A Prayer Without Absolution
"Haah— haahk!"
At the sight of Kang Hyeong-seok's eyes, Lee Jang-woo's hands slid down as though they had simply melted away.
Eyes of boundless, unrelenting indifference. The eyes of a man who would never lift a finger to save him.
Whoosh— whoooosh! Cars whipped past right beside them, and a few passersby flicked their gaze over for a heartbeat before looking away again.
Somehow, the scene felt familiar. Save for the fact that it was broad daylight, the place and the atmosphere overlapped with the day Kim Hee-hyun had died.
"Ah— aahh."
"You toyed with a human heart."
"Wh-what?"
"You deceived Kim Hee-hyun with that silver tongue of yours, and tried to take out loans in her name."
"Uh— ugh, nngh!"
Terror filled Lee Jang-woo's face as he stared at Kang Hyeong-seok. How does he know that? How does he know all the way to that? He never spoke the words aloud, but the fierce turmoil within him bared itself through his eyes.
"You, too, are someone's ghost. But I will not call what you suffer karma."
Kim Hee-hyun's feelings for Lee Jang-woo ran far too deep. The word could not be tossed about carelessly.
"Live on, then, in agony. No shaman will be able to tear the two of you apart easily."
Her obsession with Lee Jang-woo was that immense. Perhaps only a shaman on the level of Lee Geum-kyeong could ever part them — but could such a shaman even be found? And even if she could, would that shaman's god be willing to help Lee Jang-woo?
"Ugh— uuaaaaagh!"
Jang-woo suddenly shrieked and surged up from the ground, fist raised, and hurled himself at Kang Hyeong-seok. Shin Jeong-ah started in alarm and moved to rush over — then stopped dead in her tracks.
THWACK!
Kang Hyeong-seok drove his fist straight into the man's solar plexus,
"Ghkk—!"
seized the collar of his doubled-over frame,
Wham! THWACK!
and hammered knee after knee up into his flank — a leaping strike planted squarely where the liver sits.
Jang-woo crumpled where he stood, unable even to breathe, thin drool stringing from his mouth. Kang Hyeong-seok looked down at the back of the man's bowed head — then simply turned away.
"Uh... wow."
Shin Jeong-ah was still reeling. It was the first time she had ever seen Kang Hyeong-seok hit someone.
Having wordlessly gestured that they should just go, Kang Hyeong-seok glanced back at Lee Jang-woo one last time. Kim Hee-hyun was clinging to the man, smiling.
If that is your happiness, then I will not deny it.
Her obsession was too vast — even a cheondoje, the rite that sends the dead on to heaven, was beyond her. So he asked only this: please, do not pile up more sin. And, just as he had with Shin Jeong-ah, that she not harm the women who drew near Lee Jang-woo out of jealousy.
A nod. Kim Hee-hyun bowed her head as though she understood his heart. And with that, her fixation settled wholly, solely, upon Lee Jang-woo.
"Reflect on your sins, and live. Don't commit any more."
Kang Hyeong-seok said it looking down at him; Jang-woo, his face blotchy red with pain, did nothing but gasp for air.
Here was a man who had stacked up karma with his tongue and his deeds. He would not live long.
Kim Hee-hyun, bound to him by her grudge, was stroking his face with black fingers crusted in dried blood. A sangsagwi — a lovesick ghost — whose obsession burned that fiercely wanted only one thing. For Lee Jang-woo to hurry up and die, so the two of them could be together forever.
"Haa."
His heart a tangle, Kang Hyeong-seok caught sight of Shin Yo-sep watching him from a distance and gave a small shake of the head to send his meaning across. No need to come over. It was already finished.
Vrrrmmm.
Inside his car, Shin Yo-sep adjusted his sunglasses. He had parted ways with Kang Hyeong-seok and Shin Jeong-ah, and the vehicle held no one but him.
"Call Secretary Cho."
His phone registered the voice and carried out the command at once.
"It's finished."
"You've worked hard, Executive Director. What would you like done about Lee Jang-woo?"
"Clean it up. And if he makes a nuisance of himself, make him an even bigger one."
He had already heard the full account from Kang Hyeong-seok. Even without it, he could guess what sort of man Lee Jang-woo was — he had watched the whole thing unfold from a distance.
"Understood. Shall you return straight to the office?"
"Yes. Ah — and please begin moving on what I mentioned before."
"You mean introducing Daejeong Mulsan to the company you contracted with this time?"
"Yes. Tell them the introduction comes from me, and they'll understand."
Not that the company knew Kang Hyeong-seok or Shin Yo-sep in any real depth — they knew only Shin Yo-sep's title. But because the recommendation bore his name, they would receive Kang Hyeong-seok and Shin Jeong-ah like visiting dignitaries.
"Understood."
"Yes."
"Understood. I'll have it conveyed right away."
"See you at the office."
A sigh escaped him toward the sky beyond the windshield.
Sangsagwi...
Even the name was unfamiliar. And yet, once he understood what it was, it had not felt like another person's affair. Not with obsession as its defining trait.
"God."
Why, in the middle of a sunlit afternoon, did old memories have to surface? Shin Yo-sep twisted his lips into a bitter smile and murmured in a small voice.
"Because I have sinned, and grieved the heart of God, who is worthy of all my love—"
"—I sincerely repent of every wrong I have done: the evil I committed, and the good I abandoned."
He kept murmuring, thinking of the senior priest who had died because of his own cowardice, his own wretchedness.
To wash away even a fragment of that sin, I too do penance, striving to enact goodness through deeds.
It was why I introduced Lee Jang-woo to Kang Hyeong-seok — because I believed it would be a good deed.
"By the grace of God, I firmly resolve to make amends, to sin no more, and to flee every occasion of sin."
Though this time, I could do nothing at all.
But should I ever come upon someone who needs help, I will gladly extend my hand — even if it costs me a place in hell.
"Look upon the merits of the Passion of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and bestow Your mercy upon me."
If even one so wretched as I is worthy of such.
Please — look down upon me with favor.
Vmmmm.
Shin Yo-sep's lips twitched. His confession was over, yet there was no priest present to recite the words of absolution over him. Only a weighty silence flowed on.
And silence, as it always did, came circling back as a question turned on himself.
Do I even deserve to be saved?
Shin Yo-sep quietly closed his hands around the steering wheel and turned his face away from the light streaming through the window.
"Whoa! So you two are heading straight there?"
"Yes, Department Head!"
From the passenger seat, Shin Jeong-ah was on the phone with Kwak Young-ho, handset in hand. With speaker mode on, his voice came through loud enough to fill the entire car.
"This is a huge help, really... I should buy Executive Director Shin a meal sometime."
Barely an hour had passed since her meal with Shin Yo-sep had ended, and Shin Jeong-ah smiled awkwardly — while Kang Hyeong-seok, hands on the wheel, felt the corner of his mouth tug upward. Right on cue—
"Oh, right! You've got the contract on you, yes?"
"I always carry it, of course."
"Krr! That's my ace!"
"You called Manager Kang your ace just the other day?"
"Ah, you're a two-top — a two-top! Aren't you out with Manager Kang right now?"
"Isn't that right?"
Shin Jeong-ah said it with a glance at Kang Hyeong-seok, and Kwak Young-ho's voice rolled on.
"You two moving as a pair — that puts my mind at ease. Alright. Get back safe."
"Oh — right, something just came to mind. If they ask to sign on the spot, should I put it off?"
"You're saving it for next quarter's numbers, right? Don't you worry about that."
Kwak Young-ho was saying he'd make it work somehow. There was more than one way — bend a rule here, structure the contract for renewal there. As the head of a Sales Team 1 riding a hot streak, Kwak Young-ho could even appeal to the upper echelons for a little flexibility.
"Got it. I'm trusting you and you alone, Department Head."
"Trust me plenty. Plenty!"
"Yes."
Shin Jeong-ah was smiling, just about to hang up—
"Manager Shin. Let's just keep going like this. You got that?"
"Hm? Is there something?"
"There's nothing— no, it's nothing. Just get back safe!"
Shin Jeong-ah hung up and stared down at her phone with a look that said she wasn't buying it.
"There's something, isn't there."
"I'd say he's got your promotion on his mind, Manager."
"Aww, come on. No way."
Kang Hyeong-seok laughed without a sound. Then again, you never knew. Sales Team 1's results were excellent — but there was the lingering regret that the team had no one at the deputy general manager level.
"Your numbers are great, aren't they? It's hardly impossible."
"No. Nope. Not happening."
Shin Jeong-ah waved it off and let her gaze drift to the passenger window. As she stared blankly at the scenery sliding past, everything that had just happened with Lee Jang-woo felt like it had never occurred at all.
"Oh, right!"
"Yes?"
"Manager Kang — have you ever trained in something?"
The memory of Kang Hyeong-seok beating Lee Jang-woo down had apparently just caught up with her; she asked with wide eyes.
"Didn't I mention it once before?"
"When?"
"A while ago. When that assistant manager from HR was spouting nonsense in the break room."
"Ah — right, I remember."
Im Jin-gil, of the personnel department. That man had once gotten under Kang Hyeong-seok's skin in the break room with his venomous little insinuations. Shin Jeong-ah had flared up on his behalf that day. She remembered asking him — If this were outside the office, you'd have hit him, wouldn't you? — and Kang Hyeong-seok had answered, Probably?
"So that was actually true?"
"Let's just say my body knows what it's doing."
"Heh. Full of surprises, aren't you."
"Anyway — may I ask you something I've been curious about, too?"
"What?"
Kang Hyeong-seok spoke, throwing a brief glance at Shin Jeong-ah, who was studying his hands on the steering wheel with unusual attention.
"At the restaurant. I believe you heard the shaman bells."
"Did... I?"
"Yes. When you spotted Lee Jang-woo."
Given how things had unfolded, there had been no room to ask at the time. Shin Jeong-ah had heard a sound that even Shin Yo-sep had missed. There had certainly been a reaction that could be read no other way.
"No, I wouldn't go so far as to say I heard it..."
She seemed to find it strange herself; she crossed her arms and knitted her brow.
"Oh! Isn't it the talisman? I've got the protective charm, remember."
She offered it as though she'd just found her answer, but Kang Hyeong-seok shook his head. The Seonsinsuhobu held no such power.
She truly does have the constitution for this.
Twice now she had taken a great entity into her body and come through whole. And she had worked alongside him far more often than that — perhaps her vessel was changing, the way a channel opens up little by little.
"It seems I'll be asking a great deal more of you from now on."
Because there was no telling what the future held. Because helping people in the realm of the spirits, the way Kang Hyeong-seok did, might be Shin Jeong-ah's destiny.
"What's with you all of a sudden?"
Catching none of his meaning, Shin Jeong-ah laughed for no reason, looking faintly embarrassed.
"Well, I'll be counting on you, then. Stick with Manager Kang and the numbers will pile right up."
A completely sideways answer. And yet it landed strangely close to the mark, and Kang Hyeong-seok ended up laughing out loud.
"What? What was that laugh for?"
"Nothing."
Kang Hyeong-seok turned his focus back to the road. Something told him that if he opened his mouth without cause, the warmth of this moment might shatter.