The Kindness of Ghosts
Ching.
The sacred shaman bell rang out.
And in the same breath, the night road that had pressed in so dark and chill reached him touched with something like calm.
Ching, ching, ching.
When the bell rang, it rang for other people's sake.
Maybe that was just what the countryside did to a place. Wandering spirits — there were so many of them around here.
Sss—
Kang Hyeong-seok gave the Sinjangkal in his right hand a shake, as though flicking something off the blade, then rattled the shaman bell with the lightest touch of his wrist.
Chilililililing.
The sight carried such uncanny power that Shin Jeong-ah swallowed, her mouth gone suddenly dry. It was the first time she had ever seen him wield the Sinjangkal.
Martial might, spiritual potency, inner force, cultivated power — a heavy presence she didn't even have the vocabulary for rolled off him in waves, while the air around them, by contrast, grew lighter and lighter.
Thud, thud.
Walking on, Kang Hyeong-seok rounded his lips.
Fweeeeee—
It was the sobeop — a shaman's secret art for flushing out even the spirits that hid themselves. With the relic bell that chimed only for its one true master layered over the whistle, and the Sinjangkal besides, no wandering spirit on earth could keep itself hidden from him.
Ching.
A fair while later, Kang Hyeong-seok stilled the bell.
"Is it over?"
Shin Jeong-ah asked carefully, eyes sweeping their surroundings, and he tucked the bell away inside his jacket.
"Yes. I've sent the lesser spirits on their way."
Something could still go wrong — something always could. Only Kang Hyeong-seok could work ahead of time to erase that possibility, which was exactly why Shin Yo-sep had sent him on first.
"Let's get going, then. You'll want to wrap this up fast and go collect that prize money."
"Huh? Oh — right."
As if only now remembering, Shin Jeong-ah fell in close beside him, and Kang Hyeong-seok quickened his pace toward their destination.
The night wind had a real bite of cool to it. And yet it felt neither unpleasant nor ominous — just crisp air of the kind that made you wish for nothing but good news, wrapping itself around the two of them as they walked.
Ching, ching, ching.
With every step, the bell tucked against his chest gave off its bright ring — which meant the spirits were thickening the closer they drew to their destination.
Swish.
He lifted the lantern and swept its light across the structure, and a textbook abandoned country building emerged from the dark. When had anyone last lived here? Five years ago? Maybe longer.
Broken windows, a single-story frame, a roof of traditional curved tiles. The outer walls were brick, with a bulge pushing out from one side as if a room had been tacked on in haste.
Fweeeeee—
Chanting his sobeop, Kang Hyeong-seok walked the building's outer wall. Wandering spirits were everywhere; the kind bound to a single spot were sometimes called earthbound spirits, and while this place had its share of drifting souls, none of that sort lingered here.
"It's not a haunted house. Just an ordinary abandoned building."
"Haaah."
The tension drained out of Shin Jeong-ah; she swept a hand down her chest and looked at him as though he'd performed a miracle.
"So we just take the photo and head out, right?"
"One moment."
Kang Hyeong-seok texted Shin Yo-sep — a warning that nothing stood out, but spirits were present all the same, so be careful. No reply came, but with the others surely at his side, he hadn't expected one.
Tap. Tap-tap.
From his pocket he produced the pieces of meat he'd smuggled out and laid them on the ground. Then, hands pressed together, he offered a deep, respectful bow to the spirits huddled in clusters around the abandoned building.
"My friends and I will be visiting with proper courtesy, so please do not take offense — grant us your leave."
The wandering spirits, too, had once been living souls. This derelict building was their dwelling, their space.
"If you refuse us, we will turn back at once. If you grant it, we will commit no discourtesy of any kind."
There was no response of any kind. Even so, Kang Hyeong-seok held his courteous posture without faltering.
That was when it happened.
Ching.
The bell in his breast rang out on its own.
"Thank you."
Kang Hyeong-seok bowed once more to the spirits and straightened up — and there was nothing before his eyes but the pitch-dark building. Permission granted. The spirits had even withdrawn to give them room.
Did courtesy really need to run this deep? Shin Jeong-ah's stare, glued to him, seemed to ask exactly that — surely a shaman of Kang Hyeong-seok's caliber didn't have to beg permission. And in truth, he didn't. He bowed anyway, because a man of his station owed a bearing that matched it.
"Let's take the picture quick and get out."
"Uh — yeah!"
"One more thing, just in case: do not try to copy what I just did. Not ever."
"Wha— no, of course not."
What he'd done was address the dead directly. For someone without the Yeongan, the spiritual sight — someone who couldn't tell a malevolent ghost from an ordinary wandering soul — to carelessly imitate him was to risk drawing an evil spirit's attention. And once something like that had you in its sights, life became very, very tiring.
In any case, the two of them entered the abandoned building without a shred of unease.
Maybe that's why it feels like this — because it isn't actually haunted. Less scary than I expected.
While Shin Jeong-ah looked this way and that, Kang Hyeong-seok strode straight inside. He opened the door to the innermost room, snapped the photo on his phone, and came back out.
"Let's go."
"Already?"
"All finished."
It was, in the end, a simple courage test — nothing here to be startled by; closer to a game that had no business frightening anyone.
"Section Chief Kang, is there maybe a shortcut back?"
"We'd have to cut across private property. That's... not happening."
"God, you're so stiff, you know that?"
Grumbling her displeasure, Shin Jeong-ah still fell in step obediently behind him. And so they were walking along the main road when—
"Oh? Section Chief Kang!"
Namgoong Min-ah, coming from the opposite direction, spotted them and waved. Kang Hyeong-seok looked past her to Lee Jin-pyeong and Shin Yo-sep standing at her side, crooked one eyebrow, and spoke.
"Hold on — why are you here already?"
"The Department Head sent us ahead so we could get it done early."
It wasn't even that late, for the record. Still, he could feel Kwak Young-ho's worry for their safety behind it, so Kang Hyeong-seok nodded his understanding.
"Got it."
"Wait — if you're here, does that mean you've already taken your photo?"
"Yes. There's a room at the very back. It's dark in there, so the door can be hard to spot — look carefully."
"Ohh, ohhh."
Namgoong Min-ah bobbed her head in big, eager nods while Lee Jin-pyeong typed his every word into his phone. Meanwhile his gaze crossed Shin Yo-sep's — and the man's expression was nothing like the others'. It was closer to a teacher chaperoning a kindergarten class on a field trip.
"Section Chief Kang, is there anything we should watch out for?"
Shin Yo-sep asked the one question with any teeth in it. Shin Jeong-ah, who now knew exactly who he was, studied his reaction closely, while Kang Hyeong-seok answered with the deference due a valued client's most important guest.
"From what I've seen, there's nothing you need to worry much about."
"Really?"
"Yes. The houses are closer than you'd think — just keep your voices down, that's all."
"Understood. Good work out there."
Shin Yo-sep gave his forearm a light thump. A stranger watching might have called it insolent; knowing the truth of things, it could just as easily read as, you've really been through it, haven't you.
"Then we'll head in first."
"Yes."
Shin Yo-sep waved and drifted off, and soon a brisk patter of footsteps — presumably Namgoong Min-ah's — and Lee Jin-pyeong's distant "Uh, yeah" faded down the road.
"Should we pick up the pace too?"
At her suggestion, Kang Hyeong-seok let out a laugh that pushed the air clean from his lungs, then raised his stride into something close to a run. The night wind was wonderful, and a road already walked once always feels shorter on the way back.
Which was why he never saw it coming. Never knew what was waiting at the end of that road.
"Department Head?"
Shin Jeong-ah reached the pension, breathing a little hard, and looked around. No answer came back.
"Seriously? We're supposed to be timing this."
Brow furrowed, she pulled out her phone and dialed Kwak Young-ho — but however long the ringback tone droned on, nobody picked up.
"He's not answering?"
"...Nope. He isn't."
The two of them stood there in silence, one running her tongue along her molars, the other rubbing at the corner of his eye. He couldn't let himself think like this. But the fear that something terrible had happened kept welling up and flooding his head all the same.
"I'll take the back of the pension. Section Chief, check around the cars."
"Got it. Call me the second you find anything."
"I'll ask the pension owner as well."
"I'll handle the owner!"
No sooner had they split than Kang Hyeong-seok struck out for the rear of the building, lantern clicking on as he went — but the light did nothing but brighten the darkness. Nowhere, in any direction, was Kwak Young-ho.
Damn it all. This was supposed to be a courage test — a chance to make some memories. Not... this.
Rrrring!
"Hello? Section Chief, there's no one back here either. What's the owner saying?"
"Asking him right now. Hold on — here, I'll pass you over."
After a short rustle, a woman's voice came down the line, lower and rougher than Jeong-ah's.
"Yes? Hello?"
"This is one of the guests with the booking. You haven't seen him by any chance, have you?"
"He stepped outside while he was on the phone, earlier."
"...Pardon?"
A sliver of hope.
"I couldn't tell you the details. When I asked, he said something had happened to his Section Chief Kang — his face had gone white as a sheet, and off he went at a run."
And hard on hope's heels, despair.
"You should try calling that Section Chief Kang of yours. It seemed dreadfully urgent — I couldn't hold on to him, I'm afraid."
"...Understood."
That Section Chief Kang was him. The man himself hadn't even known — and trying to work out how he was supposed to absorb that made his temples throb.
"Hello?"
"Yes."
The owner must have handed the phone back, because Shin Jeong-ah's voice came through — flustered, unsteady. Kang Hyeong-seok pulled in a long, slow breath and spoke in a level, unhurried voice.
"Stay calm, Section Chief. We'll take it one thing at a time."
They were both every bit as rattled. But panic that only stamped its feet in place would accomplish nothing — they'd miss what could be seen, and never find what could be found.
"O-okay."
"Right. Meet me at the terrace out front."
He hung up, ground his molars together, and let a thin groan escape.
Where on earth had it gone wrong?
Judging by the owner's account, Kwak Young-ho had looked for all the world like a man bewitched.
By what, though...?
There should have been nothing to go wrong. The abandoned building wasn't haunted, and he'd even treated the wandering spirits of the area to meat and liquor. With no hostile energy lingering anywhere nearby, he felt as though he'd wandered into a fog too thick to see through.
Thud, thud.
Kang Hyeong-seok was walking toward the terrace, face clouded with thought, when—
"Section Chief Kang!"
Shin Jeong-ah's cry stopped him dead. Her face was rigid with terror. Even for a woman who had seen more than her share of ugly things, that expression needed no explanation. A coworker had vanished — at the company retreat, of all occasions, and of all people, Kwak Young-ho.
Beyond the glass, the pension owner — who ran a little café on the side — kept darting anxious glances their way; under that gaze, Kang Hyeong-seok's fist clenched and unclenched around the blameless lantern.
"Did you find anything? Wh-what do we do about the Department Head?"
"Hold on. Let's sort things out one at a time."
He forced a steady smile for her, then turned his head toward the dark. And then his face went hard — not from the weight of his thoughts.
Because of a faint light.
Wait...
A flame wavering near the parking lot out front looked, at a glance, like dokkaebi fire — a will-o'-the-wisp. It might have been a firefly. It might have been nothing at all.
He raised a hand to dam the torrent of questions spilling from Shin Jeong-ah beside him, fixed his eyes on the glow, and drew out the shaman bell. Then, keeping his hand held low where the owner couldn't see, he shook it at the height of his knee.
Ching.
The light stopped dead. Then it began to drift, slowly, until it hung pointing in a single direction — the very spot where they had looked out over the valley that afternoon.
The valley? Did Kwak Young-ho head out that way...?
Ching.
Now the light pulsed harder, as if urging him to hurry. Jaw clamped shut, he slipped the bell back into his breast and turned to Shin Jeong-ah.
"...What?"
She couldn't follow. He'd found the direction — surely that made the search easier.
"A possessed man and a missing man are found in entirely different ways. If the Department Head truly has been possessed, kicking up a ruckus will do nothing but harm."
Reading the question in her eyes, Kang Hyeong-seok gave his answer in a low voice, each word pressed flat with force. Only then did Shin Jeong-ah nod, lips still trembling. Whether because of the conviction carved into his face or not, the dread that had ruled her seemed, at last, to be easing its grip.
Thank you.
He turned back toward the glow — and there was nothing there anymore. Even so, he had a fair idea what that light had been, and why it had shown him the way, so Kang Hyeong-seok pressed his palms together in gratitude. One of the wandering spirits that had accepted the meat and liquor he'd set down while they grilled dinner on the terrace.
It had come to repay that kindness.
"Haah, haah — we won, didn't we?"
"Take it slow. No rush."
"Assistant Manager Lee, you're so slow!"
Voices drifted in from far off. The others, returning from the courage test.
Kang Hyeong-seok turned his head toward the sound — and fixed his gaze, unblinking, on Shin Yo-sep.