Naming Baekya
“Here. Eat up.”
Park Su-hwan tossed a strip of jerky to the little Jindo puppy scampering about in front of him. The pup leapt high in a single bound and snatched it clean out of the air.
“Oh…”
Kang!
The little guy barked at him with a look of pure triumph. Not scary in the slightest—actually adorable.
Hmph. Short little legs and all.
Just as the landlady had said, he really did seem sharp. Looked like he understood a fair bit of what people told him.
The problem was he only seemed to hear the parts he wanted to. No matter how many times Su-hwan told him not to chew the cushion, the little brat never listened.
At this point Su-hwan half-wondered if the cushion had been the dog’s mortal enemy in a past life.
“One more.”
Su-hwan pulled another piece of jerky from the bag. The pup’s tail started wagging for all it was worth, pure excitement.
“You have any idea how expensive this is?”
Over ten thousand won a bag, no less.
Still, watching how eagerly the little guy polished it off, Su-hwan had to admit it was worth every won. Looking at him, Su-hwan found himself thinking back to last night—the first night in a while he hadn’t had a nightmare.
No matter how I look at it, it’s strange.
Yesterday he had offered prayers for Grandma Jeong Mal-sun. It should also have been the last day he paid the price for not taking bokchae from Choi Yu-ri—the day he was supposed to suffer another of those awful nightmares.
That was how it should have gone. Yet somehow, Su-hwan had slept without a single one.
“Maybe because he’s a white dog.”
From ancient times, white dogs had been called spirit beasts that drove away evil spirits and warded off misfortune. So there was, in a way, a reason he hadn’t dreamt of death.
“Oh?”
Just then the landlady poked her head over the upstairs railing and looked down at them.
“Sleep well?”
“Mm-hmm. You too, Su-hwan? Playing with him first thing in the morning, huh?”
“Uh… more or less.”
Su-hwan rolled his eyes once and mumbled the answer. It was true the little guy had let him sleep in peace. If only he hadn’t scraped the wallpaper raw, it would have been perfect.
“Did you feed him yet?”
“No, not yet.”
“Really? Hang on a second.”
The landlady beamed, ducked back inside, and came down carrying something. Su-hwan scrambled to his feet and took it from her.
“W-what is this?”
He stared at the massive bag of dog food in surprise.
“Food, what else?”
Kang-kang!
“My goodness. He understood that too? He really is smart. Just look at how he walked right into your place yesterday. That was hilarious.”
“Yeah, he just made himself a spot and lay right down.”
“Looks like he likes you. Why not try raising him for real?”
She asked it casually, but Su-hwan could tell she was hoping he would say yes.
Raising a dog, huh…
Taking responsibility for a life wasn’t a decision to make lightly. Least of all on impulse.
Su-hwan glanced at the little Jindo still wagging its tail.
He did feel a little tempted.
After the puppy had chased away last night’s nightmare, his opinion of the little guy had tilted pretty firmly toward the positive.
“I’ll keep giving you the food.”
“What? You don’t have to—”
“It’s no trouble. I’d love to raise one myself, but the kid’s dad can’t stand dogs. Just let me watch him grow up next door like this.”
Su-hwan hesitated a moment longer, then carefully spoke.
“But… doesn’t he already have an owner? He’s so clean, and he understands everything you say.”
“I already checked around. I’m the neighborhood busybody, remember? Nobody’s ever seen this dog before.”
“Really…?”
“I’m serious. It’s not like he fell out of the sky. And if an owner does show up, you can just say you were fostering him.”
“Fostering?”
“Temporary care. You only have to keep him for a little while. Honestly, isn’t it a little late to kick him out now? Looks like he’s already gotten attached.”
“…”
She wasn’t wrong. He hadn’t even known the little guy two full days, yet he’d already grown fond of him in his own way.
The shrine that had always been so quiet now felt lively, and that freshness was nice.
If he just caused a few less accidents… a few less… Well, that was something training could fix. Probably…
“All right. I’ll do it.”
It wasn’t an impulsive decision. Su-hwan’s life was clearly better than before, and the landlady had offered to cover the food.
“Really?”
She clapped her hands and broke into a bright smile.
“Yes.”
“Great! Then a name! We have to give him a name! Have you thought of anything? Anything you want to call him?”
“A name?”
Su-hwan scratched his chin and fell quiet for a moment.
“Uuuuhmm…”
He hadn’t expected to be naming the little guy at all. Until now he’d thought of him as nothing more than a brief passing acquaintance.
“Ah.”
Suddenly the dream from a few days ago rose in his mind. As if in a trance, Su-hwan spoke the word the man in the dream had used.
“Baekya.”
“…Baekya?”
It felt a little out of place for a pet. The landlady tilted her head at the unfamiliar word.
“What does that mean?”
Kang-kang!
Right then the puppy began barking and wagging his tail even harder than he had for treats.
“Oh my. What’s gotten into him?”
“Probably wants another snack.”
Su-hwan flicked a piece of jerky straight into the dog’s mouth. It vanished in one clean gulp. The barking stopped at once and the chewing began.
“Huh… Pretty slick, aren’t you?”
“If I give him this, he even stops scratching the wallpaper for a while. His manners could use some work.”
“Amazing.”
The landlady shot Su-hwan a curious look. Only a few days ago he had clearly not been thrilled about the dog.
Now that atmosphere was completely gone. She hadn’t expected him to warm up this fast.
“Anyway, Baekya?”
“Yes.”
“Really? Unique. Had you thought of it beforehand?”
“No. It just came to me all of a sudden…”
The landlady repeated the name a few times under her breath, then nodded as if she approved.
“Not bad. He’s a Jindo, so a strong name suits him. I was thinking something like ‘Smarty.’ Does the name have a meaning?”
“Mm…”
Baekya…
Anyone could tell it carried the flavor of Chinese characters.
It probably didn’t simply mean “white dog.” Not when he remembered how affectionately the mysterious man in the dream had called the puppy by that name.
Su-hwan thought for a moment about fitting characters, then tossed them out.
"白 夜" Midnight Sun.
“…?”
“It means a night where the sun never sets, even in the dark.”
For something he’d made up on the spot, it wasn’t half bad. If he added his own personal spin, it was like a light that drove the darkness away.
Kang! Kang-kang!
“How about it? You like it?”
Su-hwan flicked another piece of jerky into the little dog’s mouth.
“Ah—ah—hello.”
A man with messy hair and deep dark circles under his eyes bowed his head toward Park Su-hwan.
He looked to be in his mid-to-late thirties and stuttered badly. It would be easy to lose the thread of conversation if you weren’t careful.
“Nice to meet you.”
Su-hwan listened more carefully than usual and returned the greeting. Most people who came here carried heavy worries.
So the man in front of him wasn’t especially unusual. The man’s gaze drifted down to Baekya, who was sprawled contentedly on the floor.
“Don’t mind him. More importantly, what brings you here?”
“Well…”
After a long pause the man finally managed to open his mouth in a voice so small it almost disappeared. The sound was too faint; Su-hwan couldn’t catch it properly.
“Could you say that one more time?”
He leaned a little closer and asked again.
“I-I-I want to… quit my job. N-no. I want to give up on everything.”
“Ah…”
Su-hwan nodded as if he finally understood, and in the same breath he felt a sinking certainty.
Ha. Another difficult customer.
From the look of him he was a thoroughly work-worn office worker. Su-hwan had expected the usual questions about money luck or promotion luck.
People that age all asked roughly the same things.
But his prediction was completely off. He hadn’t expected a topic this heavy.
“You want to quit your job?”
Su-hwan asked carefully, as if weighing the words. Of course, the caution was calculated.
He wanted to lower the man’s guard so he would open up on his own. In truth it was no different from gentle leading questions.
“Yes. It’s just… just too hard. H-hard enough that I came all the way here.”
There was no contempt for shamans in the words. It was simply a desperate way of saying he was standing at the edge of a cliff.
So the work is that hard, huh? Hard enough to come looking for a mudang.
Su-hwan pieced the broken fragments together into a single sentence and finally understood what the man was trying to say.
“Is it the people? Or the work itself?”
He quietly opened the lid of the wooden bowl filled with rice as he asked.
“I-i-if I had to say… both. Both of them.”
“…Is that so? All right.”
Damn. Today’s another tough one. So much for easy money.
This is why people say mudangs are basically counselors. Tch.
Su-hwan briefly considered how best to move his tongue and offer the man some comfort.
“Very well. Shall we take a look, then?”
Swish!!
With a confident expression he scattered the rice across the divination table.