“Nice to meet you.”
Se-ha stared blankly at the outstretched hand.
It was slender and beautiful.
And cold.
“…Yes.”
Da-hong held his hand and thought.
So this is what a handshake is.
The memory came back to her.
An old one.
When humans met for the first time, they clasped hands like this.
It had never happened in Hell.
The only reason anyone grabbed another’s hand down there was to rip the arm clean off.
She let go.
Se-ha stared down at his own palm in a daze, then turned his head away, the tips of his ears flushed red.
“Um, Da-hong… -ssi.”
“Yeah.”
“I’m about to eat—would you like some?”
Da-hong nodded.
“Sure.”
“Is there anything you’d like? I can order delivery if so. …Oh, you probably don’t know much about food here on Earth.”
Da-hong thought for a moment.
Honestly, she had no preferences.
Anything from Earth would do.
She’d spent hundreds of years in Hell.
There was nothing worth eating there, and what little existed wasn’t to her taste.
But.
“Ramyeon.”
Her mouth moved before she realized it.
“Ramyeon…?”
“Mm.”
Se-ha’s eyes went wide.
“Are you sure that’s okay? I can order something nicer.”
“Yeah, ramyeon.”
Se-ha asked no more questions and headed to the kitchen.
Da-hong followed him out.
Se-ha filled a pot with water and turned on the gas stove.
A moment later, the water began to boil.
The instant Se-ha took out the noodles and dropped them into the pot—
Whoosh.
Da-hong leaned her head in from the side.
“…?”
She was smelling it.
Eyes closed.
Se-ha said nothing and tore open the vegetable packet.
Crinkle.
As he shook the contents into the pot—
Whoosh.
She moved in a little closer.
“It’s hot, so if you get too close——”
“It’s fine, keep going.”
It was not fine at all.
Se-ha’s face was already burning.
He tore open the powder packet.
Tap, tap, tap.
At that moment.
Something warm and soft pressed against his cheek.
He turned his head—and there—
“…!”
Snow-white hair and long lashes.
A beautiful woman with her eyes quietly closed.
Her cheek had just… touched his…!
“D-Da-hong…!”
“What?”
“Uh, uh… ugh…”
Se-ha’s face had gone scarlet, and he couldn’t manage a single coherent word.
Da-hong tilted her head, and Se-ha grabbed her by the shoulders, moved her away from the pot, and without looking back, began stirring furiously.
Da-hong watched Se-ha’s reddened ears for a moment, then shifted her gaze to the pot.
The smell had grown stronger.
This was it.
The scent that had drifted past the tip of her nose for hundreds of years, only to vanish.
The one that disappeared the moment she reached for it, then shimmered back the moment she gave up.
A grin spread across her face.
***
The two of them sat across from each other at the table.
Se-ha handed her a pair of chopsticks.
“Do you know how to use chopsticks…?”
“Yeah.”
Da-hong stared at them for a moment, then lifted a tangle of noodles with practiced ease.
“….”
It was delicious.
It felt like a memory was about to surface.
She didn’t know what kind.
Where, when, with whom.
Just the feeling of having eaten this before.
She didn’t try to grasp it—she knew it would slip away the moment she did.
She just ate.
Slowly.
In silence.
Se-ha ate his own portion while stealing glances at Da-hong.
Whether it suited her taste or not—her expression gave nothing away.
*She keeps eating, so it must be okay?*
Slurp.
Slurp.
Crunch, crunch.
*She even knows how to eat kkakdugi.*
That was Se-ha’s thought as he watched Da-hong eat with full enthusiasm.
Da-hong slurped the noodles with practiced flair, polished off the bowl cleanly, and then tipped it back to drain every last drop of broth.
“Ahhh…”
Not a single drop had splattered onto her white suit.
“One more bowl.”
Se-ha paused mid-chopstick-lift.
“Pardon?”
“Boil me another bowl.”
“Oh—yes…! Just a moment.”
Se-ha scrambled up from his seat.
Da-hong watched his retreating back for a moment.
Then she looked down at the empty bowl.
This was it.
This exact taste.
***
Da-hong finished the second bowl just as quickly.
She set down her chopsticks and stretched her upper body with a long, languid arch.
“Mmmm~! That’s the stuff!”
The oddly sensual sound she made, combined with the very insistent presence of her chest, left Se-ha with no choice but to quietly look away again.
Da-hong turned her gaze toward the balcony.
It had grown dark outside.
Through the window, lights glittered.
Buildings.
Streetlamps.
Cars moving in the distance.
The night of Earth.
She looked at it and said:
“I’m going out for a bit.”
“Pardon?”
Se-ha snapped his head up from clearing the dishes.
“R-right now?”
“Yeah.”
Se-ha stepped in front of her.
“You can’t—it’s too late. It’s dark out, and Da-hong-ssi hasn’t been registered as a summon yet.”
Se-ha glanced briefly at Da-hong’s horns.
“We need to prepare first. So let’s go out together tomorrow, during the day. Okay?”
“I see.”
Da-hong nodded.
Then she stood up and walked toward the balcony.
“Wait, Da-hong-ssi? That’s——!”
Da-hong placed her hands on the balcony railing and vaulted lightly over it.
“Waaah—!!!”
Se-ha sprinted out onto the balcony.
He looked down.
Fourth floor.
High enough, or low enough, depending on how you looked at it.
Da-hong was already crossing the parking lot with her hands in her pockets.
“W-wait, stay right there…!”
Da-hong paid him no mind.
“Ugh…!”
Se-ha thundered to the front door, shoved his feet into his shoes, and burst outside.
***
Past the apartment complex, a main road stretched ahead.
Da-hong walked slowly.
Signboards.
Streetlamps.
Cars rushing past.
Distant noise drifting in from all directions.
The night of Earth, seen for the first time in hundreds of years.
Far brighter than she remembered.
Light overflowed everywhere.
No matter where she looked, there was light.
*Not bad.*
Her feet drifted naturally toward the road.
Traffic signals and crosswalks were, of course, ignored entirely.
Screeeech—!!
The shriek of tires, and a car swerved past her by a hair’s breadth.
The vehicle lurched violently as if it might tip over, then barely steadied itself with a shuddering jolt.
Clunk.
The driver’s door flew open.
“You crazy bitch, you got a death wish!?”
A middle-aged man.
His thinning scalp had gone beet red.
He was shaking with adrenaline—understandably, given how close he’d just come to a serious accident.
“If you want to die, go die quietly in your own room—why drag other people into your bullshit!”
Da-hong didn’t answer.
She was simply staring up at a high-rise building, expression blank.
“This goddamn woman, is she on something…. Hey!”
The man stormed toward her.
Then Da-hong’s head slowly turned.
“…!”
The man stopped in his tracks without meaning to.
The woman was smiling—as if she were perfectly happy.
“I’m in a good mood right now, so I’ll let it go.”
With that murmur, Da-hong began humming to herself and walked off somewhere.
The man, momentarily stunned by her beauty, quickly decided he’d been dismissed—and his face twisted with indignation as he grabbed her by the shoulder.
“The hell did you just say to me?”
At that instant.
CRACK!
A tremendous sound split the air along with a gust of wind.
The man slowly turned around.
A parked car had been sliced cleanly in two.
And in the wall of the building behind it, a long gash had been carved.
A clump of his remaining hair drifted to the ground.
“H—hiiiii…!”
The man collapsed onto the pavement, scrambling desperately to put distance between himself and Da-hong.
Da-hong didn’t spare him a glance.
“Hmm hm hm~.”
She walked on.
Then.
Something caught at her ankle.
A smell.
The smell of blood.
The smell of terror.
A smell she’d breathed in for hundreds of years in Hell until she was sick of it.
Strangely, catching it here felt almost like running into an old acquaintance.
Click.
She turned her steps toward the source.
A quiet alley.
Five people in total.
No—six.
From the looks of it, five of them were a group.
One of the group had another person pinned against the wall with a knife.
Click.
At the sound of heels, the men keeping watch turned their heads.
A large shadow was walking toward them.
The men rose to their feet.
“Lady, keep walking if you don’t want to get hurt.”
The shadow didn’t answer.
Click.
Click.
The footsteps drew closer.
And then the figure came into view.
A woman.
Alone.
The men looked at each other and snickered.
“Hey, look at this. A woman walking into an alley alone at this hour?”
“Lost? Or did she come looking for us?”
Laughter echoed through the alley.
The victim, who had dared to hope for a moment, took one look at Da-hong arriving alone and sank into despair.
One of the men sauntered toward Da-hong.
“Hey, you’re seriously pretty, noona. Where do you live?”
Another one rested a machete-sized blade on his shoulder and sidled up beside her.
“Look at the horns. Is that cosplay or what?”
“Nah, you know what those are for, right? Easy to grab onto. Like this—”
“Hahaha! You’re insane. Heheh…”
Da-hong stopped walking.
She slowly turned her head and looked around the alley.
“Perfect.”
Blood-red eyes swept across the men.
“I was just getting bored.”
“What? The hell are you on about?”
Grin.
Da-hong’s mouth stretched to her ears.
“Ugh…”
The victim squeezed their eyes shut.
Any moment now, this woman was going to suffer something terrible.
These weren’t ordinary muggers.
Every single one of them was a high-ranked Awakened.
There seemed to be no chance the woman could break free and run.
A moment later.
Splatter!
The sound of something spraying.
Thud.
Then something heavy hitting the ground.
“AAAARGH!!!!”
Followed immediately by voices full of panic.
“What the—what the hell!”
“What the f——!”
“…?”
Thud.
“Die! …Gkk—kgh!”
Screams.
Not the woman’s.
The muggers’.
The victim cautiously opened their eyes.
The light of a streetlamp cast a long shadow across the alley wall.
Something moved fast within that shadow.
“…?”
At first, they couldn’t tell what it was.
Then.
Thunk.
They saw it roll and drop to the ground.
The victim looked down at it without thinking.
An arm.
Severed cleanly from the shoulder socket.
“…! Hh—!”
Too shocked to even scream.
In the end, of the five muggers, only the one who had held the knife to the victim remained.
He backed away in stumbling steps, trying desperately to say something.
“W-wait! Do you know who I——”
Shk.
His voice cut off.
Something round shot high into the air from within the shadow, then dropped to the ground.
Thump.
The alley went quiet.
“Hh—hah… hah… hhhh…!”
The victim scrambled frantically to get away from the heap of flesh.
But they were already at the very back of the alley.
There was nowhere left to run.
Click.
Click.
A demon.
That was the thought.
What else would you call something that carved people apart with a grin splitting its face?
Click.
But the demon didn’t spare them so much as a glance.
It turned around and walked back out of the alley.
As if it had never seen them at all.
Long after the demon was gone, they still couldn’t move.