Today, I left my room to buy chicken breast and protein drinks.
Tap, tap, tap.
The transparent girl I identified as an “Imp” quickly followed behind me.
For the record, an Imp is a “lesser demon.”
If demons like the Marquis of Hell, the Duke, or Paimon are tigers, then a lesser demon Imp is about a cat?
So it fits her perfectly, that convenience store thief.
Anyway, I was worried the Imp might hole up in my house, but it looks like she plans to tag along behind me.
Could this become a problem in its own way?
For now, I headed to the convenience store.
And paid for the chicken breast and protein drinks.
Beep, beep.
“Sweetie, what’s the occasion for buying two of each today? Planning for tomorrow too?”
The convenience store owner chatted me up casually, asking with a hint of curiosity.
I glanced at the “Imp” hiding behind me, staring at the snack aisle.
Sway, sway.
Her arrowhead tail wagged side to side like a dog’s.
If she’d seen that, the owner would’ve definitely said something, but she didn’t, which means—
‘So it really is only visible to me.’
As I stepped out of the convenience store, the sunlight hit my eyes, sharp and blinding.
So now what.
Do I just keep dragging this weird Imp around with me?
At this rate, my food expenses would double and my Engel coefficient would explode.
Maybe I should look up “ways to drive off a clinging demon.”
I was mulling that over as I came home, and there was the girl from the next unit standing in front of my door.
She looked around twenty.
Being foreign, her skin was slightly darker, but she had a slender, beautiful face, and above all, she had a large chest.
For reference, she was wearing a sleeveless top that even showed her cleavage.
“Hii, hello.”
She spoke to me in a slightly clumsy voice.
It had been nearly six months since she moved in next door, but this was the first time she’d ever spoken to me.
Suddenly, my tension shot through the roof!
“Oh, yeah.”
“I’m Ming, I live next door. There’s a sauce container in my place that won’t open. I was wondering if you could help me with it….”
A sauce container? You live and you learn, I guess.
The woman who called herself “Ming” opened her door and went inside her unit.
As I waited for her to bring out the sauce container, I heard a cheerful voice from inside the open door: “Come on in─.”
Even though we’re neighbors living across from each other, is it really okay to just let a man in like that?
If it were my little sister, I wouldn’t have allowed it.
Thinking that, I stepped into her place—
“Ugh, uuuugh─.”
I couldn’t stop myself from gagging.
Because her entire floor was painted with something like “bright red blood.”
Her bed, her windows, the wallpaper, the bathroom door, the balcony, the refrigerator—everything was painted in that bright red liquid, enough to drive you insane.
Splash. Even the floor had red water pooling deep enough to cover your feet.
As I stood frozen at the shoe rack, wondering what the hell was going on, Ming smiled sweetly at me.
“…Heh, it’s a mess, right?”
No, what the hell, is this even at a level that can be brushed off as “messy”?
This place is completely wrecked, absolutely trashed!
“Why aren’t you coming in? Is something wrong?”
But Ming kept urging me to come inside.
Her expression and eyes felt cold somehow.
At that moment, I felt a strange pressure, and I had the feeling that if I stayed there, something ominous would happen, so I had no choice but to take off my shoes and step inside.
Squelch, squelch, squelch.
Luckily, I was wearing slippers, so I wasn’t barefoot.
“This is it. A Thai sauce. Sriracha….”
“…So Ming, you’re Thai, huh.”
I babbled out whatever came to mind to avoid being overwhelmed by this god-awful atmosphere in the unknown room.
My question seemed to please her, as Ming beamed widely.
“Yes, I’m from Isan. Heard of it? It’s famous for its food.”
“No… Anyway, huff—there! Got it. It’s open.”
“Wow, that fast? Guys really do have strength. Look at the veins on your hand.”
Ming poked the back of my hand with her finger as I held the sauce container.
At that moment, it felt like electricity shot from my hand, up my tailbone, and to the top of my head.
Goosebumps erupted all over my hand.
“Oppa, let’s be close from now on. What are you doing this evening?”
She laughed softly with her narrow eyes.
I may be a clueless fool who’s never had a girlfriend by twenty-five, but I know a seduction when I see one.
If this were me from yesterday, maybe I would have fallen for it.
But the me from today could feel the gaze of that weird “Imp” behind me, and more than anything, I didn’t have the nerve to do anything in this blood-soaked room.
‘This situation is freaking insane!’
So I quickly retreated to the shoe rack.
My only thought was getting the hell out of here.
“Sorry, but I already ate dinner yesterday!”
“Huh? What you ate yesterday was yesterday’s dinner—.”
“See you around!”
Flustered, I dashed out.
After fleeing like that, I returned to my place and slammed the door shut.
I even locked the deadbolt, which I never usually use.
# # #
Before I knew it, evening had come.
Shhhh, shhhhhh─.
The Imp was in the bathroom, playing with the showerhead, turning it on and off.
She seemed to like the shower.
“Boribori, stop that or it might break.”
I made the Imp stop.
For reference, ‘Boribori’ is the name I gave her.
She reminded me of ‘Bori,’ the Border Collie I used to have.
She’s twice the size, so she’s ‘Boribori.’
My message seemed to get through, because Boribori came out of the bathroom and huddled in the corner again.
Grrrrrr─.
Her stomach growled with presence.
“Is it already time for dinner, huh.”
I opened the fridge.
Since Boribori showed up, the ingredients I had stocked were running out twice as fast.
The pay I earned working at the restaurant was almost gone too—this is a real problem.
Shhhhhh─.
Even now, the sound of water kept coming.
“Boribori, you should’ve turned off the water before coming out. Tap water doesn’t just spring from the ground, you know.”
I went into the bathroom to turn it off.
But no water was coming from the showerhead?
Imp Boribori just tilted her head at me too.
“Huh? Then what is it?”
Shhhhhhh─.
Where the heck is this water sound coming from?
Curious about what it could be, I listened carefully and wandered around looking for the source.
Then I realized the sound was coming from the shoe rack—from right in front of my door.
Clunk─.
As I opened the door handle and stepped out, my brow furrowed immediately.
Shhhhh─.
Bright red water had flooded the villa’s floor, flowing across it.
And that water was gushing out from under the door of unit 302—the one right next to mine.
“Ugh.“
The smell made me want to gag.
The disgustingly fishy metallic stench was just like blood.
This was clearly not a normal situation.
Gushing, shhhhhhh─.
The blood water spewing from the next unit felt like it was about to flood the entire villa, so I slammed the door shut.
Gushing─.
But maybe opening the door had been the problem—the blood-like liquid was already seeping through the crack under my door, soaking my shoe rack.
“Ahh!“
Panicking, I shoved rags into the gap under the door.
But that wasn’t enough to hold back the surging blood water, and just as my head was throbbing with tension, Imp Boribori, who had been huddled in the corner, raised her head like a meerkat.
“……!”
Pat, pat, pat.
She hopped toward the shoe rack, then dipped her finger into the red liquid and drew circles, triangles, and some kind of geometric formula on the front door.
It was about 30 centimeters in diameter.
“Huh?”
The moment I saw it, blood started dripping from my nose.
It felt like the head-splitting clarity you get when a nosebleed finally pops after a long headache.
It was like a corner of my brain I never used was being stimulated, heating up, and opening.
The meaning of the shapes Boribori had drawn rearranged itself in my head like planets lining up, bringing a single word, a single concept, to the forefront of my mind.
“Blockade.”
Blockade.
Its meaning is to seal something tightly so it can’t come in or go out.
What happens to a door inscribed with such a meaning?
“Oh?”
Strangely, the surging blood water stopped dead.
My door had literally blockaded the flood of unknown blood water!
“Whoa, what is this?”
Just moments ago, I felt like I’d fallen into hell, but now I felt oddly exhilarated.
And the name ‘Mage’ I had searched so much about yesterday settled even more firmly in my chest.
“The magic of blockade!”
I also drew the shapes Boribori had made on the hole-riddled screen door.
Just then, the mosquitoes that had been wiggling their needle-like snouts through the screen to get in all flew off with a frantic buzz, as if terrified.
“It works!”
This feels amazing!
It actually works!
Am I really a Mage now!?
Just as I was celebrating—
Knock, knock, knock.
─Yuseong, it’s me, Ming. I made a dish with the sauce you opened for me earlier. Want to try some?
A slightly clumsy Korean voice came from beyond the door.
It sounded like Ming, the woman from next door.
I remembered the fountain of blood gushing from her unit.
Honestly, it wasn’t a normal situation, and I wasn’t stupid, so I reached a conclusion.
‘The woman next door is suspicious!’
I crept quietly to the shoe rack, minimizing my footsteps.
And the moment I peered through the peephole on the door—
‘Gah!’
I couldn’t help but scream.
It wasn’t just Ming.
A woman with blood smeared all over her face, with pitch-black eyes and no whites at all, was staring at me, flicking a tongue that looked longer than my hand span.
It was an evil Ming.
From those lips came a voice that was incongruously sweet and coquettish.
─Yuseong, open the door.
She kept calling my name.
Ha Yuseong. But the strange thing was….
“…I never told Ming my name. How do you know it?”
─…….
…………….
Long.
The silence.
Time melts like sugar heated over a fire, sticking to my body.
Beep, beep, beep.
Soon, instead of an answer, came the sound of someone pressing buttons on the door lock.
It suddenly hit me that my fingerprints were clearly left on the keypad.
Because I’d been too lazy to wipe them off.
What would happen if she managed to open my door?
‘No way, even if I didn’t wipe the prints, how would she guess the code!’
Riiing─. But then, the sound of the door lock releasing with the correct code echoed out.
How the hell?
At that moment, a scene flashed through my mind.
If, when I came home, she had been watching me punch in the door code through her own peephole, then─!?
A chill ran down my spine.
Click, click, click.
But the door didn’t open—just the sound of the handle being jiggled frantically.
Soon, mixed with a beautiful, melodic voice from beyond the door came a screech like rusty iron scraping against a wall.
─A barrier? Heh, I vaguely sensed you were a magician earlier, but you’re more capable than I thought. Looks like I can suck out a bit of the yolk after all.
I tuned out most of the latter part, but the word ‘barrier’ pierced my ears.
A barrier? Like the one from cartoons?
Why would that be on my door…ah!
So the ‘blockade’ magic circle Imp Boribori drew on the door earlier became a barrier!
If it hadn’t been there, I would’ve been… by now.
I was so creeped out my blood ran cold.
“Pii-bop.”
At that moment, Imp Boribori finally spoke after a long while.
But before I could even question the word, Boribori strode up to the door and let out a threatening growl—rrrrrr—like a pissed-off wolf.
And then─.
─Ugh? KYAAAAAA!!!
A sharp scream came from outside the door.
Then, a clatter, a crash, and the sensation of something tumbling down the stairs and disappearing into the distance.
If I’m not imagining things….
Boribori just chased off that insane Ming and saved my life!!!
