Chapter 51
Chapter 51
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: uly
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: Raison d'Etre (6)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Grandma, it's time to head back now. If we drag this out any longer, King Yeom-ra's gonna tan your hide."
"You're right, gotta protect the old rump."
She was a grandmother with a great sense of understanding.
Dal-nim breathed a sigh of relief, patting his chest.
He'd racked up a fair few years himself, and the last thing he wanted was a spanking.
Because if that happened, he might not be able to find the right glute activation point during squats.
The siblings were relieved that the grandmother had decided to return cleanly to the afterlife. If a soul lingered too long in the living world, it could turn into a grudge and wander the streets.
Then it might become the star of poltergeist phenomena or ghostly photos.
Fortunately, grudges bold enough to directly harm the living were rare. Most were just attention-seekers craving notice.
But when those attention-seekers stirred up a public fuss, Yeom-ra got extremely displeased.
That was dangerous.
To see the grandmother off, they summoned the soul rope.
"It's your turn to carry Grandma up this time, Ora-beo-ni."
Hwan-nim declared it curtly.
Dal-nim panicked.
"What?!"
"It's only fair. I carried her down when I came here."
"Urgh, that's true."
Dal-nim regretted his earlier actions.
Somehow, Hwan-nim had effortlessly hoisted Grandma up with one arm and said, "I'll take her down."
He'd accepted with the mindset of sucking on honey, never imagining those words came with the unspoken addendum: 'You'll carry her back up.'
Obviously, carrying someone down was several times easier than carrying them up.
"Think of it as your workout."
"Ugh, fine."
Hwan-nim's words about it being a workout grated even more.
Using muscles for such laborious tasks didn't help with hypertrophy at all. It just fatigued them, preventing full exertion during proper training.
It could even hinder muscle growth.
His long-time gym partner Hwan-nim surely knew that.
'But I can't deny it's my karma.'
He decided to heed his little sister's words and safely carry Grandma up.
He piggybacked the elderly woman and climbed the soul rope.
Beside him, Hwan-nim wore a victor's smile.
The siblings' forearms bulged fiercely the whole way up the rope.
Dal-nim's a bit more so, for comparison.
After handing the grandmother's soul back over to the afterlife and on their way home, Hwan-nim spoke up.
"I never imagined you'd go all the way to the afterlife just to grant Ju-hyeon Ora-beo-ni's request."
"It was the most efficient way."
"Hmm, I suppose."
Finding one person's grave across the entire land of Korea wasn't easy.
Yet Hwan-nim could think of several more convenient alternatives. Dal-nim might act playful usually, but he wasn't dim. He often came up with even more ingenious ideas than her.
So she couldn't easily understand why her brother had chosen this somewhat primitive method.
"You felt it too, right?"
"Felt what?"
"Our influence has grown a bit stronger."
Influence.
Only then did Hwan-nim somewhat understand her brother's actions.
Earlier, the grandmother had briefly conversed with Jin Ho-yeon right in front of them.
That was impossible for a soul in her state alone. So the siblings' power had connected the grandmother's voice to Jin Ho-yeon.
In other words, their influence over the living world had strengthened.
"Is it because our fame went up?"
"That's how I'd see it. Feeding Jin Ho-yeon Uncle the trigger food this time pushed satisfaction to 100 again.
Thanks to that, fame is right on the verge of level 2."
[Fame Lv.1 – 87%]
"You're right."
Onui Restaurant was doing far better than initially expected. For a shop started in April to have this much fame after just two months was astounding in itself.
"It's thanks to the siblings rUnnieng the restaurant."
Manager Song Ju-hyeon was diligent, and Jang Yoon-seul's presence was huge.
"Yeah, that's a real stroke of luck."
Even so, something nagged at the siblings' minds.
They still hadn't figured out why trigger foods had such a massive impact on store satisfaction.
"Hmm? Ora-beo-ni."
"Yeah."
"Message from Ju-hyeon Ora-beo-ni."
Upon arriving home, they checked their contacts first, and there was one from Song Ju-hyeon.
[Song Ju-hyeon: What did you do to your Yoon-seul?]
**
I arrived at the used bookstore.
I pulled out the key I'd borrowed from Mr. Kang and unlocked the door. I knew where the light switch was, so I headed there first and flipped it on.
It hadn't been untouched for that long, yet it felt like it'd been neglected for ages.
A faint dust hung from the floor to the shelves.
"Yoon-seule, got your mask on properly?"
"Look at this."
Yoon-seul pointed to her mask, pulled up almost to her eyes.
Her face was so small that even the small size went that far.
"Don't breathe in any dust, so keep it on until I finish sweeping the floor."
"Okay! I like this."
Seeing the mask puff out, I could imagine her chubby cheeks grinning underneath.
Yoon-seul secretly liked the mask.
She seemed to think anything on her face looked cool.
Just in case of dust, I'd made her wear it.
I grabbed the small broom by the counter and dusted the shelves. Not much came off, but something definitely did.
Swipe-
Swipe-
Swish-
I swept the dust from the shelves and down to the floor.
It wasn't a huge shop, so cleaning didn't take long.
As I swept, I glanced at Yoon-seul. She kept fiddling with the ponytail at the back of her head, looking bothered.
She seemed to be wondering if she should help clean too.
So I told her to pick out books she wanted to read instead.
"Oppa, this baba."
"Let's see? What'd you bring?"
I'd just about finished sweeping the floor and shoved the dust piles out the door when Yoon-seul came over with two books.
Both were thin picture books.
The other one was pretty thick.
"You want to read this?"
"Yeah!"
The picture books were a bit dated but looked just right for reading.
The thick one, though, its title was...
"Easy French Philosophy?"
"Hm?"
Yoon-seul scraped at the floor with her foot, staring at the ground.
Her movements were awkward.
"You really brought this because you want to read it?"
"No."
"You picked it because the cover looks pretty, huh?"
"Hee-heeng, you got me. Oppa knows everything about Yunseul-i..."
She rubbed against me with a big grin.
The cover's color scheme was elegant, and the rough portrait on it was striking.
Still, it was at least ten years too early for Yoon-seul to read a philosophy book. It had sparse illustrations, just one per section, crammed with tiny text.
Contrary to the title, it looked anything but easy.
Yoon-seul skimmed it with me and blinked. Then she scratched the back of her head.
"Yunseul likes gwimmy."
"Shall we read the picture books instead? Oppa will read them to you."
"Yeah!"
She dashed off somewhere in response, then patted the surface of the three-seater sofa where Mr. Kang often sat.
She wanted me to sit there.
I sat as instructed, and she clambered up with grunts, settling on my lap.
"Wead the book!"
"Right here?"
"Yeah!"
I read to the loudly affirming Yoon-seul, perched on my lap.
At my normal reading speed, it'd take under five minutes, but I paced it so she could fully understand, taking a bit longer.
In between,
"Oppa, why's he doing that?"
"Oppa Oppa, is that her wittle puppy? Funny."
She'd ask things like that.
Answering each one turned picture book reading into quite an interactive activity.
As I finished the second book, I noticed Yoon-seul nodding off on my lap.
I let her be until the end, but she nearly tumbled off the sofa, so I caught her and laid her in the space beside me.
"Kids her age really sleep a ton."
I'd once gotten worried and searched online.
At five years old, she might just need a lot of sleep, but with no parents around to compare, I couldn't tell if it was normal.
Turns out, for four-year-olds, average sleep was 11 hours.
Half the day asleep.
So excluding nighttime, an extra 2-3 hour nap was perfectly fine.
"It's proof she's healthy."
I gazed fondly at the soundly sleeping Yoon-seul.
Then I opened the thick book she'd brought me earlier.
"Oppa'll read this and tell you about it later."
I'd kill time until she woke.
....
Damn, I hit a wall in five minutes.
The terms were too hard!
Descartes?
Scholasticism?
Enlightenment?
I double-checked the title.
"This doesn't seem easy to understand at all."
I muttered a complaint.
Yet amid the tough content, one phrase quietly caught my eye.
Raison d'être.
It was romantic.
Its meaning:
- Reason for existence.
Some interpretation involved, but in detail:
Every thing and being has a corresponding reason.
"I don't get why they'd invent a concept like this."
Around now, Ho-yeon Hyung would have reached that grandmother's grave. The fact that Hyung was still alive, rUnnieng the shop and keeping ties with us, was thanks to her.
Her act of saving him had become the 'raison d'être' for Jin Ho-yeon's existence.
That's what it felt like.
"It might not be meant that way."
But thinking of it like that felt a bit romantic.
Just as I felt smug for finding such a cool expression,
Bzzz-
My smartphone vibrated in my pocket.
[Hwan-nim: What do you mean?]
A reply from the siblings.
I tensed a little.
[Me: What did you do to your Yoon-seul?]
From my side, it was a reasonable inference, but to them, it might seem like coming at them out of nowhere.
I decided to calm down and explain my thoughts step by step.
[Me: Not sure where to start explaining. But to cut to the conclusion:]
I hesitated after typing that far.
It might not be true.
Still, it was something to discuss with them.
I swallowed dryly and hit send.
[Me: Yoon-seul seems able to intervene in other people's memories. When they recall the past via trigger food, I mean.]
The siblings took longer to reply than usual, probably pondering.
....
And then
[Dal-nim: Hyung reached that conclusion faster than us.]
[Me: What?]
[Hwan-nim: We're thinking something similar to you right now, Ju-hyeon Ora-beo-ni. We didn't ask permission first, but we obtained some of Yoon-seul's hair to test it.]