Spending Money Just Makes It Rain More-1
Today was the day I'd arranged to visit Park Seok-tae's farmland, one of my classmates from farming school.
I should stop by Seok-tae's place first, then head over to Wolsang Temple.
I needed to wrap things up before the relic of the vestments vanished for good.
As I stepped out of the house, I asked Chai to look after the cats.
"Don't worry, hyungnim. Chai loves kitties."
Chai scooped up Spirit No. 1 and cradled him, so smitten he could hardly stand it.
[Tell him to get lost. This human's been nibbling me and sucking on me and it's been absolute chaos, I swear.]
Be grateful.
Who else was going to dote on an evil cat spirit like that?
'Listen to your temporary master while I'm gone, got it?'
I hopped in the car and headed straight for Ugok 3-ri, where Park Seok-tae lived. Getting there meant passing through Ugok 2-ri, the village that bordered ours. The cafes along the Pyeongcheong River were packed for the weekend, every parking lot stuffed full of cars, and as I drove past the pensions, the smell of meat sizzling over charcoal fires hung heavy in the air.
"Yoonho-ssi, you're early!"
Park Seok-tae must have heard my car, because he came walking out of the container house.
"I hurried on purpose. Since you covered for me as the after-party captain, I figured I'd at least help you clean your place."
"Ah, well... about that, I actually moved out of my place, so I've been living here for a while now."
Seok-tae glanced sideways at the container and scratched the back of his head.
Like me, Park Seok-tae had no ties whatsoever to Gangwon Province. He'd decided to take up farming, attended an agricultural school in the capital region, and when one of the instructors recommended Ugok 3-ri, he'd taken out a loan and bought this land.
Young farmer support policies will lend you three hundred million won for it.
However low the interest, after three years he'd have to start paying down the principal. If he couldn't, the debt would only snowball.
Think about it. He didn't know the first thing about farming, and he was already three hundred million won in the hole. No wonder his stomach was in knots.
That was why Seok-tae had enrolled all over again at the agricultural school here in the region, apparently.
He let out a long sigh, saying he'd had no choice but to give up his old rental just to save money.
"I still have to pay the loan interest, and the villas in Ugok 3-ri charge an outrageous rent."
"How much is it?"
"Three million deposit and four hundred fifty a month. Electricity, water, and cleaning fees are all separate."
For Seok-tae, with no income to speak of, a fixed monthly expense had to have been a heavy burden.
"So the container is secondhand? It doesn't look brand new."
"Someone offered it to me cheap... but the delivery cost a fortune. They said they needed a crane and a trailer and all that."
He clearly knew he'd been played, because he shot me a furtive look and carefully avoided mentioning exactly how much it had cost.
Is he just too nice? He gets swindled so easily.
The real problem was that even knowing he was being taken advantage of, he couldn't bring himself to refuse.
Saying 'that's too expensive, I'm not buying it, no thank you' — did he think the other person would strangle him? Slap him across the face? And even if someone like that actually existed, you could just file a lawsuit.
Why did he insist on absorbing every cost himself and volunteering to be the victim?
Unless he fixed that personality, he'd be miserable even out here in the countryside.
Not that I'm in any position to lecture him about it.
I took a slow look around.
"You really got a good deal on this land."
The location was so good it was hard to believe the instructor had dumped it on him. South-facing with a distant view of the Pyeongcheong River — and the plot was nicely squared off, the soil rich with organic matter. I had a feeling just about anything would thrive here.
There was one flaw, though: being prime land backed by mountains and facing water, graves were scattered everywhere.
Some had no burial mounds at all. The only way to tell they were graves at all was the sight of the spirits trapped there, swaying in the wind like reeds.
So he bought land ringed by a cemetery.
Perhaps the person who'd sold it had found the spot too potent and their dreams too restless, and wanted to palm it off on an outsider.
So I asked.
"You're not having nightmares lately, are you? I'd think your sleep would be pretty restless out here."
"Oh, that — I'm actually a pretty heavy sleeper."
Well, he had an unexpected strength in that department, didn't he?
So numb to it all that he could live in a container right in the middle of a cemetery without a care. Still, just to be safe, I figured that since I'd come all this way, I ought to send the ghosts drifting around the area off to the afterlife. Once the earthbound spirits were cleared out, Seok-tae's land would become a place fit for people to live.
"Seok-tae-ssi, I've got a wood-fired oven at home, so I made a bunch of fire-oven pizzas and brought some over."
"Wow, thank you! I was just thinking I should offer my classmates a cup of tea when they come, but I don't even have teacups. I was about to run out and buy drinks."
"You at least have cups?"
When I asked with a grin, Seok-tae snorted out a laugh.
"Of course not. That's why I was planning to grab paper cups too."
"Isn't it a bit awkward, chugging drinks standing up with nowhere to sit?"
"W-well, yeah, but what can you do?"
When we'd visited Hwang Yu-hyeon's farmland last time, he'd treated us lavishly. Even if Seok-tae couldn't match that, he should at least manage the basic form of hospitality. Otherwise the people who'd driven all the way out here would feel shortchanged.
You can't exactly hand them one can of soda and send them home in this cold.
I looked toward the village.
"Is there a community hall or something like that exhibition place in Ugok 3-ri?"
"Oh, there's the Butterfly Exhibition Hall. They turned an abandoned school into a butterfly museum or something. It's actually pretty nice."
"Then maybe you could rent that?"
Just then, I spotted Choi Hogyeong's car barreling toward Seok-tae's field.
"Huh? Yoonho-ssi! You're already here? We've still got two hours before we're supposed to meet up."
"I figured Seok-tae-ssi would be agonizing over everything by himself, so I came early."
"Hey, me too!"
"Then great minds think alike."
I flashed a smile and told Hogyeong my plan.
"Ooh! That's a great idea! We'll finish the land tour quickly and head to the Butterfly Exhibition Hall for a fire session. They've got an outdoor fire pit there."
"Really?"
Apparently they'd decked the place out like an outdoor cafe.
"There's a volunteer on duty, and they sell coffee, plus foil-wrapped sweet potatoes and potatoes you can roast."
"Sounds fun! A good chance for us classmates to make some memories."
"Then I'll go see if we can rent the hall. It should be fine — I've volunteered there plenty of times."
Hogyeong had been a painter, hadn't she? Maybe she'd even painted a mural or two for the Butterfly Exhibition Hall.
"Then I'll leave that to you, Hogyeong-ssi. As for me..."
...I'll be sending the earthbound spirits lingering around Seok-tae's land off to the afterlife.
Not that I could actually say that out loud.
"I'll clean up around your container, Seok-tae-ssi. There's trash that needs hauling off, too."
"If you keep doing that, he'll develop terrible habits. Ugh! Fine — if Yoonho-ssi wants to do it, go ahead. Do it all. You are the hero of the heartwarming cat story, after all?"
Ugh!
So Hogyeong had seen that video of mine too.
When I dragged a hand down my face, she cackled at the sight, spun her car around, and took off — apparently heading straight for the Butterfly Exhibition Hall.
"Heartwarming cat story?"
Seok-tae blinked, clearly lost.
"You don't need to know. No — don't even try to find out."
"Aw, what is it? What is it?"
"This is no time to worry about that. Hurry and get the trash out of the container. Let's dump everything while we're at it."
"Yes, sir."
Once Seok-tae ducked into the container, I walked toward where the earthbound spirits stood.
'You couldn't cross over because something kept you here, couldn't you? But everyone you loved left the village long ago. There's nothing waiting for you here anymore.'
Ugok 3-ri was now filled with villas and townhouses built by outsiders. Hardly anyone would remember this ground had ever been a cemetery.
'Go to the afterlife now, and rest in peace.'
I brushed past the earthbound spirits. Behind me, a door swung open, and they were drawn into the beyond. And as they went, a thought suddenly occurred to me.
'Would you call this purifying?'
Wherever I passed, both earthbound spirits and ordinary ghosts vanished without a trace.
"Seok-tae-ssi, you've got a real eye for land. The soil quality is superb. Soil like this drains beautifully — just a little fertilizer and you'll see results almost immediately."
Instructor Woo Jang-ho, homeroom teacher for our farming school cohort. He grabbed a fistful of soil and gave it a sniff, then reacted with genuine astonishment.
"You're growing soybeans, right? The plot's a tidy rectangle, so a tractor should get in and out with no trouble."
"Teacher, my land is a perfect square."
Choi Hogyeong thrust her hand up in the air as if she wanted praise of her own.
Woo Jang-ho laughed.
"Shall we take a look at your land too, Teacher Choi Hogyeong? We've come all this way — you'd feel slighted if we left without seeing it, wouldn't you?"
"Not even a little."
Hogyeong shook her head with firm finality.
"I already get lumped together with Seok-tae-ssi just because we live in the same village. I'm not about to bundle my land in with his for show-and-tell."
"Haha, then I'll look forward to it and we'll see your land another time, Hogyeong-ssi."
"You'd better. Otherwise I can't invite you all over to my place, can I?"
Hogyeong also runs a natural dyeing workshop, and she promised gifts for everyone when they came to see her land. Would they all be moved to tears by their presents, I wondered?
"Well then, shall we move somewhere and continue our discussion?"
Woo Jang-ho glanced at the container. He seemed to be debating whether he was actually expected to go inside and talk in there.
"I'll show you the way. I've set up a spot at the Butterfly Exhibition Hall."
Park Seok-tae announced it with surprising confidence, and Woo Jang-ho looked taken aback.
"Oh! The Ugok 3-ri Butterfly Exhibition Hall? They converted an abandoned school, right? I've been dying to check it out, and now here's my chance. Seok-tae-ssi, thank you!"
At Woo Jang-ho's words, Seok-tae looked over at me and stifled a laugh. Then, once everyone bustled off to relocate, he sidled up to me and whispered.
"Yoonho-ssi, thank you. Thanks to you, I can treat the teachers and classmates properly."
"Hogyeong-ssi's the one who rented the hall, so make sure you thank her properly with a meal later. She's practically your next-door neighbor out there, after all."
"Of course. She's a precious friend."
Seok-tae said that even though he lacked common sense, Hogyeong was sharp and easygoing, which was why he liked hanging around with her.
Hearing that, I couldn't help but notice he wasn't quite as clueless as he seemed. After all, he was the one keeping company with the most popular person in our entire cohort.
I was walking to the car with Seok-tae, chatting about soybean farming, when it happened.
Hwang Yu-hyeon, who'd rolled up in his luxury sedan today, stared hard at me for a long moment before climbing into his car. He had the air of a man with plenty of complaints about me, but I couldn't be bothered. This distance felt just about right, I decided.
About three meters?
The Butterfly Exhibition Hall bore the loving fingerprints of the villagers who'd restored it. The murals were adorable, and while the exhibits were sparse, the rare butterfly specimens caught the eye. The building had kept the soul of an old-time elementary school rather than a modern one, with charming handmade curtains and crocheted tablecloths lending the whole place a warm, homey glow.
Today's volunteer was an eighty-something grandmother barista, a flowered scarf knotted around her neck.
"We sell two kinds of coffee here: cold and hot. But we're out of ice right now. Anyone who wants iced coffee can just take their coffee and stand outside."
"Hahaha!"
Everyone burst out laughing at the old woman's deadpan joke.
After ordering our coffee, we filed out to the backyard, where benches ringed a fire pit. A couple who looked like tourists from the Pyeongcheong River were roasting sweet potatoes over the wood fire, chatting happily. Our group claimed a corner and settled in a cozy huddle.
"Yoonho-ssi made fire-oven pizzas for us to eat today! Round of applause!"
Out of nowhere, Seok-tae pulled this stunt.
"Whoa! Yoonho-ssi, you can even do that? Seriously, is there anything you can't do?"
"He's the hero of the heartwarming cat story, after all."
"The star of Pyeongcheong County, at that. Weren't you scared of the wild boar, though?"
That was the question everyone asked me everywhere I went these days.
I sprang to my feet and pointed at Seok-tae.
"Today's star is Seok-tae-ssi, so how about we demand a song from him?"
"Ah, hahahaha! Feels like a company retreat."
We'd been gabbing and laughing for a good long while when —
"It sounds like Seok-tae-ssi wants to grow soybeans. The Agricultural Technology Center has all kinds of soybean cultivation methods on hand."
And so began Woo Jang-ho's great soybean lecture.
Once the gathering wrapped up, I got straight in the car and headed for Wolsang Temple. Being a thousand-year-old temple, it had a spacious parking lot and immaculately maintained roads. According to the signs, Wolsang Temple held morning, noon, and evening services — three times a day, together with devotees.
So temples have those sorts of things too.
This was my first visit to a temple since my spiritual vision had opened, and there were plenty of souls drifting through the nine realms here as well. Around the pagoda, along the stone walls, beside the enormous temple bell.
The spirits loitering in the same spots with hammers and chisels, saws and shovels in hand, were dressed in historical drama fashion. Frozen at the very moment their lives had ended, they must have died during the Joseon era.
And there was even a Silla-era soul, wasn't there?
"What brings you here?"
Two young monks, both looking like they could handle themselves in a fight, approached me.
"Are you here for prayers or the evening service, by any chance?"
I'd arrived at four in the afternoon. Showing up at an awkward hour, wandering around gawking at everything without being a devotee — apparently I looked pretty suspicious.
At a time like this, the worst thing to do was make flimsy excuses or get flustered.
"I've come to see the abbot."
"And who shall we say is asking, from where? The Master is in seclusion during the winter retreat, so unless it's something truly important, it's difficult to see him."
Twice a year, monks observe the winter and summer retreats, forgoing travel to devote themselves to practice. And that period was now.
"Then could you pass along this message?"
I swallowed hard and spoke.
"Tell him someone has come who knows the whereabouts of the missing earrings."