SATURDAY 57

「Do you know why Inha keeps visiting? It’s because he’s slowly eating his way into your body.」

“…”

I was paralyzed by sleep terror. Inha was stepping on my head, leaning his body far forward to peer down at me.

Rainwater fell drip-drop, drip-drop from his cold body, where bones protruded in places and his stomach had burst open. The parts of his skin without wounds were pale, nearly blue.

「Do―you―know―why―Inha―keeps―visiting―? It’s―becauuuse―he’s―sloooowly―eating―his―waay―into―yoour―booody―.」

Inha repeated the same words over and over until his voice became slow and bizarre, like a stretched cassette tape. The blood-mixed rainwater falling on my face, the soaking hospital gown, the moisture seeping into my skin—everything was vivid. It didn’t feel like a dream.

「Heh heh heh…」

Suddenly, Inha began to laugh. I could see Inha’s smiling face right in front of me. His eyes curved like crescent moons, and his mouth was strangely distorted. It must have been because his jaw was injured.

「Are you scared? You hate dreaming like this, don’t you? Are you scared? You hate dreaming like this, don’t you? Are you scared? You hate dreaming like this, don’t you?」

“…”

「Then just say one thing.」

I wanted to ask “What?”, but of course, no voice came out.

「‘Take it.’」

“…”

「‘Take it, I’ll give it to you.’」

Then Inha began to cackle and laugh again. From his wide-open mouth, blood-stained teeth fell thud, thud onto my face. It felt like large, hard insects landing on me. I screamed in utter horror, but no sound came out, as if my throat were being throttled by something.

“Inyoung!”

Just then, along with a loud voice, someone grabbed my right arm tightly. Inha turned his head with a terrifying expression, glared in that direction, and then vanished like smoke. At the same time, the paralysis broke. I opened my eyes, gasping, my body drenched in cold sweat.

“…Haah, ah…”

Until just now, I was certain my eyes had been open, but they weren’t. I had been asleep. I had been dreaming while asleep. Another dream where Inha appeared.

“Are you okay? I woke you up because it looked like you were having sleep paralysis.”

It was dark outside the window, and a fine drizzle was falling. Mr. Taeseon smelled of the outdoors as if he had just arrived. He looked at me with a worried face.

“Ah, I’m okay… It’s just because I had a scary dream.”

“That dream again?”

“Yes…”

I have no memory of the moments immediately following the Shaman’s words. When I regained consciousness, I was in a hospital—and not Inhyun University Hospital, but somewhere else. They said it was a hospital Mr. Taeseon’s family frequently used.

It seemed I had been rushed to the hospital after my body, already weakened following the miscarriage, suffered extreme stress. It truly was a ridiculously fragile body. And today marked the end of my first week of hospitalization; the month had already turned to June.

The wedding was obviously out of the question given the circumstances. The official excuse was the aftereffects of ‘Yoon Inha’s’ traffic accident, which silenced the reporters who had been endlessly pumping out speculative articles mentioning rumors of discord.

I didn’t mind. I did want to have the wedding quickly, but now was not the time to think about that. My mind was a mess, preoccupied with the Shaman, Professor Jang, Inha, and my parents; I wasn’t in my right mind.

And since I was living with Mr. Taeseon anyway, the ceremony being delayed a bit wasn’t a major problem.

I tried to distract myself by thinking of other things on purpose, but the sensation of those teeth falling thud-thud onto my face was too vivid. I started to sit up abruptly but staggered. Mr. Taeseon quickly approached and supported me.

“I told you not to get up so suddenly.”

“Yes…”

“Why? Do you need something?”

Only after the dizziness subsided did I shake my head slightly.

“I want to wash my face. I’ll be back in a moment.”

“Come here.”

Mr. Taeseon lightly picked me up in his arms and walked into the bathroom, dragging the IV pole with him. At this point, I wasn’t being treated as a patient; I was being treated like a baby. Suddenly embarrassed, I turned red and tried to get down from his arms, but he lifted me up again and held me so I couldn’t budge.

“I can do it alone.”

“But it’s okay for someone to do it for you.”

“…”

I had nothing to say to such an excessively bold statement. Feeling somewhat drained, I stayed still. Mr. Taeseon draped a towel from beside the sink around my neck and turned on the water to check the temperature.

“Um, Mr. Taeseon… At the very least, if I could just stand on my own feet…”

“The bathroom floor is cold. They don’t run the heating in the summer.”

“If I put on slippers…”

“It’s a hassle to go get them. Let’s just wash.”

I ended up bursting into laughter at his continued bold attitude. A hassle to get them, my foot. He just wanted to hold me and wash me. I had no choice but to close my eyes tight.

Lukewarm water wiped my face, and a soap containing fine fragrances gave off a relaxing scent. After thoroughly rinsing off the soap, Mr. Taeseon used a fresh towel to wipe every drop of moisture from my face.

“Do you want to wash your hands too?”

“Are you going to wash my hands for me too, by any chance…?”

“I’d like to.”

“I’ll just wash them myself.”

Mr. Taeseon helped me wash my hands with a slightly disappointed look. Saying, “Since we’re at it,” he even rolled up my hospital pants and washed my feet before I was finally carried back out of the bathroom in his arms. Surprisingly, my hospital gown wasn’t wet at all.

Lying back on the bed after coming out, thinking of Inha didn’t seem so scary. Just a moment ago, even thinking of Inha’s name made my whole body freeze and my heart pound heavily…

But what Inha had said kept swirling in my head. The question of whether I could trust Mr. Taeseon. The claim that he was deceiving me.

“…”

When I stared at him, Mr. Taeseon tilted his head.

“Is there something on my face?”

This was such utterly devoted treatment. An attitude that went beyond how he was before the accident, as if he really intended to never let the soles of my feet touch the ground.

The Mr. Taeseon I knew wouldn’t lie this elaborately just to deceive someone. Not even me. And, to be honest, he isn’t even that good at acting…

People say all businesspeople are skilled at lying and deception, but Mr. Taeseon wasn’t like that. It was the same for Mr. Taeseon’s father. He said he had learned that management strategy from his father in the first place.

Most of all, doubting Mr. Taeseon because of Inha’s words… of course, I had a moment of doubt, but in the end, I was bound to believe Mr. Taeseon. I didn’t even want to doubt him.

Besides, that ‘Inha’—it’s not even clear if he’s a phantom or real. The Shaman correctly guessed that Inha keeps appearing in my dreams. Perhaps I keep dreaming of Inha because of the Shaman’s ritual.

It could be that the story of the real Inha crossing the Sanzu River is a lie, and he is still wandering the world under the Shaman’s protection. Perhaps that’s why he keeps invading my dreams.

If that’s the case, I would be believing Inha’s words over Mr. Taeseon’s actions, and if Inha is a hallucination, I would be believing the doubts deep in my subconscious.

I didn’t want to do that.

I smiled wordlessly. Mr. Taeseon smiled back, seemingly relieved for some reason. He watched me for a long time before suddenly speaking.

“They said you can be discharged tomorrow morning if you want.”

“Really?”

It was a relief. It had been a struggle lying in the hospital all day, doing nothing but repeatedly waking up and falling back asleep.

“After you’re discharged, if your body feels okay, do you want to go somewhere with me? I was originally planning to go alone.”

For some reason, he seemed to find it difficult to bring it up.

“Where is it?”

“The place where the Shaman’s… former spirit daughter is.”

My eyes widened.

The person who was supposedly the Shaman’s former spirit daughter went by the name ‘Seong Yun-jae’ and had a nickname like some sort of Fairy.

Arriving at a two-story detached house in Suwon, Mr. Taeseon parked the car nearby and quietly entered through the back door of the house.

When he knocked on the small door connected to the back entrance, a man dressed in hanbok came out before long.

“I am Lee Taeseon, I called earlier.”

“I’m meeting famous people. Please come inside.”

The hallway beyond the small door led to an empty side room. Through a slightly ajar door, I could see quite a crowd of people sitting in what looked like a waiting room or a living room.

The man gave us two cushions and bowed as he laid one in front of us.

“She will be here soon. Is coffee okay?”

“Water is fine.”

“Yes.”

At Mr. Taeseon’s word, the man vanished for a moment and returned with a bottle of mineral water and two cups, placing them on a small table in front of us.

“She’s coming now.”

The man, who spoke while looking toward the door, quietly disappeared, and a woman with heavy makeup, hair tied up in a bun, and wearing a flamboyant hanbok entered as if taking his place.

The woman crossed the room with quick steps and sat across from us.

“You’ve worked hard coming a long way.”

“It was nothing.”

“Right, so you say you want to hear my story.”

I still wasn’t grasping the situation. Why did Mr. Taeseon seek out a shaman who was the Shaman’s former spirit daughter? Mr. Taeseon smiled faintly and answered, “Yes.”

“Hmm, well… What should I start with?”

The shaman smiled brightly and said.

“The story that Shaman… Shin Myeonghwa is the biggest con artist in the world?”