DMSD | Chapter 15

It felt like a whole year’s worth of work had crammed into a single day, starting from the morning. Myeongeun was exhausted. He thought he’d fall asleep the moment he got in the taxi, but on the way home, he just leaned back against the seat, staring blankly out the window.

When he got home, the hot water that had been acting up in the morning was working just fine. He figured a warm shower would make him sleepy, but even after warming up and lying on his cozy bed, sleep didn’t come.

Myeongeun turned to his side, pulling the blanket up to his shoulders. When he closed his eyes, he thought of Jinhwan. He had grown a lot over the past nineteen years. The kid who used to be smaller than him had now grown so tall that Myeongeun had to look up to meet his gaze. He remembered the mature smile of San Ho, who had laughed, saying he was taking care of the Mountain Lord’s child, destined to become the future Mountain Lord.

Then, he thought about Jinhyeon’s words.

A life lived that way, forever.

A life without trust, where even the truth makes you out to be a liar. A life where you eventually close off, isolating yourself. Myeongeun knew that kind of life too.

Was Hwan happy, then? But judging from Jinhyeon’s story, maybe Hwan hadn’t been as happy as Myeongeun had hoped. After all, Myeongeun hadn’t felt particularly happy during his brief time back then. And Jinhwan had been living such a life all along.

Unable to sleep, partly because he didn’t want to think about Jinhwan any longer, and partly because he was afraid the beings from the afterlife would invade his thoughts if he let his guard down, Myeongeun picked up his phone, still charging, and logged into social media. It was his go-to “healing time,” one of his only hobbies. A recommended video of cats and puppies playing popped up right away.

A faint smile appeared on Myeongeun’s lips. He chuckled, watching the next video, and the next one.

Myeongeun liked drinking beer and watching videos of animals like cats, dogs, rabbits, and hamsters. The only reason he’d even created an SNS account he barely used was because Assistant Manager Kim had shown him a cat video he couldn’t resist watching on repeat.

After scrolling through SNS, he moved on to ThangTube. When he finished there, he’d open up the “virtual pet owner” app and feed his two-year-old virtual cat, “Gomyongi,” clean its litter box, and play with it. This routine usually lulled him to sleep, marking the end of his day.

Tonight, as he went through his routine, he finally drifted off.

And in his dream, he was once again being chased by the massive creature from the previous night—whether it was a tiger or a cat, he couldn’t tell.

This time, it was even more aggressive, biting down on him and shaking him around wildly. No matter how much he shouted, “Why are you doing this?! Stop it! Hey!” the creature didn’t care.

Suddenly, it started sprinting with him in its jaws, covering a huge distance. By the time they were halfway there, Myeongeun was practically limp in its mouth.

Then, out of nowhere, it stopped and dropped him onto the dirt ground. Oddly enough, despite all that violent running, the creature wasn’t even panting. But Myeongeun, who had been dangling in its jaws, was out of breath.

He slowly gathered himself and looked around. Towering trees with thick trunks surrounded him, with tall grass growing wildly all around.

They were in the mountains.

When he looked up, he could see the dark, bluish dawn sky peeking through the branches. A sudden fear gripped him, stopping him from even forming a question. He couldn’t think at all. The creature, sitting with its back to him, seemed huge and almost indifferent, scratching behind its ear with a massive hind paw. Squinting, he could finally make out its back markings in the dim moonlight. Black, yellow, blue, and white stripes ran from its back down to its long, thick tail. He couldn’t see its face. Even if he could, it was so large he wouldn’t be able to take it all in.

Myeongeun liked animals in the cat family. He didn’t love every single one, but he generally liked them.

…But this one’s not cute at all.

He stared intently at its back.

Suddenly, a name popped into his head.

“Could you be… San Ho?”

Its ears twitched.

“San Ho… is that you?”

It twitched again. Flick, flick.

It was San Ho, alright.

They did say he was still young.

Realizing this, Myeongeun thought that, maybe from the back, he did look kind of cute.

So, did San Ho visit me in my dream last night to say, ‘I’m going to swallow you whole’ or something? Sprawled on the ground, Myeongeun sighed and stood up. Now that he knew what it was, he felt a bit more at ease.

“Why did you bring me here?” he asked, directing the question at San Ho’s back.

Without looking back, San Ho stood up and began lumbering down an untrodden mountain path with his massive, thick paws. Hesitating, Myeongeun followed him. Although San Ho was walking slowly, his strides were so large that Myeongeun had to practically jog to keep up. The path was incredibly rugged, but thanks to young(?) San Ho leading the way and clearing the branches with his big body, Myeongeun avoided injury. His feet still hurt, though, and he was starting to feel the chill.

Huff, huff…

It felt like they’d been walking for hours.

Finally, gasping for air, they arrived at a place Myeongeun recognized. He looked up at the large hanok in front of him and back at the mountain. There was a wooden sign he hadn’t seen nineteen years ago, right at the foot of the mountain.

<祐叵下山>

Woo Pa Ha San: One cannot descend without divine help.

So that’s what they call this mountain now, he thought.

Looking at the hanok again, he realized they were standing at the back entrance to the Temple of All Gods. And the steep mountain they had come down was the very mountain that young Hwan used to climb up and down alone.

Myeongeun glanced at San Ho, who was sitting quietly beside him. After tilting his head all the way back, he realized San Ho was also looking at the back door of the hanok, just like he was.

“San Ho.”

He called out.

San Ho didn’t turn to look at him, only twitching his ears in response.

“Why did you come find me last night and today?”

Only then did San Ho slowly shift his gaze down to Myeongeun.

The moonlight illuminated San Ho’s golden eyes, and in that moment, Myeongeun involuntarily took a step back. His eyes were like the moon itself. His vertical black pupils looked as if they were thumping along with the beat of rabbits pounding rice cakes on the moon. Though he had the form of a tiger, his eyes had the sharpness of a cat or a snake. His tightly closed lips revealed enormous fangs jutting out.

When Myeongeun had pictured San Ho in the office hallway, he had imagined a round but fierce-looking haetae.

But the real creature in front of him was far more impressive and beautiful than he had imagined. San Ho, standing under the moonlight as if out for a moonbath, looked fantastical, like something straight out of myth. For a moment, chills ran down his spine, making him instinctively step back.

San Ho quietly observed him.

As a chilly breeze passed by, San Ho slowly blinked, and his vertical pupils rounded out.

Just as his expression softened a bit, San Ho’s once-proudly perked ears began to droop.

Realizing a bit too late, Myeongeun suddenly felt bad. Young San Ho had noticed that Myeongeun was scared of him and now seemed a bit hurt.

“Oh, I’m sorry, it’s not that…”

At that moment.

“Nyaahh…”

San Ho let out a small meow and raised his massive front paw, giving Myeongeun a gentle tap on the back.

“Ahhh!”

With an unbelievable force, Myeongeun went flying over the hanok’s wall.

◆

Jerk.

He trembled and opened his eyes, feeling as though he were falling from a great height.

Lying flat on his back facing the ceiling, he blinked his tired eyes before closing them again.

Then, he snapped them open. Looking left and right, he shifted only his gaze.

It was different. The air, humidity, and light seeping through the curtains—all different from usual.

A sense of unease crept over him.

…It’s bright.

Too bright.

If the house was this bright during work hours… that meant time had already passed.

With a trembling hand, he checked his phone.

08:46 AM

Eight forty-six in the morning…

Myeongeun shot up.

“I’m late!”

After letting out a quick yell, he rushed to get ready, called Manager Lee to report his tardiness, and sprinted to the subway station. By the time he arrived at the office, it was 9:30 AM. Not a bad record.

After bowing apologetically to his manager and director, he returned to his desk, only to have Section Chief Yang and Assistant Manager Kim express surprise at his lateness. Not being able to tell them, I spent yesterday sending off Assistant Manager Jang, then getting chased by a tiger in my dreams, he just awkwardly smiled before returning to his seat.

“You’re late too, Assistant Manager,” Kim Junyoung chimed in with his usual cheek.

Ignoring him, Myeongeun turned on his computer and began going through the messages left on sticky notes. Most were from clients.

When he flipped to the next note, he paused.

<9:00 AM, Deputy Head Manager Kwon Jinhyeon—Call>

“Junyoung, did Deputy Head Manager Kwon contact you?”

Without even looking back, Kim Junyoung replied, “I didn’t get anything.”

Annoying brat.

Come to think of it, the handwriting didn’t look like his.

“Assistant Manager Go, that was from me.”

Assistant Manager Kim Heesoo stood up from across the room. Figures.

“He didn’t say anything specific, just asked you to call him once you got in.”

“Thank you.”

After thanking her, Myeongeun quickly checked his emails, handling the urgent ones within ten minutes, and then dialed Deputy Head Manager Kwon Jinhyeon’s extension.

— “Are you in?”

“Yes, I apologize for…”

Myeongeun’s face flushed with embarrassment.