Suchan, who had been following behind, was startled as well and pulled Jieon behind him protectively, shouting ‘What is it!’ Eyes wide open, ready for an attack, a familiar face came into Suchan’s view.
Standing still, blocking the hallway leading to the living room, was Shin Mua.
“What the hell are you doing!”
Only then realizing he’d been startled out of his wits because of him, Jieon pointed accusingly at Mua with a flushed red face.
His mistake was spacing out again with various thoughts while walking from the parking lot to the house. In that state, suddenly encountering Shin Mua, he’d been startled as loudly as if he’d seen a ghost.
At Jieon’s reproach, Mua tilted his head with an indifferent expression.
“How is it my fault that you were startled seeing me because you’re so cowardly?”
Jieon bit his lips, feeling somehow wronged. Mua’s words weren’t exactly wrong either, but honestly, how many people wouldn’t be startled suddenly encountering someone standing like that in front of the door? Yet explaining point by point seemed even more ridiculous, so he couldn’t speak and just burned up inside.
“Alright, alright. But why were you standing here?”
Suchan quickly mediated between the two. Mua blinked his large eyes a couple of times and continued.
“I was waiting because I have something to say to Cheon Jieon.”
“Ah, I see. Then you should have just sat down comfortably and waited, why stand here like this. Haha.”
Suchan laughed awkwardly. Mua’s behavior of standing in front of the door waiting because he had something to say definitely didn’t feel normal. Suddenly recalling Jieon’s words about how he’d been sitting alone in the kitchen at dawn with no lights on, eating plain rice, his spine tingled for no reason.
“So, um, what is it you wanted to say?”
Suchan asked, trying not to show his awkwardness. Meanwhile, Jieon walked right past Mua and sat on the living room sofa. Ignoring Suchan’s question, Mua approached Jieon.
“Didn’t I say I have something to tell you?”
“So? If you have something to say, say it.”
Jieon answered with his chin raised. Then Mua looked at Suchan with an extremely rude expression. Anyone could see it was a look that said this person was in the way.
“I’d like to talk with just the two of us.”
Before Jieon could answer Mua’s words, Suchan spoke first.
“Um, I think it would be better to talk with me present.”
“No. How dare you presumptuously interfere?”
Of course, it didn’t work on Mua at all. Rudeness should have limits before one feels like arguing back, but when words like ‘how dare you interfere’ come out like now, anyone would lose their fighting spirit.
“Hah…”
It wasn’t just Suchan who lost his fighting spirit. Jieon, tired of arguing further, rose from the sofa.
“Hyung, rest for a bit. I’ll finish talking quickly and come out.”
“You… will you be okay?”
Suchan asked worriedly. Seeing Shin Mua’s state, he had a reasonable suspicion that the reason Jieon had been spaced out all day was because of that crazy bastard. However, Jieon shook his head.
“I’m fine, I’m fine. He’s not someone I can reason with anyway, so it’s better to just talk quickly and come out. Go rest.”
“Alright, well… I’ll be here, so if anything happens, call me right away.”
“Are you saying I’d eat this fellow alive? Tsk.”
Anyway, clicking his tongue as if nothing he said was pleasing, Mua turned first and entered the room. Jieon, who made eye contact with Suchan’s bewildered face, let out a deep sigh and followed Mua.
“This is really something, really something.”
Left alone in the living room, Suchan shook his head just like Jieon had done earlier and plopped down on the sofa. Shin Mua’s mind needed to return as soon as possible, he thought, taking out his phone to handle the remaining work.
***
“Was there anything suspicious about Cheon Jieon?”
Museok, who had stepped outside the shrine briefly for a phone call while offering prayers, continued in a blunt voice.
“He hasn’t been asking around about things unnecessarily, has he?”
The person on the other end of the call was the client who had requested the ritual that had brought his master to this state. At the other party’s answer that they’d just stayed quiet without asking anything, Museok nodded.
“You did well. Keep your distance for the time being. I’ll send what’s needed through someone else again.”
Finishing the call with the other party who was groveling to a pitiful degree, Museok let out a heavy sigh and looked up at the sky for a moment. Though late summer’s bright sunshine warmly shone down, his heart remained utterly dark.
Honestly, he wanted to wash his hands of this matter even now. Not for his own sake, but for his master’s. It wasn’t that he didn’t know how much effort his master had put into this matter, but the feeling was just not good.
Last night, he’d had a dream. The god he served appeared in a faint form as if exhausted of strength, pointing a finger at him and screaming something.
Regrettably, the god’s words couldn’t become sound and didn’t reach Museok. But Museok, who had served the god for a long time, could vaguely sense what he was saying without sound.
The god was afraid. It was as if he was seeing a great disaster approaching him beyond Museok.
Things have already gone wrong. So stop this immediately. Otherwise, even I cannot handle what will happen next.
The god’s words, inaudible to the ears, were vividly heard in his heart. Having heard such fear-filled scolding, Museok woke from sleep and couldn’t fall back asleep, spending the dawn with open eyes.
Though he offered prayers sincerely until morning, he couldn’t communicate with the god again while fully conscious. The reason was one of two things.
Either the god’s power had weakened to the point he couldn’t reveal himself except through the form of a dream, or he was so frightened that he didn’t want to reveal himself outside of dreams. Either way, it was by no means a good situation.
His god had already been aware of this ritual, and hadn’t stopped them even once until it failed. Museok knew well that his god enjoyed such taboos.
But to have watched and enjoyed it all this time and act like this now—didn’t it mean that the problem wasn’t simply that the ritual had failed, but that something related to it had gone thoroughly wrong?
Ominous. The premonition was truly bad. Thinking he should properly convey his intentions when his master woke and recommend wrapping up matters here, Museok quietly entered the shrine again.
Clouds suddenly gathered from somewhere in the sky that had been so clear. The day’s omens were truly bad.
***
“What is it?”
In Jieon’s voice, asking quickly as soon as the door closed, deep fatigue was evident. Jieon was truly tired.
He hadn’t slept a wink all night. He barely ate and even went to the company to avoid Shin Mua, but in the end, what filled his head all day was only Shin Mua.
He’d now reached the stage of wondering whether it was right to call him ‘Shin Mua,’ so his mind was truly in complete chaos. At this point, he didn’t even have the energy to waste time on petty arguments.
“You need to help me a bit.”
“Me?”
“Yes. I tried to manage somehow on my own, but the Living World is an unfamiliar environment for me now, so there are limits.”
Just listening to it, it was a plausible excuse. How much would a Grim Reaper of the Afterlife know about the civilization of the Living World? Thinking about it, it was natural there would be difficulties.
“What do you need?”
Jieon decided to stop reproaching him to quit the nonsense. It was a judgment that regardless of the truth, repeating a debate with no answer was unnecessary.
Whether his words were true or false, they couldn’t be revealed right now. Shin Mua himself probably had no intention of proving it further either. Jieon now wanted to stop the wasteful debate. Whichever way it was, until he found definite evidence, he planned to appropriately go along with his words and look for an opening.
Whether he too found Cheon Jieon’s obedient answer suspicious, Mua, who had been looking at Jieon with narrowed eyes for a moment, soon readily opened his mouth.
“I need a shaman.”
“What?”
“Because I haven’t yet recovered my power as a Grim Reaper, the case investigation is stagnating. Moreover, it’s now difficult to communicate with the Afterlife, so it’s practically the same as having my hands and feet completely tied.”
“Hah…”
“So I need a trustworthy shaman… but there are so many frauds in this country, and to communicate with Grim Reapers of the Afterlife rather than petty ghosts, naive fools won’t do.”
This was precisely Mua’s most difficult point. A Grim Reaper of the Afterlife, no matter how low-ranking, cannot be compared with the petty spirits wandering the Living World.
Finding a shaman with such ability wasn’t easy to begin with. Moreover, to communicate with a Grim Reaper, even a great shaman would have to take risks, so finding a suitable person was like plucking stars from the sky.
On top of all that, this ‘Living World outsider’ who didn’t even know how to properly use modern conveniences had to do it. No matter how much he racked his brain, there was no answer to this.
If he assimilated with Shin Mua’s memories, he could utilize the knowledge he possessed, so until now he’d been waiting for that day to come. However, there was no telling when this so-called assimilation would happen, and with no guarantee it would definitely occur, he couldn’t keep wasting time like this.
So in the end, Mua made a decision. He had no choice but to receive help from Cheon Jieon, the only lifeline currently available to him. It might be a rotten lifeline, but Mua had no other options.
Having spent time with Cheon Jieon, he’d also come to a certain judgment that he wasn’t a person directly involved in this ritual.
