Money Loving CEO's Detective Lover

"UGH!" Mina was still struggling to kick the salt away with her foot but it was too far for her to reach.  Her face was red and she was sweating hard from trying to remove the salt barrier. Kanji shook his head.

"Stop it!" he said sharply. "You're only hurting yourself."

He noticed that her binds had only tightened around her wrists, cutting deep into her skin. But Mina did not care; she had to destroy that barrier.

"Just...a bit...more... " she panted but her foot would not reach it. She barely scraped some of the dalt but it was not enough.

"Stop it!" he yelled. "It's no use! We're stuck here until someone comes here!"

"Who's gonna come here?" she snapped. ""Do you see anyone here? Your dad is under their spell and my family probably doesn't know where we are!"

"Still...stop," he insisted. "I don't want our last days to be spent like this!"

Mina grunted and gave up in her pursuit. She leaned back against the bark of the tree she was tied to, helpless and sad.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Kanji asked. "Why didn't you tell me that you knew?"

"Why didn't you tell me that you died?" Mina countered.

"I didn't want to hurt you," he admitted. "I just wanted to spend a few days of peace with you. Even if it was in someone else's body."

He flashed her a small smile. "I'm really pathetic, huh?" he mused. "I hid the truth from you at every step. First about my profession and then about my death. I only hurt you. And yet, you kept on coming back to me as if nothing happened."

"My heart isn't that big," Mina said in a soft tone. "There were times when I wanted to ditch you but the thought of not seeing you was more painful than anything else…"

Her eyes were welling up with tears but she looked away from him.

"You're so mean!" she whispered. "Not even telling me about what happened to you. Did you really think that by possessing someone else, you can hide your presence? I've known you all my life, Jang Kanji. I know you too well. You can go on to possess as many people as you want. You can hide in the midst of millions of people and I'll still know which one you are. You can't hide from me!"

She was now openly crying which made Kanji feel even more guilty. He had thought that he would spend a few peaceful days with her and quietly leave so that she would never know the truth. All he wanted was to confess his feelings to her through his actions, hoping that she would think it was Haejong who was doing everything for her. It did not matter to him as long as she was not crying for him.

But all his hard work was a waste. She found out anyway and was now crying for him. That was not what he wanted. He hated to see her cry and yet, he was the reason for her tears.

"We really are idiots, huh?" he asked out loud.

"We are," Mina sniffed. "Always running towards each other but also away from each other. Why?"

"Now that I'm dead, I'm wondering the same question," Kanji said. "Why? Why did we run away? Where did we go wrong? Why didn't I muster the courage to admit my feelings for you sooner? Why didn't I leave everything behind like you had asked me to and run away with you?"

He gazed at her with love and sadness, his heart wrenching in pain. "In death I realized that all of it did not matter at all," he said. "Because the last image I saw before dying was your face. The last thing I wanted to do was to wipe those tears from your eyes. As I felt my soul leave my body, I only wanted to hold you in my arms and confess to you the feelings I've hidden away."

Mina closed her eyes, waiting for the words she had been pining to listen to for so many years. The words which, once would have given her more happiness than all the wealth in the world. 

And now those very words were going to create a barrier between them which could not be broken until the day Mina herself would die.

"I'm in love with you, Hwang Mina," Kanji finally confessed. "I don't know when I started to love you. Was it when I saw you going off to medical college to fight your fears. Or was it when you came back after the long battle. Was it when I saw you crying for the first time or was it when I saw you smile after your constant shopping sprees…"

Mina let out a sad laugh at that.

"But I'm in love with you," he went on. "And even death can't stop me from loving you."

The tears rolled from her cheeks, falling onto the ground. She lowered her head, trying to hide her face but she could stop her damn heart from beating so fast. Was it possible for someone to feel infinite happiness and unending sadness at the same time? 

"We really are stupid," she sobbed. 

"We are," Kanji admitted. "Very, very stupid."

Five feet. Kanji counted the distance between them. It was just a matter of five feet. But that five feet was the crossing between life and death. It was a bridge he could never cross and he would never let her cross it either. He used to think that they had plenty of time together. If not today, then tomorrow would come when they could be together.

Who knew that tomorrow would never come?

Mina took a deep breath and looked up at him with her teary face. "Living or dead," she said. "None of that shit matters anymore. So what if we were late? Better late than never, right?"

She gave him a small smile and shifted to move her foot again to continue kicking the salt barrier.

"It's of no use!" Kanji told her.

"We can either keep being stupid and do noathing as usual," she said, her voice filled with determination. "Or we can kick that demon back to hell and reclaim your body from him. You might be alright with him possessing your body, but I'm not! I'll never let him get away with this!"

She struggled to push her foot forward, using every inch of her willpower to break the barrier. No matter how much her body hurt, she could not let that demon win. It took away too many things from her but she was not going to let it win. 

"Just a little more…" She grunted as her foot touched a bit of the salt. The binds were now cutting so deep into her skin that they were bleeding but she did not care. 

"Mina…" Kanji warned but she lunged violently until a little bit of the salt was scraped. She kept on pushing at that spot until a small crack formed.

"Yes!" she exclaimed, kicking away part of the barrier, creating a path for Kanji. Grabbing the chance, Kanji quickly jumped out of the barrier and rushed towards her.

His hands burned as soon as he touched her binds. The ropes were laced with peach water but he ignored the pain.

"Kanji, your hands!" Mina warned but he kept on pulling at them until he undid them. Blisters formed on his hands because of the peach essence and they hurt him. Being a ghost was literally painful too!

"Forget about it!" he hissed. "We'll have to get to that fortress!"

"Why the fortress?" Mina asked. "What does it have to do with anything?"

"Because," he began. "I can't be too sure about it but I think I feel Jina's presence in there!"