Chapter 14

Until Cho Youngwoo mentioned the existence of butterflies, Jaegyeom was worried.

Butterflies following Cho Youngwoo were invisible to ordinary people. However, Cho Youngwoo knew about the existence of the butterflies. Even ordinary people could have weak spirits, or sometimes their eyes might be temporarily open when they go to a certain place. Maybe he was a gwijae, maybe he wasn't. Both were potential stories.

The moment when the suspicion changed to certainty was when Cho Youngwoo brought up the story of yut. He recently said that his fortune-telling matched well. The fact that the fortune-telling began to match was evidence that the ability as a gwijae was gradually being expressed. From a faucet, it was like drip, drip, drip, gradually turning into a thick stream of water. Judging by the fact that he thought he saw things, it seemed he may not be able to see yet, but soon his eyes would be fully opened.

Cho Youngwoo must be a gwijae.

Usually, gwijaes were very happy to meet others like them. It was natural to have a good feeling that comes from a sense of kinship, but in the case of Jaegyeom, it was the exact opposite. Jaegyeom hated gwijaes very much.

The only reason they got along was because he thought Cho Youngwoo was an ordinary person. On the contrary, Jaegyeom tended to be much more tolerant of ordinary people. They didn't know anything about this field and didn't have abilities, so he just had to cover it up and hide it anyway. If he had known that Cho Youngwoo was a gwijae, he would not have exchanged words with him in the first place. A gwijae was a being that could become cunning at any time, like a coiled snake, Jaegyeom thought. This deep-seated distrust was an epiphany from someone in the past.

Jaegyeom sat on a bench at his bus stop and waited for the bus alone.

The longer he waited for the bus that never came, the more Jaegyeom's mood hit bottom. An unusually pale skin and glazed-looking face came to mind like an afterimage. Cho Youngwoo was an easy-to-understand guy whose emotions were clearly visible on his face. He kept thinking about the expression on his face when he didn't know what to say to his words earlier.

At that moment, Jaegyeom suddenly heard a faint voice ringing in his ear.

-"Wooya, wooya…"

Jaegyeom stopped at the sudden voice and looked around. The voice calling out anxiously was old and frail. However, there was no one near the bus stop who could be assumed to be the owner of the voice. There were only young students in school uniforms around, and it seemed like they couldn't hear anything.

Then this sound…

Jaegyeom, who had been listening to it, raised his hands and covered his ears.

When he plugged his ears, the sound of cars on the road, the chatter of students, and all the sounds in his ears disappeared. But the old woman's voice was an exception. Rather, it sounded much clearer and distinct. It was as Jaegyeom expected. This voice was not heard by an ordinary person's ears.

Jaegyeom focused his ears on the sound that came closer.

-"Youngwoo-ya, Youngwoo-ya…"

Youngwoo? Jaegyeom stood up from his seat without even realizing it.

'Domogeol'. The cold one gets clothed. In other words, it meant overcoming difficulties with the help of a precious person. Cho Youngwoo said that he had seen the interpretation that there would be good news. However, strictly speaking, this fortune-telling was not an auspicious fortune-telling. Either way, it was going to be difficult.

Then, where was that voice coming from…

-"What does it matter?"

Jaegyeom murmured softly and sat down on the bench again.

Precious person? Whether it was Cho Youngwoo or whoever it was, he never dreamed of becoming someone's precious person.

Fortune-telling was a set law. Even if it's not him anyway, someone would help him if Cho Youngwoo's fortune-telling was correct.

If it was something related to ghosts, there might come a situation where he would have to reveal that he was a gwijae after intervening. It would be troublesome to deal with it, and in order to do it, he would have to explain it in detail, and it was all a hassle. The last thing he wanted was to get caught up in something that had nothing to do with him.

The meat side dishes piled up on the plate suddenly came to mind.

-"Do you want to go home with me after class?"

-"Do you like meat? I didn't touch it."

-"Today's fortune told me that there would be good news. And today, Jaegyeom, you transferred schools."

No matter how he looked at it, there was no reason to go. Yeah, there wasn't…

-"The bus doesn't come too often."

Jaegyeom eventually got up from his bench in annoyance.

-"It's yours, right?"

A transparent butterfly fluttered out of the woman's hand.

-"H-How…"

Cho Youngwoo widened his eyes in surprise.

The woman watched the butterfly move with a smile on her lips. The butterfly wandered near the woman and suddenly landed on her shoulder.

-"Can you see this?"

-"Of course. It is a butterfly."

-"Sorry, but um… wh-who are you?"

-"There are a lot of eyes here."

-"Yes?"

Cho Youngwoo looked around. Passers-by looked up and down at him as if they had seen someone strange.

What? Why were they staring?

Cho Youngwoo, who didn't know anything, was just embarrassed by people's eyes. In the eyes of people, he was talking to himself in the air.

-"Do you want to go over there and talk for a minute?"

The woman smiled broadly and pointed to an alley behind the store.

-"There is something I really want to tell you."

-"M-Me?"

The woman turned around and headed for the alley.

He thought she was an illusion that only his eyes could see. How could this person see the butterfly?

Cho Youngwoo's heart raced. From the meaningful words and expressions on her face, it was clear that she knew something. Concerned, he hesitantly followed the woman.

As soon as he entered the deserted alley, the woman pushed her face toward Cho Youngwoo.

Surprised, Cho Youngwoo was stunned and stepped back.

The woman he saw from a few steps away had an extraordinary demeanor. But seeing her so close, he felt something foreign.

The woman with a smile on her lips had bizarre black eyes. She looked like a mannequin smiling.

-"Give me that butterfly."

-"Yes?"

-"You don't like butterflies, do you? You don't want to see them, right?"

Startled by the sudden request, Cho Youngwoo made a dumbfounded noise.

-"The butterfly is following you around to mislead them. It's a butterfly that follows you to bring misfortune to you, so give it to me."

Cho Youngwoo opened his mouth with a bewildered face.

A butterfly that brought misfortune… he couldn't understand what she was talking about.

The woman was staring at Cho Youngwoo with her eyes as black as a Go piece. It was as if she could see through everything. She smiled and held out her palm.

-"Uh…"

At that moment, chills ran down his spine. Cho Youngwoo took a step back without even realizing it.

Then the smile disappeared from the woman's face.

It felt as if the air was suddenly getting chilly, just like the cold woman's expression. A feeling of nausea came over out of nowhere.

Just when Cho Youngwoo hurriedly covered his mouth with both hands,

-"Or, how about this…"

The woman who looked down at her empty palm opened her mouth after a while.

-"Just tear the butterfly apart with your hand and kill it."

Cho Youngwoo turned around and tried to run.

He had to run away.

It was an instinctive thought.

But for some reason, he couldn't move his legs.

Not a single fingertip of his could move, as if he had been held down by scissors.

Cho Youngwoo trembled with a pale face.

-"You don't like butterflies, do you? You don't like them? Yes?"

The woman's pupils, which were as black as a Go piece, were getting wider and wider.

-"Answer me. You hate butterflies!"

Finally, the woman's dark eyes swallowed all of the whites.

At the same time, Cho Youngwoo's eyes blurred, and the focus disappeared.

He had his eyes open but was unconscious, like a fish.

From a certain moment, Cho Youngwoo was staring blankly at the woman's eyes.

He had been scared to death until just now, but the fear disappeared in an instant.

Instead, there was anger rising to his head.

-"Kill it, hurry."

Caught in anger, Cho Youngwoo mechanically nodded at the woman's command.

His body, which had been paralyzed just before, moved as lightly as a feather.

He reached out and wrapped his hand around the butterfly that was sitting quietly on his shoulder.

The feeling of the butterfly's wings twitching in his fist was vividly conveyed.

Now, the only thought in Cho Youngwoo's mind was to kill the butterfly.

The woman was right.

It's all because of this butterfly.

He was convinced that if this butterfly disappeared, everything would be solved.

-"Kill it… hurry…"

Cho Youngwoo followed the woman's words like a parrot.

Then, the woman bared her pearly whites and smiled with satisfaction.

Just when he tried to put power into his grasp, a look of bewilderment flashed across the woman's face, which had been relaxed all along.

The moment the woman hurriedly stretched out her hand toward him—

Pa-!-

Cho Youngwoo's body collapsed by a narrow margin.

At the same time, a butterfly shot out of his grasp.

-"Ah, huh, ugh…"

Cho Youngwoo, who fell forward, wrapped his arms around the back of his head.

It was such a shock that his mind flashed to the point where he was afraid that his skull had been shattered.

His vision seemed to be dyed black, and then his mind turned pure white.

At the tremendous pain that surged like a wave, Cho Youngwoo fell onto the floor with a groan.

The first thing that came into view of Cho Youngwoo, who was groaning, was a pair of beige Converse All-Stars.

He lifted his head with difficulty.

Jaegyeom was looking down at him with a pathetic expression as he slung his bag on one shoulder.

-"What are you doing?"

Cho Youngwoo looked up at Jaegyeom with confused eyes.

Jaegyeom's slap on the back of his head brought his blurry eyes back into focus.

What's happening now?

As if he had just woken up, Cho Youngwoo's head sluggishly worked.

He opened his mouth to gibberish.

-"Uh, the butterfly, no, how… Jaegyeom. Why are you here?"

Jaegyeom scratched his forehead wordlessly.

He interrupted since things were going so badly, but now it was awkward since he did not know what to say.

After hesitating for a moment, he fired back nervously.

-"Ah, you said to go home together!"