What the Water Hides
"Huh? Where's the Department Head?"
Namgoong Min-ah had gone looking for Kwak Young-ho the moment she set foot in the pension. For an instant, Shin Jeong-ah's face went dark — but it was Kang Hyeong-seok who answered.
"He stepped out to the supermarket just down the road."
"I'm sorry... what?"
Namgoong Min-ah's reaction was pure bafflement, and Kang Hyeong-seok pressed on with an awkward smile.
"He'll be back any minute. I couldn't tell you what it was, but he seemed in an awful hurry to buy something."
"Oh... then who took first place?"
"He asked me to keep the time for him."
Kang Hyeong-seok made a show of glancing at his wristwatch, then flashed her a smile.
"Your team came in a little ahead of ours, Ms. Namgoong."
"Oh? R-really?"
"That you did."
"Woo-hoo! Yes!"
From that moment on, Namgoong Min-ah seemed entirely unbothered by the Department Head's absence.
Shin Yo-sep, on the other hand, had evidently picked up on something, and his eyes settled on Kang Hyeong-seok. Are you really telling nothing but the truth? His gaze said exactly that, plain as day.
"He is awfully late, though. We'll go check on the Department Head — Namgoong Min-ah, Assistant Manager Lee, you two wait here and rest. Call us if anything comes up."
Kang Hyeong-seok spoke while looking Lee Jin-pyeong square in the eye. The man was oblivious to a fault, but he was steadfast, and he did whatever was asked of him without delay. Someone like Lee Jin-pyeong he could trust with Namgoong Min-ah.
"Yes, Section Chief."
Lee Jin-pyeong answered with his usual impassive face, and Kang Hyeong-seok's gaze dropped to his feet.
Arf! Arf! The spirit Spitz that shadowed Lee Jin-pyeong's every step looked up at Kang Hyeong-seok and barked with bold confidence. This was the one that had stood guard over him back at the hospital, too.
Kang Hyeong-seok dipped his chin in acknowledgment and shifted his gaze to Shin Yo-sep.
"Will you be joining us, Executive Director? You did mention wanting to ask me about something."
"Ah — the materials trade for next quarter?"
Quick on the uptake as ever, Shin Yo-sep played along, and Kang Hyeong-seok nodded deeply.
"Yes. There's something I need to tell you about that as well."
"Perfect timing, then. I'll go see to that errand with Section Chief Kang — you two get some rest."
Shin Yo-sep herded Namgoong Min-ah and Lee Jin-pyeong toward the pension with a gentle push at their backs.
"Get back safe!"
Waving, Namgoong Min-ah disappeared inside. As Kang Hyeong-seok watched her retreating figure — and the air around it — his lips pressed into a hard line, and Shin Yo-sep's gaze came to rest on him.
"Is something the matter?"
"Let's talk as we go."
Shin Yo-sep glanced at Shin Jeong-ah and nodded. Judging by the mood, she had apparently already heard about him from Kang Hyeong-seok.
Beep — clack. Kang Hyeong-seok unlocked his car in the parking lot and began to speak.
"The Department Head's been ensnared. A spirit told him to go take a look at the valley."
He kept the explanation short; Shin Yo-sep would understand regardless. Shin Jeong-ah stole a glance at Shin Yo-sep, but when he held a solemn silence, she withdrew her eyes.
"So what's the plan?"
"Finding him is on me."
Kang Hyeong-seok walked to the trunk and dragged a bag out from its depths. He brushed off the dust, drew a steadying breath, cocked his head sideways, and hauled the bag free. Inside were salt and sweet rice. Even before he'd received his god, Kang Hyeong-seok had always kept things to protect his body within arm's reach.
Thump. Bag slung over his shoulder, he spoke low to Shin Yo-sep.
"All I need from you is support."
Shin Yo-sep pushed out a breath — then plucked the bag from Kang Hyeong-seok's grip and shouldered it himself.
Trudge. Trudge. Walking with lanterns casting light on the ground beneath them, they found themselves set upon by insects with a savage persistence.
It was just past nine in the evening, and roughly twenty-five minutes had passed since Kwak Young-ho had vanished.
Shhhaaaaa... They were heading for the valley. They had seen the waterfall-fed stream in daylight, too, but just as the mountain by night was nothing like the mountain by day, the water now struck them with a wholly different presence. It felt like something cursed — a black hole of a thing that drew people in and drained the life right out of them.
"Hah... hah!"
Shin Jeong-ah, the weakest of the three for stamina, was gulping down air, but there was no slowing the pace. Kang Hyeong-seok held out a hand, and she took it, her exhaustion plain even in the dark.
Shhhaaaa! They had walked on for a good while longer when Kang Hyeong-seok stopped dead. Shin Yo-sep and Shin Jeong-ah caught their breath and swept their eyes over the surroundings. This was where Kwak Young-ho had been splashing around that afternoon — but he was nowhere to be seen.
Ring.
Kang Hyeong-seok raised the sacred shaman bells, then drew the Sinjangkal as well. The sheath came away and the blade emerged into the moonlight, and somehow the darkness around them seemed to recede a little for it.
Riiiiiing! He shook the shaman bells with the blade in hand — and Shin Jeong-ah's eyes suddenly flew wide open. Then, without a word, she took the bag from Shin Yo-sep and pulled out a packet of sweet rice. This, at least, had all been arranged before they set out.
Rip. Tearing a corner open with her teeth, she began sprinkling the sweet rice along the ground, a little at a time.
Ring-ring, ring-ring. Whiiieee! Meanwhile, Kang Hyeong-seok whistled as he shook the bells. If you are hiding, show yourself. The sobeop was a minor rite for seeking out the dead. Kang Hyeong-seok drifted slowly upstream, whistle trailing after him, and halted near the spot where the Susalgwi had shown itself that day.
There. Something was reaching out from up ahead — he could feel it. But it was not the aura of the Susalgwi he'd seen in daylight.
Whiiiii... Whistling a high, reedy note, he set the bells trembling in fine, rapid shivers. At the same time, he raised the hand gripping the Sinjangkal to the level of his chest.
Suuuuuh... As the blade drifted through its slow arc, Kang Hyeong-seok felt himself drawing swiftly closer to his Momjusin. For a single instant he closed his eyes, felt along the currents of energy around him — and opened them.
And there, impossibly, upstream: Kwak Young-ho, standing blank and still. Kwak Young-ho, hidden by a ghost's deception of the eyes.
"Ms. Shin — over there!"
"Wh-what?"
Startled, Shin Jeong-ah looked where Kang Hyeong-seok was pointing, but nothing met her eyes.
"Hurry upstream! You need to keep scattering the sweet rice along the water's edge!"
Dazed as she was, she climbed upstream as he'd instructed, and there she went on casting rice toward the spot he'd indicated — and still her eyes found nothing.
"Can you see him?"
Shin Yo-sep answered the question with a slow shake of his head. So Kang Hyeong-seok told him to follow, and advanced in a straight line on Kwak Young-ho.
Splash! Splash!Riiiiiing! Even wading through the surging current toward Kwak Young-ho, Kang Hyeong-seok never stopped shaking the shaman bells. Then his hand closed around the man's wrist — his body was cold as a block of ice. A symptom seen easily enough in the possessed.
"Yo-sep! Still can't see him?"
Splash!
Kang Hyeong-seok hauled Kwak Young-ho toward him in one hard pull and turned to Shin Yo-sep. Perhaps because the man hung from Kang Hyeong-seok's grip, Shin Yo-sep could see him now, too.
"I see him!"
Shin Yo-sep, trailing a couple of meters behind, raised his voice, and Kang Hyeong-seok passed Kwak Young-ho straight into his arms.
Thump. The moment Shin Yo-sep took the man's weight, his face hardened fast. A body stiff as wood. Skin cold as stone. A faint foulness on his breath. It was the same reaction he knew from those a demon had entered — and Kwak Young-ho was showing it, too.
Shhhaaaa! Splash, splash!
Out of the stream that leached away body heat, Shin Yo-sep stripped off his outer coat, draped it over Kwak Young-ho's body, and laid his palm flat on the man's chest.
With his free hand, Shin Yo-sep sketched the sign of the cross in a rapid, practiced motion. Then he bore down hard on the chest of Kwak Young-ho, who had abruptly begun to convulse — and jerked his head up.
"Hold on!"
Just then, Shin Jeong-ah, her packet of sweet rice spent, came rushing over and set the bag down. From it she drew the geumjul and laid the sacred straw rope across Kwak Young-ho's chest — and Shin Yo-sep's dubious glare darted to her like a hawk stooping on its prey. But Shin Jeong-ah had no answer to give him. She was only doing exactly as Kang Hyeong-seok had told her.
Shwaaak. She began scattering the last of the sweet rice around Kwak Young-ho as well, then lifted her eyes to Kang Hyeong-seok, Shin Yo-sep's gaze following. All the while, Kwak Young-ho's body went on trembling, and the stream flowed past with its same heavy roar, indifferent to it all.
Kang Hyeong-seok stood in the middle of the current. Ring-ring-ring-ring-ring! Shaking the shaman bells in short, sharp bursts, he stared into the dark, his will bent on the Sinjangkal. It's concealing itself. With the bells in hand, the thing would not be able to strike at them. But if he could not find it, he could not save Kwak Young-ho.
Grrrrr!
Kwak Young-ho shuddered, and white froth began bubbling from his mouth. Shin Jeong-ah squeezed her eyes shut, and Shin Yo-sep turned his head toward Kang Hyeong-seok, his face twisted. Damn it all — the memory of the senior priest who had died in the middle of an exorcism came crashing back. Please. Let what happened that day never happen again. And as he watched with everything in him, Kang Hyeong-seok slowly raised the Sinjangkal.
Suuuuuh... Then he cut through empty air, as if slicing through a sheet of paper no one could see. The shape of his Sinjangkal bore a resemblance to the byeolsang-kal, the star-omen blade — but a divine blade's shape and its purpose need not be one and the same. It could double, when the need arose, for a subikal, a daesinkal, a chilseong-kal, even a kkattak-kal. Its greatest gift, though, was this: it brought its bearer closer to the divine.
Riiiiiing! Now shaking the shaman bells as well, nearer than ever to his Momjusin, his eyes took on the radiance of a shaman with her god fully descended. And Kang Hyeong-seok pursed his lips and whistled.
Whiiiiiee!
From the very spot his Sinjangkal had cut, his field of vision began to transform. This was the sobeop of one who had achieved perfect communion with the divine. Everything that had clouded his sight, everything hidden, everything that was never meant to be seen — it all surfaced into the light, as though stepping out of shadow.
The first thing he saw was a bright, blazing sun.
Shhhaaaa... Next came the valley stream, rushing on and on. And then—
Bububububub!
There in the water, a young woman — throat locked in a strangler's grip, spewing sheet-white bubbles. The one choking her was a young man.
Shwaaak! The moment the man's hand loosened, the woman threw her head up through the current.
"S-save me... please, save me...!"
The man wasted no time twisting his fingers into her hair and driving her back under.
Bububub!
At the sight of her — bubbles tearing from a face twisted with agony — Kang Hyeong-seok's brow knotted. Part of it was that the woman's suffering felt like his own. But there was a greater reason. So it was you. The Susalgwi from that afternoon. The clothes on that bloated thing — swollen far past any telling of whether it had been man or woman — were identical to the ones this woman wore as the man tormented her like something out of a torture chamber. And then—
Glub... glub... glub... glub.
Around the woman and the man, gray, water-swollen heads began to rise.