A Small Favor (2)
A little further ahead, the Adidas store came into view. In front of it stood a woman lost in thought, her expression deeply focused. At first glance, she was strikingly beautiful—the kind of face that would make passersby glance back at least once. Yet beneath that beauty, something invisible to others was perfectly clear to me.
Fluffy white fox tails that looked impossibly soft to the touch, perky ears, and an eerie aura no human could sense. Those were the signs that told me she wasn’t human—she was a yokai.
That’s why I felt no particular stir of emotion, but Se-a, standing right beside me, had no way of knowing any of that.
“Wow, she’s seriously gorgeous.”
“...If you say so.”
“What’s wrong with your eyes?”
Se-a looked utterly baffled by my indifferent reaction and left me behind to approach first. She broke into a bright smile and greeted her warmly.
“Hi, Seol-hwa.”
“Huh? Se-a?”
Baek Seol-hwa clearly hadn’t expected Se-a to show up. She shot me a questioning look, and I gave her a quick explanation.
“She was curious about what you usually do. Since this job isn’t dangerous anyway, I brought her along to observe.”
“Ah...”
She seemed to understand why I’d brought her. But Seol-hwa still had one lingering question.
“...But didn’t you have a part-time shift today? How did you two end up meeting?”
I’d taken the day off from my part-time job, so what exactly had I been doing with Se-a? For some reason, it seemed to bother her a lot.
I tilted my head at the question.
“We didn’t.”
“Huh?”
“It wasn’t just the two of us. You know Ju-hyuk, right? He asked me for a favor, so I skipped my shift and came out. Se-a happened to be there too.”
“...Ah, so it was like a group meetup?”
“Oh, how’d you guess that?”
“I browse the internet too, you know...”
I stepped a little closer to Seol-hwa. She blinked in surprise, eyes widening slightly, but I didn’t notice and whispered quietly.
“When it’s time for you to gather spiritual energy, I’ll make sure to drag her away somehow. So don’t worry.”
“Ah, u-um, got it...”
“?”
When she suddenly started stuttering, I looked at her curiously. Seol-hwa deliberately avoided my gaze and said,
“W-we’re supposed to meet at the movie theater. Let’s head over there.”
“Which one?”
“The one across from the station.”
I nodded and turned to Se-a.
“Keep up, Jeong Se-a.”
“I know. Seol-hwa, let’s go together.”
“Ah, sure.”
True to her friendly nature, Se-a was already chatting actively with Seol-hwa and acting close. I found it genuinely impressive.
Wasn’t the last time they properly talked the first time they met?
They’d exchanged simple greetings at the cafe before, but the first real conversation had been when Se-a helped me out. And Seol-hwa didn’t seem to mind her at all.
The way they’d grown so friendly so quickly was, in my opinion, Se-a’s greatest strength.
I followed behind the two of them as they walked ahead. Se-a, walking beside Seol-hwa, glanced at her for a moment. There was something she wanted to ask.
“Um, Seol-hwa.”
“Yeah?”
“About San...”
“...What about her?”
“Well... when exactly did San start liking Se-hwan? Since you’re her older sister, I thought you might know.”
Specifically, when Jang San had begun to develop feelings for me. Last time Seol-hwa had brushed it off as nonsense, but Se-a had a gut feeling.
That San definitely felt romantic interest toward me.
“...I don’t know.”
“Ah, really...?”
“Yeah. I don’t know about that either.”
Seol-hwa answered that she didn’t know and fell silent again. It didn’t seem like she was lying. But Se-a sensed something off.
Last time she said it was just a joke, but...
The fact that Seol-hwa, who had previously dismissed it as teasing, no longer seemed to think so. Whether she’d realized something or learned the truth, Se-a wasn’t sure, but...
...So it really is true that she likes him.
At the very least, it seemed certain that San liked me. Se-a felt a sense of crisis. Since San was Seol-hwa’s sister, she was incredibly pretty too. It was only natural to feel threatened.
“...I’m not losing yet.”
“Huh?”
“Ah, never mind! Anyway, Seol-hwa, is it just the two of you this time? What about San and... that other person who was there last time?”
“Ah, there was no need to call them. I was originally planning to do this alone...”
“Alone?”
“Yeah. It’s that simple of a job.”
After that answer, Seol-hwa went quiet as if no further explanation was needed. Se-a, who had always thought exorcism sounded rather dangerous, found it a bit strange.
Come to think of it, Se-hwan also said...
He wasn’t doing dangerous work like before anymore. So that’s what he’d meant.
To be honest, she had followed along mostly because she wanted to spend more time with me, but she had been a little nervous. Hearing that it was supposedly very simple, though, she felt much more at ease.
Se-a asked with a much lighter heart,
“Then is most of the exorcism work you do with Se-hwan like this?”
“Pretty much.”
Seol-hwa recalled the request she’d received from Kim Kang-cheol but decided there was no need to mention it and kept quiet.
Maybe thanks to Se-a’s constant chatter, the walk to the movie theater felt surprisingly short. To Se-a’s eyes, it was just a crowded street full of ordinary people, but to Seol-hwa and me—after I’d touched the necklace—it looked completely different.
“Hello.”
“Ah, you’re...?”
“I’m Baek Seol-hwa, the one who contacted you.”
There was a tall male ghost.
“Ah, hello. My name is Mok Seong-gyu.”
After Seol-hwa finished greeting the ghost, Mok Seong-gyu, I stepped forward.
“Baek Seol-hwa’s colleague, Yoo Se-hwan.”
“Oh? You seem to be human... can you see me?”
“I have a rather unusual constitution.”
Of course, to Se-a it looked like the two of us were suddenly talking to thin air. I gave the confused girl a simple explanation.
“We listen to the ghost’s lingering regrets and help him pass on.”
“...A ghost? There’s a ghost here?”
“Yeah.”
Se-a looked quite shocked.
“Ghosts are everywhere to begin with. They’re similar to what we call ‘spirits,’ but a bit different. These beings don’t harm people, so comparing them to harmful ghosts is actually rude.”
Of course, when ghosts harbor grudges and change, they become vengeful spirits or malevolent ones—the ones commonly called ghosts. But I believed they should be clearly distinguished.
“We don’t call ordinary people criminals, right?”
“...Ah.”
Se-a nodded. The ghost watched me for a moment before speaking.
“It hasn’t been long since I died, so I’m not entirely sure, but you seem to have quite an interesting perspective.”
“I grew up in a rather unusual household.”
“Are you perhaps an exorcist?”
“Didn’t you say it hasn’t been long since you died? You know a lot.”
“I saw it on the gallery. They said there are people like that. I didn’t think they actually existed, haha.”
The ghost had a surprisingly cheerful personality. Most ghosts who had died recently struggled to accept their deaths and spent their time in depression, but the fact that he could already laugh showed his character.
Seol-hwa asked him,
“Then could you guide us there right away?”
“Yes, let’s go.”
“Where are we going?”
When I asked, Seol-hwa glanced back at me and answered simply.
“A stationery store.”
“This is...”
The place the ghost, Mok Seong-gyu, whom we’d met through Baek Seol-hwa, guided us to was in front of an elementary school. More precisely, it was in front of a small, old stationery shop near the school.
“...There are still places like this left in Busan?”
“Apparently so.”
I agreed with Jeong Se-a’s reaction. Honestly, the store perfectly preserved the look of a neighborhood stationery shop you’d only see in the early 2000s.
“But why did we come to a stationery store?”
What did a lingering regret have to do with a stationery shop? When I asked out of curiosity, Baek Seol-hwa answered simply.
“I’m going to buy a notebook.”
“A notebook?”
“Yeah.”
Suddenly buying a notebook... for a second I wondered if she actually knew what she was doing. But since Mok Seong-gyu didn’t say anything, it seemed like she was on the right track.
“Welcome.”
When we entered the stationery store, an elderly woman came out from the back. It looked like there was a resting room inside, something you’d often see in old shops.
“Hello, ma’am.”
“Hello.”
When Baek Seol-hwa and Jeong Se-a greeted her warmly, the old shop owner nodded and smiled. That kind smile made me feel like I’d slipped back into childhood. It reminded me of the grandmother who used to run the tteokbokki place near my house. Even when I bought a 500-won cup of tteokbokki, she would sometimes give me a tiny hot dog made from leftover batter.
Seol-hwa went over to the notebook display, looked around, and picked up one with a bit of thickness. She showed it to Mok Seong-gyu and asked,
“What color should we get?”
“Let’s go with something sky-blue. A blue shade.”
“Okay.”
So color mattered too. I was watching from the side when Se-a picked one up and said,
“Notebooks have gotten expensive. Back then these only cost about five hundred won.”
“True.”
The price tags on the thin notebooks that used to cost five hundred won—or even two or three hundred won before that—now read one thousand or fifteen hundred won. Thicker practice books were two thousand won, and the really thick ones that used to sell for two thousand now went for three or four thousand.
“Prices really have gone up a lot.”
“Yoo Se-hwan, do you have cash?”
“Huh?”
Baek Seol-hwa asked if I had money, probably because she was about to pay for the notebooks. I checked my wallet. There were three one-thousand-won bills.
“I have three thousand won.”
“What? You don’t even have a ten-thousand-won bill? These two cost four thousand won together.”
“...Notebooks are expensive these days.”
“I have some! Here!”
Se-a must have had cash on her because she handed over a ten-thousand-won bill.
“Thanks, Se-a.”
Seol-hwa took the money, held out the notebooks to the old woman, and said,
“Could you ring this up for us?”
“Mm, sure.”
The grandmother took the ten-thousand-won bill and started tapping on the calculator. It was simple math—subtract four thousand from ten thousand—but at her age, even simple calculations could be difficult.
“Here’s your change.”
But something felt off. The money the old woman handed over as change. She should have given back one one-thousand-won bill and one five-thousand-won bill, or six one-thousand-won bills... but instead, she handed over two five-thousand-won bills.
“...?”
When I thought something was strange, Se-a assumed the grandmother had pulled out the wrong bills and spoke up immediately.
“Ma’am, those are two five-thousand-won bills.”
“...Mm?”
“I think you gave us the wrong change.”
“Oh dear, look at me. I’m so sorry.”
...Was it just a mistake? But when I saw the money she pulled out from the register next, I became certain it wasn’t a simple error.
“Here you go.”
“......Yes.”
The money Seol-hwa received this time was two bills again. This time one of them was indeed a five-thousand-won bill, but the other was the exact ten-thousand-won bill Seol-hwa had just handed over.
“...Ma’am?”
She was supposed to receive six thousand won in change for four thousand won, yet the grandmother was giving back fifteen thousand won without realizing anything was wrong. This wasn’t the kind of mistake that came from old age.
I was starting to feel certain. This was probably...
“Oh my, young customers. Welcome.”
Right then, the old woman greeted us again. Even though she had already greeted us when we first came in.
Se-a looked greatly shocked, while Seol-hwa remained relatively calm. It was a disease that older people often experienced, one that anyone could suffer from, which made it all the more terrifying. In some cases, it brought pain not only to the person themselves but to their loved ones as well. A horrible illness. Even our ancestors, unable to describe the suffering, had dismissed it as nothing more than ‘a very bad prank played by a dokkaebi,’ calling it an incurable condition.
Dementia.
“Ah, when did you bring these? Look at me. I’ll ring you up right away.”
She started calculating the notebooks again, even though she had already messed up once. Seol-hwa handed over another ten-thousand-won bill, and this time the grandmother gave her two ten-thousand-won bills.
“...Sigh.”
A sigh escaped me from the pity I felt. I turned my head slightly and looked at Mok Seong-gyu. His face was twisted with deep sadness.
“Mr. Mok Seong-gyu, this person...”
“...I’m sorry, Miss Baek Seol-hwa. Could you please return the notebook money and the change to the counter... and maybe add about forty to fifty thousand won? I wish I could put the money in myself, but I can’t...”
“I will. Yoo Se-hwan, I’ll go withdraw some money...”
“I’ll give it to you, Seol-hwa. You can pay me back later.”
When Se-a handed over the money, Seol-hwa gave a small nod of thanks. Then she handed over the previously incorrect change along with the new amount.
“Ma’am, please take this money.”
“Mm? What money is this all of a sudden?”
“This... you might not remember, but I received so much from you in the past. I’m giving this because I’m truly grateful.”
“Young lady, isn’t this the first time I’ve seen you?”
Of course Seol-hwa had never done that. This must be Mok Seong-gyu’s story.
“Does the name Mok Seong-gyu ring any bells?”
“Mok Seong-gyu...?”
The old woman thought for a moment, then shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s all right. It’s been over fifteen years, so it’s understandable that you’ve forgotten. Still, I really hope you’ll accept this. I believe I was able to come this far thanks to you.”
At Seol-hwa’s words, the grandmother looked a bit bewildered, but when Seol-hwa persistently held out the money, she accepted it.
“I have no idea what I could have done for you...”
Even while looking puzzled, the old woman held the money tightly. It wasn’t because she was greedy. Think about how a child feels when they receive a large sum of money. New Year’s money is a good example. Wouldn’t you feel happy thinking about buying toys, lots of snacks, and all the things you want?
That’s exactly how the grandmother felt right now. It didn’t seem like her dementia had progressed to the point where she acted like a very young child, but the way she messed up simple calculations and didn’t realize she was giving the wrong change suggested it had advanced to a moderate stage.
“Hm?”
Just then, the shop door we had closed when we entered opened again, and a middle-aged man walked in. He looked at us with confusion, then saw the grandmother in front of us and said,
“Aigoo, Mother. I told you to go rest in the back room.”
“We have customers.”
“I can take care of the customers. I’m sorry, I had to step out for a moment because of something.”
He seemed to be the old woman’s son. He noticed the money in her hand and looked slightly surprised.
“Uh, what’s all this money?”
“Ah, well...”
Seol-hwa began explaining the situation. She told him she had received help about fifteen years ago and recounted what she guessed Mok Seong-gyu had told her. The son nodded as if he understood.
“My mother used to do that a lot. She would just give things to kids who couldn’t afford school supplies... and she never asked for the money back, so the store was short on cash all the time.”
“I didn’t do that.”
“Yes, Mother. Go back inside and finish watching your TV.”
After sending his mother back to the room, the son looked at us and gave a gentle laugh.
“Please understand. She’s not feeling well. She didn’t cause you any trouble, did she?”
“No, not at all.”
“It’s the first time anyone has come back to repay her like this. Mother will be happy.”
“...Will she?”
“The notebooks seem to have already been paid for, so you can take them.”
“Ah, yes.”
Seol-hwa looked at the notebooks for a moment, then made one request to him.
“Later, could you ask your mother about the name Mok Seong-gyu again?”
“Mok Seong-gyu? That’s surprisingly masculine for a name.”
“...Yes, I hear that a lot.”
It was a rather funny situation, but Seol-hwa took it in stride. He readily nodded at the simple request.
“Thank you.”
Seol-hwa conveyed the thanks on behalf of Mok Seong-gyu. The son smiled lightly.
“Yes, I’ll tell her.”
I had a rough idea of what had happened, but I still wasn’t sure about the exact situation. Since I didn’t know the details, I wasn’t certain if this would resolve the ghost’s lingering regret.
With that, we left the stationery store. Seol-hwa looked at Mok Seong-gyu for a moment and asked,
“This doesn’t seem to be the way to resolve your regret. There must be something else you need.”
In fact, Mok Seong-gyu had not passed on. He simply stared down at the notebook Seol-hwa had bought with a sorrowful expression.
I asked him carefully,
“Could you tell us what happened? Since you haven’t passed on, it seems your regret hasn’t been resolved. If we hear the exact story, we might be able to help you more effectively.”
“...Yes.”
Mok Seong-gyu began to tell his story.
“The grandmother who owns this stationery store is like a benefactor to me.”