When Yugeon woke from sleep, he sat up, rubbing his face dry. Looking habitually at the corner of the room, there was nothing there. What he’d seen last night—he could no longer distinguish well whether it had been a dream or reality.
“Ugh…”
A headache came on. Yugeon groaned briefly and gripped his temples. Even though he’d slept and woken, his head felt heavy and hazy inside.
“Please let today be the last…”
Muttering softly, Yugeon staggered to his feet and headed to the bathroom.
Having failed to sleep properly, Yugeon went to work with a tired face. To his colleagues’ concerns about why he didn’t just rest, he told them he had to go see a shaman anyway, so he’d only work the morning shift. His colleagues whispered that Yugeon, who never rested, was being too hard on himself, but as if to prove them wrong, Yugeon finished his morning shift and headed to the shaman’s house with Choi Jacheol.
Having safely arrived at the shaman’s house and dropped Yugeon off, Choi Jacheol looked with an unwilling expression at the shabby entrance made of a rusty iron gate and the various decorations hanging all over the entrance.
“Should I just go in with you? That would put me more at ease.”
“Ahjussi, you have to go back in. I’m not a child, so don’t worry. I’ll contact you when I’m done.”
“…Just call me when you’re finished. I’ll come pick you up.”
“I think it’ll be faster if I make my own way back rather than you waiting and coming all the way back here, Ahjussi.”
“Geez, won’t take no for an answer…”
Yugeon smiled and pushed at the back of Choi Jacheol, who couldn’t readily leave.
“Go on, you’re going to be late.”
“…Alright. Call me when you get home.”
“Yes, don’t worry, and drive safely.”
“Alright, you punk.”
Yugeon waved his hand at Choi Jacheol’s departing car. Then he checked the time. It was a little past 12:30. It was a bit earlier than the appointed time, so he was wondering what to do when, from behind him, a man walked out along with the sound of the old iron gate opening.
“Lee Yugeon-nim?”
The man called Yugeon’s name as if confirming, and Yugeon nodded his head reflexively. The man stared intently at Yugeon’s face before turning his body to point inside.
“You’re early. Please come in.”
At first, he wondered if it was a male shaman. He’d thought the shaman had come out to greet him, but judging by the attire and atmosphere, it didn’t seem like the shaman would directly receive and greet guests. The man was the shaman’s assistant.
“Excuse me…”
Passing through the narrow, cluttered yard and entering the house, Yugeon unconsciously hunched his body at the desolate and chilly atmosphere. The assistant stood in front of a room with sliding paper doors, looking at Yugeon. Yugeon, who had hesitated for a moment, snapped to attention at the assistant’s gaze that seemed to be waiting for him and hurriedly approached the assistant.
As Yugeon approached, the assistant opened the door for him.
“You can go in.”
The inside of the room he glimpsed was quite dark. Inside the windowless room, a shrine was set up, and on the altar, two candles were lit. It felt dizzyingly acrid. As Yugeon looked around here and there, he saw a figure sitting in front of the altar. It seemed to be the shaman.
As Yugeon hesitantly stepped inside, there was a tak sound from behind as the sliding door closed. With the light that had been seeping in now gone, only the flickering candlelight remained. The shaman sat with their back to the candles, so their face couldn’t be seen properly.
The shaman pointed to the floor opposite them at Yugeon, who was standing awkwardly. It seemed to mean ‘sit down.’ When Yugeon carefully took a seat, the shaman made a phlegm-rattling sound and swayed their body little by little.
The shaman’s complete silence made Yugeon feel a bit awkward. He was thinking about whether he should explain first about what he’d experienced when the shaman grabbed the table in front of them and began to tremble.
“?”
Wondering why they were suddenly acting this way, Yugeon unconsciously drew his body back. At the same time, the shaman let out a suppressed voice.
“Water…”
“Pardon?”
“Water… by…”
“Water by?”
“Water… surrounded by…”
“?”
“Return to a place, surrounded.”
Kkeureuk, kkeureuk—sounds like breath boiling rose continuously from the shaman’s throat. The shaman, who had been continuing to speak with difficulty as if something was squeezing out their voice, reached out their hand again to point outside the room. Yugeon looked back and forth between the shaman and the door before carefully asking.
“You’re telling me to… leave?”
The shaman said nothing. Just kept their head deeply bowed, pointing outside the room.
“…What about the payment…?”
“……”
“…Um.”
The shaman was still pointing outside the room with their head deeply bowed. Like someone who had frozen in place. An unidentifiable fear washed over him. Yugeon quickly got up from his seat and left the room. Thinking he should give the payment to the assistant, he looked for them, but there was no one outside the room.
“Excuse me. Hello?”
He looked around and called for the assistant, but there was no answer or sign of anyone anywhere. Standing in front of the room door and stamping his feet, Yugeon took out all the cash he’d brought and set it down in front of the door. He didn’t know how much the payment was. The cash he’d brought might be insufficient or excessive, but for now, he wanted to get out of this place. If it was insufficient, they’d probably contact him through Choi Jacheol.
Yugeon fled the shaman’s house. As Yugeon escaped, complete silence descended upon the shaman’s house. The shaman’s eyes, sitting in the shrine with head bowed pointing at the door, had already rolled back.
The candlelight, the only light source, flickered and intermittently illuminated the surroundings of the shaman sitting in the darkness. Around the body of the shaman sitting upright, black scales writhed. The shaman’s body was bound and coiled by a massive snake. With their whole body constricted, kkeureuk, kkeureuk sounds of breath boiling came from their throat, and each time the snake tightened its coils, the body shook faintly.
The snake looked with yellow-gold eyes at the door Yugeon had left through, then slowly uncoiled and disappeared. As the coils loosened, the shaman’s body collapsed forward limply. No sound of breathing could be heard. The assistant, who had been preparing tea for the guest in the kitchen, was also slumped over the dining table, not even moving. It was quiet as if there had never been any living people there from the start.
All the way home, Yugeon thought about the shaman’s words. ‘Return to a place surrounded by water.’
A place surrounded by water?
“……”
Seeing as they said to ‘return,’ it seemed they were probably talking about his hometown, Imokdo. Imokdo was an ‘island’ surrounded on all sides by the sea. Arriving home, Yugeon turned on the lights and TV and immediately called his father. But the call didn’t connect.
Yugeon looked at his phone with an anxious face. He didn’t know where Imokdo was. He’d left the island when he was so young, and hadn’t returned to the island even once since then, so he didn’t know the way to the island.
The island’s adults, his father—none of them had told him methods like how to get to the island. His only connection to the island was his father’s phone number. So to return to the island, he needed his father’s help.
Yugeon leaned against the wall and called his father several times, but instead of his father’s voice, only the message ‘The call cannot be connected, you will be directed to voicemail after the beep’ kept flowing out.
Was it a communication problem, or was his father deliberately avoiding the call? While Yugeon was wondering, he tried searching ‘Imokdo’ on the internet. But no search results came up. Thinking it might be because it wasn’t a tourist destination, he called his father once more, and this time instead of the automated message, a familiar voice was heard.
[Hello.]
“Father!”
He called out reflexively in delight. It seemed like he could hear the sound of breathing hiding a flustered air from the other end of the phone, then an answer came back a beat slow.
[…Are you calling about the talisman?]
“What? No, it’s not that…. Father, I have a situation, and I want to return to the island…”
[No!]
Before his words could even finish, a rebuke came down. Yugeon, who had unconsciously pulled the phone away slightly and hunched his shoulders, seemed flustered and tried to say something, but his father left the words “absolutely not” and hung up just like that.
“What the…”
Looking at the call ended screen as if dumbfounded, Yugeon tried calling once more, but his father wouldn’t answer the phone. At his father’s incomprehensible reaction, Yugeon felt suffocated inside. To say absolutely not without even hearing the circumstances.
With no way to pour out his feelings of hurt and sorrow, Yugeon sat with his mouth firmly shut, then left a long text message with what he wanted to say and his situation.
He waited, hoping his father might contact him again after checking the text, but no contact came from his father. With an empty heart, holding his phone and just staring at the ceiling, the phone in his hand began to vibrate.
“!”
Yugeon hastily checked the screen. Wondering if his father had contacted him, but the caller was Choi Jacheol. It seemed he’d contacted first since Yugeon hadn’t.
“Hello.”
[Did things go well?]
“Yes…”
[But why didn’t you call? I was worried. So what did the shaman say? Do you need to have a ritual done or something?]
“No…. Water… they said to return to the island.”
[…What? Island? Your hometown?]
“Yes.”
[No, what do you mean suddenly return to the island…?]
“I don’t know…. Still, nothing ventured nothing gained, so I contacted my father, but he said absolutely not.”
[No, why’s that?]
“I don’t know….”
[Can’t you just go? Do you need your father’s permission?]
“I don’t know where the island is….”
[…It’s your hometown, but you don’t know?]
“I left when I was so young…. I only know the name….”
[What’s the island’s name?]
“Imokdo.”
[Imokdo? Never heard of it…. Did you try searching for it on the internet or something? These days everything comes up, doesn’t it?]
“I tried but it didn’t come up.”
[Really? Well that’s… troublesome.]
“……”
[Did you eat lunch?]
“No….”
[I’ll buy you dinner, want to come out later?]
“No, it’s okay. I also want to rest a bit….”
[…Alright, then see you tomorrow.]
“Yes, see you tomorrow.”
[Alright, get some good rest.]
“Yes. Get home safely.”
Yugeon, who had ended the call, lay down on the floor as if sliding and covered his eyes with his arm.
“A place surrounded by water….”
Muttering softly as if reciting, Yugeon suddenly sat up with a start.
“Maybe it’s not the island…!”
Right, it might not necessarily be the island.
“Ah….”
But they’d said to ‘return.’
“Return….”
A place surrounded by water where he could return to. After all, nothing came to mind except Imokdo. His hometown island.
If only he knew the location, never mind his father’s permission or whatever, he’d just barge in. Yugeon looked at his phone. The only contact connecting him to the island was his father. If he knew other people’s contact information, he’d cling to them here and there.
Yugeon sighed and lay down again, closing his eyes. Wasn’t the point ‘return’ but rather ‘a place surrounded by water’? Should he just try going to any island? Or should he try visiting a church or temple? While such thoughts drifted about, it seemed he’d fallen asleep.
Yugeon woke from sleep, tossing and turning at the stuffiness felt throughout his body.
“?”
He thought he’d opened his eyes, but it was pitch black before them. He wondered if it was night, but soon remembered that he’d left both the room light and TV on. He couldn’t hear the TV sound either.
A cold tension flowed down his back. Yugeon tried to quickly raise his body, but his body wouldn’t move. As if bound by something, he couldn’t move a single finger. At the same time, a cold chill brushed against the area around his neck.
A scream burst out unconsciously, but no sound came out. That chill, those scrawny legs had come looking for him once again. His unmoving body seemed to stiffen rigidly. The chill that had been brushing his neck area slowly spread throughout his entire body. As if overlapping its body on top of his.
The horrifying experience came to mind and Yugeon struggled desperately. He screamed too. But unlike his mind, his body that wouldn’t move simply became prey.
Sshk—something cold and thick pushed inside his body. His breath was blocked. He wanted to open his mouth to breathe, but his body still wouldn’t move. He vividly felt the weight pressing down on him and the sensation of slowly moving in and out.
