"No, he's not interested in marriage."
Kiho responded for him. His grandma shook her head slightly in disappointment. Lim Soohyun didn't pay it any mind, continuing his meal as Kiho's grandma suddenly started complaining.
"This is why you should get married early on. If you keep thinking over it, you'll lose interest. Kiho, you've saved up a lot by now and earn more than most people your age. Why don't you get married this year? I'll find a pretty girl for you, hm?"
Smiling, the wrinkles at the ends of her eyes deepened. She lightly placed her hand on Kiho's arm, urging him, but Kiho only sat there unaffected and repeated the same word.
"No."
"Tsk tsk… I don't know what's wrong with this child. He doesn't show any interest. No matter how pretty a girl, he rejects them all. Almost every girl his age has been rejected by him."
Listening well to Kiho's grandma's grievances, Lim Soohyun stuffed his mouth full.
Maybe he just doesn't like pretty girls?
His type might be a lot different than others. They should try matching him with girls that aren't considered pretty. Lim Soohyun thought of the possibility, but it wasn't his place to butt in, so he stayed quiet, minding his own business.
*
By 9 p.m., everyone in the village had already turned off their lights. Kiho's grandparents were already asleep, having eaten dinner even before them, and Lim Soohyun was still stuck with Kiho, taking space in Kiho's room. The kid laid out the blankets for them. Kiho didn't have a bed in his room—or, for that matter, not many in the village had beds. They still slept on the heated hard floors for strong bones.
"Mr. Soohyun, which one do you want? Left or right?"
The thin mattresses were so far apart that two more people could sleep in between. Lim Soohyun stared for a long while.
"Do you have to be so obvious? I can't believe you agreed to sleep in the same bed when you're this conscious of it."
Muttering, he still chose the left side. Being active all day, he was starting to feel sleepy already. If it had been the days when he was in his twenties, he'd have to wander around for three days before he'd hit the bed and sleep for half a day. He considered this a blessing, though—finding something to do for the three days he'd be awake was similar to hell for him if he couldn't find anything worth mentioning. But now he had to sleep eventually after spending the whole day outside.
"You know that house wasn't haunted at all."
"But I didn't know that either. These people aren't sure of it themselves. That's why they call me in the first place."
His eyes followed Kiho, who was busying himself with putting away all sorts of stuff, hiding them in his drawers as he heard Kiho's response. Turning away from him, he unlocked his phone with the fingerprint sensor and decided to watch the video he had recorded of the previous quest as his bedtime show. He had saved it for a moment like this, where he'd be devoid of any real entertainment.
"Huh?"
"What? Is something wrong?"
Lim Soohyun stared at the empty folder, closing and opening it again, but it still showed nothing. Kiho came to stare at the phone's screen too, thinking something was horribly wrong, but seeing the empty screen, he became more concerned.
"Why?"
"No… nothing."
No, it wasn't nothing. How could the video be gone? Completely vanished? Whoever's fault it was, he didn't know, but how could they take his video…
If it wasn't his phone's problem, then…
Lim Soohyun opened the Photos app to look for the picture of the quest note, and as expected, it was also gone.
"You're not telling me the whole story, right? I know there's more to it. Where did you get the idea to hold a séance when you weren't even sure what the house held, but you were clear on your request of contacting the spirits of the house? And even when I rejected the proposal, you were ready to find someone else for the same task. You need to have a purpose behind this enthusiasm. I don't think it is because of just momentary amusement or curiosity. Besides, you could just change to something else, but no—you're set on the same thing."
"Contacting the spirits of the house."
"Waa… You're scary, Kiho."
Lim Soohyun lamented half-heartedly, but even after all this, Kiho still hadn't—and couldn't—find out that it was actually a quest he had gotten delivered out of nowhere on his bed. Kiho stared at him with narrowed eyes as he tried to avoid answering that long conclusion.
"I'm going to sleep… go away."
Saying that, he really went to sleep—only to be awakened by weird mumbling coming from out of his blanket. He had pulled the blanket over his head, and he was still under the blanket, hearing an incoherent whispering from outside. Having no idea what time it was, he peeked out a little. The room was dark, but there was a warm-toned light near him. Feeling subtle movement from in front, he opened his eyes a little more to see Kiho sitting in front of him, cross-legged and deep in thought, staring at the empty wall at Lim Soohyun's feet.
"What are you doing? You can easily be mistaken for a ghost right now."
He whispered back to Kiho, who, without giving him a single glance, shifted his eyes to the floor where he was continuously writing out something. Lim Soohyun blinked sleepily, thinking what he was doing.
"Mr. Soohyun, are you skeptical of me? If you think I am compromising my safety for a séance, you're wrong. I'm not a novice. I know my limits. I can protect myself—and you."
Placing the ink brush down, he picked up the just-written yellow talisman paper and, taking his wrist, slapped it on there, finishing his words.