14 – Shinju Complex #4
“Teacher! Why is Ayoung absent?”
“I got a call from Ayoung’s parents. They said that she couldn’t come to school today because of family circumstances. But the teacher didn’t hear what the reason was.”
“I’m jealous of Ayoung! She skips school.”
The children in her class, who did not know much about her situation, envied Ayoung for being absent from school. But she knew that Sarah and I had nothing to envy. Right now, Ayeong and her family are being threatened by a severed head ghost. The entire family was being chased by a ghost.
“Jinwoo, please contact Ayoung.”
“He doesn’t answer the phone.”
I tried to contact her by cell phone, but Ayoung did not answer the phone. She didn’t reply when I texted her, which honestly gave me a creepy feeling. Where on earth is Ayoung and her family doing now?
“I can’t do it. I’ll have to look for Ayoung after school.”
“I want to go with you too.”
After school, Sarah and I tried to go to Ayoung’s house with our bags. But once she was out, there was no need to go home to find her. On the way to the apartment, she was able to find Ahyoung, whom she had not heard from in a while.
A playground near an apartment complex in the neighborhood.
Ayoung was sitting alone on the swing at the playground. Ayoung was sitting alone in the empty playground without her friends. We quickly went to the playground and talked to Ayoung.
“Hey! Shin Ayoung! What are you doing there, not answering the phone?”
“Ah… It’s Jinwoo. It’s Sera.”
When Ayoung heard my voice, she looked very surprised. There was clearly a cell phone in her hand. So, it means that they have been intentionally not receiving any communication from me until now.
“I called, but why didn’t you answer?”
“Oh, it’s not that I didn’t answer, it’s that I didn’t. My parents told me not to answer the phone from anyone except my mom and dad for the rest of the day. They said I could play pranks on the phone…”
“Something strange? What is that?”
“Voice phishing or something like that.”
Ahyoung again tried to give her answer vaguely. But I was bound to get angry at this point too. What is so secret that they are trying to hide it?
“Don’t try to be vague!”
I opened Ayoung’s mouth as she grasped the rope of the swing she was riding on.
At that moment, Ayoung cowered her body as if she was a little scared.
“What is voice phishing? The thing your family is keeping secret is a ghost with a floating head! Yesterday, there was a power outage in the apartment! A strange broadcast was heard! It’s all because of ghosts, right?”
“Well, how did you know that?”
“I’ve seen it all! I saw a ghost in the apartment yesterday too. A man with his hair unkempt. He was missing from the neck down.”
“You saw it…”
It was the correct answer. Ayoung nodded her head, wondering if the ghost with her severed head was what she was keeping a secret from.
It seems that Ayoung saw a ghost with a severed head like me last night. The moment I brought up her ghost story, Ayoung curled up on the swing and her body trembled.
“I saw it, too. I saw it yesterday when there was a power outage in my apartment. I was in the living room with my mom and dad, and the door to the master bedroom suddenly opened. And through the crack in the door, a floating head appeared…”
“Has your whole family seen a ghost?”
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“Yeah! When he saw us, he started laughing like crazy. He laughed and said he was going to kill us all… And then he disappeared.”
I recalled the image of Ayoung I saw last night. When she asked why she was so scared, it was because she had seen a ghost with a severed head. When the apartment had a blackout, the ghost of her severed head threatened Ayeong and her family.
I heard an announcement telling me to wait inside the house.
The announcement was the work of the severed head ghost. He must have been trying to threaten the other residents of the apartment by preventing them from leaving and isolating Ayoung’s family.
“What happened next? What did your mom and dad do after seeing the severed head ghost?”
“Mom and Dad told me not to tell anyone what I saw at home. They told me to be careful of my mouth because evil rumors could spread. Now Mom and Dad must have gone to see a monk to ward off a ghost. “Everything will be resolved when I return from meeting the monk.”
Ayoung’s parents said they went to see her monk to exorcise her ghost.
I don’t think they were people who were so helpless that they let ghosts into their apartment and then said, “I don’t know.”
Sarah, who had been quiet next to me, opened her mouth.
“How do we resolve this by going to see the monk?”
“There is a broken libation jar in our house. They say that if you replace it with a new one, you can trap the ghost again. Mom and Dad went to get the libation jar from the monk.”
“Hmm….”
Replacing the Shinju complex with a new one and resealing the severed head ghost.
This was the method chosen by Ayoung’s parents. However, upon hearing the story, Sarah reacted unfavorably. I quietly asked Sarah.
“Why? What’s the problem?”
“There is a problem. Of course, if you replace the sinju jar with a new one, you will be able to trap the severed head ghost again. However, if the jar is broken, the ghost will come out again. In effect, you are putting a time bomb in your house that will explode at no time. The right solution. “No.”
“Then the monk doesn’t know much about exorcism?”
“You may not know. Maybe you know the proper exorcism method, but you are teaching the wrong method. They are trying to sell the new liquor complex at a high price.”
Sarah opened her mouth with a smile on her face.
“There are some shamans and monks who sometimes sell their conscience to neglect evil spirits in order to make money.”
“Wow….”
“Let’s wait with Ayoung to see what happens first. Once her parents replace her liquor jar with a new one, her situation will calm down.”
We decided to spend time at the playground with Ayoung.
Because Ayoung, who is alone at the playground, may be attacked by the ghost of her severed head. When you’re scared, it’s better to be with others than to be alone.
“Ayoung, I will stay with you until your parents return.”
“Really?! I’m glad…”
“Instead, tell me what you know about the severed head ghost. Why on earth did you keep the ghost locked in the sinju jar in your house?”
“Oh, I understand. I’ll tell you everything.”
While at the playground, we heard Ayoung tell a story about a terrible incident that happened in her past.
*
“It happened in my house, before I was born.”
This was before Ayoung was born.
There was a time when Ayoung’s parents lived in a different area than our neighborhood.
She said that there was an uncle on her paternal side who was living in her house at that time.
Her uncle’s name is Shin Young-su.
Ayoung was her father’s younger brother, and he was a person who lived like an outcast. Even though he was in his twenties, he neither studied nor had any intention of working. He said that he just lived at her brother’s house and drank alcohol all day long.
━━Youngsu, how long are you going to live like that? Stop drinking at least!
━━It’s loud! Who do you think I drink for?
His uncle was a person who thought it was because of his parents and older brother that he was living like a wreck.
This was because she had been discriminated against by her parents since childhood because she was the younger sibling.
━━This is all because of you. Her parents were always nice to her older brother. He sent me to a good academy, gave me a lot of pocket money, and even bought my brother a house. Thanks to you, my brother got into a prestigious university and is eating well and living well, right? But not me!
Discrimination from parents due to being the younger sibling.
The uncle had a severe sense of inferiority towards Ayoung’s father.
I suffered from an excessive sense of inferiority and became a wreck.
━━I was always in the background! If I had been treated as well as her older brother, I would have been eating well and living well! She must have gone to a good college too!
━━So are you going to continue living like a junkie?
━━Shut up!
When she was living at home, her uncle argued with Ayoung’s father several times. Ayoung’s father also accepted his uncle at first, but his feelings gradually grew stronger. No matter how much advice he gave, his uncle had no intention of living a healthy life.
━━Honey! I just can’t live with that person.
━━You stop drinking! If you keep living like that, get out of my house!
It was when Ayoung’s mother was pregnant with Ayoung. Her uncle drank and behaved violently at a pregnant woman’s house. Eventually, Ayoung’s father could no longer bear it and kicked his uncle out of the house.
━━Don’t even think about coming to my house until you come to your senses!
It was because I thought my uncle would come to his senses if I kicked him out of the house. However, his uncle did not come to his senses even after being kicked out of the house. Instead, he harbored hatred towards his family and did terrible things to them.
It was murder.
My uncle went down to his countryside that day and murdered his parents.
It was revenge on his parents who discriminated against him as his younger brother.
━━aaagh!
It was an impulsive crime. Country residents who heard the screams immediately reported the uncle. My uncle ended up committing suicide while running away from the police. He stabbed himself in the neck with the same weapon that stabbed his parents. He said he was stabbed so deeply that his neck was cut in tatters.
My father’s entire family died in one night.
Ayoung’s parents found out about this fact belatedly and held a funeral for her family.
However, during her funeral, Ayoung’s parents continued to have nightmares.
━━You are next!
Her dead uncle came to her in a dream with only his head remaining and threatened Ah-yeong’s parents. At the time, Ayoung’s mother was pregnant, and she suffered from nightmares to the point that if she did something wrong, she would miscarry. Ayeong’s parents contacted a monk at a temple to protect their child.
━━ I think we are being haunted by her dead brother. Please save us.
━━Okay. I’ll teach you a good method.
The monk who received the call personally visited Ayoung’s parents at her funeral.
With her libation jar in hand.
━━ Cut off the hair of her deceased younger brother and place it in this libation jar. And if you block her entrance with her Korean paper and tie it with silk thread, strange things won’t happen anymore.
━━Really?
━━Really. You must never dispose of the new stock complex. If the jar is broken, please contact me to get it back.
Ayoung’s parents bought a jar of libations and followed her monk’s instructions. After cutting off her dead brother’s hair and putting it in, she really stopped having nightmares. After that, Ayoung was born fine. Ayeong Ine and her family continued to live with the spirit jar containing the dead man’s hair.
That’s how Ayoung’s story ended.
“…This is the story I heard from my parents.”
After finishing her story, Ayoung muttered as she looked into the distance.
“Her parents went to get the libation jar. If you get it, nothing will happen anymore.”
“When are you coming?”
“He said he’d be back tonight.”
It was already late at night.
However, even when night fell, Ayoung’s parents did not return to the apartment.
No, to be exact, she never came back. When the surroundings became dark, I received a call on Ayoung’s cell phone.
“It’s my dad’s number! I got a call from my dad!”
Ayoung received a call from her father’s number. Ayoung turned on her speaker phone and made her call as if she wanted us to listen. But she realized that the voice that rang through her phone was not her parents’, but someone else’s.
“Hello?”
[Hello. This is Seongdo Hospital. Will you be the child of Shin Young-jae and Yoo Eun-mi?]
“Huh? Yes… That’s right.”
The person who contacted Ayoung was a young nurse working at the hospital.
The nurse delivered shocking news to us.
[Your child’s parents got into a car accident while driving. Both of them are now unconscious and hospitalized in the hospital.]
“Ah… Ah…”
[I’ve contacted you to give you some news. I will tell you the address of our hospital.]
After receiving her call, Ayoung’s complexion turned pale. She and Sarah, who were listening to the call on speakerphone, realized what had happened.
Ayoung’s parents, who were on their way to receive her libation jar, got into a car accident. She lost consciousness and did not know when she would return.
The call has ended.
“…….”
Ahyoung stood with a devastated expression holding her cell phone.
Her parents, whom she trusted strongly, were in an accident.
“What should I do….”
Me and Sarah looked at each other.
Now that things are like this, I can’t just leave Ahyoung alone.
“Sera, what do you want to do?”
“I need to do an exorcism. In your apartment.”
It was time for an exorcism.