The Unseen Guest

The words Heukseok-dong, Kim Yeoryeong, and Calamity rolled around in his head, eventually connecting to a long-held memory.

It was a memory he had actually recalled once recently.

Attorney Hyun rubbed his hollow eye sockets with a hand, letting out a groan.

“I wish I could help you find her actual residence, but it’s difficult for me to find living people.”

While records of the dead could be found by sifting through the underworld’s register, the living were different.

Extracting records from the register was only possible because he was slated to work in the underworld after his death, and as long as he was alive in a human body, it was tiresome work.

“Give me the address.”

Attorney Hyun took his tablet and showed Horang what he was looking for.

Horang narrowed his brows, confirming the residence of Kim Yeoryeong in Heukseok-dong.

“I’ll check this myself.”

Having gathered all the necessary information, Horang got up from his seat.

The child, who had been nodding off from the conversations above her head, quickly woke up.

‘Sanshin-nim. Goodbye!’

Horang reached out and absently stroked the child’s head.

“I’ll contact you soon about The Underworld Hall remodeling, so prepare an employment contract.”

Attorney Hyun nodded as he stood up, as if he understood.

“Will one copy be enough?”

“Yeah.”

Saying that, Horang subtly imbued the child with some of his aura.

The child’s body, having received his energy, became a little more distinct.

Having finished his task, he gestured with his chin towards Theodore and Iseon.

“Then, we’ll see you again later.”

While Iseon bowed deeply in greeting, Theodore naturally stood beside Horang.

As the visitors, led by Horang, left the office, the sister burrowed into her brother’s embrace.

Perhaps thanks to the warmth of a living person, which she hadn’t felt in a long time, the child’s eyes slowly closed.

“Are you sleepy?”

‘Yeah. But… big brother.’

A voice that was usually inaudible now came through clearly, having received Horang’s aura.

Attorney Hyun smiled and lifted his sister into his arms.

Since the deity he served disliked going out, these brief moments when he could hear his sister’s voice were incredibly precious.

Horang had said that it was not good for the living to hear the voices of the dead, but he couldn’t help missing her.

The child rubbed her face against his chest, as if trying to ward off sleep.

‘…I saw something similar to Sanshin-nim in that scary man.’

As sleep overwhelmed her and her eyelids grew heavy, her brother stroked her back, wanting to babble about what she had seen. Attorney Hyun tilted his head.

“It’s probably because he’s a guest.”

‘He’s a guest?’

“Yes. What did big brother say Sanshin-nim does?”

The child’s forehead furrowed in deep thought.

‘He helps deities move.’

“Exactly. That scary guest also came because of a move. That’s probably why you saw something similar, too.”

‘Is that scary man a deity too?’

Instead of answering, Attorney Hyun smiled, looking at his sister’s eyes, which were now too hazy to focus.

“I wonder.”

He took off his thick, horn-rimmed glasses.

His vision, which had always been restrictively framed, instantly became bright and clear.

His young sister’s face was also clearly visible.

“Big brother thought he looked similar, but I’m not sure.”

‘You don’t know either, big brother?’

“Big brother doesn’t know everything. And I shouldn’t.”

‘Why?’

Perhaps because she was a child curious enough to ask repeatedly if there was something she didn’t know, she fought off sleep and opened her eyes wide.

Attorney Hyun looked at his sister with a very gentle smile.

“Because knowing too much can make your head ache.”

‘My head will hurt?’

“Yes.”

Attorney Hyun covered the wound on the back of his sister’s head, which was exposed enough to show bone, with his hand.

“So sometimes, it’s okay not to know everything.”

‘Okay.’

The child, who had briefly brightened her eyes, couldn’t fight off the encroaching sleep and began to doze off again in her brother’s arms.

Bamboo stalks stretched straight up towards the sky above a rusty main gate where paint was peeling everywhere.

Goh Beom-woo entered, looking at the swaying branches adorned with white, yellow, red, and blue cloths.

A sigh filled his eyes as he passed the gray courtyard and saw the old, moss- and mold-covered stairs.

That only lasted for a moment.

Goh Beom-woo opened the front door, carefully took off his shoes, and peered inside.

“Honey—”

The house was excessively quiet. He looked at the bag in his hand and smacked his lips.

“I brought fried chicken.”

The smell of cooked meat, sizzling from the oil pot, stimulated his hunger.

“Honey?”

Goh Beom-woo gently opened the door to the inner room.

The heat of a flickering candle emanated from the room, but there was no sign of a person.

With curiosity, he pushed the door further open, and a pungent incense smell wafted out.

It stung his nose just from inhaling it briefly, as if something strong had been burned.

Goh Beom-woo rubbed his twitching nose, feeling as if he would sneeze at any moment.

His gaze swept over the shindang set up in the room.

With fierce-eyed spirit paintings on all sides, one might feel overwhelmed, but it didn’t affect him.

“What are you doing?”

“Eek! You startled me!”

Goh Beom-woo jumped up from where he stood and spun around.

Kim Hwa-in, with her tightly twisted hair that had not a single strand out of place, sharply defined dark eyes, and blood-red lips, wore a look of disdain.

“You scared me.”

Goh Beom-woo placed a hand on his wildly thumping chest and pouted.

Then he looked at where Kim Hwa-in had appeared from.

“Were you in the bedroom?”

“Looking for something, in the dressing room. Anyway, the chicken?”

Kim Hwa-in saw the chicken restaurant bag in Goh Beom-woo’s hand and frowned.

“Give it.”

Kim Hwa-in took the still-hot fried chicken and placed it on the living room table.

“Did you ask for the head too?”

“I wondered why you hadn’t mentioned that,” Goh Beom-woo sighed, as if he had expected it.

“They don’t make chicken like that anymore.

I asked all the other nearby shops, but none of them do the whole chicken with the head and feet.

Not even a place that just gives you the head separately.”

Though not entirely satisfied, if they weren’t going to slaughter a chicken at home, they had no choice but to bring home the most intact fried chicken possible.

Kim Hwa-in let out a puff of air through her nose, clearly displeased.

“Let’s eat first.”

Goh Beom-woo nudged his wife into a chair and took out the necessary items.

He removed and tore open the oil-soaked paper bag, then put on plastic gloves himself.

He twisted off the chicken neck, then tore off the wings, body, and legs in order, keeping them separated.

“Eat.”

Kim Hwa-in rolled up the sleeve of her hanbok, which covered her wrist, and took a wing.

“I’m tired of chicken now.”

At her words, Goh Beom-woo chuckled.

“This is the last time we’ll have to do this, maybe two more times, and then it’s over.”

The two roughly stripped the meat from the bones of the chicken.

They ate only the meat and then carefully collected the bones, arranging them like a model on a tray.

It didn’t take long for the two of them to finish one small chicken.

Kim Hwa-in wiped the grease from her hands with a napkin Goh Beom-woo offered, then picked up the tray with the collected bones. She then took it back to the sacred room.

Seeing the jegum placed on the thick cushion on the altar of the shindang, Kim Hwa-in placed the tray below it.

“Are you doing it now?”

“Yes. Don’t interrupt me.”

Goh Beom-woo smiled with his lips slick with oil at his wife’s sharp gaze.

“Interrupt? What are you talking about? I’ll contact them first. Tell them you’re starting.”

As her husband left the shindang, Kim Hwa-in picked up the fan and bell placed on the desk.

Ting-a-ling. Ting-a-ling. Ting-a-ling.

Along with the swaying bell, shaped like a fruit, the fan spread open, creating a breeze.

Kim Hwa-in squeezed her eyes shut and opened her mouth.

To the sound of the bell from inside the shindang, Goh Beom-woo hummed a tune as if keeping rhythm and picked up his phone.

–Started.

A short message was sent to the recipient.

“Eoheoya—”

As soon as the song burst from his wife’s lips, his phone vibrated in his hand.

–Heading to the hospital.

Goh Beom-woo’s lips curved into a wide smile at the reply.

As Kim Hwa-in began to jump around, the entire house reverberated with thumping vibrations.

All sorts of metallic clanging sounds rang out as if they would last forever, then suddenly stopped.

–Deceased.

Messages continued to arrive on Goh Beom-woo’s phone.

–Really dead.

Goh Beom-woo drew a deep breath and quickly typed a reply.

–The remaining amount can be paid in cash, like last time.

–We will send someone immediately.

Goh Beom-woo took a big breath in and then exhaled. Receiving a contact number sent by the other party, he knocked on the shindang door.

“Honey. I’m coming in, okay?”

There was no answer, but Goh Beom-woo opened the door.

Kim Hwa-in was standing in front of the altar.

As she stood facing forward without answering, he also shifted his gaze in that direction.

A flame flared up once on the tray holding the chicken bones they had eaten and left behind.

The talisman placed on the bones burned to ash and soon dissolved into the chicken bones as a sticky black liquid.

“…Take it to the hospital.”

“Okay.”

He picked up the tray and returned to the kitchen.

Folding a box he had gotten from the chicken shop, he poured the bones inside.

Covering the top with aluminum foil and securing it with a rubber band made it look quite plausible.

“Don’t go anywhere else, go straight there and back.”

Goh Beom-woo nodded vigorously at his wife’s nagging, who had followed him out.

“Ah, I’ll go straight.”

‘When have I ever gone elsewhere?’

Goh Beom-woo retorted loudly.

“Don’t you worry. I’ll get the money and be right back.”

Kim Hwa-in glared at Goh Beom-woo’s expression, as if he were asking if she didn’t trust him. Regardless of what was said, there was no one else to entrust it to, so sending him as quickly as possible was the answer.

Ting-a-ling.

Kim Hwa-in’s neck snapped backward as if it were broken.

“What was that sound?”

Goh Beom-woo paused at the re-ringing bell. Kim Hwa-in, without answering, grabbed the abundantly flowing hem of her skirt and ran.

Arriving at the shindang and opening the door, she saw the bell on the desk, not rolling, but trembling and crying out by itself.

Kim Hwa-in snatched the bell quickly like a hawk seizing its prey. Her sharp eyes turned toward outside the house.

“Is it a yeoksal?”

Goh Beom-woo frowned.

“Not yet.”

Kim Hwa-in took a deep breath and exhaled.

Haaaah—

As she exhaled inside the house, a white mist appeared.

The surrounding temperature instantly dropped coolly, as if they had suddenly been thrown into midwinter.

“How dare you! What do you think this place is!”

Kim Hwa-in’s sharp voice echoed loudly.