“You know that jeoseung saja do not interfere with the affairs of the living,” Hyuk said.
“But you’re here now,” Junu said.
“I shouldn’t be,” Hyuk admitted. “I just wanted to check on my old friend.”
“What do I do now?”
“When something like this happens—a spirit finds the perfect vessel—the longer they spend within it, the more their energies fuse. The longer she stays in him, the more it will take to pull her free.”
“What will it take?” Junu asked.
Before Hyuk could reply, the door opened with a beep and let Miyoung in. She paused at the sight of Hyuk and Junu.
“I didn’t realize you had a guest,” Miyoung said, holding two bags from the local fried chicken restaurant. “Where’s Jihoon?”
“So you are the source of all this trouble,” Hyuk murmured. “I can see it now. The energy around you, it reeks of death. You hold on to it like a lifeline, but you know you should let it go.”
“Who are you?” Miyoung looked ready to attack at a moment’s notice if Hyuk so much as breathed wrong.
Not wanting to see the result of a fight between a reaper and a former gumiho in the middle of his pristine house, Junu stepped between them. “He’s leaving,” Junu said. Then he turned back to Hyuk. “You promised. I have three days left.”
The reaper was still a moment before lowering his chin in a nod. “Then I’ll be back in three days.”
“Yes, and try to actually give me the full three days. No more check-ins.”
“Her life is in your hands. Be sure to keep your promise. Because I will keep mine.”
“What are you talking about?” Miyoung demanded. But Hyuk ignored her.
“Tell her about your ghosts. And ask her about hers.” And he turned to go, disappearing into vapors that sifted through the air.
Miyoung jerked back in surprise. “What is going on here? Who was that? Why did he say my life is in your hands?”
Junu frowned, wondering how many of those questions he could skirt around. He decided to answer the easiest one first. “He’s a jeoseung saja.”
Miyoung’s eyes widened. “If he’s a jeoseung saja, then has he come for me?”
“No, there’s still time. We just have to get your bead back.”
Miyoung shook her head, her expression one of guarded distrust. “A reaper’s list doesn’t change. When they come for you, you can’t do anything to fight it.”
“You heard him. We still have time.”
“How do you know this reaper? Why would he come to you? Why would he give you this time?”
“I knew him in a past life,” Junu said quietly, unwilling to elaborate. His private life was never something he liked to discuss.
“That’s how you got him to wait? Because you’re friends with this reaper?”
“I don’t know if I’d call us friends. And he wouldn’t have given us more time if he didn’t benefit from it. The reapers want this resolved without getting their own hands dirty. The reapers don’t like to get involved in matters of the mortal world.”
“But if we can’t solve this in three days, he’ll come for me, right?”
And Junu couldn’t lie, so he just nodded.
“I don’t get it.” Miyoung frowned. “You always said you don’t get involved in things unless it benefits you. Why are you helping me like this?”
“I owe you a debt for the part I played in your mother’s death,” Junu said.
Miyoung laughed bitterly. “Is that what this is really all about? You paying off a debt?”
“Isn’t that what it looks like?”
She nodded, pursing her lips. “It could be that. It would be so much simpler if it was that. But I can’t help but think there’s more going on here.”
“When will you finally trust me?”
“I don’t know,” Miyoung said. “Maybe never.”
“Never?” Junu let out a harsh laugh because what he really wanted to do was throw something. “Just because I made one mistake?”
“One mistake?” Miyoung shouted. “You say that like it’s about the quantity of the betrayal and not the glaring, awful quality of it. What you did cost me my mother.”
“And I’m trying to make up for that. I’m trying to do the right thing here.”
“You’re trying to do the right thing for the wrong reason,” Miyoung said. “You’re not doing this for me. You’re doing it because you hate feeling guilty. You’re selfish, Junu. You always have been and you always will be.”
She was right, Junu realized. He used all the bad things that had happened to him as an excuse for being selfish. He’d always thought that because