An Office Worker Is Good At Exorcism - Chapter 9

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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 9
Part 3. What Must Not Be Seen (3)
Beep, beep-beep.
(Kang Hyung-seok, where are you?)
“Yes, Director. I’m near the Company.”
(Don’t come into the Company. You know that café in front, right?)
“Benefia?”
(That’s the one. Gwak Young-ho is here with me. Come over.)
After hanging up, Kang Hyung-seok furrowed his brow and exhaled sharply through his nose.
What on earth could this be about?
Honestly, I’d been hoping to leave early, so the director’s summons weren’t welcome.
And the fact that Gwak Young-ho was there too made it feel even more unsettling.
The car door swung open.
After parking in the public lot near the café, I pushed through the doors of Benefia.
“Kang Hyung-seok, over here!”
Shin Chang-yong, seated across from Gwak Young-ho at a table, greeted me with an apologetic expression written all over his face.
“I’ve been terribly rude. Do you have any idea how much my wife scolded me?”
Shin Jung-ah had indeed called her aunt.
Confirming that the fallout had reached Shin Chang-yong, I took a seat beside Gwak Young-ho with an embarrassed expression.
“I apologize, Director. I didn’t expect the call to go that way.”
“Never mind. I’m an old-fashioned man, so I make these kinds of mistakes often. Please understand.”
“No, no, Director.”
Blood relations are truly formidable.
The apologetic manner in which he was apologizing was identical to Shin Jung-ah’s, and I broke into a cold sweat.
I looked to Gwak Young-ho for help, but he merely nodded with a mysterious smile.
“We’re at a café, so we should have coffee. What will you have?”
“I’ll go get it.”
“Never mind. Gwak Young-ho, get us something cold with this card.”
“Yes, sir.”
As Gwak Young-ho went to get the coffee, I felt as though I were sitting on pins and needles.
Yet Shin Chang-yong’s eyes conveyed nothing but apology and gratitude.
“Tsk, tsk. Well, this is something.”
Shin Chang-yong sipped his coffee as if his throat were parched.
Clink.
As Gwak Young-ho returned with the coffee, Shin Chang-yong pulled an envelope from his pocket first.
“Take this, though it’s modest.”
“No, Director.”
“Don’t be uncomfortable about it. Just take it. It’s a gift certificate.”
“A gift certificate…?”
“I don’t even know how to use these things anyway. Just think of it as overtime pay for today and take it.”
Thud.
As Kang Hyung-seok hesitated to reach out, Gwak Young-ho nudged his shoe with his foot.
A signal to just accept it.
“I’ll accept it gratefully.”
It wasn’t an easy thing to do.
Receiving a gift certificate envelope directly from the director.
Holding such a thick envelope of gift certificates.
“And Gwak, you should have told me from the start that ‘this isn’t right.’ Why did I have to take all the heat?”
“My apologies, Director. But this fellow here—he really did volunteer to go without hesitation.”
“Is that so?”
That was when Shin Chang-yong shifted his gaze from Gwak Young-ho to me.
“He’s a rare find these days. He’s a subordinate I rely on heavily.”
“Hmm.”
Shin Chang-yong’s eyes grew increasingly serious as he looked at me, and Gwak Young-ho continued praising me as if he’d been waiting for this very moment.
“His work ability, his task execution—especially his company loyalty surpasses most managers and assistant managers.”
“Ah, is that so?”
Shin Chang-yong, a founding member of the Company.
So he seemed genuinely pleased to hear from Gwak Young-ho that I had both strong abilities and deep company loyalty.
“I’ll do my best to develop him, Director.”
“How long have you been with us?”
“I’m in my third year now, Director.”
My answer was met with a regretful look in his eyes.
“That’s a shame. If only your experience were a bit longer…”
“Indeed?”
“Gwak, you nurture him well.”
“Understood.”
“Then I’ve given what I came to give. Stand up now. And Kang.”
“Yes.”
As I rose to my feet, Shin Chang-yong gestured for me to sit back down with a smile.
“I’ve caused you trouble with an old man’s foolishness. I often forget that times have changed. I apologize.”
“No, not at all.”
Work well at the Company. I’ll be watching too.”
As Shin Chang-yong left the café, the owner’s “Have a good day” followed him out.
In the now-quiet café, I fingered the envelope and met Gwak Young-ho’s gaze.
“What did you say to the director, sir?”
“What, you think I’d just sit idle? I made sure to make a proper impression.”
“Thank you.”
“And there’s a shoe repair shop just down the street from here. Go there and they’ll exchange it for cash. They take about ten or twenty percent off.”
Gwak Young-ho showed curiosity about how much was in the gift certificates.
The envelope was thick, and since Shin Chang-yong had personally prepared it, he would naturally be curious about the amount.
Rustle.
Kang Hyung-seok carefully opened the envelope, revealing crisp gift certificates despite their age.
A mix of 100,000-won and 50,000-won denominations—at first glance, easily worth 500,000 won.
“Not bad for overtime pay. Use it well, Assistant Manager Kang.”
Gwak Young-ho massaged Kang Hyung-seok’s shoulder with the delight of someone who’d received the certificates himself.
“Then head inside carefully! I’ll be on my way.”
“Director, I also…”
“Work at this hour? Just clock out.”
The timing was admittedly awkward.
Still, there was no denying the leisurely hour ahead.
Kang Hyung-seok clutched the envelope as though it were precious, bowing as he watched Gwak Young-ho leave the café.
***
Thud.
Shin Jung-ah rotated her stiff shoulders as she hung clothes from a box onto hangers.
“Ugh, exhausting.”
She clicked her tongue and fingered the cigarettes in her pocket, but didn’t pull them out. Instead, she surveyed the room overflowing with belongings.
There were too many clothes.
Strangely, she never seemed to have anything to wear on ordinary days, yet when organizing like this, the sheer volume left her breathless.
“Tsk.”
She should have asked Kang Hyung-seok to help more.
After a moment’s thought, she smiled wryly and shook her head.
With so many personal belongings, she lacked the shamelessness to ask a stranger to help organize her clothes.
‘I’ll just live like this for now.’
Belongings sort themselves out eventually.
She’d already set aside tomorrow’s work outfit and organized her bag, so there was no need to push herself further tonight.
‘No, let me just hang all the clothes.’
Otherwise they’d wrinkle.
Shin Jung-ah methodically hung her clothes on hangers, her expression heavy. She compressed off-season garments and stuffed them beneath the racks, neatly arranging shoes in the cabinet.
Just a little more, just a little more.
As she continued organizing, Shin Jung-ah felt her eyelids growing heavier.
Nodding off, she yawned widely and placed a cushion beneath her head.
‘Just a quick rest. I can finish this at dawn anyway.’
She wasn’t ignoring Kang Hyung-seok’s instruction to sleep in the Large Room.
But this wasn’t deep sleep.
Thinking of it as merely a brief respite, she drifted into shallow slumber with the lights off.
By then, the time had crept toward 1 a.m.
Tap-tap-tap-tap.
A sound from above disturbed Shin Jung-ah’s rest.
“Mmm…”
She stirred with a groan, but the noise came again shortly after.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.
A sound distinctly different from footsteps.
Shin Jung-ah’s eyes fluttered open through the haze, and she soon discerned the source of the noise.
The darkness of night.
A black ceiling.
Something clung to that ceiling.
‘What…?’
Shin Jung-ah instinctively clamped her mouth shut.
The thing on the ceiling bore a vaguely human form.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.
It crawled toward the door while pressed flat against the ceiling.
Throughout this, Shin Jung-ah couldn’t even blink as she stared at it.
‘What is that.’
She had a premonition that if she blinked, it would lunge toward her.
She couldn’t even breathe audibly, yet it continued its traverse across the ceiling.
Tap-tap-tap.
The noise was the sound of its palms striking the ceiling.
It crawled rapidly across the ceiling using both arms as if traversing a floor.
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap.
It vanished beyond the open doorway, and Shin Jung-ah gasped for breath through her nose, swallowing hard against her parched throat.
Was it gone.
Could the unfamiliar environment have caused sleep paralysis.
Or was she simply experiencing a horrifyingly vivid nightmare.
The moment she attempted to move her body, frozen in terror—
Tap-tap-tap-tap-tap!
It returned swiftly, making a wide circuit across the ceiling.
As Shin Jung-ah exhaled soundlessly through her slightly parted lips, consumed by a terror that threatened to shatter her sanity,
Thud.
It pushed against the ceiling with one hand and hoisted its upper body upright.
Directly above Shin Jung-ah.
Suspended upside-down like a bat, it extended its hand toward her and tilted its head.
Thus, the creature’s face drew gradually closer to hers.
A face blackened and decomposed.
Skin split and fissured as if slashed repeatedly by a blade.
Where eyes should have been, nameless insects writhed within the hollow sockets.
Sway, sway, sway.
Lying on the floor, Shin Jung-ah could only stare at the thing swinging above her like a pendulum.
Any sound at all, and she feared it would pounce upon her.
Sway, sway, sway.
Fingers wavering in the space near her eyes.
Having watched it for so long, Shin Jung-ah lost consciousness as though fainting.
Yet it remained hanging from the ceiling for quite some time before disappearing with a rapid pattering sound.
***
“Good morning.”
Kang Hyung-seok, who had arrived early again today, immediately surveyed his surroundings.
‘Has Manager Shin not arrived yet?’
There were still fifteen minutes before the official start time.
Assuming she would arrive soon, he opened his bag and began placing necessary items on his desk one by one.
By the time he had powered on his monitor and brought over his tumbler of coffee, both Lee Jin-pyung and Namgoong Min-ah had already arrived.
When he exchanged brief greetings with them, Shin Jung-ah entered alongside Gwak Young-ho.
“Everyone’s here early. Let’s all say hello. This is our newly transferred Manager Shin Jung-ah.”
Shin Jung-ah, standing beside Gwak Young-ho, bowed her head slightly.
“I’m Shin Jung-ah. It’s a pleasure to work with you all.”
Clap clap clap clap clap!
Starting with Gwak Young-ho, the department members welcomed her with applause.
“Kang, would you mind giving her a tour of the Company? Is that alright?”
“Of course.”
Kang Hyung-seok was the only one who had met Shin Jung-ah before.
So Shin Jung-ah’s expression showed genuine gratitude as he rose from his chair.
“The fax machine and multifunction copier are over there. I’ll send you the Company intranet ID and password via messenger later.”
“Got it. By the way, where’s the A4 paper?”
“We usually keep it under the copier, but if it runs out, either Lee Jin-pyung or I will refill it. Just let me know if you need any.”
“Understood. Thanks for your help.”
Her voice carried an oddly listless tone.
As Kang Hyung-seok was about to guide her to the Break Room, he furrowed his brow and studied Shin Jung-ah.
“What’s wrong?”
“Did you stay up late organizing things yesterday?”
“No, no. I just didn’t sleep well.”
“You did sleep in the Large Room, correct?”
“Ah, yes.”
As Shin Jung-ah recalled what Kang Hyung-seok had told her, her eyes brightened slightly.
“You mentioned yesterday that there was a paint smell coming from the Small Room. I think that’s why I couldn’t sleep well. I had nightmares.”
Remembering last night’s events, Shin Jung-ah pressed her thumb gently against the corner of her eye, where exhaustion and irritation mingled.
“…You slept in the Small Room?”
“I forgot while organizing my clothes.”
Kang Hyung-seok pressed his lower lip against his upper teeth and glanced around the office.
Everyone was busy with their own tasks.
“Let me show you the Break Room. There’s an espresso machine, but it’s a bit complicated to use. Shall we go together?”
Kang Hyung-seok entered the Break Room with Shin Jung-ah, who followed without suspicion.
Since it was during work hours, no one else was inside.
So Kang Hyung-seok rubbed the corners of his eyes while manipulating the espresso machine.
Spirit Sight.
The eyes that perceive ghosts.
He, who had now come to perfectly control a power he once couldn’t regulate, turned to look at Shin Jung-ah through his Spirit Sight.
“There’s nothing complicated about it. I’ve used one before too.”
Shin Jung-ah stared at the espresso machine, oblivious to everything.
Her words didn’t register with him.
Directly behind Shin Jung-ah.
A Malevolent Spirit wearing the guise of an old woman was visible, her disheveled hair wrapped around Shin Jung-ah’s throat in a strangling grip.

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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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