By Zephyria 
It was a short while later that Jeong-ju, who had been bedridden from the shock, finally opened his eyes.
“For now, please quickly take out the essentials.”
The representative from the construction company called in workers to install temporary supports to hold up the building. In the meantime, the family began packing. To any onlooker, the frantic scene looked as if they were fleeing from a disaster.
Normally, they would have called a moving company, but given the urgency and the risk of the building collapsing, they couldn’t risk bringing in outside help. Thus, they decided to grab only the most necessary and important items for now, leaving the rest of the cleanup to the spirit ghosts later.
“Thank you for your hard work. I’ll contact you again regarding the construction.”
“Yes, thank you for rushing over on a weekend. You worked hard.”
After seeing off the workers, the family gathered in the yard for an emergency meeting.
“So, what do we do now…?”
Jae-gyeom, having read the room, spoke up tentatively, clasping his hands in front of him. They needed a place to stay for the night. Since they couldn’t sleep on the streets, they had to find a temporary shelter.
“We should see if there are any motels in town. Or maybe a sauna….”
Jeong-ju was mumbling with a hollow expression, letting out a deep sigh, when it happened.
“How about going to Seoul?”
In the slumped atmosphere that felt like a funeral home, everyone’s gaze shifted simultaneously toward Yoon Tae-hee.
“Seoul?”
Jeong-ju paused to think. Since it was currently a break period, he had been living here for several months, but as someone who had originally operated between Seoul and this area, he had a separate residence in Seoul. However, it was a small residence, and it didn’t seem suitable for the whole family to stay together.
“But that’s a place where I lived alone, so there’s a lot of stuff and it’s narrow….”
“No, not your residence, Jeong-ju.”
Not the residence? Just as Jeong-ju looked puzzled:
“Let’s go to the house in Gugi-dong.”
The house in Gugi-dong was a large detached home located at the foot of Bukhansan Mountain. It was the house Yoon Tae-hee had provided for the three of them back when Jae-gyeom first moved to Seoul after deciding to become an exorcist.
“The Gugi-dong house? Tae-hee, you said you put that house on the market recently. Didn’t you say someone liked it? That you were going to sign the contract through the agent….”
“I did, but they kept bothering me with conditions, so I just told them I wasn’t selling.”
“Really? Then we can move back into that house?”
“Yes, all the furniture and belongings we left behind are still there.”
Jeong-ju’s eyes widened at those words. Then, Yoon Tae-hee spoke.
“They say it takes nearly a year to build a house, so let’s stay at the Gugi-dong house until then. It would be a hassle to find another house in this area just to live for a year. Even if it’s crowded and complicated, I think that would be better. It’ll be easier for you too, Jeong-ju. And since Jae-gyeom isn’t attending school, there’s no reason for him to stay here.”
At that moment, Jae-gyeom hesitantly interrupted.
“That’s true for us, but what about you?”
Setting Jeong-ju and Jae-gyeom aside, Yoon Tae-hee had a reason to remain. He had to complete his term of employment as a librarian until the end of the semester. There were still over two months left.
“I think I’ll have to stay here for the time being. It can’t be helped. I’ll just have to get a room near the university,” Yoon Tae-hee said, rubbing his eyebrow.
The distance between Seoul and this place was nearly two and a half hours one way. Commuting daily would be far too taxing. In practical terms, commuting was impossible.
“Well, what can I do. I’ll work here on weekdays and go up to Seoul every weekend.”
How on earth did things end up like this…?
Feeling a sense of defeat, Jae-gyeom couldn’t find the words and simply scratched his head in distress. He never imagined that one wrong ghostly energy practice would lead to a two-month separation. There was simply no other way.
And so, on the road to Seoul.
“Goodbye, my home… I’ll be back soon….”
Jeong-ju’s eyes welled up as he loaded the luggage into the trunk.
Yoon Tae-hee took the wheel. Since today happened to be Saturday, he planned to go to Seoul to help organize the luggage, spend the night with the family, and return alone on Sunday evening. Jeong-ju sat in the passenger seat, and Jae-gyeom climbed into the back with Yu Nam-saeng, clutching the pot containing Mesan tightly in his arms.
Throughout the drive to Seoul, Jae-gyeom rambled on out of embarrassment.
“Listen. So, I had constipation. It’s not like I tried to break the house; it’s just that at some point, the blockage suddenly cleared, and all the poop I couldn’t pass just went KABOOM.”
“Ugh, seriously, that’s disgusting….”
“Is it my fault that the poop I was holding in just came out on its own? I couldn’t help it.”
“Ugh, I get it, so stop talking about poop!”
While Jeong-ju covered his ears in shuddering disgust, Yoon Tae-hee silently turned up the volume of the radio.
After driving for two hours, the Seoul house they returned to for the first time in nearly ten months was exactly as it had been.
Aside from the dust on the furniture and the overgrown weeds in the garden, there didn’t seem to be much to fix. The family scattered to sweep and wipe various parts of the house and organize their belongings.
While diligently tidying his room, Jae-gyeom discovered something in the corner of the bed.
“Oh? This was here.”
It was the phone Jae-gyeom had used previously. When he woke up after six months of slumber, he had already moved to the countryside home, and his phone had vanished without a trace. Since the last time he used the phone was during the chaotic period before the war with the Exorcism Bureau, he had assumed he dropped or lost it somewhere. As it turned out, he had simply left it behind in this house.
Jae-gyeom was currently using a new phone Yoon Tae-hee had bought him a few months ago. Consequently, the only contacts saved were Jeong-ju and Yoon Tae-hee, and those were the only two people he contacted.
On this old phone, the contact information for the Team 1 members and Im Hyo-mun would still be there.
Jae-gyeom tried to turn on the phone. It wouldn’t work, likely because the battery was completely drained. After connecting it to a charger and waiting a moment, he pressed the button again, and this time the screen lit up.
As he looked at the phone, Jae-gyeom flinched.
The moment it powered on, a flood of dozens of missed call notifications and text messages accumulated over the past ten months poured in. Im Hyo-mun’s share of them was particularly significant. There were missed calls as recently as two weeks ago, and a text message had arrived just a short while ago.
Scrolling through the screen, Jae-gyeom read the messages Im Hyo-mun had sent in order.
August 26 [Chil-chil, I heard you quit being an exorcist?? No way, right?? Is it true?? Please pick up the phone T_T]
August 27 [Hello? Please reply.. T_T]
August 29 [Chil-chil.. My god, what happened.. Is it true that Chief Yoon was part of the Exorcist Order? You didn’t get caught up in that and get hurt, did you?? Is that why you quit??]
August 30 [😭😭😭]
September 2 [Call me as soon as you see this T_T I’m worried]
September 6 [Chil-chil.. You are alive, right..? Your phone is always off.. You’re not sick, are you? Everything is fine, so just let me know you’re okay T_T]
September 13 [🫠]
November 10 [Hey Chil-chil!! Doing well?? It’s already autumn~!! How’s your younger sibling? Is your uncle healthy too? Contact me whenever you feel like it! I’ll buy you a meal~!]
December 17 [Chil-chil..]
January 14 [Chil-chil!! Hyung finally became an official exorcist~!! Are you seeing this!! Happy New Year!!]
February 21 [Chil-chil-ssi.. I totally got wrecked today T_T Why am I such an idiot? Sigh, I’ve been making mistakes left and right lately.. Maybe it’s because you’re not here that I’m lacking energy.. Maybe being an exorcist just isn’t for me.. How great would it be if our Chil-chil cheered Hyung on?? But I still have to overcome this, right??!!]
March 19 [💪💪]
April 13 [Chil-chil, you’re doing well, right? I miss you!!]
May 21 [😁]
When he finished reading the messages Im Hyo-mun had sent, Jae-gyeom’s expression became peculiar.
“…….”
From the context, Im Hyo-mun seemed to know nothing. The Team 1 members were still in contact with Yoon Tae-hee, and regardless of how much Yoon Tae-hee had told them, they had witnessed events inside the Director’s office, so they likely suspected he had some story. However, such information would be treated as top secret within the main office, and it wouldn’t have been easy for a mere exorcist like Im Hyo-mun to access sensitive information.
Jae-gyeom didn’t quite understand the act of continuing to send messages and checking in on someone who didn’t respond. It was surprising that a connection he assumed had been severed was being held onto, however faintly, by the other side. The accumulated messages were all trivial and mundane, devoid of any real substance.
Nevertheless, Jae-gyeom felt as if something light, like a feather, had settled on his heart.
What should he call this?
Ah, perhaps this was the sensation of ‘warmth.’