The Roe Deer’s Grudge
“Damn.”
Kang-to stopped breathing. It was the Taejagwi of a little girl. That in itself wasn’t what shocked him. What made his scalp prickle was the other spirit crouched beside the Taejagwi, radiating resentment every bit as fierce. Blood was seeping from its belly. The problem was... it wasn’t human.
“What is it?” the fishing cooperative chief asked. He was already taut with tension. He didn’t believe in superstition, or ghosts, or any of that nonsense, but instinct was instinct.
“Has a little girl baby ever died in that attic?”
“Huh?”
The chief’s eyes wavered.
“Well...”
“A roe deer...”
“......?”
“Have you ever killed a roe deer?”
“......”
“Chief.”
“Aigoo.”
The chief swayed and pressed a hand to his forehead.
“Take Dong-cheol’s hand.”
“Dong-cheol?”
As the chief fumbled, Kang-to took both of his hands in his own.
“I’m going to channel a spirit for a moment. Just keep your mind at ease.”
Kang-to closed his eyes. At once, the spirit that Kang-to and Dong-cheol were seeing came into the chief’s view.
“Ugh. That...”
The chief’s body began to convulse.
“Who is it?”
“Sun... Sun-dan?”
“Who’s Sun-dan?”
“My sister... the one who died years ago... two years older than Dong-cheol...”
Dong-cheol’s older sister. So he had had a sister.
Kang-to had spent more than ten years studying on the mainland, so there was plenty about the island he simply didn’t know.
“You can open your eyes now.”
“Urrgh.”
When the resonance ended, the chief ended up sitting hard on the floor.
Silence settled over the small living room. The chief said nothing, only rubbed his hands together and together again.
“Chief.”
“......”
“If you don’t want to talk, I’ll ask the spirit directly.”
As Kang-to rose to his feet—
“No. I’ll tell you.”
—the chief finally opened his mouth. He went straight to the refrigerator, yanked it open, and drained an entire bottle of water. Then he threw himself onto the battered sofa.
“You’re saying Sun-dan became a Taejagwi...”
“......”
“Because of that damned roe deer.”
Kang-to’s ears sharpened. Exorcising a Taejagwi or some animal spirit was not the problem. Hearing the story would be easy enough.
The real issue was resolving the grudge and guiding the spirits onward. By the principle of clearing the cause at its source, there might be a need for the perpetrator to face their guilt and offer an apology. Little Dong-cheol almost certainly hadn’t been the one to create that resentment in the first place.
The roe deer.
The chief’s memories rolled backward into the past. On that hill had been Dong-cheol’s father.
The chief’s son was quick on his feet, strong, and a dutiful boy besides. Back then, as now, it was no easy thing for an island bachelor to find a wife. When he came out of the army, he brought one home with him—a girl who had worked part-time at a PC bang near his posting.
The trouble was the chief’s wife’s obsession with having a son. Dong-cheol’s father was an only son for three generations, so the pressure for a boy had always been fierce.
“We’re only going to have two.”
That had been the young couple’s declaration. If it were up to her, the mother-in-law would have loved to cradle three or four fine, sturdy boys, but the daughter-in-law had come all the way from the mainland, and they couldn’t exactly force the issue.
They started with a daughter.
She looked like her mother and was frail into the bargain. Before that disappointment had even faded, the daughter-in-law became pregnant again.
This time, it was a son.
For the chief’s wife, it was her last chance.
“These days, everyone likes daughters better.”
The daughter-in-law’s protests didn’t reach her ears.
Fortunately, the baby was a boy. That child was Dong-cheol.
Dong-cheol wasn’t frail, either. A healthy grandson and a fourth-generation only son—the grandmother’s boundless affection quickly curdled into favoritism. Whenever her son, daughter-in-law, and the chief went out to sea, she doted on Dong-cheol alone.
If the granddaughter cried, she locked the child in the attic. The frail little girl grew weaker and weaker by the day.
Then Dong-cheol’s father brought home a roe deer. The timing was the night before Dong-cheol’s birthday. It had grown fat and plump, so he’d thought he’d give his son and daughter some nourishing meat and let them have a proper boost.
But when they cut it open—
“......?”
—there were two unborn young inside. Only then did they understand why the roe deer had run so poorly, why tears had been spilling from its eyes like little fistfuls of blood.
“Aigoo, roe deer meat like this is a tonic no worse than mountain ginseng...”
Old Kim, a neighbor who lived nearby at the time, saw the whole thing. Dong-cheol’s father had tried to bury the unborn young, but Old Kim snatched them away. That winter, Old Kim died in an inexplicable fall on the breakwater.
Dong-cheol’s grandmother boiled the roe deer and, when she saw the boy drooling, gave him a generous serving of meat.
“Aigoo, my little one, you’re eating so deliciously.”
She lived with nothing but her grandson in her heart. He was her apple of her eye.
But for the granddaughter, who drooled just the same—
“Go away. I’ll give you some when it’s ready.”
—all she ever got back was coldness and abuse.
While the grandmother fished out the meat and fussed over Dong-cheol, the granddaughter quietly sneaked up and swallowed a piece.
That was the beginning of the trouble. Terrified of being scolded, she ate in such a hurry that the food sat badly in her stomach.
Even so, she overdid it at the late-night feast that day. At home she had become the family’s unwanted child, but tonight there was plenty of meat, so even the grandmother’s discrimination was out in full force.
The girl fell ill for real. Overeating while already suffering from indigestion made it worse, and worse still. Yet the granddaughter received not even comfort.
The problem, as always, was the grandmother.
“She’s faking it.”
She refused even to believe the child was sick.
And worse than that...
“If you were going to end up looking like that anyway, you should’ve died early.”
—she hurled curses too vile to repeat.
“That’s how it happened. Not long after the girl died, right? Her father took the fishing boat out, it flipped, and he died. My wife had a stroke and can barely speak now, and her hands don’t work right... the daughter-in-law left home... then one day Dong-cheol started having seizures. At first we thought he’d grow out of it, but every night... We even took him to a big hospital on the mainland, but they said they couldn’t cure him... and whenever his birthday gets close, there’s always some awful accident...”
The chief’s recollection came to an end.
“That granddaughter became a Taejagwi. I think the roe deer ghost was where it began.”
“I’ve heard of human ghosts, but...” The chief swallowed. “Can a deer become a ghost too?”
“Animal souls are usually little more than primal spirits, but if the animal was on the verge of reincarnating as a human, or if something spiritual had taken root in it, then yes.”
“Then is that thing the one possessing Dong-cheol?”
“More likely it wasn’t the deer alone, but the deer and the granddaughter acting together. Should we go and check?”
“Me too?”
The chief’s voice trembled. The man who had been shouting about ghosts and superstition was nowhere to be seen.
“Is Grandma asleep?”
“Y-yes...”
“If she’s already had a stroke, then heaven has clearly handed down punishment. Same for your son, who killed the roe deer... and the daughter-in-law who left for the mainland and never came back.”
“All of that... was heaven’s punishment?”
“Dong-cheol’s illness is part of the same chain. Right now he only has seizures at night and around his birthday, but in the end it’ll turn into something much worse, or...”
“H-heavens.”
The chief looked utterly at sea.
Where were all those ghosts now? Gone. Everyone felt brave until the thing reached their own doorstep. It was easy to bluster when there was no solution in hand.
“Wake Grandma and bring her to Dong-cheol’s room. I think the first step in settling this grudge has to be her.”
Kang-to rose.
The chief’s Adam’s apple bobbed wildly. Dong-cheol’s room, which had seemed ordinary only moments ago, suddenly felt cold enough to raise gooseflesh.
“Ughhh...”
Once the spirit was called forth, Dong-cheol’s grandmother was seized by violent convulsions. Sun-dan’s spirit grew startlingly vivid, as though it were about to spill out before their eyes. He saw the bloody tears running from the spirit’s head and eyes.
The chief, too, was thrown into chaos at the sight.
“It’s all right. Focus on the spirit.”
Kang-to’s possession did not break.
“Grandma.”
The granddaughter’s Taejagwi drifted in front of the chief, and the roe deer’s spirit did the same.
“Why do you only love Dong-cheol? Why do you only buy him new clothes?”
“Sun-dan.”
“Why do you only give Dong-cheol good food? Why don’t you give me any and just hit me instead?”
“......”
“I didn’t do anything wrong. So why? Why did you say such nasty things to Mom and Dad? Why? Why?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Not grandpa. Grandma.”
“......”
“I hate Grandma. I hate her so much I could die.”
“So that’s why you made Grandma and Dong-cheol sick?”
“Grandma should hurt more. Just as much as I hurt.”
“I’m sorry. This old grandfather is sorry.”
“Why are you sorry?”
“What about your father, and Old Kim?”
“The roe deer did it. The roe deer was angry too. Just like me.”
The spirit’s radiance grew redder and redder. If it went on any longer, the chief might take damage, so Kang-to ended the possession there.
“Ughhh...”
At last, the chief lost consciousness as well.
When Kang-to finally finished calming Dong-cheol’s seizure, the chief and the grandmother could only stare at him.
The boy had been rolling on the floor with his eyes turned white, clawing at the wall with both hands. It was a perfect copy of a deer’s behavior.
“What should we do?” the chief asked, breaking the silence.
“Grandma has to take the lead.”
“But after her stroke, this woman...”
“What matters is her heart.”
“Kang-to Beopsa.”
“Where did you bury the deer bones?”
“Those... over beyond the sand dune on the other side...”
“Ma’am.”
Kang-to turned to the grandmother.
“You used to hit Sun-dan a lot, didn’t you?”
“......”
“That’s why the stroke came and your hands lost their strength. This isn’t something hospital treatment can fix, so if you don’t ask your granddaughter for forgiveness, the illness will only grow worse. Same with Dong-cheol.”
“Dong-cheol...”
The grandmother reacted at once. Even after the stroke, the yearning she felt for her fourth-generation only grandson, Kim Dong-cheol, remained as raw as ever.
“You saw Sun-dan’s bloody tears, didn’t you?”
“I... I did. But back then, why did I hate Sun-dan so much...”
Tears gathered in the old woman’s wrinkled eyes.
“Buy some of the things Sun-dan liked, set them out in the attic, and beg her with those bloody tears of yours. Once Sun-dan is guided onward, I’ll take care of the deer ghost myself.”
“I understand.”
With the grandmother’s resolve, night deepened.
The confession of the grudge continued into the next night. Colorful snacks and a set of clothes were prepared, and a little table was arranged in the middle of the attic.
The grandmother’s prayer began. Her body was far from well, but this was for her grandson, so she dragged every last ounce of strength into it.
“Sun-dan, I’m sorry. This old woman was wrong.”
Because of her stroke, both her pronunciation and her hand movements were awkward. But that didn’t matter so long as the feeling reached the spirit.
Still, the attic was cold as ice. Sun-dan’s spirit glared at her grandmother with both eyes wide open.
“Liar.”
“Grandma doesn’t like me.”
“It’s all lies.”
Two hours passed, and the spirit was still the same. If anything, it only seethed more violently, trembling with rage.
When the clock struck eleven, the hour of deepest yin—when ghosts drew their strongest—Sun-dan’s resentment swelled to the brink of explosion.
Is it not working?
It was a child’s spirit. Most of the time, a child’s soul would respond to earnest repentance. And yet the anger refused to subside, revealing just how deep Sun-dan’s resentment truly ran.
The spirit drifted toward the grandmother. Fear seized her body. Curses and grudges were a dangerous snare; if it attached itself properly, she could drop dead in the middle of the prayer.
This won’t do.
Kang-to slipped into possession.
The very instant the guardian spirits were about to emerge—
Drop.
—blood tears began to fall from the grandmother’s eyes.
“......?”
The spirit seemed to hesitate. It was because of the grandmother. The spirit had been moved by the apology written in blood tears.
After watching for a long moment, the spirit reached out and thrust a hand into the grandmother’s heart. It was checking for sincerity.
The grandmother took the pain willingly. Meanwhile, the blood tears she shed stained her knees red. As those tears flowed to the spirit’s feet, the spirit’s fierce aura grew calmer. The rage was beginning to settle.
“I’m sorry. Next time, when we meet, I’ll treat you and Dong-cheol the same.”
The grandmother was desperate. She repeated the words again and again like a prayer.
“Really?”
For a moment, Sun-dan’s spirit wavered, then sat down in front of the offering table.
Through the grandmother’s sobs, the spirit took a single blue candy into its mouth, then put on the red clothes and the yellow ones. After that, it approached the grandmother and gently stroked her head and hands.
It’s being resolved...
The moment Kang-to, who had been watching from the side, finally caught his breath, the spirit seemed to blur for an instant, and the grandmother collapsed. When he looked into the attic again, Sun-dan’s spirit was gone, and only the faint spirit of the roe deer remained.
Good.
“Nothing else will happen, so put them down carefully and let them rest.”
With a sigh of relief, Kang-to gave the chief his instructions and ran toward the sand dune.
With the aid of his possession, he found the traces of the deer bones. There were traces of the unborn young as well. After wrapping them in talismans, he buried them gently in the same place. Only then did the traces of the roe deer spirit drifting over the sand dune begin to fade.
“Kang-to Beopsa...”
The chief had come out to the doorway.
“What about Dong-cheol and Grandma?”
“They’re asleep, but is it all right to just leave them?”
“Don’t wake them. The spirits have been guided onward, so once they sleep it off, they’ll be better.”
After leaving those instructions, he walked toward the lighthouse.
White snow drifted down over the white tower. Kang-to’s fatigue sank quietly beneath the falling flakes.
The next morning,
he woke to the chief’s voice, frenzied and gasping.
“Kang-to Beopsa, Kang-to Beopsa!”