36: Relief Concert (3)
Neoul checked the face of the bearded old ghost. The old ghost sniffed, his eyes widened, and muttered.
[Sigh... I wonder if it's long or short, but I think I smell life. The student isn't dead yet, is he? Is he in a coma?]
Neoul didn't answer. It looked really suspicious. Somehow, he had a feeling that he shouldn't answer.
Instead, he took out a ten-thousand won note and handed it to him.
[Huh? Are you giving it to me?]
When Neoul nodded, the old ghost's eyes, which had been wide, returned to normal and he laughed as he accepted the money.
[Oh my, thank you. Even though I raised all my children, they just fight over the money, and I didn't give them even a penny of pocket money. Huh?]
The old ghost folded the ten-thousand won note into a crumpled shape, put it in his pocket, and left.
After that, two more ghosts approached Neoul. Neoul was so focused on the concert that he listened to their words with one ear and let them go out the other, and gave them each a piece of money.
[Want some cotton candy?]
When someone approached him and tapped his shoulder, Neoul, who was about to give a ten thousand won again, stopped and turned his head.
A boy wearing thick clothes that didn't match the season, a deer antler headband, and glasses was standing there. The boy held out cotton candy to Neoul and pointed to a little way down from the stage.
[They give it out for free there every time there's a show.]
A grim reaper was diligently pouring sugar and making colorful cotton candy and handing it out.
[Is this edible? It looks like a bunch of clouds.]
Neoul were surprised and accepted the cotton candy.
[What? Is this your first time eating cotton candy? Hmm…. You look like someone who's come to see a concert for the first time.]
The boy stood next to Neoul and leaned against the railing instead of going his way. Then he looked down at the stage and spoke.
[This show is held every week, and in our country alone, hundreds of people die every day. In just one week, this small amusement park is filled with new audiences.]
Neoul was a little surprised.
Hundreds of people die a day...?
It was a number so large that it was hard for Neoul to even count.
[Hmm. Since the audience changes every time, they could always play the same songs, but I don't understand why the emmisaries always come up with a new set list.]
The boy clicked his tongue as if he didn't understand.
The performance was coming to an end, and all of the emmisaries, including Baek Namoo, came out and sang one more song as an encore, ending the show. All of the ghosts were shedding tears.
The grim reapers lined up the ghosts in two long rows. The line stretched all the way to the exit of the amusement park.
The exit was locked behind a large door, but when one grim reaper opened it, a wide field full of white flowers and a path were revealed inside. It was a completely different space from the outside scenery they had seen when they came to the amusement park.
From far away in the empty field, they saw dogs big and small running towards them. The grim reapers, wearing black clothes, safari hats, and white boots like zookeepers, followed them. The grim reapers were holding several cats in their arms.
Oh! Choco! I missed you!
Kim Elizabeth!
Mongolia! Hehe!
Some of the ghosts who had been lined up in an orderly manner burst into tears and ran towards their pets who had come to greet them. The ghosts who had crossed the exit and jumped into the field hugged their cats.
There were other animals, such as pigs, rabbits, parrots, and turtles.
The rest of the ghosts greeted the grim reaper with affectionate eyes and followed the instructions to enter the space.
Neoul looked at the animals, whose names he didn't even know, with curious eyes, seeing them for the first time in his life. They were all soft and fluffy, and they looked really cute.
[Do you know that?]
Then the boy with glasses asked.
[The grim reaper appears as the person the deceased loved the most or their ideal type while they were alive. If you look at the person on the far left, who looks exactly like the person they had a crush on before they died, then I guess that was true. What do you look like?]
Neoul looked around at the grim reapers. Baek Namoo was Baek Namoo, and the rest were all faces he had never seen before. Neoul tilted his head and then looked back at the glasses boy.
The glasses boy smiled with the corners of his mouth raised when his eyes met Neoul's.
[You look completely incomprehensible. You're not dead, are you?]
Neoul wondered if now was the right time to take out ten thousand won. However, the glasses boy shrugged and changed the subject.
[Why aren't you eating the cotton candy? Eat it quickly before it melts.]
Neoul was about to put the cloud-like cotton candy in his mouth. He opened his mouth to take a bite, but stopped when he felt a warm gaze on one side of his face.
Neoul put the cotton candy away from his mouth without eating it.
[I have a question.]
Neoul realized the source of the discomfort he felt toward the boy and asked.
[The audience for the performance changes every time, right? That's because everyone goes through that door to the afterlife like they do now, right?]
[Yeah. That's right.]
[But why don't you go but stay?]
He knew that the show was held every week and that the set list changed every time... He must have been there for quite a while.
Neoul narrowed his eyes and stared at the boy.
The boy pointed to the cotton candy and said.
[Eat that and I'll answer.]
[… Okay. I won't listen.]
Neoul turned his head as if to say that he didn't want to answer. He wasn't curious enough to force himself to do something just to hear the answer.
[C'mon. I told you to try it?]
The boy with glasses snatched the cotton candy from Neoul's hand and tried to stuff it in Neoul's mouth.
Neoul shut his mouth tightly and pushed the boy away with his long arms. He had been trying to feed him cotton candy and looking at him in a burdensome manner since earlier, which was really suspicious.
'What are you up to?'
The boy with glasses took a few steps back, perhaps because he saw the suspicious expression on Neoul's face.
Then he quickly jumped into Neoul and slammed his head into his chest. Then he was sucked into Neoul's body and disappeared, shrinking. It happened in the blink of an eye.
Cotton candy fell to the floor.
'...? What just happened?'
Neoul fumbled his chest in surprise. At that moment, Baek Namoo, who had finished his work, returned.
[Mermaid Prince! How was the performance? Was it the best? I know!]
Baek Namoo, which had been approaching with a proud face and boasting about himself, suddenly hardened his expression and stopped.
[Ah… damn it.]
Then he cursed and stretched out his arms to Neoul.
[You have to go back to your body quickly!]
***
Meanwhile, Baek Yuri's house.
Neoul, who had been sleeping soundly, suddenly opened his eyes. The ghost had taken advantage of the weak connection between Neoul's body and soul due to the loss of his astral body.
The one who had taken over Neoul's body was the ghost of the glasses boy.
'I've finally escaped that damn amusement park!'
The glasses boy was a ghost who had died at that amusement park long ago.
It was long before the amusement park was closed, completely cut off from people, and became a den of ghosts.
The boy could not accept that he was dead, so he had been hiding himself every time to avoid the eyes of the grim reapers. However, even though he wanted to go somewhere else, he couldn't leave the place where he died because of an unknown force that tied his body down and he had to keep wandering around.
But...!
'I didn't expect the soul of a living person to appear there where only the dead and the grim reapers were swarming around!'
The boy approached Neoul, intending to rob an empty house.
The sugar, the ingredient in the cotton candy made by the grim reaper, was brought from the afterlife and cultivated there. It has been said since ancient times that if you eat the food of the afterlife you will not be able to return to the living world.
The boy intended to feed cotton candy to Neoul, severing the connection with his body, and take over Neoul's body.
'That quick-witted guy didn't eat the cotton candy, so I couldn't sever the connection right away...'
If the soul of the body owner doesn't return after a long time has passed while the body is taken away, the connection between the body and soul will naturally be severed.
The boy tried to figure out the situation in order to pretend to be the body owner.
'Who are these people? Are they my brothers?'
The boy, who was worried, decided to wake them up.
'They don't look alike, but whatever. Let's go with the amnesia cliche. I hit my head and say I don't remember anything, but I get information and live a new life!'
Just as he was about to reach out with a grand plan, the boy had a hallucination that seemed like a huge tsunami was coming before his eyes.
'Huh...?'
Suddenly, his eyes turned red, then blue, and tears flowed out. His emotions were running wild and turbulent like a madman.
The boy writhed in thirst and mental pain, and felt the urge to jump into the water. Eventually, he couldn't stand it and jumped out of the water.
***
The boy who bounced off of Neoul's body fell straight into the amusement park. Baek Namoo, who was reaching out to Neoul, suddenly bumped into the glasses boy and was pushed back.
[Ugh! What the!]
The glasses boy, who was shedding tears, recognized the grim reaper and hurriedly sat down. When he came to his senses and tried to run away, it was already too late. Baek Namoo quickly took out a rope and wrapped it around the boy and caught him.
[This guy! If you were dead, just leave nicely! Why would you covet someone else's body?]
Baek Namoo whistled and called another grim reaper. After a while, the grim reaper with forked hair that he had seen on stage came and dragged the boy away.
Baek Namoo immediately grabbed Neoul's arm and pulled him, and they were already at Baek Yuri's house. Baek Namoo hit Neoul on the forehead and made Neoul return to his body.
"Ouch…."
Neoul rubbed his forehead and got up. His light body suddenly became heavy, as if he had been underwater and suddenly lost his buoyancy when he first came out of the water.
Of the five bills that Neoul had been holding tightly in his hand, only two remained. Neoul put the crumpled bills down on the pillow.
Looking around the room, Baek Yuri and Baek Gi-yeom were fortunately fast asleep. Baek Yuri was sleeping soundly, just as he had when he first fell asleep, while Baek Gi-yeom had rolled around, so his head and feet had been swapped.
While Neoul was looking around the room, Baek Namoo observed Neoul with a puzzled look.
[What the hell happened?]
Baek Namoo muttered to himself.
"What do you mean?"
Neoul whispered so that the two sleeping people wouldn't wake up.
[That ghost from earlier. The boy with glasses. It clearly took over your body, so why did it bounce right away?]
"Did it take over my body?"
Neoul was surprised for a moment, but then he himself couldn't figure out why the ghost had bounced away, so he stared blankly.
Baek Namoo narrowed his eyes and stroked his chin, trying to figure out the reason.
[Is it because you're not human?]
"Hmm. I guess so."
Neoul agreed and slowly buried his face in the pillow.
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