Chapter 13: The Ghost Who Came Looking for a Wish

Sa Hae’s prediction was perfectly accurate.

The moment he heard Lee Young’s scream in the distance, Sa Hae quickened his pace.

“Damn it, you’re leeching off the taxes humans pay. Huh?”

Sa Hae looked up at the streetlights in the dark alley, every single one of them shattered and no longer illuminating the way, and irritably addressed the invisible presence.

A vengeful ghost that didn’t pay a single penny in taxes was leeching off the money humans worked to earn.

If yokai were going to live in human shells, they should at least pay their taxes.

What Sa Hae saw before him was the three-legged dog, now as large as a wolf, and behind it, Lee Young was crouched on the ground, clutching her head in both hands, unable even to scream anymore.

“Should I keep her with me?”

Muttering to himself, Sa Hae spoke sharply to the figure standing before him, showing only her back.

“Can’t you just get lost? If you want to resolve your grudge, then show yourself properly. What the hell is this?”

At Sa Hae’s fierce voice, the woman standing before him slowly turned around.

“Seriously, you’re so textbook. Do you all get trained somewhere?”

An emaciated body and deathly pale skin.

Eyes streaming blood-red tears.

Long, disheveled hair.

It was a songaksi, a virgin ghost.

Ghosts were normally invisible, but on nights when yin energy was this strong, even ordinary humans could sometimes see them.

And for Lee Young, who could sense the energy of yokai, seeing a ghost on a night like this was only natural.

“Unjust…”

“If you’re wronged, then you’re wronged. Why are you going after the kid? Want to die one more time?”

The moment the songaksi opened her mouth and that unpleasant voice emerged, Sa Hae irritably cut her off.

His attention wasn’t on the ghost’s grievance right now.

It was fixed entirely on Lee Young, collapsed behind the three-legged dog, clutching her head instead of even being able to hug the dog she loved so much.

“You. Go first.”

“…Unjust…”

“Go. Before I really tear you apart.”

The light coiling around Sa Hae’s body gradually turned colder, and he opened his mouth wide.

For a moment, the human shell known as Sa Hae disappeared, revealing the form of the Bulgasal beneath.

The songaksi seemed frightened by the sight as well and took a hesitant step back.

She could freely display her terrifying appearance before humans, but she couldn’t do the same in front of a yokai like Sa Hae.

Sa Hae looked ready to kill her all over again if she didn’t disappear immediately, and the songaksi’s figure vanished like a mirage.

“It’s my fault.”

Sa Hae waved a hand at the three-legged dog, signaling for it to move aside, then approached Lee Young, who was sitting on the ground.

“…Mister…”

‘I’m sorry.’

Repeating those words in his mind, Sa Hae gently scooped Lee Young into his arms.

He shouldn’t have left her alone on a night like this.

He had thought she would be fine with the three-legged dog by her side.

What an idiot.

“Don’t cry.”

Her reaction was completely different from when she had seen Sin.

Naturally.

A talking python might have been disgusting, but it wasn’t frightening.

A virgin ghost was an entirely different matter.

Thrilled that Lee Young could actually see her, there was no telling just how horrifyingly she had appeared in order to scare her.

“Ghost… a ghost…”

“Yeah. It’s gone.”

“Ghosts aren’t supposed to be visible…!”

“I’m sorry.”

Lee Young looked at Sa Hae resentfully through tear-filled eyes.

The songaksi had appeared in an instant.

On her way home with Tori in her arms, the moment Lee Young entered the alley, the streetlights illuminating the path above her shattered.

Tori had immediately grown in size, but all Lee Young could see was the figure of the songaksi approaching her from the end of the alley.

She had seen strange shapes a few times when she was young, but this was the first time she had ever seen a vengeful ghost so clearly.

If Sa Hae hadn’t appeared when he did, Lee Young might have bitten down on her own tongue in terror.

Perhaps even died of shock.

As the image of the songaksi kept surfacing in her mind, Lee Young buried her face even deeper into Sa Hae’s chest, trying to erase the memory.

“…You said ghosts were different from yokai…”

Without meaning to, Lee Young spoke to Sa Hae in a tearful, resentful voice.

Today, she finally understood what kind of terror could make even a scream impossible.

Sa Hae carried Lee Young carefully into the house and, after a moment’s hesitation, laid her down on the bed in her room rather than on the sofa.

“Wait here for a bit. I’ll get you something to drink, at least…”

The moment Sa Hae turned his back, Lee Young’s hand caught his collar and tugged.

Sa Hae’s gaze fell to her pale hand clutching his clothes.

Seeing how visibly it was trembling, Sa Hae sighed.

“The curtains…”

At her words, Sa Hae nodded and drew the curtains over the window right beside the bed.

Then he sat down on the edge of the bed again and looked at Lee Young.

“Were you really scared?”

“…”

Lee Young looked at him with an expression that said scared didn’t even begin to describe it.

If Sa Hae hadn’t appeared at that exact moment, she would have fainted.

No—death from shock was probably more likely.

“…That damn ghost… Her eyes were all fiery and…”

“Yeah, yeah. Her eyes were fiery, so she came after you.”

“I—I thought… I thought I only had to grant the wishes of people like Master Sin…”

Was it because the fear had passed, and now that Sa Hae was beside her, she finally felt safe?

Her pent-up misery began to wash over her like the receding tide.

In the end, Lee Young burst into tears like a child.

Sa Hae let out a small sigh at the sight and pulled her upright, gathering her into his arms.

“I’m sorry. I deserve to die.”

“…Hng…”

“I didn’t think it through. I was an idiot.”

As he said this, Sa Hae gently patted Lee Young’s back.

‘Yeah, yokai and vengeful spirits are different. Even I have to frown at the way she looked. Of course it would’ve been even worse for a kid to see.’

Sa Hae continued rubbing her back until Lee Young stopped crying.

Under his gentle touch, her sobs gradually subsided.

“That… really was a ghost, right?”

“Unfortunately.”

Only after drinking a glass of water did Lee Young seem to calm down enough to look at Sa Hae properly.

With Sa Hae beside her and the three-legged dog curled up on her lap, she finally felt a little safer.

“I’m going to start seeing ghosts too? You said it was only yokai and…”

“It’s a day when the shadows grow long.”

“What?”

“There are days when yin energy becomes particularly strong. On those days, things that normally can’t be seen become visible.”

Sa Hae explained it as simply as possible, hoping that Lee Young would be less frightened if she understood.

But it wasn’t that easy.

“So, on those days when the yin energy is strong, I can see ghosts too…?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve never seen a ghost this clearly before…”

“They have ears too.”

“…”

“Rumors are always the scariest thing. They heard there’s a human somewhere who grants yokai’s wishes, so even ghosts carrying old grudges came looking for you.”

“You mean they’re going to keep coming…?”

At Lee Young’s question, Sa Hae gave a slight nod.

“Think of it as getting a really strong preventative shot.”

“Where in the world is there a preventative shot like this?!”

Lee Young immediately sat up, grabbed a pillow, and hurled it at Sa Hae.

She knew it wasn’t his fault, but right now, Sa Hae was the only person she could unleash all her resentment on.

“I’m not seeing them again! I’m never seeing them again!”

“You think you can just decide that?”

“I’d rather spend the rest of my life looking at pythons!”

Lee Young’s not-quite-a-tantrum echoed throughout the entire house.

****

“So you heard about her through a rumor?”

Nod, nod.

After making sure Lee Young had fallen asleep, Sa Hae sternly ordered Tori to protect her properly before leaving the house.

Finding the songaksi wasn’t difficult.

It was obvious where a ghost who wanted to resolve her grudge would be lingering.

Not far from Lee Young’s house, Sa Hae found the songaksi in an alley steeped in deep shadow.

“If even you heard about it, then every damn stray dog passing by must know by now.”

At Sa Hae’s words, the songaksi nodded and pointed toward Lee Young’s house.

She was asking if she could go to Lee Young and ask her to grant her wish.

“You think that’s going to work? Didn’t you see how much paler the kid got after seeing your face? If you want someone to grant your wish, then ask properly. Why the hell did you scare her? Want to die again?”

The sight of Lee Young from earlier seemed to flash through Sa Hae’s mind, and he ruthlessly berated the songaksi.

“Just thinking about it is making me furious again. In the middle of the night, huh? Did you even think about the kind of person who might see your face?”

Faced with Sa Hae’s terrifying expression, which looked as though he might actually grab her and kill her all over again, the songaksi’s confidence dwindled.

“What’s your grudge? Tell me quickly and disappear. And tell the ghosts around here too. Don’t mess with the girl who lives in that house. Do that, and I’ll resolve your grudge and send you on your way to the afterlife.”

The songaksi’s face immediately brightened.

Even as ghosts, perhaps because they had once been human, they really did do everything humans did.

Sa Hae decided that one of these days, he would have to gather all the neighborhood ghosts together and give them a proper lesson in common sense.

“I wonder if helping her counts toward that kid’s record, too.”

Muttering to himself, Sa Hae stared at the spot where the songaksi had disappeared.

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