A Small Breeze (2)
The place the spirit had led us to was Freedom Hall. It was the most recently built dormitory on campus. The problem was that this was an all-female dormitory.
It was already quite late. Just being here could look incredibly suspicious.
“So all I have to do is make rice and soybean paste stew for one of the students living here?”
At Baek Seol-hwa’s question, the spirit gave a small nod.
What kind of relationship did this spirit have with the student living here? In a normal relationship, people didn’t usually think about preparing a full meal like soybean paste stew. It was rare even between close friends. Which meant, at the very least, this spirit and the student had a pretty deep bond.
Something like family, for example.
That was honestly the most likely scenario. It was hard to judge the spirit’s age since it had already transformed halfway, but having a child wouldn’t be strange. The wrinkles around the eyes and the smile lines were definitely not those of a young person.
“Baek Seol-hwa.”
“Yeah?”
“You and Jang San follow the spirit into the dormitory. We need to know who to give it to, right?”
“Oh, that makes sense. But why aren’t you coming? Are you the only one skipping out?”
“…This is a female dormitory.”
“Huh?”
Did she want to get me arrested or something?
Baek Seol-hwa looked a little flustered at my words, then forced a laugh to smooth things over.
“Ah… ahaha! Right, of course. I didn’t realize.”
“Even if you’re both women, if an outsider is seen entering it’ll look suspicious. Jang San, go with her. Make sure no one notices you two going in.”
“Got it.”
Please come back quickly.
Baek Seol-hwa and Jang San followed the spirit and left for a while. I sat on a bench near Freedom Hall and stared blankly ahead. The spirits were still visible in my sight. I figured I wouldn’t need to see them while the two were gone. With that thought, I tapped my necklace, and the moment my vision flipped—
“Whoa, fuck!!”
“Kyaa! Why are you yelling like that!?”
I was startled out of my skin. The instant the spirits vanished from my sight, a person suddenly appeared right in front of me. But… I’d seen this person somewhere before….
“…Jeong Se-a?”
It was Jeong Se-a. From the way she was acting, it seemed like she’d been there for a little while, but I hadn’t noticed because of all the spirits.
“What are you doing at this hour? It’s so late….”
I’d run into her drunk at the cafe earlier and assumed she’d gone straight back to the dormitory to sleep. So why was she wandering around outside?
“That’s what I want to ask! Why are you at the female dormitory at this time of night?”
“Uh….”
Come to think of it, didn’t she live here too?
“Do you realize how incredibly suspicious you look right now?”
…I was literally just sitting on a bench doing nothing. Why was that suspicious?
Maybe the alcohol hadn’t worn off yet, because Jeong Se-a’s voice was higher-pitched than usual. It made her sound a bit like Baek Seol-hwa when she got worked up. So she really did change a little when she was drunk. She wasn’t all pure and gentle after all.
“Just come over here quickly. It’ll be annoying if the dorm supervisor shows up!”
“Uh, okay….”
Her hand grabbed my arm and dragged me along. Against my will, I ended up at a bench a little farther from Freedom Hall. Only then did Jeong Se-a let go of my arm.
“Those people from earlier were with you too. Are you in the middle of an exorcism?”
“…You saw?”
“But where did they go? Don’t tell me they went into the dormitory?”
“……Yeah.”
She seemed to have seen everything already, so there was no point in lying. When I answered honestly, Jeong Se-a, as expected…
“You know outsiders aren’t allowed in the dormitory! What were you thinking?”
She got angry. It was a natural reaction. She lived here, after all, and I’d let outsiders in without permission… Still, there was a reason we had to do it, so I tried to explain myself.
“I know, but what could I do? There was something I needed to check. That’s why at least I’m staying out here…”
Jeong Se-a stared at me for a moment, then let out a deep sigh. She wasn’t usually the type to sigh like that, but the alcohol seemed to have changed her quite a bit….
“What exactly do you do during these exorcism activities that requires checking something in a female dormitory?”
Did I have to explain this? But there was no way to clear things up without explaining the situation.
“…To be precise, it’s not really exorcism. It’s helping spirits. So they can move on peacefully.”
“Helping them? Isn’t that different?”
“Simply put, if exorcism is forcibly driving spirits out, what I’m doing now is helping them rest comfortably.”
“Hmm, I don’t really get it… but it’s a good thing, right?”
“Yeah.”
It was a relief that she understood even this much. At least she now knew that Baek Seol-hwa and Jang San hadn’t gone in to do anything suspicious.
“I didn’t send them into the dormitory to do anything shady, so don’t worry. And I’m not doing any of the dangerous stuff you’re imagining either.”
“…Huh?”
“You said it yourself last time. That it seemed dangerous. Back when I was nineteen, the focus was on exorcism, so I jumped into dangerous situations, but…”
Now that the goal was helping spirits move on, it wasn’t that dangerous. There might be occasional risks, but it was definitely much safer than back then.
“You don’t have to worry so much.”
…Though the ritual I performed the other day had definitely been dangerous.
“…Se-hwan.”
“Yeah?”
“Are you trying not to make me worry? Because you’re afraid I’ll get anxious?”
“…Well, you’re not wrong.”
Anyone would hate making others worry about them. No one actually wants to do that. Probably.
“I remembered what you said last time, so I wanted to reassure you.”
Because Jeong Se-a still remembered the serious injury I’d gotten in my third year of high school and kept worrying about it.
“…I see.”
The mood suddenly felt strange. For some reason, it looked like the corners of Jeong Se-a’s mouth were slightly lifted. At first I thought I was imagining it, but the longer I looked, the more certain I became that I wasn’t.
“Still, be careful. What if someone other than me had seen you? They definitely would’ve thought it was suspicious.”
“…Yeah, you’re right. I’ll be more careful.”
Jeong Se-a hit me with some very practical advice. If that had happened, it really would’ve been annoying. I suddenly looked at her. Her cheeks and earlobes were still flushed from the alcohol, and her gaze kept wandering without focus. She really did look exhausted. It seemed like it would be better to send her back to the dormitory soon.
Even while her own body was this tired, the fact that she was thinking of me first was honestly admirable. She really was a good friend. Even though we’d grown a bit distant lately… it made me realize all over again that it wasn’t for nothing that we’d stuck together throughout middle and high school.
“Thanks.”
“…Huh?”
“Who else worries about me if not you? So thank you.”
“……Ah, yeah. W-well, we’re friends. It’s only natural, right?”
There were plenty of people who couldn’t even do something that natural.
“You should head in soon. Once those two come out, I’ll probably have to go somewhere else too.”
“Okay, got it.”
“I’ll walk you there. I have to go that way anyway.”
“Ah… y-yeah.”
Look at her stuttering because she’s drunk. It didn’t feel right to send someone this intoxicated off alone, and by now those two should be coming out soon. When I glanced at her from the side, her face was bright red.
“Jeong Se-a, can you walk straight?”
“I’m not that drunk…!”
“Sure, sure.”
She was definitely pretty drunk.
After I walked Jeong Se-a back to Freedom Hall and sent her inside, how many minutes had passed?
I saw Baek Seol-hwa and Jang San coming from far away. When I clicked the necklace, the spirit moving in front of them became visible too.
“How did it go? Did you confirm?”
“Of course!”
Baek Seol-hwa shouted confidently, but offered no further explanation. Instead, Jang San gave me the proper details.
“We found out who it is. Her name is Han Si-eun. She’s a second-year economics major at Busan University. She lives in Room 702, Building B.”
“You got a lot of details.”
“We can’t investigate twice.”
“Now all we have to do is make the soybean paste stew set meal!”
The spirit gave a small nod. Just like she said, if we cooked it and delivered it, everything would be resolved. The spirit could leave this world after resolving its lingering attachment, before it completely turned into a malevolent spirit. And Baek Seol-hwa would obtain the spiritual energy she needed.
“The Literary Creation Hall is close from here. There’s a student cafeteria there…”
I glanced at Jang San. She nodded and said,
“I’ll stop all the CCTV.”
“Good.”
We headed straight for the Literary Creation Hall. It was a bit away from Freedom Hall and housed various student convenience facilities. Normally, no one would find it strange if someone approached the building, but right now it was very late at night. Anyone loitering around would inevitably look suspicious.
“Starting from here…”
“Understood.”
In an instant, Jang San’s spiritual energy spread out in all directions. The spirits flinched, but unlike yoki which could harm upon contact, spiritual energy could either harm or not depending on the owner’s will. We walked past the spirits who were tilting their heads in confusion at the energy brushing over their bodies and entered the building.
The building itself wasn’t locked yet, but all the interior facilities were. The student cafeteria we were heading to was no exception.
“It’s all locked.”
“We’ll have to pick the lock.”
“We need to be quiet… it’s a chain lock. Will that work?”
Watching someone worry about how to quietly pick a lock made me feel like a thief.
“If I break it with yoki…”
“That’ll be loud.”
“My strength would be the same.”
In the end, there was only one method left. I opened the messenger bag I was carrying and took out a talisman. Seeing it, Baek Seol-hwa tilted her head in confusion.
“A talisman? What are you going to do?”
“Just watch.”
I was planning to use a method I’d often used back when I was doing exorcism work. While searching for malevolent spirits and yokai, I frequently came across houses with locked doors that wouldn’t open. It wasn’t practical to cut chains, pick locks, or break padlocks every single time. So there was a method for that.
The talisman I took out had the Chinese character for “release” written on it. First, I stuck it on the door with the padlock and…
Clap!
I brought my palms together like I was clapping.
“Open.”
A spiritual energy flowed from the talisman and wrapped around the lock. And amazingly—
Click.
The lock opened by itself. The latch at the top of the door opened at the same time. I removed the padlock and pulled the chain out as quietly as possible. Then I pushed the handle, and the door opened smoothly.
Having watched the entire scene, Baek Seol-hwa said in amazement,
“Wow, is it like ‘Open Sesame’?”
…She wasn’t exactly wrong, but “Open Sesame” was way too old-fashioned. Maybe because she was a thousand years old, she sometimes said things that didn’t match her appearance and sounded like an old lady. Her outer appearance was enough to captivate anyone passing by, yet her inner self was that of an elder. Seeing this, I thought the heavens really were fair.
“But will there be ingredients for soybean paste stew?”
“What cafeteria wouldn’t have them?”
Weren’t they basically a staple in any restaurant? Of course, Western or Chinese restaurants that specialized in one type of cuisine might not have them, but a place that served various kinds of food would almost certainly have soybean paste stew as a required menu item.
“Let’s find the fridge.”
We first looked for ingredients to make the stew. Zucchini, potatoes, green chili peppers, tofu, green onions, and most importantly, soybean paste. As expected of a student cafeteria that prepared a wide variety of menus, they had everything.
“All the ingredients are here!”
“Then let’s hurry…”
“But if we make soybean paste stew, it’ll smell, right? If anyone passes by nearby, won’t they think it’s strange?”
It was Jang San. But that seemed like an unnecessary worry.
“Who would be passing by at this hour?”
The moment I said that—
Step. Step.
We heard someone’s footsteps. We all froze and held our breath in surprise. Baek Seol-hwa’s eyes widened as she whispered quietly,
“W-what do we do?”
…At this hour, the only person who would be walking around was probably the building security guard. It seemed the regular patrol time had overlapped with ours.
“If they see the chain undone, they’ll definitely find it suspicious. Baek Seol-hwa.”
“Yeah?”
“You can hide the ingredients we took out with an illusion, right?”
“I-I can, but…”
“Hide them quickly, and let’s hide too. Just until the guard passes.”
“Where do we hide?”
“Figure it out.”
Following my instructions, Baek Seol-hwa and Jang San moved. Baek Seol-hwa made all the ingredients we’d taken out invisible, and Jang San found a nearby changing room and gestured.
“Come in here. Let’s hide in the cabinet.”
Oh, that was a good idea. Just like Jang San, I quickly slipped into the cabinet. Since I was bigger, I went into a double-wide compartment. Then I heard very quiet footsteps. Through the gap in the cabinet, I saw white hair. It was Baek Seol-hwa. She looked around and then—
“…!?”
Why is she coming this way!?
“Ah!”
Baek Seol-hwa opened the cabinet, saw me inside, and let out a startled sound. And at that moment—
“What the— is someone there? Why is this undone?”
Along with the sound of the cafeteria door opening, I heard an unfamiliar voice. It seemed to be the security guard whose footsteps we’d heard earlier.
“Hey, get in here!”
At my call, Baek Seol-hwa flinched and hurriedly climbed inside. The moment she did, I quickly closed the cabinet door.
No matter how big a double-wide cabinet was, it was definitely too narrow for two people. As a result, Baek Seol-hwa and I weren’t standing upright—we were practically tangled together, leaning on each other. Or more accurately, she was the one leaning completely on me. Her face was right before touching my chest, and her hips were practically sitting on my thigh.
“Ugh… it’s tight.”
I knew it couldn’t be helped because it was narrow, but the situation was strangely intimate in many ways. Our bodies were pressed against each other all over… And the biggest problem was that her fluffy ears were tickling my chin. I was barely holding back a sneeze from the itchiness.
“Who told you to come in here?”
“It looked like the widest one, so I just opened it. How was I supposed to know you were inside?”
Swish. Her tail moved in dissatisfaction and tickled my leg.
“Why did you even bring out your ears and tail…”
“You told me to create an illusion…!”
I immediately understood what she meant by her whispered complaint. I just wished she wouldn’t raise her voice.
“Lower your voice.”
“Ah, okay…”
Step. Step.
The security guard’s footsteps were gradually getting closer. He seemed to be checking inside because something looked suspicious. His courage to look around even though he didn’t know what might be there showed excellent professional spirit.
…Professional spirit or not, can’t you just leave already?
“Hng…”
“…?”
When Baek Seol-hwa made a strange sound, I looked at her and saw that her cheeks had turned bright red. It was so red it was visible even in the dark room. Her tail was also swishing back and forth in the narrow space, as if expressing her emotions.
I immediately realized why she was acting like this. She was a nine-tailed fox who had remained a virgin for a thousand years, after all. And solely because she found it embarrassing.
It seemed she hadn’t realized until just now that she was leaning against a man’s body, but now she was belatedly becoming aware of it. Seeing her clasp her hands tightly, bow her head deeply, and turn as red as an apple, I could tell just how little immunity this girl had toward men.
…No, to be precise, it wasn’t that she had no immunity toward the creature called man, but rather that she wasn’t used to this kind of physical contact. She usually interacted with me without any issue, but the moment our bodies touched even a little, she became like this. And we were only touching through our clothes, too.
“Ugh… hng……”
Her appearance really was a cheat code. Seeing a yokai fidgeting helplessly like this somehow stimulated my protective instincts.
…Of course, that was just one side of my thoughts. In my eyes, she was still just a monstrous nine-tailed fox.
The footsteps grew even louder, and through the cabinet gap I could see the guard’s uniform. He shone his flashlight around the dark changing room, swept his gaze over it once, and deciding there was nothing there, he left the room and headed elsewhere.
After confirming the footsteps were moving away, I looked at Baek Seol-hwa. Her face was so red I was worried it might actually explode.
“…Just hold on a little longer.”
She barely managed to nod her head slightly in response. She must have been incredibly embarrassed. The fact that she was so embarrassed was making me feel awkward too….
By the way, when was that uncle going to leave? I shifted my body a little to check through the cabinet gap to see if he was out of sight yet, and Baek Seol-hwa flinched violently.
“D-don’t move…!”
“…Sorry.”
Her voice sounded like she was about to cry, so I apologized immediately. It was fascinating to see someone who was usually so energetic turn into such a gentle lamb.
“There’s nothing here. Why was it open?”
The guard muttered to himself as he left the cafeteria. When the footsteps grew distant and finally disappeared completely, I opened the cabinet door.
“Phew.”
The suffocating feeling finally lifted. Even after the door was open, Baek Seol-hwa remained frozen stiff from embarrassment. I spoke to her.
“Baek Seol-hwa, you can come out now.”
“!”
Baek Seol-hwa darted out of the cabinet like she was fleeing. When I came out too, Jang San opened her cabinet door and emerged as well. Seeing Baek Seol-hwa’s face still bright red, she asked,
“Why is she like that?”
“It’s better to just ignore her… it’ll help her too.”
Jang San tilted her head, but there was no need to tease her further and make Baek Seol-hwa even more embarrassed.
“A-are… y-you… o-okay… now…?”
I nodded at the spirit who had come looking for us after confirming the situation was over.
“I’ll make it quickly. Let’s take it as soon as it’s done.”
Since the guard had finished his patrol and left, he probably wouldn’t come back for a while. We quickly prepared the ingredients that had been hidden with illusion, and swiftly prepared a full soybean paste stew set meal.
“Se-hwan, you’re good at cooking too?”
“This much is nothing. I’ve been living on my own for over four years now.”
I’d run away at the end of my third year of high school and had been living alone ever since, so of course I could make something like soybean paste stew. Just as I was about to finish, the spirit pointed at something.
“You need to add that?”
“Y-yes……”
What the spirit pointed at was mugwort that had been in the fridge. It was sometimes added to soybean paste stew in spring, but many people disliked its unique scent and bitter taste, so it was quite polarizing. But if the spirit was asking for it, it probably meant the female student liked it.
The mugwort, which had already been prepared for use in the cafeteria menu, was placed on top of the bubbling stew. And with that, it was complete.
“N-now we just need to deliver it…”
Baek Seol-hwa, whose cheeks were still slightly red as if her embarrassment hadn’t fully faded, said so. It seemed like it would take her some time to return to normal.
…With that much embarrassment, it was no wonder she couldn’t absorb spiritual energy properly.
“Right. Since it’s a female dormitory, you two will have to call her out.”
“W-wouldn’t it be better if we delivered it?”
“That was the original plan, but if you carry this into the dormitory, the smell of soybean paste will be everywhere. You’d get caught before you could even deliver it.”
“Ah… r-right…”
…She kept stuttering so much it was hard to get used to. I was worried she might make a mistake.
“…This won’t do. Jang San, it’d be better if you went alone.”
“Okay. Honestly, she wasn’t needed anyway.”
“…What!?”
When Jang San chuckled lightly, Baek Seol-hwa growled and snapped at her. It seemed her anger had made most of her embarrassment disappear.
“I can go too, you know!”
…Was she deliberately teasing her?
“Then both of you go.”
“Okay!”
“First…”
I rummaged through my pocket and placed money equal to the cost of the soybean paste set meal on the counter. Even if we’d used it without permission, we should at least pay for the ingredients….
“Let’s go.”
“Yeah.”