46 – Knowing Your Future Spouse #3
Before Friday afternoon, we were able to prepare offerings to offer to Princess Hongryeon at Hyehwadang. These were the six representative offerings used as offerings in Buddhism.
Incense, lights, flowers, fruits, tea, rice.
These were Buddhist-style offerings, referred to as six-dharma offerings. Since I don’t know what Princess Hongryeon’s tastes are, I prepared everything. Additionally, pork and beef were also stored in Hyehwadang’s refrigerator. At this level, we can say that we are ready to offer offerings to Princess Hongryeon whenever she comes.
“Sera, I guess this is enough, right?”
“That’s enough. I spent some money preparing. If you’re not satisfied with this, you’re not a fairy, you’re a villain.”
Sarah, who purchased the offering herself, said it cost some money. I didn’t buy it, so I didn’t know exactly how much it cost. However, even with a rough estimate, it seemed like more than 5 million won was spent preparing the offering. It could be said that the amount contained sufficient sincerity.
“Shall we go now? I have to go meet the informant.”
“Let’s go.”
We left Hyehwadang with our suitcases containing our equipment. It was a suitcase containing a military knife, a lump of rock salt, and various other new knives. Additionally, I packed a bag of tonfa in my suitcase. Because it is a foldable tonpa, it is easy to carry in a bag.
“Are you taking the tonpa with you again? I guess you used it last time and liked it?”
“It’s good to carry around. You can just use it like a club. It’s quite good when used with a military sword.”
“Honestly, it’s amazing that you can use other weapons together with the martial arts sword. Normally, if you hold a weapon in both hands, it should be difficult to handle, right? How can you instantly become stronger by holding two weapons?”
“If you hold a weapon in both hands, it’s natural to become stronger.”
“It’s never taken for granted.”
Weapons increased from one to two.
Then isn’t it natural to become stronger?
…… Of course it was a joke. To be honest, I thought I would make some mistakes until I directly fought a monster who worshiped a god. This is a mistake such as twisting your hands when using a weapon with both hands. But there was no problem. Rather, it honestly became stronger.
Maybe I have the talent to use weapons skillfully.
I had that thought.
We took a taxi from Seungcheon-gu and soon arrived at Soyeon-dong in Guro-gu. It was in front of the Blooming Cafe, which the informant had chosen as the meeting place.
The current time was 7 PM sharp. It was the time we promised to meet. We went into the cafe. There were quite a few customers inside, but it wasn’t that difficult to find the informant. As soon as the store door opened, I saw a female student looking our way.
A female student with short hair wearing a school uniform.
The short-haired female student’s face was haggard. There were dark circles under her eyes and her face was pale. She looked somewhat anxious. Is that person the informant who posted on the mystery site? I personally approached the girl and called her by her nickname.
“Are you Catgirl by any chance? A member who is active in Paranormal.”
An answer came immediately from the short-haired girl.
“Oh, that’s right. I’m a cat girl. Are you Jin, whom I promised to meet today?”
“Yes. The nickname I use is Jin. I also replied to Catgirl’s post before. You remember me, right?”
“I remember. Jin is someone I often see on the site… But by the way, how old are you? How old is the person who came with you?”
“We are both 17 years old.”
“Wow… He was the same age as me. That’s amazing.”
The short-haired female student looked at me with a slightly surprised expression.
“What’s surprising?”
“No, when Jin was active on the site, her speaking style was very stiff. She didn’t use initials and didn’t use buzzwords often. I thought she was at least a college student. But when I met her in person, she was a high school student.”
“I’m a high school student. I can show you my student ID.”
“You don’t need to show it.”
Is it because the way I speak on the Internet is too stiff? The members of the mystery site thought I was a college student or something. The short-haired girl also thought I was older than her, but seemed surprised to see me in person.
The short-haired female student turned her head and looked at Sarah.
“But didn’t you say you were bringing a shaman friend? Why is there a foreigner?”
“This person is not a foreigner, but a mixed race. A mixed race shaman. Sera, please say something.”
“Meow.”
“Have you seen it? If you’re Korean, you call it meow. If you’re a foreigner, the sound you make is different.”
“Ah… Yes.”
She tried to make a joke to lighten the mood, but the short-haired girl couldn’t laugh. She just nodded her head with her haggard face. I cleared my throat and told the short-haired girl her name.
From noble mtl dot com
“I’m Jinwoo Kim. He’s strong.”
“I am Da-jeong Yoon.”
“You seem very tired.”
“Because my brother was seriously injured….”
The name of the short-haired female student was Da-jeong Yoon.
We ordered drinks from the waiter. When our drinks arrived, I chatted with Da-jeong while drinking Americano.
“Hey, you said you saw something strange before your brother attempted suicide, right? You said it wasn’t your back that was reflected in the mirror, it was your front face.”
“Yes, my brother was clearly standing with his back to the mirror. But I could see his front face, not his back. I remember it clearly.”
Before the accident occurred, the image in the mirror was strangely formed.
This alone was not enough of a clue.
“What is it that strange things have been happening in the neighborhood for a long time?”
“That’s right. It’s a bit awkward to say this, but… There have been a lot of suicides in this neighborhood for a long time. People harm themselves inside the house, fall from high floors, or hang themselves with a rope… But the strange thing is. Do you know what? People who commit suicide in this neighborhood have something in common.”
“What do we have in common?”
There was silence for a moment.
Dajeong cupped her coffee cup with her hand and opened her mouth.
“When the body was found, everyone was laughing.”
The corpses were laughing?
It was a story that made no sense. If you committed suicide, you would have felt severe pain or experienced fear before you died. It was strange that so many people were dying and yet they were laughing.
“I have lived in this neighborhood for a long time, so I know it well. When I was young, I saw a man who fell from an apartment and died. He was bleeding profusely, but his face was smiling. I still remember that incident.”
“You’re saying there are other corpses smiling like that, right?”
“Yes. It’s because people in the neighborhood have been whispering that it’s a bad rumor. Similar accidents have happened more than ten times since long ago. I probably would have kept quiet if the accident hadn’t happened to my brother. My parents told me not to tell others. Peel….”
Dajeong’s expression as she was looking at the coffee cup became distorted.
Da-jeong seemed to be remembering the time when her brother got into an accident.
“…When I found my brother stabbed in the bathroom. He was smiling the same way. He was laughing horribly as blood was pouring out of his body. It was the same face as the corpse I saw in the apartment when I was young.”
“It means that my brother, who almost died, was smiling.”
“That’s why I doubt it. I don’t think this is just a simple suicide. My brother was taken to the hospital and still hasn’t woken up. It’s already been a week.”
Why did he laugh right before he died?
Da-jeong’s brother, the only survivor, might know the answer.
But because he was unconscious, it was impossible to ask why.
Sera asked Da-jeong next to me.
“Where is the place where your brother attempted suicide? Can we go there ourselves?”
“It’s right in front of here. That’s the Morning Star Villa.”
Dajeong pointed out the window of the cafe with her finger. A villa was built on the street where the cafe was. An accident occurred at that villa. Dajeong looked at us and opened his mouth.
“My brother was living in that villa. There’s no one home right now. I’ll let you take a look around the inside.”
“It’s nice because it’s close.”
“I called Jin to investigate the accident. I will help as much as I can.”
“Let’s go together.”
We drank coffee and followed Da-jeong out of the cafe. Perhaps because we met late in the afternoon, it was already dark. After a while, we arrived at the villa, opened the door to room 202 where the accident occurred, and went inside. Da-jeong knew the password to the door lock, so she was able to get inside.
“There are a lot of unusual things in the house.”
“That’s right. There’s also a skull bowl.”
We looked around the inside of room 202. It could be said that it was an ordinary house, but there were many strange decorations inside the house. These were occult items such as paintings depicting skulls or pentagrams. On one wall hung a large antique mirror that only witches would use.
Da-jeong, who came into the house with us, explained it to us.
“My brother is also a member of the mystery site like me. He bought a lot of those things with the money he earned from tutoring.”
“Ah, you were a member.”
Da-jeong’s older brother, who suffered an accident, was also a member of the mystery site. There were quite a few occult items in the house where I lived alone. Maybe there really was something in the house that was haunted.
The time has come to use the equipment.
I took out the EMF meter from my suitcase. When I pressed the button, a light on the EMF meter came on. If four or more lights come on, it means that there is a haunted object or ghost nearby.
“I’ll take a look around first.”
“Yes.”
Sarah and I searched the house for a while. I checked every room, starting with the bathroom where the accident occurred. However, no matter where I looked, there was no EMF meter responding particularly well. The same thing happened when I brought the machine close to occult items.
“Sera, how are you? Do you feel anything?”
“I don’t feel anything. I don’t think there’s anything suspicious in this house right now.”
I could only smell the faint smell of blood in the bathroom.
I checked the mirror in the bathroom and the antique mirror hanging on the wall in the living room, but the EMF meter did not respond.
In that case, it means that there are no ghosts in this house now.
The one who hurt Da-jeong’s brother has already left here.
“I think the person who tried to kill the person left this house?”
“Yes. I told you that many similar suicide accidents have occurred in this neighborhood. They disguise it as a suicide and kill someone and then leave the house. They go to another house and kill someone again.”
“Seeing as he faked suicide, he seems like a pretty clever guy.”
“I think I need to look around the neighborhood. I need a clue.”
Time passed and it became late at night.
We finished the search and rested inside the house.
Dajeong, who was sitting in the living room, asked us.
“Have you found out anything?”
“Not yet. I’m going to walk around this neighborhood tomorrow. Can I stay overnight at this house?”
“Go to sleep. It’s your brother’s house… But since there’s no one around right now, you can go to sleep.”
We decided to stay overnight at the house where the accident occurred.
It was already past midnight.