Osratida - Chapter 8

“Where have I seen that man before?”
Shinhee thought, his gaze lingering on the figure. It was a face that wouldn’t easily be forgotten after just one look. His appearance could easily be mistaken for that of a movie star, yet the aura around him screamed businessman. Shinhee tilted his head in confusion.
Well, what does it matter? What does anything matter? Following the endless flow of his thoughts, Shinhee shook his head to shake off the stray thoughts.

Having dealt only with ghosts all the time, it was hard for Shinhee to converse with people. He glanced sideways at the ghosts standing next to him, as though all of this was their fault. The ghost, whose head was barely hanging on by a thread, simply gazed at Shinhee with desperate eyes, hands clasped together. His modified hanbok, in shades of black and white, was stained with blood in several places.

In the past, it would have been so repulsive that Shinhee wouldn’t have been able to make eye contact. But after six years of training, not only had his courage grown, but his tolerance had strengthened as well. A ghost with its neck almost severed was nothing compared to one whose entire body was torn apart.

“At this point, it’s fine,”
Shinhee thought, feeling a sense of satisfaction. The man with glasses gave him a nod of acknowledgment as he carefully drove away in his luxury car. At that moment, Shinhee scanned the vacant parking spaces thoroughly. He had received a request saying that ghosts often appeared in this building, so when he came to investigate, he found a ghost with its head severed, calling itself Okja, crying endlessly while searching for a necklace that might have been made of jade or amethyst.

Shinhee had planned to guide her to the afterlife, but the ghost had insisted that she wouldn’t leave the living world until she found the necklace she was looking for. So, for the past hour, he had been searching the parking lot, trying to help her. From the way she was dressed, it seemed like she had been lost for at least a hundred years, but Shinhee felt that even pretending to help her find it might calm her spirit and allow her to ascend peacefully. He could have forcibly moved her along, but he wanted to send her off without any regrets.

Ah, but that man… Did he see me talking to the ghost? Ugh, I must have looked crazy to him.

“Is this the right place? Did you lose the necklace exactly at this spot?”

“Ugh…”

She nodded repeatedly, sobbing. Blood tears fell, wetting her face. It’s a sight that never gets any easier, no matter how often I see it. Shinhee let out a deep sigh and even turned on his phone’s flashlight to examine the floor. As expected, there was nothing on the floor except for the black grease stains.
“Look. This place is all blocked off, and whether I find it or not, I’ll have to dig here, but if I start digging, that cop will catch me…”

“Please, just find it for me… My husband, he said, ‘Okja, Okja, you’re so beautiful,’ and with the money he earned through a lifetime of hard work, he gave it to me…”

“I really wish I could help you find it, Okja. For now, you should go up to the sky, and if by chance I find it later, I’ll make sure to come back. Ah…”

Shinhee paused as if he had just remembered something and checked his wristwatch. 8 o’clock. It seemed like he could make it if he hurried a bit. He let out a sigh of relief while looking at Okja, who was still sobbing.

****

“What do you mean by that?” Gyo-jin, who had just arrived home, muttered while loosening his tie. He had been in a bad mood all day, and the phone call he had received on top of it only made things worse.

“You know I don’t go on business trips abroad, right?”

“Well, still, Mr. Ha. If Mr. Ha doesn’t come in person, we’ll consider this deal null and void…”

“We can’t be fooled by such words, can we? If you’re planning to turn this around, then go for something bigger. Anyway, I’m not going.”

“Ha, Gyo-jin! This is a problem. You know how hard we’ve worked to bring in the Mishima department store as a partner.”

“Yes, and that’s why I’ve been cutting back on everything for the past seven months—meals, sleep time, all of it—planning, contacting, and persuading to get us this far.”

“I know you’ve worked hard, but…”

“When do I have to keep spoon-feeding this to you, Director Jeong? We’ve done this much, and now it’s your turn to take care of the rest, right? Are you going to pass everything to me just because you told me to come? Sales should be handled by the sales team. Either be incompetent or negligent, just pick one, Director Jeong Tae-man.”

Mr.Jeong – The Director – gritted his teeth at Gyo-jin, who was throwing around words like incompetence, negligence, and even complex issues. However, Jeong, who had recently started practicing breathing techniques from his new physical exercise routine, began to take deep breaths. As he calmed his mind, he realized that the problem was on their side. No matter what harsh words Ha Gyo-jin said, he should have stepped back. No, he had intended to do so, but… If Ha Gyo-jin refuses this time, all it would do is upset their feelings. Gyo-jin probably knew that they were testing the waters with both their company and the Geumgang Hotel at the same time.

“We know Ha Gyo-jin is busy, but this opportunity…?”

“Testing the waters?”

“Huh? Are you saying that you’re testing the waters between our Haimbell and Geumgang? Are you messing with me right now?”

Jeong, the Executive Director, felt as if his mind and heart were being shredded by Gyo-jin’s relentless criticisms, which cut through all ranks, ages, and statuses. Despite technically being a higher rank, he couldn’t understand why this competent and young director lacked the virtue of humility.

“Did you just stand by and watch as it came to this, even though you knew they were testing the waters? If you understood their mindset, you should’ve either given them something more to secure our position, or completely sorted things out and shifted our focus to targeting other opportunities. That’s your job, Executive Director Jeong. The board didn’t give you that position just to sit back and pretend you don’t know what’s going on.”

“I… I’m really sorry, but…”

“I won’t be attending the meeting with Mishima’s CEO. Either you go in my place, or they can directly ask me to come. I’m hanging up now.”

Gyo-jin slammed the phone down and threw it onto the sofa. It had been a frustrating day from the start. The broken door lock seemed almost laughable in comparison. In the morning, he had an awkward business conversation with his ex’s father; in the afternoon, an elementary school kid shot him with a water gun; and in the evening, some madman, whom he had no memory of, barged into a matchmaking meeting and spilled wine. Now, a business trip to Japan was being thrust upon him. An overseas trip. For domestic trips, he meticulously prepared for weeks, addressing every potential risk and ensuring everything was handled, but now an overseas trip?
It was all the fault of Director Jeong, who couldn’t do his job properly. No, more precisely, it was his own damn nature. Gyo-jin roughly stripped off his clothes and threw them into the laundry basket before turning on the shower.
As old memories flooded back, he adjusted the hot water to cold, trying to shake off the feelings.

For all three years of high school, Gyo-jin maintained the top rank and often scored perfect marks on mock exams. Yet, on the morning of the CSAT at the age of nineteen, his life hit its lowest point when he was involved in a car accident. The shock from that event was so intense that he seriously questioned why his life had turned out this way during his three-month hospital stay. Due to his ‘nature,’ which kept him from traveling abroad, he had to waste another year domestically, forced to repeat his studies. Going back another three years, the day before the high school entrance exam, his appendix burst, causing him to miss the school he had hoped to attend. Even earlier, at thirteen, he had entered a piano competition, only for the elevator to crash, though oddly, he had no memory of that day. And when he was ten, he had been kidnapped by criminals seeking money and held for three days.
Unlike others, Gyo-jin seemed to experience these rare, life-altering events just when he thought he was finally past them.

Life-threatening “big accidents” seemed to come around every three years, precisely on his lunar birthday. Every year, he would observe the lunar date of September 26th, hoping for it to pass safely, and by now, he was fed up with it. While others often worry about the “three-year misfortune,” he had to worry about his own recurring birthday. So, every time it came around, he would lock himself in his house and stay indoors all day.
“It’s dangerous outside the blanket ” — for others, this might be one of those jokes to laugh off, but for him, it was a hard-earned lesson from direct experience with danger. As he slowly sifted through the remnants of his memories, he suddenly recalled the accident from six years ago. Just like when he was thirteen, the memory was unclear, but he later heard that, according to others, he had almost died.

In the middle of the road, the bus suddenly overturned, and the driver died on the spot, but for some reason, Gyo-jin only suffered minor scratches. Despite that, he fell into a month-long sleep with no apparent brain injury. He remembered being on the bus, but had no recollection of escaping from it. It was then that he remembered why he had been on that bus. 6 years ago, he had been on his way to the columbarium to visit the memorial of his biological mother, who had died giving birth to him. It was the first time he had learned that his biological mother existed, and that she had died during childbirth. He hadn’t listened to Mrs. Kim’s warning, who had always told him to stay home because it was dangerous, and had stepped out, only to end up in the accident.

In the fragmented memories, Gyo-jin thought he might have seen someone, but the damaged recollections refused to be restored. His doctor occasionally joked that his exceptionally sharp mind caused side effects even from small shocks, but Gyo-jin wasn’t in the mood to laugh at all. Up until six years ago, he had occasionally raised his head, believing that the petty misfortunes in life only affected him. However, as if to prove him wrong, misfortune took the life of someone close to him, mocking Gyo-jin’s arrogance. No matter how indifferent Gyo-jin’s personality was, he couldn’t remain indifferent to that. If this was some grand design of fate, then he felt like a dirty pawn, entangled in underhanded moves. The accident six years ago had been so intense that, for his birthday three years ago, everything passed quietly, uneventfully. So perhaps this time, too…