Moreover, it was amazing that he couldn’t hear the ghosts’ voices either. Though they were just not visible, he could block even his hearing along with it.
Ah, perhaps for beings of the other world, ‘seeing’ is the beginning of awareness, so sounds follow only after seeing? It seemed like the evil spirit he encountered at the movie theater last time said something similar.
Sim Seowoo slowly rolled his pupils to the side to find Cheon Yijae. His appearance visible through the gaps between his hands came to him anew. Until now, he’d only known him as a person with a terrible, no, sensitive personality, but now he looked like a star instructor. Coincidentally, that kind of impression also gave credibility in the instructor field.
“Looks like you can’t see them now.”
Cheon Yijae seemed to have inferred the answer from Sim Seowoo’s action of just blinking his eyes and stepped back. His hand moved far away, but a faint warmth remained near his eyes like a trace.
While Sim Seowoo unconsciously mulled over that warm energy, Cheon Yijae explained.
“First, you have to be conscious of the point of ‘covering.’ Like covering what’s before your eyes with some kind of curtain and then concentrating on seeing only the scenery you want. Filter out the unnecessary things and see only the real world you want to see.”
And then the explanation smoothly continued that to see ghosts, you do the reverse—in other words, be conscious that you want to examine the other world and blink your eyes.
Sim Seowoo considered whether the amazing feeling he was experiencing now came from the method of controlling his spiritual sight, or whether it originated from Cheon Yijae’s attitude in teaching him this. It seemed the latter’s proportion was a bit larger, but for now he bowed his head.
“Thank you for teaching me in detail, no, I’m grateful.”
It was a greeting with his own sincerity, but for some reason Cheon Yijae’s expression became distinctly peculiar. With his eyes slightly furrowed, his lips moved a couple times before he finally asked as if he couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Why are you still using formal speech? Your form has even become stranger?”
“……Mm?”
“You said you use formal speech with people you don’t know, so there’s no need for that now, is there?”
The topic suddenly shifted to an unexpected subject. It seemed like they’d had a similar conversation last time too—why does he react to formal speech like this? Sim Seowoo explained the reason in bewilderment.
“Since I’ve joined Heun as a member, I thought I should show courtesy to Sojunim……”
Everyone he’d met at Heun so far used honorifics with Cheon Yijae. Even the elderly Elders did so, so now that he’d become a member, he thought he should show respect to the successor of the organization. Only Do Seonhwa spoke casually, but that seemed to be a special situation, so it should be treated as an exception.
However, at this explanation, Cheon Yijae let out a “pfft,” a scoff.
“It’s not like the members use honorifics with me out of respect, anyway.”
His attitude of speaking while tilting his head at an angle was indifferent. At the story stated as if it wasn’t a particularly new fact, Sim Seowoo blinked slowly.
During the past few days staying at Heun, he’d heard a bit of information about Cheon Yijae through Jin Gwangmin. Since he was now going to be his dedicated Purifier, he felt he should know to some degree, so it was information he’d obtained by asking a few questions.
Cheon Yijae was 21 years old this year and had lived at Heun for nearly 7 years.
In the past, Heun had taken in and brought back a boy whose reason had blurred in an almost half-human, half-ghost state from harboring a mass of evil spirits in his body. The evil spirits dwelling in the boy tried to rampage wildly, and it took a very long time and much effort to subdue them.
However, even though Cheon Yijae had once emptied out the evil spirits in his body and came to harbor a new evil spirit named ‘Jaegui’ and gradually became able to control them, an existence that handled ghost energy rather than spiritual energy at Heun was an object of vigilance. There was an atmosphere of not even wanting to recognize him as a member, but since the being who brought him was Heun’s leader, they hushed it up……
Six years ago, the leader suddenly announced Cheon Yijae as his successor and left. The being who was like a symbol of Heun, who had solidly led the organization for decades, made the most important decision unilaterally and then disappeared, saying he was going to recuperate.
Afterward, the organization was turned upside down, and Sim Seowoo was curious about that background, but somehow Jin Gwangmin seemed uncomfortable dealing with this story. Since he kept hesitating, he didn’t ask further and appropriately ended the conversation.
Recalling that information, Sim Seowoo gazed intently at Cheon Yijae before him. He could roughly guess that although he’d become Sojunim early on, it would have been difficult for him to be recognized as the successor in the organization. There was the reason that he’d risen to the position of successor at a point when he’d only been in Heun for about a year, but more than that, the factor that he harbored an evil spirit would be the biggest.
‘Please leave quickly since this is a place where energy must be kept clean……!’
Was the behavior the Purifiers in the training room showed toward Cheon Yijae also influenced by that? Come to think of it, they tried to kick out none other than Sojunim. Their aversion was quite blatant to understand it only as justification for maintaining the purity of the space.
Well, Cheon Yijae didn’t yield at all to such treatment and rather tried to drive them out……
After pondering deeply, Sim Seowoo answered. Thinking perhaps this was why Cheon Yijae suddenly changed the subject, he spat out the result of his own reasoning.
“Then should I be careful to put respect into my formal speech from now on?”
Perhaps because he was conscious of Cheon Yijae’s age, he almost let informal speech slip out unconsciously. As Sim Seowoo barely managed the ending, Cheon Yijae made an extremely complicated expression.
“……”
It was a look tinged with bewilderment asking how his thoughts could flow like that, but soon he turned his head with a hollow laugh. His ash-colored pupils staring intently at the other side became slightly distant.
Was he looking at somewhere, or searching for some moment? After staring at the empty lot with nothing there for a long while, he spoke. It was a voice tinged with self-mockery at his own action of reacting to the other’s honorifics.
“Do whatever you want. Whether you use formal speech or use extreme honorifics like you’re filming a period drama, I won’t care.”
“I had no intention of using extreme honorifics……”
“No, you’ll be leaving Heun soon anyway, so why have respect for Sojunim? Now that you’ve learned how to control your spiritual sight, you can just withdraw as is.”
The touch of sweeping back his jet-black hair, which didn’t have a single point of bright midday light seeping into it, was very irritable. It seemed the atmosphere had been fairly good until just a moment ago, but suddenly turning sharp, he urged withdrawal again.
Words poured out smoothly that if you know how to control your spiritual sight, you’ll be less affected by the other world’s influence, so you can prevent minor ghosts from being attracted, and if by any chance a Hyeong Akgui approaches, you can defend yourself with the talisman. In other words, the problem Sim Seowoo gave as the reason for joining a few days ago was solved.
‘Did he teach me with this purpose from the beginning?’
No wonder he explained in such detail—was his intention to kick me out after just teaching me the method to control my spiritual sight? Should I be grateful that he at least tried to provide a minimum survival measure?
Sim Seowoo gazed intently at Cheon Yijae and then climbed the stairs. At the action of turning his body first and moving without even responding, Cheon Yijae sighed.
“I taught you how to ignore minor ghosts, and now you’re ignoring me too?”
The sound of him following up with large steps could be heard, so Sim Seowoo also increased his walking speed. Around the time an absurd chase was unfolding, a person who had been organizing cardboard boxes in front of the villa noticed the presence and turned their head.
“Oh my, Student Seowoo! Long time no see!”
“Hello, 202 tenant.”
It was the landlord grandfather and his granddaughter. The granddaughter, who was 21 years old this year, occasionally visited to help with her grandfather’s work, and had already become acquainted with Sim Seowoo, who had been living in this house for over 5 years.
“Hello.”
Sim Seowoo bowed his head to the two in turn in greeting, then suddenly recalled the incident at the movie theater a few days ago. The puppy doll keychain the grandfather gave him had blocked the ghosts that rushed at him and his friends.
He wanted to convey his thanks, thinking that if it weren’t for that doll, something terrible would have happened. It looked like an ordinary doll, but he was followed by a curious heart wondering if perhaps it was bought from a shop where some kind of spiritual energy flowed.
“Ah, Grandfather. The puppy doll you gave me last time……”
However, Sim Seowoo couldn’t finish his words. Crash! Because suddenly the grandfather spilled the boxes and collapsed backward.
He approached to support him in surprise, then realized that the grandfather’s gaze was fixed behind him. The target the mercilessly trembling pupils were directed at was none other than Cheon Yijae.
His ash-gray dopo fluttered wildly in the wind that happened to blow as he walked up the stairs. The granddaughter, who faced him approaching quietly without any presence in the dimly shaded shadow created by the neighboring building blocking the sunlight, murmured softly.
“Wha, what. I thought he was the grim reaper……”
