# Chapter 51
“Um…, wait a moment.”
They were caught at a traffic light with the family restaurant right in front of them. Mo Eunje, sitting in the passenger seat and looking out the window, noticed a sign. More precisely, a single word written on the sign caught his attention. It was strange how it stood out so vividly to him despite being in a field he had no interest in, and why he felt he shouldn’t just pass by.
“Can we stop by there for a moment?”
“…Tarot?”
“Yeah. Just thought it might be fun to check it out.”
Tae Igyeol, whom Mo Eunje expected to complain, surprisingly changed lanes without grumbling. Mo Eunje, who had been preparing his next excuse while fidgeting with his lips, felt relieved. Perhaps he was so worried that he wanted to lean on even astrology for support.
The area in front of the tarot shop was crowded, so they parked in a nearby paid parking lot and walked. As they walked, Mo Eunje’s concerns deepened. If the tarot cards accurately predicted his situation, it would be a problem with Tae Igyeol right beside him, and if they didn’t, he’d still feel frustrated. Though he knew both the problem and the answer were inside him, his desire to escape reality by hearing something positive was overwhelming.
“Hello, I’d like to get a tarot reading.”
“Please sit here. What brings you in today?”
The tarot master was a middle-aged woman with a gentle appearance but piercing eyes. The sign read ‘Fortune-telling, Saju, Compatibility, Date Selection, Tarot,’ and the interior was decorated like a shaman’s shrine, suggesting she might have received some divine calling. Mo Eunje sat across from the tarot master, feeling a subtle tension. Tae Igyeol, whom Mo Eunje had expected to sit beside him, took a seat on the waiting chair behind them with an indifferent expression.
“Well…, I don’t have any specific questions. I’m just curious about my current state and how things will turn out for me generally.”
“The more specific your question, the more specific the cards’ answers will be. Are you sure there’s nothing in particular you want to ask?”
“Yes, that’s fine.”
“Alright then, while imagining your current situation and how you’d like things to turn out, place your left palm on the cards and concentrate. This process infuses your energy into the cards.”
As Mo Eunje placed his left palm on the neatly stacked cards, the tarot master placed her hand on top of his. He thought about the concerns currently weighing on him and how he wished things would change.
“Let’s begin.”
The tarot master nodded, took the cards in her hand, and shuffled them. The quickly mixed cards were spread in a fan shape on the spread cloth.
“Draw three cards with your left hand.”
“…”
“If no cards catch your eye, spread your left palm and move it back and forth over the cards. You’ll feel the energy of certain cards.”
Mo Eunje spread his palm over the cards, avoiding the tarot master’s intense gaze. Moving his hand slowly back and forth, he couldn’t feel any particular energy. So he picked three cards that he was drawn to. Very carefully.
Once he had made his selection, the tarot master gathered up all the remaining cards in one swift motion and set them aside. Then she placed the three cards he had chosen, backs still showing, in the center of the spread cloth, evenly spaced in a row.
“Now I’ll read them. The first card represents your current situation.”
The card was flipped, revealing the image.
“The spread shows that you’re currently struggling with a concern that’s tormenting you severely, to the point where both your mind and body are in pain.”
“…Pardon?”
“This doesn’t seem like a recent worry, but rather something you’ve been dealing with for several months, and the stress appears significant… With this much strain, do you find it difficult to fall asleep at night?”
“What’s the second card?”
He evaded the question, not wanting to discuss his current mental state in detail. Mo Eunje didn’t want counseling about his current situation, which he knew better than anyone else. What he wanted was a positive answer about how things would change and whether he could overcome this.
After meeting his gaze thoughtfully for a moment, the tarot master obliged and flipped the second card.
“This shows how your situation will change. This card means that the worry that’s been pushing you to the edge mentally will be completely resolved soon, and something new will begin.”
That was a relief. It seemed he would overcome this somehow. A gentle smile appeared on Mo Eunje’s face at the positive reading.
“The card tells me that while your situation won’t change, there will be a change in your mindset. That’s how you’ll escape from the worry that’s been tormenting you for months.”
“A change in mindset?”
“Hmm, shall we see why this sudden change in mindset occurs?”
Before Mo Eunje could answer, the tarot master took the set-aside cards in her hand, ran her fingertips along them, and pulled out one from the middle. She placed it partially overlapping the middle card.
“The spread shows that your change in mindset will be due to a benefactor. This benefactor isn’t someone new you’ll meet, but someone you already know.”
“Someone I already know is my benefactor?”
“Yes. Looking at the cards, you fundamentally have good people fortune. And thanks to this benefactor, you’ll gain courage and collect yourself.”
The first person who came to mind was undoubtedly Writer Kwon Jiyeon. Someone who walked far ahead on the path he was treading, guiding him, comforting him, and mentoring him. He had been considering asking her for advice over dinner after tomorrow’s live broadcast anyway.
“The last card represents the advice you need…”
The last card was flipped, and the tarot master was silent for a moment. Unable to interpret the image himself, Mo Eunje grew strangely anxious when the tarot master, who had been speaking so fluently, fell silent. If it was supposed to be advice, could it be something negative? Isn’t advice supposed to be about how to do better? He moistened his dry lips as his thoughts flowed.
“What’s wrong? Did a bad card come up?”
“…You’ve heard this saying, right? ‘The axe you trust can cut your foot.'”
“Ah, yes.”
“The spread advises you to be cautious, as you may soon experience something that makes you feel deeply betrayed enough to shake your known world.”
“Betrayal? Will I be okay as long as I’m not careless?”
“Let’s look at an additional card.”
In the same manner as before, the tarot master held the deck, ran her fingers along the top, and selected the very last card, placing it on the spread cloth. The tarot master met his gaze with an ambiguous smile.
“What the card is saying here is…”
“…”
“This is an issue you can do nothing about. Whether you worry or not, it’s something that will inevitably happen, as if it were predetermined from a past life.”
“So, does that mean it’s unavoidable?”
“Yes. It’s beyond human power—a natural flow that people can’t control. You’ll just have to accept and go with it.”
“Ah… And you can’t tell what exactly this will be?”
The tarot master responded with a calm smile instead of an answer.
“I guess all I can do is be careful and stay vigilant.”
“This event will trigger a major change in your life. If you see it negatively, it will be bad, and if you see it positively, it will be good. That’s how everything is, isn’t it? It all depends on how you think about it.”
“…Thank you.”
Although the final advice troubled him, it wasn’t entirely without benefit. Just hearing that he would soon be free from the worries tormenting him was valuable enough. He would meet Writer Kwon Jiyeon, supposedly his benefactor, tomorrow, so he just needed to endure until then.
“Do you want a reading too?”
“No thanks. I’m hungry, let’s go.”
They left the tarot shop and headed to the paid parking lot. Though they could have walked from the tarot shop to the restaurant since it was just a brief stop on their way to their destination, they planned to drive to the family restaurant.
“Is that why it took you so long to fall asleep? Because you had worries?”
He hadn’t said a word from when they entered the tarot shop until they left, so Mo Eunje thought Tae Igyeol wasn’t interested, but apparently that wasn’t the case.
“What worries? I thought there might be some spiritual power since it was decorated like a shrine, but nothing she said was accurate. This was a waste of time too. Let’s just go eat something delicious.”
He didn’t want to cause Tae Igyeol unnecessary concern or make him worry.
## 2-4
The day of the live broadcast dawned. Mo Eunje, who had visited the shop and put in appropriate effort from head to toe, glanced sideways at Tae Igyeol driving from the passenger seat. Tae Igyeol, who usually had to be begged repeatedly before reluctantly accompanying him to scheduled events, was acting strangely today.
Not only had he woken Mo Eunje up in the morning without being asked, but he also hadn’t complained while Mo Eunje was getting his hair and makeup done at the shop. Far from complaining, he had asked the hair designer to trim his unevenly grown hair and requested the makeup artist not to create too much contrast in facial shading since the studio lighting wasn’t particularly strong.
Moreover, although he always dressed well, today he was dressed like someone going on a blind date, looking three times more handsome and elegant than usual. Mo Eunje reasonably suspected the sun might have risen in the west, but he couldn’t tell since he couldn’t distinguish north, south, east, and west even with a compass app.
Ah…!
A reasonable suspicion occurred to him—perhaps Tae Igyeol had dressed up nicely and paid more attention to him because it was the day he would formally meet his most respected teacher and the senior writer he wanted to emulate. But he shook his head after just one second. It couldn’t be Tae Igyeol, who had shown no interest in stories about Writer Kwon Jiyeon and had only responded impassively.
He must have made a big profit as soon as the stock market opened, given that he had been staring at his phone since early morning. Other than that, there was no way Tae Igyeol would voluntarily do things that usually required begging and pleading, and make him feel good.
