Chapter Text
“Good afternoon, I'm checking in.”
“Hello, name please?”
“Matsuzaki, or— Takigawa.”
“Ah, Matsuzaki-san. Welcome to Sweet Salt Pension. I hope your flight was comfortable.”
“Oh, you speak Japanese. Thank you, the flight was— ”
An arm slipped around Ayako's waist from behind. Ayako didn't turn her head, the smell of sandalwood a dead give away. Her lack of reaction was a testament to how many times Bou-san had clung to her since leaving the airport.
“— very comfortable, hm darling?”
Ayako resisted rolling her eyes, recalling that the monk had slept on her shoulder the entire time.
Comfortable for you.
The pension receptionist smiled to herself as she confirmed something on her computer.
“Okay, I have your reservation pulled up here. It's for four days, and three nights in our saranghae villa. That's villa number seven. You each will get your own key to make things simple. I see here that your stay was prepaid, so there will be no need to collect payment. All meals are provided by the pension, breakfast and lunch are self-serve in the banquet room just to the left of the lobby, and dinner is at 5:00pm every evening. Tonight is Korean barbeque cooked on the beach, be sure to try it— it's delicious. The pension is partnered with the local tourism office. If you're interested, a bus is scheduled to pick up our guests tomorrow morning and take them to see our Jeju mermaids.”
Ayako picked up her villa key, an old fashioned golden one with the villa number attached to it.
“Jeju mermaids?” she repeated.
The young receptionist smiled wider,
“We call them that. They are our amazing female divers, diving without air tanks. Some of them are over eighty years old.”
Bou-san let out a whistle, taking his own key.
“Sounds like something we can't miss, don't you think babe?”
Ayako rubbed at her ear, babe ringing there, and addressed the woman.
“Is it a popular attraction?”
“Oh, certainly. The bus is almost full.”
Ayako summoned a saccharine smile and threw it back at the monk,
“Honey, we should go then.”
“Of course babe, whatever you want.”
“Put us on that bus too. What time in the morning?”
“Perfect! Departure will be at 9:00am sharp.”
The check in process was completed with the handing off of a folder packed with the pension's services and a complimentary coupon for their gift shop. Ayako and Bou-san were then ushered aside, the front desk busy with people ready to check in behind them.
Ayako glanced around the lobby, small, but clean and well cared for. Where the white washed walls ended, floor length windows began, revealing an outdoor deck space filled with tables and hanging lights. Beyond that was white sand, and a man was standing there in a black form fitting wetsuit. Ayako startled, thinking she was mistaken for staring— but the man couldn't possibly see her that far away? He was facing her, but smiling and speaking with someone else.
The next moment Bou-san took her hand and laced his fingers with hers, and not for the first time, Ayako wondered how on earth she ended up here.
“See anyone of interest?”
“A whole family was in line behind us.”
“So they're married with kids? Still makes them a target.”
“Okay, we'll keep an eye on them too.”
The monk began to lead her through the lobby, one hand carrying their weekend bags, the other still interlaced with hers. Ayako attempted to ignore the attractiveness of that show of strength and gentleman like courtesy.
This is Bou-san, get your head on straight.
“Who else did Maruyama-san say was booked again?”
“Newlyweds, an old married couple celebrating their golden anniversary, boyfriends, two sisters, a pair of best friends, a middle aged couple who will be checking in tomorrow, and we just saw the family.”
“Guess we got our work cut out for us, huh babe?”
Ayako gave the monk's fingers a twist as they exited the pension's main house.
“I'll take care of my part, babe.”
“Great. I've got my job covered. You don't have to worry about me, babe.”
Ayako scoffed,
“I don't.”
The stone path the two of them had started on curved towards the back of the property, which comprised of a stunning crescent of sand, about two miles across.
Ayako stopped to draw in a long breath of salty air, the warmth of the late afternoon sun kissing her skin.
“We've definitely investigated worse locations,” Bou-san remarked, the sea breeze ruffling his hair, giving it a boyish tousle.
Eight villas were evenly spaced at the top of the beach, safe from the tide, but close enough that their front porches touched the sand. Villa seven was nearly at the end of the row, and it was with satisfaction that Ayako and Bou-san's stopped in front of it. Their home for the next four days.
How did I end up here?
Climbing the three steps to their open air porch, Ayako noticed a cozy hammock hanging off to the side and was half tempted to ditch the monk for a much needed nap, but Bou-san was commenting on the camera placed over the door that he noticed, and was explaining how Naru planned on tapping into the pension's CCTV system all the way from the SPR office in Shibuya. It was all the reminder Ayako needed. This wasn't a vacation. They were working a case. Bou-san turned the key in the lock and entered the villa. Ayako gave the hammock one last longing look, and then followed.
The room beyond the door was some kind of sitting room, a love seat was positioned in front of a low coffee table, set with a plate of traditional Korean snacks. There was no door to the bedroom, and Ayako spotted a problem immediately.
“There's only one bed.”
Bou-san passed through the sitting room to stand at the end of the bed.
“Yeah. I guess it's kind of hard to create some saranghae with two beds.”
Ayako came to stand beside him, hands on her hips.
“Flip you for the bed?”
Bou-san's head snapped towards her in protest,
“I have four inches on that love seat.”
Ayako shifted where she stood, irritated.
“What do you suggest then?”
Bou-san reached out a hand, pushing on the bed post that attached to a canopy with romantic drapery.
“Feels pretty sturdy...”
Ayako narrowed her eyes,
“So...?”
The monk shrugged,
“We can share it.”
“Share it?”
“Yeah, looks like it's a king. Plenty of room...unless you disagree?”
Ayako shrugged, imitating the monk's careless attitude.
“Fine. But remember the ground rules.”
The monk raised an eyebrow at her,
“The same goes for you.”
Ayako flashed him a scathing look which he grinned through,
“I mean it Monk. All coupley stuff ends at the front door.”
“Exactly. Don't be asking me to cuddle you tonight.”
Ayako let out a disbelieving laugh,
“In your dreams.”
“I'll have you know I am amazing at cuddling. In fact—” and he was suddenly moving, taking slow, deliberate steps towards her, “I make an amazing boyfriend.”
The monk was now toe to toe with her. Dropping his voice to a hush, he leaned in towards her ear.
“I'm going to treat you so right, that at the end of this, you'll regret that it isn't real.”
The wink he gave her as he pulled back, spurred Ayako to shove him.
“What has gotten into you? Move it, Monk.”
When he didn't budge, Ayako protested again, but he merely held up his bag.
“What? I'm claiming my side of the bed.”
Ayako gave him an extra shove causing him to fall onto the bed, and retreated in search of her own bag. She wasn't hiding her red face. She wasn't.
Twenty minutes and some excessively slow unpacking later, Bou-san called Ayako back into the bedroom. They had call, from Tokyo. The monk had the pension's landline on speaker phone, and Ayako joined him, seated on the edge of the bed to receive further instructions from Naru.
This is why we're here.
The month before Masako had brought SPR a client. Rent was due, and Masako's friend was wealthy, so Naru entertained the man as he shared his story. Maruyama, Tomoyuki was a young, successful, TV producer who had inherited his grandmother's pension, Sweet Salt, on Jeju Island. The pension was well known and had always kept a good reputation on the Island, but that wasn't the case in recent months. A social media influencer had checked in at the pension with his wife, but checked out single. He publicly blamed the pension for it's bad vibes leading him to divorce. The idea seemed outlandish, so naturally the pension was suddenly booked up with people wanting to test their relationships. Most left unimpressed, but some left heartbroken. These people shared their experiences on social media, and so cemented the rumors of the cursed Sweet Salt pension. Guests canceled their reservations, and new reservations slowed to almost nothing. Maruyama-san had given management of the pension to his brother Kazuki, and it was he who had begged Maruyama-san to hire a paranormal team. The old women of the Island had told him the accusation of bad vibes needed to be taken seriously, and should be investigated.
“How was the flight?” Mai's bright voice spoke, filling the space.
Ayako rolled her eyes, finally able to give an honest answer.
“The monk snores.”
“What? I do not.”
“This is an expensive call, let's stay on point,” Naru's cool voice cut back in.
Monk and miko shared a look that clearly said, typical.
“Lin has arranged it so that we have access to all the pension's twenty-four hour CCTV camera system. We will monitor the camera footage from here and let you know if anything relevant comes up.”
“Like an angsty break up?”
Bou-san wiggled his eyebrows at Ayako.
“Do you think any of the couples would really fight in public?” Mai spoke up, seeming struck with the idea.
“Can you imagine? It would be like watching some American drama,” Ayako chimed in, sagely.
“We were hired to investigate the potential supernatural cause behind the phenomenon at the pension, not write commentary for an episode of Gossip Girl. I will keep you updated with who to watch. Maruyama-san made it clear that this phenomenon is difficult to predict, that it doesn't always strike, and normally it seems to single out just one couple.”
“Hence our cover...” Ayako muttered, flipping off the monk as he made a kissy face at her across the bed.
“You should be extra convincing. If the spirit chooses you, think of how much easier solving the case would be?” Mai advised. Ayako frowned at the obvious amusement in the young woman's voice.
“Shouldn't you be getting Naru tea or something?”
“Thank you for your concern Matsuzaki-san, but I have tea. Need I remind you what matters most to our client is locating the targeted couple and discovering the factors, supernatural or not, behind the bad vibes cursing the pension in the tight time frame of four days. Are you up to it?”
The monk grinned at Naru's challenge, meeting Ayako's eyes.
“It's like I was born for this case.”
Ayako smirked back,
“I didn't fly1,200 miles just to hold Bou-san's hand.”
“That's what she'll tell you, but we'll see after we share—”
That ass—
“Didn't you say this call was expensive?”
“Very. Check in tomorrow after you've done some investigating. I'm putting Yasuhara on some research, we'll see if he can come up with something that can help.”
“Okay, thanks for the update.”
“Have a great night,” Mai called sweetly, her tone insinuating.
“Dream of Naru,” Ayako shot back just as sweetly and then ended the call.
Satisfied, the miko rose from the bed in a better mood than when she sat down,
“Shall we get ready for dinner, babe?”
Driven by their stomachs and the promise of freshly cooked beef, Ayako and Bou-san were on the beach at five o' clock exactly, but were sorely disappointed to learn that the fire was just then being built and it would be another half hour before dinner would be served. That plate of traditional Korean snacks back at their villa sounding better and better, they considered turning back— but then Ayako noticed the circle of chairs placed around the growing fire.
It's a group dinner.
Deliberately taking the monk's hand, she pulled him to two chairs that faced the ocean, and sat down. He followed her in confusion,
“What are we doing?”
“Mingling.”
Sure enough, the other guests of the pension began to arrive, taking seats in front of Ayako and Bou-san across the circle. The old married couple who was there to celebrate their anniversary gave them kind smiles and murmured uncertain, but polite, hellos. Ayako and Bou-san greeted them back, but after an attempt or two at conversation, it was obvious the Korean couple knew even less English than they did, and no Japanese. The small group contented themselves with sharing a peaceful silence, occasionally pointing at interesting things they spotted on the beach.
Then came the family unit and their calm was replaced with the clamor of picking out chairs— one child liked one better than the other— hushed directions from the mother, and the father being dragged to the sand to help build a sandcastle. The husband and wife introduced themselves with an apology for disturbing them, which everyone denied. Ayako and Bou-san quickly learned that the wife was actually Japanese, and her husband was an American Ex-Pat. They were just visiting Jeju on vacation. The four of them got on like a house fire and their rapid Japanese back and forth seemed to entertain the old married couple until the next set of guests arrived.
The best friends were self proclaimed, “blokes from Australia”, and Ayako eagerly used her broken English on them, excited to later share with John what they were like. The sisters were middle aged Korean women who could finally afford their dream vacation, and they quickly took a shining to Bou-san, who struggled piecing together their limited English with his.
The steel drum in the center of their circle of chairs had a blazing fire going by the time the sisters sat down, and two employees of the pension showed up as the sun was going down with a tray of raw beef and an armful of lap blankets.
While Bou-san's attention was focused on the meat being grilled on a grate that covered the steel drum, Ayako's attention was on the entrance of the last two sets of guests. With embarrassed giggling, the newlyweds apologized for being so late, and took the two chairs to Ayako and Bou-san's right. They were closely followed by the boyfriends, who didn't bother apologizing, but greeted everyone brightly, with unashamed grins, as they took their seats to the left of Bou-san and Ayako. The arrival of the two couples completed the circle, and quickly changed the dynamic of the group.
Ayako saw immediately that they were doing it wrong. The first thing the newlyweds and boyfriends did was drag their chairs right up next to each other. Until then, Ayako had been confident in just holding Bou-san's hand over the arm of her chair.
We need to up our game.
And so it began. During the twenty minutes the beef was sizzling away, Ayako watched her competition with a critical eye, looking to one up any sign of affection shown.
The newlyweds were loud while pretending to whisper to each other. A shrill Oppaaa rang in Ayako's ears with every other word. Bou-san was suddenly assaulted with slew of endearments.
Babeeee, when is dinner done?
Babe, will you feed me?
Babe, why are you so far away, bring your chair closeeer.
It took the monk a moment to catch on, if his look of surprise was anything to go by, but Ayako discretely stepping on his foot when he brought his chair next to hers, seemed to snap him out of his hunger driven haze. Ayako almost regretted bringing him in on her scheme though, as he rose to the challenge with more enthusiasm than she bargained for.
Aw, is my baby cold? Let me get this blanket tucked around you better.
Baby, look at you so pretty in the firelight. Wow.
See the moon baby? Should I pull it down for you?
When Ayako became nauseated of all the sweet talk, she took aim at the other couples' body language.
The newlyweds practically formed one person as they leaned against each other, shoulder to shoulder, heads touching.
Easy.
The boyfriends were huddled together as well, one wrapping an arm and an entire blanket around the other, who was nestled into his shoulder.
Cute. But I can do better.
With a competitive burst of energy, Ayako turned sideways in her seat— and threw her legs over her partner's lap. The monk made a shocked sound, but it was drowned out by the crash of the waves on the shore.
“Oy, how about a little heads up?” Bou-san whispered in her ear as Ayako adjusted herself, draping her blanket over their legs.
“What? While you're daydreaming of dinner, I'm actually working here.”
If the hand that came to rest on Ayako's thigh pinched her, she didn't show it on her face. If Ayako's heels dug into Bou-san's thigh, he didn't show it on his face. To the rest of the circle, they looked as much the couple as those that flanked them.
The sun had officially disappeared beneath the horizon and the ocean was an inky black mass in front of them by the time dinner was served. The monk seemed to take her comment about work to heart, because he refused to eat until Ayako did, insisting on hand feeding her every bite of beef wrapped in lettuce. Ayako caught one of the boyfriends rolling his eyes and felt her face heat in embarrassment.
Fortunately, a distraction in the form of the pension's manager presented itself three lettuce wraps in. Maruyama-san's brother, Kazuki Maruyama, was there to check on his guests, make sure their meal was satisfactory, and formally introduce the pension's resident dive instructor, Hong Doo Shik. Maruyama praised the treasures to be found in Jeju's waters, and encouraged them to sign up for a class— he taught all levels.
Hong Doo Shik was humble, bowing his head through his introduction, but when he straightened— to model height— Ayako's eyes widened.
Wetsuit Guy.
A smile as brilliant as any set of pearls went around their circle, and Ayako could hear the sisters tittering to each other. She knew enough Korean to understand they thought him handsome. Privately, Ayako thought so too. There was just something pleasant about his face, made you want to keep looking...
A lettuce wrap bumped her chin.
Oh.
Ayako automatically opened her mouth to take the bite, averting her gaze from the young man who was personally inviting them all to let him show them the wonders of the ocean.
Fed up with the monk's antics, Ayako grabbed the plate of lettuce wraps from him and started shoving some in his mouth. Kazuki Maruyama left them with a final reminder to sign up for the bus that would take them to see the mermaids.
“Don't miss the chance. Our Haenyeo are one of a kind.”
With the threat of an early morning, the circle began to break up. In the shifting of people, Ayako spotted Hong Doo Shik standing off to the side, and thought of introducing herself, but then the sisters appeared out of no where— gushing out goodbyes and hopes of seeing him the next day— and a warm hand covered hers.
“Ready to go, babe?”
Walking back across a moonlit beach was less romantic than Ayako pictured it would be when she nearly twisted her ankle on a piece of driftwood. Bou-san offered to carry her the rest of the way, but she waved him off, and stomped into the villa.
Thirty minutes later and one long hot shower later, Ayako was feeling more like herself. She wandered out of the bathroom, wrapped in a robe the pension provided, to find Bou-san propped up on his side of the bed, a sheet of paper and a pen in his hand. Ayako's eyes caught on his shirt, which hung low, showing off his collar bones.
“That's what you're wearing to bed?”
“Why, would you rather I not?”
Ayako snorted and sat facing him on the bed, a small bag in her hands.
“What are you writing?” she asked, not raising to the bait.
“Case notes, for Naru tomorrow. What's that?”
“Nail polish. I'm doing my toes.”
“Can you do your toes and talk shop?”
“Try me.”
The monk sat forward, glancing over what he had scribbled down.
“Under who to watch I have...definitely the newlyweds.”
“Hm. My vote is with the boyfriends.”
“Really? Because I still can't hear out of my right ear from all the bride's squealing.”
“The boyfriends were cuter.”
“Okay, how about we divide and conquer? You keep and an eye on the boyfriends and I'll watch the newlyweds.”
Ayako had picked out a tropical coral for her toes and was distracted by trying not to ruin her right foot as she made to paint her left foot.
“Sound good?”
“Hm?”
There was a snort, and then— the nail polish was being plucked from Ayako's fingers.
“Give me that.”
The monk took her left foot in his palm, and began to carefully paint her nails.
Ayako cleared her throat, and took back up the monk's line of thought,
“You said it yourself though, we can't rule out the family either.”
“That's true. And then there's also the old married couple.”
“And the couple who checks in tomorrow.”
“Ah, don't move— you almost made me paint outside the lines.”
“I didn't move— give me that back, I'll just do it.”
“Quit squirming, I'm almost done.”
There was a sigh, and then,
“I still think the boyfriends are top priority.”
“What about us?”
Ayako blinked, caught off guard for half a second— then shrugged,
“Be sure to let me know of the first ghost that asks you to break up with me.”
The monk released her foot with a satisfied, there— and a smirk.
“Maybe she doesn't ask...maybe she seduces?”
“Even better, we can tell our client you cleared the spirit from his property by running off with it.”
“And what if you get seduced?”
Ayako's eyes rose from where they were inspecting the monk's work— actually really good— a confident look taking over her expression.
“I'd like to meet the man, dead or alive, who could.”
The monk held up his hands in defeat as Ayako slipped off the bed.
“Hey, where are you going?”
“To put on the second coat in peace.”
Ayako disappeared back into the bathroom, finished her paint job, and busied herself changing into her pajamas— a favorite black tank top and shorts set made of the softest cotton— while allowing her nails to dry. She told herself that her jittery nerves was just exhaustion from her long day and not the monk waiting for her in the next room.
Ayako emerged from the bathroom this time to find that Bou-san had pulled back the blankets and turned down the lights. He was facing away from her, lying on his side. When he heard the bathroom door click shut, he looked over at her and patted the empty side of the bed.
Ayako pulled a face,
“Don't make it weird.”
The monk began laughing, rolling on to his back. There was something terribly boyish and charming about it, and Ayako felt herself relax a fraction.
“Just trying to break the ice here.”
“By falling through it?”
“Nah, you smiled.”
“Pfft.”
“Do you want the comforter? I can take the sheet.”
“Why?”
“I sleep hot.”
Why did I agree to this case?
Ayako slipped into the bed and clicked off the light.