38 – Heoju #7
It was the moment when all the white masks were burned by fire.
“aaah.”
The gunman exposed his face, his body trembled, he closed his eyes, and fainted. It seemed like he was still hiding, but even when I touched him with my foot, he didn’t wake up.
‘What happens to Kwak Jin-cheol now?’
I had a question as I looked at the strange man named Kwak Jin-cheol.
If a sacred object is burned, the spirit served by the medium disappears. 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.
“It seems like the serpent spirit has disappeared.”
“Yes.”
But I didn’t know what happened to the strange man who lost his spirit. 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.
Luckily, Sarah knew what I was curious about.
“Sera. What happens to Kwak Jin-cheol now? Can he get up again?”
“Now Kwak Jin-cheol will be in a coma for quite some time. It will take at least 10 years for him to open his eyes again.”
“Coma…?”
Does this mean that the monster will live in a vegetative state for more than 10 years?
Sera told us why that happens.
“A psychic is deeply connected mentally to the spirit she serves. When the spirit disappears, the medium is greatly shocked. She is so shocked that her nerves are damaged and she falls into a long coma.”
“Ah… Can’t Kwak Jin-cheol live a normal life?”
“That’s right. If you wake up again 10 years later, you may experience memory loss, or even if you don’t lose your memory, you may be in a coma until you die. When the spirit disappears, the shock the medium receives is very great. Toesonggut “The person who safely removed the spirit will not be shocked.”
Toesong-gut was a ritual performed by shamans to sever their relationship with the spirits they served. Even if the spirit served during the Toesong-gut disappears or is harmed, there does not seem to be any harm to the spirit medium.
But the situation was different with the gunman. He did not perform any rituals such as Toesong gut, but the spirit he served disappeared. He could not help but suffer a shock so severe that he 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. There were too many people who were harmed.
“Then I guess I can just hand it over to the police.”
“How are you going to let it go? Are you sure you should call 112?”
Sera 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 for a moment.
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.
My father was the same.
His father, who was a detective, kept his work as an exorcist a secret from others. When I was young, I also asked my father directly. Why does he keep his exorcism a secret from others?
「Dad! Why do you keep the work of the exorcist a secret?”
When I asked him at that time, my father answered like this.
「Jinwoo, that’s true. “It’s because becoming famous as an exorcist gets in the way of solving mysteries.”
「Will it be a hindrance if I become famous?」
「An exorcist must find things that are secretly hidden. If you become famous as an exorcist and stand out, there is no way they will appear 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 an understandable statement. It was something that someone who wanted to solve mysteries should avoid becoming famous as an exorcist. Solving the mystery was most important to me.
How should Kwak Jin-cheol be handed over to the police?
I was able to make a decision.
“I’ve decided.”
“How?”
“Let’s leave Kwak Jin-cheol outside. That would be neat. If we report it to the police for no reason and they catch us exorcizing, it will be troublesome. It will be a hindrance in the future.”
“Hmm.”
Sera nodded as if she understood.
It seemed like he understood what I meant.
“Sera, what do you think?”
“Chansung. I don’t really want to get involved with the police. It’s fun to play quietly with you after work. If Hyehwadang becomes noisy for no reason, it will interfere with our lives together.”
Sarah smiled as she gently placed her hand on my shoulder. The look in her eyes as she looked at me was unusual.
Sera seemed to want to get rid of everything that got in the way of us playing quietly.
I felt Sarah’s hand on her shoulder and I swallowed her saliva.
“Yeah, I see.”
“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 have 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…”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
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.
The citizen who was an eyewitness immediately reported it to the police.
The police responded to the report and arrested Kwak Jin-cheol.
We were able to hear these news through TV news.
[…] 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.]
An anchor’s voice came out from the TV in Hyehwadang.
[At the time of discovery, the man was in a coma of unknown cause. He additionally sustained injuries to his 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.
Kwak Jin-cheol was actually a drug addict.
A passerby took care of it,
He was just walking and 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.
TV clearly showed celebrities 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?
From noble mtl dot com
━Well, I was a hunter. A tiger is running from far away.
A member of a popular girl group 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.
“Puhahahaha.”
“Jung 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 a while, the program ended.
“Ah, it was fun.”
“After all, it’s a finite challenge.”
We turned off the TV and slept.
I didn’t think much about my past life experience that night.
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 watch 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.
He was my friend.
━━Drur!
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? It was like experiencing a past life.”
“I saw it, but why?”
“It was really amazing! No, Jeong Ha-jun’s past 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 on YouTube about past life experiences? I saw that and tried it.”
“Oh, 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?”
“Hmm…”
“What was it? Was it 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.”
For a moment, I couldn’t help but laugh. There’s no way Joo-hyuk really had a past life experience, but since he was said to be a wild boar, it was very fitting. It turns out that the hypnosis induction text was real?
“Are you smiling?”
“Puhuhuhuh.”
Sera next to him also laughed.
“hahahahaha. How could I have been a wild boar in my past life?”
Joohyuk grabbed the back of his neck as he looked at me and Sarah bursting out laughing.
“These…! Do you think it’s funny that I’m a wild boar? Do you guys think you could have done something great in your past life?”
“I don’t know. I’ve 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.”
Sera smiled while looking at me.
“I can show you my past life through magic.”
Was there a way?