Chapter 39
It was pitch black.
Little Siyeon clutched her younger brother's hand with a trembling hand.
Her little brother was bedridden with a fever.
Above his body, something like a black shadow wavered.
Was it a grim reaper, or some nameless evil spirit?
The shadow was tugging at something pale from her brother's chest.
Little Siyeon instinctively realized that it was her brother's soul.
'No....'
Siyeon desperately reached out. She tried to catch that pale thread, taut as if it might snap.
But.
Swoosh.
Siyeon's small hand sliced futilely through the air.
She couldn't grab it.
The thread that slipped through her fingers ended up snapping.
"No...!"
.
.
.
"…Hah!"
She jolted awake.
It was a desk.
She had apparently fallen asleep face-down at her lab desk.
Peeling off the research papers stuck to her cheek, Siyeon stared blankly at the monitor.
Her back was damp with cold sweat.
It was that dream again.
Of all times, probably because something like that had happened yesterday.
It had always been that way.
Since childhood, Siyeon's soul had freely slipped out of her body at the most random times.
Uncontrolled astral projection.
Even while sleeping, even while sitting there blankly.
Before she knew it, she'd be floating under the ceiling and looking down at her sleeping body.
It was terrifying.
Once, she'd nearly failed to return at all.
So to other people, Siyeon was unmistakably just a weird kid.
The hospital said it was idiopathic narcolepsy.
Supposedly, it was a disease caused by a deficiency in some hormone that regulates sleep.
'That's not it.'
Siyeon knew.
Because even the moment her body slipped out, her consciousness remained perfectly clear.
Because she could see things invisible to other people, too.
A diagnosis didn't change anything.
Being different from others was enough all by itself to make her an outcast.
And so, to the children her age, Siyeon became a ghost-possessed freak and ended up alone.
'...I can't go on like this.'
So she made up her mind.
She would somehow learn to control this soul that kept slipping out on its own, with her own hands.
She couldn't just keep avoiding it because it was scary.
After all, it was a body she'd have to live with for the rest of her life.
If she could control this thing, which might leave her body at any time, maybe she could live a normal life like everyone else.
That was all it was at first.
And so Siyeon began digging into what was happening to her body.
Where the soul slipped out from.
How she could bring it back.
After blood, sweat, and tears, she eventually reached the point where she could deliberately attempt astral projection.
It was much later that she gave it the name soul separation sorcery.
Then one day, strangers came looking for her, apparently having heard rumors somewhere.
'...Huh?'
They said there was a place where people like her gathered. If she went there, many things would be resolved.
And that's how she came to the occult university.
It really was true.
She wasn't the only one who could see ghosts.
Other people left to become shamans, saying the ability that had once seemed like a misfortune could make money, but Siyeon didn't.
She had a goal.
She wanted to finish this ritual to the very end.
Everyone just scoffed and called it dangerous, useless research, but Siyeon didn't care.
'...It's not useless.'
Maybe that nightmare that repeated every night was the one refusing to let Siyeon go.
Still, she believed.
That someday it would definitely be useful. That it was worthwhile.
And that belief became reality for the first time yesterday.
A student whose soul was being sucked away by the Soul Stealer.
Siyeon, without even realizing it, separated her soul from her body and embraced the student's soul that was being drawn in.
All she thought was that she couldn't let go.
Even so, yesterday she succeeded in holding on.
Though if she'd been even a little later, she would have been swallowed whole along with the student's soul.
The exorcism incident that had thrown the school into chaos yesterday was quickly wrapped up thanks to that young artisan's efforts.
Every released spirit had been sealed again, not a single one missing, and almost no one was seriously hurt.
The school quickly returned to normal as if nothing had happened.
So now everyone was talking about that, and nothing else.
“Hey, hey... I saw Professor Goo running with him yesterday. Seriously... he's basically an idol.”
“Professor Goo is handsome too.”
“No, you don't know what he's like in person. It's not even comparable.”
“Still, he's too young. I'm team Professor Goo.”
“Yeah, your old-man fetish is gross~”
“Shut your trap. Heh heh heh.”
The labmates, who'd been chatting among themselves for a while, suddenly turned to look at Siyeon.
“Hey. Song Siyeon.”
“…?”
“You saw that guy up close yesterday, right? What was he like?”
“...Well. I don't really know. I was too flustered.”
“Right. Like you'd know anything.”
One labmate snorted and turned away.
There wasn't much difference here, either.
Even in the occult world, bloodlines and families or whatever seemed to matter; they just clustered together among themselves.
“Is Do-hwang still at school?”
“Don't know?”
“Someone just posted another sighting on Ghost-Flame. Said they saw him near the library.”
“Whoa, really?”
Bang.
The person who opened the lab door and came in was the necromancy professor.
Siyeon's advisor.
“Professor, hello...”
Thud.
A stack of documents landed on the desk.
“Sort out the conference materials with the others. I have to go on a business trip this afternoon.”
“...Yes.”
The professor glanced at Siyeon's soul-separation materials.
“You're still hanging on to that? I told you to change your research topic ages ago.”
“...”
“Hah, forget it. Have it sorted by next week. Good work.”
As soon as the professor left, her labmates began to rise from their seats one by one.
“Hey, Siyeon, we're going out to get something to eat.”
“Could you sort this out for us? Hm? You're always so meticulous.”
Without even waiting for an answer, the labmates started gathering up their things.
Even then, their mouths still wouldn't stop.
“Hey, so where is Do-hwang now?”
“The library. The library. Hey, let's hurry.”
“I'm just going to touch up my makeup real quick.”
“Damn, are you going on a date or something?”
Siyeon silently took a sip of her cold coffee.
It was bitter. And she was so sleepy.
She hadn't slept a wink last night either.
Right then.
Knock, knock, knock—
Someone knocked on the lab door.
“...Come in.”
The door opened, and a man walked in.
Black hair, sharp eyes, and a seductive mole beneath his eye.
Flashy earrings and a cool face.
“…!”
The labmates who had been about to leave froze in place.
It was the very Do-hwang they'd only heard about in rumors.
“M-Master Do...?!”
One labmate stammered in a trembling voice.
Everyone thought he had come to see the professor and hurriedly made way.
“The professor just left on a business trip—!”
Then Do-hyun shook his head.
“No. I'm not here to see the professor. I came to see Siyeon.”
“...”
In an instant, the lab fell dead silent.
The labmates who had been looking down on Siyeon just moments ago stared with their mouths hanging open, glancing back and forth between Siyeon and Do-hyun.
“...M-me?”
Siyeon pointed at herself with a dazed expression.
***
A small reception table in the corner of the lab.
When Do-hyun sat down across from her, Siyeon inexplicably fidgeted and held out a paper cup of instant coffee.
A sidelong glance.
Through the glass partition, she could vividly feel her labmates—the ones who'd said they were going to get food—unable to leave, stuck in the hallway and sneakily peeking this way.
'...'
Pretending not to notice, Siyeon turned her gaze to Do-hyun.
"...Um, is the coffee okay?"
"Yes. Thank you. But it seems like you've been very busy lately. Your complexion..."
"Huh?"
Siyeon flinched.
Do-hyun was quietly looking over her face.
"Your dark circles are pretty bad. You don't look like you've been sleeping at all."
"Ah, that..."
Siyeon hurriedly covered the skin beneath her eyes with the back of her hand.
So it had shown.
"I, I mean... there's something I do at night..."
Having said that, Siyeon frantically waved her hands.
"N-no! It's nothing."
“…?”
Do-hyun tilted his head slightly, but didn't pry further.
“Ah, right.”
Instead, he asked something else.
“I thought you were a teaching assistant in sealing studies, Siyeon. I saw you in the auditorium yesterday.”
“Ah... that was because Professor Goo asked me to help out for a bit since they were short-handed.”
In truth, it had been something a labmate had quietly dumped on her, but she didn't bother saying that.
“So you wanted to ask about the spell formula I used yesterday?”
Siyeon asked as she took a thick stack of research materials from her bag.
“Yes, that's right.”
“That... is called soul-separation sorcery.”
Siyeon said carefully.
“You've heard of astral projection, right? It's... well, something like briefly separating the soul from the body.”
Do-hwang silently took the materials and started turning the pages.
Siyeon stole glances at Do-hyun as he read the notes.
'...He really is handsome.'
Especially up close.
Maybe I was into younger guys after all.
'No, what am I thinking?'
Siyeon hurriedly shook her head.
"Haha... as you can see, it's not a finished spell. It probably won't help you much."
"..."
"It also uses too much spiritual energy. If you lose focus even a little, the soul can just scatter... Everyone says it's far too dangerous."
Useless, they said.
Dangerous, and without any practical use.
How many times had she heard that?
"..."
Do-hyun gave no answer.
He simply kept reading through the materials, one page at a time, with a serious expression.
Siyeon grew awkward for no reason and fiddled with her cold coffee.
Then Do-hwang lifted his head.
And looked straight at Siyeon.
"Could you show me once?"
"...Huh?"
"That sorcery. I want to see it firsthand."
"...You want me to show you this?"
"Yes."
No one had ever asked Siyeon to show them that spell before.
Everyone had only ever said it was useless.
"It seems like exactly the spell I need right now."
Something in her chest felt strangely ticklish.
Wanting to see it firsthand, saying it was absolutely necessary—it was like he was telling her this spell had value too.
"B-but... it's a little hard to do here."
"Hard?"
"It's just... getting back is much harder than leaving."
She had to keep her concentration all the way to the end.
Until the very moment the soul returned to the body.
"That's why I always practice only in familiar places. In my room. At night."
In the same spot, the same environment every day.
That was the only way the soul wouldn't lose its way and could return to her body.
"...Ah."
Now that she'd said it, it felt oddly embarrassing.
Wasn't this basically the same as telling him to come to her room?
To a man she'd just met.
"...I-I mean, that's not what I meant, there's no other meaning—"
As Siyeon flailed and scrambled for an excuse,
"Then let's go there."
Do-hyun stood up coolly, as if it were nothing on earth to him again?