The Burning Nightmare
"Mommy! Mommy!!"
"Mister's gonna save you! Mister's gonna get you out!"
At last Jung Jin-hyuk found the child huddled in a corner, sobbing. Park Su-hwan tried to scream—but no sound came out.
My ankle!! Shit...!
He was trapped inside Jung Jin-hyuk's body right now, after all.
Every step the firefighter took sent a wave of horrific pain ripping through him. Yet Jung Jin-hyuk himself never once let out a groan.
Does this guy not even feel it?!
How the hell was he enduring that kind of agony?
"Huff... huff. Cover your nose. Keep your head down."
"Mommy..."
"That's right. It's okay. Let's go find Mommy."
Park Su-hwan clenched his teeth and muttered through the tremors of pain.
I should've made damn sure I took the bokchae...
He'd already been completely drained after helping Choi Young-gam and dragging himself home. On top of that, living through a fire scene via the ledger—there was no way he could still be in his right mind.
The moment he'd gotten home from the hospital he'd collapsed into sleep like the dead. And now here he was, trapped in a dream, shouldering every ounce of Jung Jin-hyuk's calamity.
His back throbbed as if it would snap clean in two, and what the hell was this scorching heat that felt ready to melt the skin right off his body?
It was enough to drive a man completely insane. Park Su-hwan thrashed and fought to wake from the nightmare, but the effort was meaningless.
Until Jung Jin-hyuk saved the child and died.
Then what about your own life!! Who's going to save you!!
"We've got the kid. Let's get out of here, now."
Get lost! You son of a bitch!
Flashlight beams cut through the flames at the front entrance—his colleagues.
Found you. You bastard! Today you're really gonna die...!
Crrrack!
BOOM! CRASH-CRASH-CRASH-CRASH!!
"I'm counting on you."
And with that, concrete debris came pouring down onto Jung Jin-hyuk's head. No—onto Park Su-hwan's head.
"AAAAAARGH!!!"
Screaming, Park Su-hwan snapped his eyes open. Drenched head to toe in cold sweat, he sat up gasping for air.
"Haa... haaagh..."
Thought I was really gonna die.
He hurriedly checked over his body. Thankfully there were no burns, no injuries.
He'd expected as much, but confirming it with his own eyes was another matter entirely. The dream had been that vivid.
This is the absolute worst.
The pain and searing heat from the dream still clung to him like a second skin. And the body that had been burning moments ago was now growing cold, as if a midwinter wind were cutting straight through him.
"Ugh... I hate this so much."
With trembling hands he wrapped the blanket tightly around himself.
The only way out of this suffering was to receive bokchae from Jung Jin-hyuk for the reading. But he couldn't exactly stalk the man down and demand payment like some lunatic.
That didn't mean he regretted warning him. Saving people through the ledger filled Park Su-hwan with a quiet, stubborn pride of his own.
Kang Dong-hyun. Kim Jun-young. Choi Hana. Choi Young-gam.
Every one of them should have met a terrible end. Instead they were still alive and breathing, and watching that was genuinely rewarding.
Ah. Except for scum like Kwon Ha-seong and Baek Yoon-seul.
Those kinds of people could take whatever judgment heaven had coming for them.
He better have listened...
Thinking back to the dazed look on Jung Jin-hyuk's face right before the ambulance doors closed, Su-hwan honestly wondered whether the man had taken the warning seriously at all.
Dying because you didn't listen is still fate, I guess... but I'd rather he lived. He threw himself into the fire of his own free will to save a child.
Riiiiing.
The phone in his discarded pants started ringing. He crawled over on all fours and checked the screen.
Unknown number. Usually that meant a reservation for a reading.
"Yes. This is General Shrine."
"Hello! I'm calling about a reading. Have today's appointments already filled up?"
A bright, cheerful woman's voice. Normally he would have paused just long enough to sound busy, then claimed he might squeeze something in that afternoon.
If appointments came too easily, people started thinking he was a fraud.
"Today won't work, I'm afraid. I'm away from the shrine for prayer."
Thinking of how desperate he'd once been for every single won, this was the wrong move. But right now his body hurt too much to care.
That didn't mean he was about to turn away a customer who had practically rolled in on her own.
"Would this Saturday work for you?"
By then my body should be a little better... right?
He swallowed a sigh.
"What time?"
"Whenever's convenient for you... no, come around three. That should be fine."
"Yes! Thank you so much!"
The second the call ended, Park Su-hwan tossed the phone aside and burrowed straight back under the covers.
"Ugh..."
And once again he became Jung Jin-hyuk, diving headlong into the flames.
"Haaah..."
Again? Seriously?
He'd half expected it, but living through it was something else entirely. Sleeping felt like not sleeping at all, and his condition only got worse.
Knock knock knock!
"Young man! You in there?"
Knock knock knock!!
"Yeees..."
Barely more than a corpse, Park Su-hwan crawled across the floor and somehow made it to the front door.
"Young man!!"
The moment he unlocked it the door swung wide, revealing his landlady. She took one look at his haggard face and let out a short scream.
"Good heavens! What happened to your face! And why is this room so hot?! Do you even know what the temperature is today?!"
"My body... my body's just a little unwell."
"This is no time for that—we're going to the hospital. Come on."
She tried to haul him upright by force, but he weakly pushed her hands away.
"...I'm fine. It's not that kind of sickness. Or rather, it is, but... how do I even explain this."
Spirit sickness? Or just not taking bokchae?
Neither phrase quite covered the state he was in.
"It's because my vessel got bigger."
"Your vessel?"
"Yes. When the vessel that holds a god expands, the body suffers like this. It's actually an honor. It means the General trusts me even more."
"Aigoo..."
She looked down at the barely-conscious young man with open pity.
"But I'm all right. I can manage."
Lie. I feel like I'm about to freeze to death right now.
Don't tell me I have to suffer like this until I actually receive the bokchae?
The sudden, horrifying thought made his face grow even darker.
"Heavens above. A shaman's lot in life is truly... pitiful. So pitiful."
"I must have committed a lot of sins in a past life."
"Don't talk nonsense!"
She started to swat his back out of habit, then remembered he was a patient and hastily pulled her hand back.
"How did you even know to come down here...?"
"It was too quiet all day. I got worried and came to check. Good thing I did."
Park Su-hwan stared at her in shock.
"All day?"
"That's right! I even stopped by last night with some braised short ribs and you didn't answer the door. If I'd known it was this bad I would've come earlier."
A strange feeling crept over him.
Can you even say "all day"? I only came home last night and went to sleep...
"What day is it today?"
Just in case, he asked.
"Today? Hang on."
She pulled out her phone and told him the date. Park Su-hwan's eyes went wide.
No way.
"I slept an entire day?"
"Good grief, you must have been really sick. Wait right there—I'll go make you some porridge."
She didn't wait for an answer and headed upstairs. Not long after she returned with a bowl of beef porridge that filled the room with the rich scent of sesame oil.
"Here. Eat. There's kimchi too."
She pushed the little altar table—now serving as a tray—toward him. The ledger hidden underneath slid out with a soft scrape.
Park Su-hwan flinched for a second, but she only urged him to eat faster.
"Yes. Thank you."
Under normal circumstances, using a shaman's altar table as a desk or dining table was practically blasphemy. Park Su-hwan couldn't have cared less.
To him it was just a sturdy table that also happened to work as a dining surface.
"You really didn't have to go this far..."
"Of course I did. You're my benefactor. Now eat."
Her tone left no room for argument. Suddenly feeling awkward under her care, Park Su-hwan turned on the television just to kill the silence.
The anchor's words snagged in his ear. Park Su-hwan cranked the volume.
Then it happened.
"Huh...!!"
A familiar face filled the news footage. Park Su-hwan nearly dropped his spoon.
He listened to me!!
The firefighter he had told the contents of the ledger. Jung Jin-hyuk.