The sky was turning orange by the time Channing and his men arrived back at his headquarters, the indoor lights shining through the glass panels of the scaper.
He pulled up at the driveway right before the entrance, and he caught sight of his assistant standing dead center right in front of the automatic doors whose face lit up the moment the six black cars appeared before him.
"Young Master!" the young man greeted happily, waving his arm in the air. He rushed to the driver's side of Channing's car, opening the door before he got the chance to properly park it. "Young Master, I trust things went- who's that?"
The man with the overgrown undercut curiously peeked inside his boss's car, pushing up his rectangular glasses as they slid down his nose. June had never met Lune before, and though he had helped Channing conduct most of his search for him, he had never seen a picture of him either, as there was none available.
He only partly knew Lune from the description Channing provided him.
"He's Lune," Channing answered. He stepped out of the car and leaned against the open frame, scratching the top of his head thoughtfully.
"That's Lune?" June exclaimed profusely, excited to see who's the person his boss has worked so hard to look for. "Whoa, I didn't think his hair was that long-!"
"Do you have to be that loud?"
He shut his mouth once he caught the warning look in his young master's dark eyes, scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. "Oh...sorry," he said in a softer tone.
Channing sucked in a breath through his teeth, looking up at the pinking sky and up at his tower, where his office was located significantly high up.
June caught his boss staring up at his office and cleared his throat, regaining his composure as a responsible subordinate, and raised Channing a sharp eyebrow. "Take a break today," he said firmly. "I've already taken the liberty to reschedule today's tasks. Go home and rest. You haven't done so properly this whole month."
Channing scowled and opened his mouth, ready to retort, when he remembered Lune was still dead asleep in his car. He hadn't moved an inch since the past few hours they were stuck on the highway.
Even that stupid bird was knocked out and laying on its side, snoring much too loudly for such a small size.
Where was he supposed to take him?
All of a sudden Channing's face flushed pink. It wasn't too much, but just enough to be noticed by his assistant.
June blinked as his young master ran his hands frantically through his mullet, pulling at his hair in a frenzy. "E- Eh? What's wrong?"
Channing turned to him, all flustered. He hadn't realized it before, but now it was quite embarrassing know that he really thought about. "He- He's sleeping in my car!" he hissed frantically, trying to cover his words with a cough. "What am I supposed to do? This never happened to me before?"
June's jaw dropped as Channing continued to mutter to himself in a low-key flurried state, no doubt in a confused mess since he'd never seen his boss really socialize with anyone besides that flashy director from the sister province right next to the capital.
But Jae Young couldn't possibly be counted as a friend. Despite being a foreigner, the two big-shots were more like brothers, who grew up together since the past decade, starting from when they were both eighteen years of age.
"J- just w- wake him up!" June stammered, unsure as well.
Apparently, Channing's state of unrest was a contagious one.
"How?!" Channing pressed, glaring at him.
June stumbled back in fear of his boss's anger, not knowing how to answer. After all, he was just as unfamiliar with these types of situations as his young master. A few incomprehensible utters escaped his mouth as he desperately tried to come up with what to say.
In the end, both men remained stumped as neither of them had to courage to go and scare Lune awake as it was something Jae would've done.
Channing scratched the top of his head and sighed, defeated. "I guess I'll just..."
He ducked back inside his car and leaned across his seat with caution, and slowly, he gave Lune a shake in the arm. "Hey, Lune," he said.
He got no response, and just like that, the most ridiculous thought crossed his mind.
'He's not dead, is he?'
But as crazy as that idea sounded, the possibility lingered in his mind, and so he couldn't help but reach for his hand to feel for a pulse, all the same time thinking how absurd he was being. Unfortunately for all, he was interrupted before he was about to do so.
The obnoxious bird's eyes flew open the moment Channing's arm brushed across Lune's arm right above it, and it woke up creating a terrifying, screeching mess.
Channing screamed in fright as the bird attacked his arm, his shout earning a freaked shout from June, who stumbled back and tripped over the curb into the shrubs in the center of the company's frontcourt.
And whilst the president of the same company struggled to fight off the tiny creature that dove beak-first into his face with a series of colorful profanities, neither of them noticed when Lune finally stirred to life.
Thus the poor man was greeted with a shrieking feathered animal hurled at his face the moment he turned his head from the window, and he reacted with a short cry of bewilderment.
Channing watched in horror as the clawing bird he detached from his face slide off Lune's shocked expression into his palms, staring up at Lune with a guilty look in its wide black eyes.
Channing darted his eyes back and forth between the two, matching the bird's sheepish appearance, his brown hair askew and light scratch marks on his face... The pair were like children caught red-handed by their parent in the midst of the their wrongdoings.
He opened his mouth to explain, but was immediately cut off when Lune rubbed the side of his head and said, "I...I feel asleep without a thought. I apologize if I caused any inconveniences. As for Bulu, I apologize as well. It will take some time before it can fully adjust to the environment."
"W- what? No! It's fine, you don't have to apologize, and...'Bulu'?" he repeated, confused. What's a Bulu?
"Ah...Bulu is the name of this spirit- a celestial bird," he answered mildly, holding the blue-feathered bird gently in his hands.
Channing flushed a deep red and held his fist to his lips, looking away. He wasn't sure if Lune could tell if Bulu's feathers were all in a screwed wreck or not, and the way he carefully held the little creature only guilt-tripped him more.
He cleared his throat, stammering, "Y- yeah..."
.
.
Lune did, in fact, feel a bit awkward when he woke up in Channing's car, not sure how long he was out. Again, it wasn't something he could control. He found himself suddenly growing tired after just moments into the highway, and before he knew it, he was out.
It wouldn't have been a problem if he was alone and out in the open, but he was in another's presence, a mortal's, to be specific.
Oh, how he hoped this wouldn't become a habit.
But Channing didn't seem to mind, instead, Lune sensed a great surge of contempt from him towards Bulu, and he couldn't blame him.
Why Bulu continued to stick with him even after releasing it out of the entrapment spell was a mystery to him, and the spirit seemed a bit too...wild and hyper. Other than having Bulu hit him directly in the face the moment he came to, it didn't really surprise him that the spirit was struggling to get along with the mortal, especially since it didn't seem like either of them had the slightest bit of patience.
"Thank you for transporting me back to the capital," Lune said quickly, reminding himself of the new task he had to complete. "I should not bother you now...I need to go on my way as well-"
"Wait!" Channing suddenly interjected. "Er...I have time right now. I can accompany you...if that's alright."
Lune arched an eyebrow. "You do not have to trouble yourself. That is not necessary," he responded, stepping out of the car. He placed Bulu on his shoulder and shut the door, at the same time, pulling out the silver necklace from the pocket of his hoodie.
"Are you sure?" he asked. "Maybe I can be of some help."
Lune shook his head. "Perhaps," he said. "But I am searching for a person. I don't think it is possible for one to-"
He paused, rewinding all the information he had gathered from the ghost through his head.
The granddaughter, the girl named Zhu Ting, was one who lived in the poor outskirts of the great city, deep in the grasps of poverty with hardly anyway up in society. As an immortal, there wasn't much he could do to intervene and change the girl's life around if he wanted to, other than the possibility that he would heal her illness that she suffered from.
After that, he could only go back to her grandmother's soul and release her into the afterlife, and Zhu Ting will remain alone once more, with no real guarantee that she will live a better life.
But Channing was a mortal, just the same as her, and he would know more of the human society than Lune would.
He could give her a helping hand in ways he could not, and he trusted he was more than capable of doing so.
And so Lune turned to Channing, his new decision made.
"I am searching for a young girl. Her name is Zhu Ting and she resides in the capital. Will you still help me?" he asked. "I am not sure if it is too difficult of a task..."
Channing lightened up. "Of course I can help!" he quickly replied. "That is completely within my power and can be easily done."
Lune smiled, content with his response. It seemed that his expectations were a bit too low for such a mortal like Channing. Perhaps he shouldn't underestimate them...
"All my resources are available up in my office, would you like to come in?" he offered.
A new voice Lune was not familiar with suddenly spoke, disapproving. "Young Master! I said not to go up! You need to go home and rest-!"
Channing cut off whoever that was with a sharp shush. "Don't mind him," he said to Lune. "My assistant is very pushy sometimes."
Lune frowned. The young man had just addressed Channing as his 'Young Master', Channing called his 'assistant', and from what he said about his office, Lune assumed he owned this very building beside them as well.
So it turned out that Channing was quite the successful man in the human world.
His smile widened as he was finding out more and more.
This man wasn't so simple after all, was he?
It was just like how it was back in the heavenly realms, where he and his three siblings were known as the Four Great Lords under the Jade Emporer. They were rulers in some way, and held significant power over the other immortals which came with equal responsibility.
And Lune figured Channing was just the same; he held great power, fulfilled his responsibilities...he also seemed to be very hard-working.
Maybe a bit too much hard-working, considering his assistant's words.
"If I am withholding your rest, you need not help me and I shall come back tomorrow morning," Lune said. "Your assistant is not wrong, he is right to be concerned..."
"But-"
[One look at your qi, and I can tell you that without proper rest, you will become bedridden soon. You don't want that, do you?]
Channing froze as his voice emerged in his mind once more, just like that time it happened before Lune passed out. Only this time it was not the same, and Lune's voice held a clear warning tone.
He sighed, defeated. Even his obsession with his working office was not overlooked by someone that barely knew him.
"Alright," he conceded, his hands up in surrender notion. "I'll go home...you'll come here tomorrow?"
Lune dipped his head in acknowledgment.
"But what about now, where will you go?"
Lune tilted his head, towards the direction of the stray undead he sensed just moments ago.
"...exploring," he simply answered.