CH 3

Falling Sunset (3)

“…….”

Suddenly an unfamiliar energy came from somewhere. The chill felt so intense that it made one’s spine shiver, Muryeong turned his head without noticing. At the same time, someone who came out of the cafeteria passed by Muryeong.

“What’s wrong?”

“No……”

The student was a head taller than everyone else. He had broad shoulders and a neat walking posture that was unlike a high school student. Looking at him slowly moving away, Muryeong narrowed his eyes and shook his head.

“It’s nothing.”

“It’s nothing.”

Of course, Seungju did not believe what Muryeong said. He responded with a muffle and simply turned his head in the same direction. Blinking from afar, he spit out a familiar name.

“Ki Hwanyeong?”

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Was it just a feeling? It felt like Hwanyeong, who had walked far into the distance, paused for a moment. Of course, you couldn’t hear it from this distance, so it was probably just an illusion.

“Ki Hwanyeong? Where?”

“Wow, everytime I see him, he gets even bigger.”

“I envy him for being so tall.”

“I don’t like people that are too tall……”

“That’s just because you are too small.”

The topic that was close to being about ghost stories quickly changed to Hwanyeong. He looked quite handsome, but he was a jerk. It seemed everyone who was good at studying was like that.

Around the time it became a form close to gossiping due to a vivid claim from a friend who was in the same class, Seungju asked Muryeong.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Muryeong put his hand into his pants pockets without saying a word. He felt the touch of a hard plastic in his finger. Just in time, he made sure that Hwanyeong was turning the corner and looked away.

“I am just jealous of him being tall.”

At his clever reply, Seungju got rid of all his doubts. With a sad face, he patted his shoulder saying that it was okay because he was growing up. It was a consolation that didn’t contain much sincerity, but Muryeong decided to take it.

The topic of the conversation had already changed to ‘why was Ki Hwanyeong going alone?’ Some speculated that it was because he didn’t have many friends, and some refuted saying that he didn’t want to make friends. Muryeong cut off such a conversation and asked the friend who mentioned they wanted to make a request earlier.

“So, what’s your request?”

***

The friend’s concern was that the library became a mess every morning. Even if it was organized cleanly, the next day the books would still be on the floor or have their location changed.

Even if they moved on after the first time it happened, after the second or third time it was obvious something was wrong.

‘Someone seems to be playing around, but you have to be able to catch it.’

Muryeong accepted the request without asking for an old item. He really didn’t have anything he could receive from them, but somehow they agreed to decide on it later.

The investigation period was one week, however Muryeong had the ability to solve it within one night if he wanted to.

‘Sleep properly at home today.’

As if he understood Muryeong’s intentions, Seungju had asked him to sleep several times while eating lunch. This request was not urgent, so please take a break today.

Muryeong smiled, but in the end, he didn’t give an answer.

“It can’t be helped. It’s easier if I catch it quickly.”

Late evening when everyone left school. Muryeong frowned as he stood in front of the school walls.

A small flame circling around Muryeong  moved from side to side. It seemed as if it was saying no, but Muryeong smiled brightly without any signs of disappointment.

“It’s okay, since I can quickly handle this today.”

The place was empty, he knew what he was doing, and he had a rough guess of what was happening so this wouldn’t take too long. Unless his friend was exaggerating the same situation should happen in the library tonight as well.

Muryeong lightly jumped in place and carefully measured the height of the wall.There was a barbed wire on top of the wallabout the height of Muryeong that he couldn’t reach even with both hands stretched out. It was a height that could not be crossed by any means, but he did not hesitate to jump up.

Hop, Muryeong, who was already used to it, jumped and caught hold of the wall. With one foot, he stepped on the flat wall and used the rebound to lift his body up at once. After climbing onto the wall with natural movements like flowing water, he threw the bag he was carrying over the fence with barbed wire.

Thud, the sound of his backpack landing on the floor was heard. Muryeong lightly jumped again and grabbed the top of the barbed wire. The height was lower than the wall, but the rattling sound was not stable.

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“I hate jumping over the wall the most.”

It made him feel like a criminal.

Muryeong muttered to himself as he jumped over the barbed wire as easily as before. This time, there was nowhere to stand, so he fell straight to the floor. He was able to naturally land on two feet.

The place where Muryeong crossed the wall to go to was an annex with a library. Main building 1, main building 2, new building, annex, gym and auditorium. As a school built by a rich president, there were many buildings, and the interior were all too spacious.

At the entrance of the annex, Muryeong looked around like a thief a couple of times. Usually during sunset there wouldn’t be any students or teachers around, but there was nothing wrong with being cautious.

After confirming that there was no one around him, he gently gestures to the small flame floating in the air.

“You can do it, right?”

The flame spun as if saying leave it to me. Muryeong put his hands on the chains covering the door and watched as it moved.

The blue flame slowly hovered near the lock, and shortly after, the sound of ‘clunk’ coming from the lock was heard.

“Good job.”

Muryeong smiled as he took out a ten won from his pocket . Ting, the small flame caught the coin that was thrown into the air. The burning shape looked somewhat pleased.

The interior of the annex looked even more gloomier than what was seen on the outside. The only thing that illuminated the hallway was the moonlight that entered through the window, and the quiet scenery was empty which gave an eerie feeling. Of course, Muryeong, who was already used to things like this, moved forward without hesitation.

Fwoosh, Fwooosh, with each step Muryeong took flames lit up around him. The shapes that slowly lit up on both of his sides looked like streetlights at first glance. Muryeong arrived in front of the library at the end of the first floor, throwing ten won into the air every five steps.

[Haeyeon’s dream]

As soon as he arrived at the door, one of the flames hurriedly dug into the gap. Muryeong smiled as he took out a key and reached towards the door handle

“What to do, I can open it myself this time.”

Click, it’s unlocked. The flame lightly faded to show it’s sullen mood. The flickering appearance seemed to protest why he had such a thing in his hand.

Instead of saying that he received it from the student who made the request, Muryeong softly closed his eyes.

“Don’t worry.”

He could feel the yin energy swaying around as he opened the door. The interior was so quiet that you could almost hear the ants crawling, but Muryeong could feel another being inside. A, B, C, D, after examining all the shelves one by one Muryeong stopped in front of the shelf with the letter ‘G’.

“You’re going to eat a lot today.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the flames circled around. Muryeong checked the books that had fallen on the floor and slowly raised his head. In front of him, he could see a student crying with books in his arms.

* * *

“……So?”

An absurd voice asked Muryeong. Although he was saying ‘So’ it sounded more like ‘what kind of bullshit now’. Muryeong moved his lips as he fell on the desk.

“I couldn’t sleep because I was organizing books all night…….”

“…….”

A ridiculous light appeared on Seungju’s face. He seemed to have a lot to say but Muryeong waved his hands as if asking for his patience.

“Please. Not today. I’m going to sleep.”

“…Phew.”

Seungju swallowed a sigh and put his gym uniform over Muryeong’s head. He was doing this because he didn’t even want to look at him anymore, but thanks to the light being blocked Muryeong was able to sleep better. Seungju wiped his face with one hand as looked at Muryeong who had quickly fallen asleep.

‘It was a student who worked in the library.’

When he asked what happened in the morning, he told him that he worked on the request given to him by Minji from the class next door. He had not decided on what to receive in return, and there were still 6 days left until the deadline. Nevertheless, this foolish man chased around all day and spent all night messing with ghosts.

‘The teacher in charge was very scared, but I guess he thought that the cover of the books were changed by students who were playing around. He is the manager, so he couldn’t even go home and had to clean it all up by himself.’

As always, Muryeong did not tell the reason for his death. No, it’s more like even Muryeong didn’t know. Usually, lost ghosts couldn’t remember how they died.

‘It wasn’t evil..…. My spiritual power was quite weak that by the time the sun started rising I couldn’t do anything.’

He didn’t give him more details, but Seungju could fully guess what he had done. He probably organized all the books as he said for the ghosts left behind. If that’s not enough, he might have even put them in the right order so Minji wouldn’t have to work.

“Sigh…”

Sighs came out endlessly. For Seungju, who had a moderately selfish mind, it was hard to understand why Muryeong lived such a hardworking life. Muryeong hadn’t directly told him, but the reason why he chose to fulfill the request in one day was probably because of the passing remark Minji had added on.

‘It’s so stressful that my stomach hurts.’

Kim Muryeong was someone who wouldn’t Notice his own sickness if someone else was sick. Even if it was just a whining that was said as a joke.

“Stupid bastard.”

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Seungju patted Muryeong’s head over the gym uniform. He was the type of guy who wouldn’t wake up once he sleeps, so a slight touch like this didn’t bother him. Well, it didn’t really matter if he woke up or not.

“……What?”

“Why is he coming to our class?”

Around that time, Seungju heard the whispers of his classmates. He casually looked up and turned towards the side where the others were focused on. At the back door of the wide open classroom, he could see a student dressed neatly in a school uniform.

“…….”

It was Ki Hwanyeong. Ki Hwanyeong, who had been famous since the entrance ceremony because he was tall and handsome. Hwanyeong gave off a scary feeling, but besides that he was also quite rude. Kim Muryeong would often give a wary gaze to Ki Hwanyeong whenever they passed by him in the hallway.

Muryeong might have thought that he didn’t make it obvious , but Seungju had already noticed. At the same time, he realised that he was not the culprit if Muryeong was wary.

Who is Kim Muryeong? He was someone who would wag his tail like a puppy whenever he saw a person (and this included dead ones too).

‘Well…… it doesn’t matter to me.’

With that thought, Seungju turned away from Hwanyeong. This wasn’t a place he was not allowed to come to, and he didn’t feel like gossiping like everyone else.

Yes, that was until a familiar name came from his mouth.

“Call Kim Muryeong for me.”