Snowflakes (4)
I rushed out of the motel with Snow, quickly pulling up the address on the map app. “Where is it?”
“Looks like… about a twelve-minute walk from here.”
“Then let’s hurry!”
“Uh, yeah…”
Her sudden shift in attitude left me a little stunned. The timid, easily flustered, scaredy-cat yokai from just moments ago had completely vanished. In her place stood a ridiculously kind-hearted yokai who was dead set on fulfilling the request she’d been given.
“Which way from here?”
“……”
“Hurry up!”
“…Ah, turn right into that alley!”
Watching her like this left me feeling strangely conflicted. She might not show it on her face like most people, but she was clearly panicking hard. The yokai I knew were wicked, cunning creatures that toyed with humans and devoured their spiritual energy by any means necessary. But no matter how I looked at her, Snow didn’t seem like that at all. She was genuinely trying her hardest to help a young spirit resolve its regrets. I could feel the sincere goodness in her.
“Haa… haa…”
“Whew… Is this the place?”
We double-checked the address written on the house. Beomcheon-dong 119-15. It was exact. This was the house the young spirit had told us about. Before pressing the doorbell, Snow pulled out the medicine packet she’d tucked into her small bag. Seeing it, I grew curious and asked,
“What kind of medicine is that?”
“Cold medicine.”
“Huh?”
I was slightly puzzled that the request had simply been to deliver cold medicine, but Snow insisted it was correct.
“It’s fever reducer and cough syrup. The kid asked if I could bring this over.”
“…So this is how you’ve been gathering spiritual energy?”
“What are you talking about? I told you I got the request on the way here. Yes, this is how I usually gather energy, but this time it has nothing to do with that.”
At the words “nothing to do with that,” my eyes widened. Then why was she in such a rush? I decided to confirm the thought that had been nagging at me since earlier.
“So you’re doing this just because you want to help that kid…”
“Who is it~?”
Apparently our voices had carried to the front door. It opened, and a fairly young housewife stepped out. The moment Snow saw her, she quickly smoothed down her slightly disheveled hair from running and said,
“Ah, are you Jeong-hoon’s mother, by any chance?”
“…Yes? Jeong-hoon? Um… that would be me, but…”
The housewife’s expression darkened instantly. I tilted my head at the sight. ‘…What’s going on here.’
The young spirit had said its mom was sick and asked us to buy medicine for her. Yet the medicine in question was nothing special—just ordinary cold medicine. Something felt off. For a spirit to remain in the living world, it needed a significant attachment. The idea that its only regret was wanting to deliver cold medicine seemed a bit strange.
“…How exactly did you know my Jeong-hoon?”
While I was busy feeling suspicious, Snow answered without thinking much of it.
“Well… this might be hard to believe, but I was asked by Jeong-hoon to deliver something for him.”
“Pardon?”
The housewife, who still hadn’t opened the gate, frowned deeply. After a brief silence, her voice came out cold and laced with anger.
“…Excuse me, could you please stop with these tasteless jokes? I don’t know where you heard about this, but using someone else’s painful memories like this is something you’ll be punished for.”
“N-no, it’s true! I understand why you’d misunderstand, but please believe me just this once. Jeong-hoon asked me to buy some medicine and bring it to his mom, so…”
“…Medicine? I’m not sick at all.”
“What? But…”
Even I could see it. The housewife looked far too healthy to be considered ill. Her complexion had been good before we even started talking. The state of the housewife and the young spirit’s request were clearly at odds.
Unlike the bewildered Snow, I recalled one key fact and finally understood the situation. A spirit’s memories only go up to the moment of their death. The same applied to the young spirit who had asked Snow for medicine. The fact that the mother’s condition in the child’s memory differed from her current state could only mean one thing.
“Please leave. We have nothing more to discuss.”
“…Sigh.”
Snow’s clumsy response made me let out a small sigh. I had a pretty good idea of what was happening now. ‘So this is how she’s been surviving all this time.’
I stepped forward. Then I snatched the medicine packet from Snow’s hand.
“Hey!? You!”
As the housewife tried to close the front door and go back inside, I spoke in a slightly urgent voice, as if trying to stop her.
“Just a moment, please!”
“I have nothing to say. Please leave.”
“The medicine in this packet is fever reducer and cough syrup. Please look for yourself.”
“……Pardon?”
When I named the specific medicines, the housewife’s tone changed. The coldness vanished, replaced by clear surprise.
“You might think we’re playing some strange, cruel prank, but the truth is we’re exorcists.”
“What… are you talking about?”
Using the exorcist excuse as cover, I stood on my tiptoes. I held out a talisman along with the medicine over the wall. The housewife’s eyes shook as she saw it.
“On our way here, we met a young spirit. The child told us that their mom was sick.”
Her expression changed dramatically from before. It wasn’t because my exorcist excuse had worked. It was because she had seen the fever reducer and cough syrup I was holding over the wall. I hadn’t actually planned to convince her with the exorcist story. It was merely supporting evidence to give weight to what I was about to say. The only real clue that could make her understand had been this cold medicine from the start.
“That child asked us to buy fever reducer and cough syrup and bring it here. Of course, I know these medicines aren’t needed by you right now, ma’am.”
Spirits who remain in the living world always carry a deep regret in their hearts. In order to resolve the attachment that kept this young spirit here, the cold medicine had to be delivered. The exact regret the child held was—
“But your son still believes you’re sick. So could you please trust us and accept this?”
“……”
Because it was medicine meant for a mother who had been ill.
“Only then can your son move on to where he needs to go. We can’t let him keep wandering this world alone over something so small.”
Snow watched me with a dazed expression for a moment. She had been planning to just throw the medicine over if there was no other way, but I was actually managing to persuade the housewife in a fairly convincing manner. ‘Ugh…’
Standing on my tiptoes was starting to get difficult. Just as I bit my lip, trying to hold on a little longer, the gate creaked open. The housewife who stepped out murmured in disbelief.
“Really…”
“!”
“Did Jeong-hoon… really do that? He still thought I was sick…?”
Her face was horribly contorted. But it wasn’t the same anger as before, when she thought we were playing a cruel joke.
“…Yes.”
I handed her the medicine packet. She opened it and looked at the fever reducer and cough medicine inside. The moment she confirmed it, strength flooded into her hands. The packet crumpled slightly. Yet she clutched it to her chest as if it were the most precious thing in the world, then sank to her knees.
“Ah, ugh, aaaaah… Jeong-hoon-ah…!”
What could be seen through her distorted expression was nothing but longing and sorrow for the child she had lost far too soon.
Snow watched the sobbing housewife with pity in her eyes, then quietly turned her head. At some point, the young spirit who had asked her to buy the medicine had appeared beside her.
“…Hey, is this enough?”
The child gave a small nod. Seeing the young spirit’s calm reaction, Snow’s own eyes grew red instead.
“Yeah.”
Once a spirit resolves its regret, it no longer lingers in the living world. A powerful grudge is what binds a soul without a body to this realm. The moment the source of that grudge is resolved, the spirit loses the strength to remain. The young spirit’s legs began to fade first. Seeing that he could no longer move, Snow gently took his hand.
“Yeah… come with me.”
She walked forward while holding the child’s hand. It only took a few steps to reach their destination. In front of the sobbing mother, she released his hand—so the spirit could reach out and touch his mother’s cheek. Just once, gently. The child who felt that warmth bowed his head toward me and Snow.
“…Thank you.”
With that short word of gratitude, the small child left the living world without any lingering attachment.
The young spirit has moved on.
Spiritual energy successfully absorbed.
I felt a little awkward… No, I felt extremely awkward. Snow sat beside me with a similarly sour expression on her face. With a soft clink, elegant teacups were placed in front of us. Feeling a bit overwhelmed, I spoke up.
“Um… you really didn’t have to serve us tea…”
“No, it’s fine. You could have ignored our child’s request, yet you came all this way. That alone is more than enough reason to treat you. Thanks to you…”
The lady who had brought the tea gave us a tender smile.
“That child was able to leave peacefully.”
Surprisingly, the lady—Jeong-hoon’s mother—regained her composure much faster than I expected. I heard it had already been over seven years since she lost her son. That must have been why she had reacted so calmly even when Snow suddenly brought up such an out-of-place story. …Though seriously, what kind of person just blurts out a dead child’s name like that?
“Oh, now that I think about it, what are your names? You’re our benefactors, yet I don’t even know what to call you.”
“B-benefactors? That’s too much.”
“R-right. We just happened to take on a simple request.”
Both Snow and I tried to downplay it, but she simply shook her head gently.
“You both know very well what kind of treatment people usually receive for saying things like that. The fact that you endured such reactions to fulfill my son’s final wish—how could I not be grateful?”
“……”
…Maybe all that talk about how cold people have become these days was nonsense after all. Her kindness nearly moved even me.
“…I’m Yoo Se-hwan.”
“I-I’m Baek Seol-hwa…”
Baek Seol-hwa? Come to think of it, her fixed nickname had been “Snow.” Remembering that made me feel a bit strange. So she had literally turned the meaning of her own name into her permanent username…?
“…You really don’t value your personal information, do you.”
“What did you say?”
“Nothing.”
I had only muttered it quietly, but she heard it anyway. Must be because she’s a yokai—her ears are annoyingly sharp for no good reason.
“Se-hwan, Seol-hwa, thank you once again.”
“N-no, really. We didn’t do it to receive thanks like this.”
“That’s right. It was just a coincidence.”
At times like this, we were surprisingly in sync. Both I and Snow—Baek Seol-hwa—hoped she would lift her head soon. Perhaps sensing that, the lady fortunately raised her head.
“Jeong-hoon had been very sick ever since he was little. He was born with a chronic illness.”
“Ah…”
“Because of his condition, he spent a lot of time in the hospital. My husband and I had to visit often. Later, when his illness grew worse, I quit my job and took over his full-time care.”
What she told us was the kind of heartbreaking family story that could happen anywhere—painfully common yet utterly tragic.
“Then one day I caught a really bad case of the flu. I couldn’t even stay by my child’s side in the sterile room. Luckily, his father was able to take leave, so I rested at home to recover quickly while he took over. Honestly, it wasn’t even proper recuperation. The flu only lasts a week or two these days. I planned to get better fast and return right away.”
…I didn’t need to hear the rest to understand. Why the young spirit had clung to the regret of simply delivering cold medicine. Why the mother hadn’t looked sick at all when we first saw her.
“It has always been my one regret. That I couldn’t be there for my child’s final moments. That I was sick at the worst possible time and couldn’t even see my precious son off. That I let him leave so alone just because I couldn’t overcome a simple flu.”
A single teardrop fell with a soft plop. It wasn’t mine. I’ve never cried easily since I was young—even when I felt sad, the tears rarely came.
“But thanks to Se-hwan and Seol-hwa…”
One drop belonged to the lady. And the other—
“I was finally able to send him off properly.”
“…Sniff.”
—belonged to Baek Seol-hwa beside me. I didn’t think, “What kind of yokai cries this much?” I had come to understand what kind of person she was by now.
The young spirit’s only mother bowed her head to us once more, willingly.
“Thank you so much. For helping Jeong-hoon leave properly.”
"The young spirit has found peace."
⟨ REGRET RESOLVED ⟩
“Sniffle.”
Sitting next to a nine-tailed fox who still couldn’t stop crying felt incredibly strange. Ever since I was little, I had been taught that yokai were evil beings who tormented people. That was how I grew up, and everything I had seen with my own eyes had confirmed it. But this ridiculously pure-hearted girl beside me… how could she possibly be a bad person? Anyone who looked at her would say she was simply kind. So kind that it bordered on foolish.
If you asked ordinary people to do what she had tried to do today, how many would actually agree? It was the kind of thing that would obviously get you labeled as crazy. And it wasn’t even something that properly helped her obtain the energy she needed to survive. Yet she had sincerely wanted to fulfill that request.
The deep-rooted prejudice against yokai that had settled inside my heart felt like it had been shattered quite a bit today.
“Hey.”
“…What.”
Hearing her still sniffling made me wonder if this really was a nine-tailed fox who had lived for a thousand years.
“What are you going to do from now on?”
“Huh? Do about what…?”
“The gallery.”
“……Ah.”
Because of everything that had happened, I had temporarily forgotten about it, but the gallery was probably still on fire. Baek Seol-hwa must have remembered too, because she looked at me with a stiff expression.
“W-what should I do!! This is all your fault, you jerk!!”
“I know.”
“If you know, then why are you acting so smug about it!!”
“…In the end, the real problem isn’t that you can’t browse the gallery anymore. It’s that you can’t gather the spiritual energy you need to live, right?”
“……Not being able to browse the gallery is also a problem, though.”
…What kind of yokai is addicted to internet galleries?
“But is there actually a way? If you have one, tell me already!”
“Your senses are sharp, at least… I can’t tell if you’re actually stupid or not.”
“What did you just say?”
“…You said spiritual energy can be obtained through simple physical contact, right? And that you can get it from spirits too.”
“Yeah.”
Baek Seol-hwa looked at me with eyes full of expectation. Her unnecessarily large eyes made that gaze feel quite burdensome. Her nine tails wagged like an excited puppy’s, making me dizzy just looking at them.
“…Ugh, you troublesome yokai.”
“What!?”
“I’ll help you absorb spiritual energy.”
“…Huh?”
“I may not be a proper exorcist, but you already know I can see both ghosts and yokai. I can help you with spirit purification too. After they move on, you can take the leftover energy.”
Today’s events had taught me many things. That not all yokai are necessarily evil. That there are beings who live as kindly and foolishly as this one. And…
That exorcism isn’t only about driving away souls—it can also save the hearts of the living.