BBS (90)

Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost

 

〈Chapter 90〉
 

After the paper fox passed the gate, it suddenly disappeared.

Yu Dan returned to reality.

The noises of daily life in the apartment complex flooded his senses, like a suddenly turned on television. He quickly found the community entrance.

“It’s no. 503. So we have to enter from here, but we don’t know the password…”

Before he even finished speaking, the door opened.

There was no need for the password. When the fox yokai approached, it automatically opened as if recognizing him. The elevator also descended on its own.

“How convenient.”

“If I’m recognized as a guest and everyone knows me, I’m treated well and don’t get a headache.”

“You mean that even ghosts know how to stay out of your business.”

“That’s what I said.”

They got off on the fifth floor and stood in front of 503.

When Baek Ran approached, the lock on the entrance door automatically unlocked. The moment they opened the door, they were enveloped in thick and murky energy.

Were they going to enter the stranger’s house in broad daylight?

The house was in the same state as when the woman ran away. Yu Dan’s face unknowingly twisted. Everything was oozing with the particular thick energy of supernatural. Wicked intentions. Forced marriage to a ghost.

Baek Ran stopped in the living room and looked around.

“What are you looking for?”

“Water pot…”

“There’s no way they have it here.”

“Of course I know. Isn’t there something like a big water container?”

Yu Dan looked into the utility room, but there was nothing. Nothing on the veranda too.

“Why do you need a big water container?”

“To soul fish.”

“What?”

“Just like I said, to fish for a soul, what else?”

Well, he would understand when he saw it, Yu Dan looked around. Then he had a thought and waved his hand.

“How about it?”

He opened the bathroom door and pointed to a bathtub.

“Um…”

Baek fell into thoughts for a moment.

“I never tried to do it in such a place, but there is no other way.”

They put in the bathtub blocker and filled it with water, then came out.

Nearly all rooms in the house were open, only one’s door remained tightly shut. The second bedroom. Even just glancing at it, he felt hair on his neck stand up. But since he followed on his own, he couldn’t show it.

“Let’s get started.”

Baek Ran knocked on the door with a spear.

They heard something break inside, and the door automatically opened with a kieek.

The room where the son lived before he moved out, and the place used as a bridal chamber for the ghost. There was an old folding screen with red flowers, not matching at all the monochrome clean furniture. It was right there. They approached and looked behind it.

Behind the folding screen, wrapped in a white cloth and tightly tied with red string was a small pot. The dead man urn. A very powerful energy flowed out of it. His skin turned cold, it felt like he was burned with ice.

Baek Ran stared at the pot with a serious face.

“Touch this thing wrong, and You will die a sudden death.”

Knowing it meant to move away, he was about to take a step back…

“When I count to three, hold it up. Three!”

Huh? Yu Dan grabbed the jar on impulse. He almost dropped it because of the tingling sensation.

“Quick to the bathroom!”

“Uh? Ah, got it!”

The moment he rushed into the bathroom, holding the pot, he was startled by Baek Ran closing the door with a bang. No, it wasn’t just that, he also put talismans on the door and meticulously sealed it.

“Once it starts, You can’t leave until You capture the ghost.”

“Wait a moment!”

“Of course I can’t leave either. We have to capture it and come out, or we can’t come out at all. It’s one of the two. We must absolutely never release this ghost into the outside world anyway.”

Yu Dan nodded with a somewhat frightened face.

“Then let’s get to work ”

Baek Ran threw the pot into the bathtub. The pot sealing the spiritual body didn’t float in the water but sunk down immediately.

“This thick energy is madness. The regrets felt in death and potent obsession to try to leave a trace of himself in this world somehow.”

“However, even if he leaves something this way, the child of a ghost can’t be normal. He must know that.”

“It’s useless to persuade them like this. The ghosts also know it. But how savage those things are? Even though they know all of it, they try to do it. Their desire is so powerful that their eyes turn upside down. What can they do then? They say ‘yeah, I’m a crazy bastard’ and capture a frail woman to do as they please. There is only one way to make them return to their senses in this situation.”

Baek Ran swung his spear and hit the jar.

The bathtub water boiled as if exploding and spur up like a fountain. Yu Dan, unable to avoid it, was soaked in water. Dripping, he glared at Bark Ran.

“You mean punching, huh?”

“That’s right. But there is a problem.”

“What?”

“Isn’t it work one has to use their body? I hate such jobs.”

His golden eyes returned to brown. A smile tugged on the fox’s face.

“So I’ll leave it to you.”

Saying it, he put down the spear.

Yu Dan asked back, confused.

“You mean, I do it?”

“Isn’t the only thing you exceed at simple and ignorant things? It suits your aptitude really well. I’ll watch.”

Baek Ran lightly sat down at the farthest edge of the bathtub. How should he express this feeling? Absurd bewilderment?

“Uum, well, if you say so…”

Yu Dan raised his hand and hit the pot. Water splashed.

“This won’t do, right?”

He glanced at the fox yokai, who was sitting comfortably. His gaze shifted to the golden spear propped against the bathtub.

“I can’t borrow it, right?”

“Are You crazy? I don’t let anyone touch it.”

Obviously, right? It was his first tail. Yu Dan looked at Baek Ran with a sour face. NOW was the time to take it out.

“I have this.”

He summoned the dokkaebi horn. The corners of the fox’s mouth slightly raised.

“You won’t be able to catch this evil spirit with it.”

“Who is catching?”

Yu Dan hit the pot with a horn. Water splattered in all directions, with a splashing sound. A reaction, huh? He started to strike and trash it in full attention.

“If you’re dead, you have to leave! Why do you have to leave your genetic information behind?!”

The pot wiggled violently. The bathtub water moved and rushed at him. He was wet even without it, but now he looked no different from a soaked rat. With even more fury from it, he hit the pot with all his might.

“Give up! You’re locked up here, so it’s the end anyway!”

The water sprayed in all direction, but Baek Ran wasn’t wet at all. In the moments he watched with a bright smile, he occasionally examined the swaying water surface with sharp eyes.

“Wait.”

Then suddenly he grabbed the spear and slightly dipped the sharp tip into water. It was a motion like he wanted to pull something out of water. Was that the ‘soul fishing’?

Nothing caught on the spear.

“Please continue.”

As ordered, he continued to trash it. The pot remained intact, no matter how much he hit it.

Baek Ran looked at his hand, as he too looked down, he saw that the dokkaebi horn grew slightly longer. It seemed to have changed into a form that was good for hitting on its own. But maybe it was just his delusion.

“Wait.”

Baek Ran dipped his spear into the water again. Again, nothing came out.

“Please continue.”

His arm was stiff, a spasm going from his wrist to the shoulder. But he wasn’t going to say it was difficult even if he was to die. Not even words about switching would leave his mouth before he’d die. Because he followed him here on his own.

With that strange stubbornness in his heart, Yu Dan gritted his teeth and did as ordered.

“Wait.”

The pot shook. For a moment it leaned to the side, but it stood straight away right away.

But it faltered again. Stood upright again, but as if suddenly unable to withstand water buoyancy, it floated to the side.

Yu Dan whispered.

“Is it tired?”

“It may be deceiving us.”

When Baek Ran carefully dipped the spear into the water, the sharp tip of the spear caught something thin. Yu Dan was surprised.

“Hair? Wasn’t he cremated?”

“It’s the soul. Souls look like this. When You exorcise in the place where the person drowned, the soul of the deceased is retrieved. If You put the hair in a soul bowl, the deceased’s soul will be settled.”

A feeling of triumph flashed in the fox’s narrow eyes, as he quickly retrieved the pot, untied the string and lifted the cloth. With the same method he tied the cloth and string again and sealed it.

“Done. Now it just needs to be left for a few days, then we carry out ancestral rites and we send him away.”

“Huu…”

Yu Dan slumped on the bathroom floor.

Fatigue flooded him at he words ‘it’s the end’. How much time passed for him to be so tired?

The clock hanging in the bathroom pointed at half past four o’clock. Roughly counting, didn’t just an hour pass?

“It can’t be. I thought it was a few hours.”

Baek Ran glanced down at him.

“How was it? Was it difficult?”

He had a triumphant expression.

Yu Dan realized then. Why did he so readily bring him, why did he order him around. Now he understood the fox’s intentions. It was practical education.

“Did you try to teach me how difficult it is?”

“I didn’t expect anything or for you to follow, but when I saw this case, it was just trouble. I hope it was a good lesson.”

“Lesson?”

Yu Dan thought it through.

“Even so, it was a bit fun.”

“Yes?”

A smile disappeared from the fox yokai’s face, and he looked at him with a very confused expression.

“What do You mean? Is the madness perhaps contagious? Do You need to be beaten to come back to Your senses like that urn?”

He lost all energy to talk back.

“Whatever…”

Yu Dan splayed on the ground, tired.

He didn’t want to think anymore now. But the moment his head touched the cold, wet bathtub…

He suddenly had a hallucination.

Yu Dan stood, holding a grapple in the bus full of people. Right in front of him he saw a pure white neck between black hair.

Her. The water ghost. His heart raced.

“Who? Who the hell are you?”

No Answer. She didn’t look back. Inside the swaying back and forth in a rush bus numerous water ghost had their backs to him. He was flooded with unspeakable terror. Together with anxiety…

“What? What’s the matter?”

Baek Ran’s voice brought him back to his senses.

“Who were You talking with right now?”

Cold sweat slipped down his nape. The horn he was holding tight was hot as if on fire, in opposition to his cold like ice hands.

Yu Dan scrambled to his feet.

“Its strange. Something is not right.”

“What?”

He urgently opened and left through the bathroom door and was shocked.

The living room was completely dark. It wasn’t half past four o’clock. All clocks in the living room were showing eight o’clock. Baek Ran also seemed surprised.

“More time than I expected passed…?”

He was so anxious, his heart was palpating. He felt like he was going to vomit. Then he had a thought.

A call.

Yu Dan hastily took out his phone and called the number the woman gave him before.

She didn’t pick up.

Call, call, and call again. Baek Ran was watching from the side. After a while, the call at last connected.

「Hello.」

He heard the woman’s voice.

“Did anything happen? We caught the ghost of that man.”

「Ah, okay?」

The woman’s tone sounded a bit strange.

“Is everything okay?”

「Uuh, um… I — am fine. Now I’m fine.」

He heard the noise through her voice. The sound of passing cars. Yu Dan was startled.

“You went outside?”

「Aah, that…」

“Why did you go out?! We told you to stay there!”

「I-I was scared and…」

The woman replied with a crawling voice.

「I was so scared of being locked up in the room alone. But then those things appeared. They said that you wouldn’t be able to capture the ghost, so they would help, they said they could take off the ring…」

“What nonsense!? Who?”

「I was so scared. So…」

The call disconnected. He tried to call again, but it wasn’t picked up. He kept dialing the number, but only the voice message came out.

I can’t accept calls right now.

“I guess she is rejecting the call.”

Yu Dan looked at Baek Ran.

“We have to go back quickly!”

The fox yokai was already opening the path. The Road To Hell. The dark path opened by the numerous monsters transcending space.

The space around them lumped into one and flickered, they became the streams of city lights and dashed at an incredible speed.

But he didn’t feel dizzy this time. Instead, he felt like he was going to vomit out of anxiety — he ran mindlessly.

They saw lights ahead of them. Chaeseol and Chaeu stood in front of the shop, holding hanging lanterns they took off in hands.

“Ah, They’re back!”

“When did you come!?”

Yu Dan hastily asked the two welcoming children.

“Did nothing happen?”

“Nothing happened. Why?”

There was no item to explain. They hastily went to the medicine room, where they placed the woman and opened the tightly sealed door. The twins were shocked.

“No one has entered! What happened?”

“She left by herself.”

“It can’t be! When? How?”

“Miss?”

“What? What happened?”

Do-ssi, who entered with a bundle of talismans, asked in surprise.

“No! When did this miss leave? I told her not to budge from the place!”

“Heukyo-nim?”

Baek Ran asked.

“She is washing the dishes in the kitchen.”

“She brought dinner to the woman a moment ago.”

They hurried to the kitchen, opened the door, but there was no one. They saw a pile of bowls was left on the side together with rubber gloves. They looked at each other.

“Unnie!”

No answer.

“Nunim!”

“Sister! Where are you?!”

They ran in all directions, but there was no Heuk-yo. Baek Ran mumbled.

“Water..”

They went to the bathhouse and threw open the door, but there was also no one.

Suddenly Chaeseol ran outside. Yu Dan followed after her. Chaeseol went to the backyard well and looked down. He looked down with her.

They took a step back in horrified shock.

A form was floating in the dark well. Pure white neck revealed between strands of black, spreading like a fan, hair.

He saw this before…

Soon he realized. Who the water ghost he saw in that dream was.

Heuk-yo.

It was indeed a premonition dream. But his guess was completely wrong. Why did he hate to meet that water ghost so much, why did he fear it so much, now he knew.

His legs gave up under him.

How could this happen…

Chaeu, who ran over one step behind, screamed. The lantern fell out of his hand and broke into pieces.

Do-ssi and Baek Ran guessed everything from that scream and their faces turned pale.

Everyone hurriedly pulled her out.

Something fell out of Heuk-yo’s pocket when they took her out of the well. The ring the woman had.

For some reason, Yu Dan couldn’t do anything. In the shaking light of lamps, he just stared blankly at Heuk-yo’s back.

The back thickly covered in black hand prints.
 

*~*~*
 
Translator’s note: . . . To be continued . . .

 

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