𝐈𝐧 𝐀𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐋𝐢𝐟𝐞 • 𝐋𝐞𝐞 𝐑𝐚𝐧𝐠

» 05

A few days after Yuri and ShinJoo's wedding, Rang, Soah and Hyejin were at Yuri and ShinJoo's place.

Rang, Yuri and Soah were yet again watching tv, this time Soah's favourite cartoon.

Rang was acting quite indifferent from the morning. It seemed to Hyejin that he was trying to hide some worry and she was wondering what was it that was bothering him so much yet he wasn't telling her. They had promised to share everything yet Rang couldn't open her to her about something.

She asked him a few times indirectly but he didn't give any helpful reply.

Just when Hyejin came into the room to get them ready to eat, Rang's phone buzzed.

After a short call, he got ready to head out as he picked his jacket hurriedly. Hyejin noticed his demeanor and stopped him,

"What happened? Where are you going? The lunch-" she was forestalled when he came towards her and pecked her temples.

"Just some important work, I'll surely join you all for dinner." He forced a smile and then looked back at Yuri, ShinJoo and Soah.

"You better," Yuri said, with a smile, "It's been a while since we all had dinner together!"

To that, Lee Rang just simpered faintly.

"Watch out for cars!" Soah waved his hand at Rang, who nodded. With a tint of pain in his eyes he looked back at Hyejin and then walked out.

And it perplexed Hyejin, something was wrong, her guts were intuiting towards something.

She picked her own coat and turned to the others.

"I'll have to go too," she said.

"But-"

Before they could say anything else, she walked out.

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.
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Jiah was walking down the road when she realised that the remembrance of Lee Yeon, a stuffed toy keychain, that was on her bag wasn't there anymore. It panicked her and she ran back to find it. In a deserted place, where once a fair that she, Lee Yeon and Lee Rang attended was organised, she found it.

(P. S. It was also the place where they met Shaman, to whom Lee Rang sold Lee Yeon to get The Tiger's eyebrow. And Jiah then sold off her fox marble to free Lee Yeon.)

She picked it up and rubbed off the dust. Just then she heard a thump, looking back, she found Lee Rang there.

"What brings you here?" he asked.

He cleaned off the dust from his suit. Jiah noticed a bruise on his face, ''is he still beating up non-humans to get back Lee Yeon?"

"What about you?" She countered.

"Rumours led me here to that geezer," he looked over his shoulder.  Jiah turned to look in the same direction. There they saw a tent, the tent of the shaman who brought the fox marble.

"Fortune telling, naming, capability."

Both Jiah and Lee Rang walked in. As they sat down, Lee Rang glanced around before asking,

"Is it really true that you're one of the afterlife judges?"

Jiah turned her face to him in astonishment,

"I am the king of darkness," the shaman replied. "I am the 10th king that rules the underworld of darkness. And I am also," he took off his sunglasses, Rang and Jiah stared at his pupil-less eyes, "the very last judge. I decide what happens to you after you die," he shook his head at Lee Rang's leisure way of sitting.