The Right Kind of Forgiveness
His oracle had been accurate.
But the healing of grudges had failed.
For a shaman and a client, the heart of the matter was belief. Placebo was born inside that trust. Only then could the power of expectation, along with the healing force that mended misfortune, bad luck, and disappointment, finally come together.
The madam had stormed out of the shrine...
She had come to escape the resentment of her husband’s wandering spirit, but because she had shown no remorse, she had followed the road her own fate had laid out for her. Even so, something still nagged at him, and it made him turn over the method of the oracle again and again.
Beopsa Kangto.
The moment he touched his forehead, with a jingling ring, his mother in her white shaman’s robes stepped out together with the sound of the Chilseokgu.
"Mom."
The path of a divine disciple was hard. It could only be Kangto Beopsa's path and world.
His mother had been the same.
At first, she had clung so tightly to the oracle that she had failed to see what mattered more. She had been too busy conveying the sacred power of the body spirit. And Kangto Beopsa was receiving a powerful oracle, so maybe it was even more so for him.
The true road of haewon sangsaeng.
What, exactly, was it?
If he was to become a Manshin, he had to set the center right no less than the oracle itself.
"What is it?"
“Break the spirit bell.”
"The spirit bell?"
“To gain something new, you have to cast away what already exists.”
"But this is..."
“Break it.”
After a brief hesitation, Kangto hurled the Chilseokgu at the wall.
With a crack, the Chilseokgu shattered. And then... the fragments that fell to the floor formed a single word.
[Haewon ()]
His mother picked up the word and placed the fragments into Kangto’s hand. Along with a smile white as a butterfly.
"Mom."
Startled, Kangto opened his eyes. Had he dreamed it all in the brief moment he had closed them?
"......"
The Chilseokgu was safe. And yet the word he had seen in the dream still drifted before his eyes.
Haewon.
A word so familiar it almost hurt.
Haewon meant easing the resentment of a wronged spirit or soul. Simply put, it was forgiveness.
What had his mother meant by leaving him such an ordinary word?
Forgiveness.
This judgment was only complete when the victim delivered it. It was not the wrongdoer who solved things with money or force.
"Ah."
A bolt of lightning flashed through Kangto's mind.
True forgiveness is not done by the perpetrator, but by the victim.
The madam’s face, after the accident, overlapped with that thought. He had not allowed the victimized husband to make the judgment. That was why she had come to ruin.
Forgiveness was the perpetrator’s patent.
The shaman was the divine disciple who delivered that oracle of mutual flourishing.
Once he sorted out his thoughts, his mind grew clear. Kangto had realized many things through the madam’s accident.
"Waaah."
Cheers rose from below the lighthouse. The reservers must have checked their phones and seen that the madam’s scandal had been uploaded to the fan cafe.
The end of the client who ignored the oracle. It hit harder than even the haewon case.
Thump.
The waiting people’s hearts beat faster. Worries that could not be solved by anything, even things no amount of money could fix, were being untangled one by one. And so, whenever their turn came, they would climb the steps to Kangto’s shrine with trembling feet.
That was true for today’s last client, too, Cha Young-hwa.
She had been married for three months, and she suspected her husband was cheating. So she had rushed to the island carrying her anger. In the eyes of others, it was a blissfully sweet three-month marriage. But by the evidence she had, her husband’s affair was certain.
The problem was obtaining proof. Her husband’s phone was one of those devices that even a god could not unlock, and the company where he worked late had security on the entrance, so there was no way to storm in and check for herself.
“You want me to see whether your husband has another woman?”
When Kangto heard her worry, he asked.
“From what I can tell, there’s a woman. My husband is just clever, so I haven’t found out yet.”
“The fact that you came to me means you don’t have proof?”
Kangto struck at the heart of it. If she had proof, she would already have blown the whole thing apart.
“I do have proof. But it’s hard to confront him with it.”
Her voice grew complicated.
“Could you show me a photo of your husband?”
When Kangto asked, a picture appeared. It was a printed passport photo.
“I took this recently, when he renewed his passport after it expired.”
“......?”
Kangto focused on the photo. The man’s spirit was clear. He had many women around him, but no woman he was close enough to be seeing. In cases like this, work could be the reason. Maybe there were a lot of women in his office, or maybe his job involved dealing with women.
He read the thread of fate twice over, but the result did not change. The man’s health was not great, but he was not the kind to stray into an affair.
“There is no woman.”
Kangto said it flatly.
“Pardon?”
Cha Young-hwa’s brow crumpled into a knot. It had been an afternoon in which everyone else had walked away with a pleasing oracle in hand. So she had expected her own husband’s infidelity to be exposed by divine insight too.
And yet...
[The husband is innocent]
Bang, bang, bang.
That was the oracle he delivered, no different from a verdict in a courtroom.
“Isn’t that... wrong?”
Cha Young-hwa’s complaint spilled out.
“You mean you don’t trust the oracle?”
“Everyone else’s worries were right, but I just can’t accept this. Since we’re on the subject, I should say it plainly... whenever I’m intimate with my husband, I catch a venereal disease. And you’re saying it isn’t because of an affair?”
“You said it was a venereal disease?”
“My husband isn’t very affectionate. Isn’t that because he’s cheating and avoiding me? Then, whenever we do manage to be intimate, I get severe pain down there and end up suffering from inflammation. And you’re saying it isn’t an affair?”
“Were you diagnosed at a hospital?”
“Yes.”
“Then hold on a moment.”
He focused once more. The body spirit was the supreme heavenly deity. The problem with those supreme beings was that they had little interest in human affairs. He wondered if, by some chance, that indifference had thrown off the resonance and caused an error in the reading, or whether another matter had weakened the divine response.
Huh?
Kangto tilted his head. No matter how he looked at it, the man had no other woman. And Cha Young-hwa, too, had no other man. Both of them had clear spirits, which meant neither was the kind to fall into an affair.
And yet.
Why.
Why had Cha Young-hwa caught a venereal disease?
Venereal disease.
This was outside Kangto’s area. He knew the names of the common ones, like gonorrhea, syphilis, and AIDS, but he did not know the countless bacteria behind the rest of them, nor all their routes of infection or mechanisms. So he had no choice but to ask for help.
“I’ll make a phone call.”
He went out to the lighthouse railing and called Cho Su-hyuk. Through him, he got the number of the chief of obstetrics and gynecology.
“Please put that person on for a moment.”
Mid-conversation, the obstetrics chief asked for the phone.
“This is the chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Hangang Medical Center. Could you speak with him for a moment?”
“Oh my, I was actually planning to make an appointment with him...”
Fortunately, Cha Young-hwa knew the doctor.
“Hello.”
The two of them began speaking.
“You were diagnosed with a venereal disease?”
“Yes.”
“Did you do a bacterial culture as well?”
“Yes.”
“What were the results?”
“They said something called Trichomonas and Candida came up.”
“Those organisms are part of the normal vaginal flora. By themselves, they don’t let us conclude your husband’s affair caused the infection.”
“The doctor said something similar, but it always gets worse after I’m with my husband.”
“Tell me about the symptoms.”
“Well, that is...”
Anything involving sex was always heated with embarrassment and urgency. As Cha Young-hwa became conscious of Kangto, she stepped away to give him space. Once she had come out to the lighthouse railing, she saw white snowflakes drifting down. It was winter. Snow, too, had a power to cleanse and heal. The whiteness of its falling, the whiteness it laid across the world, held that same quality.
“It’s snowing.”
Not far away, Sol-bi could be seen hopping about. She was running with Dong-cheol. Children who marveled at and gave thanks for the smallest things. Adults were the ones who should have been learning from that.
Without Kangto there to listen, Cha Young-hwa’s call began to move at a brisker pace.
“I think my husband’s semen is badly contaminated.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“When it touches my skin, the place it touches burns, like it’s on fire. Once, I even burned my tongue.”
“......”
“I’m serious. One time my tongue and the skin around it turned red like strawberries, and I was shocked.”
“Do you happen to have a photo?”
“No. I was too shocked and embarrassed to take one.”
“I’ve just sent you a photo. Please check it.”
“Oh my.”
When Cha Young-hwa saw the image file, she drew in a sharp breath.
“This is a patient I’m treating. What do you think?”
“That’s it. That’s exactly how I looked.”
Her agreement came quickly. The photo was of lips, covered in a red rash as though from a first-degree burn.
“And you said you get pain and inflammation every time you’re intimate?”
“Yes.”
“My judgment is... this does not seem to be your husband’s fault.”
“Pardon?”
“Taken together, I think this is semen allergy.”
“Semen allergy?”
“Rarely, there are people with a special constitution who develop this kind of allergy when semen touches them. If it appears on the skin, it’s often mistaken for herpes or a skin disease, and people end up getting the wrong treatment.”
“Semen allergy...?”
“Pardon my asking, but you’re newlyweds, aren’t you?”
“Yes.”
“If you don’t get treated quickly, pregnancy may become difficult. Go to a nearby clinic and tell them my opinion, or make an appointment with me and come in.”
“Then... it isn’t my husband’s problem, but mine?”
“That’s right.”
“My God...”
The call ended.
Kangto came back and sat down.
“Did you get your answer?”
“......”
“......”
“I think what the Beopsa said is right. It seems I have some kind of rare allergy...”
“I’m glad your worry has been resolved.”
“I was... one hundred percent sure it was my husband’s cheating or affair, but... how am I supposed to look him in the face now?”
“You’re soulmates. Thanks to your husband, you found out about the condition, so now you can treat it quickly.”
“When you put it that way, I guess...”
“Confess to your husband the same way you opened up to me, and get treated. The two of you both have clear spirits, so he’ll understand right away.”
“Beopsa...”
“Now, the ferry’s almost due in, so get ready and head back. Live a hundred years with your husband.”
“Thank you.”
Cha Young-hwa, the last client of the day, left the shrine having accepted the oracle of mutual flourishing. Seeing her go with such a light step eased Kangto’s heart as well.
Thank you.
He offered his thanks to the body spirit and to his mother’s hint. Because he had paid closer attention after hearing about the madam’s accident, he had been able to guide the clients in anguish toward the right kind of haewon and sangsaeng.
“Sol-bi.”
Kangto came down from the lighthouse.
“Dad!”
Sol-bi cheered like an automatic response machine. The two of them ran together through the snow and pelted each other with handfuls of it.
“Ahahahaha.”
Their laughter never stopped.
“My goodness, father and daughter both...”
The little grandmother watching from the window clicked her tongue and finished the thought under her breath.
“And yet he can still read fortunes that well?”
“The ferry’s coming in. Even in this snow, will Kangto’s clients still come?”
The little grandfather craned his neck toward the sea.
The dock was starting to bustle. Streams of people and vehicles were moving in and out. In midwinter, the ferry used to unload and take on only a few island residents. Now things were different. Dozens were getting off, and dozens more were coming in.
“Dad, I caught a crab.”
Sol-bi, who had become a professional crab killer without anyone noticing, lifted a rock crab high and shouted.
“Is this a boy crab or a girl crab?”
“I don’t know.”
Kangto played along.
“You don’t even know that? This one’s a boy.”
“How do you know?”
“You can tell by the belly. If the belly’s round, it’s a girl; if it’s triangular, it’s a boy.”
“Where did you learn that?”
Kangto asked. Anyone could look it up. But Sol-bi didn’t have a phone, and she didn’t know how to search either.
“Grandma Hong-seo told me.”
“Waaah, really?”
On the island, experience was better than search.
“Goodbye, crab, see you again.”
Even as she let the crab go, Sol-bi did not forget to say farewell. Watching her do that with a blank expression was, for Kangto, its own kind of healing.
“Kangto Beopsa.”
An motorcycle stopped through the falling snow. It was Park Deok-gu, the youth association president.
“Chief Choi wants us to gather a bit on Saturday.”
“Me too?”
“Yeah. He said to be sure to bring Kangto Beopsa.”
“I’m not even an executive member.”
“You know that donation money Taebaek Construction gave us last time? Looks like they want to bring up how it should be used. In the old days, Chief Choi and the fisheries association head would have teamed up and spent it however they liked, but can they still do that now? Who do you think that money came in because of? And who is it that brought life back to an island everyone was worried would become uninhabited?”
“Did the president say something?”
“Of course. Kangto Beopsa is one of our youth members, after all. Not just me, either - the women’s association president, the boat owners’ president, and the chief of Oechilli all spoke with one voice.”
“......”
“Anyway, let’s meet at the fisheries association head’s sashimi place that day.”
“All right.”
Rattle-rattle-rattle.
The motorcycle receded through the white snow.
The island.
By population, it wasn’t much. And yet even here, there were factions and politics. Up to now, power had been held by Chief Choi, who also served as head of the elders’ association, together with the fisheries association head. That atmosphere was slowly changing too.
“Sol-bi, let’s go.”
Kangto called out to Sol-bi on the sandy shore.
“Just a minute, I’m covering up the crab hole.”
She blew on her tiny hands and set up a windbreak over the crab hole. So focused was she on helping the crab that she forgot even how cold her own hands had become.
“Why are you covering it?”
Kangto asked, pretending not to know. Listening to Sol-bi explain was its own small piece of healing.
“What if the snow blocks the crab’s house entrance? The crab might suffocate and die.”
Sol-bi was working like a demolition crew on overtime. Even with snow settling thick on her head, she didn’t care at all.
“......”
How could children’s thoughts be so endearing? Kangto felt his heart cleanse itself again through Sol-bi that day, too.
“It’s Kangto Beopsa.”
As the lighthouse drew near, clients from the area began to gather.
Some had come to have their fortunes read. Others had followed them. Still others had seen the posts and come to see the lighthouse for themselves.
“Hello?”
“Hello?”
When Kangto greeted them, Sol-bi the echo followed right behind.
“Kangto Beopsa.”
He was just about to brush the snow off and head indoors when the shrine’s Manager Seo called him.
“There’s a client here, and...”
“A client?”
“It’s just that...”
Manager Seo pointed toward the front of the shrine. The man who had been under the eaves walked toward Kangto.
“Kangto Beopsa?”
“Yes?”
“I’m here from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Metropolitan Investigation Unit.”
The man handed over his business card.
Jin Dae-yeol, team leader of the Criminal Mobile Unit, Seoul Metropolitan Investigation Unit.
The head of the detective squad that handled only major violent crimes within the metropolitan investigation bureau.
“......?”
Kangto looked at the man.
He was the acknowledged head of the strongest violent-crimes unit in South Korea.
Why was he on this island?
Had Kangto gotten so successful that someone had cooked up a false complaint to get at him? Before that thought even finished forming, Team Leader Jin spoke his business.
“I’m sorry, but could you help us?”