Chapter 5: Round and round...

"Long time no see... Goblin."

Shin couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. "Grim? What... how—?"

His old friend just gave him a mysterious smile. "Don't try to think too hard about it. Else our meet-up this time wouldn't last too long."

"What do you mean?"

Wang Yeo just shrugged at him. "Told you before, didn't I? I already gave you a hint. Considering that guy had done this quite so often in the past, I'm surprised that you still remained clueless. Or did you? Do you really think that all of this had been purely coincidences?"

Shin frowned at his friend. "What—you're talking too fast..."

Yeo just let out a long sigh. "Never mind. You'll get it later." The man just knelt in front of him. "So how are you since we last saw each other? Have you been taking care of yourself? Are you still lonely? Did you cry a lot since? You said last time that you wouldn't make it rain so often, I wondered if you really did—"

For some reason, Shin couldn't help feeling rather angry at those statements. "What did you mean? I can perfectly take care of myself just fine! And I'm not lonely! Why did you think that I'll continue being a crybaby?"

Yeo started laughing at him before leaning closer to his face. "I missed you, do you know that? It gets boring when I didn't have anyone that I can tease and play with comfortably," his friend said suddenly as Shin frowned at him.

Wang Yeo suddenly let out a loud groan before glancing up towards the ceiling. "Aah! So annoying! How can you be so kind and stingy to me at the same time? I can only say so much with this little time."

His friend glanced back at him, shrugging as he sat on the opposite couch. "Time's up. Isn't it about time for you to wake up, old friend?"

"What?"

"It's good to see you again."

Yeo grinned at him before patting his hand towards his side. When Shin turned his attention to where his friend wanted him to look at, he could see little Hyuk continuing to sleep on the couch... unaware of anything that has just transpired during the past few minutes.

xxx

It took him quite a while after waking up before realizing that he wasn't in fact back in his bedroom at his house. As a matter of fact, he was lying on an unfamiliar couch and staring up towards an unfamiliar ceiling.

Now, how did he got here? For one, he wasn't the type to drink do much to the point of blacking out. Second, no matter how drunk he got he wouldn't normally crash into any random houses that he could find...

Just as he thought his day hadn't been so confusing Shin turned his face to his side—only to be greeted by a round face of a young kid, staring back at him in curiosity.

Without thinking he just screamed, as the young kid immediately burst into laughter...

xxx

Shin begrudgingly massaged his chest to try to calm his heart for the shock it just received. Now he remembered. He was in young Lee Hyuk's house to watch over the kid in place of his older brother. How did he end up falling asleep in the middle of it then? Oh wait... he was looking at Hyuk's photo album earlier last he remembered. Must have fallen asleep in the middle of that.

He let out a soft sigh. Hyuk was awake now and quietly doodling on his book. At first glance, Hyuk would've appeared as normal as any other kid you could find elsewhere. But Shin knew that Hyuk wasn't just like any other kid...

He thought about the dream he had earlier.

"I missed you..."

Shin snorted. It felt so odd to hear his old friend telling him that he missed him after so long. Yet it wasn't really that weird to hear. Still, there was something puzzling over the things that Yeo had said to him in the dream. What did he mean he said about a 'hint'? Who was the guy Yeo kept alluding to over and over again? Always so cryptic; if he really wanted to tell him something he might as well say it outright!

"What happened? I thought you wouldn't remember. All memories about me should have disappeared."

"It did for everyone else but I retained my memories."

"I'm not sure... but I have a hypothesis. Perhaps it was kindness. A promise someone had made to me, to always remain by my side. Until the end."

He blinked as a conversation from the past resurfaced back from memory.

Could it be? But then, that person wasn't the type to give him this much mercy... to ease this heartache of missing the people that he loved after they have long passed. That person never did anything like this before in the long stretch of years he's been around so why change now? Yet, if it was not for his sake... was it for Yeo? That thing that Wang Yeo used to say to him, about being by his side... was that it? A piece of kindness that was promised, in order to make up for the suffering that had been imposed on the child in the past life?

So for him to meet little Hyuk today; did that person arranged it for Yeo?

Shin turned his attention back towards little Hyuk. The kid was still so focused in his drawing so he decided to come over to sneak a peek.

"What're you drawing?" he asked suddenly as Hyuk hastily put the drawing pad behind him.

"It's nothing!" said the kid as Shin tactfully sneaked over and grabbed the drawing pad from behind the kid. "No! Don't look at it!"

Shin glanced at him mischievously and noticed that the kid was now blushing red on the face.

"What is it? Is it something embarrassing that you didn't want others to see?" he asked nonchalantly as he flicked the drawing pad open. He started to grin in amusement at some of the silly drawings that he saw... before slowing down as he noticed how some of the drawings looked very 'familiar'. Shin immediately turned his head towards the kid and showed him the drawing that caught his eye.

"Hyukkie, what was this? Why did you draw this? Do you know what this is?"

It was a rough drawing of a man standing on a barren field. Yet, it was detailed enough that Shin could recognise the distinct design of the armour the person in the drawing was wearing. It was him in his Goryeo period armament.

Hyuk clamped his mouth shut as he vigorously shook his head.

"It's alright, you can tell me..."

Hyuk started pouting his mouth before eyeing him warily.

"Promise you won't laugh at me? People always laughed at me whenever they saw me drawing those pictures."

"I promise I won't laugh. Didn't I tell you before? That I'm your servant... and a servant wouldn't laugh at the things the master does."

Hyuk continued eyeing him cautiously before relenting eventually. The kid started saying something softly that he couldn't quite catch what he was saying.

"What? I didn't catch that. Can you repeat what you said?"

"I said it's a goblin!" exclaimed Hyuk right away. And after a few moments, the kid started to glare at him. "I knew it. Even you found it silly..."

"Oh no, I didn't..." Shin hastily cried out—he must've been so shocked that the kid mistook that as him making fun of the drawing. "...why did you think that I was laughing at you?"

"Isn't it obvious? You're just like everyone else. You thought that it was stupid. 'There's no way the Goblin would look so cool and handsome', right? Isn't that what you were thinking?"

"No. I'm just surprised that you've drawn him so consistently like this. Is there a reason for you to draw the Goblin like this?"

Hyuk's face went red again. "There wasn't a big reason. It's just... what the Goblin looked like in my dreams."

"The Goblin appeared in your dreams?"

Hyuk nodded slowly. Shin then turned another page over and showed him.

"What about this? What's this drawing about?

It was a drawing of him brandishing his red hot blade towards a horrid creature. But he knew immediately what that picture was supposed to refer to. It was a drawing of what happened that night when he slew Park Jungheon with his blade.

"It's a monster. The Goblin killed the monster that kept trying to catch me."

Shin frowned. "Did the monster appear in your dream so often?"

Hyuk shook his head. "No. Because Mr Goblin always appears to protect me from him. The monster often ran away from the goblin."

Somehow, hearing that made him smile. Shin reached out towards the kid to run his hand over Hyuk's head.

"I'm so glad..."

Immediately, Shin recalled the memory of him meeting Yeo again after wandering alone in the abyss for nine years. Nine years since the night he banished Park's evil spirit from the world...

"I'm so glad that you came back."

I'm so glad to be able to return to your side again.