SATURDAY 97

“The plans went awry…” Mr. Taeseon said. And now, as he spoke about the Professor, there was not a trace of malice on Mr. Taeseon’s face. He had truly intended to kill the Professor and the Shaman without feeling a single pang of conscience.

It was a situation where I should have felt eerie or repulsed, yet for some reason, I felt nothing. It was a strange thing. Mr. Taeseon gazed at me quietly and then whispered.

“I thought you would be more shocked.”

“…”

“Or, that you would try to stop me, saying that even bad people shouldn’t be treated like that.”

“That is…”

He was right. Under normal circumstances, I would have done exactly that and then some. But miraculously, such thoughts did not occur to me. Perhaps I am a worse person than I judged myself to be. The countless events I have endured until now flashed through my mind.

In the scenes flickering by like movie film, there were even incidents buried so deep in my memory that I thought to myself, Come to think of it, something like this happened back then, too.

But even so, is it really okay like this? The Professor is already…

“…”

I looked at the Professor. Whether he was asleep or unconscious, the Professor’s eyes remained closed, yet his body kept flinching.

“I gave him a sedative to make him sleep, but because the pain is so severe, he feels it even while sleeping,” the doctor said.

“Pain even while sleeping… then I would rather.”

I stopped speaking. I could guess how terrible the pain of a burn patient was, having encountered it indirectly through various media. I had seen it on TV. A patient with full-body burns wailing for someone to kill them. That image came to mind.

Also, the voice of the Professor screaming like a beast earlier.

Feeling as though I had thought a thought I shouldn’t have, I pressed my lips tight and shook my head. Mr. Taeseon, who was watching me, narrowed his eyes.

“Inyoung, this person is going to die anyway if left like this.”

“…”

“I originally intended to give the right of decision to you…”

The right of decision. I was not such a fool as to not know what that meant in this situation. Whether to kill the Professor like this, or to leave him be until he died. He was telling me to decide that.

My lips quivered. But before I could speak, Mr. Taeseon shrugged.

“It seems like too cruel a task. No matter what choice you make, Inyoung, you would regret it, be afraid, and perhaps have nightmares. …My thinking was shortsighted.”

“N-no, it’s not.”

Mr. Taeseon spoke with a sincere tone, pressing down on each and every word. And he examined me with a meticulous face. If I were even slightly uncomfortable or afraid of this matter, he would change the plan and somehow save the Professor.

I gazed quietly into Mr. Taeseon’s deep, black pupils and then slowly shook my head. As if surprised, Mr. Taeseon’s eyes widened slightly.

“I also…”

Waiting for the next words, Mr. Taeseon’s hand flinched. I took that flinching hand as if wrapping it with both of mine.

“Please let me be an accomplice too.”

“…What?”

“Since I’ve seen everything this far anyway, it’s the same as me being involved. Please let me be an accomplice just like this.”

“Inyoung, that is…”

“I’m begging you.”

As I spoke with emphasis, Mr. Taeseon let out a small sigh. It looked like a sigh of regret, as if thinking, I shouldn’t have brought him along.

Mr. Taeseon, who had lowered his head for a moment, turned his eyes to the doctor.

“You may proceed as originally planned.”

At those words, a sense of tension hung over the faces of the doctor and the nurse.

Next, Mr. Taeseon took out his phone and sent a message to someone, and about a minute later, a short notification sound rang simultaneously from the phones of the three people.

After glancing around for a moment, the nurse who was the first to take out her phone and check it covered her mouth with one hand and looked at Mr. Taeseon.

The other two also checked their phones while watching for cues and swallowed hard. What was faintly reflected in the doctor’s glasses was a phone banking screen. By that, I could tell the purpose for which Mr. Taeseon had contacted someone.

“We shall be going. There’s no need to come out.”

“Ah, yes, yes! General Manager, please go safely!”

Receiving the three’s extreme courtesy, we stepped out of the hospital room. I hadn’t felt it well inside the room, but once I came outside, a sickening smell of grease, a burnt odor, and the smell of disinfectant lingered at the tip of my nose.

Not a single ant was to be seen at the station, nor in the hallway or the lounge area. It was like a space emptied in advance for a horror movie shoot. It was chilly and desolate.

I got into the elevator with Mr. Taeseon and waited for the doors to close. The moment the doors, set a bit slower than a normal elevator, were closing with a swish,

Bang! Someone struck the door hard.

The doors opened again from an impact so strong I wondered if the elevator itself had shaken.

In my eyes, as I grabbed Mr. Taeseon in great shock, was the Shaman, who for some reason looked even more haggard than a moment ago.

The Shaman glared at us with hair all disheveled and sunken eyes. Standing in the already eerie hospital wearing a hanbok that was burnt and ruined in places, the Shaman looked like the very ghost she usually avoided so much.

At the word “ghost,” I flinched instantaneously.

Earlier, the Shaman said that Inha was by her side.

Then, where could he be right now?

Suddenly, I found myself unable to look at the mirror attached inside the elevator.

“Baby, Inyoung.”

“…”

“You’re frightened like a cat. How pitiful.”

“Do you have something to say?”

This time, too, it was Mr. Taeseon who stepped forward on my behalf. Feeling an unknown sense of debt, I at least stared fixedly at the Shaman. The Shaman was smirking with a face that suited the desolate background.

“Do you think I will just let this go?”

“…”

“Inyoung, Inha has already taken over half of your body. The rest was soon to be Inha’s as well.”

The Shaman clicked her tongue, tsk. She had an expression like something annoying had happened. Once again, I became afraid of the Shaman.

If the situation had changed even slightly, the Shaman herself, not the Professor, might have been lying in that hospital room inside.

Even if that weren’t the case, the Professor—the Shaman’s lover—is hovering between life and death, having lost even his human form.

And yet, for her to have such an indifferent face.

“It is raining a lot.”

Neither I nor Mr. Taeseon answered. The sound of rain could not be heard in the elevator, and there were no windows nearby. I didn’t know what the Shaman was seeing to say that.

“…It’s very late. Since it’s a mountain road in the middle of the rain, Director Lee, be careful driving.”

At the Shaman’s words, Mr. Taeseon let out a snort as if it were absurd. It was understandable. How could someone give such a greeting so nonchalantly, as if nothing had happened?

She must be up to something…. As I watched the Shaman quietly, she laughed lowly.

“Our Inyoung has learned to make eyes like that, too. I wonder where you picked that up…. When you were a child, you couldn’t even meet this Shaman’s eyes.”

“I-it’s different now.”

I managed to spit out the words, but I ended up stuttering a bit. It seems quite a long time must pass for my fear toward the Shaman to be diluted.

“Today is just like the day Inha died.”

As if my answer had not been heard, the Shaman suddenly muttered such a thing. The moment I flinched involuntarily, a strong arm wrapped around my shoulder. Mr. Taeseon’s scent lingered faintly around me.

“Don’t worry, Inyoung. Would the Shaman ever harm you, the vessel that Inha must enter?”

“…I am not a vessel for Inha to enter. Inha is dead.”

“How nice it would be if death in this world was a fair end for everyone.”

“A total waste of time.”

It was before I could even say the next word. Mr. Taeseon, who had been listening to me and the Shaman, spat those words out coldly and pressed the elevator close button.

I wondered if the Shaman would open the door again, but the Shaman merely stood still with an eerie smile.

The doors closed completely and the elevator began to descend. We soon arrived at the underground parking lot. The basement was full of moisture, and it was dark as lights were only on in a corner trash disposal area.

Stepping out of the elevator, Mr. Taeseon took my hand. From somewhere, there was the sound of a water droplet falling, drip.

“It’s okay, Inyoung.”

“…Will it be okay?”

“Of course. Everything will become okay.”

My heart thundered. Getting into the car, I looked around in spite of myself. Behind those dark pillars, next to the pipes, behind the trash area—I wondered if, perhaps, Inha was standing there.

But nothing was visible. Was Inha by the Shaman’s side?

While I was thinking, Mr. Taeseon buckled my seatbelt and immediately started the car.

The narrow, paint-peeled parking lot exit path was quite steep. The moment the car smoothly passed over a low speed bump, turning through the section with the sharpest curve, I inadvertently looked out the window and froze right there.

Inha was crouching in the corner.

With a smiling face.

“…”

Unable to keep looking, I turned my head, but Inha was everywhere my gaze landed. I lowered my eyes before Mr. Taeseon could think it strange, and when I opened them slightly, the clearly visible Inha spoke with only the shape of his mouth.

‘Dummy.’