chapter three : jongho says good morning
—
kang yeosang.
Yeosang hugged his pillow even closer to him while as he felt the sun shine on his face. The sun’s rays were gentle on him, like a a mother's caress on his face when she wakes him up in the morning and then aggressively shaking him— aggressively shaking him?
"Get your head out of the pillows already, princess! It's already late."
Ah right, the grim reaper. And the stupid secret third thing about getting one's soul.
The grim reaper once again settled himself on Yeosang's bed, leaning on the headboard as he shook Yeosang. Luckily for him, Yeosang's brain hasn't caught up with it and is still in the clouds or else, he was surely on the floor and clutching his ribs already.
Yeosang was lucky enough for the reaper to get out of his house around eleven in the evening and get a full eight hour sleep. (He's still not convinced that the reaper really exited his house but whatever, as long as he was gone and out of his sight.)
He then decides to disregard the reaper and just let the rays of the sun hit his face, savoring the warmth of it as a cool breeze followed through the gaps of the window. Change of plans, he'll just ignore the reaper until it gets tired. After all, it's always been like that. Everyone gets tired and leaves— humans, animals, plants, and even reapers.
"This bastard, why isn't he locking his windows. What if you get a cold or something? Stupid, what should I even expect from humans?"
Yeosang almost jolted up when he heard the reaper speak again, thinking he had already left. But again, it's OPLAN: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck™.
'Exactly, what a great plan.' Yeosang thought.
(Spoiler: It wasn't a great plan. The reaper kept bothering him.)
"Oy, human. Kang Yeosang, wake up." The reaper started to shake him again. Nonetheless, Yeosang stayed unbothered.
"Come on, if you aren't set on dying then get up. I'm hungry, cook for me."
'What an asshole.' Yeosang thought to himself once again. 'Were other reapers this shameless?'
"Hey, wake up! I still need to take your soul, come on!" Yeosang sat up this time, still with his bed head and glared at the reaper that woke him up.
"And I still have work to attend to. So again, get out of my house. Never come back."
"Why won't you just willingly let me take your soul so we're all done?" Yeosang just answered the other with a roll of his eyes and stood up to fix his bed. The reaper followed and stood up too, but did not do anything to help making the bed. "Come on, I'm basically stuck with you unless I take your soul. And my boss is the type that doesn't want to see faces of reapers who failed their cases.”
When he's done fixing his bed, he walked towards his closet and prepared his clothes— completely ignoring the nagging and whining reaper that's following him around in circles.
"Okay fine, let's view it like a business agreement then." The reaper starts again. "Remember the third thing? I grant you a wish and I take your soul. I can even send you benefits if you have any wishes for the next life if I can talk to the higher ups."
"If you just shut up for today, we'll be in peace!" Yeosang bursts at last while holding his towel to enter his bathroom to take a bath. "Let me live in peace, hm? Go and don't forget to lock my doors."
But you see, Jongho's one of a kind— very stubborn so he shook his head and sat on the end of Yeosang's bed that's right in front of his bathroom door and crossed his arms then grinned.
"Be careful not to slip then hit your head on the floor and die. But that's actually nice because I'll finish my job easily without any hassle."
Yeosang once again rolled his eyes and scoffed, "Get out of my room, now." Jongho raised his eyebrow and was getting ready to tease the human again for he found his replies amusing.
"Why? Are you afraid that I might see you changing? What's the matter, we're both men." Yeosang sighed and glared at the reaper as his patience was wearing thin.
"Get out."
"No fun. Fine, I'm getting out."
choi jongho.
And do you expect Jongho to get out of Yeosang's house that fast? No. Not so fast. Never.
He roamed around the human's house and checking out things. Tapping things, opening some drawers and commenting on them. "He lived pretty well." He mumbled while staring at one of the picture frames.
He's not going to let this opportunity pass— he could already imagine the praises he'll get once he got Kang Yeosang (the case that's deemed to be a failure to other reapers), to enter the underworld with him.
His little research plan yesterday basically sent him nowhere. Even after going through numerous dusty, old cabinets and files whose ink is fading, he got very little information about Kang Yeosang. No information about his 'death' or reason to be collecting his soul. Just a whole receipt of other reapers (reincarnated or not), that failed to take the human's soul.
But never mind that for now. Jongho's on a mission to know more about the human. If the papers in the office won't give him the information, then he'll just get the data from the living person.
Jongho then made his way towards the living room where he found a lot of papers scattered on the couch and a coffee mug that's already empty. "Seriously, he could have washed the mug after he used it. How unkempt."
So, as a kind "guardian angel" that will lead Yeosang to his immediate death (read: he is nowhere near to leading him), Jongho took the mug and washed it for him. He walked towards the kitchen sink and ran the water to wash the mug.
"What are you doing?" Yeosang said as he entered the kitchen while combing his wet hair. The human was already dressed in casual attire, an apron hung on his bent arm and a bag on his shoulder.
"Oh look, Yeosang, I'm being a kind reaper here and washing the mug that was used yesterday or the other day." He says as Yeosang put his things down.
"And so? Just finish washing that and stop touching my things." Jongho shrugged his shoulder and started to hum while rinsing the mug and Yeosang took out the pan to cook his breakfast from the cabinet. Jongho silently took note of the numerous plastic bags of, 'Jin Ramen' and 'Carbonara Buldak Ramen'.
"You plan on living yet you basically live on instant noodles?" He says as he scrubbed the mug. "I don't even have to take a look at your fridge to know what is in there."
Yeosang, for the nth time and probably more in the future, rolled his eyes. "First and foremost, you are not my nutritionist or my dietitian. I don't need your comments about what I eat." He replies as he took some eggs from his fridge. But Jongho sees how Yeosang tried to hide the contents or rather the lack of it using his body.
"At least you had eggs."
"Shut up."
After Jongho had placed the mug at its right destination, he sat on one of the chairs on the table in the dining area which is just behind the stove, facing Yeosang who is chopping some vegetables to cook an omelet.
"What's with the stare? I could feel you staring at me." Yeosang asked while he turned on the stove to heat up the oil on the pan. Jongho rested his chin on his hand while he pretended to wonder.
"What if you 'accidentally' burn your house then die peacefully?"
"And what? Suffer in the underworld because it'll be counted as suicide? No." Jongho sighed and leaned back on the chair while crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"But isn't a brilliant idea? I can finish my job and you can finally have peace without other reapers bothering you or following you around like me."
"For someone keen on talking about the perks of reincarnation, you're pretty set on me 'accidentally' dying, huh? No way." And those were the last words that escaped Yeosang's lips before the silence ate both of them up.
Yeosang continued to crack the eggs on the bowl and then beat them. And just before he added the tomatoes, Jongho spoke up again. "I don't like any vegetables on my eggs. Just make me a scrambled egg."
Yeosang raises his eyebrow, "Who said that I'll cook for you?"
"How rude." Jongho comments and stood up to prepare the plates and spoon. "Don't think that I hadn't seen you take four pieces of eggs and chop more onions for a single serving."
Yeosang only turns off the stove and puts the plate with the freshly cooked omelet on the table. "Stop yapping. Don't eat then." Jongho only smirks, taking a huge bowl to fill it with rice. "And don't forget to wash the dishes. I cooked."
(For once, in the past 12 hours they've known each other, they finally had peace. Just occasional unnecessary comments from Jongho and multiple attempts of taking his food away.)
But even after breakfast and Yeosang is preparing his bag to get out of his house, Jongho's still following him and hasn't left him.
"Will you seriously follow me around?"
"Why not? I want to meet the people around you so I can know more things about you. And then use the information to kill you or just make you let me take your soul."
"You're persistent, aren't you?"
"Unlike others, I don't like procrastinating and then panicking at the last moment." Yeosang took his bag and wore his shoes.
"But death doesn't have any deadlines unlike assignments." He notes, completing the bunny ribbon.
"Yes there's a deadline for death. That's why reapers like me exist."
"No one wanted you to exist and take everyone's souls around as if you're picking vegetables in super market." It was Jongho's turn to roll his eyes but still he followed Yeosang towards the door.
"Oh gosh, just leave me alone, will you?"
"Aww, look at you, annoyed. I told you to just, you know, rest peacefully so you won't have to deal with me."
It was visible that Yeosang is very annoyed when he started walking and Jongho still followed him from the first turn on the road until they reached the highway's pedestrian lane.
Yeosang ignored the reaper and waited for the green light of the street light turn red so he could peacefully cross the street towards the café where he works.
"Come on, just cross the road while the cars are passing by."
"Shut up!"