Chapter 34
‘Please, stop touching me. I’m not your bride. I have a husband! You’ve seen him too! My husband is right there, so what are you doing, you wicked thing!’
And then—
“Hh… ugh, hu… husband… my husband….”
At first it was barely a groan, but the sound slowly became distinct words escaping between her lips. And then—
“Haa…”
The ghost breathed into her ear, icy as frost settling inside.
“Hhhk…”
A shiver ran down her spine like electricity striking her ears, and finally a scream burst out of Seol-ah’s throat.
“Husband! Husba—! Kyahhh!”
Thud. Thud. Thud.
Footsteps echoed, and soon the door burst open.
Standing at the entrance was Su-hyuk, who had rushed over in alarm.
“What’s going on?!”
Seol-ah, who had sprung from her chair and collapsed onto the floor, had her eyes squeezed shut, covering her ears as she screamed.
“Im Seol-ah! Miss Im Seol-ah!”
When Su-hyuk grabbed both her arms and shook her, she finally came to her senses. With terrified eyes she recognized him in front of her.
Then suddenly—she threw herself into his arms, clinging to his neck.
The force of her desperate embrace made him stagger slightly.
“Hh… sob… husband…”
He lifted his arms, holding her trembling back, gently soothing her.
His hand softly stroked her hair and back—warm and reassuring, so unlike the ghost’s icy, revolting touch from moments before.
“Husband… hh… sob…”
“It’s okay. I’m right here.”
Relieved that the terror was over, she cried into Su-hyuk’s shoulder for a long while.
“Why were you studying in secret?”
Ashamed, Seol-ah ducked her gaze and buried herself in the laptop on her knees.
The two of them had retreated to the safest place—the bed.
Even now, Seol-ah insisted she had to finish her study quota for the day, so she was continuing with her online lectures.
Though he scolded her, Su-hyuk couldn’t help but think that such determination was why she’d been able to enter the company as top recruit.
“My friend is playing Liszt next to me, and I feel like I’m still stuck at Czerny 100… it’s embarrassing…”
Su-hyuk shook his head in disbelief.
“And they’ll probably say I should stop wasting time learning this and focus on real work…”
“There’s no such thing as useless study.”
His unexpected reply made Seol-ah glance at him. Su-hyuk was leaning casually against the headboard, still focused on his book.
“You’re studying for the social research analysis license, right? Want me to help?” he asked offhandedly.
“No! That would feel like some private tutoring crash course. I want to do it on my own. Please don’t talk to me.”
With that, she replayed the lecture. Su-hyuk peeked at her and gave a small amused snort.
Flutter! Flutter!
Seol-ah suddenly flinched, swatting at the air behind her.
“What is it? Did it touch you again?”
“No, it was a mistake… phew. Just my hair. It fluttered next to me…”
She lowered her head apologetically.
“Then continue studying.”
But soon enough, Seol-ah kept glancing back over her shoulder.
She felt ghostly hands creeping toward her back, sending chills down her spine, and she kept rubbing her nape and lower back just to reassure herself.
Finally, Su-hyuk set his book down with a sigh.
He pulled Seol-ah over, placing her in front of him.
“Eh?”
Suddenly sitting between his legs, Seol-ah blushed furiously, turning to look at him.
He drew her waist toward him, resting her back against his chest.
“Now, let’s read.”
He returned his gaze to his book.
His chest was warm, like the backrest of a heated seat. His arm wrapped around her waist like a seatbelt.
With that, the chilling dread behind her vanished.
Though none of her lecture content was actually sinking in—since she kept pressing the skip-forward button—it was still comforting.
“Even the talisman doesn’t work.”
Su-hyuk’s rare complaint made her look back.
“I told you, right? You should’ve checked if he was a fraud. I didn’t like how that young guy spoke rudely in banmal to begin with. Such a cliché. What kind of shaman talks like that?”
Seol-ah chuckled.
“Old-timer…”
“What did you say?”
As she already knew, his hearing was very sharp.
“They said it’s because he’s possessed by an old grandmother spirit. So his twenties self and a seventy-year-old coexist, switching back and forth.”
“Ridiculous.”
“No, really. It was hard to get used to at first, but it’s true. It’s almost like multiple personalities. The shaman and the grandmother spirit share information in real time. Oh, and he told me to tell you—we need to be more effective.”
Su-hyuk waited for her to explain.
“So, to drive out that… presence?”
Unable to even call a ghost a ghost, they were tiptoeing around their own words as if it could hear them.
The absurdity of it left Su-hyuk speechless.
“Apparently, our… exorcism ritual?”
“When we have sex.”
His blunt answer made Seol-ah shut her eyes in mortification.
“What. Is there more to the instructions?”
“They said—when we perform our ritual, if the ghost shows signs of appearing, that’s the best time.”
“Meddling in a married couple’s private life, telling me when to sleep with my wife…”
Wife. Married couple.
Realizing what he’d just said, Su-hyuk clamped his mouth shut.
“Can’t you cut him some slack? He’s the only one on our side who actually understands this situation…”
If people ever found out what they’d done to drive away the ghost, many would surely condemn them.
It was a relationship that couldn’t be revealed, a secret that couldn’t be told to anyone. Understanding was rare.
To Su-hyuk, her tone sounded just a little lonely.
“Ah…”
A small sound escaped Seol-ah’s lips.
Su-hyuk thought it was from her frayed nerves.
He looked down at her in his arms.
“You’re sweating cold… Are you hurt? Sick?”
“I think I still have some indigestion from earlier. I took medicine, so it should be fine…”
“You ate that much while you were feeling bloated?”
“It didn’t hurt then… And haven’t you heard of fighting fire with fire? You cure indigestion from food with food.”
“So you’ve been studying while sick?”
“I planned to finish it all today…”
Su-hyuk took the laptop from her and set it aside.
“Lie down.”
She stared at him, reluctant.
“Study only when studying, work only when working…”
Her cheeks flushed, fearing he’d finish the line with “and only sex when having sex.”
“…and rest only when resting.”
He lay down beside her, pulling her into his arm.
Too drained to resist, she closed her eyes against his shoulder.
The ghost’s disgusting, groping touch had spoiled the good dinner she’d had.
Her first home-cooked meal in three years. Her first shared meal with her fake husband.
For a fleeting moment, that table had felt truly happy.
But she hadn’t been able to digest that happiness. It felt like the joy was stuck at the pit of her stomach, wasted.
‘It’s just because it’s been so long… too long…’
Su-hyuk’s hand gently rubbed circles over her stomach.
She had thought she’d lost the comfort of a mother’s healing hand forever.
Yet now, from a man, she felt something like maternal tenderness. It startled her… and moved her to tears.
Perhaps it was only because the day had been so rough that she felt sentimental.
On the verge of tears, she buried her face against his chest and drifted into sleep.
‘Warm…’
