An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 352

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

Chapter 352
Part 6. A Son’s Destiny (2)
Vrroooom.
An awkward silence hung in the moving car.
Kang Hyung-seok sat in the driver’s seat, while Park Jung-im held Cho Kyung-soon’s hand tightly from the back seat beside her.
It was around 1 PM on a bright spring afternoon.
Outside the car windows, the atmosphere was warm and radiant, but unfortunately the interior of the automobile was not.
“Is it serious?”
Cho Kyung-soon posed the question as if addressing a Shaman rather than a friend’s son, and Kang Hyung-seok shook his head.
“No. That’s not it.”
Sigh.
“I understand you’re troubled. And I’m mentioning this just in case, but it has nothing to do with your daughter’s situation.”
The brief explanation had already been completed.
The purpose of the visit, the reason, the circumstances.
It stemmed from the car accident that Cho Kyung-soon had experienced, and the purpose of the visit was to find and eliminate the causative factors.
That was all, yet both Park Jung-im and Cho Kyung-soon bore grim expressions.
It was likely because they were experiencing something they had never encountered in their lives.
“In a moment, you will turn right.”
Following the navigation’s guidance, Kang Hyung-seok slowly turned the steering wheel toward the residential district.
It was a region far removed from Seoul.
Land prices were inexpensive in many areas, and as a result, single-story detached houses—rarely seen in Seoul—often clustered together in such places.
Cho Kyung-soon’s house was located in such a small village-like residential district.
“There, that house.”
Cho Kyung-soon stretched her arm between the driver’s and passenger’s seats to point at a house, but since all the houses were built in identical forms, it was impossible to tell which one she meant.
“You have arrived at your destination. Navigation complete.”
So following the navigation’s guidance, I slowed the car’s speed and turned the steering wheel toward what appeared to be the destination.
Thunk.
After stepping out of the car, I surveyed the surroundings.
Houses with courtyards lined the street, and from somewhere came the aroma of grilling meat as people enjoyed a weekend barbecue.
Woof, woof, woof, woof!
A dog excited by that meat smell barked from a distance, stirring a sense of pity.
Squeeze.
So I understood the heart of Park Jung-im, who was grasping my hand.
It was her friend’s house, and with the houses pressed so closely together, if word spread that a ritual had been performed here, Cho Kyung-soon would become the subject of neighborhood gossip.
“Don’t worry.”
When Kang Hyung-seok spoke in a low voice, a faint smile crossed Park Jung-im’s lips.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, click!
In the meantime, Cho Kyung-soon opened the entrance door, and Kang Hyung-seok and Park Jung-im stepped inside.
“Is there no one home?”
Park Jung-im asked in an deliberately composed voice, and Cho Kyung-soon answered with a smile that was clearly forced.
“I told the boy’s father to step out for a moment.”
“I see….”
Kang Hyung-seok glanced at his wristwatch, then surveyed the interior of the room.
He withdrew the Shaman’s Bell from his bag, and when Park Jung-im and Cho Kyung-soon’s expressions stiffened, he shook it gently.
Jing-jing-jing-jing-jing.
The sound created by the small bells striking one another was not loud.
With the window sealed shut, it was barely audible to the neighbors—yet both Park Jung-im and Cho Kyung-soon found themselves unable to tear their eyes from the Shaman’s Bell, as though their very souls were being drawn away.
“Where are you?”
Kang Hyung-seok spoke in a hushed voice toward the empty air, then stepped into the inner living room.
“I’ve come to find you. Where are you?”
Cho Kyung-soon swallowed dryly and clasped her hands before her chest, while Park Jung-im watched her son’s unfamiliar demeanor as though etching it into her eyes.
Jing-jing-jing-jing.
Kang Hyung-seok circled the living room once, then moved toward the bathroom.
He stood before a firmly closed door, then approached another.
That was when it happened.
Jing.
Kang Hyung-seok stopped his wrist, silencing the bell.
He gazed at the firmly closed door.
Park Jung-im’s face grew taut at Kang Hyung-seok’s unnaturally still posture, and Cho Kyung-soon’s expression mirrored her tension.
“Is there something inside?”
“Yes. I think it would be best if you retrieved it yourself.”
“…Retrieved what?”
“It’s black and small. It appears to be charcoal.”
Charcoal.
It was not something one would typically find in a residential home.
So Park Jung-im regarded Kang Hyung-seok with a questioning gaze, and when she turned her eyes to Cho Kyung-soon, she saw her friend’s ashen face.
“…Kyung-soon?”
Cho Kyung-soon said nothing.
Yet she clearly understood what Kang Hyung-seok was referring to.
“That… why would that be….”
“Could you bring that object to me?”
It was certainly something she had brought back as a souvenir.
She would have had no suspicions or second thoughts about it, and the object posed no direct harm to Cho Kyung-soon.
So there was no reason for such tension—yet Cho Kyung-soon was deeply flustered.
“I ask of you.”
Kang Hyung-seok spoke in measured, soothing tones.
Cho Kyung-soon moved urgently past Kang Hyung-seok and grasped the door handle.
Thud.
She shut the door immediately—not for any particular reason, but because it was the couple’s inner bedroom.
“….”
Park Jung-im sent Kang Hyung-seok a look brimming with unspoken questions.
I understood what she wanted to ask.
But this didn’t seem like the right moment to answer, so I shook my head silently. Soon, Cho Kyung-soon emerged holding a black vinyl bag in one hand.
“H-here it is.”
When I opened the bag she handed me, it contained a piece of charcoal about the size of three fingers pressed together.
“I brought it back from Japan, but I never thought it would become a problem.”
“No, it’s not a problem. It simply wasn’t the sort of thing that should be kept inside a home.”
“Is it really okay?”
Unlike the anxious Cho Kyung-soon, I smiled faintly.
“As I said, it was simply not the sort of thing that should be kept inside a home.”
“Then….”
“The ones bound to this are grateful to you, ma’am.”
“What is it, exactly? What’s there?”
I looked at the charcoal in the vinyl bag and answered in a low voice.
“A grudge.”
“A grudge…?”
“Yes. It’s not dangerous, so I’ll take it and handle it. Is that alright?”
Cho Kyung-soon nodded immediately.
Though I had assured her it wasn’t dangerous, the very strangeness of the situation made her afraid of everything.
“Then I’ll be going inside now.”
I bowed to her in farewell, and Park Jung-im, flustered, called out “Kyung-soon, I’ll contact you later!” before following me immediately.
Click.
After stepping out the entrance and getting into the car, Park Jung-im asked me sharply.
“What is it? What exactly is that?”
I saw Cho Kyung-soon watching me through the living room window and spoke in a hushed voice.
“Your mother’s friend has done something quite significant.”
“What?”
“It’s charcoal brought back from Gunkanjima Island.”
Vroom!
I started the engine and turned the steering wheel sharply.
Feeling Cho Kyung-soon’s gaze still following me, I began driving toward my parents’ home.
“It’s a place with a story. Many people never returned to their homeland.”
Gunkanjima Island. Also known as Hashima Island.
A symbol of Japan’s industrialization, yet behind it lay Korean forced laborers.
Many Koreans died performing brutal labor in the prison-like Gunkanjima Island.
Called a hell island for its cruelty and misery, how could the resentment not be immense for those who breathed their last there?
How profound must have been their longing to return to their homeland.
They were people who traded their lives to mine charcoal, and the charcoal carried the deep yearning to return home—which Cho Kyung-soon had brought to Korea.
“I believe it’s registered with UNESCO. Your friend simply brought back a memento, but such acts of goodness do exist in this world.”
“Goodness…?”
“Yes. I’ve brought back some of those who haven’t been able to return home for a long time.”
Kang Hyung-seok drove in silence.
The air inside the car was thick with an emotion difficult to put into words.
It was the moment Park Jung-im understood what kind of life her son was living, and it was the moment Kang Hyung-seok revealed a side of himself he could scarcely show his parents.
“I’ll perform a separate ritual to guide the spirits dwelling within the coal to the afterlife.”
“….”
“Once that’s done, everything will be finished, so please don’t worry yourself, Mother.”
Park Jung-im exhaled silently and leaned her head against the headrest.
She remained quiet for a long while, and only spoke again when Kang Hyung-seok parked the car near their home.
“Come with me.”
Kang Hyung-seok looked at Park Jung-im without speaking.
“I need to see what our son does.”
Park Jung-im spoke with nothing but a mother’s heart, and Kang Hyung-seok nodded with a faint smile.
Then he stepped out of the car and gathered the plastic bag containing the coal and the bag holding his ritual implements.
Step, step.
Kang Hyung-seok headed toward the mountain near his home.
An ordinary mountain.
It had no name, no prayer ground—just an unremarkable mountain in South Korea.
And so Kang Hyung-seok climbed it.
“Huff! Huff!”
Behind him, Park Jung-im followed, breathing heavily, and Kang Hyung-seok took his mother’s hand as they made their way to the mountain’s highest point.
Though it was a small mountain, the path was rough, and it took a full two hours.
Once at the summit, Kang Hyung-seok took up the Shaman’s Bell and made a wide circuit around the peak.
Park Jung-im watched her son from a distance, silent and still.
It was so unfamiliar.
“The dharma-chanting master observes precepts and maintains proper vestments, and with sincere reverence, after purification…”
Her son reciting sutras.
“When the divine law is transmitted and the teachings are received, even without attachment or action, if one makes vows and prayers, then each celestial being, each of the Seven Stars, each mountain spirit…”
Scriptures she didn’t understand and couldn’t name.
The sound of the Shaman’s Bell ringing out.
All of it was so strange and foreign.
Yet Park Jung-im simply accepted it.
“Each Indra, each celestial youth, each immortal maiden—all spirits and deities, arrayed before and behind, to the left and right, we humbly beseech your descent.”
This too was her son’s work.
With that thought, Park Jung-im felt something hot welling up inside her.
“The ancestors of old and new generations, the parents of old and new generations, all kinfolk across the ages, brothers and cousins, ancestral spirits and victim spirits—having come this night…”
Kang Hyung-seok was comforting even the spirits of the dead from distant lands.
This was her son’s fate.
This too was who her son had become.
And with that realization, her heart grew heavy.
“Release the grudge held against the ancestors, and through the merit and virtue of descendants both male and female, through the vows and power of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, open the gates of the ten directions and all worlds. Guide us through Indra, the King of Devas, and lead us to rebirth in the Pure Land of Paradise in all directions.”
Like the gaze Cho Kyung-soon had sent to her son, I would live concealing a life too difficult for others to comprehend, yet as a mother, there was nothing I could do to help.
As the sutras continued, Park Jung-im exhaled a sigh laden with moisture.
Then she raised both hands and pressed them firmly against her eyes.
But she could not stop the tears from falling.
Drip.
I do not know who the guardian spirit of Kang Hyung-seok’s body might be, but tears carrying the plea to watch over my son seeped into this earth.

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