Osratida - Chapter 3

“Then, what do you want me to do?”

Shin-hee asked, his eyes fixed on Jisoo’s.

She hesitated before quietly mouthing her words, which he focused on intensely, not wanting to miss a single syllable.

“M-mom, dad? You want to find your parents?”
Shin-hee asked, and she nodded.

“Why? Do they not know about your… passing?”

Shin-hee dreaded having to be the one to deliver such tragic news to someone’s family. His expression clearly showed his discomfort, but to his relief, Jisoo shook her head vigorously.

“Then what?”

Shin-hee asked, and the next words she mouthed made his eyes widen in surprise. Though her lips moved slowly, her intent was clear.

— I have something to give them.

The bus rattled noisily as it carried Shin-hee and Jisoo toward their destination.

The first stop, her old apartment, was already occupied by someone else. Jisoo, still silent and urgent, led Shin-hee to another location without revealing what she needed to deliver to her parents.

As they headed toward her family home in Ansan, Shin-hee, sprawled out in his seat, was in agony.

His stomach churned from a lack of proper food and rest, and his disheveled appearance only added to his misery. He knew that if he asked Jisoo for more time to recover, she might just turn into a vengeful spirit and push him onto the subway tracks.

As Shin-hee clutched his queasy stomach, making yet another empty promise never to drink so recklessly again, Jisoo remained indifferent.

She seemed completely focused on her mission, showing no concern for anything or anyone other than her parents.

Shin-hee had many questions he wanted to ask, but he decided to keep his mouth shut instead of prying into Jisoo’s past.
To be honest, he didn’t have the mental bandwidth to be curious about someone else’s life right now. Regret washed over him like a wave—why did he even agree to come along?

He couldn’t even enter the house, and maybe he should have just hidden under his blanket and ignored everything. The thought of sleep, the ultimate cure for a hangover, tempted him as he closed his eyes.

There was still a long way to go before they reached their destination.

Just as he was about to surrender to sleep, a strange, cold sensation crept up his spine, raising the fine hairs on his skin. It was an eerie, bone-chilling feeling that startled him awake. As he instinctively scanned his surroundings, his eyes locked onto a man outside, visible through the bus window.

What is this?

Shin-hee couldn’t look away, confusion and fear blending in his gaze. The bus had just come to a stop, and there, standing on the road, was a tall man. Clinging to his back were at least a dozen ghosts.

Shin-hee’s journey is becoming increasingly eerie and exhausting, with the presence of so many ghosts and his own physical discomfort weighing heavily on him.
His encounter with the man burdened by multiple spirits hints at the darker side of the supernatural world he’s entangled in.

Despite the ominous atmosphere and his growing doubts, he continues to follow Jisoo, driven by a sense of duty, even as he questions the wisdom of his decisions. The story is clearly building towards a tense and possibly unsettling confrontation at the old, decrepit house.

Shin-hee hesitated, unsure of what to do next. The silence from the house was unsettling, and the pressure from Jisoo was growing.

Her anxiety was palpable, and it made him uneasy. She kept insisting on the urgency, pointing to her broken watch as if time itself was running out.

Shin-hee understood that this task, which seemed simple at first, was becoming increasingly complicated. Entering a house without permission was risky, but the urgency in Jisoo’s eyes left him with little choice.

He glanced around one more time, ensuring that no one was watching, and then turned back to the rusty gate. With a deep breath, he made a decision.

“Alright, but if things go south, we leave immediately, understood?”

he said, more to reassure himself than Jisoo. Her intense gaze softened slightly as she gave a quick nod, silently urging him to move forward.

Shin-hee approached the door, trying to calm the nerves buzzing in his head. He tested the handle, and to his surprise, the door creaked open slightly.

It wasn’t locked.

He exchanged a glance with Jisoo, who looked equally surprised but also resolute. Taking another breath to steady himself, he pushed the door open further and stepped inside, bracing himself for whatever might come next.

“How, exactly? The door’s locked. There’s no doorknob, no one inside! Do you have a key?”

At this moment, Shin-hee was more frustrated than Jisoo. He had raised his voice, but upon hearing a noise from outside, he glanced at a neighbor peeking out from their door and lowered it again. Jisoo touched the wound on her forehead and quietly pointed somewhere.

“Sigh… This is just… damn it…”

With a string of sighs and curses, Shin-hee crawled forward. The solution she had found was a fairly large hole under the concrete wall. The hole was big enough for a Jindo dog to pass through without much trouble, so it easily accommodated Shin-hee’s skinny frame, but it did nothing to protect his dignity as he crawled through it.

A wave of self-reproach and the cold realization of what he was doing hit him at the same time, causing Shin-hee to close his eyes tightly.

It seemed like it had been a long time since anyone had used the hole, as there was a thick web at the end. Damn it.

“Sigh…”

Shinhee sighed as he roughly brushed away the cobwebs that nearly clung to his face. The yard he finally crawled into, scraping his stomach along the way, was a mess.

An old pushcart was lying around, and plants that must have once bloomed beautifully had long since withered, exposing their roots. Rotting leaves that hadn’t been swept away in time with the changing seasons were piled up in various corners.

The old house, with its broken earthenware jars scattered across the ground, seemed abandoned, untouched by human hands for quite some time.

Shin-hee, carefully nudging aside shards of broken pottery with the tips of his toes, remained silent, lost in thought. But instead of continuing his musings, he turned to look at Jisoo, who was following behind him. With a calm expression, she pointed to somewhere in the house. It was likely the place where the ‘item’ she wanted delivered was located.

Following her gesture, Shin-hee stepped inside the house. The small home, nestled in an old shantytown with a tiny yard, looked as if it could collapse at any moment. However, in contrast to the exterior, the inside of the house still had a lived-in feel, as if someone was still taking care of it.

The living room, which was small enough to cross in just a few steps, was connected to a narrow kitchen. Despite the aged, mold-stained yellow wallpaper, the house was generally well-kept, indicating that someone had been maintaining it.

The narrow living room, with its tiny kitchen, was small enough to cross in just a few steps. Despite the aged and mold-stained yellow wallpaper, the house was generally well-kept.

Shin-hee took off his shoes at the entrance and carefully stepped inside. On the wall, a neat family photo was hanging—a pleasant-looking couple seated with their two well-grown daughters, all smiling brightly. The photo frame was in stark contrast to the dusty fan hanging nearby, indicating that it had been well-maintained.

Shin-hee recognized Jisoo as the eldest daughter from the family picture.

As Shin-hee glanced around the room with an involuntary frown, he suddenly looked up at a rough, hoarse voice coming from the other side of an open door. The groaning voice sounded frail and weak, suggesting it did not belong to a healthy person.

Noticing that Jisoo’s face grew darker at the sound, Shin-hee turned to her for permission, and she nodded solemnly. It was a clear request for him to proceed.

“Hello…”

Shinhee stepped into the room with polite strides, heading towards the source of the voice. The room, though small, was clearly the bedroom, furnished with a wardrobe and bedding spread out.

Lying on the floor was an elderly man with white hair, the voice’s owner. Shin-hee recognized him immediately as Jisoo’s father. Despite not yet being in his sixties, his white hair and wrinkled face made him look older than his years. He appeared significantly more aged than in the photo hanging on the wall.

The man simply blinked slowly, showing no sign of welcoming the guest who had come to his home after a long time. His demeanor was one of abandonment, devoid of dreams, regrets, or hopes.

Jisoo, looking down at her father, bit her lip tightly. Her eyes, barely moving, seemed on the verge of extinguishing themselves.

“Who… who are you?”

Shin-hee had come all this way because of the request from the deceased daughter, but as he felt the words rise to his throat, he instinctively stopped speaking.