Wandering Through Vol. 1 Chapter 6 - Simple, First Night

Leegwang pulled away, his hand digging into the collar of her shirt.

 

“Why are you stopping me?”

 

The voice whispered languidly, but it wasn’t Yiseo’s, and it wasn’t his either. He stared at the demon inside his wife.

 

His eyes were red as if he’d dropped a drop of something only a snake could taste.

 

The woman on top of him whispered the ghost’s words, “You wanted this body, didn’t you, and you looked at it as if you would devour it at a moment’s notice, this bony, ragged body.”

 

The round eyes, always sunken to the floor, curved up at him seductively. 

 

They knew him. The woman is sitting on his stomach right now. She was not his other half, who had never held his hand. 

 

This was not a woman who smelled of old paper and ink, like an exiled monk, but a woman who knew how to make love to a man’s body with her sweet musky scent.

 

His wife’s voice asked, “What is it that bothers you?”

 

Withdrawing his hand from Yseoi’s body, standing upright, the spirit slowly untied her robe. 

 

Yiseo’s pale body was revealed. Her hands swept across her bare, white upper chest.

 

“You don’t want this body to know that you’re lusting after it, do you?”

 

Unbuckling her skirt, she placed her white chest in Leegwang’s hands and laughed.

 

“They’re so small and fragile, like they’d break if you touched them, so you couldn’t even touch them after you brought them inside?”

 

Recognizing the soft flesh and veins beneath his palm. 

 

These were Yiseo’s. Not the one he’d only seen for a moment, the one who talked nonstop as if knowing everything.

 

At that moment, he wanted to crush the small body on his stomach beneath him.

 

Not on a moonlit floor like this one, but in a locked room with no doors and no explanation. 

 

Terrified and shaking, he thought she might have a seizure. 

 

Unable to breathe, pinned beneath him, whimpering, perhaps losing consciousness.

 

Then I wouldn’t have to hold back any longer, I could chew and suck on every inch of that limp body.

 

“She won’t know anything.”

 

Laying a hand on the back of Lee’s hand that covered her chest, Yiseo whispered sweetly and lowered it.

 

“Even if you enjoy this body as much as I do…”

 

Somehow, it wasn’t the flesh beneath his palms that made him wince, but rather the breastbone. His palm slid over the indentation and down to her navel.

 

At that moment, having shaken off her hand, Leegwang grasped her throat.

 

“Argh!”

 

That was just before his hand dug beneath her, between her legs, hidden by her flowing skirt. He looked her in the eyes, right into them.

 

Then he commanded, “Get out of this body.”

 

The spirit shuddered at the icy command. 

 

It was clear that this was not a man who could see ghosts, but this body was too precious to obey the command of this terrifying man. 

 

It’s been so long since I’ve had a living body other than my daughter’s. How long…

 

“Come out.”

 

He snarled like an animal, a man with the demeanor of a gentleman. 

 

The sound of steel scraping her neck was eerie. She glared venomously at the man, who looked as if he would tear her apart at a moment’s notice. 

 

Her ears, which normally would have fallen back in a heap, twitched at the corners of her mouth.

 

“I’ll have your daughter as your companion in the afterlife.”

 

His head snapped back. In the courtyard of the main house, a woman in green robes lay face down, her body twisted. She made a gasping sound, clutching at her hollow stomach.

 

“Yes. You should.”

 

He held Yiseo’s body as it began to falter. In his eyes, he could see the dark liquid oozing out of every hole in her body. He wondered if the hole in her bottom was like that.

 

‘Maybe I should turn her skirt up.’

 

In this life, from the moment I first laid eyes on her, I’ve never been sane, he thought.

 

One day, he wanted to tear her alive and eat her flesh. 

 

One day, he wanted to hold her in his arms and freeze her, and the next day he wanted to rip her apart and shed her like a dog.

 

He hated her, lusted for her, resented her, craved her.

 

It was very difficult for him to sit in the safety of his own home and not destroy the woman who only looked at him. 

 

It was easier to be outside. 

 

Sometimes, when it all became unbearable, he would come to visit, and there, always the same, would be a small, white body with its head bowed, sitting in the house.

 

The sight of her pitiful form made me endure it all again.

 

The desire to crush her, to break her, to destroy her…

 

The urge to trample her sobbing body with shame and despair once more.

 

He buried his head in her chest. The reddened flesh from just a few strokes feels unbearably hot. He absentmindedly ran his hand over her scarred breastbone.

 

“How much…”

 

…how much longer could he take, tearing her apart?

 

Her limp body twitched in his arms. 

 

A heaving in her chest, and then she opened her eyes. 

 

Leegwang smiled, meeting her eyes as if they’d just dropped a spoonful of food.

 

“Now, do you remember your name, Madame?”

 

“Yi, Yi-seo. Kim, Yiseo…”

 

The stammering face was pale.

 

Seriously, I wanted to tear her apart, fondle her, kiss her, bite her, just as she had done to him in his previous life.

 

He had a hunch that that was the future he’d be committing in the not-too-distant future.

 

💫

 

Anyone would be surprised to wake up on the floor, naked, with openings everywhere.

 

Especially when you’re on top of a husband who’s never had a blanket covering you.

 

“…!”

 

Yiseo let out a muffled scream and threw herself backward. With nowhere to support herself, she tumbled backward.

 

Though Lee was quick enough to catch her falling body, she didn’t feel any better. She’d rather fall to the floor and crack the back of her head.

 

The large hand on her back brushed against her bare skin. 

 

The unfamiliar touch raised goosebumps. 

 

Tensing up, she turned her head quickly, wondering why this was happening.

 

Sure enough, there was a woman in green robes lying on the ground in the courtyard.

 

That woman, who was yelling something unintelligible, grabbed my wrist, and I remember…

 

“Ah.”

 

A moment flashed through her mind as she climbed on top of him and undressed herself. 

 

As if she’d been draped in something.

 

Pale flesh slowly turned red. It started at her chest, then her neck and ears, but her face remained curiously pale.

 

Leegwang gazed at the tips of her ears and asked, “How much do you remember?”

 

“Oh, almost nothing. It’s like something hit me, like that girl…”

 

Yiseo’s words trailed off. 

 

Still not looking back at him, she stared at the woman in the yard, then spoke again.

 

“She’s the one you brought in.”

 

“Yes, she is. Madam.”

 

Yiseo hesitated at the meek answer.

 

“…I thought you had brought her as a concubine.”

 

He laughed sharply, as if he’d heard something outrageous. 

 

Not because it made him feel good, but to express how absurd her words were.

 

“I’d rather throw you out and take a new wife, but I’m not going to have a concubine.”

 

“Then she’s…”

 

As the words faltered, a large hand seized her chin. Her head, which had been facing the courtyard, swung back toward him in an instant. 

 

Forced to meet his eyes.

 

So close that all I could see were his dark eyes.

 

“You’re not talking to me, Madam.”

 

No matter what it was, I was glad not to see the hem of his shirt unraveled and his body exposed. 

 

Or should we say?

 

“You should look at me and speak.”

 

“…did you know that the ghost in her stomach was going to take over my body?”

 

How unfortunate that I have to say this, face to face.

 

“You put her in the house with me, just as I would surrender myself to that ghost.”

 

There was a faint note of resentment in her tone. 

 

He watched it long enough to enjoy it before he denied her.

 

“I didn’t even know if what was in her belly was a ghost or a person.”

 

“But at your command—”

 

“You. Did you just call me you?”

 

Without warning, he sprang to his feet. Still holding her in his arms.

 

Then he hurried down the floor to the fallen woman. She struggled on legs that couldn’t reach the floor, and eventually threw her arms around his neck.

 

Yiseo stood before the fallen woman and asked, “What do you see?”

 

“…”

 

Yiseo’s body tensed in response, as if he were about to throw her away.

 

“I can’t tell the difference between this and the ghost crawling behind that stone wall. I need to be able to tell the difference between ghosts and people, so I know what’s in this belly.”

 

Unlike the hand that groped luridly over her naked back, Leegwang’s face was stoic as he faced her.

 

“That’s why I brought her here. If it’s a ghost, it’ll crawl out of the body of a living person, and if it’s a human… well, I hadn’t thought of that.”