An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 351

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

Chapter 351
Part 6. A Son’s Destiny (1)
Vroom.
“It’s been a while since I’ve ridden in my son’s car. Your driving has improved so much.”
Park Jung-im, sitting in Kang Hyung-seok’s vehicle, radiated the excited energy of a high school girl on an outing.
Her carefully chosen outfit and makeup only amplified that impression.
Kang Hyung-seok drove with more caution than usual, and Park Jung-im made no attempt to rush him.
“So today you’re just going to the Cafe with your friend?”
“If the conversation runs long, we might grab a meal too, but I’m not sure how it’ll go.”
“Then I’ll just read a book at the Cafe.”
“At the Cafe?”
“Yes.”
Vroom.
An oddly strained silence settled between them.
It happened sometimes.
Even when conversation seemed to flow smoothly on the surface, they both knew the other was hiding what they truly wanted to say.
It was especially common in relationships where people knew each other well, and Park Jung-im sensed that this was one of those moments.
“You have something to say, don’t you?”
Vroom.
As the car’s engine awkwardly filled the heavy silence, Kang Hyung-seok’s lips curved into a wry smile.
“I’m not sure.”
“‘Not sure’ doesn’t cut it. Are you your father? Stop making excuses that don’t even work.”
Kang Hyung-seok glanced at Park Jung-im with a subtle smile, and she exhaled deeply before turning toward him.
“What is it? Do you have something to tell me?”
“It’s about that tea from yesterday.”
“Oolong tea?”
“Yes. I sensed something unpleasant from it.”
Park Jung-im’s expression was exactly as I expected.
It would have been strange enough coming from an ordinary son, but coming from one blessed by a divine spirit, it carried weight.
“Is that why you wanted to come along?”
“Because she’s your friend.”
Park Jung-im’s expression hardened further, and I turned the steering wheel toward the nearby Public Parking Lot, following the navigation system.
“I’m hoping my concerns are unfounded, that’s all.”
“Surely you don’t think your mother and she are… that kind of couple, do you, Hyung-seok?”
“There’s another reason.”
The energy clinging to the tea was far too faint.
Not enough to harm Park Jung-im, but I couldn’t say the same for whoever gave the gift.
“I’ll keep watch from a distance. That should tell me what I need to know.”
“Sigh.”
Park Jung-im exhaled as if a headache was setting in, muttering softly to herself.
“You’re sneaky just like your father.”
“Ha ha….”
“Never mind that. Come sit with us.”
Kang Hyung-seok looked at Park Jung-im in surprise before receiving a sharp slap on the thigh.
“Look ahead! You said you were worried, so now I’m worried too.”
“You believe what I’m saying?”
“What kind of question is that? If a mother doesn’t believe her own son, who will?”
Park Jung-im’s calm voice seeped into my ears.
I nodded in response and soon parked the car in the Public Parking Lot.
Beep beep!
Then I retrieved a single bag from the back seat, and Park Jung-im’s expression suggested she was wondering what was inside.
“I have my ritual implements.”
“Sigh.”
At the mention of ritual implements, Park Jung-im’s eyes took on the look of someone confirming that her son had indeed become a Shaman.
“I apologize.”
“For what? I told you not to say things like that.”
Park Jung-im’s arm linked through mine.
It seemed she was saying she wouldn’t mind that I’d become a Shaman, and that to her, I was simply her son.
Tap, tap.
The two of us walked together into a Cafe in the City Center, where a Female Coworker who had arrived earlier shifted in her seat before settling back down when she saw me.
“Say hello. This is my son.”
“Your son? I was wondering who this was. My goodness, he’s handsome. What’s your name?”
“I’m Kang Hyung-seok. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
I bowed respectfully to Cho Kyung-soon, and a satisfied smile bloomed at the corners of Park Jung-im’s mouth.
“Let me buy you coffee. What would you like?”
“No, you don’t have to.”
“It’s fine. Mom will have an Americano. Warm.”
“Then I’ll have the same. Thank you.”
I headed to the counter with my bag, and I could hear the two women conversing in hushed tones.
“You should have said something if you were coming with your son.”
“He offered me a ride, so it ended up this way. Sorry I couldn’t tell you beforehand.”
“How old is your son? Is he married? What does he do?”
A typical conversation between women of that age.
I took a deep breath through my nose while waiting for my order.
The Cafe smelled richly of coffee, and someone had ordered a latte—the scent of steamed milk from the machine pricked my nostrils.
Yet I could still detect it.
That subtle, faint scent emanating from around Cho Kyung-soon.
‘This isn’t good.’
It wasn’t a Malevolent Spirit.
But it was a scent laden with deep resentment, and strangely, my throat felt parched and raw.
And there was a stale, musty odor that pricked my nostrils—something about it suggested there was a story behind it.
Tap, tap, tap.
Before the coffee arrived, Kang Hyung-seok typed out a message to his mother.
「Could you spare a moment for me later?」
Ding.
Since she was nearby, Park Jung-im’s phone chimed audibly.
Watching her check her phone from the corner of his eye, Kang Hyung-seok brought the coffee on a tray.
Clink.
“Here’s your coffee.”
“Oh, thank you.”
Cho Kyung-soon accepted the coffee with grateful eyes toward Kang Hyung-seok, while Park Jung-im took hers with a thoughtful expression.
An awkward silence hung in the air for a moment.
Then Park Jung-im pressed her lips together and met Kang Hyung-seok’s gaze.
How should I respond to such a tense look?
I needed to speak to Cho Kyung-soon not as Kang Hyung-seok the son, but as the Shaman.
“Why…?”
Cho Kyung-soon, reading the atmosphere, spoke up with a cautious tone.
“Didn’t you ask what my son does?”
Suddenly, Park Jung-im shifted her gaze toward Cho Kyung-soon.
“He’s recently received a calling.”
“What?”
Park Jung-im spoke so bluntly that even Kang Hyung-seok was taken aback.
Cho Kyung-soon’s reaction was exactly as I’d anticipated.
Bewilderment and unfamiliarity.
Her gaze was no longer that of a friend looking at her friend’s son.
Even though the image of Shamans had improved compared to the past, there were prejudices in Cho Kyung-soon’s generation that didn’t easily fade.
Park Jung-im surely knew that too, yet her eyes held a fierce determination as if to say it didn’t matter.
“My son wanted to see you, so we came together.”
“Jung-im.”
“Just listen first.”
Park Jung-im lifted her cup and took a sip of coffee as if nothing were amiss.
But both Kang Hyung-seok and Cho Kyung-soon could see it clearly.
Her fingers gripping the handle were trembling ever so slightly.
“Sigh.”
Cho Kyung-soon exhaled heavily as if struggling to comprehend the situation, then shifted her gaze toward Kang Hyung-seok.
He was her friend’s son, and since her friend was so tense, she could tell there was something behind all this—yet her eyes still harbored an unfavorable emotion.
A look as if all of this were somehow Kang Hyung-seok’s fault.
Clink.
After taking a sip of coffee, Kang Hyung-seok exhaled through his nose.
“There’s something I wanted to ask you about.”
“…Yes.”
Cho Kyung-soon answered while unconsciously moving her hand toward her bag, wondering if I might ask for an expensive ritual or talisman.
It was right after that.
“It seems there have been unfortunate events in your household recently.”
Cho Kyung-soon flinched as if a sensitive wound had been prodded open.
Her eyes grew clouded with wariness and suspicion—as if she’d expected this—yet Kang Hyung-seok continued speaking in an unhurried tone.
“You have a daughter, and it appears her engagement hasn’t been going well.”
Park Jung-im’s gaze turned toward Kang Hyung-seok at that moment.
She hadn’t anticipated such words, and hearing Kang Hyung-seok speak like a Shaman felt strangely unfamiliar.
Yet when she looked at Cho Kyung-soon, Park Jung-im could only press her lips shut.
“…How could you possibly know that?”
Her face bore the expression of someone deeply shaken, though a chill ran through her.
Park Jung-im’s throat tightened at the reaction—one that required no confirmation of whether Kang Hyung-seok’s words were true.
“Your ancestors guided her. That man was never meant to be her fate, so there was no sorrow in preventing it. Had the marriage gone through, your daughter’s future would have been completely blocked.”
“….”
“But your daughter is crying a great deal now. She smiles in front of others, but inside, she’s rotting away. She will need your help.”
Cho Kyung-soon’s gaze fell upon her cooling coffee.
In a Cafe in the City Center, there was much noise all around.
The sound of university students tapping laptop keyboards, the chatter of middle-aged people out for leisure, the laughter-tinged conversation of what appeared to be couples.
And so the silence at Kang Hyung-seok’s table felt all the more alien and oppressive.
“There’s no need for you to do anything in particular.”
As Kang Hyung-seok broke the silence, Cho Kyung-soon’s eyes widened.
She had been thinking to herself that surely something needed to be done.
“This is a matter between people. Since it can be healed by people, your warm words, your touch, your cooking—within a month, she’ll shake it off and be fine.”
“…Really?”
“Yes. You prepared that overseas trip to comfort your daughter, didn’t you?”
A silent sigh escaped Park Jung-im’s lips, and thick tears rolled down Cho Kyung-soon’s cheeks.
Such is the word of a Shaman.
With divine aid, a Shaman can understand and comfort people—yet a wicked Shaman uses their three-inch tongue to drag people toward ruin.
But Kang Hyung-seok was not such a Shaman, so I conveyed only pure comfort.
“Hic! Sniff!”
As Cho Kyung-soon covered her mouth and wept, Kang Hyung-seok rose from his seat.
Then I brought napkins and placed them before her.
“There’s no need to blame yourself.”
Rustle.
Cho Kyung-soon crumpled the napkins in her grip and covered her eyes.
Park Jung-im then exhaled through her slightly parted lips, gazing at Kang Hyung-seok.
In a way, the situation could have been frightening, but the fact that its source was my son made her heart complicated.
Squeeze.
Kang Hyung-seok grasped Park Jung-im’s hand beneath the table with a hand full of many emotions.
Park Jung-im then placed her other hand over Kang Hyung-seok’s, and silence flowed between them—broken only by the sound of quiet sobbing.
And when Cho Kyung-soon finally lifted her head, sniffling softly, Kang Hyung-seok at last spoke the words he had been most reluctant to voice.
“You’ve taken a trip to the East recently, haven’t you?”
Cho Kyung-soon’s glistening eyes turned toward Kang Hyung-seok.
Her gaze betrayed worry—fear that something else might be amiss—and Kang Hyung-seok answered by shaking his head.
Instead, he posed a different question to her.
“There’s no immediate danger to your Rental House, but there appears to be something in it that warrants attention. I’d like to visit and examine it together, if you’re willing.”
Park Jung-im pressed her lips together firmly and shifted her gaze from Kang Hyung-seok to Cho Kyung-soon.
Then she took a sip of her coffee.
Cho Kyung-soon’s expression was answer enough—so clear that Park Jung-im felt compelled to finish her cup.

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