SATURDAY 102

Starting the conversation in a chilling voice, Inha whispered quickly and monotonously, as if reading stage directions, even though I did not answer.

「I raised someone like you. I even gave someone like you love once in a while. And yet you betray Mom and Dad? I’ve never seen such an ungrateful person. Our parents must be disappointed, thinking they shouldn’t have raised you after all… Even Dad died because of you.」

“…I… never betrayed… my parents. It’s not my fault that Father died, either….”

In the past, I would have agreed with Inha’s words and apologized blindly. But things were different now. Mr. Taeseon had done everything in his power to teach me that my thoughts until now had been wrong, and I wanted to repay that devotion.

That I was not at fault for anything; that the curses, the evil spirits, and all those dagger-like words were just lies for someone’s greed… That from the moment I was born until now, I had lived my life being abused.

Admitting that fact was actually not an easy task. How could one quietly watch as their entire life was swept away and dumped into a trash can? There were many times I clutched my head because I couldn’t accept it.

I didn’t pour out every single one of those agonies to Mr. Taeseon. However, it seemed Mr. Taeseon strangely knew everything. After I was seized by thoughts that flared up abruptly, Mr. Taeseon would always arrive with sweet snacks and tea. It was the same after I suddenly woke up in the early hours from a dream about the past.

That was why I could now say these things to Inha. That it wasn’t my fault. That everything had been wrong…. And that even if he tried to pin some sin on me, I could deny it as much as I wanted as long as I had a clear conscience.

Unlike before.

Hearing my words, Inha poked his head out as if stretching his neck to peer at me. It was chilling and gave me goosebumps, as if the neck itself had elongated.

His face drew closer. It was a distance where I should have felt a breath, but Inha did not breathe. Because he was dead. However, from a very close distance, Inha rolled his right eyeball, which hung as if it might fall at any moment, and his half-crushed left eyeball.

The dull, lifeless pupils moved in a circle along the dark red whites where the blood vessels had all burst. In an instant, goosebumps rose, and I wanted to avoid his eyes.

I managed to move my body, which was stiff as if I were suffering from sleep paralysis, and turned my head to the side. But in the next moment, Inha grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him.

“Ugh…!”

This time, I could even see the inside of Inha’s smirking mouth. I didn’t want to tremble, but my whole body shook as if I had been cast out into the cold. Perhaps because the gums had burst, the inside of Inha’s mouth was dark with blood and black shadows, making it hard to see, and a vivid blue tongue began to slowly push out from within.

「Yoon Inyoung, don’t get the wrong idea. You are an abandoned child. Neither Mom nor Dad ever thought of you as their child… That’s why Mom said those things until the very last moment. She said it to you, didn’t she? Asking if you couldn’t just give your body to Inha. Giggle, giggle….」

Inha’s hand, which had been holding my chin, slowly moved down and wrapped both hands around my neck. Except for being very cold, it felt like the hands of a somewhat soft mannequin or a doll. So this is what the flesh of a dead person feels like, I thought for a moment—a thought that was not helpful at all in the current situation.

「I suppose the fact that you caused Dad’s death played a part, too. A thing like you… a parasite taken in as an act of favor destroyed our ordinary and happy family.」

“…Father passing away has nothing to do with me…. The one who murdered Father was….”

「Professor Jang?」

“Professor Jang….”

Inha and I spoke at the same time. I flinched reflexively. Even in normal times, there were cases where we said the same thing simultaneously, just like real twins.

Whenever that happened, Inha expressed his displeasure openly. I, too, felt a strange chill although I couldn’t speak. But my feelings didn’t matter back then anyway. Inha’s violence immediately followed.

Even now, thinking Inha would hit me, I squeezed my eyes shut. However, the expected impact did not come. As I hesitated and opened my eyes a crack, Inha burst into laughter.

「Hey, you idiot, look at the state of me. How on earth could I hit you right now?」

I flinched while swallowing dryly at the sound of Inha’s cackling laughter. My body still wouldn’t move. Inha was not in a position to hit me, just as he had laughingly said. Because his entire body had been shattered after being hit by a car that slipped on the rainy road at a terrifying speed.

Bones poking out through the skin, ribs and organs revealed between skin scraped by asphalt, and limbs bent in reverse….

Even if he were a person and not a ghost, hitting someone with a body like that would be impossible. Inha then let out an exaggerated sigh.

「…Right, the fact that I became like this is because of you, too…. Professor Jang, Professor Jang, that bastard did it for the money anyway. But you? What are you? Why did you make me like this?」

“I’m not the one who made you like that…”

Then, strength snapped into the hands strangling my neck. The wet fingers pressing down on my Adam’s apple were threatening. I even felt that if I wasn’t careful, I might be murdered like this.

“…The one who made you like that was you…! Yoon Inha, it’s something you brought upon yourself.”

「….」

Suddenly, the strength in his hands released. I painfully tilted my head, which barely moved, and spat out my blocked breath along with a cough.

「Yeah, you’re right….」

“….”

「It’s all something I brought upon myself…. You probably know already, Inyoung, but I tried to kill you.」

Of course, I knew. It was something I had heard countless times from Mr. Taeseon. Also, even if Mr. Taeseon hadn’t looked into it for me, I had vaguely guessed at the scene that day.

「I’m sorry, my younger brother….」

I was a bit surprised.

It was the first time Inha… hyung had called me ‘my younger brother.’ The same went for the apology.

Though it was a strange thing to say such words for the first time only after dying.

Inha bent his body as if trying to embrace me. The blood from Inha’s wounds spread over the bedsheets, and the sound of bones creaking echoed eerily.

「I actually knew that Professor Jang killed Dad, too. It’s not that I hate you, it’s that I hate Professor Jang. I just pinned the cause on you and hated you. Inyoung… I actually knew…. You’re not a ghost or anything; you were just a hidden baby.」

Inha spoke desperately, having suddenly changed his attitude. But no matter what Inha said, it did not enter my ears.

It wasn’t a matter of ‘what’s the use of such words now.’ His purpose for speaking was obvious from the start. Inha was simply thinking about what words would be best to use me in this situation, chattering away without a single shred of sincerity. Starting from the story about Professor Jang….

“….”

My lips trembled slightly at a sudden sense of incongruity. Professor Jang.

The Professor is currently receiving hopeless burn treatment at a provincial hospital in the Gyeongnam area. I guessed that he would probably pass away within a few days.

It wasn’t that I felt sorry about his death. I was just surprised because it was sudden, and also… I was just upset that Mr. Taeseon, who was likely behind everything, had even laid a hand on such a thing.

The moment I saw the Professor, wrapped in bandages and slumped miserably beyond what eyes could bear to see, what did I feel? Looking at that man in such terrible pain, I felt neither regret nor pity; rather, rather, I felt relieved.

I didn’t even know myself that I possessed such a wicked heart. Perhaps I just hadn’t noticed because I had no opportunity to release it until now, but I might have a personality as atrocious as Inha’s.

‘No….’

That wasn’t the issue right now. I definitely felt a sense of incongruity just now when Inha talked about the Professor. The words Inha was saying were as if.

…Moreover, he didn’t say a single word about the Shaman.

I carefully opened my mouth.

“Will Mom be okay?”

「Of course…. The Shaman said she wouldn’t touch Mom. She said Dad’s death was Professor Jang’s personal judgment, too. Inyoung, you know… the Shaman is not a real shaman.」

That, too, is a fact I heard from a person who was said to be her spiritual daughter once.

“Then, what about people mistaking me for hyung? And besides that….”

「She’s not a shaman who received a divine calling, but she was in that world for a long time. So she said she learned a few spells. She told me everything.」

“….”

「My poor younger brother…. Even after hearing those things from Mom, you’re worried about her. You really are….」

Inha’s body, cold as a frozen chunk of meat and covered in blood in patches, pressed against mine. Goosebumps rose all over my body, and nausea surged. I bit my lip and barely endured as I thought.

He doesn’t know.

Moving only my eyes, I looked at Inha’s burst head, his blood-matted hair, and the chilling blood flowing as if seeping out.

He doesn’t know, Inha.

Inha… does not know what happened after the ritual at the ritual house. Not about the fire, not about the Shaman fleeing to Seoul, and not about what happened to Professor Jang.

And not even about the first swaddling clothes.

Yoon Inha knows nothing.