Ch.212212 – Dancing with the Devil 1

# 212 – Dancing with the Devil #1

Yang Ju-hui spent a hectic first week after opening her shop. I visited often, but sometimes there were so many customers I couldn’t even find a place to stand and had to leave. She said her daily routine was to finally close up shop at 9 PM when things calmed down.

“That strange customer always comes right at 9 PM when I’m about to close. The weird thing is, I definitely cut her hair into a bob, but the next day she comes back with long hair again!”

Yang Ju-hui once welcomed a tall, slender woman as a customer. She wore a trench coat even in the sweltering summer, she said. The strangest thing was that even though she cut the woman’s hair into a bob, the next day she would return with long hair again.

“Weird, right?”

“I think that goes beyond just ‘weird.'”

She seemed like a non-human customer. A ghost, perhaps? I waited for 9 PM with Yang Ju-hui. Sure enough, as the customers left and things quieted down, someone approached Yang Ju-hui as she was sweeping up hair.

It was a woman wearing black gloves, long boots, and a coat that came up to her neck despite the hot summer weather. She wore sunglasses with such large lenses that they covered almost her entire face.

“Cut it short.”

Swish-

The woman took off her coat as if it were the most natural thing. Her outfit underneath was an ordinary women’s summer suit, if anything about her could be called ordinary. The customer sat in the styling chair and began nodding off. Yang Ju-hui quickly finished the haircut, and only after her hair was cut into a bob did the woman pay.

“Here you go.”

Clink clink clink-

All coins. Don’t people usually pay with their phones or cards these days? Paying with coins, not even bills. She was definitely a peculiar customer.

“She doesn’t seem like a ghost though.”

I could only shake my head as I watched the customer disappear into the darkness of the downtown area. If she had been a ghost, I could have just exorcised her and gained some points.

“Look at these coins too. What kind of coins are these anyway?”

Yang Ju-hui grumbled while looking at the coins the customer had paid with. Now that I looked closely, what I thought were coins didn’t seem normal at all. They were shinier and more yellow than 10-won coins. They were the size of 100-won coins but gleamed with a more golden color.

“Could these actually be gold coins?”

As I was biting the coin to check, Gubulnoi, who ran the small “Imp’s Shop” in the storage room, suddenly popped out.

“That one is a devil…! This wiggly-wobbly Gubulnoi knows it…! These gold coins are mysterious coins…! In other words, they are also called sponsorship coins…!”

“Sponsorship coins?”

Gubulnoi explained to Yang Ju-hui, who tilted her head in confusion.

“Somewhere in this world, extraordinary beings live…! These coins contain their power and are extremely valuable treasures to imps and devils like this Gubulnoi…!”

I knew something about sponsorship coins too.

These were items that could be converted into points.

One coin equals 1 point.

100 coins equal 100 points.

“So that customer was a devil.”

Devil. I was reminded of “Marbas,” the false onmyoji who guarded the third floor. I’m not sure where that guy disappeared to after the Nightmare Corridor collapsed, but if a devil similar to him visited Yang Ju-hui’s shop, it definitely wasn’t an ordinary matter.

# # #

“That happened?”

In our secret base, Jeongseok listened to my story and fell into serious thought for the first time in a while. I suddenly realized it had been a long time since I’d seen Jeongseok deep in thought like this.

For the past few days, we had all been busy in various ways and rarely had time to gather together at the secret base.

When we were attending the same school, we could meet in the hallway even if we were in different classrooms, but as we grew older and started walking different paths, we had fewer opportunities to gather together.

“If it’s a devil, we should first find out its name and exorcise it, right? Like that Marbas guy.”

At Jeongseok’s words, I recalled the time we fought Marbas, the six-fingered onmyoji. It seemed like something from the distant past.

In fact, it never happened in this world. But our memories weren’t completely erased. That meant we couldn’t just lump it together as something that never happened.

“But I’m sorry to say this has to be handled by whoever has time. I’m a bit busy with the monogamy law amendment…”

Jeongseok showed a reluctant attitude.

It would have been nice to have Jeongseok’s cooperation since we could easily solve any problem with him, but this made things difficult. Among us, Jeongseok knows the most about devils.

But Jeongseok was doing well as the youngest elected member of the National Assembly. It was natural for him to be busy with various matters. Here, I clearly felt that we had become adults.

“We’ve really become adults. Everyone’s too busy to meet up.”

“I guess so. Everyone is busy.”

Swish-

Jeongseok rummaged through his business card holder as if he had remembered something. As I was thinking how different politicians were for having things like business card holders, he handed me a small piece of paper.

“I found something out when I went to Japan on a business trip with Seyeon. Maybe that’s why a devil is visiting Yang Ju-hui as a customer.”

It was difficult to read because it was written in Japanese, but I could roughly understand that it was a business card from someone associated with a temple, judging by the swastika symbol on it.

I carefully put it in my pocket and went to Yang Ju-hui’s shop again before 9 PM. I was worried that the unidentified devil might harm Yang Ju-hui.

Yang Ju-hui seemed slightly touched by my concern.

“What’s this? Are you going to pick me up at closing time now? You’ve got a surprisingly romantic side.”

“Only while the devil is coming as a customer.”

“Then maybe I shouldn’t exorcise it and just leave it be.”

Hehehe- Yang Ju-hui laughed.

Yang Ju-hui had become more relaxed as she grew older.

Back in high school, she always seemed angry like a cornered mouse, but now she even made jokes well, showing how completely laid-back she had become. She’s really an adult woman now.

“That’s a nuisance. If there’s a devil, we should drive it away quickly.”

Of course, Dahui shot a remark at Yang Ju-hui.

“Yu Dahui, why are you here!”

“That’s my business!”

Despite the passage of time, Yang Ju-hui and Yu Dahui still didn’t get along well. To be honest, it seems unlikely they’ll ever become friends.

Ding ding ding ding-

Ding ding ding ding-

At 9 PM sharp.

Today too, the mysterious coated lady visited Yang Ju-hui’s shop.

Yang Ju-hui cut her hair, and as always, she paid with what were called “sponsorship coins.” Yang Ju-hui, who had been trained through various experiences until adulthood, boldly asked:

“What’s your name?”

“……”

The customer kept her mouth shut.

I and Dahui, hiding in the storage room—Gubulnoi’s shop—couldn’t help but gulp. Asking a devil for its name was like asking it to reveal its weakness.

“That devil is definitely a higher-ranking devil than this Gubulnoi…!”

Gubulnoi, who was hiding with us, also feared the coated woman who came as a customer.

It was a tense situation in many ways. Just as I was thinking that I might need to rush out of the storage room to protect Yang Ju-hui if necessary, the coated woman laughed, “Huhuhu-“

“Indeed. Who am I? I came here thinking I might find out if I met you, but I still don’t know. Then let me make a request. Please return my name.”

“Huh? Return what?”

“My name that you took long ago. Ms. Junko.”

“…Junko?”

Yang Ju-hui tilted her head. Yang Ju-hui wasn’t Junko. But it wasn’t a completely unfamiliar name either.

I recalled a memory from long ago and remembered that Yang Ju-hui’s grandmother was called Junko when she was studying in Japan.

Yang Ju-hui’s grandmother, Madam Sunja (純子), was called Junko in Japanese.

“I’m not Junko though?”

“Don’t try to play dumb. You can’t fool me. I remember that appearance clearly. That young and beautiful appearance.”

Zzzzt zzzzt-

The nameless devil began to get angry. Thinking it was dangerous in many ways, I burst out of the storage room.

It was truly a crisis situation, facing an angry devil. But this time, Yang Ju-hui, who usually had the hottest temper, dealt with the devil in the calmest manner.

“Junko is my grandmother. …My grandmother passed away last year.”

Yang Ju-hui’s grandmother was just an ordinary woman in this timeline who had studied abroad in Japan in her youth. She lived an ordinary life, though she sometimes seemed like a person floating like a cloud.

She was a stern and intimidating woman, but with strong principles.

In the previous timeline, I had thought of her as a terrifying eccentric who spread Japanese curse techniques to Korea and built Buldansa, the third floor of the Nightmare Corridor.

The attitude of the nameless coated woman softened.

“Grandmother?”

“Yes. I’m her granddaughter, Yang Ju-hui.”

“You look so similar.”

The woman looked at Yang Ju-hui with great surprise.

Soon she acknowledged her mistake.

“Looking closely, you are a bit different. I don’t sense loneliness from you.”

“……”

“Human life is indeed short. A human life doesn’t even last 100 years. How can it be so short and meaningless? I wonder if there’s any point in living like that.”

Seeing her harshly criticize human life that doesn’t even last 100 years, the coated woman was indeed a devil.

The woman muttered to herself, “Is that so… She died…” and then left the shop. Dahui, who had been on guard with a shaman’s bell in her hand, pulled at my collar as she watched.

“She looked a bit sad somehow.”

“Really? She looked expressionless to me.”

Do devils feel sadness too?

Aren’t they called devils because they can’t feel sadness and love? Anyway, I was glad that things didn’t escalate into the serious exorcism ritual we had anticipated.

Still, thinking that the devil’s presence might harm us if it changed its mind, I was considering countermeasures when Yang Ju-hui, who had finished cutting all the fallen hair on the floor, spoke as if she had made some kind of decision.

“I don’t actually know much about my grandmother. I should say I deliberately avoided it. Well, because we went through those experiences. My grandmother was deeply involved in those things too. So…”

Yang Ju-hui said that even in this world, she couldn’t establish a good relationship with her grandmother. It always felt like there was a small wall between them.

“I guess I’m still far from being an adult. Nothing gets resolved by just avoiding things. I want to find out what kind of person my grandmother was. I’m also curious about that devil.”

“Ah, come to think of it…!”

I took out the business card I received from Jeongseok.

It was a business card with information about a temple in Japan.