The Serpent's Head
"Hoooo-!"
Three days had passed since that day.
Quitting time was creeping closer, and even the sun that had been scorching the air all day was losing its fire — right around the hour when everyone began gathering their things to head home.
"Hoooo-!"
Kwak Young-ho smoked a cigarette with a paper cup of coffee perched on the railing beside him.
That was when it happened.
The door banged open.
"Oh? There you are."
Jo Tae-sik, department head of Personnel, came over with a polite dip of his head.
He then fished out a cigarette and set it between his lips beside Kwak Young-ho, though his expression was anything but bright.
Click!
"Hoo! What are you doing up here instead of getting ready to head home?"
"Ah, well. Just killing time. Is something on your mind?"
As if he'd been waiting for exactly that question, Jo Tae-sik blew out a cloud of smoke, his face pinched with annoyance.
"Don't get me started. Sales Team 1 has been doing so well lately that the rest of us are paying for it."
"What? Why would Personnel be paying for—"
"The gossip, I'm telling you. The gossip."
"Pardon? From whom, though?"
"Hoooo-!"
Jo Tae-sik jerked the cigarette pinched between his index and middle fingers in irritation, then spoke through a furrowed brow.
"Every direction, that's who. Honestly, why is everyone so worked up over Manager Kang these days?"
"...Pardon?"
"Is Kang Hyeong-seok due for another promotion? I've had more than one or two people asking me exactly that."
"Ahh."
Kwak Young-ho chuckled in understanding and took a slow drag.
"I'm not joking, mind you. Sales Team 2 heaps enormous pressure on my Personnel Department, day in and day out."
"Oh, come on. Sales Team 2 must be busy in their own right. How bad can it be?"
"That's just the problem — they're not half as busy as Sales Team 1."
"Ah..."
Kwak Young-ho smiled awkwardly, and Jo Tae-sik puffed hard at his cigarette.
"Lately it's nothing but 'One of ours is about due for a promotion, you know. Surely Manager Kang isn't getting promoted again?' 'Well, another promotion would be a bit much, wouldn't it?' I mean, honestly — and why is any of that landing on us!"
"People at the office do love to talk."
"I know that. I do know, believe me. Aigoo!"
Jo Tae-sik looked ready to tear his hair out.
The sag of his shoulders, the stress thickening his voice — there was something almost pitiable about it.
"I suppose it's gotten worse since you reeled in something big."
"The additional contract with Shinjin Construction. A famous outfit, that."
Jo Tae-sik nodded along while Kwak Young-ho took a sip of his coffee.
Much as he felt for the man, Kwak Young-ho couldn't bring himself to see the situation as entirely bad.
Jealousy, after all, was a privilege you had to earn with ability and results.
"Exactly!"
"They can't even think of each other as people from the same company — they're chained to their own little departments. It's shortsighted thinking, plain and simple."
"Still, it's a comfort that you understand, Department Head. Puts my mind at ease."
"If things ever get to be too much, come burn a cigarette with me like this now and then."
Jo Tae-sik gave a rumbling chuckle and nodded, then turned a one-eyebrow-arched look on Kwak Young-ho.
"But anyway, well — nothing more in the works for a while, right?"
"You mean with Manager Kang?"
"Yes, yes. Your team already stuffed this quarter's numbers full, after all. Blew past the targets, even. It's not my place to say, but I'm only bringing it up because I'm scared you might work yourself into a collapse, Department Head."
Kwak Young-ho gave a short laugh, savored a puff of his cigarette and a sip of his coffee, then spoke.
"What worries me is Manager Kang, if anything. Me, keel over? Please."
"Oh, I know better than that."
In truth, the one who felt the weight of the sales numbers most keenly — who quietly propped up his team members from behind so they could work with peace of mind — was none other than the department head himself, Kwak Young-ho.
"I know perfectly well how much care you put into things, right down to covering for Manager Kang's sudden business trips."
"Aigoo, well, I appreciate you saying so."
"Anyway, I'd say you can afford to take it slow until autumn rolls around. And I'm not saying that on account of other people's watchful eyes — it's advice from me, personally."
"I know."
Kwak Young-ho flicked his burnt-down cigarette into an empty paint can and washed it down with a sip of coffee.
Then he checked his wristwatch. Quitting time had drawn very close indeed.
"There is something I've been turning over in my head, as it happens. And there aren't enough hours in the day to make it all reality."
"Goodness, listen to this man. Look at him, will you."
Jo Tae-sik, who had a fair guess what that something was, cracked a joke to lighten things.
An age where mandatory retirement was no longer far off.
Kwak Young-ho's goal was to see to it that, by the time that day came, every last one of his family-like team members could carry more than a single person's share.
A higher rank than the one he held now.
A longer list of clients.
He wanted to meticulously deflect every arrow loosed from the outside while building a foundation of steel — so that even if he vanished one day, everything would hold together without him.
"You'd best head down soon."
"Yes, yes."
"Anyway, I'll look after Manager Kang properly, so even if it's rough going right now, do keep the company's needs in mind."
"Haah, well, that much goes without saying. But tell me — does Manager Kang know? How much our Department Head frets over things like this?"
"He'd know. Anyone in sales who can't sense that much has no business being in the trade."
Jo Tae-sik nodded as if that settled it and smiled sheepishly.
And then, with a parting "I'll head down first," Kwak Young-ho started down the stairs.
"Haaah-!"
Left alone, Jo Tae-sik watched the sun sink low in the west and let out a long, long plume of cigarette smoke.
Vrooooom.
It was after-work hours.
Kang Hyeong-seok gripped the steering wheel, easing his way through the jam-packed road.
At some point he let out a long, dragging yawn; he was alone in the car anyway, so he didn't bother covering his mouth.
Worn out today, of all days.
After a business trip, this was always the problem.
Having to plow, half out of his mind, through the cases that came pouncing at him like Go on — see if you can survive this one!
Even so, with Kwak Young-ho lending his strength and Lee Jin-pyeong taking some of the workload off his shoulders, every last urgent task had been cleared away as of today.
Tap, tap, tap.
But why was traffic this snarled today of all days?
Perhaps there had been a fender-bender somewhere ahead. As the cars around him labored along, Kang Hyeong-seok found himself thinking more than usual.
That was when his eyes landed on the far-right lane — conspicuously, blessedly open.
The exit lane, bound for another part of the country.
Maybe I should drop in and pay my respects. It has been a while.
Lee Geum-kyeong and Cheong-geum.
Come to think of it, quite a lot of time had already passed since he'd last seen either of them.
Kang Hyeong-seok glanced once at his wristwatch, then swung the wheel hard to the right.
Vroooooom!
Cruising down the gloriously clear road, he set the navigation's destination to Lee Geum-kyeong's shrine — and, while he was at it, cracked the window open a little.
The breeze that swept in wasn't exactly cool, but pleasantly refreshing all the same, and he rode the outer lane with it washing over him.
Vrooooom.
Once he crossed into Yongin, in Gyeonggi Province, the roads grew quieter still.
All that time he'd burned crawling through gridlock to get here probably had something to do with it.
In any case, Kang Hyeong-seok turned slowly in at the foot of the mountain where Lee Geum-kyeong resided and drove carefully up the concrete-paved path.
Thunk.
Arriving at Lee Geum-kyeong's shrine, Kang Hyeong-seok found Cheong-geum in the middle of sweeping the yard.
"Oh? My, my — what brings you all the way out here without so much as a phone call?"
"Sorry about that. I suddenly found myself with time to spare, and I thought I'd at least stop by and see your faces."
Fortunately, nothing seemed to be keeping her busy.
The outfit Cheong-geum wore — she was clutching an enormous broom with bristles tipped in green — was the tracksuit he'd bought for her a while back.
"If you're busy, though..."
"No, no! Not at all. Busy? Whoever said I was busy?"
Swish! Swish!
Cheong-geum swept the pile of fallen leaves she'd raked to one side hurtling away into the distance, then hurried back over empty-handed.
"As it happens, Teacher has been bringing you up quite often lately, Young Master. I'm so very glad you came."
Kang Hyeong-seok nodded, a touch embarrassed, and followed Cheong-geum toward Lee Geum-kyeong's quarters.
Cheong-geum rapped on the hanji-papered door and, head bowed, announced that Kang Hyeong-seok had come to visit.
"Send him in."
Lee Geum-kyeong's voice drifted out from within.
With a creak, Cheong-geum slid the door open, and there sat Lee Geum-kyeong — her dress immaculate, as if she had been expecting a visitor all along — gazing at Kang Hyeong-seok from inside the room.
"Come in."
"It's been a while, Teacher."
Kang Hyeong-seok bowed his head and stepped inside.
Cheong-geum withdrew to prepare the tea, and in her absence the two of them kept up their conversation, seated facing one another.
"Have you been keeping well?"
"Worrying about me, are we? Who should be fretting over whom, I wonder."
"I'm just glad you seem to be back to your old self."
Just as a soft smile began to spread across Kang Hyeong-seok's lips, Cheong-geum returned, set a small tray bearing the teapot and cups between them, poured the tea, and placed a cup before each of them.
Kang Hyeong-seok dipped his head in thanks and raised the cup.
"Thank you for the tea."
Its fragrance unfurled gently through the room.
Just then, as even the day's fatigue seemed to melt and settle into stillness, Lee Geum-kyeong spoke.
"So. What is it that has brought you to me, hm?"
"There's no particular reason. You simply crossed my mind on the drive home."
Smiles touched the lips of both Cheong-geum and Lee Geum-kyeong.
But Lee Geum-kyeong soon let the smile ebb from her face and spoke again.
Meeting Kang Hyeong-seok's eyes, she set down her teacup.
"Least of all for those of our kind. You had words that needed saying, and there was a reason you had to come here. That is why you came."
And what might that be?
Under her steady gaze, Kang Hyeong-seok brought the cup to his lips.
He drank the fragrant, steaming tea slowly, sorting through his thoughts.
It did not take long.
"Something happened recently."
She had been right, without a doubt.
It was as if some unconscious instinct had led him here.
"I received a revelation a few days ago, and I helped guide a woman who had become a monster on to her passage into the afterlife."
Lee Geum-kyeong nodded gravely.
Cheong-geum, by contrast, turned to him in wide-eyed surprise — yet couldn't bring herself to speak. The air had grown too heavy for that.
"And this revelation — what was it like?"
That Lee Geum-kyeong was more concerned with the revelation than with the monster drew a silent, wry curl at the corner of Kang Hyeong-seok's mouth.
So she does know something, after all.
If so, this conversation would go quickly.
Kang Hyeong-seok quietly took another sip of tea, then lifted his gaze to meet hers.
"You spoke of a serpent's head and its tail. The tail has been dealt with."
Kim Ki-ok — the man who had been taking his orders from the Onmyoji.
For the past three days Kang Hyeong-seok had turned it over and over in his mind, but the serpent's tail that his Momjusin had spoken of could only be Kim Ki-ok.
"I've come to talk about the serpent's head."
"Hmm."
Lee Geum-kyeong shut her eyes and thought for a moment, then opened her mouth and her eyes at the same time.
"It seems you have already arrived at the answer on your own."
"Yes. The serpent's head — the one my Momjusin warned me about..."
Kang Hyeong-seok bit his lower lip, then went on, the words coming out like a sigh.
"I suspect he meant the shaman Hong Gyeong-soo."
The shaman who had once joined him in hauling that earthen jar out of Anmokji Reservoir.
A man in black ritual robes, versed in Japanese sorcery, who made his trade out of raining death curses down on people.
And the infant that had been at the Onmyoji's side.
That man was the serpent's head.
A being that threatened Kang Hyeong-seok.
Having laid it all out, Kang Hyeong-seok quietly waited for Lee Geum-kyeong's reaction.