"I'm Planning to Confess for Real Soon"
"I'm planning to confess for real soon."
Park Jihun tapped his fingertips against the desk. The nickname of his current caller was Estima. The voice coming through the speakers was a mix of nervous tension and giddy excitement.
"To whom?"
"A girl in my major. I've liked her all semester. I'm going to confess to her soon... It'll go well, right?"
Jihun stared at the monitor. A vision flashed before his eyes. A pretty girl's face appeared. He saw her smiling brightly, her arm linked with someone. But the person beside her was another man. The way they looked at each other, full of affection, made it clear they had been dating for a long time. On the other hand, there wasn't a trace of such feelings in the way she looked at Estima. She saw him as nothing more than a good friend.
Jihun spoke bluntly.
"Don't do it."
The caller immediately asked back, "What? Why?"
"She has a boyfriend."
Silence fell over the microphone. Keeping his eyes fixed forward, Jihun continued, "You're just the only one who doesn't know."
"N-No... Wait a minute. That can't be. Just the day before yesterday, we went to see a movie together, and we even had drinks in the evening."
The male student's voice shook noticeably. It was the classic reaction of someone desperately clinging to denial.
Jihun didn't bother with a lengthy explanation.
"She went to her boyfriend's place and slept over that night. If you confess, you'll only make yourself look miserable. Got it?"
"...Fuck."
The call disconnected instantly. Jihun shrugged it off and spoke to the stream.
"Next."
Just as he was about to move to the next reservation on the list, a massive donation alert flashed across the screen.
Nathan has donated 100,000 Water Droplets!
One hundred thousand Water Droplets? Jihun's eyes widened in surprise. The chat window erupted instantly.
Jihun stared at the monitor before speaking. "Thanks for the donation, but you know cutting the line isn't allowed, right? Wait your turn."
Nathan's reply appeared in the chat immediately.
It was then. Jihun narrowed his eyes as he scanned the chat window. On one side of the screen, he sensed an unpleasant, probing gaze. The person hadn't typed a single message. Yet, they were continuously observing his every move.
Jihun casually browsed the viewer list. The account remained silent. Without leaving a single line of chat, they just watched in silence. Jihun's eyes narrowed further. They didn't come here to get a reading.
A brief silence fell. Jihun soon spoke up. "Time for today's free reading. cjh0312, get in here."
He singled out the guy who had been getting on his nerves.
But cjh0312 did not respond.
"Not coming in?"
A moment later, a notification popped up in the chat.
The chat immediately went wild.
Jihun stared at the screen in silence. The viewer's exit confirmed his suspicions. They had no intention of getting a reading; they fled the moment they were caught. At this point, they were clearly no ordinary spectator. Considering the brief vision that had flashed in his mind, only one possibility occurred to him.
Is it someone from Nathan's family?
Did they get curious about why their son had suddenly changed? They must have dug into his surroundings and ended up here. Jihun didn't dwell on it. Even if they were making a move, nothing would change for him right now.
"Alright. Since the last guy passed, TurtleHusband, you're up. Get in here."
The moment Secretary Choi entered the chairman's office, he bowed deeply. The chairman was already flipping through documents, despite the early hour.
"Did you look into it?"
It was a brief, blunt question.
Secretary Choi answered immediately. "Yes, sir. I have identified the broadcast that the young master has been watching continuously of late."
"What kind of broadcast?"
"It was a live stream where a shaman performs spiritual readings."
The chairman's eyebrows twitched slightly. "Was there a reason for him to watch such a thing?"
Secretary Choi continued in a flat, professional tone. "There was a rather unusual occurrence."
"An unusual occurrence?"
He paused for a moment to choose his words before adding, "Even when I entered the stream myself, I merely observed without typing anything in the chat. Yet, he suddenly called out my username."
The chairman's gaze shifted to his secretary. "He singled you out?"
"Yes, sir. He called out my exact username, offering to give me a free consultation."
"You don't think it was a coincidence?"
Secretary Choi pondered for a moment before replying. "At the very least, it felt as though he was absolutely certain I was monitoring him. It felt highly unsettling, so I exited the stream immediately."
A brief silence ensued. The chairman looked back down at his paperwork. Flipping through a few more pages, he spoke in an indifferent voice. "So my third son has been wasting his time watching such nonsense."
"Yes, sir."
"Do you believe that broadcast is what changed him?"
Secretary Choi answered cautiously. "I cannot say for certain, sir. However, the timing aligns perfectly. The young master's attitude began to change precisely after he started watching that stream."
The corner of the chairman's mouth twitched ever so slightly. It was impossible for his third son to have transformed into a completely different person overnight. However, it was highly plausible that someone had given him a push. And circumstantially, the streamer was the most likely catalyst.
The chairman leaned back slowly in his chair and asked, "Is he truly skilled?"
Secretary Choi took a brief breath. "There seemed to be a reason why people believe in him so fervently. At the very least, his abilities did not seem like something that could be explained away as mere coincidence."
The chairman fell into silent contemplation. After pondering for a long moment, he nodded. "Good work. You may leave."
"Yes, Chairman."
After Secretary Choi left, the chairman picked up his phone. He pressed speed dial number one. After a few rings, the person on the other end answered immediately.
"Chairman, what brings you to call me so early in the morning?"
"I have an important matter to discuss with you today. Can you make some time to come over?"
"If you are calling, Chairman, of course I must go. I will visit you at your residence."
"Very well. Travel safely."
The chairman hung up. Sitting on the sofa, he once again reviewed the materials Secretary Choi had brought.
Perpetual Job Seeker. A shamanic reading stream. And his third son, who had donated over ten million won to that very stream.
Tonight, he intended to verify for himself whether this person was the real deal or just a clever fraud.
By evening, the residence's reception room was dead silent. The chairman sat on the sofa. After a moment, the door opened, and an elderly man stepped inside.
Though his back was not completely bent with age, his footsteps were strangely slow. He wore a simple, thin overcoat over a gray traditional hanbok durumagi, but the moment he stepped into the room, the very texture of the air seemed to shift subtly.
The chairman spoke first. "It has been a while."
The old man chuckled softly. "If you are the one reaching out first, Chairman, it must be no ordinary matter."
The chairman did not waste time on pleasantries. He slid a manila envelope across the table.
"It is about my third son."
The old man's eyes narrowed.
The chairman spoke in his usual cold, dry tone. "The boy has changed over the past few days. He used to be a fellow with absolutely no conviction of his own. But this time, he is distinctly different."
The old man listened in silence.
"I had Secretary Choi investigate his background, and it turns out he has been watching a shamanic reading stream."
"A shamanic reading?"
"Yes. At first, I dismissed it as a joke."
The chairman paused briefly to catch his breath before continuing. "But it seems more than sufficient to be the catalyst for his change."
"So that is why you called me. You want me to verify whether this person is the real deal or not."
Instead of answering, the chairman simply nodded.
"Indeed, the young master's energy has shifted over the past few days."
"Has it?"
"Yes. I had assumed a benefactor of great spiritual stature had aligned with him, and it seems my assumption may have been correct."
"Verify it."
The old man slowly opened the envelope. Inside were several pages of documents compiled by Secretary Choi, screenshots of Park Jihun's stream, a profile picture, and a brief resume.
The old man picked up the photo resting on top.
A brief silence descended. The chairman watched him without a word, wanting to see what the old man would read from it.
The old man didn't turn the photo this way and that. He simply stared down at it for a long time. His gaze grew deeper and deeper.
After a moment, he spoke. "He looks ordinary... yet, he is intriguing."
The chairman's eyes narrowed. "Intriguing?"
"Yes."
Without taking his eyes off the photo, the old man continued. "On the surface, there is nothing out of the ordinary. Yet, strangely, his eyes catch my attention."
A brief silence followed. The old man looked down at the photo again and added softly, "I do not think I can make a definitive judgment based on a photograph alone."
The chairman asked, "What are the chances he is a fraud?"
The old man replied, "If he were a fraud, he would have approached this differently. It is no easy task to imitate a true baksu."
Once those words were spoken, silence fell over the room again. The chairman asked slowly, "Are you saying you must see him in person?"
The old man nodded slowly. "To see him with absolute clarity, yes."
He then placed the photo back on the envelope and pulled a smartphone from his pocket.
"Even if I cannot examine him in detail, watching his broadcast should give me a rough idea of whether he is a genuine baksu."
The chairman nodded.
With somewhat clumsy fingers, the old man downloaded the Ocean app and typed the name into the search bar.
Perpetual Job Seeker.
The live broadcast screen appeared. The viewer count was nearing seven thousand.
"Let us see."
"Indeed."
The old man's eyes grew heavy. He lightly tapped on Perpetual Job Seeker's stream with his finger.
After a brief moment of buffering, the screen loaded.
In that instant, the old man's face twisted in sheer horror. He looked as if his breath had been snatched away, like someone who had come face-to-face with an unspeakably malevolent entity.
He turned off the stream reflexively.
Watching him intently, the chairman's eyes shook for the first time. Though they had known each other for decades, this was the first time he had ever seen the old man so utterly terrified.
Staring at the panting old man, the chairman asked in a low, hushed voice:
"What on earth did you see?"