Little Pink Starfish

Of course, right now was nice too.
What Ebi overlooked was that Saeon had no common sense, ethics, or morals—he was said to be a weirdo even among yokai.
Watching the red rope swing like a pendulum, a sense of crisis crept up.

“Wait, hold on a sec!”

When Ebi shouted, Saeon, who had been gauging whether to put the noose around an arm or leg, paused.

“I did say I liked you, but I didn’t say I’d date you. And just because I like you doesn’t mean you can take me with you!”

The snare in Saeon’s hand drooped.
His face was expressionless, but he looked a little disappointed.
Still, since he at least seemed to be listening, Ebi felt relieved.
He had nearly been kidnapped and carried off.
What did this hunter grow up watching that made him think abduction marriage was normal?
Even 500 years ago, that was a bad thing…

“But if two people who like each other live together alone in the same house, isn’t it natural for them to start dating?”

The irrational hunter tried to persuade Ebi while gently swaying the snare, pretending to be logical.
Ebi was starting to get a feel for how to handle Saeon.
He remembered the time Saeon brought a human corpse in a suitcase.

“I… wanted to do something with you before dating.”

Ebi turned his head slightly and said this in a sad-sounding voice.
It worked even better than expected—Saeon put down the charm and the snare.

“What did you want to do with me?”

“Before dating, you should at least go on, like, five dates.”

Saying it out loud, Ebi felt a bit of regret for never going on even a single date with Saeon.
If just sitting and eating good food together felt this nice, dating would surely be even more fun and happy.

“Date?”

Saeon repeated the word like he’d never heard it before.
A faint wrinkle formed on his neatly shaped brow.
He looked down, lost in thought, then asked:

“So what do you do on one?”

Ebi felt strangely delighted confirming that Saeon had zero dating experience.
He must have lived his life buried in hunting until now.

“You just… meet up, go to nice places, eat tasty things… and do fun stuff…”

As Ebi spoke, he tried to cool his blushing cheeks with his palm.
“Fun stuff,” Saeon mumbled.
He thought hard, glanced at Ebi, then put away the charm and snare.

Bzzzzt. A vibration hit his ears just then.
While facing off against Saeon, it had apparently been ringing for a while.
Looking at the screen, Ebi saw many missed calls.
It was really time to head out for filming.

Ebi jumped up.

“I have to go now.”

He rushed out, then suddenly stopped and came back.
Saeon, who had been watching Ebi run off, looked puzzled.
Without hesitation, Ebi hugged him tightly, cupped the back of his head, kissed him, and smiled sweetly, whispering:

“See you later. I’ll text you.”

Saeon, surprised, widened his eyes a little.
Then the corners of his eyes slowly curved.
Just then, the director began calling for Ebi over the loudspeaker, so he ran off without looking back.
He arrived in one breath where Dongjitdal and Sowol were, then smiled brightly and said:

“Dongji! Have you ever had freshly steamed red bean rice cake? It’s so delicious.”

🍬

A ghostly scream rang sharp in his ears.
Crying, then laughing maniacally, then screaming again in pain.
His whole body felt like it was on fire, yet at the same time, a freezing cold surged through like being dunked in ice.
It was a pain he’d never felt before.

Crawling on the floor, sobbing, he opened his eyes.
A familiar hand was in front of him.

‘Scholar…’

He weakly reached out, wanting to be comforted—but only his hand lifted.
It was cut off clean below the wrist, dripping blood.
He dropped it and shot up, then collapsed again, trembling.
Covering his head with bloody hands, he writhed in pain.

Everything around him was horrifying.
The person he cherished most had been torn to pieces and scattered everywhere.

As he screamed, everything turned dark before his eyes.

“……!”

A goblin fire burst out of the glass bottle.
The blue flame flared like a frightened animal puffing up.
Touched by sunlight, it became a blue blaze, forming a human shape.
Ebi staggered and fell to his knees.
His pale forehead was drenched in cold sweat.
It had been a truly terrible nightmare.

Normally, goblins don’t dream, but Ebi often dreamed about the Scholar.
It would’ve been nice if they were good memories, but they always ended up being about the day the Scholar died.
Whenever that happened, a shadow darkened the smiling face in the dream.
Faint blue flames seeped from between his tightly shut eyelids.

‘There has been an enemy since ancient times, one that harms your most precious things… and now it seeks to harm you too.’

At that moment, Ebi suddenly remembered something Arang had said.
He’d thought about it many times, but it always led him to think that this enemy might be the same one who killed the Scholar.
Rarely, Ebi felt hatred—and now, he clenched his teeth.

Who was that enemy?
Why did they kill the Scholar so cruelly?
Was it a non-human who’s lived this long and is now after Ebi, or was it a human reborn and driven by karma?
He didn’t know.

Could the ones targeting goblins also be related to that?
There was nothing he could be sure of.

Ebi shook his head to brush off the nightmare and got up.
Being the only one awake among all the sleeping goblins made him feel lonely.
Sometimes he too wished he could sleep and wake up with them like the others.

Going down to the break room floor, it was quiet, unlike the usual noisy nights.
Maybe someone caused trouble again—Soil was sitting by the window, bored, lightly fanning himself while working.
Ebi looked around for Dongjitdal and saw him on the couch, hugging a black plastic bag. His eyes looked tired.

“Did you stay up all night gaming again?”

“This time, I won.”

Dongji said proudly.
Now Ebi noticed that Sowol was sleeping on the couch, phone still in hand.
Ebi found a warm blanket and covered him gently.
Just then, Dongjitdal tugged Ebi’s sleeve.

“Here, eat this.”

“Huh? What is it?”

“I thought you seemed to crave it lately, so I bought it last night.”

Inside the bag were siru-tteok and sorghum rice cakes.
The bakery’s name was printed on a sticker.

“Dongji…!”

Ebi, deeply touched, hugged Dongjitdal tightly.
Even though Ebi had been rambling about rice cakes like someone out of it, Dongji didn’t get annoyed once and just figured “He must want some,” and bought it.
Ebi was so grateful.
Dongji looked bashful but wiggled his nose happily.
He let out a big yawn.

“So sleepy…”

Since Ebi didn’t have any schedules today, they probably stayed up gaming without worries.
As soon as he laid his head on the couch, Dongji fell asleep right away.
His usual grumpy face relaxed gently.
Ebi covered him with a blanket and patted him softly until he fell into deep sleep.

Then he picked up his charging phone.
There were no messages from Saeon.
Maybe he was asleep by now?
Unlike Dongji, who stayed up late gaming, Saeon probably didn’t sleep at night because of hunting.

Ebi waited eagerly for a text asking to go on a date.
Bored, he started scrolling through his old messages with Saeon.
There weren’t many.

[Don’t you wanna try SNS?]

[If you have a photo of yourself, can you send me one?]

No replies yet.
He thought time was moving so slowly today.

Soil folded his fan.

“Who got into trouble this time? Was it our kids again?”

“No. Recently, yokai have been getting attacked often, but we haven’t figured out by who, so I was investigating.”

“You think it might be related to our missing kids?”

“It could be, or not.”

Soil replied ambiguously.
He had come down to monitor and protect high-risk individuals—but he only did that.
As long as it wasn’t something humans noticed, he didn’t care if yokai were fighting or even killing each other.
He always smiled mysteriously like he knew everything, but rarely gave clear answers.
He acted like he was above it all.

Soil glanced at Sowol and sighed.
Compared to himself, who was perfectly disciplined like a heavenly soldier, Sowol was looser, more relaxed.

“Lord Sowol, seriously… Why come down here over a severed tie…”

Soil muttered and sighed deeply.
With his slight obsession with cleanliness, he didn’t seem happy about his superior.
But Ebi liked Sowol just for that.
Whether he scolded Ebi and Dongji for charming humans or bickered with Dongji, Ebi knew those actions came from affection.

But still, what was the severed tie?
Ebi looked at Soil curiously.
Realizing he slipped up, Soil quickly covered his mouth with the fan and cleared his throat.