeong for the night. Sharing a room was an elementary-school thing. They'd both grown far too much for that to be reasonable now. This hopeless girl's thinking, however, was a little different. Dayeong answered with complete innocence.
"Your room, obviously."
"You can't just say that so easily. Shoo! Who stays in the same room as some unrelated guy?"
"You're my boyfriend, so you're not some unrelated guy. We used to sleep together all the time. Don't act all coy now."
"If we sleep together now, that's a huge problem, you know?!"
The terrifying words had come out completely unfiltered. Yeoni nearly had a heart attack trying to stop her. Thank goodness they were at home — if she'd said that at school, he didn't even want to imagine. Dayeong just tilted her head, as if wondering what the fuss was about.
"Who said anything about sharing the bed? We can just play rock-paper-scissors to decide who sleeps on the floor. Don't go getting any weird ideas."
She gave him a sly, smiling look. For Yeoni, who hadn't been thinking anything of the sort, it was infuriating. He glared at her with thoroughly unimpressed eyes. If he were just a little stronger, he'd throw her out himself.
"Sleeping in the same room is the problem."
"You're being so uptight. I'll just ask your mom, then? Mrs. Bae!"
"Hey, hey! Stop right there!"
Dayeong had gone so far as to call in reinforcements. Faced with a crisis, Yeoni threw dignity out the window and tried to stop her. But the moment he'd shouted, the game was already over. Mrs. Bae, who'd been in the living room, came to scold the noisy pair.
"It's nighttime. Keep it down a little."
"Ah! Sorry. I was going to sleep over tonight, but Yeoni won't let me use his room. Something about it getting too cramped. That's what we were arguing about."
Dayeong played completely innocent, putting on a pitiful face. Beside her, Yeoni frantically sliced X's through the air — a desperate signal not to fall for it. Mrs. Bae seemed to grasp the situation well enough. She looked at her son and smiled.
"Yeoni."
"Yes, Mom."
Yeoni answered with a sliver of hope. If she laid down the law, even Dayeong would have to go along. But there was one fact he'd forgotten.
"I'll lay out a futon, so you can sleep on the floor tonight. You can yield for one day, can't you?"
Mrs. Bae was always on her future daughter-in-law's side.
This round, too, went to Dayeong.
Ah. So that's how today's going to go, too.
What could he do? If they said jump, he'd jump.