Necromancer Survival

  “What are you looking at?” Seo Dawon asked.
I had been looking down at my cell phone for quite some time.
I instinctively tried to answer with a ‘Nothing!’, but upon looking into his red eyes, felt that lying would help little.

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     Seo Dawon looked at me as if his eyes could peer into the depths of my soul.
Trying to talk circles around that face would invite nothing but a bad mood… Eventually, I gave up and released a short sigh.
“Mmm… I was looking up… Ryu Hyerin-ssi.”

     “……” Contrary to what I expected, Seo Dawon’s expression didn’t change; instead, I felt a strange vibe from the other servants.

     Woo Ragi glanced at Seo Dawon, who was sitting in front of me, Jung Garam folded his arms over his chest, and Choi Kyung-sik stared at me.
Kim Olim simply placed her chin on her palm without saying much, but her eyes, fixated on the ground, were frighteningly chilly.

“An article?”

    “Ah, well…” I stuttered.

    Seo Dawon who was supposedly the one who had been the most intimate with Ryu Hyerin, simply asked me a question with a nonchalant smile.
Then, he rose up and sat comfortably next to me on the sofa.

    In that brief moment, I was startled by the touch of his cool skin, Seo Dawon took the cell phone out of my hands; the screen was still on Ryu Hyerin’s social media page.

    I was embarrassed to have been caught scrolling through her social media page after only looking at articles for about 10 seconds… However, I was curious as to how Seo Dawon would react to her feed, so I tampered down my shame.

    ‘Just what is he thinking…’

    Seo Dawon had eyes–he must have seen the comments underneath her posts.

    But he left her page without scrolling further and suddenly entered my logged-in account.

    Bewildered, I was speechless and could only stare at his elegant fingertips.
Unrestrained, Seo Dawon started to willfully search through my [favorited posts].
“You pressed like on Kim Sangyoon’s most recent post, huh?”

    “N-No.
That’s… I just liked it out of habit…”

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    The mage pointed out something unexpected.
In reality, I had done so because Sangyoon-ssi was someone that showed up often in my feed…

     ‘More than that, though, since when had he paid attention to who I [liked] on social media?’

I stared blankly at him–I was at a loss for how to react in such an unexpected situation.
However, Seo Dawon began to calmly leave hate comments using my account.

 

[Choi Lee-kyung: Even when you try you look ugly lolol]

 

     The post featured Sangyoon-ssi’s dedicated workouts.

     “W-What did you do!” I shouted.

“I just commented with my personal opinion.”

     “Why did you use my account!”

“I can’t make an account since I’m dead.”

    I couldn’t say anything else; it felt as if a bunch of rice cakes had been shoved into my mouth.
It was pointless to argue further–how could I ask a dead person to use their own social media account…

    If words didn’t work, then force would; I tried to reach out and retake my cell phone.
What am I supposed to say for myself if Sangyoon-ssi were to see all this?!! I needed to stop the Mage before he left any more weird comments…!

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    “It hasn’t been long since you’ve recovered–aren’t you being too energetic?” Seo Dawon said.

     “I-It’s because that’s my cellphone!”

The problem, though, was that Seo Dawon and I had such vastly different physiques; he could easily avoid my attempts by holding the phone high above my head.

    Unwilling to give up without a fight, I swiftly pressed my upper body against Seo Dawon’s to intercept him, but I miscalculated the outcome of my actions.
Unexpectedly, my hand fell in the gap between our waists, and I fell over onto him.

I swore to God that I didn’t do this on purpose; my face flushed bright red because of the Mage’s comments in that instance.
In addition, when I tried to right myself, he pressed me into his embrace with one arm.
Seo Dawon began to stare into my eyes while continuing to keep the cell phone out of my reach.

    “Please–get rid of this arm…!”

    “You’re so thin; I thought you’d be so bony… But Lee-kyung-ie is so warm and nice to the touch.” Seo Dawon calmly spouted ridiculous statements.

I hit Seo Dawon’s arm with my free hand.
It did not affect him, but my arm smarted upon contact, so I gave up on escaping his hold through force.

    However, it felt incredibly embarrassing to feel the other servants’ amused gazes watching us from a distance.
So, in spite of my shame, I protested, “Do you think I gave myself a fever to make you feel good?! As a servant, you’re not supposed to do something like this to your master…!”

    As soon as I said that, though, I felt like an otaku who was too immersed in his role as a Necromancer.
Instead of pointing that out, though, Seo Dawon adopted a cheeky smile and said, “Give me a command if you dislike this so much…”

    I couldn’t tell if the Mage was being sarcastic or if he was teasing me; I firmly shut my mouth.
Seo Dawon used more strength to bring me further into his embrace and made a show of looking at my cellphone.

    Just then, my cellphone pinged me; Seo Dawon checked the notification first.
“Master-nim~ You got a DM?”

    “What? Why would you even look at that! I’ve got my own private life too…!”

    “Who’s this?” Seo Dawon casually showed me the DM.
There, I saw the picture of a man I couldn’t forget.

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[Han Kiseok]: It’s been a while.
Have you been well?]

 

     My eyes widened at the sight of an unexpected name.
Seo Dawon blinked, as if he were searching through his memories, and then mumbled, “Ahh, he’s our ‘Master’s’ friend, right? The guy who stopped contacting you after whispering sweet nothings…”

     “That’s… No, wait! Wait! He really sent a DM to me?!” I asked out loud in my shock.
Hearing my words, Seo Dawon narrowed his eyes instead of replying to me.

     I couldn’t tell what he was thinking–but the thoughts in his head definitely did not bode well for me… I looked at him, tense.
With a chilly, piercing gaze, Seo Dawon asked, “No way? Are you happy?”

Those were fighting words–it was as if he were scolding some pathetic person.

    “Rather than being happy…I was simply wondering…why he contacted me…” Though I felt angry, I couldn’t easily confront Seo Dawon when he adopted that sort of expression.
I mumbled, as if I were making excuses for myself.
Without another word, Seo Dawon entered [Han Kiseok]’s social media page.
His actions were eerily similar to how I had scrolled through Ryu Hyerin’s page earlier.

    To be honest, I’d checked out Han Kiseok’s personal account and the photos he uploaded a couple of times before.
Though I had never once contacted him!! Nor had I ever brazenly sent him a DM, the way he did to me a few minutes ago.
It was just that… whenever I got bored at dawn, or when sleep escaped me…I would look through the page…and observe how he flirted with what seemed to be a new girlfriend… That was all.

    I wasn’t saying that I was proud of what I’d done…But, didn’t everyone have times where they acted a bit pathetically? Why was I fidgeting so much…?! Furthermore, it wasn’t like I’d done any of that after signing the contract with Seo Dawon.
Though…that was mainly because I did not have the time or comfort to scroll through his page…

    However, I thought Seo Dawon would become more vicious if I were to explain this all to him, so I kept quiet.
I leaned against his still chest, unable to hear his heartbeat.

    Seo Dawon stroked my hair, as if I were some life-like doll.
He muttered meaningfully, “He’s handsome.”

    “……”

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     “He’s that friend, right?”

“…W-What are you thinking?”

     “He looks like he’d appeal to Choi Lee-kyung’s taste.”

     I hurriedly closed my open mouth, stopping myself from blurting out a reply.
My jaws snapped shut with an incredibly loud noise and the force of the movement rattled my chin.

     Just how impressive was Seo Dawon’s intuition? Though I’d silenced my tongue, it was impossible to hide all my bodily reactions.

Seo Dawon stayed still for a brief moment and then gently grasped my chin.
Then, with a little force, he turned my head upwards, preventing me from avoiding his gaze.
Though his touch didn’t hurt, I was startled by his aggressive behavior.

     “It feels like my eardrums might burst from the sound of your heartbeats,” He said.

His voice was still gentle; he had yet to lose his smile.
Yet this kind of expression was somehow creepier.

    Therefore, I began to desperately deny any relation to Han Kiseok, “…We weren’t dating or anything.
Really…It’s just…We were just friends for a short period of time in the past…”

     “Unrequited love?”

     “N-No…!” Though Seo Dawon hit the nail on the head, I shook my head hard to deny his accusation.
If I were to accept the truth, there would only be endless talk of my disorganized and muddled past.
Above all, I was further motivated to deny everything due to Seo Dawon’s unusual expression.

Trying to soothe the Mage, I spouted whatever excuse came to mind.
“Anyway, that guy probably doesn’t like me.
He’s not even gay…”

    From Seo Dawon, who must have heard my words despite his lack of reaction, to the servants, who were observing from a distance with their arms crossed over their chest, no one took a single breath; they all stood quietly, like distinguished, noble-looking statues.
An ominous silence–icy cold yet blazing–settled down in the living room.