You'll Die If You Don't Listen
What the hell is going on?
Cha Hyun-seok had the kind of soft, frail look that suggested he had never raised his voice in anger in his life. On top of that, he was so steeped in exhaustion that he barely seemed to have the strength left to let any emotion out.
And yet here he was, snarling at someone as if he meant to tear them apart.
"That was mine! I was the one who did it!"
"Keep your voice down."
Unlike Cha Hyun-seok's fierce intensity, the other man looked thoroughly at ease. He was perched casually on the edge of the desk, legs crossed at a careless angle.
"How am I supposed to stay quiet in a situation like this?!"
"Ha. I said keep it down. Everyone outside can hear you. You want the junior staff seeing you make a scene?"
He scowled and spoke in a tone dripping with irritation, clearly unhappy with the way things were unfolding.
"How could you just take it from me?!"
It had been a project into which he had poured the last several months whole. He had slept less than three hours a night and had barely even seen the faces of the wife and children he loved.
"Take it?"
In an instant, every trace of expression vanished from Director Im's face.
"Choose your words carefully. I ordered it done. You simply followed instructions. Isn't that right?"
"Director!!"
Only then did Park Su-hwan understand exactly what was happening.
Director Im. That bastard had stolen Cha Hyun-seok's achievement.
"That is complete nonsense!"
"Manager Cha. Is this insubordination?"
"Yes. You're welcome to think of it that way."
Director Im slowly approached Cha Hyun-seok and brought his mouth right up to the man's ear.
Park Su-hwan strained to catch every word.
"Just yield this one to me. I'll push you next time. All right?"
"…"
"This time I mean it. I promise."
"Director Im."
"There, there. Better for everyone if we keep things friendly, isn't it?"
Director Im put on a kindly expression and patted him on the shoulder.
"Do you take me for a complete idiot?"
"What…?"
"How many times now have you sweet-talked your way into snatching credit, sucked every last drop of juice out of it, and then tossed people aside? I'm not falling for it anymore."
Even the boy who cried wolf stopped being believed after the third time. The secret to how a man with no real ability of his own had clawed his way into an executive seat was simple.
He stole the achievements of the people under him.
Of course he was also skilled at office politics—but even that would have been impossible without the stolen credit to back it up.
"Manager Cha. Your language is getting a little… harsh, don't you think?"
"Am I wrong?"
Director Im's eyes went bloodshot with fury. He exerted superhuman patience and just barely managed to smother the rage boiling up inside him.
"I'm only trying to claim what's mine, Director."
"…Fine. Have it your way."
Director Im ground his teeth hard enough that they audibly creaked.
"Correct the report immediately. If my name isn't put back on it, I'll stop holding back either."
Cha Hyun-seok had no intention of yielding an inch on this. His entire remaining career hung on this single project.
"Fine. I'll change the name on the report. Now get out."
"…"
"I said get out."
"You promised."
Director Im waved a hand as if shooing away a nuisance. It was an unmistakable dismissal.
Cha Hyun-seok had not expected the man to accept the demand so readily. A lingering unease sat in his gut, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
Park Su-hwan started to follow Cha Hyun-seok out of the office. Then he stopped dead.
…Huh?
Something on one corner of Director Im's desk had snagged his eye—a single document half-buried among the clutter.
What's that?
"Fucking piece of shit. He's asking to die."
Alone now, Director Im hurriedly dialed someone. Park Su-hwan let the conversation wash over one ear while he focused on the document.
"Yeah, HR? Send the email right now. We need to cut loose the ones who just waste money."
The papers were half-hidden under junk, so the content was hard to make out. In his frustration he almost reached out to shove the clutter aside.
"Right. Recommended resignation. Immediately. The guy's a goddamn cancer."
Of course his hand only sliced through empty air, passing straight through the objects.
This is driving me crazy. What the hell is it?
No choice. He would have to piece together the fragmented letters.
Ah. I get it.
A moment later Park Su-hwan finally realized what the document was.
Director Im. This bastard is a complete psycho.
"M-Manager!!"
A frantic scream erupted from outside.
"Call 119! Call emergency services right now!!"
With that tearing shriek still ringing in his ears, Park Su-hwan's eyes snapped open.
"Um…"
Park Su-hwan looked up at Cha Hyun-seok with dazed eyes. The man was staring down at him with clear concern.
He had apparently been muttering incomprehensible things to himself before collapsing, and Cha Hyun-seok looked thoroughly startled.
Tch.
Still, he had woken up relatively gracefully this time. He hadn't watched someone die right in front of him, and he hadn't been rolling around on a filthy concrete floor.
"Are you all right?"
Park Su-hwan stared steadily at Cha Hyun-seok's face for a moment.
He wanted to save the man from the unjust death that was coming for him. To do that, he first had to protect the reward for all the effort that was about to be stolen.
He calmly straightened his clothes and jerked his chin toward the cushion opposite him.
"Yes. I space out like that every now and then. Please, sit."
Cha Hyun-seok hesitated, then carefully settled onto the cushion. He already looked as if he bitterly regretted coming here.
Park Su-hwan's eyes narrowed.
There was not a shred of desperation in the man's manner. He did not seem like a client who had sought this place out of his own free will.
"Did someone refer you?"
"Ah… yes. Do you remember Min-jeong?"
Min-jeong…
The woman who had come last month about a job change. Foot traffic to this place was sparse enough that Park Su-hwan recalled her at once.
"Did the job change go well?"
"Yes. She said everything you told her was exactly right."
Exactly right, my ass… All I said was that if she worked hard it would probably turn out fine.
That success had been entirely her own doing. But Park Su-hwan was not stupid enough to say the truth out loud.
"So she told me that if I had something weighing on me I should come see you too, and…"
"And?"
Park Su-hwan raised one eyebrow and stared at him hard.
Look at that lukewarm reaction. One glance tells me that even if I spit out exactly what I saw in the Register of Life and Death, it'll go in one ear and out the other.
"All right. Then what concern brought you here?"
"My son will be starting high school soon. The school he wants to—"
"Ha!"
Park Su-hwan cut him off with a sound of pure disbelief. He twisted one corner of his mouth upward and fixed the man with a piercing glare.
The easygoing shaman from a moment ago had vanished without a trace.
"That is not what actually matters."
His voice dropped low and heavy.
"Excuse me?"
Flustered, Cha Hyun-seok craned his neck and rolled his eyes.
Park Su-hwan thought of one sure way to make the man believe him.
He would squeeze every last drop of value out of the eerie atmosphere of this space and his own specialty act.
"You crawled in here on all fours, and I took pity on you and let you stay instead of throwing you out on the spot—and now you keep lying to my face?!"
Right now he was a foul-tempered shaman brimming with spiritual power. Or rather, in this moment he truly was that powerful.
After all, he had clearly seen the man's future in the underworld ledger.
"I… I crawled in on all fours?"
It was absurd. He had walked in perfectly normally on two feet. The young shaman's sudden scolding left his head spinning.
"Yes!!"
Being in my own shrine actually gives me some real guts, doesn't it?
This place belonged entirely to him. He decided to push even harder while the momentum lasted.
He clicked his tongue, opened the salt jar beside the fortune table, grabbed a fistful of coarse salt, and flung it straight into Cha Hyun-seok's face.
"The stench of incense is reeking off you! The smell of incense!!"
White grains of salt cascaded over Cha Hyun-seok's face and suit.
"What are you doing all of a sudden?!"
Cha Hyun-seok scrambled to brush the salt off himself and shot to his feet.
I must have been out of my mind. Why did I even come here!
He had only wanted to ask about his son's high-school prospects. He had never expected to be cursed at and pelted with salt.
This went beyond humiliation. It was outright assault.
"I'm leaving!"
"You."
Cha Hyun-seok was fuming and reaching for the door when Park Su-hwan fixed a cold stare on his back and spoke in a low voice.
"If you don't listen to me, you're going to die."
It was as good as an ultimatum. If the man ignored the warning and walked out, then that was simply the fate he had chosen.
Fate only changed when a person moved to change it themselves.
But Cha Hyun-seok could not open the door and leave.
"Just now… what did you say?"
Very few people could casually ignore a shaman telling them they were going to die—especially when the warning was delivered with such lethal chill.
"Next-Generation A-Line Process Optimization and Cost Reduction Project."
"…!"
Cha Hyun-seok's eyes flew open so wide they looked ready to tear.
"Still don't get it?"
"How do you know about that…!"
It was a project known only to him and a handful of others. How could a shaman he had never met before possibly know its name?
"Accumulated resentment and injustice, heart vessels rupture in fury—that is your cause of death."
"What does that…"
"Director Im completely steals your credit, you get handed a recommended resignation, the rage gives you a heart attack, and you drop dead. It's not like this is the first or second time he's pulled that shit."
Information only Cha Hyun-seok could know poured from Park Su-hwan's mouth. The man was so overwhelmed he could barely breathe.
"Then… then…"
A trembling voice finally escaped his lips.
"Are you saying Director Im is really going to take my achievement this time as well?"
"Come on now. Don't look so hurt."
"…"
"You already know. You know full well he's exactly the kind of bastard who would."
The strength left Cha Hyun-seok's legs and he sank back down.
"So from this moment on, listen carefully to every word I say. Because that is the only way you're going to stay alive."
Park Su-hwan recalled the contents of the document he had seen on Director Im's desk.