episode_0018

The morning dawned on a cold winter day.

Sarah opened her eyes on the bed. There was an eerie chill in the room. When I looked out the window, I saw that pure white snow was falling outside.

“It’s the first snow… .”

It was the first snow of the year. When I woke up, it was snowing outside. But right now, there was no one around Sarah with whom she could talk about her first snow. Sarah’s parents were away from home because they were busy with work.

My mother, a spiritual shaman, was working overseas on a commission, and my father, a film director, was filming a movie in Sweden. Sarah’s parents were busy with work, so they were often away from home.

This was especially true for my mother. Her ability as a psychic was so strong that her mother’s reputation was known abroad. Even foreigners who did not know much about Korea’s folk religion entrusted requests to Mother Hwayeon Bodhisattva.

It was truly an unusual family.

Sarah herself thought so too.

‘I like it because it’s cool.’

Sarah started the morning by opening the window and feeling the cool breeze.

I woke up to the cold wind hitting my face.

This morning, as always, Sarah had work to do.

The place where Sarah lives is Hyehwadang.

Because it was a house with a shrine to worship the spirits.

When her mother was not at home, it was Sarah who took care of the shrine.

Sarah cleaned herself in the bathroom and went to the well in the backyard. At the back of Hyehwadang’s house, there was a well for purifying water.

━━Splash

Sarah lowered a small bucket with a rope attached into the well and scooped up the water. It’s early so no one is outside yet. The well water that first came to mind during this time became purified water filled with clear essence.

Sera filled purified water in a pure white bowl and carried it to the shrine.

I placed purified water on the altar of the shrine and prayed in the morning.

“Deity of Heaven and Earth, Sun, Moon, Holy God, Heavenly King, Jade Emperor, Bukdudaeseong, Chilwonseonggun, Three Buddhas, Sacred Stones, Jeseok Heavenly King… … .”

After praying, I cleaned up the dust that had accumulated in the shrine last night, and the work I had to do this morning was over. After Sarah finished praying and cleaning, she drank tea and took a break.

At that time, a knock on the front door rang outside the house.

━━Thump thump thump

Someone came to Hyehwadang early in the morning.

There was a doorbell, and I knocked on the door with my hand.

‘Who’s been here this morning?’

Sarah quietly waited inside the house while drinking tea. However, no one who came to Hyehwadang left the doorstep until the tea was finished. The sound of pounding on the door continued to ring.

“Hu… .”

Sarah had no choice but to go out into the yard and open the gate.

Then I saw a woman dressed in red standing outside the door.

“Hello.”

“Nice to meet you.”

The woman in red smiled and greeted Sarah. The clothes the woman was wearing were not just clothes, but a flashy red uniform. On his head he was wearing a red hat like that worn by shamans, and in his hand he was holding a fan with a painting of a Chinese painting on it.

“Are you from this family?”

“Yes.”

“Just looking at him, he’s a kid full of excitement. It will be a great help in spreading the will of heaven on earth.”

The woman in red muttered something strange while looking at Sarah.

Sarah looked behind the woman. She was clearly standing with her back to the morning sun, but there was no shadow on the woman. At first glance, it didn’t look like a person. Sarah sighed and asked the woman.

“Who is that?”

At that moment, the woman in red opened her mouth and opened her fan.

The red clothes the woman was wearing fluttered brightly like wings.

“Are you a child who serves God, and yet you do not know me? I am the Sun, Moon and Holy Spirit! He is the god of the sky who rules over the sun! All things grow through my light, and you on earth are receiving your daily bread!”

Sun, Moon, Holy Spirit.

It was a spirit worshiped in Shamanism.

Among the divine spirits, Sun, Moon, and Seongsin, who belong to the Heavenly God series, were the best gods who solved human problems along with the Jade Emperor. If a shaman like Sarah could attend the Sun, Moon, and Holy Spirit, it would have been a great blessing.

“Get down on your knees and support me right now! From now on, I will work with you to unfold Heaven’s will on earth. If you follow me, I promise you eternal life.”

The woman in red stood outside the gate and shouted at Sarah.

Sarah sighed and answered the woman.

“Wow, Sun, Moon and Holy Spirit.”

“Yes! I am the sun, moon, and stars!”

“You are a deity that even my mother could not respect. Let’s check if it’s the spirit.”

“Confirm… ?”

Sarah raised her finger and pointed at the woman’s hand.

“Raise your hands and clap once. It’s not like you can’t even applaud because you’re the Holy Spirit of the Sun and Moon, right?”

“Ha! How dare you try to test me?”

“What kind of test is just clapping? Give it a try.”

The woman in red cheered and clapped her hands.

I clapped my hands loudly as if listening and looked at Sarah with a triumphant expression.

“Okay? Now get ready to serve me.”

However, the moment Sarah saw the applause, she knew for sure.

That woman was not a spirit or anything.

The woman in red strangely clapped with the backs of her hands.

Every time the backs of our hands collided, a crackling sound echoed in the air.

The woman’s hand, protruding from the end of the sleeve of her uniform, was turned upside down. The woman’s hand was supposed to be visible as she was raising her arm as if she were throwing a hurray, but the woman’s hand was twisted at a bizarre angle, showing the back of her hand.

“Clap your hands properly again.”

The woman in red clapped again, but did not properly touch her palms.

Sarah, who was watching the woman, clicked her tongue and opened her mouth.

“You’re clapping backwards again. Is it the Sun, Moon and Holy Spirit that can’t even clap properly? Just go on your way calmly. Don’t try to charm the new disciples with a topic of evil spirit.”

“… … .”

The woman standing in front of the gate smiled. The woman in red looked at Sarah with an expressionless face. The fluttering clothes stopped moving and turned into dirty, stained and torn clothes.

It was a miscellaneous ghost.

Things like this often happened to shamans. This is when a ghost pretends to be a spirit and deceives a shaman and asks them to serve him. Sarah was also familiar with these scams and could easily distinguish between what was a spirit and what was a ghost.

Ghosts often reversed their actions.

There are also ghosts that act strangely, such as clapping with the back of their hands and walking while standing on their heads.

It’s not going to go away with good words.

Sarah spat in a harsh voice to the woman at the door.

“Get out.”

Only then did the woman’s appearance disappear. The woman in red dispersed like smoke in the air with an expressionless face.

Sarah brought salt from the house and sprinkled a lot outside the door.

*

After some time, a guest came to Hyehwadang.

This time, it wasn’t a ghost or anything, but a normal guest.

“Sera! I’m here.”

Sarah went out into the yard and opened the gate.

A boy stood outside the gate where it was snowing. He was a handsome boy with curly hair. His impression is so warm that it wouldn’t be awkward even if he appeared as a child actor in a TV drama.

“Hello.”

The boy’s name is Kim Jin-woo.

Jinwoo was a classmate whom Sarah met at school this spring. Through various connections, Se-ra and Jin-woo became inseparable friends. Like today, Jinwoo often came to Sarah’s house to play.

“Come in.”

Sarah took Jinwoo into Hyehwadang.

“Hey, but there was a lot of salt sprinkled outside the door. What happened at your house?”

“Nothing happened. It’s just that a crazy woman who thinks she is the Holy Spirit came to my house.”

“What are you talking about?”

Sarah explained to Jinwoo what had just happened. It was an evil spirit trying to deceive Sarah by imitating a spirit. Jinwoo, who heard the story, looked surprised.

“… ah. A ghost came? I’ve heard it too. A story about miscellaneous spirits who try to possess shamans. That’s what you call Heoju, right?”

“I know it well. A demon that manipulates people is called a heoju.”

Heoju, as Jinwoo said, was a word used to refer to a mischievous spirit that tries to possess shamans. Ordinary people may not know much about this, but Jinwoo knew many things. Because he was a boy who was interested in mysteries.

‘I heard that I can communicate with him.’

Sarah pretended not to be like that on the outside, but she was secretly happy. Unlike the other kids, I could communicate with Jinwoo. Aside from his family, Jinwoo was the only person at school with whom he could have occult conversations.

“I chased away the evil spirits, so they won’t come back.”

“You are going through a lot of hardships. Anyway, what should we do today?”

“Let’s have lunch and go see a movie later. It’s a new film released by Pixar.”

“Is this Pixar again? Aren’t you tired of it?”

“How fun Pixar movies are.”

When Sarah and Jinwoo were together, they often spent time watching movies and having fun. When we first met, we watched movies on TV at home, but now we often go to the theater to watch movies in person. When I went to see a movie with two kids, the theater staff looked at me with strange eyes.

“If you don’t want to see it, don’t go.”

“Who said no? Let’s go, let’s go.”

That day, Sarah returned from watching a movie at the theater with Jinwoo. When we got home, we chatted about movies for a while and then played together until nightfall. It was a large house for a child to stay alone, but thanks to Jinwoo being by her side, she was never bored.

“I’ll go to sleep.”

“So.”

Jinwoo fell asleep at Sarah’s house. Se-ra covered Jin-woo with a blanket as he fell asleep on the sofa in the living room. As Sarah was staring at Jinwoo, this thought suddenly passed through her head.

‘I hope I can continue to be close to Jinwoo.’

I thought it would be nice to continue to be close to Jinwoo. However, it was a wish that could not be easily realized. It wasn’t easy to keep seeing friends from elementary school even as you got older. Schools may change and relationships may fall apart.

In particular, it was difficult for people like Sarah who had a high spirit to maintain friendships with others.

Because of Shinki, people who were close to him often saw ghosts.

“… … .”

Sarah recalled a memory from the past.

It was a memory from a long time ago when I was attending kindergarten.

In those days, Sarah also had quite a few friends. It was because the kids around me approached me because of my pretty appearance and Western blood. But one day, I began to see things that my friends should not see.

━Did you see it? Can you see me?

━Hee hee! Did you see me?

A ghost appeared in kindergarten. A black ghost, as if it had been burned to death, came to the kindergarten and tormented Sarah’s friends. It was because my friends saw ghosts in their eyes. Ghosts had a habit of becoming obsessed with people who could see them.

━Aaaah!

There was chaos in kindergarten. Sarah’s friends collectively made a fuss. To save her friends, Sarah asked her mother at home how to exorcise a ghost.

I followed the slur my mother taught me, and the black ghost disappeared.

That was the first exorcism Sarah had ever had in her life.

━Mom! I chased away the evil spirit.

Sarah returned home and proudly told her mother the story of her exorcism.

However, after hearing the story, the mother just had a bitter look on her face.

━Did I do well?

━Good job.

━But I have a question. Why do I see ghosts in my friends’ eyes? They don’t have any magic.

━Sera… .

Mother made eye contact with Sarah and answered her questions.

━The reason your friends watch the spirituals is because you are close to them.

━Why? What’s wrong with being friends with me?

━If you communicate with someone who has spiritual energy, other people will also see spiritual energy. The more you communicate, the better you see the spirit. People who are close to you are probably starting to see ghosts more and more. I’m sorry for telling you this story…

Only then did Sarah realize the truth. When I was playing with Sarah, my friends tended to see a lot of strange things. It was only the children who were close to Sarah who saw the ghost in the kindergarten.

Sarah realized that the accident that happened at kindergarten was because of her. From that day on, Sarah no longer hung out with her friends. The girl who was close to her also broke off the relationship with Sarah as she distanced herself from him.

And as time passed, Sarah met a boy at elementary school.

A strange boy who goes to see dead people of his own free will.

The boy was now sound asleep on the sofa.

‘He will leave my side someday, right?’

Sarah thought while looking at Jinwoo.

I didn’t know that one day Jinwoo would also be afraid of ghosts. I could have become so afraid of the terrible sight of ghosts that I tried to stop seeing them. Jinwoo had a goal to find his deceased father, but giving up was enough. Because children are naturally very fickle.

‘If he tries to leave, you should let him go gently. ‘There’s nothing you can do about it.’

Sarah imagined the day when Jinwoo left her side.

I suddenly felt sad.

For some reason, I felt like crying.

“Still, I can’t help it.”

But you couldn’t force someone to leave.

Sarah fell asleep, deciding to let Jinwoo go at any time.

The next day came.

Jinwoo came to visit Sarah’s house.

“Sera!”

The next day, Jinwoo visited Sarah and played with her. Time continued to pass. Jinwoo was able to see the spirits more and more clearly. Since I was always with a child who had a spirit, it was inevitable that I would see the spirit.

“Hey, can I see better? That thing you see over there is a slim-looking ghost, right?”

“I enjoyed it. It’s the same as what I see.”

A week passed, a month passed, and a year passed.

As time passed, Jinwoo continued to stay by Sarah’s side.

Hyehwadang has a high wall.

I heard the sound of ringing the doorbell, so I went outside and saw Jinwoo standing in front of the front door.

“I’m here!”

Jinwoo came to see Sarah without even being tired. Sarah was happy to see Jinwoo, but opened the door with a calm expression. I didn’t want to give too much affection to a child who I never knew would leave my side.

The number of days the two of us spent time together had already exceeded 1,000 days. Jinwoo and Sarah became middle school students. Even when he became a middle school student, Jinwoo did not stop visiting Sarah.

“You! How long are you going to come to my house?”

“If you want to hang out, come! Do you really have to set a deadline?”

“Not really, but… .”

Three years have passed.

Before we knew it, Jinwoo and Sarah were entering high school. When she was on winter vacation after graduating from middle school, Jinwoo came to Sarah’s house as usual.

On the first snowy day, Jinwoo came to the front gate and called Sarah.

“Hello.”

When the door was opened, Jinwoo smiled and waved at Sarah. A whopping seven years have passed since we first met, but the boy in front of me has remained the same. Now I can see the spirits better, but the boy hasn’t changed.

“What should we do today?”

At some point, I was speechless.

The boy was always by Sarah’s side. The boy didn’t care at all that Sarah had magical powers, that she saw spirits, and that she was the daughter of a shaman.

Even in the distant future, the boy would always be by Sarah’s side.

That was the moment I realized that.

Sarah’s heart began to pound. I couldn’t speak properly because my heart suddenly started pounding. Even though I tried to treat the boy calmly like I always did, my tongue got tangled.

“E… .”

Sarah raised her hand and touched her cheek. It was a cold winter day, but Sarah’s cheeks were turning red. A pounding feeling rose up from under my chest. It was a feeling I had felt for the first time in my life.

“… … .”

For the first time in my life, I felt towards a boy.

It was first love.

A winter day with the first snow falling.

Sarah began to have her first love.