“Damnit, what do you want from me?! Or from Ji Kyung? Lee Byunghun!”

The moment Myungsoo heard the clicking sound after shutting the door, he raised his voice almost to the point of shouting at Byunghun. However, Byunghun responded with a fearless smirk, and it angered Myungsoo even more. He went over to grab the guy’s shirt and gazed at him with a piercing, fiery look.

How rare of you to call my full name. But, you better loosen your grip, you know?

It was the cunning smile again, plastered on his confident face. Remembering what he was capable of doing, he shuddered for a second and opened his hands from the tight grip. He took a step backward and raised a question cautiously.

“What are you… And why are you here?”

Byunghun’s lips curled up into another smirk, and he dusted his shirt casually before answering him.

Good boy, Kim Myungsoo.

He raised an eyebrow and cleared his throat, then continued,

You should know that yourself, I don’t need to remind you about your true intentions in approaching Ji Kyung, do I?

Myungsoo froze at his spot, lost for words for a moment. “How did y-”

Oh look, Ji Kyung’s awake.

Before Myungsoo could question him about the issue, the girl’s gentle voice interrupted them, simultaneously with the clicking sound of the opening door, “Myungsoo?”

In a blink of an eye, Byunghun disappeared into nothingness. Myungsoo’s head dropped for a bit before he turned to attend to his girlfriend.

---

Meanwhile, Byunghun returned to the other side of the world where humans do not exist. His surroundings were shaded from the sun, and everything around him was just the colour of a dull grey. He stood in front of a mysterious figure timidly, with his head hung low as a sign of respect.

“You called me?”

Byunghun gulped, raising a question nervously to the ghost-in-charge of guarding the spirits lingering around the human world.

Yes. You’re Lee Byunghun right? I've received a report saying that you have broken one of the rules whilst staying in the human world. It says here, 'You are not allowed to mess with a human's life span', or in other words, kill a human. But, you showed intentions of murdering a living being named Kim Myungsoo.

The ghost-in-charge flipped the document held in his hand, checking the words to confirm what he had just read and glared at Byung Hun disapprovingly.

“Wait, I can’t do that?!”

You’ll be given a punishment.

“But nobody told me!”

You’re restricted to be anywhere near Kim Myungsoo for a week.

“But…”

No objections accepted, you’ll have to follow me for a week, Lee Byunghun-sshi.

“What the... But...”

I SAID NO BUTS ANYMORE, NOW GET YOUR ROLLING WITH ME.

“O-okay... Yes, sir.”

Without a warning, after travelling for some time, they have reached an abandoned house. Before the ghost-in-charge fades away, he gave him some instructions and briefly explained to him about the things he had to fulfil before he can return back to the human world. By the time he was left alone in the house, he heaved a sigh feeling dumbfounded.

"Damn... So I’m stuck here doing the work of babysitting the children’s spirit."

Byung Hun mumbled to himself, rolling his eyes as he stared aimlessly at the bunch of young spirits before his eyes.

"I don’t even know there’s a job like that... This is unbelievable." He sighed once more.

“Byunghun ahjusshi! Play with me!”

A girl came running to him, with a toy tea cup and a tea pot in her tiny hands and a huge grin showing evidently on her face.

“Damnit, call me oppa, not Ahjusshi, do I even look that old?!”

He shouted in frustration. The next second, the 4-year-old started crying. And Byung Hun mentally hit himself in the head and blamed, "Oh what the hell have I done..."

He stood there feeling lost for a moment, then thought to himself,

"But hey, she reminds me of that silly girl... Well, she used to shed her tears rather easily..."

He began to travel down the memory lane unknowingly, reminiscing about the earlier days where they were together, happily together. Without a cue, a disappointing puff of air escaped from his mouth as he returned back to the cruel reality.

"Why did that accident have to happen anyway... I could have been the one to marry her in a few years' time..."

He stayed silent for another minute, with his mind wandered away to the faraway thoughts, and then back to where he was with the girl's cry filling his ears again.

“Now, now, oppa will play with you, stop crying alright, sweetie?” He coaxed gently.

---

The couple had just finished their lunch. It was Ji Kyung’s turn to be in charge of cleaning up, so Myungsoo merrily thanked her for her hard work and took only a split second before escaping the kitchen. She chuckled at his act, thinking how cute he just looked.

"I wonder what happen to Myungsoo lately though, he’s been acting reallyyy strange and somewhat fidgety from what I observed... Maybe I should do something to cheer him up?"

The girl thought to herself, while her hands were then busy wiping the last plate she just cleaned. She paused her actions for a second, before continuing it along with her monologue.

"Yeah, maybe I should do that. Since we got a week of holidays to spend."

By the time her train of thoughts had stopped, she wiped her hands dry and walked over to the couch. Ji Kyung saw her boyfriend lying on it lazily, and he was in a half asleep state. She giggled, looking at how sleepy he looked as his eyes were struggling to even stay open.

“Myungsoo-ah...” She called softly.

The moment he heard his name, he sat up instinctively and stared at her, with a yawn escaping from his mouth, he replied, “Yeah?”

She muffled a laughter, silently adoring this side of him. Few seconds later, she remembered what she had to say, so she cleared and mind from the distraction and began,

“Well... Since we have a week to spend... Why not we go on a vacation?”

“Vacation?” He yawned again.

“Yes, remember about our plans on a trip to Japan? Let's go, let’s go!”

Her lips naturally curled up excitedly as she made a suggestion to finally execute the idea they have been planning on since a couple of months ago. To that, with the sleepiness kicked into him again, he only managed to return her with a lifeless nod and lied back down to embrace the sleep attack.

“To Japan? Hmm... Maybe I will not see him there... But then again, there’s a possibility that he will follow us there too...”

Myungsoo murmured under his breath, while his eyes were completely closed by that time.

“Ah... Whatever, I’ll just go since Ji Kyung suggested.”

---

Three days later, they were on their way to board the plane to Japan. She clung onto his arm happily like a little child, since it has been quite some time since she last went for a vacation. Well... In fact, she thought to herself, the last vacation she went to was with him. And they actually visited Japan at that time too.

"Maybe, I can use Myungsoo to create new memories... And replace the old ones... Using him for this reason isn't that bad, right?" She tried to convince herself that her actions were justifiable, all the while stealing careful glances at Myungsoo. He caught her eyes, so she quickly flashes him a playful grin to conceal her guilty expression.

"You're really excited, aren't you?" He chuckled, ruffling her hair playfully while he was at it.

"Of course!" The grin was still observable on her face.

Myungsoo mirrored her reaction, then held her closer to him and rubbed her shoulder affectionately, "Let’s go!"

Her heart skipped a beat and she thought to herself once again, "Maybe I can really forget about him soon."

---

After arriving at the hotel they booked, the couple unpacked their stuffs and decided to go for a walk at the night market nearby. Since it was the period of school holidays, huge crowds were visible at the market. She quickly got hold of Myungsoo's hand firmly, just to ensure that she doesn’t get lost in the sea of people. They went from store to store, shopping and trying various street food, such as their famous takoyaki (octopus balls).

Unfortunately, at some point, the memories from the past returned to haunt her once more. She remembered clearly as to how he used to feed her the snacks, and how they would both sit in front of food stalls, feeling awed at the sight of all the delicious street food. She still remembered vividly... How he told her with excitement that his favourite was the taiyaki (Japanese fish-shaped cake), the way he described the taste enthusiastically and convincing her that it was the best snack ever... And lastly, how he promised to bring her back here again.

Immersed in her unhealthy self-thoughts, she didn't even notice Myungsoo had addressed her name several times. Unwillingly, her mood began to spiral down and she lost the energy to continue the stroll with Myungsoo. Ji Kyung’s face expressed bitterness, and Myungsoo caught a glimpse of it. He stopped his footsteps and called her to ask what happened with a tone filled with worries,

"Ji Kyung, are you alright? You don't look good. Shall we head back to the hotel?"

In response, she let out a sigh and faked a cough, before shaking her head off the thoughts and gave him an assuring smile,

"Nope, I'm alright! Oh look, it's the kimonos!"

She pulled Myungsoo along with her towards the next store in line, at the same time, thinking to herself about how she already promised to forget Byunghun as soon as possible. She decided firmly that she have to keep this promise to herself no matter what.

This is for the greater good, anyway, she thought to herself.