By the time Mu-ryeong and Hwan-young reached the entrance, Ye-jun was still fumbling with the locks, trying to undo them one by one. They hadn’t noticed when they first entered, but now it was clear—there were an excessive number of locks. It seemed as though someone had gone to extreme lengths to ensure he wouldn’t leave the house.Click. Click.The way his fingers moved across the locks was anything but normal. Whatever spirit had possessed him, it was a persistent one. If it was so desperate to stay inside, then what unfinished business could possibly be driving it to this extent?Finally, Ye-jun pushed the door open and stepped outside. Mu-ryeong and Hwan-young moved to follow, but before they could take another step, Danchu darted past them.“Danchu, no.”Mu-ryeong swiftly scooped up the cat. His tone was firm, just as it was when dealing with Seolgi or the goblin, but unlike dogs, cats rarely listened to commands. Danchu’s fur bristled as he continued to glare warily at Ye-jun. The way animals sensed spirits was something that couldn’t be ignored.“Be good. Stay here and wait.”Fortunately, Danchu didn’t try to run outside.After watching the cat retreat back into the bedroom, the two of them slipped out the door. By then, the possessed spirit had already made its way into the elevator and begun descending.“We’ll take the stairs.”Mu-ryeong immediately made his way to the stairwell, bounding down two or three steps at a time. Yet, despite his quick movements, his footsteps barely made a sound. His small frame made him light on his feet—he moved more like a rabbit or a squirrel than a person.By the time they reached the ground floor, they spotted Ye-jun stepping out of the apartment complex. Though the elevator had reached the bottom first, their quick pace had allowed them to keep up, especially given how sluggishly the possessed Ye-jun was moving.They silently fell into step behind him, maintaining a careful distance as they followed.“……”“……”Through the apartment complex, down dark alleyways, and onto the main road. Ye-jun didn’t stop walking, his steps unsteady but not as erratic as the last time he had been possessed.“How far is he going…?”“He mentioned a residential area in the next neighborhood. We still have a ways to go.”Mu-ryeong’s whisper was barely audible as he pressed himself against a wall. He peeked around the corner cautiously, his every movement meticulous.Hwan-young, standing behind him, inadvertently lowered his gaze. Because of the way Mu-ryeong’s shirt collar sat, his exposed neck and collarbones were clearly visible.For someone who eats so much… he’s really thin.It was something he often noticed whenever he looked at Mu-ryeong. He was small, almost too small. Like when Hwan-young had cradled the back of his head earlier, or when he stood near him in his velcro-strap sneakers.But it wasn’t as if Mu-ryeong looked frail. He was just slightly undergrown—nothing extreme. When standing next to shorter girls, he could even look fairly sturdy. His hands and feet weren’t unusually small for his height, either.Still… he was incredibly light.Even so, there were times when Hwan-young felt like he could just scoop him up in one hand. The last time he had carried him on his back, it had felt effortless, as if he could hold him all day. He wasn’t delicate or weak, yet the contradiction was fascinating the more he thought about it.Mu-ryeong remained focused on watching Ye-jun. Meanwhile, Hwan-young found himself focused on Mu-ryeong.At some point, they entered a quiet residential neighborhood. Under a broken streetlight, Ye-jun finally stopped walking.“This must be the place.”It seemed like this had been his destination all along.Hwan-young frowned, observing him closely. “What is he doing?”There was something unsettling about the way Ye-jun simply stood there. The last time he had been possessed, he had suddenly begun digging at the ground, leading to a chaotic situation.Mu-ryeong, crouched behind a wall, murmured softly.“…It looks like he’s watching something.”His round eyes narrowed.Ye-jun’s gaze was locked in a single direction. Following his line of sight, they spotted a house beyond the wall, its windows faintly illuminated.“Did he used to live there?”“Not sure…”Standing completely still like that made it impossible to tell what he was thinking. At least he wasn’t mindlessly destroying things this time, but that also made this situation more complicated.Just as Hwan-young was beginning to think exorcism wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed, Mu-ryeong suddenly took a step forward.“I’m going to talk to him.”“…What?”They had been quietly observing him all this time, and now he was suddenly acting on impulse. Mu-ryeong’s decisiveness was always absurdly fast—by the time Hwan-young had a chance to react, he was already walking straight toward Ye-jun.Hwan-young sighed under his breath before following after him.“Excuse me.”“……”Ye-jun flinched. His reaction was so intense that it almost seemed suspicious. But Mu-ryeong’s voice remained bright and casual as he asked,“What are you doing here?”At that moment, Hwan-young sensed the yin energy around Ye-jun thicken. He wasn’t a vengeful spirit—at least not yet—but the sensation sent an eerie chill up his spine.“What are you doing here?”“……”It wasn’t until the second time he asked that Ye-jun finally turned toward Mu-ryeong. But with a mask covering the lower half of his face, his expression was unreadable.Hwan-young had assumed all possessed spirits felt the same, but now he wasn’t so sure.“Were you looking at that house?”“……”“Did you used to live there?”“……”“Or do you have some kind of business here?”Mu-ryeong continued asking questions, but the spirit refused to answer. It only stood there, staring blankly at Mu-ryeong—though whether it was actually seeing him was uncertain.Mu-ryeong clicked his tongue softly.“Come out of that body.”For the first time, Hwan-young thought Mu-ryeong sounded… cold.Cold. That word didn’t suit Kim Mu-ryeong at all. And yet, his voice carried an unwavering firmness as he spoke.“You shouldn’t do bad things while using someone else’s body.”"…Bad things?"This translation is the intellectual property of .Hwan-young furrowed his brow slightly. From what he had observed, the only thing this spirit had done so far was stand beneath a streetlamp. And yet, Mu-ryeong had called it a bad act. What exactly made it so?“If you don’t come out now—”“What business is it of yours?”A chilling voice slipped from Ye-jun’s lips just as Mu-ryeong was about to wrap his hand in spiritual energy. Even Hwan-young was caught off guard by how clear and deliberate the words were, but the possessed Ye-jun remained unfazed, his tone laced with quiet hostility.“Who do you think you are? What right do you have?”“I’m an exorcist.”“……”Was that supposed to be polite?Without hesitation, Mu-ryeong had simply stated his job. He then stepped forward, his fingers pulsing with the concentrated glow of spiritual energy.“I’ll give you five seconds. If you don’t come out, I’ll force you out.”Why was he being so forceful today?Hwan-young thought back to how Mu-ryeong usually handled spirits. He always listened first, always tried to talk things through. He barely even used force unless it was absolutely necessary. Even when he had been hit in the back before, he had simply held onto the spirit instead of retaliating.“Five.”His voice was low, the count steady and unyielding. The spirit flinched, taking a hesitant «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» step back.“Four.”“……”Mu-ryeong continued without blinking. Even though the spirit was clearly showing fear, he wasn’t showing any mercy.Something about Kim Mu-ryeong was different today.“Three—”Thud!The spirit shoved Mu-ryeong hard against the shoulder. It was a solid hit—enough to make Hwan-young tense, his hand instinctively twitching. But before he could act, Mu-ryeong had already caught Ye-jun’s wrist.The spirit struggled violently, but there was no way he could overpower Mu-ryeong’s grip.“Let me go!”With little effort, Mu-ryeong held onto him firmly, both wrists trapped as he pressed him back against the wall. When Ye-jun’s head thumped against it, Mu-ryeong even muttered under his breath, “Ah, I should’ve controlled my strength better…”“You bastard, let me go—!”Thud!Another hit—this time, a kick to Mu-ryeong’s leg. The impact made him let out a small grunt, and in that brief moment, the spirit shoved him away and turned to flee.“—!”But before he could take more than two steps, he suddenly stumbled and fell flat onto the pavement.Hwan-young had casually stuck out his leg.Looking down at the crumpled figure of Ye-jun, he muttered in annoyance, “What’s with these spirits and their terrible habits…”Why were the possessed always so aggressive? If they were going to resist, couldn’t they do it without resorting to violence? And the fact that Mu-ryeong just stood there taking it made it even more irritating.“This isn’t fair—”Mu-ryeong, startled, rushed over to Ye-jun, helping him up with a worried look. He anxiously checked him for injuries, even though he was the one who had just been kicked.“Ugh, his knee’s scraped up…”“Better than letting him get away.”“He wasn’t going to make it far, anyway.”True. With the way he had been stumbling around, he wouldn’t have gotten more than a few steps before collapsing on his own. But still, Hwan-young found himself scowling.As Mu-ryeong sat Ye-jun upright, Hwan-young bluntly asked, “Can’t you just force him out? He doesn’t seem like he’ll listen to reason.”If removing the spirit through force was an option, it would be the quickest solution. And if it drained too much of Mu-ryeong’s energy, he was more than willing to replenish it.But Mu-ryeong hesitated. His expression grew slightly conflicted.“Ah, well…”His eyes flickered sideways, as if unsure how to explain. He let out a small chuckle, his gaze turning sheepish.“The method is… a bit complicated.”“What do you mean?”“Well, normally, possessions happen when a spirit aligns its frequency with the host’s spiritual energy.”His tone was calm as he explained. Hwan-young listened, recalling the time Hwan-hee had possessed Mu-ryeong. He wasn’t sure exactly how the alignment process worked, but it seemed that compatibility played a role.“So if another person’s spiritual energy is introduced, the frequency gets disrupted, and the spirit is forced out.”Another person’s spiritual energy.As Hwan-young processed those words, a strange feeling crept over him.Something about it made his instincts buzz with discomfort. The methods of transmitting spiritual energy were limited—he could only think of a handful of ways. And the one that came to mind first—“…Looks like there’s no other choice this time.”Mu-ryeong mumbled those words to himself, then looked up at Hwan-young, as if to ask for understanding.“This is a secret, okay?”“Wait, you—”Hwan-young barely had time to react.Mu-ryeong lifted Ye-jun’s head slightly, cradling his face—then, without hesitation, pressed their lips together.“……”For a split second, Hwan-young’s mind went completely blank.A black haze clouded his vision, like sparks bursting behind his eyes.A surge of emotion hit him like a sudden drop off a cliff, as if he had been shoved straight toward an abyss. His stomach twisted, his chest burned.It was jealousy.A sharp, unbearable jealousy that made his insides churn. That same unfamiliar feeling he had experienced whenever people got too close to Mu-ryeong—but this time, it was so intense it made him feel sick.

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