Pr: K
On the way home from work, Jongno was bustling as usual. Buses lined up in front of the bus stop along the main street. Everyone who came to the stop was someone waiting or a person who was heading somewhere. However, the boy sitting at the edge of the bench at the bus stop was devastated, as if he had nowhere to go.
One by one, the dark signboards turned their lights on, and passers-by hurried their steps. Jaegyeom quietly watched the city immersed in darkness. It had already been an hour and countless buses stopped in front of Jaegyeom. Many of them were buses bound for home, but Jaegyeom didn’t move like a nailed man.
‘Sorry. I didn’t want this.’
Jaegyeom, who paused for a moment at Yoon Taehee’s apology, burst open the door and stormed out the door of the Chief’s office. He left the office just like that without even slowing down. Several of the team members called to the back of Jaegyeom’s head and asked, “Where are you going? The monthly meeting starts in a little while!” Panicked voices called after him, but Yoon Taehee didn’t stop him.
Jaegyeom ran out of the main office in a fit of rage but didn’t have anywhere to go.
He watched the bus leave with sunken eyes. If he took that bus, he could return home to Jeongju and Mesani. When he opened the front door, Jeongju and Mesani would be there to meet him as usual, and they would greet him warmly and ask if he had a good day. They would wag their tails, just like Yoon Tae-hee had said.
Pitifully…
So it was. In his current mood, he couldn’t possibly look at Jeongju and Mesani’s faces. A storm was raging in Jaegyeom’s mind.
He couldn’t understand Yoon Taehee. As Yoon Taehee wanted, he became an exorcist. He moved into a house prepared by him, and he wore the clothes he bought for him. He asked him to eat with him, so he obediently complied. Looking back, he did everything he asked. From Jaegyeom’s point of view, he thought he had done enough.
Yoon Taehee said that if Jaegyeom stayed on his side, he would also be on his side. Since becoming an exorcist, Yoon Taehee not only took care of the lives of the family of three, but also blatantly circled around Jaegyeom, claiming to have his back. But he didn’t mind it at all. The air currents between them had never been so peaceful since they joined hands, and Jaegyeom was secretly content.
It didn’t make the past go away, but at least they seemed to be getting along just fine. And maybe, just maybe, he was occasionally thinking that Yoon Taehee might be a better guy than he had thought. But then he got hit in the face, and it hit him hard.
If it were like before, Jaegyeom would have beaten Taehee until he felt better, or he would have cut him off and turned his back on him, saying he would never see the likes of him again. But now that things were different, he couldn’t do that. Who knows what could have happened if they had not joined hands in the first place, but once they’re in the same boat, they’re bound to go together until they reached their destination.
On this vast sea, there was only Yoon Taehee.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
‘Sorry. I didn’t want this.’
Tbe vlvc’a kjca atlr?
Then what on earth do you want from me?
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Unexpected difficulties. Bad weather.
***
At 6 p.m., the conference room where the monthly report was held was filled with people from the Exorcism Department. Even though a fairly large number of people had gathered, the hall was extremely quiet. The atmosphere was solemn as even the head of the meeting and Seok Juryeon, head of the department, were present.
“Then, let’s start the monthly trends report for May now.”
A presentation appeared on the screen. The person in charge of the presentation was Chief Choi of Team 2 of the Secret Service department. News from the past month poured out from Chief Choi’s mouth. While the report continued, the participants took notes on the printed materials they had been given and tapped into their personal laptops to organize noteworthy information.
The slide changed. Everyone in the room followed suit and passed the paper. Without exception, Seok Juryeon, who was sitting at the head of the table, raised her hand and turned the pages, but the Chief of the first team of the Exorcism Department rested his chin and did not even move from his seated position.
His eyes were always fixed on the screen, and at first glance, he seemed to be concentrating on the report. However, the printout in front of Chief Yoon was still stuck on the first page. It was clean, without any traces of note-taking.
“…”
“…”
The members of Team 1 who were also present secretly exchanged glances. Their boss looked different from usual, which was very unfamiliar and disturbing. Yoon Taehee had been sitting blankly, looking lost in thought and in a very bad mood. To be exact, it was around the time that the youngest member ran out of his office.
The youngest went into the Chief’s office to submit the completed report, and the door to the Chief’s office closed shortly thereafter. And when the door opened again, he had a face that the youngest had never shown before. Moreover, his aura was so fierce and vicious that the team members were momentarily shocked.
Pyo Jiho, who had been frozen for a moment, soon came to his senses and was about to go out to catch the youngest who had run out.
‘Just leave him be.’ Yoon Taehee, who came out of the Chief’s office belatedly, quietly murmured. For some reason, the atmosphere was unusual. Yoon Taehee stood there for a long time without saying anything as the office was filled with cold silence.
‘Well! Si- since it’s a probationary period, it doesn’t really matter if he misses the monthly meeting.’
Go Junhyung, who had been watching the whole time, offered a lighthearted comment timidly. After standing there for a long time, Yoon Tahee seemed to have finally come to his senses, saying, “Go back to your work.” as he turned around and went back into the Chief’s office.
‘What on earth happened to those two in the Chief’s office?’
It looked like there was a problem there, but since they couldn’t figure out the situation, the team members were just watching. When they asked what happened, their superior’s mood was so gloomy that they couldn’t even dare to say anything.
‘You ask, why am I the one who is asking…’ As the team members exchanged signals with their eyes, another slide went by and the topic changed.
“Next is information that Zen Master Yeohye is ministering to the intelligent ghosts (using a person to do a job, or being asked to do a job).”
At Chief Choi’s next words, the team members who were busy exchanging glances turned their heads to look at him. The hall suddenly became noisy. Yoon Taehee, who was sitting like a statue resting his chin, also showed a clear reaction for the first time. The eyes that had been sunken the whole time suddenly changed.
“What? Master Yeohye?”
Seok Juryeon’s eyes wide and furrowed her brows.
“Yes, that’s right.”
Master Yeohye was one of the famous shamans for possessing exceptional magical powers. He also had a good character and generous nature, which earned him the trust of many people. Even at his senile age of over seventy years old, he had numerous god daughters or god sons (Shamans who were taken as disciples.) Not only the gwijaes but also the ordinary people honored him with the title of Zen master and worshiped him like a teacher.
Among the ordinary people who served him were politicians who were considered to be the next presidential candidates and the chairman of a major corporation. He had a history of predicting the future several times before major national events. Therefore, during election season, high-ranking figures from all walks of life would come and go until the doors to the new party were worn out. It was a fact known to everyone who was in the know.
“A nobleman of such great virtuous character is working ghosts around?”
Someone raised a question. At first glance, there was a hint of ridicule as if they were disparaging Master Yeohye. Chief Choi opened his mouth in the most business-like manner possible.
He said, “It appears that the ghost is taking care of the affairs of the shrine’s customers. If the work is done through a ghost, no physical evidence is left behind, and the person himself is also at low risk, so it seems like he is entrusting the work on his behalf, like subcontracting.”
Not just any shaman, but a renowned shaman that many people look up to, was ministering to strange ghosts… and not a miscellaneous ghost or a vengeful ghost, but an intelligent ghost? The hall was buzzing. Intelligent ghosts were the rarest and most difficult of all ghosts as there was so little known information.
It was an unbelievable story in many ways.
“A shaman who serves a magical spirit joins hands with a mere ghost? If that’s true, Master Yeohye, that guy must have really become senile.”
Although Seok Juryeon was skeptical, she could not hide her disdain.
“He must have lost his powers.”
“He might have run out of money.”
Cold ridicule broke out here and there. Most exorcists did not like shamans very much. It was the same field, but exorcists and the shaman had fundamentally different starting points.
There was a certain humility about shamans that came with being in tune with the natural order of things and being a servant of the gods, which made them very different in their attitudes and methods of dealing with ghosts. Shamans who worshiped the spirits of the gods basically viewed ghosts as harsh and unpleasant, which was why they sometimes scolded them, cajoled them, and appeased them.
But that approach was not acceptable to exorcists. Exorcists took an aggressive stance against the ghost. In the first place, the thinking system itself was different. There was no mercy for exorcists. Ghosts were like pests that had to be destroyed and defeated. But to entrust the work to a ghost, of course, there was no way the exorcists would react well.
In a chaotic atmosphere, Chief Choi continued the topic.
“According to the information I heard, the ghosts helping Master Yeohye’s work are not one or two, but are moving in a group, and their name is ‘Byeoksadan’.”
That is very interesting and it seems to be also very interesting to Yoon Taehee. Guess he was under the impression he was the only one in their cycle/organization or whatever who truly worked with ghost?
Thanks for the chapter!
He is though since shamans are not apart of the organization of exorcists. This shaman may end up being important to yoon n kim
What I understood is that his behaviour is even strange for shamans, though. “Shamans (…) viewed ghosts as harsh and unpleasant, (…) they sometimes scolded them, cajoled them, ans appeased them.”
Actively working with them is even weird for them it seems and that there is even a whole group he is working with.
Sure but I was judt pointing out that since shamans aren’t a part of their organization, he still is the only one among the exorcist organization working with ghosts. If you look outside at shamans, there’s now this guy who is also unusual among his fellow shaman stic organization.
Shamanastic*
Thank you for the update. It’s torture waiting for each chapter to be released but I’m pinned to this novel haha.
Didn’t expect Jaegyeom to run away like that 😭 also thank you for the chapter~
Thank you!