The Dog Spirit
Heeseo hesitated for a moment. Even if she severed the chain, without a key she still could not open the door and step inside. Finding a key seemed just as remote a prospect.
While she stood lost in thought, a sharp click sounded from somewhere far off, and the security lights went dark. She had been examining the thickness of the lock and chain when she abruptly froze. Belatedly steadying her breath, she reached out with her senses and felt for the energy around her.
Something was approaching her—very slowly.
Damn it… I let my guard down.
She had been concentrating so hard that she noticed the presence far too late. Heeseo hastily sharpened every sense she possessed.
She could feel the approaching presence, yet she heard no footsteps. That meant it was not human—and that it had no physical body.
This is bad.
For Heeseo, who lacked Young-an, the most dangerous opponents were the bodiless ghosts that had not possessed anyone. No matter how fatal her spiritual power was to spirits, she could not strike first at an enemy she could not see. Against those, she had no choice but to offer flesh in order to claim bone.
She snatched the fan from her back pocket. With a crisp snap she flicked it open, and the three Buddhas painted upon it glowed vividly even in the dark.
The Three Buddha Fan. One of the tools Heeseo used to drive away ghosts.
It’s big.
The instant she poured her spiritual power into the Three Buddha Fan, the dim security lights winked out one after another—click, click, click! At the same time she felt the unknown presence drawing steadily closer.
Sweat sprang unbidden to the hand gripping the fan. She steadied her breathing and rolled her tongue inside her mouth, about to begin the spirit-expelling chant—
“Ugh!”
Thud! A sudden crushing weight slammed into her and drove her flat to the floor.
Before she could even swing the Three Buddha Fan, whatever had climbed onto her had already pinned her down.
“Ack! Wh-what the—!”
Slap-slap-slap-slap-slap, slap-slap-slap-slap!
“What are you?!”
Something broad and wet scrubbed frantically across her cheek. The sudden sensation made Heeseo flinch and shudder in disgust.
Her cheek was soaked through in no time. The only reason she still did not swing the fan was that the creature’s energy was far too—
“A beast spirit…?”
—bright.
Slap-slap, slap-slap-slap! Slap-slap-slap!
“Stop—just—wait a second, stop!”
A warm, thick sensation rubbed over her face and jaw. More precisely, it felt exactly like an animal’s tongue licking her.
Heeseo hastily stuffed the Three Buddha Fan back into her pocket and shook her head. The “something” straddling her let out a low, grumbling sound.
Nnngh, whiiine… Hah, hah, hah.
The hand she thrust out reflexively met a thick, fluffy coat. Steadying her startled heart, she closed her eyes and groped through the empty air. What she found was a body easily the size of a small calf.
“……Oh, for fuck’s—”
Not “dog-like.” An actual dog.
Long-haired, heavily coated, heavy, fluffy, and hot—a dog.
“What are you? Why are you here? It’s not common for a dog’s soul to linger—so why…?”
Among beasts, dogs possessed such clear energy that they almost never remained in the living world. Moreover, a spirit whose form was this perfectly intact was something even Heeseo had never seen before.
Without thinking she stroked the thick, fluffy fur and muttered,
“Not a poodle… Some kind of long-haired breed, maybe…”
The dog still occupying her lap was quite large. Its weight was solid—far from ordinary. In its panting breath she could detect not a trace of malice.
“Why are you here? Why?”
Ever since she was little, Heeseo had been helpless against anything small and cute. She often found herself unable to walk past abandoned animals. Whenever she discovered a lost dog, young Heeseo would cling to her parents’ hands and wander the village until the owner was found—until, in the end, they somehow ended up raising four or five dogs of their own.
“Did you lose your way? Or are you waiting for someone?”
Scratch-scratch-scratch. She rubbed under the dog’s chin and murmured softly.
Most beast spirits that remained in the living world simply did not realize they were dead. Occasionally, even knowing they had died, they refused to leave because they were still waiting for their masters.
Heeseo hesitated.
…Its energy is so clear that a proper send-off would make it vanish in an instant. But—
If it happened to be waiting for someone… if, like her, it was searching for its family…
Her stroking hand gradually slowed as the thought took hold. Then the dog straddling her exhaled a sharp huff.
Sniff-sniff, sniff! Sniff!
It swung its head this way and that as if catching a scent—then trampled straight over her and bolted.
In an instant Heeseo was crushed under four paws. She yelped and flailed on the floor. The concentrated weight of those heavy feet was so crushing that a scream tore from her throat of its own accord.
“Wait—!”
The security lights that had gone dark with the dog’s arrival flickered back on all at once. The panting breaths grew steadily more distant. Heeseo was just bracing her hands against the floor and scrambling to rise when—
Far down the corridor, someone was watching her.
“……!”
“Lee Heeseo-ssi. What exactly are you doing there right now?”
The man standing in the middle of the dim hallway was Kim Jeeon. Whether he had witnessed every second of her thrashing on the floor or not, a smile hung on his face.
Heeseo’s expression crumpled like a sheet of paper.
“I heard you majored in dance, and your movements certainly are… distinctive. Strangely artistic, somehow? How should I put it? Full of vitality? Something no one else could easily imitate?”
“…….”
Should I hit him just once? Just once. Right on the head—just one solid punch.
Heeseo fought to keep her temper in check and tried to ignore him. Jeeon’s voice, laced with laughter, asked,
“What business brought you all the way down to the basement? At this hour of the night?”
Heat flooded her face at the question.
It had been only that morning that they had argued over her stealing his underwear. Past midnight now, so technically yesterday—but still far too soon for her dignity to recover after being seen rolling around on the floor.
Even if the opponent had been a ghost, wounded pride was another matter entirely. Heeseo considered herself a civilized person, after all.
“I could ask you the same thing. What are you doing down here at this hour? Ah—of course. The Ox Hour. Perfect time to be active, isn’t it?”
The Ox Hour was when a ghost’s influence grew strongest. It was also when the possessed, who had lain like corpses all day, most often bolted upright to gorge themselves or rampage.
At her suspicion, Kim Jeeon, seated across from her, let a quiet smile slip.
Why does he keep smiling every time he looks at me? What a waste of that face.
That laughing voice was pleasant no matter when she heard it. And with a face like that on top of it…
Even while she silently cursed the unfairness of the world, Jeeon answered diligently.
“Sometimes when I can’t sleep I have a glass of wine. The wine cellar is downstairs.”
Come to think of it, there had been a wine storage room in the direction she had first explored in the basement. Whether that was true or not, her suspicion did not lessen.
“You could summon someone with a snap of your fingers, yet you personally go all the way down to the basement to fetch a drink?”
“I can hardly wake people up in the middle of the night just because I want a glass of wine, can I?”
“How very polite of you.”
“I hear that fairly often. That’s a compliment, I take it?”
At the sly reply Heeseo simply stared him down.
Unlike the tuxedo or formal suits she had seen him in before, he wore a loose T-shirt and cotton pants—an appearance she was meeting for the first time. The hair falling naturally over his forehead made him look considerably younger.
“Heeseo-ssi.”
“What?”
Wineglass in hand, Kim Jeeon called her name. Still glaring, she answered belatedly. The man tipped his glass and smiled, lips as red as the wine.
His whispering voice, utterly mismatched to the situation, was soft as a song.
“I understand the snacks are lacking, but do I look that delicious to you?”
“……What?”
“Your gaze is far too heated. If you’d like, we can start sharing a bedroom from tonight.”
Heat surged through her again—for an entirely different reason. Jeeon lowered his long lashes like a demure young lady and smiled faintly.
Ha. This shameless thing, picking a fight with me—
Heeseo let out a hollow laugh. Instead of exploding she drained the wine in her glass in one go. The fragrant grape scent slid smoothly down her throat.
“Sorry, but I have no interest in sleeping with ghosts. Hey—you. Since when have you been inside that body?”
“Since when… Well, from a very long time ago, I suppose?”