"?!" Ran's face went pale, and the cup in her hand creaked. "B-But didn't you say there were no ghosts in the world?"
Jiang Xia withdrew his gaze and realized that this ghost-fearing classmate had misunderstood him. He chuckled. "I meant there's another living person in the room."
He raised a hand and pointed toward a corner of the living room.
Ran followed his gaze and discovered that, at some point, a middle-aged man with a waxy yellow complexion had appeared there.
The man held a drawing board in one hand and a brush in the other. Every now and then, he gave the group a sinister glance before lowering his head to add a few swift strokes to the painting, a strange smile spreading across his face.
"His smile is really creepy. Is he painting?" Sonoko quietly whispered to her two classmates. "I don't think I saw him on the bus."
The tour guide beside them overheard and introduced him. "That is Mr. Kobayashi, a painter. He seems to like the scenery here, so he came over early on his own."
"A painter named Kobayashi..." Ran's fan-girl instincts suddenly kicked in. She remembered something, and her fear vanished at once, replaced by excitement. "Could he be Mr. Kobayashi Seiji? I've seen his work in magazines!"
"Kobayashi Seiji?" The old doctor, who had been sitting quietly beside them with a genial smile, had clearly heard of that name as well.
He rose to his feet at once and walked curiously toward the painter in the corner. "I think I've seen your paintings too—what are you drawing? Are you painting us?"
Seeing him approach, the painter uneasily shifted to cover his drawing board. "Nothing. It's only a Draft for now."
The old doctor noticed that he did not want anyone to