The Runaway's Demon
Kang Hyeong-seok recited the Mantra of the Six-Syllable Dharma King.
"In the heavens above and the earth below, the command banners stand."
"Taesang the Radiant, General of the Thunderbolt, Spirit of Thunder—General Who Shakes the Heavens, General Who Shakes the Earth—Sabara!"
"Thus speaks the Celestial Worthy: mounted alone upon his steed, heaven round above and earth square below, the Ghost General of Six Eul rides wherever roads may lead, and all wicked ghosts and spirits perish in his path."
⟨ Mantra of the Six-Syllable Dharma King ⟩
It was a chant for casting out ghosts. The boy's body heaved violently, and a thread of drool spilled from his gaping mouth.
But the evil spirits still would not release him. With a soft hiss of movement, Kang Hyeong-seok raised the Sinjangkal over the boy's chest as if to plunge it straight through, and spoke, power gathered in his eyes.
"Great King of Heaven and Earth! Great King of Paradise! Great King Who Dispels All Calamity! Great King of the Thunderbolt! Great King Baekje! Great King Heukje! Great King the Sovereign! Great King Sugeuk!"
Then it came.
"AAAAAAGH!"
The boy twisted in agony as though the blade had truly pierced him. In that instant, Kang Hyeong-seok's gaze darted to Shin Yo-sep. As if he had anticipated precisely this, Yo-sep did nothing but keep his lips pressed firmly shut.
Kang Hyeong-seok flung the blanket aside with a snap and lifted his eyes to the center of the ceiling.
"Jade Emperor! Great King Seonbul! Great King Yeongpung, who dwells in Minseon! Great King Seonji, who dwells among the people! Great King Gonryun of Opung, who presides over this world—lesser ghosts, be gone!"
Warararang! Warararang! Shaking the sacred bells hard, he brought the butt end of their handle crashing down onto the Sinjangkal.
WHAM!
"Om gilgil yeoryeollyeong sabaha!"
However much force coiled in the hand gripping it, the blade refused to sink into the boy's flesh.
"AAAAAAGH! UAAAAAH! It hurts, it hurts! IT HUUUURTS!"
And still the boy writhed and shrieked as if a white-hot blade had been driven into his body.
"Father! Father! Hold this man back, please! Hold him back! Save me!"
The plea was wretched enough to make Shin Yo-sep's eyes waver.
"Don't move!"
At the bark, Yo-sep checked himself—then ground his molars together and clenched his fists so hard his nails bit into his palms.
"Great King of Heaven and Earth! Great King of Paradise! Great King Who Dispels All Calamity! Great King of the Thunderbolt!"
Even as he pinned down the boy's thrashing, Kang Hyeong-seok recited the demon-repelling scripture once more. Three recitations were required in all. Two were done now, and before the last, he sent Shin Yo-sep a signal with his eyes alone.
Steel yourself. My part is nearly done.
A nod—that was Shin Yo-sep's answer.
Before him, Kang Hyeong-seok recited the third and final demon-repelling scripture.
"Great King Seonji, who dwells among the people!"
"Great King Gonryun of Opung, who presides over this world!"
"All lesser ghosts—retreat!"
⟨ Om gilgil yeoryeollyeong sabaha ⟩
WHAM!
As if to proclaim the final recitation complete, Kang Hyeong-seok brought his bell-laden hand down onto the pommel of the Sinjangkal. At the same moment, the boy's body bucked hard enough to bounce off the mattress. Then came a silence that threatened to squeeze the air from the room.
The evil ghosts had finally withdrawn. Those had been the ones shielding the demon—all that remained now was the demon itself, stripped bare of its shell.
Vvvvmmmm. Suddenly the air purifier whined to life, shattering the stillness.
"Hissssssss."
The breath seeping from the boy's mouth carried a revolting stench—utterly unlike the fishy reek of a ghost.
Malodor. The stench that rises from the breath of a vessel ridden by a demon—vile and vicious, like animal innards rotting from within.
"Ulp."
Unable to bear the reek, Kang Hyeong-seok covered his nose and mouth with the hand still gripping the Sinjangkal. And then—
Beebebebebebeep. The air purifier, spitting out warning tones, snagged his gaze. When Kang Hyeong-seok looked at it, the display read 666 in burning red digits.
"Onnipotente Dio—Almighty God."
This was when Shin Yo-sep, who had been biding his time for an opening all this while, stepped up to the boy and opened his mouth.
"Gathered here in Your name, we pray to stand against the forces of evil. Relying on Your word—the Lord is my light; whom then shall I fear?"
The words came in rapid Italian, but his gaze, his whole mind, was fixed on the boy and the boy alone.
"Grrrrrrrowl."
With the boy growling like some beast from deep in his throat, Shin Yo-sep pressed down on his chest and moved his thumb to his mouth.
Crack!
Biting down until the finger bled, he traced a cross on the boy's forehead.
"Lord, this soul was created by Your love, and by love it must be saved. When You call, I will answer; in the day of my trouble, deliver me."
The boy's mouth gaped wide open. And just as Kang Hyeong-seok had seen before, the corners of it split into a long, torn grin—bloodshot eyes turning toward Shin Yo-sep.
Shin Yo-sep's head snapped up, and he flashed Kang Hyeong-seok a look. It meant: Get out of this room. Now. Whether he'd manage in there alone went unasked.
Click.
Closing the door behind him, Kang Hyeong-seok took up the sacred bells, listening to the sound of Shin Yo-sep carrying the exorcism rite onward within.
Wararang! Wararang! Wararararang!
As numinous energy rippled outward, Kang Hyeong-seok recited the Purification Sutra with a face of perfect calm.
"Heaven and earth, pure and bright, we humbly beseech You."
"Heaven and earth, qian and kun—unclean. Sun and moon and stars—unclean. The White Tiger above the gate—unclean."
"Spring, summer, autumn, winter—the four seasons, unclean. Day and night, unclean. The mountains, unclean; the four quarters, unclean."
Inside the door, a prayer for the rite of exorcism. Outside it, a scripture to bar every defilement. In their own ways, Kang Hyeong-seok and Shin Yo-sep carried on their work for the boy's sake.
The rite that had begun that morning did not end until well past two in the afternoon.
Shin Yo-sep emerged looking gaunt and hollowed, and one glance into the room behind him said everything—wrecked as though a savage beast had torn through it. The air purifier lay in pieces; nothing more needed saying.
Rrrrumble. Watching the boy loaded into the ambulance on a stretcher, Shin Yo-sep set a cigarette between his lips.
Click. Fwoosh. And he simply smoked, silent and unmoving.
All the while, Kang Hyeong-seok watched the man's profile without a word. Perhaps because he had glimpsed Yo-sep's past while driving out the evil ghosts, he thought he understood what the man must be feeling.
"What are you looking at?"
"You're standing in front of an orphanage. That really okay?"
Hooooh—! Shin Yo-sep sent the lit end of the cigarette flying far into the distance, then stretched both arms overhead in a long, full-body stretch.
His face had lightened somehow—his eyes carrying less weight.
"Let's eat. I'm starving."
With that, he strode into the orphanage without so much as a by-your-leave and made a beeline for the kitchen.
Click! He lit the burner, set a monstrously oversized frying pan over the flame, and pulled a bottle of cooking oil out from below.
"There should be food in the fridge. Go find some."
What kind of conversation was that supposed to be?
But Kang Hyeong-seok opened the fridge without a word of complaint and came up with prepped side dishes in a stainless-steel container and pork belly wrapped in plastic.
"Nice. Let's fry those up with the bean sprouts."
"What about rice?"
"Rice cooker's over there."
"Bowls? Can we just use the trays?"
"The trays have the kids' names on them—those are off-limits. There are adult ones."
"Where?"
"Under the rice cooker."
Scooping rice from the cooker, Kang Hyeong-seok felt a gaze settle on him and turned his head toward the door. The nun who had greeted them first upon their arrival was peeking tentatively through the little glass window in it; she gave one small bow, her face full of gratitude, then slipped out of sight.
Ssssssizzle! Sleeves rolled to the elbow, Shin Yo-sep stir-fried the seasoned bean sprouts with the pork belly, and then the two of them ate standing in front of the frying pan.
"Hoo! Hoo!"
The meat wasn't anything special, and there was no table to be had either. Even so, the two men carried their meal in silence over nothing but a single pan of bean sprout and pork belly stir-fry.
Chomp, chomp.
"Hey. Wasn't there any booze in that fridge?"
"Look for it yourself."
Grumbling all the while, Shin Yo-sep rummaged through the kitchen and poured cooking wine into a stainless-steel cup—but after one sip, he drank no more.
So he's used to this kind of thing. For a chaebol heir, he looked remarkably plain and remarkably at ease—as if he had once done exactly this with someone, long ago.
Chomp, chomp. The sound of two men chewing bean sprouts filled the kitchen—
and Shin Yo-sep swallowed what was in his mouth and spoke without warning.
"Thank you. It would've been rough without you."
Kang Hyeong-seok looked over as he chewed, and Shin Yo-sep wetted his lips with barely a taste of the cooking wine before continuing.
"That boy's been in torment for a whole year. Without you, today would have been the same as yesterday."
"You could have looked for a proper mudang."
"Not so easy. All I found were charlatans."
Kang Hyeong-seok nodded, his face conceding that it figured.
True mudang were far too few. And finding one who could hold the line alongside an exorcist priest would be harder still. He couldn't have gone searching openly, either—direct family of the chairman of Shinjin Construction, with a company's image and a family's honor riding on him. The eyes of the world would have clung to his every step; he could hardly have gone around poking through mudang shrines all over town.
Letting out a long, slow breath, Shin Yo-sep drew his phone from his pocket, dialed somewhere, and raised it to his ear.
He conducted the call with conspicuous courtesy.
"Yes, Secretary Cho? It's me."
"Please go ahead and conclude the contract I mentioned yesterday. Have them collect the item list from Daejeong Mulsan, and confirm what our company needs as well."
"And make sure to mention Kang Hyeong-seok, the assistant manager. Tell them he turned out to be quite capable."
A contract worth tens of billions of won—and he set a deal that size in motion with a single phone call before turning his gaze to Kang Hyeong-seok.
Shin Yo-sep ended the call and laid his chopsticks across his bowl.
"I kept my promise. It'll be signed by end of day."
"And I suppose I should say thank you?"
Shin Yo-sep huffed a laugh. "Suit yourself. Anyway, expect to hear from me now and then—brace yourself."
"Call me over something trivial and you'll regret it."
Kang Hyeong-seok said it, gesturing with his chopsticks, but Shin Yo-sep's face still carried its smile.
"You're expensive human capital. I can't just deploy you any way I please."
It was a joke, so Kang Hyeong-seok nodded along with a smile of his own. It would probably never come to that—but if Shin Yo-sep kept dropping in unannounced the way he had today, both his work and his life would start to suffer for it.
Clatter.
Meal finished, Kang Hyeong-seok set down his bowl and spoke, low.
"So this one you're hunting—what kind of demon is it?"
"If I knew its name, I'd have exorcised it already."
The answer left Shin Yo-sep's mouth before thought could catch it. Had he paused for even a moment, he would have heard what he was really saying: that they had already crossed paths once, and that he had failed. Perhaps it had something to do with the words the demon that had ridden the boy had spat at him.
Clatter.
Setting down his chopsticks and bowl, Kang Hyeong-seok said quietly,
"Honestly? I don't know much about demons."
Shin Yo-sep's gaze came around to him. Then—
"Even so, I'll look into it myself. If I turn up anything, I'll let you know."
"..."
"Where's my thank-you, then?"
At the tossed-off joke, Shin Yo-sep burst out laughing.
"Well, do we really need to go that far?"
"Then the dishes are yours."
That one he meant with complete sincerity.
"I'm the one who cooked!"
Just as Shin Yo-sep grimaced and grumbled his protest, the nun looked in at him through the little window in the door—and passed on by, a faint smile on her face.