5
# Chapter 5
The last time Doan had seen someone being carried away in an ambulance was when an elderly woman from his hometown had been taken away.
Since then, this was the first time.
Seong-hyeon, who was being carried away covered in scrapes and bloodstains from his school uniform, did not open his eyes.
Perhaps what made it even more heartbreaking was that Seong-hyeon’s unconscious expression looked more peaceful than it had at any point before.
“……This is all…… because of you…….”
I shouldn’t have brought you here……
Ga-yeon, her glasses covered in tears as she trembled with anger, tightly held her son’s hand and hurled curses at Doan.
Of course, even that figure disappeared from sight once the ambulance doors closed.
The well-maintained mansion would probably remain chaotic for quite some time, so Doan slowly made his way outside.
“Ah…… um, are you all right……?”
“……Yes. Well, it’s not like I was the one who fell.”
Of course, Doan knew perfectly well that the housekeeper was not asking whether he had fallen.
He simply had no intention of making her worry, so after saying that he was fine, Doan walked heavily out of the mansion.
By then, the sun was already sinking, and the streets were filled with people making their way home from work.
[Children sometimes have emotions that burst out that violently.]
“Are you trying to comfort me?”
The Taoist’s sudden remark at least seemed like an attempt at consolation, making Doan chuckle faintly.
[I’m telling you that it wasn’t your fault, you fool.]
“I know. It wasn’t my fault.”
They had only just met, and Seong-hyeon had suddenly had an episode and jumped.
Objectively speaking, Doan could tell that the pressure had been building up inside him and would have burst eventually, regardless of whether Doan had been there.
But when he remembered the look in Ga-yeon’s eyes, as though she genuinely believed it was all his fault—
It still left a bad taste in his mouth.
The feng shui he had sensed in that house was completely different from what he had encountered at Jin-baek’s home.
Unlike Jin-baek’s house, where the earth veins at least flowed, there had not been a trace of the earth veins anywhere in Ga-yeon’s mansion.
“There’s something I’m curious about. Can people normally live in a place even if the earth veins don’t flow?”
[Of course they can. Take the apartments people live in these days. The higher the floor, the farther they are from the earth veins, yet people still live there.]
However, feng shui did not consist only of the earth veins.
There was also the heavenly energy flowing through the sky, known as [Heavenly Qi], and even the materials of all the furniture brought into a residence by its occupants could emit energy comparable to that of the earth veins.
[But for a house standing directly on the ground to have no earth veins flowing through it is certainly a serious problem.]
“……So people might not be able to endure it?”
[Yes. The energy within a human being naturally circulates, eventually flowing outside and taking in new energy.]
The earth veins and mountain ranges were what formed the paths through which that energy flowed.
The ivory marble flooring that flashed through Doan’s mind, the white walls, and the furniture arranged away from the walls.
“……It must have been suffocating.”
It was not only being surrounded by people or objects that could make it difficult to breathe.
What on earth had that young student been looking at to breathe freely and live his life?
Just as Doan’s mind began to feel dizzy, surprisingly, the cell phone vibrating in his pocket brought him back to his senses.
The caller was Im Jin-baek.
Apparently, he had heard about what happened earlier and called in a hurry.
“Hello?”
“Ah! S-Sir! I don’t know if what I heard is correct, but I heard Seong-hyeon jumped…….”
“You heard correctly. Yes, the kid suddenly had an episode and jumped.”
“……Haah, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have introduced you…….”
“No. You did the right thing, Mr. Im.”
“Yes?”
Doan had initially thought of this as nothing more than a way to earn money.
But now that he realized this kind of work could determine whether someone lived or died, his mind felt strangely settled.
“We can’t just leave a house that’s driving people to their deaths like that. So don’t blame yourself too much.”
“……As expected, you really are an extraordinary person, sir.”
Jin-baek’s voice over the phone was filled with admiration, but Doan did not pay much attention to it.
His mind was too occupied with figuring out how he could somehow fix that white, prison-like house.
But then a white hand appeared above his head—
[Do not concern yourself with it. Empty your mind.]
“……Old Taoist?”
[No matter how carefully you make plans according to the laws of the world, things do not always unfold as you expect. Everything ultimately follows fate.]
“Then…… is the answer to just do nothing and sit around blankly?”
[No. It is not quite that simple.]
Sharpening his own abilities so that he could prepare for any possible outcome.
That was the only thing Doan needed to do.
For the first time, the Taoist gently patted Doan’s head.
The cold and unfamiliar sensation felt awkward, and somehow embarrassing as well.
“Ah, all right. Then I suppose you’ll tell me what I need to do as well?”
[I have already roughly implanted the basic knowledge of feng shui into you. Now you need to learn how to use the tools, don’t you?]
“Tools? Ah, perhaps…….”
Doan raised his right arm, and the translucent crystal began to shine.
[I shall teach you how to use my pendulum today, so pay close attention.]
Doan had no idea why those words made his heart beat with anticipation.
But there was one thing he knew for certain.
At that very moment, the bracelet around his wrist began trembling violently.
[As luck would have it, today is the night of the full moon, so the timing is appropriate.]
Doan looked up at those words.
It was a night without even a visible star.
A white moon slowly drifted across the sky.
* * *
Ga-yeon contacted him three days later.
Although it was only the second floor, Seong-hyeon had suffered severe injuries after falling onto the stone floor below.
Only after undergoing surgery was he finally able to stabilize.
Ga-yeon’s husband, who had arrived after belatedly hearing what happened, was also sitting in a café near the hospital.
“My name is Min Un-cheol. I’m the CEO of Jinyang Construction.”
“I’m Ji Doan, a feng shui master.”
Un-cheol handed over his business card.
He had a long face that naturally made Doan think of a horse, along with a firm and imposing appearance.
Beside him, Ga-yeon sat with her arms crossed, looking even more uncomfortable than before as she glared at Doan.
Unexpectedly, Doan was the first to speak.
“Is Seong-hyeon all right now?”
“He’s conscious again, but he still seems to be in pain, so he hasn’t answered anything.”
“This is all because of that man, isn’t it?”
“……From what my wife told me…… she says that Mr. Ji Doan encouraged our son to jump. Is that true?”
“Did your wife tell you that?”
Doan glanced toward Ga-yeon.
Her slight flinch suggested that she was indeed planning to insist that it was his fault.
“I only visited because your wife requested a feng shui consultation. Would I have any reason to deliberately encourage your son to jump?”
“You said there was something wrong with his study room and bedroom, but when I refused to accept it—!”
“Exactly. Even if I said that, what reason would I have to make your son jump?”
Ga-yeon’s face turned red with anger.
Anyone looking at the situation would probably conclude that the boy had made such a terrible choice because there were problems within the family.
Doan could understand to some extent that she wanted to pin the blame on someone young and seemingly powerless like him.
But simply insisting on something did not mean the world would believe it.
“I clearly told you before. The interior of that house was fundamentally wrong from the beginning.”
“You!”
“What do you mean by that?”
Un-cheol stopped Ga-yeon as she rose to say something and stared at Doan with widened eyes.
Thinking about it, it was strange.
Even though he was the CEO of a construction company, his wife was the one glaring and shouting while he remained comparatively calm.
It seemed he had left household matters entirely to his wife and simply focused on work.
“You’re frequently away from home because of work, aren’t you, CEO Min? And even when you are home, you probably arrive late at night and don’t pay much attention to household matters.”
“……What does that have to do with this?”
“Do you feel comfortable sleeping at home?”
“Honey, you don’t need to listen to this! Some kind of fake shaman is trying to manipulate our son and now my husband too!”
“Have you really never once felt that the inside of your house was suffocating?”
At Doan’s question, Un-cheol fell silent and thought about it.
As Doan had said, he had handed all authority over household matters to Ga-yeon, so he had never paid much attention.
But there was something strange.
Whenever he returned home after work, the house felt unusually cold and strangely empty.
“……Isn’t that simply because the house is large?”
“Exactly. It’s large, and it looks even larger.”
“What do you mean?”
White interiors created a visual effect that made a space appear larger while also giving it a luxurious and elegant atmosphere.
However, when an excessively large space was covered entirely in white, it could instead create a feeling of pressure.
“For example, when you look at a snowy mountain from far away, you might think it’s beautiful. But when you’re standing right in front of an enormous amount of snow…….”
“……It can feel suffocating.”
Only then did Un-cheol begin to understand the strange feeling that had always seemed to close in around him whenever he returned home.
“……Please continue.”
“Honey!”
“I’ve heard a lot about you. I should hear what he has to say as well.”
“Are you really going to do this?!”
It was the matter of his son jumping from the building, after all.
Normally, he might have automatically taken his wife’s side.
But this was a situation where his only son might have died.
If the cause really lay within their home, he wanted to uncover it no matter what.
“The sofa in the center of the mansion’s living room has its back facing the windows.”
Normally, having your back to a window was an arrangement that reflected a strong desire to dominate the space inside rather than the world outside.
In feng shui, it completely blocked the qi flowing outward and caused the energy to circulate within.
Furthermore, red represented fire while white represented metal, and in the Five Elements, they were naturally in conflict, with fire melting metal.
“You stand at the center and control the energy of the entire house. You spend most of your time in that living room, don’t you, Madam?”
“……Yes.”
“No, so what?! I’m in my own house. What difference does it make where I stay?”
“The feng shui of this entire household is heavily concentrated around you.”
In simple terms, the wife held all the authority in the household.
She was essentially acting like the queen.
That was why the white color had been used everywhere.
It made it easy to notice even the slightest mark left by the servants, as well as dust or food stains.
And in the study room, all the furniture had been concentrated together.
“Of course, white can improve concentration, but when taken to an extreme, it can interfere with a person’s mental state.”
It reflected light and brightened the space, creating an overwhelming amount of yang energy.
When people tried to imagine yang energy, it was much easier to picture a four- or five-year-old child.
“Children have so much energy that it is difficult to completely exhaust them even after an entire day, while the adults playing with them are the ones who become exhausted.”
Feng shui worked in much the same way.
When there was too much yang energy, it could actually become negative and amplify fatigue.
An all-white environment might be appropriate for a hospital where patients needed to be calmed, but it was excessive for a family home.
“On top of that, your son’s bedroom and study room both have enormous floor-to-ceiling windows.”
“That’s right! That was my thoughtful consideration for ventilation and landscaping!”
“Of course, that may have been your original intention.”
From a feng shui perspective, large windows could indeed amplify energy and allow natural energy to enter.
“But depending on the furniture arrangement, those windows can instead become harmful.”
When someone saw such a huge window, they would naturally want to approach it and look outside.
But because the furniture had been concentrated in the center, the window was effectively blocked, creating a feng shui arrangement where even if someone reached out, they could not actually reach what lay beyond it.
Instead, the room became like a prison, creating a controlled layout that completely separated the child from the outside.
“I’d like to ask you something, CEO Min. Did you originally live in that mansion?”
“No. My wife had always dreamed of living in a detached house, so I personally designed and built that house.”
“Didn’t anything feel strange while you were designing it?”
“……I don’t know.”
It had already been three years.
When someone was overwhelmed by other responsibilities, it was only natural to forget things that had happened that long ago.
“Then let me ask Madam instead. Didn’t Seong-hyeon’s grades begin to decline two years ago?”
“Th-That’s right.”
“And two years ago was when you moved into the house and began changing all the interior design, correct?”
“That…… What does that have to do with anything?! What’s wrong with controlling what can be controlled?!”
Unable to hold herself back any longer, Ga-yeon finally exploded and shouted at Doan.
Un-cheol hurriedly tried to stop his wife, but she was furious at Doan for making it sound as though everything was her fault.
Even with everyone's attention focused on him, Doan remained calm and continued speaking in an even voice.
“If his mother kept talking about his grades and pressuring him while he was living in a place that felt suffocating and prison-like…… how do you think Seong-hyeon felt?”
“What’s so suffocating about that……?!”
“Have you ever tried to imagine it from his perspective?”
A study space where all outside noise was blocked and only silence remained.
A room surrounded entirely by white.
The only passageway, the entrance, was blocked.
And the huge windows that should have allowed Seong-hyeon to see outside were, to him, perhaps nothing more than—
“……Iron bars.”
“Why would you think something like that……?”
Ga-yeon’s angry voice gradually died down.
Her expression became complicated, but only for a moment.
“……You’re talking nonsense about iron bars. You probably just couldn’t improve our child’s grades, so you’re making things up however you like……”
“Then when your son regains consciousness, he’ll quietly follow the two of you home, won’t he?”
“Of course!”
“I see. Then I sincerely hope that’s what happens even now.”
At Doan’s final words, both husband and wife stared at him.
What exactly had he meant?
Just as the two of them looked at each other, feeling a strange pain stabbing them in the pit of their stomachs, a phone rang.
“Hello…… Yes? Wh-What?!”
Ga-yeon was startled, and Un-cheol’s expression immediately turned serious as well.
There was a reason.
The number displayed on Ga-yeon’s phone was clearly from the hospital.
After ending the call, Ga-yeon sat there stunned, her face turning deathly pale.
“H-Hey, what happened? Honey!”
“Shouldn’t we go look for him?”
“……What?”
“You…… what exactly are you? How did you know?”
“What are you talking about?! Are you saying Seong-hyeon has disappeared?!”
For the first time, Un-cheol shouted.
Ga-yeon could not answer and merely trembled violently.
The call from the hospital had indeed been to tell them that Seong-hyeon had disappeared from his hospital room.
“How…… did you know?”
“Because he was a child who had been pushed so far into a corner that he jumped from that prison just to escape.”
What do you think he would have thought the moment he saw the ceiling of the hospital?
An entirely white room.
He would surely have felt suffocated again.
After realizing that his attempt to jump had failed, the emotions that followed would have been despair and fear.
“He must have been thinking only about escaping because he was terrified that he would have to return to that house.”
To Seong-hyeon, white itself had probably become an image of fear.
At Doan’s words, the couple’s faces also turned pale.
In contrast, Doan was the one who smiled faintly.
“Now then, shall we go find where your son is?”
“……You know where he is?”
“Wh-Where is he?! Is he at home?!”
“He wouldn’t be at home, Madam.”
But since you believe this is all my fault, perhaps it would be better for me to step away here. I might only cause more misunderstandings.
Just as Doan tried to quietly withdraw, Un-cheol suddenly grabbed his hand.
“P-Please…… tell us where our son is…….”
“……Madam, do you have nothing to say?”
When he directly addressed her, Ga-yeon hesitated before finally putting aside her pride.
“P-Please…… find our Seong-hyeon…… Please.”
“……Well, since you’re asking me that desperately, I finally feel like helping you.”
Only then did Doan take a map from his bag and unfold it, leaving the couple staring at him in confusion.
The Taoist clicked his tongue disapprovingly.
[You fool. You could simply help them. Why do you have to speak in a way that makes you look so petty?]
Yes, I’m petty. Especially when someone keeps blaming me for something I didn’t do. I deserve an apology first.
Ignoring the Taoist clicking his tongue behind him, Doan removed the bracelet and slipped the jade ring onto his middle finger.
“All right, then. Let’s go find your son.”
Before he made an even worse choice—
At Doan’s final words, the couple anxiously clasped each other’s hands.
Not because they still loved each other deeply, but simply because they were terrified for their son.