An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 334

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 333
Part 7. May All Go Well (1)
Clatter.
Namgoong Min-ah couldn’t tear her eyes away from the anchovy noodle soup placed before her for a long time.
“Um, are you sure you’re alright?”
“Yes? Why?”
Choi Yu-ri asked from across the table, while Kang Hyung-seok, seated beside Namgoong Min-ah, wore the gentle smile of a seasoned professional.
“I wish I could have treated you to something better.”
“It’s fine. They make excellent anchovy noodles here.”
It was a noodle restaurant in a nearby traditional market.
The menu consisted of only two types—anchovy noodles and festive noodles—and these days a bowl cost only about five thousand won.
It was midday on a weekday, and most of the customers were middle-aged.
“Besides, I know my place.”
“Your place?”
“Frankly, the contract hasn’t even been finalized yet. And even if it is, I doubt I’ll be a major client.”
“Ha, ha.”
Namgoong Min-ah laughed awkwardly, while Choi Yu-ri tucked her hair behind her ear and picked up her chopsticks.
“Please eat. The noodles get soggy if you wait.”
With that, she began eating her anchovy noodles with a satisfying slurp, savoring each bite.
During this, Namgoong Min-ah’s gaze drifted toward Kang Hyung-seok, her anxiety evident.
Her eyes seemed to say, ‘She seems to dislike us.’
Kang Hyung-seok answered by shaking his head—don’t worry—and picked up his chopsticks.
That was when it happened.
“Three million won.”
“Yes?”
“That’s the budget I can use right now. It’s too little, isn’t it?”
Kang Hyung-seok met Choi Yu-ri’s gaze.
Her eyes held the look of someone accustomed to rejection.
“If you think it’s too difficult, you’re welcome to leave now.”
She was the type whose defensive mechanism of revealing her own weaknesses first had become second nature.
From Kang Hyung-seok’s perspective, Choi Yu-ri was precisely that kind of person.
“It seems you’re quite troubled by the budget.”
“…Aren’t I?”
“I suspect you’ve also searched on open marketplaces, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
Her answer came back lacking confidence, as if struck at a nerve, and Kang Hyung-seok set down his chopsticks and spoke.
“Then the production cost per unit will increase significantly. I’m asking because I haven’t seen your workshop, but do you have processing equipment?”
Mother-of-pearl is made using shellfish with lustrous inner surfaces, like abalone or mother-of-pearl shells.
The rough, uneven outer surface must be ground away, and a distinctive odor had emanated from Choi Yu-ri’s body.
“I do have some.”
“We’ll cover the shipping cost for the abalone shells and send them to you. Of course, we’ll clean and dry them first.”
“Pardon?”
Kang Hyung-seok glanced toward Namgoong Min-ah.
As the manager, he’d made the major decision on her behalf, and Namgoong Min-ah immediately grasped his intention.
“Among our business partners, we have aquaculture farms and abalone shell producers! I think we can send you samples.”
Based on open market rates, mother-of-pearl material trades between one thousand and two thousand won per gram.
Of course, additional processing would still be required, but offering raw materials at no cost was an exceptionally favorable arrangement for someone like Choi Yu-ri, who had only recently registered as a business operator.
“…Why?”
Yet Choi Yu-ri displayed caution before gratitude.
“Pardon?”
“Even if abalone shell prices are low, why would you go this far?”
It was an unexpected response, and Namgoong Min-ah faltered for words.
Tap.
Kang Hyung-seok touched Namgoong Min-ah’s foot beneath the table.
Then he gave her a brief nod as she turned toward him.
I know you’ve prepared this with sincerity.
Give only as much as that sincerity warrants.
It was a message conveyed through expression rather than words.
“Well, I saw the sample photos you posted online.”
Namgoong Min-ah swallowed dryly and met Choi Yu-ri’s gaze.
“One was clearly handmade, but the other looked like it was purchased from an overseas discount shopping mall.”
“….”
“Your work showed real passion. If we ease the burden of sourcing mother-of-pearl materials, you’ll be able to improve the quality of your cases. That would be something we’d be grateful for.”
Choi Yu-ri’s lips twisted.
It seemed less like displeasure and more like she was suppressing her own emotions, and Namgoong Min-ah continued with a sense of urgency.
“If you’d like, we can also introduce you to good business partners. Isn’t that right, Manager?”
Kang Hyung-seok, naturally receiving both their gazes, nodded and spoke.
“Yes. Among our partners, we have a woodworking shop. While they don’t specialize in eyeglass cases, they do handle small-batch production, so it should be helpful for you, Choi Yu-ri.”
“Ha.”
“If you need anything or encounter any issues, please let us know. We’ll work together to resolve them.”
Choi Yu-ri’s mouth clamped shut.
The anchovy noodles had already grown cold, releasing a fishy smell, and the noodles had swollen and clumped together.
Yet no one could pick up their chopsticks because Choi Yu-ri’s expression was far too heavy.
“Well, I never thought I’d see the day.”
Choi Yu-ri released a deep sigh, then picked up her chopsticks and met the gazes of Kang Hyung-seok and Namgoong Min-ah.
“Let’s eat first, then we’ll go to the workshop together.”
“Yes!”
Perhaps because she sensed something positive.
Namgoong Min-ah, who had answered so loudly that every customer in the restaurant turned to look, nibbled at her anchovy noodles with a flushed face.
***
Click.
“This is my workshop.”
The moment we stepped out of the restaurant, we returned directly to the apartment building.
Apparently she had no intention of inviting the two of us inside the house, for the sealed room was brimming with the signs of daily life.
“I haven’t organized this, so I’m a bit embarrassed.”
“Not at all. I’m really grateful to see your workshop like this.”
“Oh, be careful with that. It’s incredibly sharp.”
It was when Namgoong Min-ah, who had stopped in her tracks, was surveying the interior with only her eyes moving.
“By the way, you said earlier that you’d think about this with me, right?”
Choi Yu-ri posed the question to me, and after I confirmed it, she continued.
“Could you take a look at this?”
Choi Yu-ri handed me a piece of wood from the work table.
It was an elliptical wooden piece with a hollowed-out interior, as if it were an eyeglass case in the making, with black paint applied only to the outer surface.
“So you were planning to make the case yourself.”
“Yes, well.”
I carefully accepted the wooden piece from her.
Then, without a word, I examined it at length, holding it in my palm.
Namgoong Min-ah showed curiosity from beside me, but I ignored her and met Choi Yu-ri’s gaze instead.
I sensed why she had handed this to me, and I understood why she was looking at me with those eyes.
I even grasped the reason I had frowned as if sensing something during our first meeting.
“Where did you obtain this wood?”
At my question, Choi Yu-ri pressed her lips firmly together and her eyes flickered with an “as expected” look.
“It’s not good, is it?”
“No. I’m not sure what kind of tree it is, but it has too much moisture and isn’t sturdy. And it doesn’t even have a pleasant scent….”
What Choi Yu-ri truly wanted to hear wasn’t this kind of talk.
But with Namgoong Min-ah right beside us, I could only speak this way, and at the end, I revealed my true thoughts.
“I think it would be best to discard it.”
“I understand.”
Namgoong Min-ah, oblivious to everything, sent me a look that said, “Our manager really does know about wood!” but I met Choi Yu-ri’s gaze.
“It seems there’s a story behind this. May I ask?”
“No. I brought it from my parents’ mountain, and I just wanted to check something.”
Choi Yu-ri took the wooden piece back from me and placed it in the corner of the work table.
A malevolent spirit is attached to that wood.
It’s not harmful enough to cause direct injury to people, but the yin energy is so dense that keeping it nearby could have adverse effects on one’s body.
Sleep paralysis, dry mouth, and auditory or visual hallucinations are typical symptoms.
“Is there a reason you showed me this?”
I asked quietly, and Choi Yu-ri raised the corners of her mouth as if it were nothing special.
“From what I heard you say, it seemed like you knew quite a bit about it.”
It was a vague answer, but I could discern the intention to some degree.
Choi Yu-ri’s complexion had stiffened the moment she saw me—did I not understand the reason why?
‘This person has spiritual sensitivity.’
Not quite at the level of a Shaman, but someone capable of perceiving things beyond the ordinary.
Korea had many such people.
Sometimes they’d encounter unscrupulous Shamans and end up possessed by spirits, but fortunately, Choi Yu-ri showed no signs of such possession.
“I’ll give your proposal serious consideration.”
It was what Choi Yu-ri said, her eyes suggesting she wanted to leave the door open for the future.
***
Click.
Inside the car, I glanced over at Namgoong Min-ah as she fastened her seatbelt.
“Disappointed?”
“Not at all!”
No contract had been drawn up.
Yet Namgoong Min-ah’s spirits hadn’t flagged in the slightest—it seemed she’d glimpsed genuine possibility.
“I got such a strong feeling about this. I’m convinced it’s going to work out.”
“I hope so too.”
I smiled faintly and spoke, and Namgoong Min-ah’s eyes sparkled even brighter than usual as she opened her mouth.
“But she seemed to trust you an awful lot, didn’t she?”
Sharp instincts as always. That was Namgoong Min-ah.
I took a deep breath through my nose and forced a smile across my face.
“That’s a common reaction during consultations. Don’t read too much into it.”
“Still, though. The fact that she only showed you the wood samples and all…”
Tick.
I set the navigation to the Company and slowly pulled out, speaking as I drove.
“But what would you like to happen for Min-ah?”
I wasn’t simply talking about sales figures.
To be frank, even if we signed a contract, it wouldn’t be a particularly lucrative deal, and given the scale of her workshop, the likelihood of it leading to mass production anytime soon was slim.
“I’d like to help her.”
“…Really?”
“Yes. She seems to have some kind of story. Oh, did you happen to see the design notebook?”
I hadn’t seen it either.
So I narrowed my brows and glanced at Namgoong Min-ah, who was pursed-lipped and lost in thought.
“It was open, so I caught a glimpse by chance, but it didn’t seem like she originally did mother-of-pearl inlay work.”
“…Really?”
“Yes.”
“Was there anything else on Choi Yu-ri’s SNS besides mother-of-pearl inlay work?”
Namgoong Min-ah sank deeper into thought and shook her head vigorously.
“Nothing. It was all mother-of-pearl related posts.”
“I see…?”
There was definitely some story behind all this.
I exhaled silently and drove toward the Company in quiet contemplation.
It was then.
Zing.
A brief vibration accompanied a small message window appearing on his phone, which had been providing navigation.
「I’d like to talk separately later.」
A text from Choi Yu-ri.
Kang Hyung-seok quickly swiped the message window to the side with his thumb, ensuring Namgoong Min-ah couldn’t see it.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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