The Thirty-Sixth Assignment: All Human Affairs Are But a Daydream (4)
"Hic!"
The hiccup slipped out before she could stop it. Caught this fast? And that easygoing look on his face made it painfully obvious he'd known all along. Seoah fumbled for an excuse, well aware he had every right to be angry. Her worry, as it turned out, was wasted.
"Aww, come on. Did I startle you?"
"Of course you did! This is the kind of thing that'd piss anyone off. I figured you'd be mad."
Seoah's cheeks had gone pink. She knew perfectly well she was in the wrong. Fortunately for her, Changmo wasn't angry in the slightest. He waved it off with a good-natured laugh.
"I'm not exactly thrilled, I'll admit. But I get it. Some guy pops out of nowhere and starts seeing your friend? You'd be crazy not to keep your guard up."
"Mm. Well, if you're willing to see it that way, I'm grateful, but…"
"Worrying about a friend is the most natural thing in the world. Oh—and don't worry about how I acted today. I wasn't putting on a show. That's just me. The real me."
Partly to put her at ease, Changmo offered her a piece of good news as well, and he said it without a hint of hesitation, perfectly confident in himself. Seoah couldn't quite take it at face value and eyed him with suspicion. But no matter how hard she stared, she couldn't find a trace of deceit.
I guess he's the real deal.
After studying him several times over, she concluded it didn't look like a lie. The deciding factor was how clear his eyes were—just like Seri's. Those blue irises were exotic and beautiful. Looking into them felt like peering at a lake through a telescope.
The scales tipped, just a little.
"Well?"
"…You don't seem like the type to make things up. I'll give you that."
"Right?"
Changmo broke into a wide grin. A mortal from the Living World daring to evaluate a Grim Reaper—but he didn't give that trivial fact a second thought. She'd just called him a man she could trust. What did the rest of it matter?
"You're really happy about that, huh? Is it that big a deal?"
"How could I not be? Being told I'm a good man."
Was he just an optimist? Or was he a little too easygoing? Seoah found herself vaguely worried. Still, he was clearly someone she could trust, and she decided he was a good fit at Seri's side. In the end, she laughed along, playful.
"Fair enough. You seem a lot more trustworthy than the guys I've seen on other blind dates."
Yes. This man would do.
She made up her mind.
"By the way, are you from overseas? Your eye color is pretty unusual."
And with that, the evaluation was over. Now it was time to satisfy her personal curiosity. Seoah spoke as she looked at the eyes that had so impressed her. Changmo was about to give a vague answer about being mixed-race. But as luck would have it, Seri returned at that exact moment.
"I'm back. Did I keep you waiting long?"
"Not at all. You got here at the perfect time. How about this for dinner? It looks light and pretty good."
And just like that, Changmo's attention snapped right back to Seri. Suddenly relegated to the sidelines, Seoah let out a wry laugh inwardly. He really was an ardent man, in the strangest of ways.
…Well. That's exactly why he's all right.
A fond smile played at the corners of her mouth.
And so the second meeting wrapped up perfectly as well. This time, he'd made a solid impression on Seri's friend, too. That Seri liked him went without saying. With things progressing this smoothly, Changmo felt like he could fly.
"You two are meeting on a weekday next time?"
"Yeah, yeah. She said she'd make time for me, even if she has to squeeze it in. Her friend gave me a thumbs-up, too. A little more effort and she'll come around. Heh heh!"
"That's impressive. You two are getting close faster than I expected."
Yeoni clicked his tongue in amazement. It wasn't quite lightning-fast, but it was plenty quick. The guy really did have a way with people. It hit Yeoni all over again that Changmo was the Underworld Post Office's number-one playboy.
"I'll take a picture next time we meet and show you. She was pretty from the start, but when she dresses up? Even prettier. You'll see when you meet her."
Whoa. He's already got the love goggles on, hasn't he.
It wasn't just the schedule—the progress of his heart was racing ahead, too. At this rate, they'd start dating without a hitch. Yeoni felt relieved, and then, all at once, a worry surged up.
When am I supposed to tell him? Simyeong-hyung said it wasn't time yet, but…
An ending that would be anything but sweet.
That was what worried him. The longer this went on, the greater the shock would be. He understood the argument for letting Changmo enjoy this while he could, but thinking about the blow that was coming, it felt like something he simply couldn't do. The fact that he couldn't even sigh in front of Changmo only made it more frustrating.
"What, what? Jealous already? Your face looks like a storm cloud."
"Huh? Ah… I've got a lot of assignments lately. Even when I'm talking about something else, I keep worrying about homework. Don't worry about it."
"Worry too much and you'll go bald. Save the assignment stress for when you're actually doing assignments. Got it?"
"Yessir. Understood."
Left with no other choice, Yeoni shut his mouth. It was Changmo's beaming face that got to him. He didn't have it in him to ruin the mood with that smile right in front of him. As if fleeing, he decided to follow Simyeong's judgment as well.
I don't know anymore. Simyeong-hyung thought it through before he made that call.
It was a conclusion both cautious and cowardly—fitting for a junior, or perhaps not fitting at all.
For some, it was like a dream.
For others, a wake-up call.
Five such days went by.
For a full five days, Changmo met with Seri almost every single day. Both of them forgot how busy they were and simply savored the sweetness that had only just arrived. Seoah and Yeoni, the two who'd worked so hard to bring them together, were left somewhat dazed.
With every meeting, the distance between them shrank, of course. The way they addressed each other grew a little more casual, and the frequency of held hands and linked arms crept steadily upward.
"I think I'm lucky my first date was with you, Changmo."
"Is that so?"
"I haven't gone on the blind dates myself, but I hear about them from Seoah. She said there were good guys, but there were bad ones too. So I was nervous even going on dates. But then… every time I see you, Changmo, I feel at ease."
On the third day, the fruits of his labor finally came back to him. Seri, shy as she was, confessed her fondness for him. If he'd had even a little less self-control, he would have swept her into a hug and whooped with joy. Being rewarded for your efforts always felt good.
"I'm not saying we should start dating right this second. That said… I think things could work out with you, Changmo. How do you feel?"
It was a sweet proposal he had no reason to refuse. Changmo nodded, of course, and the two of them promised to get to know each other more closely from here on. The reconnaissance phase was over. From now on, they would deepen the relationship.
But the grace period they'd been putting off came calling at last.
"……"
How was he supposed to describe this.
To Changmo, who'd been enjoying himself as if he'd been given a second youth, the letter assigned to him today was nothing short of a bolt from the blue. He turned away from it without even thinking. That's how hard it hit him. Yeoni and Dayeong, who already knew the secret, were left speechless as well.
I figured it would come to this, but…
Seeing it in person is a whole different thing. What do we do?
Unsteady eyes turned toward Changmo. He covered both of his with his hands. The man who was more grounded and quicker-witted than anyone was now turning away from reality harder than anyone. Not that looking away would make the reality disappear.
"Yeoni."
"Yes, hyung."
"They knew, didn't they. When they sent this."
He had a rough idea of what must have gone down at the Post Office. His seniors would have been tearing their hair out over this, too. They'd have agonized and agonized, searching for a way that would hurt him as little as possible. And yet the letter had still ended up here…
"They probably didn't have the luxury of handing it off to anyone else. It's not like our Post Office being swamped is anything new."
"Yeah. That'd be it. No extra hands for deliveries, so it came to me."
Which meant Changmo had to be the one to do this.
"No wonder my luck's been suspiciously good. I should've seen it coming and prepared."
His face crumpled like a sheet of paper soaked through with water.
The letters commissioned by the Underworld Post Office were letters from the dead. Longing, sorrow—whatever form it took, the lingering regrets left behind in the Living World were packed inside. The recipients, too, were bound to feel those heavy emotions from the letters. And now they were telling a Grim Reaper who'd only just begun to hold love in his heart to go deliver one of those.
"Changmo-hyung."
Yeoni called to him again. When there was no answer, he was about to call once more, but Changmo raised a hand to stop him. A voice settled like sediment at the bottom of a glass.
"Sorry. I need time to think… Could you step out for a bit?"
"Is it really a good idea to sit with this alone?"
"I'm asking you."
There was a stress on the word asking. A stubborn will not to hear another word. In the end, Yeoni gave up trying to talk to him. He quietly took Dayeong's hand. Dayeong grumbled, clearly not wanting to leave.
"Better to just make a call, one way or the other. Dragging it out like this isn't going to help."
"I know that. It'll just be a minute, so let's step out for now. Okay?"
To persuade her, Yeoni whispered something in her ear. Whatever he said, Dayeong's expression shifted by the second. By the end, a flush of embarrassment had spread all the way down the back of her neck. She finally accepted his persuasion and backed off.
"Um… if you need help, just call us right away."
Even in the middle of being embarrassed, Dayeong didn't forget what needed to be said. Changmo didn't have it in him to answer; he just nodded. Yeoni and Dayeong glanced back at him once, worried, then quietly went out and closed the door. The place that had been so lively just hours ago grew cold.
"Haaah…"
The sigh came the instant the door shut. A sigh so heavy it could have punched through the floor. Telling them to leave had been nothing but an evasion with no plan behind it. He hadn't thought about needing to actually think something through. No—he couldn't. Gloom rolled off Changmo in waves.
Did he really have to deliver it?
His head understood. His heart did not.
What the hell am I supposed to do, damn it.
In the end, he gave up and sank to the floor. He wrapped both arms around his knees and buried his head. He didn't want to do anything right now. In the silent room, he simply sat there, frozen like a statue.
The atmosphere at the Post Office was heavy, too. Heukchi, having received the report, had shut himself in his office and refused to come out. The frontline Grim Reapers whispered among themselves, watching each other for cues. The air had gone as dry and stifling as a desert.
"We gave him plenty of time to begin with. We did everything we could. You don't have to take it this hard, sunbae."
"……"
Simyeong and Yuhwa were no exception.
The two Grim Reapers had set their work aside for a moment and come out to clear their heads. Simyeong, in particular, had gone deathly pale. He'd personally wrecked his junior's love life—how could he not? He let Yuhwa's words wash over him, lost in his own brooding.
"Yuhwa."
"Go ahead, sunbae."
"If Changmo refuses the delivery… what then?"
It was an awfully timid thing to say, but it was a hypothetical he couldn't help raising. What came after a man who'd been stopped at the threshold, no one could guess. Even Yuhwa couldn't press him on it; her words caught in her throat.
"Ah, never mind. I'm only thinking of the worst. Changmo isn't the type to slack off on the job. Forget I said that."
Simyeong himself realized the slip and waved it off. He looked as unsteady as a candle in the wind. Whatever the outcome, there didn't seem to be any further role for him to play in this. Yuhwa looked at her senior with a pained expression.
Then she steeled herself and made a decision.
"Sunbae. I'm going to the Living World for a bit."
"The Living World? What for?"
"What for? I can't just leave that idiot Changmo sitting there by himself. I'm his senior—I'm not going to stand around and watch with my arms folded."
They still didn't see eye to eye. But that didn't negate the bond between senior and junior. She refused to be the kind of sorry senior who turned her back on her junior. Swallowing the complaints that had been rising in her chest, she strode off with her head high.
"You explain it to the Director for me. It won't take long, so just reassign my work to the others for a little while. I'm off!"