Homeward Bound (4)
The world went dark, you say? So your eyes….
“Yes, I was born with congenital blindness.”
But then how did he check the gallery and send that message? While I stood there puzzled, Baek Seol-hwa seemed to understand perfectly.
“So that’s why you gave us the address.”
It looked like Baek Seol-hwa already knew the reason. When I stared at her, curious, she gave a little shiver of her shoulders and said,
“Why are you staring at me like that…?”
“I’m curious.”
“Curious? About what….”
When I pointed at her phone, she seemed to catch on and explained, “It supports voice functions. Reading, writing—everything. I heard it even works with Braille.”
“Ahhh….”
Modern ghosts really do live lives perfectly suited to the IT age. A status window with voice and Braille support? It felt like something one step ahead of even the novels.
…Who on earth made something like that?
While I was thinking that, Baek Seol-hwa spoke to Im Bo-hyeok.
“I’ll be sure to deliver it and let you confirm.”
“Thank you so much.”
“Then let’s head out right away. Since we need to go to Jung-gu, we’ll have to take the car again. Bo-hyeok, please follow me.”
“Yes.”
I glanced back at my mother.
“Mom, you got the address, right?”
“Hmm, yes. So this is how it works.”
“Huh?”
“It feels more analog than I expected. It’s like those volunteers who help people in need.”
When she put it that way, it did feel similar. Of course, unlike volunteers who expect nothing in return, here a price was indeed given.
“But she’s your girlfriend. Is it okay to just send her off like that?”
“What does that have to do with anything, Mom? I’m just helping out.”
“My son has become such a big-hearted boyfriend.”
“What….”
In the first place, the other party was a ghost… no, before that, she wasn’t even my girlfriend. There was no reason it should matter.
When we returned to the parking lot, Baek Seol-hwa said to my mother,
“I’ll see you again soon, ma’am.”
“Yes, dear. Drive safely.”
Watching Baek Seol-hwa’s polite farewell, my mother smiled warmly.
“That child is always full of surprises.”
“She’s pretty different from the yokai you’ve met so far, right?”
My mother nodded. It seemed her impression of Baek Seol-hwa had improved a lot, which was a relief.
“So once we take care of the favor you asked for, everything will be resolved?”
“I suppose so. The ghost’s lingering regret will be resolved, Im Bo-hyeok will ascend to the afterlife, and Seol-hwa will gather the remaining spiritual energy. That should be the end.”
“I see.”
My mother closed her eyes for a moment. She seemed to be thinking deeply about something. After staying like that for a while, she opened her eyes and spoke.
“Let’s get going too.”
“Ah, okay.”
What was she thinking about? I wondered whether I should ask, but after the car had been driving for a little while, I casually brought it up.
“Mom, what were you thinking about earlier?”
“Hm? What do you mean?”
“Before we got in the car, it looked like you were pondering something.”
“Ah~ that?”
My mother said it wasn’t anything too important.
“I was thinking that exorcists might be missing these small details. It’s not like we only need to subjugate evil yokai, is it? That kind of thought crossed my mind.”
“…The world is safe because there are exorcists like you, Mom.”
“Everyone has their own role, of course, but the fact that I’ve never once thought about this side of things in all my years….”
She gave an embarrassed little laugh.
“It felt a bit shameful.”
“…There’s nothing to feel ashamed about.”
In truth, I agreed with what my mother said. Until recently, I had never thought about exorcism in that way either. My perspective had only started to change after meeting Baek Seol-hwa.
“It’s enough that you know there are ways like this too.”
“Today Mom learned a lot from her son.”
“Ah… I wasn’t really trying to teach you anything.”
“No~ I’m not complaining. I’m saying thank you for letting me learn something new thanks to you.”
Me? No. This wasn’t something I taught her….
“It wasn’t me. It was Seol-hwa who taught us.”
Baek Seol-hwa was the one who had taught it to us. I had only learned it from her; I hadn’t taught it myself. When I corrected that part, my mother suddenly burst into light laughter.
“My goodness, you really do like Seol-hwa, don’t you?”
“……What?”
For a moment I was completely flustered. So much so that I even forgot I was supposed to be acting. The reaction had been too plain and sincere. It meant my mother genuinely felt that way about me.
“What? Isn’t it true?”
“Ah, no. I like her a lot. Yeah… that’s right.”
…After spending so much time together, it seemed we had grown far closer than I had realized.
“This should be the place.”
The address plugged into the navigation told us we had arrived nearby. When I looked around and saw Baek Seol-hwa’s bike parked there, it seemed we were definitely in the right spot.
“It’s an orphanage.”
“Looks like it.”
We had come to an orphanage last time too. I never thought I’d visit a place I had never been to before twice in such a short time.
At the orphanage entrance, Baek Seol-hwa and Im Bo-hyeok were already waiting. It looked like she was asking him something. My mother said to me,
“Son, go ahead and get out first. I’ll find a place to park and come join you.”
“Ah, sure.”
“Yeah. You wouldn’t want to leave Seol-hwa all alone, would you?”
With her personality, I doubted she’d feel lonely, but I figured I should go hear what they were talking about. Following my mother’s suggestion, I got out of the car and walked over to Baek Seol-hwa.
“Ah, you’re here?”
“Motorcycles really are fast.”
“Of course they are.”
“So what were you talking about?”
“Ah, I was asking what kind of person Na Ye-ji is.”
“Why ask Im Bo-hyeok? Shouldn’t you ask at the orphanage?”
“Well, normally that would be fine, but….”
Baek Seol-hwa glanced at the orphanage with a slightly troubled expression.
“It feels a bit off.”
“Huh? What does?”
“Can’t you sense it? There’s yoki here.”
“Of course I can sense it. You’re right here.”
“Not mine, you dummy. It’s coming from inside the orphanage.”
“……Huh?”
I looked at the orphanage, but unlike what Baek Seol-hwa said, I couldn’t feel anything at all.
“There’s nothing there.”
“What? You really can’t feel anything?”
“Not even the ‘yo’ in yoki.”
“Umm…? Why can I feel it so clearly?”
Baek Seol-hwa wore a puzzled expression. Since she was insisting this strongly, it probably wasn’t a mistake on her part.
“Do you still feel it now?”
“Yes.”
“Then let’s prepare ourselves before going in. I brought a few talismans from home, so….”
“Talismans? Wait, hold on…!”
At that moment, Im Bo-hyeok suddenly reached out into the air and cried,
“Please don’t do that!”
“Pardon?”
“Bo-hyeok, it seems there’s a yokai over there. Just in case it’s hostile, we should prepare….”
“That person… that person is Na Ye-ji, the one I asked you to deliver the letter to!”
“……What?”
What? “Na Ye-ji is… a yokai?”
“It’s… a bit of a long story….”
“Who’s there?”
At that moment, someone walked out of the orphanage building. No, to be precise, it wasn’t a person. On the surface she looked like an ordinary orphanage teacher wearing an apron, but that wasn’t the truth.
“…So that’s why I couldn’t feel it.”
I finally understood why I hadn’t been able to sense any yoki earlier, and why I still couldn’t feel any now. Although I still couldn’t detect any yoki, my eyes that could see the true nature of the bizarre revealed her real form.
A yokai that could perfectly hide its yoki from humans and even completely change its appearance. The raccoon yokai said to be even more skilled at transformation than the nine-tailed fox.
“Bakedanuki.”
“…!”
It was the shapeshifting raccoon dog yokai, also known as the bakedanuki. The round, striped tail hidden beneath its perfect disguise was proof. As a yokai skilled in transformation, it was adept at concealing its yoki from humans, but the same trick didn’t work on other yokai. That was why Baek Seol-hwa could sense it while I could not.
“W-who are you…!”
I observed the flustered Na Ye-ji for a moment, then asked Baek Seol-hwa,
“The yoki?”
“The yoki she carries is faint, and her yin energy is weak too.”
“How weak?”
“About the level of someone who enjoys eating meat?”
“Then….”
“Yes, that’s right. It means she doesn’t harm humans.”
Baek Seol-hwa took a step toward her and greeted her politely.
“Hello, Miss Na Ye-ji.”
“Are you people exorcists by any chance!?”
“Please don’t be too wary.”
Baek Seol-hwa gently revealed a trace of her own yoki.
“I’m not human either.”
When she revealed that she was also a yokai, Na Ye-ji’s eyes widened in surprise. Then she looked at me and said,
“But this person is clearly human… and since he saw my true form, that means he’s an exorcist, right?”
“I’m not officially practicing exorcism. I’m just helping this guy out a bit.”
“We listen to the worries of ghosts and help them resolve their lingering regrets. We didn’t come to find you today to do anything bad to you, Miss Ye-ji.”
As she spoke, Baek Seol-hwa gently pulled Im Bo-hyeok forward.
“Do you see this person here? He said he has something he wants to give you.”
“……Pardon?”
However, Na Ye-ji didn’t seem to see Im Bo-hyeok. She looked at Baek Seol-hwa with a slightly troubled expression.
“I’m sorry, but who exactly are you talking about…?”
“…What? Can’t you see the ghost standing right here?”
“A ghost?… Ah, I’m sorry. My yoki is so weak that I haven’t reached the level where I can see other spirits.”
“Ah.”
…Was it that bad? Normally, yokai can see the dead because the yoki they carry is a type of spiritual energy. Since human souls are also a type of spiritual energy, most yokai who possess and can use yoki can also see spirits. Conversely, yokai whose yoki is too weak to be used… sometimes couldn’t see ghosts.
I thought she felt weak, but I didn’t realize her yoki was that faint.
Baek Seol-hwa seemed a little flustered too and paused for a moment before shaking her head slightly and saying,
“Ah, in that case we’ll deliver it for you. Do you have anything you’d like to say?”
“No, I already wrote everything I wanted to say in that letter.”
Im Bo-hyeok said that and looked once in Na Ye-ji’s direction. Even though he couldn’t see, perhaps because he had just heard her voice, he accurately turned his head toward where she was standing.
“I don’t have any grand lingering regrets. I just felt sad that I couldn’t see her face one last time, that I couldn’t say my final words, so I wandered this world. But given how I look, I couldn’t come here without help.”
“…I’ll deliver that properly too.”
“Yes, that’s enough.”
His form gradually began to fade. It meant his regret had been resolved.
It wasn’t even anything major.
I once again realized how many ghosts couldn’t rest in peace because of such small regrets.
“Um, wouldn’t it be better if you heard her reply before you go? I can deliver it for you….”
Baek Seol-hwa said that, but Im Bo-hyeok replied that it was fine.
“No, it’s enough. If I hear her reply, I feel like I might get stuck in this world even longer.”
Just hearing her voice and realizing the letter had been safely delivered was enough to dissolve his regret. Im Bo-hyeok smiled gently.
“Thank you for helping me.”
The gradually fading Im Bo-hyeok disappeared completely. It was natural to want to hear a reply after delivering a letter, yet his regret had been resolved without it. It was strange.
…What exactly had he written?
For a moment I stood there in a daze. After Im Bo-hyeok vanished, Baek Seol-hwa gathered the spiritual energy he left behind and held it in her hand. Then she opened the glass bottle he had handed her earlier.
As I had mentioned before, ghosts cannot touch objects in the living world. Therefore, the glass bottle and letter that the ghost Im Bo-hyeok had been carrying and handed over were not objects from the living world. They were what could be called “soul items”—objects created from a ghost’s lingering wish… things that didn’t truly exist.
The reason Baek Seol-hwa could receive them was because she was a yokai who handled spiritual energy. Neither I nor my mother would have been able to take his letter. Only people like Baek Seol-hwa or Jang San could have received it. That was why she was the one opening it.
Since Na Ye-ji was a yokai so weak she couldn’t even see ghosts, Baek Seol-hwa was going to read the contents for her and deliver them exactly.
“…Miss Na Ye-ji, I received a letter. He insisted it must be given to you.”
“What? Who….”
“Im Bo-hyeok. Do you know him?”
“…Bo-hyeok?”
At that moment, Na Ye-ji’s eyes flew wide open.
“Did Bo-hyeok ask you to do this!?”
“Yes, that’s right. So… you do know Bo-hyeok.”
“Of course I know him…! He was one of the children I cared for! According to the rules of Korean orphanages, children must leave once they become adults, so I had no choice but to send him away… but Bo-hyeok was blind, so I was always worried. What if he got into an accident….”
“…Ah.”
…So that was how it was.
“Then… Bo-hyeok became a ghost….”
“……I’m truly sorry.”
“Ah…!”
Na Ye-ji couldn’t hold back the emotions welling up inside her. She covered her face and began to sob. It seemed Im Bo-hyeok had grown up in this orphanage under Na Ye-ji’s care, then left, lived for a while, and eventually passed away.
Come to think of it, the gallery IP was 1995.702.
When I interpreted the IP from the time I was killed by Goroshi, it meant he had died on July 2, 1995.
…Twenty-eight years had already passed, yet he had continued wandering the living world all this time just to deliver this one letter.
Baek Seol-hwa slowly approached Na Ye-ji and gently patted her back. Only after her sobs had quieted did she carefully ask,
“If it’s all right with you, may I read the letter Bo-hyeok wanted to deliver?”
“The letter….”
“It was his final regret. Delivering this letter to you, Miss Ye-ji. Normally it would be best for you to read it yourself, but since it seems you can’t see it….”
Baek Seol-hwa spoke kindly.
“I’ll deliver every word without missing anything.”
“…Would you please? I want to know what Bo-hyeok wanted to say to me so badly that he wandered this world….”
“Of course.”
Baek Seol-hwa opened the letter. The paper rolled up inside the glass bottle wasn’t just one sheet. There were three. Yet Baek Seol-hwa didn’t seem flustered at all. She began reading each character carefully.
“To my dear teacher Na Ye-ji. Hello, Teacher Ye-ji. It’s been a long time. This is Bo-hyeok. I’m not sure if you’ll remember me. It’s already been so long since I left the orphanage. I wondered so many things—whether you are still healthy, whether you are caring for the children with the same devotion you showed me, whether you are doing well…. But as you know, my body is a bit inconvenient, so I couldn’t come visit you separately. I always wanted to see you in my heart, but I felt a little sad that I couldn’t make that happen. If I had lived a little closer, I would have found a way to visit, but I ended up living so far away. That’s why I could only come to Busan after I became a little freer. But I just couldn’t find the way. Haha, in this state I can’t ask anyone for help… it’s quite the predicament. Still, I thought maybe someday it would reach you, so I’m writing down what I want to say in a letter. Since you are a rather special person, I hope you might discover this letter someday. Maybe by chance while passing by, or if you come to visit nearby. Ah, perhaps you might come here on a picnic with the children and find my letter. I heard that a letter placed in a glass bottle will definitely reach its intended recipient, so I’ll put it in one. I really hope you find my letter.”
Fortunately, even if Na Ye-ji hadn’t found it herself, the letter could be delivered through the helping hand Baek Seol-hwa had extended. Was this the true positive function of the Ghost Gallery?
Baek Seol-hwa paused to catch her breath and continued.
“First, I want to say thank you. Thank you for taking in a child like me who had nowhere to go and an inconvenient body, and for teaching me how bright this world can be even though I can’t see anything. Not only me, but Jae-hoon, Yu-eun, Eun-hye… you created futures for so many children. I have always been grateful to you, and I’m sure the other children feel the same. I want to make sure to tell you that the children you are caring for now must feel that way too. So please don’t feel sorry that you are not an ordinary person and therefore can’t teach them everything. If it weren’t for you, we really wouldn’t have known anything. From the very beginning, the fact that you honestly told us that taught us honesty. So please don’t keep such small things in your heart. No matter what kind of being you are, to us you are an incredibly precious teacher. And um, it looks like I’m already running out of paper. In this state, even if I want more paper, I can’t get any. There are so many things I want to say, but I think I should only tell you what I absolutely must and stop here.”
Her eyes had turned red. Both Na Ye-ji who was listening and Baek Seol-hwa who was reading were the same. With a voice trembling with emotion, Baek Seol-hwa read the final page.
“Please always take care of your health. Eat lots of good things too. To children like us, you are like a ray of hope, so please stay healthy for a long, long time and save many more children. Please give a proper world to the children who don’t yet know how bright this world can be. Just as I learned that joy from you, please let the other children know that feeling too. If you do that… your son will be more than satisfied. Thank you so much, Teacher Na Ye-ji. I sincerely hope you will always be happy.”
That seemed to be the end of the letter. Baek Seol-hwa didn’t say anything more. She simply shed a single stream of tears. Na Ye-ji covered her face with both hands and continued sobbing.
Now that I had heard Im Bo-hyeok’s letter, I finally noticed something. The children playing on the playground behind the orphanage… were not entirely ordinary. Or rather, they were a little different. One child limped as if their leg was uncomfortable, and another didn’t seem to hear when the other children spoke to them. Only then did the orphanage’s name catch my eye.
Orphanage for Children with Disabilities.
This place was a home for children with physical difficulties and nowhere else to go. And the fact that it was a yokai, not a human, who had taken on that role….
…I really didn’t know anything.
It was even more shocking to me than learning about Baek Seol-hwa. Once again, I realized it to my bones. Although they are extremely rare, not all yokai are evil. There are yokai who live for the sake of others like this.
But Baek Seol-hwa, who had been quietly shedding tears, suddenly looked around and walked toward the wall.
“…Baek Seol-hwa?”
She raised her hand and began tapping on the bricks. As if keeping a rhythm, at regular intervals.
Tap tap. Sometimes quickly.
Tap tap… tap tap. Sometimes slowing the rhythm in the middle.
Tap… tap… tap….
Tap tap tap tap… tap.
…….
Tap… tap tap… tap….
Tap… tap… tap….
Tap tap tap….
After that final sequence, Baek Seol-hwa lowered the fist she had been using to tap the bricks. I had no idea what it meant and felt puzzled, but Na Ye-ji seemed to understand. Her eyes had grown perfectly round.
With tears still streaming down her face, Baek Seol-hwa told her,
“This… was the last sentence Im Bo-hyeok wanted to convey.”
Sentence? …Ah.
Na Ye-ji lowered her head. I didn’t know exactly what it meant, but I realized what Baek Seol-hwa had expressed. She gently asked Na Ye-ji,
“Do you think Bo-hyeok’s heart was properly delivered?”
And as her answer, Na Ye-ji smiled so brightly and cried with joy.
“Thanks to you… I received it properly….”
“It looks like everything worked out well.”
“…Mom.”
Lee Hye-yeon had parked the car and had been quietly watching the entire situation from hiding. She thought that if she wasn’t in front of them, Seol-hwa and Se-hwan would show their true selves. And what she saw was a truly heartwarming scene.
Lee Hye-yeon felt as if every preconception she had held until now had been completely shattered. She looked at the orphanage’s name and said,
“A kind-hearted yokai who takes care of children with disabilities. Really, a yokai is doing something even humans find difficult.”
“…Exactly.”
Se-hwan didn’t deny it. The boy who had once hated all yokai without exception had now come to understand and accept that there were yokai who lived like this. Hye-yeon looked at her son for a moment, then at Seol-hwa, who had been comforting Na Ye-ji and had ended up crying with her, and said,
“That last part was Morse code.”
“…Yeah, it seemed like it.”
“Did you understand what it meant, son?”
“No, I don’t really know that stuff.”
“Didn’t they teach you in the military?”
“They don’t teach that anymore these days. Some positions learn it, but it had nothing to do with me… Wait, you know it, Mom?”
“Of course Mom knows.”
“Really? It’s surprising that you know something like that. What did it mean?”
Lee Hye-yeon gave her son a small smile. The eyes looking at the son she hadn’t seen for four years were filled with incredibly tender emotion.
“I love you.”