episode_0075

The same man appeared twice at the scene of a dangerous accident. Previously, the accident occurred on a street where anyone could walk, but this time it was inside a school building. As far as I know, there was no man who looked like that among the staff at Seungcheon High School.

‘Who is it?’

The man wearing a pitch black coat had dark shadows under his sunken eyes. Underneath the coat, he is wearing a dress shirt and tie. He gave the impression of an office worker struggling with work.

“Ayeong-ah. Please take a look at Sarah. I’ll go outside and look around.”

“Huh? Where are you going all of a sudden?”

“I feel like there is a strange person at school.”

“Ah, okay.”

Sarah, who almost suffocated due to her throat being blocked, was breathing heavily. Although he was breathing, he was still not in a good state due to the shock. I left Sarah in the care of Ayoung for a while and quickly ran out of the student cafeteria.

The man in the coat turned his back and started walking the moment I went outside.

“Hey! The person wearing a coat!”

I called out in a loud voice, but there was no answer. The man wearing the coat walked to the parking lot behind the main school building. There was no parking lot visible from where the student cafeteria was. For a moment, I lost sight of the man.

I immediately followed him to the parking lot, but the man quickly disappeared. I couldn’t even hear the sound of running, so I missed it cleanly. In the parking lot, a cleaning lady was sweeping a broom instead of the man I was chasing.

I have to ask that lady.

“Ajumma! Didn’t a strange person pass by here just now?”

“Strange person? Who are you talking about?”

“A man wearing a black coat. I don’t think they work at our school.”

“A person wearing a coat… ? I didn’t see it.”

The cleaning lady stopped sweeping the broom and looked puzzled.

“No one passed by in the first place, so what do you mean?”

“No one passed by? It can’t be!”

“That’s because no one saw it.”

The answer came back that I had never seen a man wearing a coat.

I definitely saw it with my own eyes.

If you think about it, it was strange to see a man wearing a coat standing safely inside the school. There is a CCTV connected to the security office near the student cafeteria. If a strange person was wandering around, a security guard should have been dispatched.

“Student. Are you going to keep saying strange things?”

“It’s not a strange sound.”

I went back to the student cafeteria and met Sarah and Ayoung again. The food plates for the three of us had been cleaned up while I was away. From what I heard, it seemed like Ayoung had organized it.

“Jinwoo. We put away all our plates. Did you do well?”

“Good job.”

“So you caught the strange person?”

“I missed it. There was someone wearing a black coat outside the door of the restaurant earlier.”

“Who is wearing a coat? Was there anyone like that?”

I asked Ayoung, but she couldn’t remember anything about the man in the coat.

“I don’t think there was anyone outside the door… .”

It was said that when the accident occurred, only an empty landscape was visible outside the glass door. It was like a ghost crying. However, I wasn’t the only person who saw the man in the coat.

“Ha.”

Sarah caught her breath and spoke to me.

“No. I saw it too. The one in the black coat.”

“Did you see it?”

“It’s so noticeable, I can’t not see it.”

I was slightly suspicious that I had seen something wrong, but no. Sarah, who was a shaman, had a more developed eye for seeing spirits than I did. If it was seen in Sarah’s eyes, it could never be said to have been in vain.

“You know what? That guy was around with us this morning too. There was a time when a steel frame fell and you almost died.”

“I know. This is already the second time. You showed up every time I almost died.”

I couldn’t figure out what the hell he was doing.

Ayoung, who couldn’t see the man in the coat, was just making a puzzled expression next to us.

Lunch time was slowly coming to an end.

Ayoung, who was looking at her watch, said to us.

“Guys. Let’s go to the classroom first.”

We went back to class together.

The bell rang and class started again.

*

All school classes were over and it was dismissal time.

At least nothing dangerous happened to Sarah while she was attending class.

Meanwhile, I was speculating about the identity of the man in the coat.

‘Could it be the Grim Reaper?’

Appearing where people are dying.

Any other time I would have suspected it was an evil spirit or a monster, but this time things were different.

Not long ago, we obtained a book of life and death lost by the Grim Reaper.

Currently, the remains of the deceased were kept in the shrine of Sarah’s house.

The Grim Reaper will be searching for his lost soul.

Wouldn’t it make sense if the man in the coat was the Grim Reaper who came to take back his life and death?

Although they did not wear hats or black robes like they did on TV programs.

After the bell ceremony, I told Sarah my guess in an empty classroom.

“The man in the coat. Isn’t he the Grim Reaper?”

“The Grim Reaper?”

“The lost father-in-law is in your house. That’s why the original owner came to you to retrieve the item.”

After thinking for a moment, Sarah asked me back with a puzzled expression.

“If you were the Grim Reaper, why are you just watching from afar? Just ask for the item back.”

“I didn’t just watch. The grim reaper might be trying to kill you.”

“What?”

Today, Sarah experienced two ridiculous accidents. Not only did I almost die from being crushed by a steel frame, but I almost died because a rice cake got stuck in my throat. I felt uncomfortable thinking that it was simply bad luck.

What if the accidents didn’t happen by chance?

What if the Grim Reaper was trying to kill Sarah?

“Why is the Grim Reaper killing me? I’m intentionally keeping it at my house so I can return the lost item. Rather, shouldn’t we be thankful and rewarded?”

Sarah looked puzzled after hearing what I said.

However, from the Grim Reaper’s point of view, there was a good chance that Sarah could be misunderstood.

They say that he is not a thief who is not keeping things, but who is stealing life and death.

How can we know whether we are benefactors or thieves if we have never exchanged words?

“I misunderstood you as a thief. That’s why they’re trying to kill me.”

If so, we could explain the cause of the absurd accidents we experienced today.

The Grim Reaper mistook Sarah for a thief and tried to kill her.

“Hmm… .”

Sarah thought for a moment and came up with a solution.

“Then, can I explain it properly? Would it be okay to return the copy of the dead body and say that it was not a thief but that I was keeping it?”

“That’s probably what I think. Speaking of the Grim Reaper of the East, there is a legend that he can communicate with the living, right? I think I can persuade you through conversation.”

In the East, there was a legend that the Grim Reaper showed mercy to people. It was a legend that a person who was destined to die was able to postpone his death by serving a meal to the Grim Reaper.

In short, it meant that we were partners with whom we could communicate.

It seemed like he wouldn’t threaten Sarah anymore if he just explained that he didn’t steal.

“If the Grim Reaper appears, try talking to him. Until then, take care of yourself.”

“I’ll just hold on for now.”

Sarah and I came out of the classroom.

The hallway had just been cleaned with water and was shiny and smooth.

━━Swish

Sarah stepped on the cleaned floor and slipped.

It wasn’t just that I slipped lightly, my whole body went up in the air.

“Evil.”

Would you say it feels like watching a scene from a slapstick comedy?

It was the first time in my life that I had seen something spectacularly sliding on a bare floor.

“Qu!”

Sarah, who was doing some somersaults in the middle of the hallway, narrowly landed on the floor.

If I hadn’t had good reflexes, I would have fallen and gotten seriously hurt. Sarah, who staggered to her feet, spoke quietly to me.

“… Jinwoo.”

“Why?”

“I can’t watch a movie this evening.”

I had already reserved a ticket, but it was impossible to go see the movie in this condition.

“I think I’ll get food poisoning from eating popcorn at the movie theater at this rate.”

“Maybe.”

“Let’s rest at home.”

We returned to Hyehwadang.

But the way back was never easy.

A baseball flew from the playground. I almost got bitten by a large dog on the side of the road. A flower pot fell from a passing building. Everything she saw in her daily life put Sarah in danger. I was able to arrive at Hyehwadang only after experiencing several thrilling accidents.

When we arrived in front of the main gate of Hyehwadang, Sarah had a tired expression on her face.

“Ha… .”

“Are you okay?”

“It’s not okay at all.”

Coincidentally, there was a man we were looking for near Hyehwadang.

I saw a man wearing a coat standing far away.

Sarah called loudly without missing the man who reappeared.

“There you are! Are you here to find your father-in-law? If it is correct, answer ”

Although the distance from the man was far, Sarah’s voice was loud enough to be heard.

There was no reply and the man in the coat simply remained silent.

Maybe it was an affirmation through silence. Sarah explained step by step to the silent man.

“We are not thieves. I will return your life and death to you gently, so stop harassing me. The reason I almost died all day was because of your trick, right? Please stop!”

Now, all we had to do was resolve the misunderstanding and return the book of living and dead. But for some reason, there was still no answer.

The man in the coat was just looking at Sarah with creepy, wide eyes.

“What is it? Say something.”

We approached the man in the coat.

However, the moment the distance was shortened, the man’s appearance disappeared like a ghost.

“You disappeared again!”

“I guess you don’t want to talk to us?”

It was different from the legend.

The Grim Reaper had no intention of talking peacefully with us. It was strange that there was no response at all even though I offered to return the living and dead parts.

If you think about it, that wasn’t the only strange thing.

So far, Sarah was the only one who had experienced a near-death situation. It was Sarah who almost got crushed by a steel frame, almost got suffocated, slipped, got hit by a baseball, and got bitten by a dog.

Why doesn’t anything happen to me?

I was also with Sarah when we recovered the life and death parts.

If the Grim Reaper is taking revenge, shouldn’t he do it to me too?

There must have been a reason to only aim for Sarah’s life.

I thought about it for a moment.

A thought suddenly occurred to me.

“Oh, really?”