the jeoseung saja disappeared down a side hallway.
Junu didn’t run. The reaper obviously wanted Junu to come after him. And as Junu turned the corner, he caught sight of a door slowly closing down the hall.
Slipping into the dark room, Junu realized it was a storage closet. And Hyuk stood at the end, examining a box of gauze as if it were the most fascinating thing in the world.
“What are you doing here?” Junu asked.
“Is that any way to greet an old friend?”
Junu ground his teeth at the title. “I’m not in the mood for cryptic riddles, Hyuk. What are you doing here?”
“I was just wondering how you’re doing. How is your . . . friend?”
This made Junu’s instincts tingle. Hyuk wasn’t one to waste his time on trivial things.
“Why are you here?” Junu asked.
“You know why.”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t do whatever you came here to do to her,” Junu said.
Hyuk shook his head. “You know you can’t stop me from doing anything.”
“That’s why I’m asking you not to,” Junu said. “Please. For old times’ sake.”
The reaper sighed before pursing his lips. The look he got when he was thinking things through. This was a good sign because, nine times out of ten, the reaper was so set in his goals that he didn’t even stop to consider. It was a trait all the jeoseung saja shared; once they’re given a task, they’re dogged in their pursuit of it. Nothing can change their minds. That’s why so many called them supernatural bureaucrats.
“There is an energy connected to that gumiho,” Hyuk said. “It’s tying her to something in the Between.”
“Do you know what it is?” Junu asked, even as he had his own suspicions.
“You ever ask yourself how a gumiho could survive after not feeding for a hundred days?” the reaper said instead of truly answering.
“Of course,” Junu said. “But we figured it’s because her bead is gone.” Even as he spoke, he was hit with a realization. “It’s not truly gone. It’s in the Between.”
“And it’s still connected to her,” the reaper said.
“How do we find it?” Junu wondered aloud. “And what could be holding it in the Between?”
“That’s not my concern. I just want that connection cut. I don’t care how.”
There it was, Junu’s in. “So give me a chance.”
“A chance?” Hyuk laughed. “What can you do? A dokkaebi without his bangmangi?”
That sliced at Junu, and he realized that he and the reaper were no longer quite so close. Hyuk had to know bringing up his dokkaebi staff would hurt Junu. “I’m resourceful. You know that.”
Hyuk nodded. “You have seven days to sever her bond to the bead and the Between.”
Before he could feel grateful, Junu realized it had been too easy. This is what the reaper had wanted all along. Junu had never stopped to wonder why Hyuk had come to him first instead of going after Miyoung directly.
“Why are you giving me this chance?” Junu asked.
“Because you can get me what I want without an unscheduled death. We don’t like to interfere in the world of the living. A reaper’s job is not to be judge and executioner but to guide the souls once they’re dead. I was ready to kill the girl, since it served the greater purpose of righting the balance between worlds, but I was surprised to see you with her.”
Junu nodded. He knew there would be no use getting annoyed. It would make no difference with Hyuk. “So, what? You’ve been watching us?”
“You’re attached to that gumiho for some reason. At first I thought it was romantic.”
Junu’s eyes widened. “Oh no, definitely not.”
Hyuk let out a chuckle, a surprisingly warm sound. “I figured that out. But you’re sticking around for her. I wonder what it is about her.”
“I owe a debt,” Junu said. “And apparently I have seven days to repay it.”
“I’m giving you this chance because I know your word is good,” Hyuk said. “But you know mine is as well. And if you can’t get rid of the connection between that energy and that girl, we’ll do it. I can promise you that.”
“And who is ‘we’?” Junu asked, though he had a feeling he knew. When he’d known Hyuk before, they tried to pretend they were separate from the worlds that claimed them. Junu’s world of supernatural creatures that roamed the earth. And Hyuk’s world of the jeoseung saja—beings that reaped souls of the dead and brought them down Hwangcheon Road to the afterlife.
Soon those worlds did come back to claim them. They