The Island Village Shaman Dad Is a Chaebol's Illegitimate Child... 68
The island village gathering was drawing near.
In the meantime, he boiled some water. It was Sol-bi’s snack time. When she wasn’t in sight, she’d gone off on some errand or other. A cup of instant noodles was enough. Honestly, sitting with Sol-bi on the mudflats or the sandy shore, eating cup noodles together, counted as healing in its own right.
If it was “just” cup noodles, then people had no right to talk unless they’d actually eaten them that way.
He took the cup noodles and went looking for Sol-bi. Just in case, he grabbed two extra cups.
“Lee Sol-bi.”
First he looked toward Chiluijae. She liked to wander up there when she was bored. Not there. Next, the mudflats. A father’s eyes were like a hawk’s. Even if dozens of people were spread across the flats, he could still spot Sol-bi. Not today. He could see people digging clams and asari, but Sol-bi was absent from roll call.
Where did she go?
Still, she was like Sun Wukong in the palm of the Buddha’s hand. He changed direction when he saw children near the branch school. The newly transferred kids and the regulars were playing soccer. At the far end of the playground, Jua, the sixth-grader, leaned against a ginkgo tree, blowing dandelion fluff into the air.
Jua didn’t get along well with the other children. It was because her father was rumored to be a murderer. That didn’t mean the island shunned her, though. She was alone herself, and the fact that her father had been such a kind man in life had inspired a kind of “there must have been a reason” sympathy among the villagers.
“Jua, have you seen Sol-bi?”
“In the classroom. I think she was practicing the piano.”
“Oh? Here, eat this.”
He handed over one of the spare cups of instant noodles.
“Um…”
Jua hesitated, then finally found her voice.
“What is it?”
“Can you read my fortune too? It’s expensive, right?”
“What’s a little kid want with fortune-telling?”
He handed her a pair of chopsticks and headed for the hallway.
“Lee Sol-bi.”
He called for Sol-bi over the sound of the waves. Piano notes drifted out. The culprit was Sol-bi. The melody was all over the place, but there was no mistaking it.
“Daddy?”
Had she sensed him? Or was it telepathy? Sol-bi answered at once. She hopped down from the chair and came running toward Kang-to.
“Why are you playing the piano?”
“I liked the sound the teacher made when she played it.”
“Spring in My Hometown?”
He knew from the sheet music.
“Mm-hm.”
“Want Daddy to play it?”
“Really?”
Sol-bi’s face lit up.
“But… won’t the teacher get mad?”
“Nope. She said I could practice earlier.”
“Good. Then snack first.”
“Yay, it’s my favorite jajjang cup stir-fry noodles.”
Sol-bi clapped and cheered. They moved to the hallway entrance, where yellow dandelions and purple violets bloomed in a tidy little cluster.
“Slowly.”
Her father’s impatience came out as scolding, sharp as a snapped whip. Sol-bi didn’t care. She was already inhaling it.
“So yummy.”
Sol-bi grinned, her face all scrunched with delight.
“Tastes even better because Daddy made it, right?”
“Yep.”
She never forgot to flatter him, even while gladly accepting his bragging rights.
“Eat slower. Look at your lips.”
The cup noodles vanished in an instant. But the evidence was plastered all around Sol-bi’s mouth. She ran to the glass along the hallway, checked her lips there, then...
Mwah.
She planted a kiss right on Kang-to’s mouth.
“Lee Sol-bi.”
When Kang-to looked pained, Sol-bi hugged him tightly.
“Hee-hee. Daddy’s the same as Sol-bi.”
The little menace burrowed straight into his arms. Ah, this outrageous imp. Against that devastating kind of cuteness, all the discipline in the world was useless.
“Now the piano.”
Before he’d even finished wiping his mouth, Sol-bi grabbed his hand and dragged him over.
“Honestly…”
He shot her a glare, then sat down at the piano. That was one of the advantages of a branch school on an island. Unlike a city school, they didn’t lock it up the moment classes ended.
Villagers came in, crabs came in, and sometimes even deer and the sound of the waves came in too. Together with all of them, the place turned into both an after-school classroom and a playground. And yet nothing unsavory ever happened. Open to the whole island—that was the branch school of Chilui Island.
“So-sol-mi-fa-sol la-la-sol sol-do-mi-re-do-re~”
Kang-to placed his fingers on the keys. At first, the tempo was a little slow. But he quickly found his old footing. He’d been in the piano club in middle and high school. Whenever his Shinyeol seized up, he played piano. He wasn’t good enough for the conservatory, but he’d been known as one of the better players at school.
“Wow.”
Sol-bi stared in admiration.
“I miss those days I used to play in that groove.”
Sol-sol-sol mi-re-do.
The piece ended without a single mistake.
“Daddy’s the best.”
Sol-bi shot him double thumbs-up. A father’s reward. People who’ve never been recognized by their little daughter don’t know what that means. That was why fathers wanted to be Superman, even if it wore their bones down to dust. At least in front of their sons and daughters.
“Daddy, Sol-bi wants to be a pianist too.”
“Didn’t you say you wanted to be a Naive-like idol singer last time?”
“I changed my mind. I’m going to be a pianist.”
She wrapped her arms around him and shut him up before he could say another word. Magician, teacher, doctor, idol singer... this was already the twelfth time Sol-bi’s dream had changed. Well, whatever. When you’re a kid, the more dreams the better.
“Huh?”
The teacher appeared.
“Huff…”
Looking at Kang-to and Sol-bi, she couldn’t suppress a laugh. It was because of the traces of jajjang sauce still smeared around their mouths.
“Sorry.”
He apologized and slipped out quickly.
Jua was still blowing dandelion fluff into the wind.
“Daddy, do you know this?”
“What?”
“If you put a wish into dandelion fluff and blow it away, it comes true.”
“Really?”
“Yep. Sol-bi tried it too.”
“What did Sol-bi wish for?”
“Secret.”
“......”
“I’m going to do it one more time. Daddy can go ahead first.”
Sol-bi ran toward Jua. Then she bent down beside her and blew dandelion fluff into the air. Jua, who had looked lonely a moment ago, let a faint smile slip across her face. Lonely people needed warmth. Someone else’s warmth. And today, for Jua, Sol-bi was that warmth.
Whoosh.
Following the child’s breath, the white little parachutes of dandelion seed drifted far, far away. A secret? She really had grown up. So now she had secrets of her own too. He smiled to himself and turned away.
“Now then, let’s all give Shaman Kang-to a round of applause and ask him for a few words.”
Chief Choi set the mood, and a cheer rose up with thunderous applause.
Everyone familiar from Chilui Island had gathered. The children were taking their meal in a separate room. It was, in every sense, a proper island feast. As for the spread? No need to worry. Fishermen, including Captain Song, had supplied fish, and the young grandmothers—still energetic enough to be called girls in spirit—had contributed clams, shellfish, blue crabs, and more. Even Grandpa Yeong-sil, the master octopus catcher, had generously brought in a whole platter of freshly caught octopus, so the table was groaning under the weight of it all.
“Thank you. I hope we can keep relying on your support.”
Kang-to’s words were brief. Just because he’d become a little famous didn’t mean he intended to posture in front of the island’s elders. Before or now, Kang-to was still just Kang-to.
“What? That’s all?”
“Too short, ain’t it? And this is someone who’s been on TV and met the president…”
The grandmothers began to complain.
“Then should I fill in the rest for him?”
The head of the fishing cooperative stood up.
“Aigoo, forget it. Let’s drink before the alcohol gets warm.”
“That’s right, that’s right. The seafood stew’s gonna go cold.”
The grandmothers didn’t even spare the head of the fishing cooperative a glance.
“Well, ain’t that something? Even when they’re old, women still like younger men, huh?”
While the head of the cooperative played along, Grandma Hong-seo and Grandma Jang-gu’s grandmother came in.
“They’re here. The real deal—Samhaegwiju.”
The head of the cooperative and Chief Choi broke into applause and brightened at once.
“Now then, what do we have here?”
Grandma Hong-seo lifted up a bottle.
“This here is the realest of the real, the one and only Samhaegwiju. Even if there’s plenty of cider out by Incheon’s waters... anyway, this liquor goes first to our Shaman Kang-to, the one who deals with spirits. Anybody got a problem with that can go home.”
“Aigoo, we get it, so quit the speech and pass it around already. Waiting on ghost liquor’s gonna melt my belly right out.”
The head of the cooperative shoved Grandma Hong-seo and the others aside.
There was nothing for it; he had to accept the first cup. Then he took the bottle and filled the elders’ glasses one by one.
Since the founding of the lighthouse shrine, the mood in the island village had changed for the better. It had finally escaped its long slide into decline. The two chiefs had led by example. They’d publicly declared that new arrivals would not be shaken down with “welcome money” or other petty extortion, and that if anyone bullied a newcomer from outside for no reason, they wouldn’t let it slide.
“But...”
Kang-to looked at Grandma Hong-seo.
Samhaegwiju. It was liquor distilled one more time from Samhaeju. If you traced the dates backward, it made no sense.
Samhaesoju was made on the first pig day after Lunar New Year. Every thirty-six days after that, rice, water, and nuruk were added. Only after 108 days was it complete. The proper way was to drink it six months after it was finished. Distill that liquor once more, and it became the ghost liquor Samhaegwiju.
Of course, that was the old way. These days, with refrigerators, you could make it year-round. Even so, it still didn’t add up. Grandma Hong-seo and Grandma Jang-gu’s grandmother had only just started this. If it were cloudy rice wine, maybe, but ghost liquor wasn’t something that should be ready yet.
“How did you make it already?”
Grandma Hong-seo read his thoughts.
“That’s why it’s ghost liquor.”
“......?”
“Truth is, it’s because of that lady over there, Grandma Gwanghae.”
Grandma Hong-seo pointed to the far end of the table. She was from Oechil-ri—the last house near the cliff edge. Which meant Kang-to didn’t know her very well.
“She’s Grandma Jang-gu’s cousin, and the story came up while we were making liquor. Turns out her family had a history with it too. So we went to ask, and she said they really did have ghost liquor there. The old man who died two years ago liked it, so they’d been making a little at a time to put on his ancestral table. But last year, the children didn’t come on memorial day, so a few bottles were left over. It was liquor brewed on Haeil and Hae-si. So we got it from them.”
“Ah.”
“I meant to tell you ahead of time, but my mind’s always slipping, so—ah, come on, everybody, give it a round of applause.”
At Grandma Hong-seo’s prompting, applause burst out all around them.
Ghost liquor, Samhaegwiju.
In other words, the real thing. The kind of liquor that, if a human drank it, they became a ghost, and if a ghost drank it, they became human. That legendary drink went down Kang-to’s throat. It packed a wallop of seventy-one proof.
......?
Kang-to’s breathing stopped for a second. He thought it would burn a hole through his throat and shove a fireball straight into his stomach. But that wasn’t what happened. It gently stroked his mouth and throat as it went. The taste was sharp, yes, but it slipped down with elegance, as if he were drinking the spirit of rice itself.
“Aigoo, this really is the genuine article. It goes down all by itself.”
“I’m telling you. This isn’t liquor from this world.”
Even the experienced tasters with a nose for such things admitted it right away.
They poured some for the tourists who’d come to watch the lively scene, and they all clicked their tongues at the seventy-one proof. It was simply too smooth for something that strong.
“Shaman Kang-to, can you see us? We’ve all turned into ghosts, haven’t we?”
“Buddy, ask me, not him. Shaman Kang-to’s got spirit eyes that see ghosts long dead, right?”
“That’s right. Can you see me? Blood’s not running out of my eyes, is it? Like in those old ghost legends?”
In the middle of Chief Choi and the fishing cooperative head’s corny jokes, the warm atmosphere ripened.
“All right then, let’s wrap it up. To the day Chilui Branch School is promoted to the main school.”
“Cheers!”
With Chief Choi’s toast, the island party came to an end.
“It’s Jua’s older sister.”
On the way back to the lighthouse, Sol-bi’s instincts kicked in first. Under the darkening streetlamp stood Jua. In her hand, she still held a tuft of dandelion fluff.
“Jua, did you have dinner?”
Kang-to asked.
“She only ate a little.”
Sol-bi stepped in as spokesperson.
“You’re not sick or anything, are you?”
“No…”
“If you stay out here too long, you’ll catch a cold.”
“I’m fine with that.”
“Still...”
He nodded and started to pass Jua by. She was the only sixth-grader at the branch school on the island. Which meant she was thirteen, the age when puberty begins.
At home, she lived only with her grandfather and grandmother. So there were many times when she was left alone.
Just then—
“Sol-bi’s dad.”
Jua grabbed Kang-to’s hand as he passed. Then, once again, she brought up the matter of fortune-telling.
“Please read my fortune.”
“You’re serious?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Please let me meet a ghost too.”
She bowed low and held out ten crumpled one-thousand-won bills.
“This is all the money I have.”
Droplets of tears fell from her lowered face and soaked into her slippers.
......?
Kang-to was taken aback. Why was this child so serious?