Harmonious Love

Yang Qi Thief (1)

Inside the spacious lecture hall, the voices of students gathered before class began were noisy. Their chatter about who would attend tonight’s and tomorrow’s drinking parties briefly shifted to a slightly different topic.

“Oh right, shouldn’t we invite that sunbae too?”

“Why bother? He won’t come anyway.”

“Still, he’s our sunbae.”

“That sunbae” referred to Mo Yeon, the well-known loner in Korea University’s Business Administration department. Besides them, Mo Yeon was the only one who had arrived early to the lecture hall.

Like the somewhat contradictory nickname of a famous loner, the dark, shadow-like figure seemed to stand out in a different way.

“It’ll just make things awkward. It’s better if he never comes.”

Everyone laughed in agreement with that statement. Though no one said it outright, the atmosphere Mo Yeon gave off had a knack for making people uncomfortable.

The reason Mo Yeon was a loner in the Business Administration department was simple.

His pale face contrasted with his all-black attire, giving off an unapproachable aura. The way he hid his face behind glasses and hair gave off an inexplicable gloominess. On top of that, on the rare occasions when someone did interact with him, he came across as rude. All these reasons had made Mo Yeon one of the most disliked people in the department since his freshman year until now.

Meanwhile, Mo Yeon was in no position to care about the whispers about him. He had frozen in place after pausing while rummaging through his bag for class materials.

Rustle, rustle.

A tickling sensation brushed against his cheek.

“…”

Since there was no one at school who would do such a thing to him, Mo Yeon tightly clenched his fist on his lap and tried his best to focus on something else.

The tickling sensation on his cheek gradually moved down to his jaw and then brushed his nape, causing Mo Yeon’s eyes to tremble slightly.

Even the slightest reaction would make their mischief worse. An eerie snickering echoed in his ears.

Soon after, cold, gloomy fingers parted his clothes and entered. Of course, it didn’t feel like an actual person’s touch. A formless chill began to tickle his chest.

And the moment it touched the protruding bud—

Mo Yeon bit his lip.

Screech—

“…!”

Mo Yeon’s shoulders jumped at the sudden sound of a chair being pulled beside him.

“Hello.”

Hearing the familiar voice, Mo Yeon quickly lowered his head.

Mo Yeon’s surprise wasn’t simply because someone had spoken to him while he was being secretly harassed by a ghost invisible to others.

Tae Young-won was the only person Mo Yeon took an interest in at this school. Smiling, he looked down at Mo Yeon intently before slightly furrowing his brow.

“Aren’t those glasses heavy?”

Just as there’s light and shadow everywhere, university life was the same. If there were people like Mo Yeon who repelled even goodwill, there were also people like Tae Young-won, who naturally drew others to him, an insider among insiders.

But more than that, the reason Mo Yeon’s gaze was drawn to him was undoubtedly Tae Young-won’s kindness. Honestly, Mo Yeon didn’t think there was any special bond between them. They hadn’t met many times, and each time they did, Tae Young-won treated him like a stranger.

…But why is he sitting here?

This was the first time they’d been this close, and Mo Yeon couldn’t understand it. In his bewilderment, he didn’t even realize Tae Young-won had asked a question and simply turned to face forward.

Even as he wondered why Tae Young-won was sitting in a different place than usual, the image of his upturned corners of his mouth from earlier lingered in his mind like an afterimage.

That natural and pleasant smile was probably just a habit. That’s why he smiled even at someone like Mo Yeon, who only made people uncomfortable.

Although this was the first time they’d been so close, Mo Yeon felt an indescribable comfort from the moment Tae Young-won sat next to him. Also, the tingling sensation he felt when their hands brushed as Tae Young-won passed him a pen earlier was still vivid. Mo Yeon glanced over, slightly puzzled by that tingling feeling.

“…”

Fortunately, Tae Young-won didn’t seem displeased by Mo Yeon’s presence yet. He just took out his phone and started tapping on it, seemingly killing time until class started. On the phone screen Mo Yeon glimpsed briefly, countless unread messages were endlessly waiting for his reply. He scrolled through the messages with an indifferent expression before turning off the screen.

“Baby, can you give me a sheet of paper?”

Mo Yeon startled at the sudden voice. Feeling as if he’d been caught staring, he tore a page from the notebook on his desk and handed it over. He wouldn’t have given it to anyone else.

“A pen too, please.”

“…”

He only had one black pen. Mo Yeon handed over the pen he was holding. Tae Young-won looked at it for a moment.

“Thanks.”

He took the pen with a grin.

It’s the same today too.

Why doesn’t this person find me unpleasant? Doesn’t he know the rumors…?

The thoughts that always followed whenever he saw Tae Young-won soon led to the conclusion that it was because he lived in a different world from Mo Yeon. He probably didn’t care about anyone other than himself and those around him. More precisely, he had no reason to take interest in anyone first, as people naturally flocked around him.

“…”

A thought suddenly occurred to Mo Yeon, and he raised his head. Come to think of it, the thing that usually floated around the lecture hall hadn’t been visible for a while. Just earlier, that mischievous thing had been touching him, burrowing into his clothes…

Curious, Mo Yeon glanced around and saw a black form circling around before disappearing into a corner. Mo Yeon couldn’t believe his eyes at the sight.

What is it doing?

He had never seen such a scene before. The thing squirming on the wall furthest from the two of them seemed to be avoiding Tae Young-won, though it might have been his imagination.

Mo Yeon’s eyes, hidden behind his glasses, widened.

“…!”

Unlike the shocking sight, Tae Young-won’s gaze was still fixed on his phone. As if he didn’t even know what had just happened. However, from that moment on, Mo Yeon couldn’t take his eyes off Tae Young-won.

In fact, there could hardly have been a more stimulating sight.

***

Mo Yeon didn’t know when it started, but he had always been able to see things invisible to others. Dead things, souls overflowing with lingering attachments wandering the world were easily visible wherever he went. Not that he could do anything with this ability. He could only see ghosts.

What others might encounter only in horror movies or scary stories floating around the internet was reality for Mo Yeon.

Based on his experience so far, ghosts didn’t always bother people. Mo Yeon rarely saw truly malevolent spirits with deep grudges, and the ordinary wandering ghosts sometimes clung to people with heavy yin energy or weakened vitality, but they rarely tormented him mischievously like the one just now.

However, the moment they realized Mo Yeon could see them, they would immediately latch onto him and harass him in various ways. Suddenly jumping out to startle him while walking was commonplace, and in quiet places like during class, they would fondle his chest or private areas.

Because of this, he naturally sought out glasses to cover his eyes to avoid ghosts and preferred hairstyles and clothing that didn’t draw attention. He often fell, resulting in many small scars on his knees and palms, and his clothes were often tattered.

But for some reason, there were no aimlessly wandering ghosts near Tae Young-won, his senior in the same department. Since Tae Young-won sat next to him, Mo Yeon had repeatedly confirmed that ghosts were slyly avoiding him.

Mo Yeon’s curiosity about Tae Young-won, whom even ghosts avoided, grew day by day.

As the saying goes, “A thief of needles becomes a thief of oxen,” Mo Yeon found himself occasionally glancing at Tae Young-won sitting in a different seat during the next class, and after the following class, he discovered himself briefly following Tae Young-won.

At first, he clearly thought this wasn’t right. Thoughts like “If I go any further, it’ll be stalking” and “This really is like a stalker” faded as time passed. His courage, which had been tiny as a bean from constantly being startled, gradually swelled as he lingered around Tae Young-won and felt safer.

Tae Young-won’s presence, which made him feel even slightly safe, began to feel as essential as a daily necessity for Mo Yeon’s survival.

‘It’s not like I’m causing any harm, and it’ll be fine as long as I don’t get caught.’

That was the thought he had when he moved into the officetel where Tae Young-won lived.