17 – Like the First Snow #1
This is what happened after exorcising the severed head ghost.
Sarah and I went back to Hyehwadang and met Ayoung. When she arrived at Hyehwadang, Ayeong, who was staying at the shrine, was not asleep even though it was dawn. She was probably waiting for us to return.
“Ayoung! You can come outside now.”
When we opened the door to the shrine, Ayoung suddenly raised her head when she saw us.
“You guys are back! Are you hurt?”
“We’re both fine. Did anything happen to you while you were at the shrine?”
“Yes…! I just kept turning off the lights and staying still.”
“Good job. We exorcised the ghost in the apartment. It’s over now.”
It was only after hearing that her exorcism was over that Ayoung’s expression finally brightened.
“Really? Something terrible has disappeared from my house? That floating human head…!”
“It’s gone forever. I burned the hair that contained the soul. It left a scorch mark on the floor of your house.”
“Thank you so much!”
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Ayoung bowed her head to Sarah and me and expressed her gratitude several times. Of course, even though her exorcism was over, Ayeong and her family were not completely fine. Ayoung’s parents were in a car accident and were hospitalized.
“But didn’t you contact your parents? They’re injured and in the hospital right now.”
“I got a call from the hospital while you were away. They said you hadn’t regained consciousness yet. But my parents weren’t injured so seriously that their lives were in danger.”
“I’m glad. I hope you both get better quickly.”
That night, Sarah and I took Ayoung to sleep at Hyehwadang.
When the sun came up, Ayoung left for the hospital where her parents were.
A few days have passed since then.
We were able to hear news about Ayoung’s parents when she came to her school. It was hopeful news that her parents had regained consciousness and that her physical condition was slowly recovering. Still, they said that both of them were seriously injured and it would take quite some time to recover.
“Oh Young, did she tell her parents that she exorcised a ghost?”
“Of course I said it. My parents were really surprised when I told them that you guys solved the problem. They said they would definitely give me a reward later. Money or something.”
“Oh my.”
Are you saying you are going to give me a stipend? It wasn’t what I wanted from the exorcism, but she couldn’t refuse the offer of money.
Anyway, since Ayoung’s parents are also recovering, the incident was concluded neatly.
*
Time passed and the third year ended and winter vacation came. Even during vacation, Sarah and I often walked outside the neighborhood. It was because my deceased father might appear in our neighborhood.
“Where do you want to go today, Jinwoo?”
“Let’s take a look around town. When my father was alive, he loved donuts. Maybe we can see him at a donut shop.”
“Did you like donuts because you were a detective? It kind of suits you.”
The place we decided to go today was the downtown shopping district. Among them, I decided to look around the donut shop that my father often visited when he was alive.
It was the beginning of winter, so the weather was chilly. After putting on our thick coats and leaving the house, we soon arrived at a downtown area where there was a donut shop.
“Do you see a ghost?”
“You can hardly see this place. In the downtown area, there are a lot of people walking around and it has a lot of energy. But there is one Yeongga that is visible.”
Sera pointed to the roof near the donut shop.
“It’s on the roof over there.”
There is a spirit house on the roof? I raised my head and looked in the direction Sarah was pointing. As I was clearly concentrating, I saw a whitish figure hovering above the roof.
“I, too, see something pure white.”
“It’s an old grandfather. He’s sitting on the roof and looking up at the sky.”
“Why are you looking at the sky?”
“I don’t know that because I haven’t talked to him. I don’t think your father is here.”
It was my grandfather’s spiritual song. Then that means he is not my father. Still, there was no income at all. Since I saw the spirit with my own eyes, it was as if my inspiration had developed. When I meet my father later, I will be able to reunite with him in a more vivid way.
“Jinwoo, let’s eat donuts.”
We went into the store and bought donuts. As I sat at the table outside the store eating donuts, people passing by on the street would glance at Sarah. If a silver-haired girl who looks like a doll is around, everyone can’t help but stare.
As far as I know, Sarah was used to people’s gaze. Even when passers-by looked at him, he just coolly ignored them and did what he was doing. Even now, Sarah was concentrating on chewing the donut in her hand.
She finished her donut and was about to get up.
Suddenly, a girl of the same age as us appeared from the other side of the street.
Mixed in the crowd of people, the girl looked in our direction.
Is Sera looking at you out of curiosity?
“Ah.”
Sarah looked in the same direction as me and then she found a girl.
At that moment, Sarah quickly got up from her table to see what was going on.
━━Drur!
Sarah stood up dragging a chair and spoke to me.
“…I’ll hide for a moment. Please tell that girl over there that she isn’t looking for me. Please do me a favor.”
“What? Why are you acting like this all of a sudden?”
“Tell me I’m not there!”
Sarah disappeared from the streets in the blink of an eye.
She didn’t even have time to properly ask what was going on.
‘What is it?’
It was surprising that Sarah was hiding from someone. Even when she encountered scary-looking spirits, she was the kind of girl who faced them with ease.
‘Could it be that that girl is a very strong evil spirit?’
She was nervous for no reason and her hands were tense. She wondered if the girl who was staring at us could be an evil spirit. The girl actually broke through the crowd and came towards the table where I was. But when she looked closer, she saw that the girl was not a ghost but a living person.
“Over there…”
The girl with short hair spoke to me cautiously.
“Wasn’t there a foreign-looking girl here just now? I think there was someone sitting next to you…”
“There was.”
“Do you know where he went? Kang Se-ra.”
Surprisingly, the girl even knew Sarah’s name. I was troubled for a moment after hearing the girl’s question. She knew where Sarah was hiding, but she couldn’t give an easy answer.
“Who are you?”
“She was Sarah’s friend when she was in kindergarten.”
Also, she was your friend from kindergarten?
I didn’t know that Sarah had friends other than me.
At school, she was the type of girl who always kept her distance from other kids as a habit.
“Uh… I don’t know. She suddenly disappeared.”
“I see.”
In the end, I did as I was asked and pretended that Sarah wasn’t there. When she heard the answer, the girl sighed and walked away from near the table. After the girl had completely left the streets, Sarah, who had been hiding behind her, came back to my side secretly.
“Huh… I’m glad she wasn’t discovered hiding.”
I saw Sarah sighing in relief.
I asked Sarah about the identity of her baby girl.
“So who is he? Is he really your friend?”
“That’s right. Her name is Yoon So-mi. She was my friend when I was in kindergarten.”
“I didn’t know you had friends other than me.”
“Did you have friends? Just like you were best friends with Joo-hyuk, I was also best friends with Somi. Although not now.”
Are you saying that you are no longer friends with Somi? It is quite possible to slowly become distant from a child you were close with in kindergarten. But it was strange that she got so far away that she hid and avoided it.
“Did you fight with him?”
“I’ve never fought. I just avoid it because there’s something I can’t do.”
“What on earth is something that can’t be helped? Let’s see.”
Sarah told the reason why she was avoiding her friend.
“My family is of shamanic descent, so I have a mysterious spirit.”
God’s energy.
I heard that she is a mysterious and mysterious energy that exists in shamans.
It was natural that Sarah had a miraculous spirit.
“If you become close to someone who has a spirit, that person will see ghosts.”
“Why Shingi?”
“A person with divine energy can act like an antenna that transmits the images of spirits. In particular, they transmit scenes they have seen to others with whom they have a deep emotional connection. This happens unconsciously, so I cannot control it myself. .”
If you become close to someone who has magical powers, you will see ghosts.
I too have heard a similar story.
This is a story about people who have friends with divine powers or who have shamans among their acquaintances.
‘I was playing with a friend who had a miracle, and I saw spirits around me.’
‘I saw people I didn’t know around me, but it turned out they were spiritualists.’
There were quite a few such stories.
Of course, I heard the story, but this was the first time I learned the exact operating principle.
I never would have thought that sharing an emotional connection with someone with divine energy was a prerequisite for the story.
After meeting Sarah, it was natural that I began to see spirits.
“When I was in kindergarten, I didn’t know much about my role. So I became close to the kids around me. Then, the kids who became close to me started seeing ghosts.”
Sarah told us about what she experienced when she was in kindergarten.
“It was especially worse for Somi. She was the closest to me. One day, she suddenly started seeing terrible things in her eyes. Moreover, young people are obsessed with people who can see them. The desire to be seen by living people is very strong. “He tries to follow someone who is strong and can see him.”
“Hmm… But he didn’t follow me.”
“That’s because you’re so strong that you’re special.”
Unlike me, who was energetic, the children who were close to Sarah in kindergarten seemed normal. Thanks to this, an incident occurred in the kindergarten where Sarah attended, where her children were harassed by a group of young children.
“… It wasn’t even that big of a fuss. You don’t know how much trouble I suffered because of the spirits that flocked to the kindergarten at that time. Her mother told me a solution and I managed to get it under control by kicking the spirits out.”
“So, is that what made you alienate her friends?”
“To be exact, I started avoiding my friends. Because if I don’t have an emotional connection with them, they won’t show me ghosts.”
Now I understand.
She said it was because of Shingi that Sarah had a habit of keeping her distance from other people. For some reason, he didn’t become friends with other kids other than me until the end of his third year, and maybe that was the reason.
“Sera….”
After hearing the situation, I felt sorry for Sarah. If so, it meant that she couldn’t make real friends for life because of her godliness. I couldn’t imagine what she was like before she met me. She lives a life where she has to build walls around herself and push away people who approach her.
“It must be very difficult.”
“No! It’s not that hard.”
She sympathized, but for some reason, Sarah responded that it was nothing.
Sera looked at me with a smile.
“Now there is someone who is always by my side.”
“Who?”
“You, you.”
Me and Sarah’s eyes met.
Mysterious blue eyes were looking at me.
At that moment, the bustling noise coming from the street moved away from us.
Sera’s voice rang clearly in my ears.
“I’m glad to meet you, Jinwoo.”
Sera smiled brightly.
Sera was smiling happily when she saw me.
“Yes, yes.”
I became a little embarrassed.
I also have something I want to say to Sarah.
She held back her shame and opened her mouth.
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“…I’m happy too.”
“Are you really happy?”
“That’s right.”
“You’re not suddenly scared of me and running away like a coward, right? hehehe!”
“There is absolutely no need to run away.”
That’s how our day went by.
It was a memory from my childhood.