The Shaman Father of the Island Village and the Chaebol Chairman’s Illegitimate Child, Part 25
“Chairman Kwon?”
Kang-to was on the phone with Kwon Ga-hee. She had taken the morning ferry up to Seoul, and it seemed she had finally reunited with the daughter she had been searching for all this time.
“Thanks to you, I found my daughter. Thank you again.”
“Not at all. I’m glad it worked out.”
“My daughter’s father said that... after going exactly where the beopsa told him to, it wasn’t hard to find her. They’d been searching so blindly, when it was something they should have been able to find that easily, and even the police couldn’t...”
Tears gathered in Kwon Ga-hee’s voice.
[A white three-story house on a hill near the sea, to the west]
That had been the gongsu Kang-to gave her.
On both sides were peach orchards, and he had even seen a bamboo grove. When they searched under those conditions, only one building matched. It was a psychiatric hospital near the West Sea coast. After receiving Kwon Ga-hee’s call, her husband had rushed there himself.
And then...
He had found their daughter, who had been staying there.
Once they traced the admission process, her trail finally emerged.
The daughter, who had Down syndrome, had intellectual disabilities. She loved big cars. Kwon Ga-hee had attended a violin recital for one of her juniors, and she had stepped away briefly to use the restroom. In that short gap, her daughter had vanished. When she came back out of the concert hall, there was a crowd hurrying home. Not a trace of her daughter remained anywhere.
She wasn’t even on the concert hall’s CCTV.
They searched under the seats and checked the props, but everything led nowhere. Even after the police combed the area, they couldn’t determine where she had gone.
At first, they wondered if she might have been kidnapped for money. But no threat call ever came. And so the years passed. With no other choice, they turned to shamanism.
- She’s too late. She’s no longer of this world.
- She’s trapped in a pitch-black room. If you offer a strong enough ritual, she’ll come back.
- There’s a thirty-million-won salpuri rite; if you do that, it might work...
- You’ve lived too buried in money. That’s why heaven’s punishment fell on the child.
Everywhere they went, they were offered vague nonsense. Still, in her desperation, she had even used two protective talismans worth five million won each. She stuck them on the front door and on her daughter’s bedroom door, but they did no good.
Then she heard the rumors about Kang-to.
[A young beopsa with a daughter at the Lighthouse Shrine]
It seemed impossible to trust, but the source of the rumor was trustworthy enough.
Do Seung-a.
Her mother was Kwon Ga-hee’s cousin.
One last time...
That was Kwon Ga-hee’s resolve.
Her husband didn’t stop her. His wife was withering away from their daughter’s disappearance. If nothing else, he hoped a trip to an island in the West Sea might give her some air and a chance to breathe.
That choice ended up changing the fate of Kwon Ga-hee and her daughter. If she hadn’t made it, Kwon Ga-hee would still be waking up every day without hope, wandering around the concert hall where her daughter had vanished and grieving as if trapped there forever.
“I’m so, so happy. I thought our daughter had died...”
“Your hope led you to your daughter.”
That was Kang-to’s answer. It was the truth. No matter how great Kang-to’s abilities were, he couldn’t solve the troubles of people who never came to him in the first place.
“I sent you the video I took with my daughter. She says to tell you thank you too.”
“I see.”
“I’ll come by with my daughter to say hello next time.”
That was Kwon Ga-hee’s closing promise.
Kang-to opened the video right away.
“......?”
Even he was startled by the first frame.
[A white house on a hill]
It was a psychiatric hospital. It matched the image Kang-to had sensed with uncanny precision. Sure enough, the power of the Great Spirit of the Nine Heavens was different. Next came the little girl. Children with Down syndrome could look somewhat alike to ordinary people.
But a parent’s eye was different. According to Kwon Ga-hee, even if her daughter were placed among a hundred children with Down syndrome, she could spot her at once. That was what it meant to be a parent, and what it meant to have blood ties.
“Thank you, Beopsa Kang-to.”
Her daughter was twelve years old. Her speech was slow and a little awkward, but there was life in it. Her daughter had fallen into trouble at a time when the clear blue sky was suddenly being lashed by cold rain. Now that they had gotten through that ordeal, there didn’t seem to be any immediate danger.
“Beopsa, your guest’s here.”
Following Mr. Seo’s guidance, Kang-to settled into the shrine.
Kang-to’s gongsu was not just any gongsu. It could change a person’s fate, and that meant he had to treat it with care and sincerity.
Who would come to him next, and what tangled misery would their story carry? Kang-to steadied his heart and made it reverent before anything else.
He spent the entire afternoon reading fortunes. From divorces to husbands’ affairs, wives’ infidelity, promotions, bad luck, and all kinds of troubles, the stories were endlessly varied. With entrance exam season approaching, there were also plenty of inquiries about daughters’ college applications.
Choice.
Easy, and yet impossible.
No one could truly answer which path would lead to success. Even if you fed the question to the AI everyone talked about these days, the answer would still be the answer.
That was why people sought professional consulting and counseling. They wanted to reduce risk by relying on experts more knowledgeable than themselves. Shamanism existed on that same plane.
Fortune-telling and physiognomy were not things shamans had simply invented at will.
A shaman was not a profession just any ordinary person could take up. Only those chosen by the gods, or hereditary shamans who had received the bloodline of shamans, could practice the shaman’s calling. It wasn’t something a regular person could master through sheer study. Kang-to never forgot that pride.
The next afternoon, a remarkable scene unfolded. This time, even more visitors came off the ferry than the day before. By rough count, nearly thirty people had arrived, because those who had seen results yesterday had spread the word on social media.
The minbak rooms had not multiplied overnight.
That was a problem for Kang-to, but the visitors had brought their own solution. They pitched tents on the beach or slept in their cars.
“My goodness, our Beopsa Kang-to is already making a killing. A real smash hit.”
Grandma Hong-seo was delighted as if it were her own business.
“What killing? They’ll probably come around for a few days and stop.”
The fishing cooperative chief snorted.
“That’s right. If they want to make money, they should help develop the island...”
Village Chief Choi Byung-gae didn’t look pleased either. The women’s association head, Lee Eon-nyeon, felt the same.
“You can’t go around carrying that kind of bad spirit. No wonder your grandson turned out the way he did.”
Grandma Hong-seo clicked her tongue at Dong-cheol, who was clinging to the fishing cooperative chief’s leg.
“What are you talking about, you old bat? Why are you bringing up my son?”
“Instead of getting all puffed up, you should go beg Beopsa Kang-to for help. And who knows? Maybe with his divine sight, he could cure that mental illness of yours.”
“What did you say? Hey, is Kang-to a doctor? He’s a fraud.”
“A fraud?”
“Yes.”
“When I was little, Kang-to’s grandmother cured every illness on this island. Don’t you know she cured old Jang Gi-baek’s daughter, who used to go wandering the beach and mountain paths every night because she’d gone mad? One good ritual and she was fixed.”
“Oh, that? She just happened to get better on her own.”
“Fine. Look at you, all high and mighty. We saved you when you were getting swept away by the waves at age five, and this is how you repay us? You’re so ungrateful it’s like you were raised on disgrace mixed into rice.”
“A single arm grab, and you’ve been milking it for a million years. Do I have to die before you stop bringing that up?”
The fishing cooperative chief’s temper flew at Grandma Hong-seo’s back. The old woman even flicked him a rude little finger gesture before strolling away.
“Seriously, that old woman...”
“But...”
Women’s association head Lee Eon-nyeon tilted her head slightly.
“What?”
“I mean Kang-to’s shrine. Isn’t it possible that the number of guests keeps increasing?”
“If that lasts more than a month, I’ll eat my hat.”
“Maybe, but Ta-hee’s mom at the village shop got a huge wholesale delivery on the morning ferry, didn’t she? She said the guests keep asking for cup noodles and they’re already running short on stock... And Tae-an’s place at the minbak’s been making good money these past few days too...”
“So what? Are you planning to run a minbak too, Madam Women’s Association Head?”
“If outside guests keep increasing like this... honestly, if the island starts doing well again like it used to, isn’t that better than selling the land and moving away?”
“Then go open a minbak. If you waste a bunch of money and Kang-to’s fortune-telling guests dry up, you can suck your thumb and get through winter.”
The fishing cooperative chief walked off in irritation.
“What a stubborn old man. Come to think of it, he doesn’t even have a better plan.”
Left alone, Lee Eon-nyeon clicked her tongue and muttered, “Should I go ask Kang-to for a reading too?”
***
On Monday morning, Kang-to took Sol-bi out to the tidal flats.
They were busy with guests, but he had decided that, unless something special came up, he wouldn’t open the shrine on Mondays. He also needed time to play with Sol-bi, and Mr. Seo deserved a day off too. He posted an announcement on the café and put up a notice in front of the shrine as well.
Today was the fifteenth day of the lunar month, the tide cycle known locally as sari, when the water pulled back especially far.
“Dad, let’s see who can catch more clams?”
Sol-bi challenged Kang-to.
“Sure. What’s the bet?”
“Um... you buy me ice cream.”
“Deal. But no taking it back, okay?”
“Dong-cheol’s on my team, too.”
“Fine.”
Kang-to didn’t argue. It was sweet of her to include Dong-cheol, who always got teased by the other kids.
“I’m going in.”
Sol-bi tugged the gre up to her waist and radiated fighting spirit straight to the heavens.
“Hee-hee!”
Dong-cheol had his mouth stretched in a grin and was busy trotting after Sol-bi. A gre was a shellfish-harvesting tool used for foraging on the flats. Her spirit soared, but the results were less than thrilling. Since she was still young, her dragging was awkward, and she came up empty. Meanwhile, Kang-to had already dug up five.
Clack.
The sound of stone hitting the gre was strangely like spiritual possession. It was an instant, gut-deep feeling.
“Dad, go over there. Sol-bi’s going to work here.”
Sol-bi came up with an emergency measure. Since Kang-to’s spot was yielding a lot of clams, she forced them to change territory. But it made no difference. Kang-to dug up five or six more, while Sol-bi managed to haul up only a single pebble.
“I hate you, Dad.”
Sol-bi pouted. She looked close to tears, so Kang-to announced his own emergency measure.
“Sol-bi, I think there are more over there. Try digging there.”
He quietly buried a clam and pushed her toward the new spot.
“Wow, jackpot.”
When a clam came up, Sol-bi scooped it up with both hands.
“Whoa, our Sol-bi just got three in one go? That’s totally national-team level.”
“Dad, aren’t you triggered? What are you gonna do?”
“What are you gonna do?”
When Sol-bi said it, Dong-cheol copied her too. It was a phrase Sol-bi used back on land. These days even kindergarteners had their own slang, so there were plenty of expressions Kang-to didn’t know. The operation to boost Sol-bi’s confidence continued. By the end, Sol-bi had about twenty while Kang-to had eight.
“Sol-bi wins.”
“Hee-hee!”
As Sol-bi bounced in triumph, her copycat Dong-cheol hopped along with her.
“Dong-cheol.”
Just then, the fishing cooperative chief’s tractor rumbled up.
“What are you doing with someone else’s sick grandson?”
“He’s not sick right now.”
Sol-bi answered for herself.
“I wasn’t asking you.”
“I brought him here, didn’t I?”
Not a single inch of ground was given. Logically, she was right, and the fishing cooperative chief had no choice but to swallow the loss.
“Come on, hurry up. Wash your face and eat lunch.”
“No. I want to stay with big sister Sol-bi.”
Dong-cheol clung to Sol-bi’s side.
“What? That brat’s talking back to his grandpa...”
“My kindergarten teacher said if you curse at children, the police will take you away. Teacher Park Hira from our West Sea Kindergarten.”
“What?”
The fishing cooperative chief let out a long sigh. The boy’s calm, precise rebuttals were enough to leave him speechless.
“Sol-bi, let’s go. It looks like a welcome guest is coming.”
“Is Grandpa and Grandma coming?”
“Something like that.”
After leaving the tidal flats, he bought her ice cream. Sol-bi had even smeared tidal-flat mud across her face, and when she bit into the ice cream with that muddy mouth, the white cream stood out all the more vividly.
“Dad, have a bite too.”
Sol-bi held the ice cream out to him.
Mm. This taste...
It was sweeter than anything a person without children could even imagine.
Then a helicopter’s sound came drifting from the far sky.
“Huh? Isn’t that a Taebaek Construction helicopter?”
Seeing the logo on the fuselage, the fishing cooperative chief shouted toward Village Chief Choi, who had been drying fish, and the women’s association head.
“Village Chief Choi, Madam Lee, everybody, come here! Taebaek Construction’s helicopter is coming in!”
The fishing cooperative chief’s voice was so loud it seemed ready to split open.
“Did they change helicopters?”
“Is Chairman Jo coming?”
“Or maybe one of his underlings is taking the helicopter?”
“Then are they trying to develop the island again?”
“I know a little about faces, and that man has grit. He’s not the type to back down just because of a helicopter accident, no sir.”
Hope began to burn in the fishing cooperative chief’s face.
“Then...”
Village Chief Choi’s gaze shifted toward Kang-to. He was eating ice cream with Sol-bi in front of the village shop. The previous reading still bothered him.
“Shouldn’t we block Kang-to first? If he spits out another unlucky fortune...”
“Yeah. Let’s make sure he can’t even get near Chairman Jo this time.”
Just as the fishing cooperative chief was stoking his battle spirit, the helicopter landed.
“Oh my goodness, Chairman Jo, you’re healthy again?”
He bent nearly ninety degrees, his flattery reaching its absolute peak.
“We were sorry to hear about the accident last time. We even thought about visiting you as a group, but island life keeps us so busy...”
“Fishing cooperative chief.”
The listening Chairman Jo finally spoke.
“Please, say no more.”
“Of course.”
“I’ve come to express my thanks as well.”
“Oh, we didn’t really do much to help... Still, we appreciate you remembering how hard we worked on the land purchase.”
The fishing cooperative chief extended his hand.
But.
Chairman Jo walked past him. Then passed Village Chief Choi as well, and the women’s association head too.
“......?”
The fishing cooperative chief’s awkward gaze followed Chairman Jo’s path. His steps stopped in front of Kang-to.
“Beopsa Kang-to, thank you so much.”
The hand Chairman Jo grasped was Kang-to’s. He was impeccable in his courtesy, formal and respectful to the point of perfection.
What the hell?
The expressions on the fishing cooperative chief, the village chief, and the women’s association head were identical, as if molded from the same fishcake batter, and the three of them wore the same ridiculous mix of shock and embarrassment across their faces.
And then...
“Chaerin noona!”
With a thunderclap of a shout, Sol-bi took off running.
The person who had stepped out after Chairman Jo was Lady Gyeongsin. Behind her came the faint white outline of a young shaman in a dress-code white outfit. It was Aegibosal Yoon Chae-rin.
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