I raked a hand through my hair, watching the deep crease between my brows.

I’d hoped what was in front of me was a nightmare, but the sunlight already told me it wasn’t.

“Ahh...”

My head ached like I hadn’t slept in days.

Damn it. Exactly as expected.

‘The aftereffects of a spirit-dream.’

Sleep that doesn’t feel like sleep. The headache and fog that come with it.

Whatever it is, it’s the sensation I hate most.

Irritation climbed high. As if the situation weren’t bad enough already, the face in front of me was provocation enough.

“Great. Perfect way to ruin a morning...”

“You do realize there’s a person in front of you?”

Cheon Hyein spoke with a look that said she couldn’t believe me.

“I do. I said it so you’d hear it, so you hearing it is correct.”

I’m not crazy enough to mutter that to myself.

Of course it was for her to hear.

“So? What business do you have at this hour? No culture, no manners?”

“As it happens, I’ve been assigned to guide Young Mast— no, Unit Member Bang today.”

I narrowed my eyes at that.

“I’ve been waiting for quite a while, but you wouldn’t come out, so here I am, visiting you in a fashion as uncultured and unmannered as this.”

She tacked that on like my sarcasm didn’t even register.

At those words I stood.

“I doubt it.”

“Pardon?”

“You weren’t assigned.”

“What do you mean?”

Where was the uniform? I looked around to change.

Ah. There it was. Neatly folded on the desk.

I picked up the uniform and spoke to Cheon Hyein.

“You weren’t assigned; you maneuvered for it.”

“...What.”

“My guide was Do Hyeong, wasn’t it? The youngest, and he’s already met me.”

I rubbed my neck. Maybe because of the cut in the dream, it felt unusually sensitive.

Thirst pricked at me. Water? I looked, but nothing obvious.

“In that situation, the last person I want to see shows up at my door. It’s obvious you pulled strings.”

Tch. I clicked my tongue.

“If you’re going to lie, try a little harder. Don’t treat me like an idiot.”

“...”

“Oh, found it.”

I spotted the bottle I’d left half-finished before. It had been a few days—fine.

After I barely wet my throat, the back of my head prickled. I turned. Cheon Hyein was glaring at me.

No, not glaring.

‘...She’s smiling.’

Yikes. That look could scare the dead. Making a face that terrifying with something that pretty must take effort.

“Do you, by any chance, dislike me, Young Master Bang?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

Is she asking because she really doesn’t know?

“I have no reason to like you, and someone made me a long list of reasons to dislike her.”

“Why is there no reason to like me?”

Cheon Hyein framed her face with her hands, wearing a sultry smile.

“I’m extremely pretty.”

Light spilled. She was obscenely pretty.

But—

“Yes. And I’m extremely handsome.”

“...Wow.”

At my words, Cheon Hyein’s face twisted in instant disgust.

“You can say that with your own mouth?”

“Did you have someone else say yours for you?”

It was one of the only good traits I got from my useless, damnable father.

A body that looks good and a handsome face.

My eyes are a touch too mild—that’s the one flaw—but objectively, I’m good-looking.

But—

“Nothing’s more irritating than someone bulldozing with their face. You heard about my father, right? I grew up watching that, so I despise this kind of thing.”

“...”

At the mention of my father, Cheon Hyein hesitated. The faint smile left her face.

“Confident, aren’t you?”

“About what?”

“Your certainty that I know about your father.”

“Oh. Yes.”

What did she think she was going to ask?

“You did your background check ages ago.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“Because that’s what I would’ve done.”

“...”

At my unapologetic answer, Cheon Hyein lost her words.

“Do you need more of an answer?”

“...Ha.”

A low laugh brushed my ear. For no good reason, goosebumps rose.

“...You’re truly fascinating. What pit did you fall out of? You keep making me curious.”

“I can hear you.”

“I said it so you would.”

“Then I didn’t hear it.”

“Should I repeat it?”

“Not necessary.”

I had no idea what kind of conversation this was supposed to be.

It just felt like my energy was being sucked out.

‘...Rotten luck. Even maiden vile spirits weren’t this draining.’

A vile spirit that had been a maiden ghost—yin energy overflowing.

Even when I performed the crossing for that absurd thing in my past life, it wasn’t this tiring.

Just talking to this strange woman made me feel like I’d go mad.

“Hey, can I ask one thing?”

“No.”

“Why aren’t you saying anything to me?”

“I said no—oh for—damn it.”

Is everyone in this sect self-willed to a man? I genuinely wondered.

“Say anything about what?”

“You seem like you have a lot to say, but you’re not saying it.”

“So you do understand?”

How many times had she hassled me in recent days—and just last night, she’d engineered that lovely mess.

I had no proof, only conviction, but I was certain.

And she surely knew I was certain.

Which is why she was asking this.

“It’s not forgiveness. You’re not just letting it go either... so what is it?”

“Why do you assume I’m not letting it go? I could.”

No matter how much trouble someone caused me, maybe I was magnanimous enough [N O V E L I G H T] to overlook it—yet in her eyes there existed a conviction that I would never.

Oddly, that stung. I was just wondering why she thought that—

“Because I wouldn’t?”

‘Well.’

I almost applauded. Using my line like that.

“Was that answer to your liking?”

“...About seventy percent?”

“What’s the thirty?”

I hadn’t thought that far.

When I stayed awkwardly silent, she pretended not to notice and moved on.

“So I came to ask because I was curious—what exactly can you do to me?”

“...Ha.”

A dry laugh slipped out.

“Setting curiosity aside, did you think asking me would get you an answer?”

“It’s fine if you don’t. Honestly, I came to see your face one more time.”

To someone else, that would sound sweet enough to flutter.

From where I stood, it wasn’t even funny.

“Ahh... this is really annoying.”

The feeling I’d been barely holding down surged up.

“Hey.”

“‘Hey’?”

Her eyes narrowed at the shift in my tone.

“Stop being a nuisance.”

In the end, the old temper broke out.

“No. Being a nuisance—maybe I can chalk that up as you playing cute.”

I stared straight into her eyes and stepped toward her.

“Don’t cross the line. This is your last warning.”

“Hmmm...”

At my words, her eyes curved, alluring.

“What happens if I ignore the warning?”

Amusement colored her voice. She didn’t care at all.

“Then I stop treating you like a person.”

“Oh my? Then you treat me like an animal or something? I didn’t know you were into—”

“Lady Cheon.”

“....”

When I spoke her name quietly, she closed her mouth for a beat.

“Stop while I still see you as a person.”

I meant it.

Because—

“I’m capable of anything to something that isn’t.”

“...That’s a scary thing to say.”

“I’m not overlooking you because your antics are cute.”

Annoying and infuriating as it is—you’re a person.

A living human sharing the same time as me, so I’m letting it pass.

So—

“Don’t cross the line.”

I looked at Cheon Hyein and said,

“This is the last time.”

“...”

“If you’re done, get out so I can change.”

I took her by the shoulder and pulled. She yielded without resistance.

I shoved her over the threshold and slammed the door.

“...Hoo.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Tch.”

I clicked my tongue and grabbed the uniform I’d set aside.

The nightmare already had me on edge; now my mood was wrecked on top of it.

Most irritating of all—

‘With things like this, where did that old man vanish to?’

For some reason, Yoo Cheongil hadn’t shown himself all morning.

****

Outside Bang Sungyeon’s quarters.

Thrown out by order to clear the premises, Cheon Hyein stood frozen with a strange expression.

“...”

—Hyein.

A voice touched her ear like it had been waiting, but she lifted a hand to stop it.

“Wait...”

Her wide eyes stretched wider as she sank into thought.

It was about the person she’d just faced—Bang Sungyeon.

A youth who’d looked at her like she was nothing but trouble.

That much was fine. Her goal had only been to read his reactions and stir him a little.

The problem was—

‘Lady Cheon.’

“...”

The voice and eyes that had issued a warning, low and quiet.

The instant she recalled them, she rubbed her forearm.

Cold.

A sensation like something inside her freezing over.

‘What is that.’

What on earth?

How can a person look at someone that coldly?

It was chilling.

The fact that he had spoken down to her, and even the measured back-and-forth they’d had before that—none of it remained in her head.

‘Just how many masks do you wear?’

His usual face. The face during the duel.

And now, the face he’d just shown.

The more she saw of Bang Sungyeon, the stranger he was.

His usual face was intriguing.

His face in the duel was shocking.

And the one just now...

‘Was dangerous.’

A nameless sense of crisis. A certainty that if he wished, he could crush you whenever he pleased, and eyes that looked at you as less than human.

“Hahaha...”

Cheon Hyein laughed as she recalled it.

It had been a long time since she felt anything like that.

‘To think I’d feel this again.’

When was the last time?

Probably not since she’d met the “monster” of Mount Hua.

Did that mean Bang Sungyeon was on the same level as that monster?

‘Who knows.’

She couldn’t be sure. They were too different in kind to compare.

But what mattered was—

‘Either way—’

Bang Sungyeon had drawn out every bit of Cheon Hyein’s interest.

“...I want him.”

And Cheon Hyein was not someone who had ever failed to obtain what she wanted.

As if to prove it—

Squeeze—

While stroking the gooseflesh on her arm, her face was, inexplicably, lit with ecstasy.

Just then—

Creak—

The door swung open and Bang Sungyeon appeared. At the sound, she turned her head.

“...”

She froze when she saw him step out.

“What are you doing? Why are you pointlessly blocking the way?”

The cold eyes from earlier were gone.

His eyes were the same as when they first met—calm on the surface, filled with annoyance.

It was like the person from a moment ago could have been someone else.

“Ugh, I’m tired.”

He rolled his shoulder slightly. Cheon Hyein simply watched him.

The Small Moon Unit uniform issued by the Blue Moon Sect.

Wearing it, Bang Sungyeon was—how to put it—

‘He’s definitely handsome.’

Handsome enough that him saying so himself didn’t feel entirely offensive. He cut a striking figure.

“Let’s go. Where am I supposed to be?”

Annoyed tone, finger at his nose—completely at odds with the face.

She couldn’t take her eyes off him.

“Are we not going?”

He seemed wholly unbothered by what had just happened.

Watching that, she shook her head.

“...No. Let’s go.”

She took the lead, and Bang Sungyeon followed.