Chapter 9: The Night of December 14th

“How about we report to Yeomna? I feel really uneasy, so I want to stop this.”

“Peter isn’t our jurisdiction. It’s the higher-ups’ business, so if they mess up, they’ll handle it.”

“No, honestly, Lady Maria is…”

“Shut up. I’ll go report first, so call me and come up.”

“Let me go with you. I am, after all, the representative’s… bodyguard.”

He tapped the scabbard tucked at his waist. The scabbard, wrapped with a dragon holding a Cintamani jewel, exuded majesty by its mere existence.

“Min-hyuk.”

“You called, my lord?”

Cha Min-hyuk dropped to one knee in a warrior’s salute. Ahn Dae-young swept back his thick hair, which scattered in the wind.

“Stop showing off.”

“I apologize.”

With a grinning face, Cha Min-hyuk stood up and shouted at the departing Ahn Dae-young.

“Call me! I’ll be waiting!”

Suddenly, Ahn Dae-young pulled one hand from his pocket and gestured toward him. Tilting his head, Cha Min-hyuk shouted “Ah!” and, posing like a pitcher, threw a steel can. Ahn Dae-young caught the can tossed instead of a baseball with a snap. Nice catch! Cha Min-hyuk clapped.

****

Jeong Eun-gyu, who had dozed off, opened his eyes shortly after due to a call from an unfamiliar number.

He had been sleeping well… He could have ignored the unknown number, but afraid it might be the hospital, he fumbled his fingers through the drowsiness and picked up his phone. Having light sleep became a minor torment at times like this.

“…Hello.”

His cracked voice came out.

The childish act of ‘marking’ (which should be read as ‘harassment’) had been quite effective, and he was enjoying a rare dreamless deep sleep…

“It’s me.”

“Who are you…?”

“You were sleeping well, I see.”

“…Representative Ahn?”

“Since you know who I am, tell me the door password.”

“8*1225.”

“You must have a lot of self-love? Setting your password to that.”

He had a lot to say for someone who broke into another’s home. If not for this situation, he might have reported him for breaking and entering.

Jeong Eun-gyu yawned widely and wiped the physiological tears from the corners of his eyes.

“Your house isn’t cold.”

“I set the heating to vacation mode before coming.”

“Professor, do you have an organizing obsession? Everything is so neat.”

“It’s not an obsession… I just don’t like clutter. There are drinks in the fridge; help yourself if you’re thirsty.”

“I didn’t come here for a leisurely drink. Sorry for waking you, but is there anything I shouldn’t touch?”

Shouldn’t an apology for waking someone be made right at the start of the call? Jeong Eun-gyu retorted inwardly as he leaned his back against the headboard. He glanced at the empty bed beside him for no reason.

“Nothing. But if anything breaks or gets messy, please clean it up before you leave.”

“Definitely an organizing obsession.”

“Who would like a trashed house…?”

“Are you never going to fix that ‘danaka’ speech pattern?”

“…If you speak to me only with respect, I’ll try to fix it.”

“Impossible. There are only two beings in the world I speak to 100% respectfully.”

“Who are they?”

“One below, one above.”

“How am I supposed to understand that?”

“It means you don’t need to know.”

That meant he would never fix his speech pattern even if he died.

Jeong Eun-gyu, lacking the energy for a power struggle, suddenly felt thirsty and placed his dry soles on the floor. Since he had given permission to help himself, he figured he could do the same.

“I saw the snakes and ghosts in the room. Occasionally I encountered them in the living room too… but none of the ghosts spoke or attacked. I only saw the snakes in the room.”

As he spoke and opened the fridge, Jeong Eun-gyu froze for a moment. Shouldn’t the ‘organizing obsession’ comment be directed at this?

Bottled water and canned beer lined up in rows, eggs filled neatly, vegetables trimmed and stored in the crisper drawer. Various sauces were gathered together with expiration dates written on labels.

Despite being so well-organized… he had ordered delivery without hesitation earlier. It was completely different from his own fridge, which only had water and drinks.

“What’s this radio that you won’t use even if given?”

“Father Peter gave it to me. Even as a child, I had trouble sleeping.”

“That damned Peter. Did you have s*x with Peter?”

“…What?”

He casually uttered words that were almost blasphemous. It was beyond an issue of morality, so Jeong Eun-gyu, gripping the water bottle, showed his displeasure.

“Hey. No matter how rude you are, watch your language.”

“I’ll tell you one thing… If you want to live safely, you’d better cut Peter out of your life.”

“….”

“I don’t like that guy. As soon as you hang up with me, turn off your phone and go to sleep.”

Then the call abruptly ended.

Isn’t he crazy? As he looked at the phone that had hung up without giving him a chance to retort, it immediately rang again. If it were Ahn Dae-young, he would have been ready to act like an old-fashioned Confucian, but the caller was none other than Father Peter.

“…Huh.”

Anyone would think they had been waiting and called immediately. As Jeong Eun-gyu stared at the persistently ringing phone and the persistent caller name, he flinched and turned his head.

‘If you want the worst birthday. Well, if your dream is to die young on your birthday, stay there.’

People need sleep. Only with sleep does the brain function properly. The words he had let slip due to sleep deprivation bubbled up.

Die young? And specifically on his birthday. Telling him to leave that house.

Was he going to die? Then how did the priest know? Because he was an exorcist? Was the priest so spiritually gifted that he could foresee others’ deaths?

His head ached. He remembered the headache medicine he had packed in his suitcase.

At six years old, young Jeong Eun-gyu stabbed his mother with a knife. His mother was a shaman who secluded herself in the mountains, devoutly serving the gods.

For six-year-old Jeong Eun-gyu, his only friends were the ghosts in the mountains. His mother’s scream that he must not even exchange words with them stuck in his ears like needles.

‘Kyaaah!’

Whenever people similar to his mother visited, they would see the hiding Jeong Eun-gyu and add a word.

‘Beware of that one. That one will kill you.’

‘You are raising something more fearsome than a tiger.’

‘Why aren’t you taking action already!’

He pretended not to hear, but he heard it all. Yet he still pretended not to. He only knew that they were shamans serving their own gods—not because his mother told him, but because he saw the auras behind their backs.

Jeong Eun-gyu was not ignorant of social cues. He simply pretended to be. Only then could he survive.

‘The gods have not appeared for a few days. The life of a shaman is over, so I will die soon as you said.’

When his mother calmly said this, they clicked their tongues, got angry, and stood up as if they couldn’t bear it anymore.

A few days earlier, his mother had coughed up blood and collapsed in a valley. Jeong Eun-gyu, searching everywhere for his mother who hadn’t returned by breakfast time, heard from a twin-haired ghost standing outside the gate that his mother had collapsed, and he ran through the snowy path.

With his small body, he barely carried his blood-soaked mother back, laid her down, and wiped her clean. During that time, the mountain ghosts squatted outside the wide-open gate, smacking their lips as they watched Jeong Eun-gyu. They were beings that couldn’t enter the gate due to the layered barriers.

His mother only woke at night. Then for two whole days, she neither ate nor slept, only prayed. For some reason, during her prayers, Jeong Eun-gyu sat by her side.

Even when he fell asleep from exhaustion and woke up, his mother prayed desperately. He couldn’t understand the prayers. But he remembered that during the two days of prayer, the mountain’s weather was incredibly harsh.

‘However. It will not be my son who kills me.’

They came after his mother’s prayer ended. The weather miraculously cleared as the prayer ended. The blizzard that had raged furiously stopped.

His mother was emaciated as if she would collapse and die if tapped. Even when Jeong Eun-gyu set the table with his tiny hands, she could barely eat a few spoonfuls.

‘How can you be sure?’

‘I have met a noble one.’

‘What?’

‘I have met… a noble one…’

Three days after the shamans, who always visited without fail, left, his mother died. Jeong Eun-gyu doesn’t remember that moment. Only the knife in his hand and the pool of blood remain vividly in his mind.

An illusion arose of snake-like creatures opening their mouths wide and slowly disappearing. He couldn’t even distinguish whether he had actually seen it or not. His young body, consumed by fear, suddenly vomited blood.

The ghosts that had warmly approached to be friends, upon meeting the blank-eyed Jeong Eun-gyu, screamed and retreated. Soon, thick fog rolled in. The young child, unable to understand or accept the situation, began to tremble belatedly.

Someone parted the fog and appeared. It was a middle-aged man in a priest’s robe. He was quietly reciting Bible verses through his lips. Creak— the rusty gate swung wide open.

‘I’m a step too late. Oh dear… Put that knife down. Are you okay?’

He approached with a gentle voice, softly took the knife from Jeong Eun-gyu’s hand, set it down, and embraced him. As warm body heat enveloped his cold body, Jeong Eun-gyu immediately collapsed and fainted.

“….”

That was the first impression of Father Peter. It was a story like a novel.

Jeong Eun-gyu glanced at the now-quiet phone and turned it off. He didn’t want to think about anything right now. It was December 14th, in the early morning.

It was about thirty minutes later that Cha Min-hyuk went up after receiving Ahn Dae-young’s call. About to enter with his shoes on inadvertently, he realized his mistake, took off his shoes politely, and entered. He bowed respectfully before Ahn Dae-young, who was sitting on the sofa as if in his own home. His behavior was different from when he was being cheeky outside.

“Min-hyuk.”

“You called, my lord?”

A spark flickered in Ahn Dae-young’s eyes. A red aura was rising from his large frame. Cha Min-hyuk quickly assessed the situation. In Jeong Eun-gyu’s wide-open room, there was the smell of ghostly energy thickly coated and then erased, along with devastating traces invisible to human eyes. It was snake shed. The quantity was enormous.

The old radio rolled in Ahn Dae-young’s hand like a toy. One corner of his mouth lifted askew. Cha Min-hyuk knelt on one knee before Ahn Dae-young.

“I will follow any order, my lord.”

📚 Also on NHV Novels

A Boy’s Bizarre Tale

BLBoys LoveDrama

Read Now →
Not interested