SATURDAY 58

“The world is overflowing with con artists,” the shaman began.

“Shin Myeonghwa is not a real shaman who received a divine calling. She’s just a smooth-talking swindler. She has a bit of spiritual sensitivity and knows how to perform a few secret rituals, but she’s a fake. …Just like I’m a fake.”

“A fake…?”

I became conscious of the living room beyond the closed door. Considering the number of people gathered there waiting, it was difficult to readily think of her as a fraud.

The shaman saw my expression and chuckled.

“There must be countless fake shamans like me in the world. I… I received my initiation rite from that woman, Shin Myeonghwa, and for three years after that, I was tormented by ghosts. That woman was a cultist who only knew how to mimic the initiation rite.”

At the mention of ghosts, Inha, who had been appearing to me, suddenly came to mind. If she used the words “tormented,” it wouldn’t have been just at that level.

“By the time I realized I’d been tricked, Shin Myeonghwa had already completely emptied the house she used as her shrine and vanished. By then, the harassment from the ghosts had quieted down a bit, and I didn’t have the energy to look for her, so I set up my own shaman house.”

To set up a shaman house in that situation, this person is also quite something….

“Shin Myeonghwa was someone who studied to act like a shaman, and she was good at reading people’s minds. Should I say she had an excellent ability to manipulate others to her will? People like that are exactly the breed that can play the role of a shaman without ever receiving a divine calling.”

“I see….”

Perhaps because the shaman kept using the real name “Shin Myeonghwa,” it didn’t immediately connect to the Shaman for me. Or maybe it was just because the story was so unbelievable.

“I’m that type too. Look at all those customers who came to see me out there, even though I don’t have a single god serving me even now. If I pick up a fan and shake the bells, nine out of ten are fooled.”

The shaman laughed, saying the world is full of people who think a place is miraculous just because a few prayer candles are lit in a shrine.

“Then… what if the fortune doesn’t come true?”

I asked cautiously. I had never visited a shaman other than our Shaman, but I had overheard stories from those around me about how they went to a certain shaman who was very accurate, or how another was wrong about everything.

“Most people just think it didn’t fit and go find another shaman. Those people didn’t come because they truly wanted to know the future in the first place. No one comes to seriously argue either. That’s how it is with fake shamans. You just need to be a good talker….”

The shaman suddenly struck the floor—thwack. I flinched and drew back in surprise, and Mr. Taeseon turned his gaze toward me.

“That’s why you have to be careful about which shaman you visit.”

“….”

“You found the wrong house. Shin Myeonghwa probably went into that family with her eyes on the fortune from the very beginning.”

“What do you mean by that…?”

The shaman smiled broadly. At a glance, it was a soft smile, but perhaps because of the heavy makeup or the intense impression, it felt a little scary.

“I’ve heard the gist of the story, so if I were to add my opinion….”

The shaman retraced everything, starting from how the Shaman and Professor Jang tried to swap Inha and me. Then she spoke. She said that when Inha started running around shouting that he would kill me, they probably thought the time had come.

“What… time?”

“Isn’t it obvious even to you? They turn you into Yoon Inha so you can inherit everything without any problems, and then they backstab you to make you spit out all the assets you received. I can see it clearly in my head after hearing the story just once.”

“….”

The shaman made the exact same assumption as my uncle.

“Yes, that’s how it must have been…. That boy, Yoon Inha. You said he jumped in front of the car on his own feet? He probably had no intention of dying. Right?”

“That’s… correct.”

“And the driver must have been drunk or high on drugs?”

“Are you saying that from the very beginning, the Shaman, the Professor, and Inha all conspired to do this? Inha tried to make my situation so bad that I would commit suicide, and the Shaman and the Professor just used him…?”

I stopped there and closed my mouth. I was rambling out words with my own mouth, not knowing if they were facts or imagination. Is this the method this shaman was talking about?

“…You’re saying they would kill a person just for money?”

I wasn’t wealthy on my own, but I grew up without wanting for anything. There was always money in the house, and Inha never had to think about the price when buying something. To me, money was something that didn’t come to me much, but was something that gushed out like an eternal spring.

“Look at this young master; even if he’s the black sheep, he’s still a rich man’s son, talking like he doesn’t know how the world works. In front of money, humans are beings who don’t care about parents or children.”

“….”

In truth, I do know. I’ve seen it on the news. But every time I saw such news, I couldn’t understand it. I would think, ‘What is money worth?’

“I was lucky enough to only get some money ripped off for ritual costs and then be abandoned, so I don’t even want to meet Shin Myeonghwa again. …To be precise, I’m afraid of meeting her. If she finds out about this current matter, that woman won’t leave me alone.”

“The, the Shaman is…”

I opened my mouth, even stammering. The gazes of the shaman and Mr. Taeseon shifted to me simultaneously.

“The Shaman… she was still a kind, a kind person to me.”

At that, the shaman let out a disbelieving—ha—and laughed.

“In what way? Inyoung, what did that woman ever do for you? There must be a moment you thought she was a kind person. Tell me about that.”

“Well… she would stroke my head… or praise me for small things.”

The shaman snorted, and Mr. Taeseon frowned slightly. My face felt like it was heating up at the obvious reaction. Flustered, I quickly added more about the special circumstances of our house.

“It’s not… like that. She did those things even though I was called a ghost or a beast in my own home. I always brought bad things with me….”

The shaman, who had been listening quietly, asked softly.

“…My child, sweetie. Who was the one who made you into such a being in the first place?”

“….”

That was… the Shaman. But that was because the fortune said so…. Mr. Taeseon, sitting beside me, lightly placed his hand on my knee.

“Think about it, Inyoung. When you fought with Yoon Inha, did the Shaman ever take your side or protect you in front of your parents?”

“She, she did!”

“How many times?”

“….”

I couldn’t answer. It was because it was truly “just a few times”—so few that they were all hand-counted and remained perfectly in my memory.

Then, it suddenly occurred to me. Once, my mother tried to take me on a family trip just that one time. But the Shaman said it wasn’t allowed because it would bring bad luck, and in the end, I couldn’t go. While the family was traveling, I had to perform rituals to wash away the bad luck the entire time.

I was five years old at the time. It’s an event from when I was young, but I remember it vividly. Because it was a trip to celebrate Inha’s fifth birthday. And I also vaguely knew the reason why my mother had tried to take me on the trip.

During the period when children are usually most loved, I was raised by the Shaman and the staff. I was a child who cried a lot and was sensitive. My mother would scream and get angry whenever she heard me crying.

But around that time, there was a moment when I looked at my mother, called her “Mom,” smiled, and tried to run and hug her. My mother reflexively hugged me. Inyoung…. she called me as she did so. Because that trip was supposed to happen right after that, the disappointment was even greater.

Since I could remember, I was the one punished even for Inha’s mistakes. My parents didn’t hit me directly. The one who held the rod was the Shaman.

The Shaman would often smile and say that my parents had told her to hit me twenty times, but she would only hit me ten, and that it was a secret from my parents.

So I was always grateful to the Shaman and saw her as my savior, but can this… really be called a good memory? I glanced at Mr. Taeseon’s face. For some reason, I felt like I shouldn’t say it. Mr. Taeseon stared at me and spoke.

“You’re thinking that you shouldn’t say it, aren’t you?”

“….”

How did he know….

As I slunk away from his gaze, Mr. Taeseon gripped my knee tighter and added again.

“That means it’s not a good memory.”

“Yes, that’s right. There’s no way Shin Myeonghwa would do anything good for someone else.”

I felt a little stung. The shaman seemed to have considerable hatred toward the Shaman. For some reason, I felt intimidated by that and was watching the shaman’s reaction… when the shaman suddenly looked at me with a face full of pity.

“My child, you will become like me too. Once you escape from that dominance, that is. Usually, you don’t know while you’re being victimized. Once you escape, you will come to hate that woman as a reaction.”

Then the shaman shifted her gaze to Mr. Taeseon.

“And who else did you say there was? A doctor?”

“Yes.”

Professor Jang….

“That doctor is the same.”

I quietly lowered my head. Will I come to hate the Shaman as much as this shaman does? Are the Shaman and the Professor truly bad people? Mr. Taeseon generally says only what is right. He had been suspicious of the Shaman and the Professor for a long time.

But if it really is like that.

Then, my life—the life I lived while thinking of them as the saviors of my existence….

What will my life become?