episode_0038

It was the moment when all the white masks were burned.

The man whose face was revealed trembled, then closed his eyes and fainted.

It seemed like it was still alive, but even when I touched it with my foot, it didn’t wake up.

If a sacred object was burned, the spirit the medium was serving disappeared. Because a sacred object could be said to be an object imbued with a divine spirit.

The moment the pure white mask turned to ash, the serpent spirit also disappeared. The black, charred snake that was hanging limp disappeared without a trace. The lights came on again in the Hyehwadang building where there was a sudden power outage.

‘What happens to Kwak Jin-cheol now?’

However, I did not know what happened to the strange man who could no longer serve the gods. This was because I had never heard specifically what happened to a medium who lost his spiritual spirit from his father. I just heard that it simply loses its power.

I asked Sarah what I was curious about.

“Sera. What happens to Kwak Jin-cheol now? Can it happen again?”

“Now Kwak Jin-cheol will be in a coma for quite some time. It will take at least 10 years for me to open my eyes again.”

“Coma… ?”

Does this mean that the monster will live in a vegetative state?

Sarah told us why that happens.

“Psychics have a deep mental connection with the spirits they serve. When the spirit disappears, the medium is greatly shocked and falls into a coma.”

“Can’t Kwak Jin-cheol live a normal life?”

“That’s right. He may have amnesia when he wakes up again, or even if he doesn’t lose his memory, he may be in a coma until he dies. When a spirit disappears, the shock the medium receives is very great. A person who has safely removed the spirit through Toesong-gut will not be shocked.”

Toesong-gut was a ritual performed by shamans to sever their relationship with the spirits they served.

During the Toesong-gut, even if the spirit served disappears or is harmed, there is no particular harm to the spirit medium.

But the situation was different with the gunman. Even though no rituals such as Toesonggut were performed, the spirit that was being worshiped disappeared. I couldn’t help but be so shocked that I fell into a coma. Even if a long time passes and the gunman wakes up again, he will have to rot in prison for the rest of his life.

“Then I guess I can just hand it over to the police.”

“How are you going to get over it? Are you sure you should call 112?”

Sarah asked me with a curious expression. The question was how to hand over the comatose gunman to the police. Reporting by phone was the fastest way.

“Well… .”

I thought about it for a while.

We have never told others about our exorcism of ghosts or monsters. We only revealed a little bit of our story when there was someone we needed to save. The story of the exorcism was implicitly treated as a secret among us.

So was my father.

My father, who was a detective, kept his exorcism work a secret from others. When I was young, I also asked my father directly. Why are you keeping your exorcism a secret from others?

━Dad! Why do you keep the work of the exorcist a secret?

When I asked that question, my father answered this way.

━Jinwoo, that’s right. It’s because becoming famous as an exorcist interferes with solving cases.

━Does being famous get in the way?

━The exorcist must find those who are secretly hiding. If you become famous as an exorcist and stand out, there’s no way they’ll show up in front of you. The supernatural will run away or ambush you. I can’t help but have my identity revealed to the person who saved me. That’s why we keep the exorcism a secret except from those people.

━Ah… .

It was definitely understandable. It was something that someone who wanted to solve mysteries should avoid becoming famous as an exorcist.

How should Kwak Jin-cheol be handed over to the police?

I was able to make a decision.

“I decided.”

“How?”

“Let’s leave Kwak Jin-cheol outside. That’s neat. If we report it to the police for no reason, it will be difficult if they catch us exorcizing. It will be a hindrance in the future.”

Sarah nodded as if she understood.

It seemed like he understood what I meant.

“Sera, what do you think?”

“I agree. I don’t really want to get involved with the police either. Because it’s fun to play quietly with you after work. If Hyehwadang becomes noisy for no reason, it gets in the way of us living together.”

Sarah smiled as she gently placed her hand on my shoulder. The eyes looking at me were unusual.

It seemed like he wanted to get rid of everything that got in the way of us playing quietly.

“So, let’s leave Kwak Jin-cheol outside. Now is the perfect time to move secretly.”

The current time was 3 am.

It was still very dark outside.

“It would be best to go out the back door of Hyehwadang first.”

We put Kwak Jin-cheol in a large plastic box. Then he picked up the box and went out through the back door. There was no chance of being caught by patrolling police or anyone else. This was because we visited the neighborhood very often since we were children. We knew where CCTV was installed and where to move to avoid being seen.

“Where should I put it?”

“Let’s leave it in the alley.”

About 30 minutes passed since then. We left Kwak Jin-cheol in an alley quite far from the residential area, packed the box, and returned to Hyehwadang. The traces of the fight remaining in the yard of Hyehwadang were also cleaned up. Of course, by moving while wearing gloves, I did not make the mistake of leaving fingerprints on Kwak Jin-cheol’s body.

“It’s over… .”

“You worked hard.”

After we finished work, we slept at Hyehwadang. After catching the murderer, I was finally able to sleep with my feet up.

This is what happened after that.

Kwak Jin-cheol was discovered by a citizen passing through an alley around the afternoon of the next day. Although he was not wearing a mask when he was discovered, he looked suspicious to anyone as there was a raw fish knife lying nearby.

A citizen who was a witness immediately reported it to the police.

The police responded to the report and arrested Kwak Jin-cheol.

We could hear these news through the news on TV.

[…] A murderer who committed horrific and indiscriminate crimes was arrested at 1pm today. This is a masked man who went on a knife rampage at a camping site in Cheonggyesan Mountain. This man, who had killed the police and was running away, was found unconscious in an alley in Seungcheon-gu.]

The anchor’s voice came from Hyehwadang’s TV.

[At the time of discovery, the man was in a coma of unknown cause. Additionally, I injured my jaw. It is unclear why the culprit of the knife attack was lying in the alley.]

Thus, the stabbing incident was resolved.

We were able to relax comfortably while watching TV at Hyehwadang.

*

As time passed, the topic of the culprit of the knife attack gradually quieted down. Although there were many rumors circulating about why Kwak Jin-cheol was lying down in the alley.

That Kwak Jin-cheol was actually a drug addict.

A passerby took care of it,

Like, while walking, I accidentally fell and fainted.

There were a lot of rumors floating around, but they were all just rumors because there was no evidence. People were satisfied that the culprit had been caught. A peaceful atmosphere has returned to Seungcheon-gu, where we live.

Then came the end of March.

While watching TV on the weekend, we came across an entertainment program with interesting content.

[Yuhan Challenge Past Life Experience Special]

It was a program where famous celebrities appeared and experienced their past lives through hypnosis. It was about past life experiences with not only popular girl groups these days, but also actors.

“Hey, Yuhan Challenge is doing something fun? It’s a past life experience special.”

“Let’s see this today.”

That day, Sarah and I watched a variety show instead of a movie.

On TV, celebrities were clearly shown experiencing past lives through hypnosis.

━Yuri, what do you see?

━Ah… ! I can see the forest and the matchlock!

━What were you in your past life?

━Well, I was a hunter. A tiger is running from far away.

A popular girl group member made a fuss and revealed her past life. Next to me, a hypnotist wearing a white gown was talking in a gruff voice. The girl group member shook her body as if a real tiger was running towards her.

━Now, this time it is Yuhan Challenge member Jeong Ha-jun. What do you see?

━I see a Japanese sword… ? I think I was a samurai!

━Samurai?

━Hi(はい)!Hi(はい)!

It was amazing that my previous life was a samurai.

“Puhaha.”

“Jeong Ha-jun is so funny.”

Sarah and I laughed while watching the entertainment program. It wasn’t really a serious hypnosis thing, it was just entertainment. I thought it was a good program to watch for fun and kill time.

After some time, the program ended.

“Ah, it was fun.”

We turned off the TV and slept.

I didn’t think much about my past life experience that night.

Because I thought it was just an entertainment show for fun.

When I went to school the next day, my classmates started talking.

“Hey! Did you see Yuhan Challenge yesterday? It was really amazing to experience a past life.”

“Of course I saw it too. Jeong Ha-jun’s previous life was a samurai.”

“Hi!”

The impact of entertainment programs was greater than we expected.

Among the kids talking, there were students who seriously wanted to experience a past life.

There was also a student who had already had a past life experience the night before.

It was my friend.

━━Drurling

The classroom door burst open and Joo-hyuk came in.

Joo-hyuk came up to me and talked to me.

“Hey Jinwoo Kim!”

“Oh Joo Hyuk.”

“Did you watch Yuhan Challenge yesterday? Experiencing a past life.”

“I saw it, why?”

“It was really amazing! No, Jeong Ha-jun’s previous life was a samurai!”

Joo Hyuk brought up the story of an entertainment program. The sudden appearance of the national judo team drew the attention of the class towards us. Either way, we had a conversation.

“After seeing that, I also had a past life experience yesterday.”

“Really? How did you do it?”

“Is there a video of a past life experience on YouTube? I saw that and tried it.”

“Ah, a hypnosis induction video?”

“That’s right.”

Joo Hyuk seemed to have had a past life experience through a hypnosis induction video on YouTube. I didn’t really believe that I could have a real past life experience with such things. But just for fun, I asked Joo-hyuk what he saw.

“So what was your past life?”

“Kuhm… .”

“What is it? What was something strange?”

Joo Hyuk cleared his throat and opened his mouth.

“… I saw a wild boar.”

“You were hunting a wild boar?”

“No, I was a wild boar.”

Joo Hyuk was a wild boar in his past life?

“Puhup.”

I couldn’t help but laugh for a moment. There’s no way that Joo-hyuk really had a past life experience, but it was very fitting that he was a wild boar. It turns out that the hypnosis induction text was real?

“Are you smiling?”

“Puff sigh.”

Sarah, who was next to me, also laughed.

“Ugh. How could you have been a wild boar in your past life?”

Joo Hyuk held the back of his neck as he looked at me and Sarah bursting out laughing.

“These… ! Is it funny that I’m a wild boar? Do you guys know that you can achieve something great in your past life?”

“I don’t know. Because I have never had a past life experience.”

What is our past life?

Now that I think about it, I was curious. If it was a past life, it was quite an interesting mystery. It was an old mystery that began with speculation that someone might have lived another life before they were born. I had no way to truly have a past life experience, so I just stayed still. If there was a way to have a past life experience, I would have done it a long time ago.

It was right then.

Sarah, who had been quiet all this time, opened her mouth.

“Jinwoo, shall we give it a try?”

“Past life experience?”

“Yes.”

Sarah smiled while looking at me.

“I can show you my past life through magic.”

Was there a way?