The Bell Rings Twice
Clang!
Beer leapt from the mugs as they smacked together in a crisp midair collision.
They were at a jeon house—a pub devoted to Korean savory pancakes—where the nutty reek of sizzling oil hauled everyone's appetite up by the collar.
"A double celebration! A double celebration!"
Kwak Young-ho, who had been tipping back his 500cc beer mug in huge gulps, bellowed it out with a face full of pure delight.
"Department Head, aren't you going a little too fast?"
"What are you talking about, Section Chief Shin? Days like this are made for running."
Shin Jeong-ah picked up a piece of pancake wearing a look that said, Oh, really, now, while across the table Namgoong Min-ah turned her flushed, giggling face this way and that.
Kang Hyeong-seok set his mug down on the table, smiling as though he were simply enjoying this moment for what it was.
"Assistant Manager Kang? What's wrong?"
That was when Jeong-ah's worried voice came flying at him.
"Are you feeling unwell? You've barely touched your drink."
"No, it's nothing like that. I drove here, remember?"
The worry drained out of Jeong-ah's face, and she lifted her glass.
"Oh, so you're not sick. Go on and drink, then. I'll cover the designated driver."
"Really, I'm fine."
"Ugh, no fun. What kind of main character sits out his own party?"
Jeong-ah slammed her glass down with a clack, and Hyeong-seok picked up the water glass beside his untouched beer and shook his head with a smile.
"Am I the only main character here? Assistant Manager Lee is the lead today, too."
"That's right, that's right!"
Kwak Young-ho clapped, his face glowing red, and nodded along enthusiastically.
"Our Assistant Manager Lee opened his eyes, didn't he? That makes him the main character, too."
"Department Head, please pace yourself."
"I keep telling you, I'm fine. Not a thing wrong with me."
Kwak thumped his chest, and it was transparently bravado.
He had sprinted full tilt from the very first glass. Kwak Young-ho, that was.
Which was how, after barely two beers, he'd ended up stewed as though he'd emptied two full bottles of soju.
"On a day this good, how could I not drink? Am I right or am I right?"
Still, if Kwak could smile that brightly, it was because good news had come stacked one atop another.
Namgoong Min-ah's conversion to a full-time position.
The way Hyeong-seok had imprinted himself on the executives as a man worth remembering.
And the phone call with word that Lee Jin-pyeong, hospitalized after the accident, had opened his eyes.
As the head of the department, Kwak knew all too well how rare it was to sit down to a team dinner feeling this light and this glad.
Bzzzt!
"Your wife is calling, Department Head! It's your wife!"
"Gah!"
Kwak snatched the phone Jeong-ah hastily held out, his eyes snapping into focus, and pressed the call button.
Then, flailing through the conversation, he grabbed his cigarettes and shuffled out of the restaurant.
"Hehehe. Congraaatulations, Assistant Manager Kang, sir."
With Min-ah clinging to his side, Hyeong-seok poured her a glass of water and gave her a look of helpless bewilderment.
"You've had way too much, Min-ah. Why do you keep racing ahead when you can't hold your liquor at all?"
"Huh? How come you're not using my title? Use my title when you talk to me."
Ah. So that's what she's like drunk.
Hyeong-seok traded one glance with Jeong-ah, then gently but firmly peeled Min-ah off his arm.
"Yes, yes, Employee Namgoong. Drink your water and sober up."
"Yessir! Understood!"
Satisfied at last, Namgoong Min-ah gulped the water down and promptly melted over the table.
"...What do we do with her?"
"What do we do? Nothing we can do."
Jeong-ah took a swig of her beer and pointed her chopsticks at the slumped-over Min-ah.
"I'll drop her off on my way home. She can cab it the rest of the way, whatever."
"It's getting late, though. I could handle it."
"It's fine. This is exactly the kind of thing section chiefs are for."
Then she took another sip of beer, making no effort to hide her disappointment.
"Ugh. Honestly? I was tempted to hitch a ride in your car."
"Then let's all just take my car."
"I said it's fine. I have at least that much shame."
Jeong-ah cut the matter off flat, as if she had no wish to argue it further, then cast a bleary-eyed glance past the restaurant door.
Beyond it, Kwak Young-ho was floundering through his call as though he were on the line with the most impossible client on his roster.
"From the looks of it, the boss will come back on our wavelength."
"Looks like it."
"More importantly, Assistant Manager Kang—the long holiday's almost here. Anything planned?"
The question caught him off guard, and Hyeong-seok mulled it over for a moment.
Then he made up his mind, nodded, and spoke.
"I'm thinking of going home for a visit."
"Home?"
"Yes. The Department Head did tell me a while back to at least call my parents. It's been far too long since I've seen them—I ought to stop by."
"Where do they live?"
"Gangwon Province."
"Really?"
Jeong-ah's eyes went wide, as if that had been the last thing she expected.
Hyeong-seok could roughly guess what she was picturing, so he shook his head, the smile still on his face.
"I'm originally from Gyeonggi. Only my parents moved out to Gangwon."
"Ah, that explains why you talk like one of us. But why did they move?"
"Elders they knew lived out that way. After I landed my job, they went down for some peace and quiet."
"W-wait. Is it... is it because of that, Assistant Manager?"
Hyeong-seok tore a piece off the seafood-scallion pancake with his chopsticks as he answered.
"That's part of it, yes."
Jeong-ah nodded with a face that said she understood.
"They must have been through so much."
Hyeong-seok nodded without a word.
His parents truly had suffered.
They had to stand by and watch their young son tormented by ghosts, and they pounded the pavement until they finally found Lee Geum-kyeong.
What must that have felt like?
A kut—a shaman's rite—is a frightening thing even to grown adults.
And what must it have done to two parents, watching their little boy undergo one?
"I think showing my face at least once is the right call."
"Do your parents know? About... all of it?"
Jeong-ah glanced at Min-ah, now snoring softly, and at Kwak outside on his phone, then asked carefully.
"Not yet. That's exactly why I have to tell them this time."
"That's a heavy thing to carry. For you, too."
"It will be hard on them. But I think they'll finally be at ease."
Hyeong-seok had been tormented by ghosts precisely because no god had claimed him.
Now that he had received his Momjusin—his Body-Governing Patron Deity—they might not be able to celebrate, but they would at least be able to set down the weight they had carried for so long.
At the very least, their son would never again be dragged about by the dead.
Tink.
Hyeong-seok set his chopsticks down, his expression gone heavy.
The pajeon was good—fried crisp, its oil cooked clean out, nutty and savory on the tongue.
And yet his mouth filled with the taste of something bitter.
What will they think, when they hear I've received a god?
One who receives a deity is called a gangsinmu.
In other words, a mudang.
Would parents who had gone so far as to have a suppression ritual performed on their young son truly welcome the news that he had received a god after all? He honestly couldn't say.
Perhaps that was why he had never been able to tell them until now.
"You said you're going during the holiday?"
"Hm?"
Hyeong-seok looked over at Jeong-ah just as she was tipping back her beer mug; she slammed the empty glass down hard enough to ring out and opened her mouth.
"And look at that face, too. Hey—call me when you head down. I'll go with you."
"No, really, you don't have to—"
"If something comes up, you'll want someone sitting next to you to listen to you vent. That's all I'm saying."
Hyeong-seok could only stare at her, caught between embarrassment and gratitude.
She was picking up another piece of pancake, muttering to herself, nothing to do over the holiday anyway—works out nicely.
He couldn't tell how much of it was sincere, but the sentiment alone was something to be thankful for.
"I'll see how things look and let you know."
"Just call. Just like that. I owe you one anyway."
"You mean back when you moved? Isn't that ancient history?"
"And what about when you helped me with that creepy talisman I got from a mudang, huh?"
They were in the middle of this back-and-forth when—
Ding-a-ling.
Kwak Young-ho shuffled back in with his shoulders slumped and dropped into his chair like a man whose soul had left his body.
"Department Head, are you all right?"
"Section Chief Shin, I don't know what to do with myself. I'm so sorry. I'm going to have to go."
"What is there to be sorry for? When your wife calls, you go."
"Is there a bakery nearby, by any chance...? I should at least bring her a cake."
"Why a cake?"
Kwak turned to Hyeong-seok wearing a face on the verge of tears.
"Today was our wedding anniversary."
"Ah."
"Whoa, that one's on you, Department Head!"
"I'm losing my mind. How did I forget?"
Kwak sighed and scrubbed a hand down his face, while Hyeong-seok was already searching his phone for nearby bakeries.
"There's one two alleys over. There's a flower shop right beside it, too."
"R-really?"
"Let's get going, sir. You can pick everything up on the way."
"Thank you, Assistant Manager Kang."
The department head gathered up his things and his bag in a rush, and Hyeong-seok and Jeong-ah rose to leave as well.
Min-ah, at least, they hauled upright between the two of them.
Ding-a-ling.
The moment they stepped out the door—whether it was the night wind, or simply knowing where the bakery was—Kwak looked visibly calmer.
"So what were you two talking about in there?"
"Assistant Manager Kang is going home to see his parents over the holiday."
Jeong-ah answered before Hyeong-seok could, and Kwak clapped his hands like a man who'd just received wonderful news.
"That's great! Yes, that's exactly right—go and see your parents."
Kwak pulled out a cigarette and tucked it between his lips as they walked toward the bakery.
"When you see your parents, tell them it looks like good news is coming your way soon. Tell them you've got your department head's full stamp of approval, too."
"Understood, sir."
Hyeong-seok answered with a smile, and Kwak, as if something had just occurred to him, pulled up the calendar on his phone.
"Actually, no. Assistant Manager Kang, just start your time off tomorrow. Go straight down."
"Sorry?"
"That much I can do for you. And nobody—not one single soul—is going to say a word about you taking a day. Nobody!"
He meant it. Kwak's eyes were dead serious.
"Keep a low profile for a while. I'll make sure there's not a man at the company who dares open his mouth, so just tack it onto the holiday and get some real rest."
So Kwak had known, then.
About Im Jin-gil picking a fight with him.
And not just Im Jin-gil—that there might be others besides who took a dim view of an assistant manager who had sat down to eat with the executives.
"Department Head."
"Worried about your annual leave getting docked? I'll have a nice long word with Department Head Jo Tae-sik and get it sorted as paid leave, so don't worry about a thing."
Jo Tae-sik was Im Jin-gil's direct superior.
He was also the man who had worn an exceptionally sour face—like someone chewing on something foul—through that dinner with the executives.
And Jo Tae-sik, the Head of Personnel and General Affairs who had unexpectedly found his weakness exposed, just might do exactly as Kwak promised.
"Well, it's just that... there's still work, sir."
"What work? The holidays start in days. Go calling on clients now and half the time the person in charge won't even be there—you'd be striking out on wasted trips all over the place."
It was right after Hyeong-seok had reluctantly nodded.
"In that case, Department Head, may I put my leave in too?"
"Hm? You too, Section Chief Shin?"
"All I'd be doing is forwarding calls anyway. And right before a holiday, opening new accounts is a lost cause."
Kwak narrowed his eyes at his phone's calendar, then let out one long, deep sigh.
"Field assignment, Section Chief Shin. We'll call it a field assignment."
"Even better for me, then."
"In exchange, keep your work log spotless. And just in case, stop by one client and put a visit on record."
"Yes, sir!"
Right after that, Kwak leaned in close and murmured something to Jeong-ah—most likely a plea to put in a good word with Executive Director Shin Chang-yong.
Hyeong-seok watched the two of them with a look of open disbelief.
So she really did mean it, about coming along.
Well, it shouldn't matter much.
She wouldn't be staying with him for the whole stay in Gangwon anyway. If she simply rode along on the way down and the way back, nothing out of the ordinary should come of it.
Ding-a-ling. Ding-a-ling.
Whether in answer to that thought—or to hint at something else entirely—the sacred shaman bells (mudang bang-ul) inside his bag rang softly, twice.
It sounded uncannily like an omen of the journey the two of them would share, and Hyeong-seok glanced down at the bag in his hand—but the bells rang no more.