Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 67⟩
⟨Departed in the rain⟩
Monk Hyetong (Led Through Affection) told little his family clan’s history. One day, he was playing in the stream on the east side of his house. He caught an otter and threw its bones on the hillock. The next day, having those bones disappear in the morning, he followed the blood trail, and found that the otter’s bones returned to the burrow it had lived in, and curled up, hugging five of its babies. Looking at this, he was in shock for a while, while thinking of mysteries of it. Amazed, and not knowing what to do, he suddenly abandoned the secular world, became a Buddhist monk and changed his name to Hyetong.
『Memorabilia of Three Kingdoms』
Rain poured from the gray sky. The way home from school was glistening with rain water. Only the electric lights of sometimes passing cars pierced through the cloudy wet fog. At the side of the rain streaks illuminated by the lights, shimmering shadows were illuminated too.
Yu Dan’s footsteps stopped.
Didn’t they seem to have increased for some reason?
He shook his head right away. It had to be his delusion. Perhaps it was because of the rain, not because of ‘that thing’.
The moment he thought ‘that thing’, the dokkaebi horn appeared and landed in his hand. Yu Dan was embarrassed.
“No. I didn’t summon you?”
The wriggling things at the roadside ahead turned around. It seemed they sensed some kind of energy.
“Go back. Go back.”
The horn disappeared again.
It wasn’t very comfortable when it appeared like this if he just thought about it. It appeared that he needed to practice control. On how and when it should appear.
“Ah, you appeared again. I didn’t call you.”
He just gave up and put it in his pocket.
He felt like he couldn’t catch its drift at all. Was there really a powerful power in here? What kind? It would be good if he could test it lightly.
Yu Dan looked around the rainy street.
At that time, someone brushed past him. Surprised by the cold aura, he turned around.
A female highschooler holding an umbrella. Her uniform was completely dyed with bright red hue. The droplets of blood ran down the skirt and dripped down, disappearing before touching the ground.
The female highschooler walked steadily and stopped in front of the crosswalk. Yu Dan stared for a while at the blood-soaked back, waiting for the signal.
What? What was she doing?
Soon, the red light turned to the green one.
The female student crossed the crosswalk. He hesitated for a moment, and then followed.
There was not even one person on the padway beside the high wall of the apartment complex. Under the gray sky, the street trees were drenched in the rain. The female student walked looking only forward. The blood fell down unceasingly from under the umbrella.
Where are you going?
He continued to follow, keeping some distance.
The female student, who seemed like she would walk without end, suddenly stopped. She just abruptly stopped in front of a small neighborhood park.
Why aren’t you moving?
Yu Dan stared with a piercing gaze at the blood-soaked back. The female student just stood quietly like this, and then suddenly disappeared.
What? Did he miss it?
He looked around.
The rainy park was empty. Only one person in a raincoat was stretching on the sport equipment. Under the gray sky that darkened even more, only the soaked in the rain trees were swaying.
“What?”
Yu Dan stood in place and took out his phone. What neighborhood was it? He put keywords into the search engine. The location name, ‘female highschooler’, ‘accident’, no, ‘murder’.
After a bit of browsing, a result came up.
「A female highschooler was stabbed several times with a deadly weapon on her way home…」
He wiped the raindrops that fell on the screen and read.
There was a murder incident around a year ago. The man in his forties abducted a female highshooler, who was returning home in the neighborhood, murdered her and abandon her after… A gruesome case was described quite graphically in the article.
Something like that happened not far away from him but he had no idea?
The female highschooler’s actions that day were organized in detail in the article. She got out on the bus stop, and the way she took was all drawn on the map, and the time was precisely marked. The time of the crime was 6:53 pm.
Looking at the time, it was 7:05 pm now.
Then did she disappear because it was the time of the crime? It was strange. She was a ghost, so why die again? What was she doing?
He thought about it, but couldn’t find any answer.
Yu Dan put away his phone and left the park.
After walking a bit more, he came out on the big road where buses passed. He was hungry, so he didn’t think he could go all the way home. He entered the convenience store, bought a curry croquette and left.
Taxis lined up on the roadside. He glanced at them without particular thought, and his eyes met the slitted eyes of the taxi driver, who was standing outside his car, drinking coffee.
“Uh?”
He felt like he was clearly familiar, and soon recalled who it was. It was the somewhat strange taxi driver, who he met when he was possessed by the geureumae and hurriedly returned home.
“Eh? Eh? You!”
The driver also soon recognized Yu Dan. The paper cup fell and rolled on the ground. He fumbled with his words, seemingly unable to believe it.
“Yo- You- You are…”
“Yes?”
“You’re not a ghost?”
Yu Dan stared at the taxi driver dumbfounded.
The driver smiled awkwardly, as he came out holding two paper cups.
“Sorry. What a misunderstanding.”
He came under the store awning and handed Yu Dan one of the cups, it was warm cacao.
“My name is Gwinam. Kim Gwinam. So perhaps that’s why I see ghosts[1]. And I also see them very well. Because I mistook ghosts for people, I often heard that I’m a strange guy and ostracized when I was young.”
That was a truly familiar story.
“My name isn’t Gwinam, but I see ghosts…”
Hearing Yu Dan’s mumbling, the taxi driver rejoiced.
“Uh? You can see ghosts too? Wait a minute. Then were you perhaps urgently going home because you saw a ghost?”
It was all wrong. Yu Dan nodded.
“I didn’t know what it was, and wondered what was so urgent. I just thought you were a ghost with a grim story, and just stepped on the pedal. Frankly, I probably also just stepped on the pedal because I was scared. Your face was white and your eyes were all flashing. You were just frowning and looking straight ahead, so how scared I was?”
“At the time I was terrified too. Uncle-ssi drives very fast.”
“Huhu! How could it be! You were not a ghost!? Among all the ghosts I carried until now, you were the scariest!”
“I’m honored, but then didn’t You know when I got out? Are there ghosts who pay when they get out?”
Then the driver looked at Yu Dan with a strange expression.
Heuk, he didn’t pay?
“My apologies.”
He hurriedly took out his wallet, but the man waved him off.
“I’m fine. Fine. It’s already in the past. I thought about it as doing a good deed.”
Here was another ‘pushover’, to borrow Heuk-yo’s expression. Yu Dan looked the good-natured taxi driver up and down again.
“I guess You often give ghosts a ride?”
“A bit, well. Ghosts still make me uneasy and scared, but other driver gentlemen will just pick them up for nothing, without knowing what’s up, and be surprised in the end. And when I watch them stand between people, without knowing they’re dead and trying so hard to catch a taxi, they feel pitiful. Ehem, I just say I’ll do one good deed, and give them a ride, but…”
As if he thought of something, he stared at Yu Dan.
“But then is that miss a person?”
“Who?”
“Last year, and a year before the last, around this time there was a miss who was urgently trying to catch a taxi in front of a company. She seemed to be a desk worker, and both times her clothes were clean and tidy. She had an employee ID on her black suit. It could be all, but when I ask her ‘Where to, miss?’ and yadda-yadda, we chat, everything is exactly the same, not even one word missing. Both times she didn’t have her purse when paying the taxi fee. And she wanted to go out on the same location. So I thought she may be a ghost. But now that I saw you, I wonder if that miss also wasn’t a person, and I didn’t delude myself for no reason.”
“Don’t the taxi drivers usually check whether one is a ghost or not by looking at the reflection in the mirror?”
“That’s when the passenger sits in the back. Well, anyway, I completely forgot about it for a year, but as this time came again, I suddenly thought about it again. So I went a circle around a day before yesterday, but she wasn’t there, and went there yesterday too, but she wasn’t there. But today is raining a lot, so I feel like she may appear. So I planned to eat dinner and go slowly looked around…”
He blinked his slitted eyes, and looked at Yu Dan.
“How about it? Do you want to follow me once?”
It seemed like he was just throwing the words out there, but his face was saying to please go with him. He had no idea why he troubled himself with going if he was so scared, but…
Yu Dan put his hands in his pockets. If so, then he may as well go see to test something. And he owned him the taxi fare.
“Then shall we go just once?”
“Okay. Yeah. Let’s go together.”
The driver quickly got into the taxi. Yu Dan opened the front seat door and got in.
Praying beads were hanging from the rearview mirror. At the side of a picture of a baby angel kneeling and praying for ‘today’s safety’, he saw a family photo. A couple and three young daughters. Because they thought they had to smile widely on the family photo, the corners of their mouths were working too sincerely, and everyone’s faces were stiff like wax figures. Very classic.
He looked at it for a moment, and then turned his gaze away.
Because people were returning from work, the traffic was rather slow. The dark gray sky now turned completely black. Because of the front window was covered with raindrops, the road appeared smudged. The lining up streetlamps kept intersecting with the lights of the cars passing on the opposite lane.
When he thought there were many high buildings, it turned out to be the Yeoui Island[2]. In front of the brightly lit building, company employees were catching taxis. Gwinam slowed down, and looked around.
“You also look around.”
“Isn’t that the noona over there?”
A miss among the company workers caught his eyes right away. Was she about in her mid-twenties? She had long straight hair, was wearing a black suit, and had an employee ID hanging on her neck. Looking at her in reality, even Yu Dan had trouble telling if she was a human or a ghost.
“Uh, right. That’s the miss.”
Gwinam stopped the taxi in front of the miss. She hastily approached and opened the front seat door, but hesitated.
“You have a passenger.”
“Please don’t worry. That’s my nephew. Right, nephew.”
“Ah, is that so?”
The miss grabbed her umbrella, and took the back seat.
The door shut. Both the driver and Yu Dan looked into the rearview mirror.
There was nothing in the mirror. Only an empty seat.
She really was a ghost.
Yu Dan glanced at him. Gwinam’s complexion noticeably changed.
“Driver-nim, Ahyeon neighborhood.”
She said.
Gwinam just stared blankly, raising his hand to the steering wheel.
Yu Dan secretly clicked his tongue. It was good that he had followed.
“She said to go to the Ahyeon neighborhood.”
“Uh, um, yeah.”
He at last started the car.
“Where in Ahyeon neighborhood?”
“That, driver-nim, I truly apologize. I don’t know the precise location. But I’ll know when I see it. I’ll tell You, while driving.”
They heard a voice behind them. He saw things called ghosts countless times, but this was another strange thing by itself. There was nothing reflected in the mirror, so was there just a ghost?
Yu Dan sneakily looked back. The miss was looking through the window. Lights shimmered outside, and the window glass was covered with raindrops, but nothing of her face was reflected.
Gwinam soon found stability after grabbing the wheel. He knew already from the last time that he was good at driving. He pierced through the rainy street, skillfully driving the car.
“Where are You going? I guess You aren’t going home, right?”
“No. It’s kind of a home. I lived there in the past…”
“Aha. You’re looking for your past home, huh? Should we go around Ahyeon neighborhood first?”
“Yes, yes. Please go around the Ahyeon neighborhood first.”
Silence fell again. Gwinam gave him a look, as he was turning the wheel. Did she say exactly the same words in the taxi, not even one missing? This conversation already happened three times?
He couldn’t hold back and glanced back again.
White face. Big eyes without double-eyelids. Both from the tone and expression, she looked like a very harmless beginner in the society, who hates to cause trouble for others. However could a ghost be so simple? Yu Dan put a hand in his pocket, and stroked the hard and smooth horn, like a habit. Though he had no idea what he could do with this. Still, Do-ssi was right when he said it would be better to have something. His mind calmed down.
The taxi kept riding, crossing the Mapo Bridge. Looking at the cars brushing past them, without knowing a ghost was riding here, he felt strange about it. But she was still riding it right? In the silence, he only heard the sound of a wiper wiping the window.
“Miss, should I turn right here?”
“Ah! I’ll tell You.”
She broke free from her thoughts.
“Kept going straight. Straight… Oh my, the bakery is still here. This way… No, that’s right. We’re on the right away. Go a bit further… Yes, please enter that alley over there.”
“Here?”
“Yes, here.”
The taxi slowed down and entered the drizzled alley. Small and old shops lined it up. Yu Dan looked outside the window. Did he enter a time machine at some point? This place looked older than the neighborhoods he saw when he was young.
“Wow! Cafés opened here too! There are two!”
“These days there is no place without a café. Should I keep going?”
“Yes. Please go a bit further, in front of that building. This shop involved so much! I used to go buy snacks there all year. Oh, oh! That uncle-ssi is still the same!”
As expected, he couldn’t adjust to only hearing the voice. In the end, Yu Dan looked back. She marveled, sticking her face to the window glass.
“Really, thinking of the old days…”
“I guess miss lived here a long time ago?”
“I moved when I was in first grade, and transferred when I was in fifth grade. I spent almost the entire elementary school here. Ah, You can stop here.”
The car lights illuminated in front of them. In the rain, they saw the stairs to the neighborhood. The houses were built close together, climbing the steep slope[3]. The taxi stopped at the parking lot in front of the stairs.
“Thank You.”
The miss stretched out her hand to her side and was startled. She urgently fumbled around, and even looked under the seat.
“Driver-nim, didn’t I have a bag?”
“No. You came in without a bag.”
“Oh no! I guess I lost my mind! Did I go leaving it behind? My wallet and phone are both there, what should I do?”
“It’s okay. You can get them later.”
“Can I really do it? What to do. These days I kept working overtime, and I’m out of my mind. I truly apologize. If You have a paper and pen… Ah, thank You.”
She wrote a note with her name and phone number, and handed it.
“If You text me your account number, I’ll make a deposit right away.”
“Okay.”
Gwinam opened the storage cabinet. In the cabinet, there were two exactly the same notes. And now there were three.
“My deepest apologies. Thank You. Goodbye.”
The miss left the car and unfolded the umbrella. The car door closed shut.
“As expected, she was a ghost! Tsk tsk. Such young miss…”
Leaving behind the taxi driver, who sighed deeply and murmured to himself, Yu Dan left the car. Gwinam was shocked.
“Where are you going?”
“It’s already been three years. Aren’t You curious what’s going on? I’m curious.”
Yu Dan opened the umbrella.
*~*~*
[1] So perhaps that’s why I see ghosts — Gwinam can be understood as ‘ghost man’.
[2] Yeoui Island — I don’t like this comparison, but think of it as a center of business like US’s Wall Street. To work there, even as a desk worker, at a young age she had to be very hardworking.
[3] The houses were built close together, climbing the steep slope — this type of architecture suggests it’s a poor neighborhood.
Translator’s note: I’m once again shocked that Yu Dan is using a polite tone. The guy spends too much time with yokai, I keep forgetting he can act like a normal, polite human.
‘Departed in the rain’ story is three chapters long.
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