Osratida - Chapter 2

One drink, then another, and as time passed, it was already nearing midnight.

Min-am, who had been wasting time with trivial and petty talk, finally got to the point of the evening after opening the third bottle of alcohol.

“So. Exactly, why did you quit, huh?”

Even though his face seemed indifferent, Shin-hee shook his head as he heard his friend’s already slurred speech. Although Shin-hee was the one who actually needed a drink, his friend was already drunk.

He had never seen someone who bragged about being able to hold their liquor who was actually able to. In that sense, Shin-hee truly could hold his liquor. There was not an ounce of shame when he looked up at the sky.

“I’m not quitting! I’m just taking a break from school! I’m taking a leave of absence!”

It was true. He really could hold his liquor.

“Hey, you! If you love drawing so much, why are you quitting, huh?”

Min-am scolded with a slurred pronunciation.

“Hey! When people keep coming day and night and bothering me, what can I do, huh? Like when they keep hovering in front of me during exams. Messing up the drawing of the person next to me. Damn it!”

Shin-hee fired back, not backing down.

“Hey, damn it, are those friends of yours that you see every day ghosts or what? Why are they so desperate to mess with you all the time? Bring them here, damn it. I’ll kill them for you.”

“They’re already dead, so you can’t kill them again, you fool,”

Shin-hee retorted, bringing the brimful soju glass to his lips as if he were finally letting out the words that had been weighing on his heart.

“They, huh? They hate it when I pick up a brush. They’ve been like that since I was a kid, doing everything they can to get in my way… I don’t even know anymore, damn it. Boss, another bottle here!”

After clinking his glass with a satisfying sound, Shin-hee downed it in one go. The sharp taste of alcohol paired perfectly with the grilled intestines, making for a delightful combination.

The rising buzz from the alcohol lifted the mood of the two young men; with their flushed faces, they pointed fingers at each other, eventually breaking into song.

Watching this scene, the owner of the gopchang restaurant clicked her tongue and placed another bottle of soju on their table with a thud.

“Drink moderately and start heading home, okay?”

“Oh, come on, auntie, you’re saying that again. We’re still good!”

Min-am chuckled and, with a playful grin, said,

“How about a drink, Auntie?”

while pretending to down an empty glass into his mouth. Watching this, Shin-hee snickered and refilled the empty glass. However, as the glass was being filled, the smile that had been hanging on Shin-hee’s lips faded away.

“Even if I don’t mind the dead visiting, it costs a lot of money… Yeah. It costs a lot of money.”

“Money! That’s right, money. No matter where you go, money is always the problem, for real.”

Just then, the TV hanging on the wall of the gopchang restaurant was broadcasting news about a 20 billion won lottery prize that still hadn’t been claimed, with less than three days left before the deadline. Min-am sighed deeply, mixing a bit of sincerity with his complaint.

“Sigh… I’ve lived a good life, but why doesn’t that kind of luck ever come to me?”

“With that kind of money, how many art supplies could I buy? Amazing.”

“Wow, I’m so jealous!”
Min-am looked at Shin-hee, who was silently chewing on his gopchang, then let out a deep sigh, as if the world were about to end.

“Hey. Your military draft notice came.”

Damn.

“Aren’t you going?”

“I’m not going. The country hasn’t called me.”

Why would they call an orphan? That would just make it even more pathetic.

After downing several more drinks and getting completely wasted, the two friends finally got kicked out of the restaurant by the owner around 2 a.m.

Shin-hee, who was too drunk to remember much, only regained consciousness the following day at noon.

Shin-hee, sprawled out in his studio apartment, reflexively opened his eyes as the harsh sunlight tickled his face. After shaking his head to clear his mind, he checked the time on his phone and saw that it was well past noon.

He yawned lazily and looked around to find his familiar, messy room greeting him.

He figured they must have each drunk at least two bottles of soju, but somehow, he had managed to make it back home. He marveled at the human instinct for survival as he sluggishly moved to the fridge to grab some water. But as he did, he suddenly froze in shock. Through the crack of his apartment window, he saw someone awkwardly craning their neck in a bizarre angle, staring inside.

Startled, he dropped the plastic water bottle, which clattered noisily across the floor.

Because of the talismans stuck all over the walls of his studio apartment, the ghost had been unable to enter and had waited outside for a day and a half, now glaring at him with a sullen expression.

Tsk.

After hurriedly mopping up the spilled water, Shin-hee opened the window and came face to face with the ghost. It was the same ghost with a blood-smeared face that had been following him around yesterday.

「…」

“Ah, you came?”

「……」

“Good morning! Right?”

The ghost seemed very angry after waiting for half a day. Despite Shin-hee’s cheerful morning greeting, her lips remained tightly shut, like a clam. The resentment in her expression was palpable.

Shin-hee, feeling genuinely sorry, began to offer an explanation that was more of an excuse than an apology.

“I’m sorry, I drank a bit too much yesterday…”

「…」

Her expression was fierce, but it seemed she had been obediently following Shin-hee’s words. The ghost’s face, which he saw again after a day, was now free of the bloodstains, except for a deep wound on her forehead and some scrapes here and there.

As expected, after some of the blood had been washed away by the powerful talismans, the face that emerged looked young and innocent, like someone who had just stepped into society.

Her expression was stern, but it seemed that she had obediently followed Shin-hee’s instructions.
Now, the bloodstains were gone, leaving only a deep wound on her forehead and some scrapes here and there. As the powerful talismans had cleansed some of the blood, the face that emerged looked young, like someone who had just entered the adult world.

Her once dirt-covered and blood-soaked dress shirt also looked noticeably cleaner than it had the day before. With her face now wiped clean, she had a rather kind appearance. If only her neck wasn’t twisted in such a strange way, she would have looked even more gentle.

Shin-hee, still shaking off the remnants of alcohol clouding his mind, attempted to start a conversation.

“Did you live around here? What’s your name?”

Instead of responding with words, she used her finger as if it were a pencil, writing in the air.

“…Seo, Ji, Soo?”

She nodded in response, lowering her gaze. Most ghosts tended to be silent, but there were also many, like her, who had lost their voices entirely.
Often, this was because the shock of their death had caused them to close off their voice before they passed. Realizing this, Shin-hee decided to change his approach to communicating with her.

Nod.

“Were you working?”

Shake.

“Then are you still a student?”

Nod.

“Did you die around here?”

Nod.

“What was the reason for your death? Murder? Accident? Car accident?”

Nod.

If she was still a student, she couldn’t have been much older than him. Shin-hee sighed, feeling a mix of emotions as he tried to piece together the reasons why she had sought him out.

If a student around his age had died in an accident and, with unresolved anger, had come to find him—a person who could see ghosts—then the reason could only be one thing: revenge.

“Let me tell you in advance, I can’t do anything too grand. Setting fire to the house of the person who killed you, strangling someone—I can’t do things like that. I don’t even have the money to hire a lawyer if I get involved in a case. I don’t do revenge. Human lives are managed by the underworld, not me. No matter how bad someone is, they have to live until the reapers come to take their soul. And my job is to help you pass on peacefully, not to assist in tormenting the living. Do you understand?”

Shin-hee felt it was important to set clear boundaries from the start to avoid any future conflicts. As he calmly explained his stance, he noticed that Ji-soo’s face darkened noticeably. While ghosts naturally had a dark appearance, the change in her expression was so stark that it was easy to see with the naked eye.

“What about your family, Ji-soo? Did you live with them?”

As Shin-hee pieced together her story like solving a puzzle, asking questions and getting responses to figure out her background, he inquired about her family. This time, for the first time, she hesitated instead of responding immediately.

Shin-hee furrowed his brow at Ji-soo’s reaction. His sharp intuition told him that his question might be connected to the reason she had come to him. Feeling a bit sorry for pushing her, Shin-hee sighed and put on the jacket that had been lying on the floor.

“Wait a moment. Let’s go to the park and talk.”

Seeing the dead had been a part of Shin-hee’s life for as long as he could remember, almost like a deeply ingrained trait. If it could be considered a skill, then it was his unique talent. He first realized he could see ghosts when he was six years old, so it’s been 16 years now. It didn’t take long for him to understand that he was different from others.

The entire neighborhood quickly spread rumors about him being a strange child, which made his childhood memories filled with solitude and silence.

Shin-hee would spend his days sitting alone on the floor, reading books, drawing—his favorite activity—and studying under the guidance of the mentor who had taken him in. That was his daily routine.

There was no time to express loneliness because every day, without fail, various spirits would come to him, locking eyes with him, seeking his attention. However, it took him several years to learn how to filter out the malevolent spirits, those with sinister intentions.

At first, Shin-hee could only see the spirits of the deceased. Whenever their frightening faces locked eyes with his, they would chase after him, causing him to run crying to his mentor on many occasions.
But by the time he turned ten, he had learned how to communicate with them. Once he began talking with them, everything became easier.

“I guess you didn’t come to me to pass on peacefully. You need help, right?”

Nod.

“Has it been a while since you died?”

Nod.

“Has it been over a year?”

Shake.

Instead of giving a detailed explanation, Jisoo moved her lips silently. Shinhee focused all his attention on her jaw, trying to read the words she mouthed.

“No… time… left?”

After several attempts, it seemed his understanding finally clicked.
Jisoo, who had been responding with lukewarm reactions until then, suddenly nodded vigorously, confirming that he had correctly interpreted her words.

After several attempts, when Shin-hee finally got the message across, Jisoo nodded vigorously, confirming that his understanding was correct.

As he sat on the park bench, talking to the air, people passing by glanced at him with startled expressions, whispering among themselves.

“That guy must be crazy.”

“He looks normal, though… Tsk.”

Hearing the murmurs, Shin-hee scratched the back of his neck, feeling awkward. He couldn’t help but think that by tomorrow, there might be a post on some social media platform warning people to avoid a certain park in Seoul because of a “crazy person.”

It wasn’t the first time this had happened, even during his college days before he took a leave of absence.

Though he should be used to it by now, Shin-hee still found himself bothered by the attention from others. He felt a bit disappointed in himself for caring so much about what people thought. But he quickly shook his head, trying to block out the distractions, and refocused on Jisoo. He had work to do.