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Chapter 35
“I’ll apply it. Thank you for your hard work, Lady Ha.”
Eternal (Yeong-won) blushed and shook her head at his polite tone.
The reason for her flushed face was nothing else.
She recalled her own flustered state when she didn’t know how to wake Isin and had, in her panic, let out all her frustration toward Unjeong. The memory embarrassed her.
“Hmm, then I… shall I go to the Jikakdang?”
While Unjeong prepared the medicine, Eternal asked cautiously, feeling she had nothing more to do here.
“Wait. Unjeong will take you there.”
Isin’s gaze, resting on Unjeong as he approached the bed with the medicine bottle, immediately shifted to Eternal.
Receiving Isin’s drowsy look, Eternal silently nodded and pointed outside.
“It’s hot. I’ll stay outside.”
Just after Eternal turned her body and left the room, fanning her face, Unjeong scooped a handful of medicine from the bottle and carelessly spread it over Isin’s bitten lips.
Suddenly, Isin’s fist dropped onto Unjeong’s thigh.
Strangely, when his hand made contact with Unjeong’s thigh, it didn’t pass through him but delivered a tangible impact.
Though his punch wasn’t painful due to his weakness, Unjeong pretended it hurt.
He knew exactly why Isin had struck him.
Unjeong clearly understood why Isin’s lips had ended up in such a state, and a raccoon-like grin involuntarily appeared at the corner of his eyes.
Suppressing his laughter, Unjeong finished applying the ointment, and the shine on Isin’s lips due to the medicine drew attention.
Eventually, Unjeong couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Funny?”
“Of course it’s funny. I was so surprised. I didn’t expect Lady Ha to be so bold.”
“That’s enough.”
“Remember? Isn’t this your first kiss, Isin?”
As Unjeong’s mischievous teasing continued, Isin hurled the headrest pillow from his bed at him.
However, the pillow passed through Unjeong’s ghostly body and lightly landed on the floor.
“Then rest for now. But don’t sleep. If I have to wake Lady Ha again tomorrow, your lips…! Ahem! I’ll take Lady Ha to the Jikakdang and be back.”
Isin’s eyes turned cold. Feeling it was best not to push further, Unjeong straightened his posture and expression and quickly left the love chamber, leaving Isin behind.
Alone in the room, Isin let out a light sigh at his lips, now cool and soothing from the medicine.
“Remember? Isn’t this your first kiss, Isin?”
What kind of first kiss was that?
It was just a mere gesture.
Isin tried to dismiss Unjeong’s teasing words, but when he closed his eyes, he involuntarily recalled Eternal’s wide, startled eyes.
He remembered, one by one, Eternal’s lips on his teeth, lightly brushing against his upper lip, and the breath that had softly touched like a spring breeze.
Isin snapped his eyes open.
Feeling heat rush to his lower abdomen again, he furrowed his brow.
“What on earth was she thinking, touching someone else’s lips…!”
Muttering in frustration, Isin steadied himself by placing his hands on the bed and got up.
After a moment of unsteady steps, he slowly held onto nearby furniture and stood in front of the door to the love chamber.
Outside, he could hear the light footsteps of Eternal leaving.
Only after the sound faded did Isin open the door lightly and step out.
But he didn’t go far.
Leaning against the door, he stretched out his long legs and took a deep breath.
Standing still, he could feel the bright, full moonlight spilling over his entire face.
“Damn… another full moon.”
The same agony awaited him tomorrow.
Would it be better to succumb to a nightmare and suffer, or to hold his useless legs and stay awake through the night?
Neither option was appealing.
Tired, Isin lowered his eyes and stared into the empty void.
It was just like any other day.
Endless darkness, deep silence, an unfillable emptiness, and the longing he could not forget even if he tried.
When he closed his eyes, the hellscape that had unfolded before him was vivid.
He didn’t know how, after so many years, he could dream of that day so clearly.
Suddenly, Isin let out a hollow laugh.
It had been so terrible, yet he was glad he could now see the faces of his mother and sister, almost as if he had forgotten them.
Even if those faces were blackened and dead, tongues protruding, hanging from the beams.
Even if they were charred beyond recognition into lumps of coal.
He continued to serve diligently as the head of the Geom (黔) family, partly due to a promise to his previous head and biological father, Geom Hye-Pyo, but also because of concern.
He wondered if there might one day be a chance to see his mother and sister again, just as he had met Unjeong suddenly as a ghost.
It would have been good if they had passed on smoothly to the afterlife, without lingering resentment or regrets. But he worried that he might see them wandering the Nine Heavens.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Isin had not yet encountered them.
And he hoped that he would never see them during the remainder of his life as the head of the Geom family.
Because a wandering soul in the Nine Heavens was too unfortunate.
On the way back to the Jikakdang, Eternal thought Unjeong was relatively easy to talk to and subtly asked about the Geom family and Isin.
“Do you mean about Isin?”
“If it’s inconvenient, it’s fine.”
As they left Yeonggyeongdang, Eternal kept glancing back.
The memory of Isin’s body straining with veins bulging and capillaries bursting under the curse of hallucinations filled her with fear.
“I cannot recklessly speak about Isin. But I can tell you about the Geom family.”
Eternal listened attentively to Unjeong, who walked a short distance beside her, and a smile spread across her face.
It was rare to hear about the Geom family from someone alive.
Although Sorae had poked around and found out some things, she had only learned about the Geom family’s long history, their brilliance as scholars, and the respect they deserved.
But that wasn’t what Eternal wanted to know.
“The stories of the Geom family are so well-known that even wandering spirits cannot avoid knowing them; there’s nothing secret about them.”
“…When you say it’s famous among ghosts… do you mean because of the head of Geom’s skill with spirits?”
“Yes.”
Unjeong habitually fanned himself and subtly steered the topic back to the Geom family.
“It is said that the Geom family’s history spans over a thousand years. Their ancestor was a female spirit named ‘Geom Muldok,’ who came from the sea of the afterlife.”
“Geom Muldok…?”
Even after reading so many books in her father’s study, Eternal was intrigued by the unfamiliar name.
“Geom Muldok oversaw life and death in this land. After she departed, it is said that her child remained to manage the spirits that harm humans.”
