Sixth Sense

“Professor? Professor Kyungsoo, do you have a moment?”

The man stopped in the hall and turned to see a girl jogging to catch up with him. She was the girl that sat in the front row of his second year judgment course, she always had a question about everything.

“Yes Miss Dahyun. What is it?” he replied.

Kyungsoo was an Assessor for fifty years before he decided to return to the academy as a teacher instead. He holds the shortest career as a death bringer, yet with the best numbers and record in his efficiency that the Council was sad to grant him his job as a professor. He, in his younger days (even though as an immortal he didn't age physically) had always wanted to be the best Assessor, he had trained long and hard for the position, yet after everything that happened and holding the best numbers for two decades Kyungsoo found it hard to enjoy his existence. So he turned his sights on teaching, which brightened his days significantly. There was a challenge in teaching that being an Assessor no longer held for him and Kyungsoo loved a good challenge.

“Thank you professor,” Dahyun said after his explanation of a case a hundred years ago. She was making notes in her tablet as she gave a quick bow before turning and scurrying away. “Goodbye.”

Kyungsoo grunted in response though she was already too far to hear him.

Turning back around Kyungsoo returned to his walk back to his office. Once there he dropped his briefcase next to his desk and plopped onto his chair with a tired sigh. He rubbed at his face as he leaned back in the leather chair as another sigh left him. He had two hours before his next class and a nap sounded like a good use of his time instead of marking papers that were in his briefcase. Dropping his hands into his lap he leaned his head back against his chair and closed his eyes deciding on the nap.

Kyungsoo managed to get some sleep, but life as a professor meant that people always wanted your attention and were knocking on your door nearly twenty-four seven. Groaning at the banging on his door Kyungsoo blinked awake and stretched. After several satisfying cracks and pops of his joints he stood and made his way to his office door.

“Yeah yeah! I'm coming,” Kyungsoo grumbled loudly at the person still knocking on the door.

On the other side was Kyungsoo's fellow professor, Shindong, he taught the psychology behind humans and death. Shindong smiled widely at Kyungsoo as he lowered his hand that had been knocking on the door. Kyungsoo arched a brow at his senior professor, it was strange to have him visiting in the middle of the day.

“What's up Shindong?” he questioned leaning against the doorway.

“Tour day,” Shindong hummed.

“Ah,” he nodded.

Tour day was a term used when the academy got a new student, which was random and could happen at any point during the year. The Underworld was inconsistent with the new souls it gave birth to and as of late there had not been any new souls for death bringers in almost two years.

Shindong shuffled to the side slightly to reveal the person behind him. “Her name is –”

“Hyeyeong?” Kyungsoo breathed.

“Yeah, how did you know?” Shindong asked amused.

Kyungsoo paid the man no mind as he stared at the girl just behind him. She looked different, but at the same time it was so obviously Hyeyeong. Her hair was shorter, cut to her chin, and her plump lips were now thin and pink. Her face was still small and round but her pale complexion was tanner with a healthy glow. The most memorial and unchanged feature of her were the eyes that stared back at Kyungsoo with a lively glimmer. Ash gray and coffee brown, perfectly mismatched yet no other pairing would do.

When she broke the staring contest to give him a polite bow Kyungsoo found himself able to breathe again, not that he even realized that he had stopped. “It's a pleasure to meet you Professor Kyungsoo,” she greeted. Even her voice was slightly different, it was louder and a higher pitch than when she had been human.

“Meet?” Kyungsoo muttered to himself in confusion. As she stood upright he shook off the hurt he felt while Shindong took it upon himself to introduce the girl like they were old friends. Kyungsoo was not amused.

“Hyeyeong is a special soul and will be jumping right into the second year courses which is where you come in. I've already given her the rundown of my class and I think she may be my new favorite pupil. Quite clever,” Shindong said, smile growing. His gaze flickering to the girl just at his shoulder and she returned the smile with a half grin of her own. Looking back at Kyungsoo he said, “Your turn.”

“Understood,” Kyungsoo said to him. Turning to the girl he opened his office door wider for her to enter as he pushed off the doorframe. “Come on in, I'll explain my course to you,” he said in his usual businesslike tone.

She bobbed her head. “Thank you sir.”

Giving Kyungsoo a pat on the shoulder Shindong gave a quick farewell than left for his own office down the corridor.

Hyeyeong entered the office and Kyungsoo shut the door behind her. She hovered awkwardly just inside the room, playing with a ring on her right middle finger as she glanced about the office. Kyungsoo stepped by her grabbing a chair from the small table across the room and pulled it up next to his at the desk.

“Sit,” he offered her.

“Yes sir,” she nodded.

As they both sat Kyungsoo said, “Please don't call me sir. Kyungsoo is fine.”

Glancing over at him Hyeyeong's brows furrowed in curiosity. “Kyungsoo? Why not Professor. . . Professor?” she asked.

He leaned an elbow on his desk and used that same hand to prop up his head as he stared over at the girl. His heart was racing at being so close to her again, Hyeyeong was alive after almost sixty years of being gone. He took a steadying breath as he studied her new face.

“Do you not have any memories from before the Underworld?” he questioned without entertaining hers with an answer.

“Does anyone?” she challenged with a cocked brow.

He shook his head slightly. No one recalled their time before the Underworld, but then again death bringers were the accumulation of multiple souls, what mind would hold dominance of the being? Kyungsoo may have been seeing Hyeyeong in front of him, but she wasn't the same girl her knew sixty years ago. His heart clenched at that, in the most painful way.

Turning to his desk Kyungsoo set his attention on explaining how his class worked to her. He forwarded her old worksheets on her tablet that she looked through as he went on with his teaching methods and what she would need to know to be caught up to the current students. She didn't speak much, just nodded and listened as Kyungsoo spoke. When he was finished with his explanation he stood and made his way over to his office door so he could her to the next professor for her tour day.

As he reached for the doorknob Kyungsoo realized that Hyeyeong hadn't followed him. Glancing back he saw that she was quickly tapping at the screen of her tablet, slowly getting to her feet. Before he could call to her to hurry up she locked the device and made her way to his side with a small apologetic