Chapter 26…
Momo (2)
“Let go!”
“Hold on!”
“I said let go!”
I had tied a hose to the railing, ready to end it all.
“That wasn’t you just now!”
“Shut up!”
“You were a dog!”
“Stop spouting nonsenseeeeee!”
How miserable.
I had acted like a beggar before, but this was the first time I’d ever done something so dog-like.
Clinging to another man’s leg… doing something so shameful I can’t even bring myself to say it.
“You’re not the only one! Everyone here is just a victim too!”
Mansu tried his hardest to stop me.
That’s when I finally began to notice my surroundings again.
First, Brother Daeseong’s face, still glistening with my spit.
Then, Chief Park’s crumpled trousers.
Yeah.
What’s the point of living?
“Gahk!”
“Grab him! Pull him down!”
Damn it! Mansu, you bastard—if you yank on my legs like that I’ll really die… can’t breathe… ugh, my head…
Everyone was sitting blankly in the yard.
The little “suicide performance art” had settled down.
It wasn’t really a genuine attempt at dying—more like me flinging my humiliation out into the world.
The silence was broken first by Kim Daeseong.
“These things… I’ve got like five of them at home.”
Daeseong was holding up a dirt-covered remote control.
“Is collecting them a hobby of yours?”
“Shut it.”
At the pointless banter of Suhan and Mansu, Daeseong chuckled faintly and continued.
“Momo used to bury them sometimes.”
“Ah.”
“I couldn’t find a few, so I ended up buying new ones.”
“So it was Momo’s hobby to collect them.”
At Suhan’s words, Daeseong laughed, shoulders shaking.
Not exactly wrong.
“Well, maybe it was just him throwing a tantrum because I’d always come in and turn the TV on for monitoring and stuff.”
“Yes.”
“But that’s not the point—the point is, he only ever hid them in places he knew.”
Daeseong was suddenly looking at Suhan.
Caught under his gaze, Suhan scratched the back of his head awkwardly.
That’s when Chief Park Yuchun spoke up.
“Momo hanging on to my leg—it wasn’t because he’s male. It’s a hierarchy thing, apparently. He was showing dominance. I asked the ‘Dog President’ about it, since he only ever did it to me.”
“Still, I was traumatized.”
“Me too. Never thought a person would come lunging at me.”
“In that moment, I was a dog. Please don’t treat me like a person. I feel degraded.”
At Suhan’s self-deprecating words, everyone shook with laughter.
Then Mansu scratched his head and slowly began.
“This is… well, I need to explain, so please just hear me out first.”
Daeseong listened patiently as the shaman Mansu explained.
He also heard how the two of them had first met.
When the explanation was over, Daeseong shook his head.
But he couldn’t dismiss this unbelievable story as just nonsense.
Honestly, it still sounded absurd.
But during that brief moment—when Suhan had changed into a dog—his behavior had been convincing enough.
When he and Chief Park had first entered the house, Momo’s first action had been to jump on him.
And when he greeted him sitting down, just like before, he’d slobbered all over his face, then turned to Chief Park and declared, in his canine body language:
“This is where you and I stand!”
It was such a familiar pattern that sometimes Chief Park would run away… and Daeseong would laugh watching it.
And the remotes—those were secrets truly only Momo could’ve known.
So Daeseong had no choice but to believe Mansu’s explanation.
And Mansu—Yonghwa Doryeong—wasn’t only famous for TV documentaries; he was also a well-known shaman among colleagues.
Even people of other religions admitted his spiritual insight.
That’s why Daeseong had wanted to get a light fortune reading when he met him.
After Mansu finished, Daeseong’s gaze returned to Suhan.
“You can see spirits, huh…”
“I’m used to it by now.”
“You see them now too?”
Daeseong asked Suhan.
Suhan glanced to the side, snorted, and replied:
“After humiliating me like that, it’s prancing around on two legs spinning in circles. What on earth is that supposed to be?”
“It’s just showing affection after doing something bad.”
“At least it knows what it did was wrong.”
At Suhan’s grumbling, Daeseong chuckled.
Then he spoke again.
“Momo was practically a gift from my late mother last year. When Park and I went to adopt him, my mom got there first. She was holding him with a big smile.”
“Your mother picked him out?”
“Yeah. She said I looked nowhere near ready for marriage, so at least the house needed some warmth—if not a wife, then a dog.”
“I see.”
“Yeah. And the funny thing is, even right up until she passed, whenever I had business trips outside Seoul, she’d come here saying she’d take care of Momo. But maybe Momo was just an excuse… maybe she just wanted to see her busy son more often.”
Everyone listened quietly, nodding.
“Thanks to that, I got to see her a lot before she passed early this year. So I guess I grew more attached.”
“Momo too…”
That’s when Suhan spoke up, looking at Daeseong.
“Momo was attached too.”
“Momo was?”
Daeseong’s eyes widened slightly as he looked at Suhan.
I smacked my dry lips and looked at Momo.
Thanks to wiping Brother Daeseong’s face with Momo’s leftover makeup smears, the taste of cosmetics lingered in my mouth.
But in that moment earlier, I had definitely felt it.
Excitement, joy… and a bittersweet longing.
Those mixed emotions had poured in strongly.
“This is the first time I’ve ever been possessed by a dog, so it’s hard to put into words—but yeah, that’s what it was. Like crazy happiness. Usually I’d expect resentment or something first.”
Even now…
[Woof!]
It says it’s happy.
“Still circling in front of Brother Daeseong. Tail and butt wagging like crazy.”
“That…”
“What?”
That’s when Mansu cautiously spoke up.
Of course, I wasn’t in the mood to be nice.
Thanks to him, I’d ended up turning into a dog.
“Any clue about the culprit?”
“Ah, well…”
This bastard, springing a trap.
“Honestly… earlier it was so overwhelmed at recognizing its owner again that I couldn’t pick up anything else.”
“Wait, you can learn that kind of thing too?”
At Daeseong’s question, I grimaced but nodded.
“Well… if it were a normal spirit, I could usually talk with it.”
“But since it possessed a dog, can’t you understand what it barks?”
“Do you want me to hit you with dog jokes again?”
“Sorry.”
I ignored Mansu’s nonsense.
Either way, I couldn’t understand barking.
In past cases, I’d gained part of the spirit’s abilities once they ascended, but still…
Chills ran down my spine.
Does that mean this time I’ll inherit the ability to lick people’s faces?
Or maybe…
My eyes drifted toward Chief Park.
My stomach churned.
At the same time, internet news headlines flashed through my head.
“The Beggar Who Became God—Caught Mounting Someone in Public!”
“Ah, no way!”
“What? What’s wrong?”
“Shut up!”
Even Mansu’s worried questions grated on my ears.
The thought alone was horrifying.
[Don’t worry so much. The power you inherit is something you can choose to use.]
“Old man?”
[That said, I’ve seen animal spirits possess things before, but a normal soul? That’s a first.]
“So?”
[It should be the same as the others. You’re still just a human blessed with protection.]
“Hmm.”
I exchanged a few words with my guardian spirit, then glanced to the side.
The others were blinking out again.
“This here is my guardian spirit. Like a sort of protective ghost. He’s a ghost, but… special.”
[Ghost?]
“He’s fine as long as you feed him well.”
[I’m no animal!]
“Don’t like it? Then no more food…”
[Ahem. Eating isn’t only for animals. I misunderstood.]
Wow. That turnaround was fast.
He’s like Udyr.
Then the doorbell rang.
A crowd of people suddenly rushed in.
“Daeseong!”
“Brother!”
“What’s going on! What did the police say?”
GB Entertainment’s CEO, Lee Jiyong, grabbed Daeseong and Chief Park the moment he entered, checking they were safe.
Behind him came Daeseong’s usual staff.
When Chief Park wasn’t around, they were the road manager and stylist who filled in.
“Oh my god, poor thing!”
Stylist Yoo Sunjeong stomped anxiously, nearly in tears.
“I’m fine.”
“What about Momo?”
“The police took care of him for now. It wasn’t just an ordinary case.”
At Daeseong’s words, CEO Lee nodded firmly.
“Of course. This isn’t something normal. I’ll push things through some connections. This is tied directly to an artist’s safety.”
“Oppa, you really are okay, right?”
“I told you, I’m fine.”
Sunjeong approached Daeseong with a worried look, but then paused.
“You even left your makeup halfway erased? I told you earlier I’d take care of it. You can’t just wipe it like that.”
“Uh…”
At her words, Daeseong instinctively glanced at Suhan.
“Oh, so you came with Actor Suhan.”
Only then did Sunjeong notice Suhan and bow politely.
CEO Lee also realized his presence.
“Ah! You must be…”
Lee naturally looked at Chief Park.
“We’ve been hanging out a lot lately.”
Satisfied, Lee walked up to Suhan and handed him a business card.
“Well, well. Daeseong never invites junior actors over—this might even be the first time. It’s a shame under these circumstances, but please let me treat you to a meal sometime.”
Suhan accepted the card with both hands.
“Thank you!”
“Hm?”
“Oh—because you said you’d buy me a meal.”
“Hahaha, sure.”
Lee chuckled at Suhan’s overly enthusiastic reaction.
As Suhan tucked the card into his pocket, he glanced at Sunjeong, then asked Daeseong:
“Does she come here often too?”
I smelled it.
I hadn’t noticed earlier, but now I definitely did.
A familiar scent tickled my nose.
I’d seen Daeseong’s stylist around the set too, often shadowing him everywhere like an attendant, handling both styling and makeup.
Normally those are separate jobs, but she did both.
That was how she’d been introduced.
But now, the scent from her was growing stronger.
And more importantly…
Momo was growling at her.
No way…
But… you know what they say—suspicion kills.
“Does she come here often too?”
The question slipped out before I could think.
“Of course.”
Daeseong didn’t even answer—she did, while tidying the house as if she were used to it.
She was cleaning up the mess left behind when I’d been possessed by the dog.
As she organized things, she asked quietly:
“So… how did you find Momo?”
A careful question.
Maybe a natural one.
