Chapter 53 - Sugar Plum Fairy

Eun Ha was walking four steps behind the young man who had come down the stairs. Her scam as a cop wasn't going to last long, though, and she just had to get him to leave quickly, while Hunter Shin sorted out the rest.

As they walked out into the yard, though the night was cold, damp and dark, the fresh air was a little better than the suffocating sweety stench inside. Her normal eye without the monocle also seemed to see better, and she turned off the flashlight and put the cellphone in her pocket.

"What happened up there?" She insisted, as he mentioned that he had seen a corpse. But just now the weight of the word 'corpse' seemed to sink on her. "Tell me everything."

She kept following her surroundings with her magic monocle, only now she saw that other areas out there were also heavily stained by the 'depressing' stain, but she noticed that its magical ability was quickly fading. On the floor, half melted from earlier rain, protest signs_that had apparently been torn from the factory walls_ demanded labor rights and protested against the threat to public health. Looking at them, her gaze diverted to the boy's feet in front of her.

Socks and slippers.

Freezing, she looked around. They weren't going to the loading dock either.

She felt a shiver of realization of her mistake as he turned around with a scornful look.

"Do you really want me to tell you everything, 'cop'?" His voice denoted neither fear nor respect.

Eun Ha swallowed hard. 'Am I this stupid?' She was busted.

"You're a deserter soldier," she stated, thinking that she should keep the character even if he showed suspicion. With luck, she could keep him under control by threatening him. She just didn't like the boy's strange look, bright and dangerous. So she kept going:

"At this point, you need to cooperate so that everything ends well. Did you hurt the people who were taking things from the factory? Someone got hurt and you think you might have killed him? Calm down, my partner will check this out. Just be calm and cooperate; and it will be over soon."

He took two steps toward her, but she backed away a little more, and tightened her grip on her wand. "Mr. Lee, don't you dare try anything against a cop."

He clackled under his breath,

"Is Miss Fashionista really a cop, who's out there ready for Instagram stories? Cut this out, cute noona… Did you come after your close friend Han? What was your relationship with him? Was him your Boyfriend?"

'Damn! Betrayed by my good taste on clothes!'

"Hey. Calm down. What do you mean by that? Why do you keep talking about him… in the past?"

"Haha. You are funny, noona. But I can show you. I can show you how poetic and ironic it was. That bastard punk in search of fame and likes destroyed the reputation of my family. Did you know he admitted it? I have the tape here."

He tapped the front pocket of his sweatshirt, "He said he didn't think he was going to get this big, but he couldn't back down… Because he'd lose his reputation! But what about my father's reputation?! What about the reputation of the factory that was my parent's dream coming true, and the livelihood of many families?! That narcissistic dude…! cried and begged in the end, that damn…"

As shocked as she was, Eun Ha didn't even need the deserter soldier to tell the rest of the macabre story. She was just worried because she realized he was just telling it to keep her attention. His body swayed, and she imagined he would try to attack her soon.

He had all the advantage in the world: he was bigger, muscular, and probably much more agile with his military training. 'How I wish I had a taser and not a wand now! And that useless hunter, did he completely forgot that he brought me and that I am a mere apprentice? What of supernatural is going on upstairs that he's so busy? I'm so screwed…'

"So you killed Han Dong Won...!" Eun Ha asked in a sudden, but before the Soldier Lee acted, she threw Professor Shin's bag on the man, and spun on her heels, running wildly.

Eun Ha ran down the side of the building, not looking back and not knowing how close he was after her. She reached the trash bin and realized she had no way out. 'Omo, oo, what to do?'She looked around for a way to use the boxes and stacked objects to climb and jump over the wall.

The outdoor lighting dimmed creeply, and she distincly heard light footsteps behind her. The monocle was useless now, but she didn't need it to know she was in trouble.

"Oh, Sugar Plum Fairy!" the thin, slightly childish mocking voice made her shiver. Even aware of the danger of turning her back on the psychotic ex-soldier coming after her, Eun Ha turned to the creature behind her.

Standing about five paces away, this slim, long-limbed, slender, hunched creature with a large, distended belly; and thin, disgusting moped hair, kept its feverish saucer eyes on Eun Ha. In those eyes, the fairy saw mostly greed. The creature licked its obscenely red, greedy lips:

"Should we make a swap, fairy?"

"D-do y-you know what I am?" she was flabbergasted by the appearance of this creepy creature.

"You? A much coveted delicacy so much in vogue lately. Probably a lot better than devouring a human corpse, Sugar Plum Fairy."

Eun Ha felt involuntary tears trickle down her cheeks.

"About to pee yourself, little fairy? You trespass into my new home uninvited, and you think you can do whatever mess you want to? Why are you all like this? You fairies are such partycrashers… But it seems that the rookie little fairy has no way for the craft…" he showed Eun Ha a wooden spoon, in a provocative way, and began to come closer slowly. His lips quivered with excitement. It seemed that the ghostly and disgusting creature felt quite sure of its superiority; like a tiger encircling the prey. Eun Ha could only stare at that mouth, whose lips pulled with excitement and revealed rows of pointed teeth. The scary smile became a monstrous mouth expanding unnaturally to snap at its prey.

"Aish… How annoying is to hang out with amateurs. I really don't know how to do my job with a rookie along. Sorry for that."

In hindsight, she couldn't tell the exactly moment she realized it was the other fairy's voice, in an extremely bored tone, on the top of the wall behind her.

Suddenly Eun Ha saw a blurred object whish down past her, and the creature's chest jutted inward. Eun Ha did not hear her own voice, but knew she shrieked loudly in terror. The monster toppled, falling sideways. And Shin, in three strides, jumped off the wall, sprung forward and clashed over the evil spirit; stepping on its ribs and tugging at its hair as he pulled the dagger from the monster's twisted chest. The creature gurgled, trying to struggle.

"And sorry for the party crashing," Shin told the awgi, keeping it under control.

She understood that the Hunter intended to slay the creature, and she closed her eyes and ran off to avoid seeing. Eun Ha ran into the wall with a thud, trying to run without seeing, and was painfully dizzy for a moment:

"Ouch!"

She kept her back, covering her ears to avoid hearing, and now with a throbbing pain in her forehead. 'Is this what a hunter does? What a horrible thing! What foul creature is this? Does he… eat corpses? He ate the corpse of… Oh, I don't want to think, I don't want to think, what a horrible thing! I just want this to end, why did the Hunter ask me to come?'

She realized that soon or someone was approaching her, and opened her eyes in fright. But it was Professor Shin, who had crouched at her feet to pick up the wooden spoon with the tip of his coat. He, as usual, was a total mess and seemed to have been quite busy so far. Shin stood up and said,

"Come on, Jung. Enough of this place for now."

"Is everything settled up? Are the blackmailer and his friend all right? The psycho deserter? What was this creature? And this place, will it go on like this?" she snapped, already following her teacher in quick steps.

"Yes. Yes. Later. For a while," he said, stopping to pick up his bag thrown near the unconscious soldier. The Hunter pulled a rope and quickly and skillfully bound the killer's hands and feet to his pupil's amazement. Eun Ha understood that they were laconic answers to her questions. Her heart was still beating fast and painfully in her chest, but she agreed with the Hunter, she wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.

When they got to the bike, Shin took his phone and typed something, then put the phone back in his pocket. At the younger fairy's questioning look, he shrugged, "It's helpful to have a contact into the police. They will come here to solve their human affairs." He took the helmet, held it out to her, and said,

"But it's over here. Shall we eat something?"

Eun Ha couldn't master her thoughts with the Hunter's careless question, and threw up the contents of her stomach on the sidewalk.