The Hoho Cafe

Maybe it was the Monday morning, but the bus to Gangwon had seats to spare. I'd cleared every root of ginseng out of the company fridge and munched them like snacks the whole way, crunching as I went, and something about it felt like a school field trip. My mood lifted.

Then my phone buzzed. The message was from Joo Chaeyeon.

Word that an executive had taken notice of me was clearly spreading. Taking the day off had been the right call. If I was gone all day, things ought to quiet down.

The engine droned as the bus left the city behind and climbed onto the highway. I drew the Dokkaebi Club out of my bag. If I was heading into Gangwon, a region with a reputation for spiritual potency, it would help to have an assistant along. I'd worn myself out burning through blue lines without restraint, and if another ghost showed up, things could get dangerous. I felt bad consulting an occult specialist every single time, and there was always a bit of a lag besides, so I meant to use him as a substitute.

The muttering kept hammering at my ears. I drew a breath and peeled the wrapping ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cloth away, and only then did the dokkaebi's muffled shouting come through sharp and clear.

"Hey! Let me out right noooow! I said let me gooooo!"

"God, you're loud."

"Oh! You can finally hear me! Untie me, quick! Let me go!"

"You can leave on your own, can't you? I'm not the one holding you."

"Noooooo! This thing's got my ankle and won't let go!!! Burn this stick right now!!! Three pinches of salt, then set it on fire!!! It has to be exactly three pinches!"

"If I burn it, what happens to you?"

"I'll diiiiie! Better to die than stay bound to an object I hate this much!"

Just as I'd read in the Joseon Record of Anomalies. Even so, I hadn't expected him to actually choose death simply because he disliked the object he was bound to.

I couldn't have said why, but I rather liked the creature. A temperament this prickly might suit a mage just fine.

"Then what would it take for you to like it?"

"Huh?"

The dokkaebi went suddenly quiet.

"I asked what it would take for you to like it."

He blurted the answer so fast I might as well never have asked.

"Hmm... The things I like have to come to a sharp point. That's how my edge gets to shine, I suppose? And I'd want the material to be something that glitters. That fountain pen from before was cold and shiny... metal? They called it metal? Is that right? Anyway, something like that would be good..."

He talked without pausing for breath. Left to ramble on his own, he was like a radio, and oddly entertaining.

"Fine. How about I dress this club up until you like it as much as possible?"

"Huh...? That's possible...?"

"You said a sharp point was good, right?"

I took out the multi-tool I'd packed just in case and, with a dry scraping sound, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠trimmed the tip of the Dokkaebi Club until it came to a slight edge. The dokkaebi burst into cheers.

"Ohhh? Ohhhhhh...! I-it's getting sharp...! My body's getting sharperrr...!"

"How's this?"

"Deeply satisfying! Deeply satisfying, I say! Honestly I'd like it a little sharper, but then the balance would be off, you know...! Proportion matters, just as the harmony of yin and yang matters, yes, yes...!"

He sounded thoroughly pleased.

"The shine I can probably manage with paint or some kind of coating. That'll have to wait until I've stopped in Gangwon and come back, though."

He asked in a considerably urgent voice. The bait was nearly in his mouth.

"What? Really? How soon after you're back?"

"As soon as I can. But first I'd have to make it back in one piece, wouldn't I?"

All at once his tone turned arrogant.

"Why wouldn't I make it back from Gangwon in one piece? I'm here, aren't I? I'm a dokkaebi. Don't you know the great dokkaebi?"

I could tell his power was considerable, but with him shut inside the club it was hard to gauge. The yellow lines coming off the club itself were tangled with the dokkaebi's own yellow lines, and the frequencies seemed to be scrambling each other. So I tried the name of the most recent ghost I'd dealt with.

"If there are things like the Agwi King around, it could still be dangerous."

The dokkaebi snorted.

"Pfft... the Agwi King? Did you just say the A-gwi King? A hundred scrubs like that could rush me and they'd run the moment they met my eyes! I'm a Mangnyangshin dokkaebi, you hear me?!"

I let out a short laugh and tapped the Dokkaebi Club as if to say I understood. He hadn't just nibbled the bait. He'd swallowed it whole. Everything was going according to plan.

Gwandong Seollyeongcho. A spirit herb said to bloom in Sokcho, Gangwon Province. The moment I stepped off at the bus terminal, I asked a local Sokcho guide. People born and raised in a place often knew more than you'd expect.

"Excuse me. Have you heard of seollyeongcho?"

The woman, who looked to be in her mid-sixties, nodded.

"Seollyeongcho? Ah, you mean seollyeong sedge? Sure, I know it."

"Oh. Where can I see some?"

"Mm, for that you'd have to go pretty high up a mountain... The closest thing is over there."

She pointed beneath a tree outside the terminal. Ordinary weeds had been left to grow under it.

"This weed is seollyeong sedge?"

"No, it just looks almost exactly the same. The tips are a little different, though. You pull up seollyangsa-cho, toss raw fish in with vinegared chili paste, and mix it all together—it's seriously delicious."

"Right. Thank you."

I gave her a short bow and walked over to the tree. Weeds, no matter how I looked at them. I could sort things out by their blue lines, so it would probably be fine, but finding the real herb on a mountain clearly wasn't going to be easy.

"Blue lines everywhere."

I left the terminal and started up whatever hill rose behind it. The whole slope was a snarl of blue lines, thousands of them tangled together until I couldn't tell one ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠from another.

"Kkaebi."

Calling him a dokkaebi felt too distant, so I'd decided to shorten it. Kkaebi answered in a slightly excited voice. I'd promised to paint him with gleaming silver once we got home.

"What?"

"Ever heard of seollyeongcho?"

"Seollyeongcho? Sure. That's a spirit herb, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Where in Sokcho would I find it?"

"Somewhere as high as you can get? It'll be mostly around caves, though. It likes damp places."

"Okay. Thanks."

I immediately searched for a mountain that was both high and likely to be deserted. Misiryeong, Hwangcheolbong, and Jeombongsan came up. Hwangcheolbong was too much of a bare rock face, and Misiryeong had a road with cars passing all the time. The last candidate, Jeombongsan, was a mountain you needed a reservation to enter.

Then it was obviously Jeombongsan. Important items had a way of turning up wherever it was hard to get in.

I called the Jeombongsan management office at once, only to hear that Mondays were a holiday.

"Hm. Even better. Nobody around."

I took a city bus and arrived near the mountain, then checked inside my bag and counted the ginseng I had left. This much was enough. When you invested, you sometimes had to invest on leverage.

I focused as hard as I could on the ground near the summit. Mist spun from the blue lines scattering off my body drifted slowly outward, and at last the blue mist reached the heights of Jeombongsan. I pictured a switch inside my heart and pressed it.

In the same instant my body seemed to lift, buoyant—and then I landed hard. I lurched as if I might pitch over on the spot and only just threw both arms out to catch my balance. It was my second time. I was definitely finding my center faster.

Wind rushed past, and Sokcho's magnificent view opened before my eyes. Peak after peak stretched away without end. The clouds lay below me, and it felt as if I were standing on top of them.

I had arrived at the summit of Jeombongsan by Teleport. The scenery was genuinely beautiful. I'd never seen anything like it. The pleasure didn't last.

"Ugh..."

I clutched my swaying body and sat down against a nearby rock. One wrong step and I could have rolled straight off the mountain. If a mage died in a fall, there could be no greater embarrassment.

Crunch. Crunch, crunch. I saved exactly one root for emergencies and wolfed down the rest, and only then did my strength start to creep back.

I drew a deep breath and shot to my feet. Only then did the Red Lines hiding behind the blue ones come into view.

"There's a ton of them."

The Red Lines strewn all over the place looked like scraps of balloons that had already burst—traces of lines that had swollen and popped more times than I could count. The Red Line that had burst over the bus driver's head couldn't even compare.

"Now that I think about it, they said missing-person cases have been climbing around Sokcho lately. Men and women, young and old."

That was when someone suddenly spoke to me.

"Hello?"

A woman who looked to be in her late twenties or early thirties. Beauty clung to her in a ripe, sultry air. She wore leggings that hugged her legs and a long-sleeved shirt that hid none of her figure, and as she wiped the sweat from her neck with a handkerchief, she smiled, alluring. I dipped my head.

"Hello."

"Oh my, you're here alone? This trail's pretty rough, you know!"

"Ah, yes. I took a day off today. Thought I'd clear my head."

"A day off! You work in an office?"

"Yes."

"Would it be all right if I asked where?"

"I work at Pungjeon Group."

She drummed on my arm with a soft hand.

"Oh my, oh my! That's a major corporation! You must be a real talent...!"

"I'm just a contract employee."

"What does a contract matter! What matters is the skill that got you into a major company! Aigoo, look at me. I run a cafe out of that shelter over there. Would you like a cup of coffee? The cookies are free!"

She smiled charmingly and pointed behind her. A tidy little shelter stood there, and above it hung a signboard with a cute name.

I nodded.

"Sure. Sounds good."

"Working at a big company must be why even your answers sound so sure of themselves! Come on, follow me!"

I followed her. Stone cairns lined both sides of the path to the shelter. Noticing my gaze, she smiled with her eyes.

"They're prayers to the mountain gods. Asking not to get hurt on the way up."

"I see."

I arrived in front of the cafe. As expected of a closed day, there was no one there.

"Come in."

She smiled brightly and indicated the inside. Instead of answering, I asked a question.

"Who did you say this woman was?"

She tilted her head as if she had no idea what I meant.

"Sorry? I told you, I'm the owner who runs the cafe...?"

"No. Not you. This one."

I pointed at the Dokkaebi Club, which I'd drawn at some point. Kkaebi had been chattering noisily the whole way up, and now he cackled.

"A changgwi! A changgwi! How many humans did you drag off and offer up to that damn tiger to reek this bad, huh?! You wretched thing!!"

In an instant the woman's alluring face twisted like a malicious ghost's.

"You filthy bastards...!"