Mu-ryeong’s Spirit

“Tree, I’m sorry…”

“Tree? Whose dog is that now?”
Rather than answering Seung-joo, Mu-ryeong let himself collapse onto his desk. After digging through the dirt all night, he could still smell the damp earth clinging to him. He had turned the entire flowerbed upside down in an attempt to console the spirit, but there was no way the time capsule buried under the building was going to surface.
‘…I’ll look again tomorrow.’

In the end, Mu-ryeong convinced him to give him just one more day. In exchange, he made him promise not to come to school tomorrow. Fortunately, since the boy was already thoroughly spooked, the negotiation wasn’t too difficult.
“Get some sleep. I’ll wake you up when it’s time for lunch.”
With those words, Mu-ryeong slowly drifted off. There were mountains of things to worry about, but after staying up all night, sleep weighed heavier on him than his thoughts. At the very least, he had to keep searching as much as he could. His mind grew hazy, slipping into drowsiness.

True to his word, Seung-joo woke him up as soon as lunchtime arrived.
“Kim Mu-ryeong, wake up.”
When Mu-ryeong didn’t stir even after that, Seung-joo, well-accustomed to the routine, slung him over his back and carried him out of the classroom. Mu-ryeong, practically being dragged along, made for a ridiculous sight—but neither he nor their classmates paid it any mind.

“…”
All except one person—Hwan-young.
“What are you standing around for? Come on, let’s go eat.”

Since Mu-ryeong was barely conscious, Seung-joo headed over to Class 3 himself and called for Hwan-young. The moment he heard his name, Hwan-young stood up, but his eyebrows twitched slightly when he saw Seung-joo standing by the back door. More precisely—when he saw the half-asleep Mu-ryeong slumped over his back.
“…Why is he like that sometimes?”
“Ask Kim Mu-ryeong yourself.”

At those words, Mu-ryeong stirred and peeked his head up. His eyes were still half-lidded, but hearing his name must have triggered an automatic response. He blinked a few times before gazing drowsily at Hwan-young.
“Oh… hey.”
“Yeah, right. ‘Hey,’ my ass.”

Seung-joo let go of Mu-ryeong’s arms unceremoniously, and Mu-ryeong wobbled as he barely managed to stand on his own. He covered his mouth with one hand, yawning widely. His drooping eyes glistened with tears from the exhaustion.
“Ugh… I’m so sleepy…”
Normally, he would have shaken it off by now, but the overcast sky was making it even harder to wake up properly. His body ached from crouching all night, and just as he was about to yawn again, Hwan-young suddenly reached out and grabbed his wrist.
“…What happened to your hands?”

His sharp gaze scanned the numerous bandages covering Mu-ryeong’s fingers and the backs of his hands. He checked the right hand first, then turned his attention to the left, frowning as he took in the healing wounds. Seung-joo had patched them up well, but the scabbed-over areas were still clearly visible.
“Oh, this? It’s nothing—”
Mu-ryeong started to brush it off but abruptly stopped mid-sentence. Hwan-young’s expression was far more serious than he’d expected. The moment he met those sunken, dark eyes, his drowsiness vanished as if cold water had been dumped over his head.

“…I was digging.”
Hwan-young didn’t respond.
Mu-ryeong had blurted it out in a hurry, but Hwan-young simply looked at him like he had lost his mind. His skeptical gaze made Mu-ryeong shift uncomfortably. He reached up with his free hand to scratch the back of his neck.

“I was looking for something… so I dug up the flowerbed.”
“…With your bare hands?”
“There wasn’t a shovel.”

He had given the same excuse when Seung-joo scolded him, but it felt different this time. Back then, he had been able to respond with smug indifference, but now, it felt like he was being held accountable for some kind of crime. It wasn’t his conscience that should be stinging—it was his battered hands.
“They’ll heal soon. It’s really not a big deal.”
Mu-ryeong subtly pulled his wrist free and shoved both hands into his pockets. He even urged them to hurry to the cafeteria, prompting Hwan-young to finally step out of the classroom. Seung-joo, watching from the side, sighed and shook his head before following behind them.

“So, you stayed up all night digging?”
As they neared the cafeteria, Hwan-young spoke again, his voice still dripping with disbelief.
“What are you, a mole…?”

Mu-ryeong himself found the whole thing absurd when he put it that way.
“Not exactly… I was doing other things, too.”
“Did you even find it?”

“…”
Mu-ryeong slumped his shoulders. He wished he could say yes, but the truth was, he hadn’t even found a clue. Seung-joo, ever indifferent since it wasn’t his problem (which, to be fair, it wasn’t), chimed in dryly.
“He might never find it.”

“…Well.”
There was one way. He could forcefully extract the spirit that had possessed the boy, which would technically complete the request. The real problem was figuring out what to do with the spirit once he removed it.
“…I’ll figure something out.”

Spirits that failed to pass on usually had unresolved attachments to the living world. Most of the time, they had died unjustly, left behind unfulfilled dreams, or had words they never got to say. Of course, there were also the occasional cases where the grim reaper simply got too busy and accidentally let a soul slip through the cracks.
“Finding the object won’t necessarily solve the problem.”
Mu-ryeong had insisted on finding the time capsule, but the true purpose behind it was the confession. If he could extract the spirit from the student’s body and deliver its final message, that might be enough to free it. The process of removing the spirit was already complicated enough, but if things got urgent, he’d have no choice.

“…A request?”
Hwan-young, piecing together the conversation, seemed to realize that they were talking about a case Mu-ryeong had taken on. Mu-ryeong neither confirmed nor denied it, simply shrugging in response.
Then, completely unexpectedly, Hwan-young made an offer that took him by surprise.

“…Want me to help you look?”
***
The outer walls surrounding the school were built in a way that made them impossible for an average person to scale. Even with an impressive jump, it was hard to reach the top, and even if someone managed to grab the edge, they would likely slip before pulling themselves up. On top of that, even if they succeeded in getting over, they would still have to deal with the barbed wire lining the top.

“…Hmm.”
Standing in front of the towering wall, Mu-ryeong squinted, looking mildly troubled. The rain continued to pour down without showing any sign of stopping. Of course, the weather wasn’t the only thing causing his hesitation.
“I really don’t need help with this…”

Muttering under his breath, Mu-ryeong glanced sideways. Standing beside him in his neatly worn summer uniform was Ki Hwan-young. In one hand, he held a black umbrella, and the other was tucked into his pocket as he stared up at the impossibly high wall.
“You’re planning to climb this?”
Why was he here with Mu-ryeong in the middle of the night? To answer that, they had to go back to their conversation during lunch. The moment Hwan-young had casually asked, Want me to help you look? and Mu-ryeong had waved him off with a laugh.

“Nah, I can find it on my own.”
Mu-ryeong had never intended to ask Hwan-young for help. The request had come to him, after all, and having someone else with him would only make it harder to move around freely. Though, to be fair, Hwan-young was one of the few people who knew about Mu-ryeong’s usual antics, so the latter issue didn’t really apply in his case.
“Do you even know what he’s looking for? Do you need to be stuck at school overnight too?”

Seung-joo, as expected, had cynically advised Hwan-young not to bother. One sleep-deprived idiot wandering Haeyeon High’s campus at night was more than enough. Mu-ryeong wouldn’t want to drag anyone else into the exhaustion and suffering, either.
“…He stays overnight at school?”
But Hwan-young’s focus hadn’t been on what they were trying to dissuade him from. Instead, his attention had caught on Mu-ryeong’s habit of wandering the school at night. He had even let out an exasperated sigh when he glanced at Mu-ryeong’s still-flushed face, as if he’d finally put the pieces together.

“So that’s what you’ve been up to…”
In that moment, Mu-ryeong felt something eerily familiar—Seung-joo’s usual you absolute dumbass look. And with it, that distinct sensation of guilt bubbling up, the same one that surfaced when his mother scolded him.
“It’ll be faster if we search together.”

Hwan-young had said it so matter-of-factly that Mu-ryeong hadn’t even had time to refuse before he continued speaking. His next words struck him with an odd sense of guilt.
“The sooner we finish this, the sooner you can get to my request.”
“Normally, I’d climb over the wall.”

If he had to rank things by priority, then yes, Hwan-young’s request should have come first. He had put it on hold until the monsoon season ended, but it still felt a little wrong to be handling another case while that one was unresolved. That was why, even though Mu-ryeong had tried to refuse, he hadn’t pushed Hwan-young away a second time.
“There are security cameras at the front gate, so I can’t go near the entrance.”
And so, as soon as the sun set, the two of them met in front of this wall. Mu-ryeong had gone home to gather the necessary supplies, while Hwan-young had killed time elsewhere before showing up. Mu-ryeong had suggested he just come with him, but when he hesitated before refusing, he didn’t press the matter further.

“Hold your umbrella over me for a second.”
Since things had already come to this, the only option was to make the most of it. With that in mind, Mu-ryeong closed his umbrella and stepped under Hwan-young’s instead. He shook the water off the closed umbrella before rolling it up and stuffing it into his bag.
As he rummaged through his bag with Hwan-young standing in front of him, the latter tilted the umbrella slightly to cover him better and asked,

“…What are you doing?”
“Hm? I’m putting on a raincoat.”
Climbing over a wall with an umbrella wasn’t exactly feasible, so he had come prepared. Letting himself get soaked wasn’t an option, either—dealing with wet hair and damp clothes was too much of a hassle.

“I brought one for you too.”
Mu-ryeong pulled out two neatly folded raincoats from his bag. Then, when he looked up, he found himself closer to Hwan-young than expected. The latter, who had been watching him with his head slightly lowered, flinched and blinked in surprise.