A Part-Timer for Mansindang
What on earth does this old man want now…
Bang!
Aigoo! That nearly gave him a heart attack!
The client had slammed the divination table with all her strength. The rice he’d roughly scattered across it flew everywhere in a chaotic mess.
“With looks and a body like this…!”
The woman’s face flushed crimson as the words left her mouth. She was seething over why the man she liked refused to give her so much as a second glance.
Ugh… What a nightmare client.
Park Su-hwan pressed his throbbing temple hard with his thumb.
He was worried about Choi Young-gam, true, but there was no way he could answer a personal call in front of a customer. A shaman taking private phone calls mid-session? That was absolutely out of the question.
Besides, as a complete fraud of a shaman, Park Su-hwan at least had to provide decent service.
Ah. Of course, the “service” he meant had nothing to do with catering to a client’s every whim out of kindness.
“Don’t you agree, Master?”
Park Su-hwan eyed her with pure irritation.
This was truly…
He had every right to explode right then and there. After all, she was the one who’d ruined the reading with her own two hands.
“How dare you interrupt the General’s words…!!”
“Oh my!”
“Do you even realize what you’ve just done?!”
Only then did the woman look down at the table and grasp her mistake.
“Ah… I’m sorry.”
“Hmph. Fine. Just leave. The spirit got angry and left.”
“R-really? You can’t do that. I still have so much to ask…”
“Then you should’ve behaved yourself. You already heard everything you needed to, didn’t you?”
“W-well, that’s true… but I’m also curious whether that man currently has a woman he likes. And if he does, what she looks like.”
Good thing I wrapped the reading up when I did. That sort of question wasn’t something he could just bluff his way through by running his mouth.
“Please? Master, please…”
“See? Why go and anger the General like that. Tsk.”
Park Su-hwan clicked his tongue and glared at her exactly the way a real shaman would if his deity were truly furious.
“I’ll give you a candle. Go make an offering and leave. Apologize while you’re at it.”
“Yes… I’m sorry.”
The woman accepted the incense candle looking thoroughly deflated and was just starting to rise awkwardly from her seat when—
“Just a moment.”
“Yes?”
Park Su-hwan looked up at her and said,
“You still have to pay the bokchae.”
Skillfully sliding the yellow banknote under the cushion, he saw the woman out of the shrine.
“Take care on your way.”
Park Su-hwan wore the kindest, most benevolent smile the world had ever seen. His demeanor after payment was, without question, a completely different creature.
“Yes. I’ll come again next time.”
“Excellent. The doors of the shrine are always open.”
Though when that “next time” might actually be was anyone’s guess. She had now thoroughly gotten on the General’s—no, on Park Su-hwan’s—bad side.
He swallowed those last words. The moment she vanished completely from view, he dialed Choi Young-gam at once.
After a few rings, the old man’s voice came through.
“Ah, Old Man. I was working.”
“Working?”
“Yes. What else does a shaman do for a living? I was giving a reading. More importantly, why the early-morning call? Nothing’s wrong, is it?”
“Ah… No, it’s just… why haven’t you been coming around lately?”
“Why? Miss me?”
After that full-blown scrap with Bari Gongju, he didn’t want to set so much as a single foot near Mansindang.
“Ugh…”
The exhausting memories of that day came flooding back. If he casually dropped by Mansindang, Bari Gongju might summon him again.
It wasn’t an empty fear, either. Choi Hana’s shrine belonged entirely to Bari Gongju—it was her space.
Which meant it was also the place where she could unleash her power at its absolute strongest. He had zero desire to feel that crushing force that made him think he was about to die all over again.
“Is it because of that business?”
“Probably? But Old Man, are you sure nothing’s actually wrong?”
Ordinarily, the moment Su-hwan said he couldn’t make it to Mansindang, the old man would have replied “got it” without a second thought. Today, though, he was hemming and hawing in a way that felt distinctly suspicious.
“Well, about that. Nothing special going on today?”
“I was thinking of hitting the supermarket for once to restock the fridge.”
“Ah… Is that so?”
“Old Man.”
Park Su-hwan tilted his head, then suddenly stopped.
He’d just realized why the old man had called in such a rush first thing in the morning. The way he kept trailing off and hesitating made it painfully obvious.
I worried for nothing.
“Don’t tell me today’s the day the goods come in?”
“How’d you know?”
“It’s obvious. We’ve known each other for years. Never mind. I’m hanging up. Here I thought something serious had happened.”
“Hey, hey! Wait a minute! I’ll give you whatever ritual tools you want. Need anything?”
An ominous chill ran down Park Su-hwan’s spine. This old man was not the type to sound this desperate…
“You delayed and delayed again until the last second and ordered everything at once, didn’t you?”
“….”
I knew it.
“In that case, why not just hire a part-timer?”
“Who’d want to work here? And I’d be lucky if they didn’t steal the merchandise.”
“It’s because the pay’s short. And you don’t trust people easily either.”
“You little shit. So you trust people just fine, do you?”
“No. I don’t even trust my family.”
Park Su-hwan answered with the natural air of someone stating the most obvious fact in the world.
“You don’t even have family, and you’re talking shit. You think I don’t want to hire someone? As you well know, the ones who pocketed anything valuable and ran off weren’t just one or two.”
That much was true. Mansindang was old enough that it held quite a few rare and expensive items. Naturally, sticky-fingered people were bound to turn up.
In the end, the real problem is there’s no one trustworthy, isn’t it?
Given Choi Young-gam’s personality, he’d take proper care of the wages. Hadn’t he always shoved delicious food or ritual tools into Su-hwan’s hands with a gruff “good work”?
But of course, Bari Gongju was still the issue.
“Oh.”
Right at that moment, the words Lee Han-gyeol had casually tossed out yesterday floated back into his mind.
He said it was hard to find work because he was still a minor.
Which was why he’d been taking any rough job that paid, no matter how dangerous.
Should I ask him?
It seemed like a decent option.
“Old Man. I’ve got a trustworthy kid. Want me to introduce him?”
“Who?”
Choi Young-gam’s voice was thick with suspicion.
“You’ll see. You’ll probably take a liking to him the second you meet him.”
Lee Han-gyeol was polite and diligent on top of it. Choi Young-gam would definitely approve of the kid.
“If he’s a weirdo, you’re dead.”
“Yes, yes. Just don’t thank me later.”
Lee Han-gyeol’s own opinion was not a factor in this plan. The kid would jump at the offer anyway.
Work at Mansindang would be far easier and more comfortable than whatever he was grinding through now.
“Alright, hanging up. The supermarket lunch sale starts soon, and I can’t be late.”
“Wait a second! What’s the rush!”
“There’s a beef sale. I can’t afford to be late.”
Park Su-hwan hung up on Choi Young-gam without a shred of mercy. Then he flipped open the notebook on the divination table and pulled out the supermarket flyer tucked inside.
Sale items he’d carefully eyed in advance were meticulously checked off in ballpoint pen all over the flyer.
Everything from assorted frozen foods to detergent and toothbrushes, and the grand finale of the day: beef. All of them were candidates for today’s haul.
“Gotta move.”
If he dawdled and showed up late, he’d have to buy the entire list at full price. Park Su-hwan absolutely refused to live through that tragedy.
He sprang to his feet and finished getting ready. Just as he was about to rush out for the supermarket, the bowl of pure water placed before Okhwang Sangje’s statue snagged his eye.
“Hmm…”
He’d definitely changed it for fresh water that morning. Yet in that short time, cloudy dust and some unknown insects were already floating on the surface.
In the old days he would have ignored it and left. But a vague, unexplainable unease held him back.
Normally the second cup is self-serve…
“I’m doing this specially for you.”
“This is heaven.”
Park Su-hwan murmured softly as he gazed at the mountain of frozen foods. Galbi dumplings, chicken, pizza, pasta—every single one was a dish he loved. Foods that cost too much to buy at a proper restaurant.
But frozen versions were a completely different story. Especially when they carried a “Lunch Special Sale” sticker like right now.
“I want them all…”
After serious deliberation, Park Su-hwan dropped a cheese pizza and a pack of seasoned chicken into the cart.
Honestly he also wanted the galbi dumplings and the chicken skewers, but given the state of his thin wallet, greed was a luxury he couldn’t afford.
Next he grabbed the best-value detergent and toothbrushes. Now only the highlight of today’s shopping remained: the beef.
Hmm?
As he hurried toward the meat section, something caught Park Su-hwan’s eye.
Yakgwa and the especially fancy candy known as okchundang. Items that by all rights should have been sitting on his altar as offerings.
But Park Su-hwan never offered yakgwa or okchundang.
They end up in my mouth anyway.
That was the truth. The final destination of any food offered to the gods was ultimately Park Su-hwan’s stomach. So he figured it was only right to put up the foods he actually liked without fretting about anyone else’s opinion.
That way he could cut down on food waste too, right?
The discount rates stuck to the price tags for the yakgwa and okchundang seized his gaze completely. He really should just go buy the beef as planned…
A full seventy percent off. They clearly weren’t selling. But that was none of Park Su-hwan’s business.
Thinking of it as treating the General to a special meal, he tossed one package each of yakgwa and okchundang into the cart.
Come to think of it, my General will be tasting these for the first time. He’s living large thanks to me.
Park Su-hwan shook his head with shameless pride. Feeling thoroughly satisfied, he was heading back toward the meat section when—
“Team Leader. Tomorrow’s my day off, but if you keep doing this…”
A young man who looked roughly Park Su-hwan’s age stood nearby, phone pressed to his ear, expression deadly serious.
“No, that’s not it. Honestly, even the wages have been getting delayed little by little lately. And you don’t give us proper equipment. You know how dangerous and hard the work is. Someone who knows that keeps telling me to…”
As he vented, he realized how loud his voice had become. He lowered it and muttered with a thoroughly depressed face.
“You know Uncle Gwang-ho had his finger cut off last month, right? But nothing’s changed. Does that make any sense?”
At some point he must have felt the surrounding stares. And those stares, of course, included Park Su-hwan’s.
“…!”
The moment their eyes properly locked, Park Su-hwan was dragged into the world of the Ledger. Into a place completely stripped of the supermarket’s bustling noise and glittering fluorescent lights.