Ch. 17

‘What is that…?’A shiver ran down my spine, and my heart pounded.

I crawled out of the kitchen without even having time to pay attention to my legs, which were sore from hitting the counter, and the glass of water which was rolling around on the floor out of my hands.

“Look here… you…”

Because of that, I couldn’t even listen to the voice from behind.

Half out of my mind and almost in tears, I crossed the kitchen threshold at low steps, consciously trying not to think about that black figure.

To be honest, I didn’t even want to know if it was a ghost or a person; from the looks of it, it was a virgin ghost.

Whatever it was, standing outside the window alone like that scared me. If I had been sober, I might have behaved a lot better than today, but right now, with my dull senses, I could think that I had to quickly run away to a room where other people were.

Even if that other person was a 7-year-old kid.

As I turned the corner, I saw the doors leading to each room on either side. Only then was I able to put my mind at ease.

I braced myself against the wall and struggled to get up. And as I was about to take a step, a hand reached out from behind without warning and suddenly grabbed my shoulder.

“Kua…!”

I jumped up and tried to scream, but my mouth got blocked by a hand.

“Shut it.”

A voice that sounded a bit nervous stuck in my ears. A voice I heard somewhere.

Who? Without knowing why this was happening, I calmed down my shaking body at the sound of a familiar voice.

Rather, hasn’t something similar happened before?

Before I could think of an answer, the other person must have felt me calm down, so he removed the hand blocking it.

I slowly turned back, following the hand holding my shoulder. I caught this glimpse of Ja-hyun’s form in the moonlight.

‘Woah…’

Regardless of his words and actions, I got distracted by that noble look of his, but then I looked at him with a straight face.

“It was you.”

A sharp voice came out.

‘What?’

“You just scared me in front of the window!”

I was afraid of raising my voice and disturbing Eun-young, so I quickly lowered my voice.

“It was you, right? Woah, how can you do that?”

“…”

“There is a level of joking. I almost passed out from shock.”

Did he see? I was in tears. How scary it must be to be in this situation. Right?

I rubbed my eyes with my hands, pretending to wipe away the tears. Of course, I never cried, so there was nothing on my face, but I was being shameless, calculating that it wouldn’t be visible in the dark.

Ja-hyun said, pushing my hand away in front of him as if to take a closer look.

“It is a joke. You were the one who got so scared from it, then why blame me?”

“Would one be surprised or not if such a thing happens?”

“That…”

I heard Ja-hyun mumbling softly.

I don’t know if it was an illusion, but I was shocked at him acting as if I was the weird one, and as I was about to last out, Ja-hyun opened his mouth.

“You get scared without reason.”

“…”

Huh. This is the first time in my life that I have heard that I get so scared.

“Forget it. I will handle it. If you are so scared that you can act rude, then it is a mess.”

“Woah. How dare you act like I am some pet?”

“Well, I don’t think you are any different.”

What is this feeling of loss? Even though I was told to be careful in the future, I somehow didn’t feel better.

I found the reason in the sincere apology I hadn’t yet received from him.

Therefore, even though I knew for sure that Ja-hyun was someone who would not bow down in front of others, even in death, I demanded an apology from him.

“Forget it. Just say sorry now.”

“What?”

“What what? You surprised me.”

Once again, these were the words I would have never said with a sober mind.

If I was going to get an apology, I would have accepted it for threatening me before I went to sleep, not some cheap scare trick.

However, I was still asleep, so I couldn’t even think about it, so I just blinked my heavy eyes and said.

“I was so shocked because of you that I hurt my knee and scratched my palm. What will you do about this now?”

“You seem fine. Aren’t you pushing for too much here?”

“Do you know where that ends? Because of you, my favorite cup was broken, and….”

“…”

Was the cup broken? I couldn’t remember.

While I was just picking up whatever words I could, mixing truth and lies, I heard a completely unexpected remark from the other side.

“Right, let us say it is my fault.”

“… what?”

“I apologize for the rude acts I committed. Is it alright now?”

“…”

Sigh. When the words were said to me with a face no different than usual, I looked confused and kept opening and closing my mouth.

Uh, well, the…

‘This guy… Did he just apologize to me now?’

Ja-hyun, who was none other than the MC of the novel?

That arrogant jerk is apologizing to me, an ordinary owner, just because he startled me in the middle of the night?

There was nothing, which wasn’t surprising here. I didn’t even consider him apologizing to me, so what….

After closing my damn mouth, I put on a serious face.

“You aren’t Ja-hyun.”

“I guess you're half asleep.”

Right, Ja-hyun he is. I am convinced rather quickly of his genuineness.

‘Is it because he was young? It looks like the kid has some good things still left in him.’

In the < Return of the Heavenly Demon>, the time in which Ja-hyun fully existed as ‘Ja-hyun’ wasn’t so long. At most, the first one or two volumes of a novel?

From then on, it was the time of Ja-hyun giving up his name, taking over his previous personality, and being born as Jeok Mu-rin.

I even forgot that this was the start of the plot and ended up handling just Ja-hyun, thinking he was Jeok Mu-rin.

So, it was natural that the reaction would be quite different from what I expected.

Jeok Mu-rin wasn’t someone to say sorry; even if he did make a mistake, he would blow the head off his enemy.

But fortunately, Ja-hyun wasn’t like that yet.

In the beginning, Ja-hyun had no need to apologize to anyone, so I just figured it out today.

“Well, right…”

I felt flustered and played with my hair.

“You too didn’t do it on purpose, so I will forgive you.”

“Thank you.”

Oh, does he know how to respond properly? A smile spread across my face without realizing it.

This was just my guess, but it seemed like there was a change in Ja-hyun’s attitude after what happened today.

Although it wasn’t noticeable on the outside, there was a subtle change that only I, who had been with him every day, could feel.

Not a lot, but would one say that this child has become a little, just a little docile?

How do I feel when I see him? The one I visited, fed, gave him water, and made him look pretty, but it was similar to the feeling of finding a stray cat, which purrs only on seeing me.

That means this felt that good.

“Yes, consider it so.”

“…”

I too tried to make a light joke, but the other person just had a straight face. He seems like a heartless bastard.

I bent down slightly, brushed off my messed-up clothes around the knees, and asked.

“So, why did you have to come see me at night?”

“Reason?”

“Yes, reason.”

“Wasn’t it you, Ju Eun-ri, who said we’ll speak later?”

“Ah…”

There was a lot I wanted to say, but I kept quiet.

It is true that I said we would talk again later, but that meant we would wake up in the morning and talk when we were both free, not speak at the early times.

No, rather, did the kid sleep?

I was just about to ask him, ‘Have you been alone in this yard this whole time waiting for me to wake up?’

“And I also have something urgent to say.”

“You? To me?”

I looked at Ja-hyun with shocked eyes.

Ja-hyun caught my gaze and nodded slightly.

I felt like I couldn’t sleep anymore after this, so I rubbed my sleepy eyes and turned.

“Right, then, what is the point of standing here? So let us go into the room and talk.”

As I said that, the place I pointed to wasn’t the room I shared with my sister, but the cross between where my father used to live.

I walked first, and Ja-hyun followed.

When I saw him, I thought he was acting rather cutely, and when I opened the old wooden door, it creaked.

“Enter.”

Since Eun-ri’s father passed away, I was using it occasionally, not too often, so I was able to let him come in without hesitation.

Although there was some dust, it wasn’t so much for us to walk out right away.

I sat down at a round table in the corner. When I gestured, Ja-hyun too pulled the chair across and sat down.

The window was small, so almost no light came in, and there was no lamp in the room, so nothing could be seen clearly.

Ja-hyun looked around the room with his eyes and left a comment.

“Such a shabby place.”

“Hey, you cannot say that.”

I responded jokingly and then asked a question. There is no tea, no refreshments; there is nothing. But is it alright?

There is no problem talking, right?

Actually, Ja-hyun made a humming sound as if he was shocked by how I asked back.

“It doesn't matter.”

“Good.”

So who would speak first? He? Ja-hyun understood it. If he was so restless to come see me this early in the morning, he must want to talk too.

For a moment, I smiled at the unexpected development in the plot.

“I plan to leave here soon.”

The smile on his face immediately collapsed at the words that followed.

“Right?”

I made this sound like I couldn’t believe it.

“I said I was thinking of leaving this.”

“Why… no. When? When are you going to leave?”

“As soon as I finish talking to you.”

Right away? What?

I was shocked at this.

No, what? Why is he suddenly leaving? As I wanted to ask, my lips trembled.

While I was trying to calm myself, Ja-hyun spoke calmly with his usual expression on his face without a sign of regret.

“It has been a nuisance for so long. If I get a chance someday, I will make sure to repay you for all you did to me.” sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ NʘvᴇlFire.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

“…”

“This is my decision.”

“….”

“Then Ju Eun-ri, what do you want to say?”

Ja-hyun asked, resting his chin on the table. Looking at his attitude, it seemed like he had made up his mind to leave the guest house. So it was more confusing to me.

Aside from wondering what kind of disaster this is in the middle of the night.

Let’s see. Does this look ridiculous in the original plot? What if the MC and not some random character ruin the plot? Is this a joke?

If he goes, what will I and Eun-young do? Just die? Or a woman and two kids from the place they are connected to?

Even though I knew it wasn’t Ja-hyun’s fault, I felt resentful towards him.

“Do you really have to go?”

Ja-hyun didn’t care about answering my question. Instead, he just stared at me with the black eyes.

‘I am losing it here.’

What should I say to change his mind?

Actually, no matter what I said, it seemed like he wouldn’t stay. But I couldn’t force him to stay either.

After thinking about it, I decided it would be better to show in actions than words, so I got down the chair and kneeled down.

Not caring about his shocked look, which I would see for the first time, I held onto his legs with both my hands.

“Ja-hyun please. This elder sister pleads with you ....”

“What?”

I will keep silent about what happened after, for the sake of my own human rights.