“Who are you?”
The jeoseung saja looks at Junhee, scrutinizing him from head to toe. Junhee stands firm. He’s not afraid of women, even those in heels high and thin enough to stab him through the heart. He’s not scared of women who glaring at him hard enough to kill. He’s not scared of women who are the literal representation of death itself, staring him in the face, with fancy wide-brimmed hats and old-fashioned hanboks and holding books filled with names of the dead.
Junhee shifts to hide Sayuri and Dae Hyuk. “Just someone who’s trying to hunt down a serial killer,” he says vaguely, “and if talking to ghosts is the way to go, I’ll do it, so I’m afraid I can’t let you take my witness yet.”
The woman squints at him. Even after Minji’s training, Junhee can’t even begin to guess how old she is. She must be somewhere in her fifties, by her silvery hair, but the texture of her skin makes her look ageless and untouched by time, in a way. A little like that American actor who played Ant-man, what was his name again? Paul Rudd-sunbaenim? The woman looks like the type of person to look exactly the same twenty years down the line. “You can see me,” she murmurs, “and you can see them. Yet you aren’t a jeoseung saja. So what are you, boy?”
She flicks through her notebook of death. The way she holds the book looks a little familiar, but once again, Junhee’s memory fails him. He forces himself not to let his scowl show. “Song Junhee.” This time, Junhee can’t hide his flinch. That was fast. Must be one of the perks of being a seasoned grim reaper. “You were supposed to die two months ago, but here you are, standing in front of me, having the sheer guts to talk to ghosts right in front of my eyes, when you’re no better than a ghost yourself.”
“But I’m not dead,” he reasons, “so you can’t collect my soul anymore or whatever.” I made a deal with a crow for a prolonged lifespan anyway. It sounds funny, now that he thinks about it. “I’m here to make a deal with you, ahjumma.”
He’d meant it politely, but suddenly, the cafe seems to have dipped into sub-zero temperatures. Maybe he’d gone wrong with the ‘ahjumma’, but he really doesn’t know what to call the jeoseung saja, and ‘noona’ doesn’t quite seem to work! “Deal? Silly boy, death doesn’t make deals.”
Then talk to me about that damn jeoseung saja crow, Junhee thinks to himself, making not one but two deals with me! “Well, you could always make an exception!” He pipes up. “Besides, is there even a deadline to when you have to guide souls off to the afterlife?”
She sneers at him with K-Drama levels of motherly disappointment. “Fine, then. You may explain this ‘deal’ of yours and what your terms and conditions are, but I will decide whether to agree or not.”
Junhee nods, relieved. She must see it on his face, because her sneer turns almost amused. Yeah, laugh at my suffering. I hope you find it funny. “Usually, ghosts have this thing where they have to fulfill their dying wishes before they can move on, right? So they can live happily in the afterlife without regrets, or reincarnate if they wish?”
The woman scowls. “Mortals and their media. Always spreading insolence and lies. But let's pretend that's true for now, So let’s say that’s the truth for now. Yng Junhee. You may continue."
“Thank you. My suggestion is this: You may collect Son Dae Hyuk and Hayakawa Sayuri’s souls, but only once they have fulfilled their last wishes, which we will ask them about and you will have to listen to, word for word. Do we have a deal?”
“Oh? Then what about your soul, then? Surely you’ve now realized you’ve put the cycle of life out of balance, and the ”
“What I do with my life isn’t part of this deal,” Junhee says dismissively. Be confident, he remembers Minji telling him, the more confident you are, the less likely people will be able to tell if you’re scared or you’re lying. He thinks of his manager telling his younger self to hide his fears and his true feelings in front of his fans, remembering the sheer exhaustion he’d felt after his first fan-meet. Fake it ‘til you make it ‘til you do, ‘til it’s true, something along those lines. “My soul and my life is not the point, right now. You’re trying to take their souls, aren’t you? I’m just a side bonus you found.”
The jeoseung saja looks constipated at being stuck in this situation, but to Junhee’s surprise, she eventually tells him: “Fine, then. We have a deal, Song Junhee. I suppose you may consider yourself the winner.”
Junhee can’t stop himself from grinning. “Thank you for your cooperation,” he chirps like a certain somebody had once done.
The second he says that, realization dawns on the woman’s face. “Oh, so you are The Song Junhee.”
“Yes, I’m Song Junhee, I’m not part of the equation, let’s move on?”
“Let’s not,” she says. She takes a step closer, and Junhee takes a step back. There better not be a wall behind him. “I remember you.” She rolls her eyes. “My son made a bet with me to save you.”
“Your son?” The crow made a bet with this woman, who is actually his mothers? Grim reapers actually have parents? “Why?”
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She opens her mouth, but closes it soon after, looking annoyed. “He politely asked me not to give away any details if I ever saw you. It was the most polite he had ever been towards me. Children will always be children, but for you…” She still looks at Junhee like he’s no better than chewed up gum under her shoe. “I don’t think I will ever understand.”
Youch. And here Junhee was thinking Crow-ssi was the perfect example of the dutiful son, with how often he was being called away for work by his mother. “And who are you, may I ask?”
“They call me Number 13. Which doesn’t help you in the slightest, if you’re trying to be sneaky and ask for clues.” Junhee has the strangest feeling - is she teasing him? Now that she Knows who he is, maybe she finds it funny that he doesn’t know anything at all.
“Alright then, Shipsam-ssi. Would you mind asking Sayuri and Dae Hyuk to come over? I can’t walk out in case Yeonhwa-ssi and Minji get suspicious. Thank you!”
“Mortals,” she mutters as she click-clacks away, “I am the current highest ranking jeoseung saja, yet this measly human thinks he has the right to order me around.” At least Junhee was polite about it! Minji probably would’ve just given orders like she owned the place. She does that to all the lower-ranking police officers who are technically under Chung-jae’s supervision instead.
Still, the thirteenth grim reaper makes her way over to Sayuri and Dae Hyuk, hauling them over. Dae Hyuk protests when the woman practically the jeoseung saja makes her way over to the two spirits, dragging them over screaming and kicking. Dae Hyuk is actually wailing for his sunbae as the woman hauls him over by the ear. “Sunbaenim,” the younger idol cries when Number 13 tweaks his ear a little too hard, “I don’t want to go! Don’t let the ahjumma take me, I want to stay!”
“It’s okay,” Junhee consoles the two of them, “she’s going to help us. I think. Shipsam-ssi is only a little bit mean, especially when you call her ahjumma.”
“Understatement of the year,” Sayuri mutters as she smooths out her skirt. She makes a face at the grim reaper, who only stares back haughtily.
Junhee offers his hoobae a pat on the head, which makes Dae Hyuk brighten immediately, his imaginary wagging tail returning. Now that Junhee thinks of it, the younger boy acts a lot like Wolwol, and the two of them look slightly similar, actually. It might be like why Minji and Bora both say he and Byeol are similar, both cool on the outside but remarkably playful once you get to know them. That might be why the kitten loves him so much and has since refused to return to her family and her former life as a stray cat. “So, Shipsam-ssi, would you mind explaining how exactly the post-death process works? Since you have plenty of experience, and the three of us here are basically ghosts?”
Number 13 sighs heavily. “You die, we jeoseung saja take your souls to the afterlife.” She sighs again, extra heavily. “If you’re lucky, we spare you some time to fulfill your last wish so you don’t pass on with regrets and we don’t get complaints filed against us by some particularly shameless, irritating souls.” She gives Junhee a Look, but he just shrugs. Like what, is he supposed to feel guilty about this? It’s not like he’s a monster who doesn’t care about his friends. “So, Hayakawa Sayuri, Son Dae Hyuk, speak. What are your desires?”
The two idol spirits look at each other. “You go first,” Dae Hyuk says quickly. “You’re the one she’s really after. I didn’t even get any grim reapers coming after me.” Which is better, goes unsaid.
Sayuri shrugs. “Suit yourself. I… I want to move on.”
Junhee and Dae Hyuk both look at her with wide eyes. Honestly, Junhee hadn’t expected that coming. Sayuri swallows, visibly shrinking in on herself. Here, bare-faced and insecure, she looks nothing like the confident vocalist and dancer the other two idols and the rest of the world know her better as. Maybe that’s all of them, actually. “I feel so selfish for saying this, but the longer I stay here, the longer it hurts. It hurts to see myself, you know, dead. It hurts to see Yeonhwa hurting because of me. I want to stay a little while, just to know she’ll be okay, but the longer I stay here, watching her, the more I feel like I’m living a lie.”
Number 13’s eyebrow twitches. Now that Junhee thinks about it, she looks a little bit like someone he knows, but he can’t think of who. “So all of that fuss about not wanting to go earlier was for nothing?”
“No!” Sayuri protests. “That’s not- I just wanted to make sure she’d be okay.”
“So what’s your wish?”
“I want… I want her to know I want her to be happy without me. I want her to know that…” Her voice quietens into a near-whisper. “She doesn’t have to hear it directly from me, ‘cause I think that’d hurt us both, but… I want her to know I love her. That I loved her.”
"Are you sure? You could technically wish for anything, except coming back to life." At that, Number 13 gives Junhee the dirtiest look of all time. It’s not like Junhee is the only one to blame here! Number 13’s apparent own son, the ever-mysterious Crow-ssi, had an even bigger role to play! She turns to Sayuri, something gentler on her face. "Is that your final desire?"
"Yes," Sayuri says. "I'm sure. This…" She takes a deep breath. Inhales. Exhales. "This is what I want. Even if it hurts us both to know there's no future we can share anymore, I… I don't want to die with these regrets. I don't want her to think I died angry at her. I want her to know I care about her, and I always have, and… and…"
"But it means she'll have to live with them," Number 13 points out. "And that is what you want?”
“Yes.” Sayuri takes a deep breath, steadying her shaking hands. “Please don’t make me regret this.”
“Of course, Hayakawa Sayuri. You asked for no regrets, therefore you shall have none.”
“Thank you, jeoseung saja-ahjumma.”
Number 13’s eyebrow twitches once more, even more aggressively than before. “You may call me Number 13. Or Shipsam-ssi, as your friend has said. But I will request you all never to call me ahjumma again.”
The three of them nod meekly. To Junhee, it feels like they’re back in their trainee days, always on the brink of being yelled at by a vocal coach, or a dance instructor, or a manager, or the worst case scenario, the CEO themself…
“Hayakawa Sayuri, your wish will come true in five, four, three, two-”
The cafe door swings open violently, revealing a young man with firetruck-red hair. “Sayuri!” He brushes off Chung-jae’s hand when the inspector tries to pull him back. Junhee ducks into a corner, unsure if he should let the man see him or not. “That’s my best fucking friend, let me go!”
Yeonhwa whips around so fast she almost falls off her seat. “Taesuk-ssi? Wait, best… friend?”
“Yes! She’s been in love with you the whole damn time!”