The Burning Ghost
Vrooooom.
Inside the moving car, Kang Hyeong-seok shot a glance at the navigation screen. In the passenger seat sat Shin Jeong-ah, who had joined him for this, and beneath the route line the name of their destination glowed on the display.
Cheongdeok Mountain.
The place where liquor steeped in calamity had been brewed. And the place where the man who had tried to harm her uncle was hiding.
Squeak. Shin Jeong-ah adjusted the laces of one of her brand-new hiking boots — the smell of newness still wafting off them — and picked at the lace of the other as she spoke.
"Anything I should be watching out for?"
"And?"
Kang Hyeong-seok held his lips pressed shut for a moment before parting them.
"If you run into anyone, message me right away."
"Got it."
Hyeong-seok stole a glance at her profile. Her voice had sounded like it might be trembling, and sure enough, her face was rigid. She was wound up with nerves.
"Will you really be all right?"
"Obviously I will!"
The pure bravado of it made the corner of his mouth twitch upward once before it settled again. Then he fixed his eyes on the road ahead and gave himself over to driving in silence.
He was grateful, truly — but he couldn't help wondering whether this was really the right thing.
And yet they had to comb an entire mountain, and two searchers were overwhelmingly better than one.
'Please, let this end with nothing happening at all.'
He was concentrating on the road, his eyes grown as deep as his deepening thoughts, when—
Clunk, clunk!
The two large bags stowed in the back seat knocked against each other. They held water, energy bars, a spare battery pack — everything a mountain demanded — and they clattered at steady intervals, as though urging Kang Hyeong-seok to hurry.
They parked a little way off from the mountain itself. No policeman was going to come all the way out to this dead-end spot to chalk a tire, so if he was honest, they had parked exactly as conveniently as they pleased.
A bag went onto each of their backs, but side by side, Shin Jeong-ah and Kang Hyeong-seok looked like oil and water, utterly out of step with each other.
"Should've bought you some proper gear after all."
"I'm fine. This is plenty."
Hyeong-seok in plain everyday clothes. Jeong-ah dressed for serious mountaineering. Each of them looked perfectly reasonable on their own; side by side, they gave off a distinct air of: what on earth did these two come here for?
Crunch, crunch.
The moment they set foot in the mountain, both of them went quiet.
When you travel by car, nameless mountains drift past your window all the time. Some of those mountains were surely places like this one. No sign of people, the nearest houses far away, and an air about the place that whispered, somehow, that you should not come in. That presence clung to the soil and to every single leaf, and the feeling of wrongness was almost unbearable.
"Oof!"
Shin Jeong-ah walked face-first into a spiderweb and flailed her arms — and at her feet lay the carcass of an enormous spider, shriveled dead like a dried scrap, rolling in the dirt.
So this was the kind of place this mountain was.
Kang Hyeong-seok stopped when he saw the fork in the trail far ahead.
"We'll have to split up here."
"...Which way are you taking?"
The left path was at least broad, its earth packed hard by countless feet. The right was a thin thread swallowed by thick undergrowth — it didn't look like anywhere a human being could enter at all.
"I'll take the right."
"Seriously?"
"Yes. If anything happens, text me right away."
If a call rang out in the middle of tailing that man, things could turn very ugly indeed.
Shin Jeong-ah, having read the intent behind it, gave a solemn nod, and Kang Hyeong-seok told her he was counting on her to cover his back, then slipped off to the right.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
Branches lunged at his face. The trail had been eaten alive by the brush. But there was no time for a leisurely stroll — the sun always set sooner in the mountains than in the city. When he saw the sun, showing in slices between the crowded branches, creeping toward the point right above his head, Kang Hyeong-seok readjusted his bag.
Then he took out the sacred shaman bells and held them in his right hand.
'Guide me. Show me the road I must walk, and the direction I must go.'
He trusted the power of the shaman bells. They had always warded off peril with their uncanny strength and warned him of danger before it arrived. They had guided him onto the road he needed to take, too.
Keeping one ear open for when those bells might ring, Kang Hyeong-seok kept walking.
Then it happened.
Tink!
The shaman bells rang out of nowhere. Hyeong-seok froze mid-stride, thrust the hand holding the bells straight out in front of him, and turned a full circle on the spot.
Tink!
The bells rang toward his right — a direction that, even now, hardly looked like a path at all. Just raw mountain.
Crunch, crunch!
But Kang Hyeong-seok walked straight in, into weeds grown to his knees that snapped and swallowed at his feet.
Tink, tink.
The bells kept ringing, and then he stopped. Face hardening, he looked down at the ground.
Something was rising from the earth. Something the soil couldn't quite contain was spiraling upward like heat haze.
"...Fuck."
Hoping he was wrong, Kang Hyeong-seok crouched and tore the weeds out by the roots. Bare earth showed beneath, and he scooped up a great handful of it and lifted it high. The pitch-black soil stank — like earth that had soaked up thick, sticky blood until it could hold no more and overflowed. Like soil where blood had rotted.
And just then—
"Who goes there?"
The unfamiliar voice behind him yanked Kang Hyeong-seok's gaze clean around.
"Haah! Haah!"
Shin Jeong-ah trudged up the mountain trail, gasping for breath. It was a flatter path than the one Hyeong-seok had taken, but it was still rough, brutal going for an ordinary office worker like her.
'Should've bought a walking stick, too.'
Perched on a jutting boulder, she wiped the sweat running off her jaw and fished a bottle of water out of her bag.
They were deep in the mountains now.
Chirrr, chirrr. The cry of some nameless insect. Birds calling, branches swaying in the wind. The breeze that drifted in was cool, and for all her aching body, she caught herself thinking it wasn't so bad after all.
"Right. Just treat it as a hike. A hike."
It wasn't like those ghastly forced Saturday hikes her bastard of a boss at her old company used to strong-arm everyone into. Having let her sweat cool, she swallowed, and looked around. Then she pulled an e-cigarette from her pocket, set it between her lips, and took a few lazy puffs.
"Haaaah."
A comfort stole over her, as if she could melt into the green and stay there forever. But Shin Jeong-ah clamped down on her wandering mind and swept her eyes over her surroundings again.
'I have to be the one to find it first.'
She had come along because Kang Hyeong-seok always carried a burden on his heart. So this time, she had to be a real help to him.
Shin Jeong-ah rose from the boulder and smoked slowly, scanning as she went.
Then it happened.
"...Is something burning?"
Her head whipped around, and she couldn't trust her eyes. She used an e-cigarette, not a real one. There was nothing — nothing anywhere — that could start a fire. And yet right in front of her she saw flames surging violently upward, and black smoke.
And there was something else there, too. Something that didn't belong to reality.
Thud.
Shin Jeong-ah had sunk down where she stood without noticing, staring at the pillar of fire blazing barely ten meters away.
That was no ordinary fire. A person stood tall within the flames.
Fwoooosh! Fwrrk!
Black smoke boiled up over its head. And in stark contrast to the bright blaze, the figure at its heart was charred pitch-black.
Clackclackclackclackclack!
Her teeth chattering hard enough to rattle, Shin Jeong-ah couldn't even think about running. She just stared at the person inside the fire. She couldn't move so much as a fingertip — because though no face was visible, she felt that the figure was looking at her, too.
'A g-ghost.'
It was broad daylight. Mountains or not, this was the hour when everything around her stood out sharp and clear. Something appearing out of nowhere in full light made the word ghost arrive in her head long before person ever could.
Fwoosh.
The figure in the flames — which left every bit of the surrounding vegetation untouched — slowly raised its arm. Charred ash flaked away in whispers, a fist like coal uncurled, and black fingers stretched out. And the burning figure pointed at a single spot.
"Hck! Hnngh!"
Unable to bear the terror crashing over her, Shin Jeong-ah made a strangled noise, squeezed her eyes shut — and opened them. And like a ghost itself, everything was gone. The crackle of burning, the stink of char, the figure in the fire. All of it.
Gasping, Shin Jeong-ah stared at the place where the burning figure had stood — then broke into a run.
'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!'
She ran downhill at first, then stopped dead. Then, with a face on the verge of tears, she turned back toward where the ghost had been.
"Agh! God, this is infuriating!"
She was scared witless — so scared it came out as anger. But she couldn't just run away, because the whole reason she had come here was to help Kang Hyeong-seok.
Tap-tap-tap-tap. She fired off a text to Hyeong-seok and made up her mind: until his reply came, she would walk in the direction the ghost had pointed. Her trembling legs kept the pace to a crawl.
Clink.
A cup of some unknown tea was set down in front of Kang Hyeong-seok.
"Please, drink."
The one offering it was the middle-aged man who had called out to him. The place was a temple, not far from where he had found the blackened earth; Hyeong-seok offered his thanks with a short bow and raised the cup. And at the wave of familiarity that came riding in with the aroma, he smiled before he knew it.
Green tea laced with the toasty scent of roasted brown rice. A tea steeped in the feel of the ordinary world — yes, this was the one.
"I'm sorry it's nothing finer."
"Not at all. It's more than good enough."
Hyeong-seok delivered his thanks with courtesy and took a sip of the tea.
"But what brings you to a place like this?"
At the monk's question, Hyeong-seok pressed the back of his hand to his lips, blotting the tea dry, and answered.
"There's something I have to find."
"You don't look the type to come digging for herbs or mushrooms. You seem to carry a story of your own. Might I hear it?"
Just then, Hyeong-seok felt the phone in his pocket buzz.
He took out his phone, read the message Shin Jeong-ah had sent, and shifted his gaze to the monk.
"Excuse me for a moment."
"Take your time."
Hyeong-seok's thumb flew as he typed out a reply.
Bzzt! As if she had been desperately waiting for word, the answer came back fast.
Wasn't this dangerous? And if it was, what on earth was he supposed to send back?
While Hyeong-seok sat there flustered, the monk seated across from him spoke.
"It will be all right."
"...I'm sorry?"
The monk hadn't so much as glanced at the phone, yet he spoke like a man who knew exactly what the message said. Lips pressed into a hard line, Hyeong-seok studied him.
'A strange man.'
A temple standing in wilderness this remote was strange enough on its own. So was this kindness, lavished on a stranger he had stumbled upon by chance. Neither the man nor the meeting seemed ordinary. And yet he sensed no danger from him.
Tap-tap-tap-tap. Hyeong-seok sent back one more reply, telling her not to push herself too hard, then lifted his eyes to meet the monk's.
"Venerable."
"Speak."
"...Would you happen to know of anyone around here who brews liquor?"
"Liquor?"
The monk's brow arched, and Hyeong-seok gave a slow, weighty nod.
"Yes. A man who brews it from beasts."
"My, my. And whatever for would you be seeking such a person?"
Hyeong-seok raised the teacup close to his face. Then, at the wrongness that struck him all at once, he spoke without drinking.
"People are in danger."
"Hoh."
"Three of them are already in the hospital. If that man is left to his own devices, there's no telling how many more will suffer for it."
Hyeong-seok watched the silent monk. He couldn't be certain, but he felt that this was no ordinary man. Yet there was nothing unpleasant in the feeling, nothing that set his teeth on edge. If anything, it was closer to the opposite.
"Surely this is a thing you could simply turn away from."
The monk's words cut in out of nowhere, and Hyeong-seok's face went hard. Then—
"Are the hospitalized your family?"
"They are not."
"Then it is the business of strangers. Ignore it. Look away. What harm in that?"
"Venerable."
Hyeong-seok put force into the word, but the monk's face stayed blank.
"Go back down the mountain. That would be better for you."
"If you know something, please tell me. I cannot go down like this."
"And your reason?"
Hyeong-seok pressed his lips together hard, and only after long deliberation did he open them.
"I have already given you my answer."
If he gave up now, someone else might be hurt. Had he never known, he would never have climbed this mountain in the first place. But this was something he believed in on his own — not because anyone had ordered it, but because he believed it was right, and because if he quit, the harm would only grow.
"Your eyes are clear."
The monk, who had been peering into Hyeong-seok's eyes, let his blankness melt away and a faint smile touched his mouth.
"You follow the greater good rather than private feeling. It is said Heaven never turns its face from such a person."
Hyeong-seok's brow was furrowing deeper when the monk drew a long breath in through his nose, let it out, and turned his head toward the mountain's upper reaches.
"I have seen a man pass this way a number of times, carrying a sack."
"A sack?"
"A sack that reeked to high heaven. It seems that man is the one you seek."
"Thank you."
Hyeong-seok rose at once, ready to move. The monk, still seated, tilted his head back to look up at him.
"Be careful."
"I will."
"Your heart will waver."
Hyeong-seok, in the middle of shouldering the bag he had set down, looked at the monk with a stiff face.
"...Pardon?"
"It will waver again and again. Do not let it. Not once."
This monk clearly knew something.
Without a word, Hyeong-seok held the man's gaze for a long moment, then gave a heavy nod.
"Thank you for the tea."
Then, bag on his back, he set off at a fast walk in the direction the monk had given him.
He had put a good stretch of ground between himself and the temple when the monk's voice followed from behind.
"Trust in your Sugye — the ordination marks. Today of all days, Heaven will be with you."
For a heartbeat, Hyeong-seok very nearly stopped in his tracks. But his face said he had expected as much, and he walked steadily on without a word.
There was no one in the temple he left behind. Only a single teacup, old and long since emptied, remained alone, watching after Kang Hyeong-seok's back.