ROA 10

Meanwhile, Do Seon-hwa groaned softly.

The Vice Leader had firmly denied Shim Seo-woo’s abilities, and there were valid reasons to agree, but she found it hard to let go. The point that one can’t purify if they can’t see accurately was rational, but wouldn’t it be possible for the benefactor? The light in her dream had been so brilliant.

Do Seon-hwa looked at Shim Seo-woo with eyes that seemed to regard him as a precious treasure she couldn’t possibly give up, then hailed a taxi on the street and said,

“If it’s okay, please contact us again later. If you become interested in the industry, or if you have any questions, anytime! My offer to the Benefactor is sincere! I’ll meet any conditions you want!”

She met his eyes with an extremely serious face.

“I believe it’s fate with you, Benefactor. It feels like we were people who absolutely had to meet.”

“Doesn’t that sound like really old-fashioned pickup lines? It might be better to be misunderstood as a cult.”

At Jin Gwang-min’s comment, Do Seon-hwa shot him a sharp look. Since Shim Seo-woo also happened to think it was a statement that really sounded like a cult, he quietly swallowed that impression inwardly and just nodded.

“Yes. I’ll think about it.”

On the one hand, he thought wouldn’t it be over anyway if Cheon Ijae refused purification? No, if he collapses from pain, can they treat him? Like putting him under anesthesia. He said he didn’t want anything but purification that washes away misfortune in one go, but if they just put him to sleep, wouldn’t he not know how many times he was purified?

Because he hadn’t heard an explanation of how purification worked, somewhat strange images were being drawn in his head. In fact, he still couldn’t quite believe he had such an ability.

Shim Seo-woo looked down at his hands silently, then decided to focus on making it to exam time for now. The driver who received generous taxi fare from Do Seon-hwa quickly stepped on the accelerator and departed.

*

Exam period passed hectically.

After visiting HN, Shim Seo-woo devoted himself only to studying. The beginning was relatively relaxed with many liberal arts exams, but the latter half was filled with difficult major exams requiring concentration.

Spending days just going back and forth between his studio apartment, the library, and exam rooms, the experience in Heun’s secret space seemed to drift away like a dream. After hearing unrealistic stories about hunting evil spirits or balancing the worlds or whatever, returning to a space filled with extremely realistic topics created a great sense of disparity.

Around him people worried about the next exam subject right away and also talked about graduation and employment, so the time at Heun was naturally pushed to the corner of his mind.

Above all, he hadn’t seen ghosts anymore since that day.

Focusing only on exam studying that way and getting through exams one by one, finally the last day of finals approached. Starting with the exam at noon today, vacation would begin.

Shim Seo-woo tried to leave his studio apartment early in the morning to study at the library one last time. But just as he was about to sling his bag over his shoulder—ding-dong—the doorbell rang.

‘Could it be that person again…’

When he went out and opened the door, the existence Shim Seo-woo expected stood before his eyes.

“Oh my, student Seo-woo. Leaving early today too.”

The person smiling while holding a heavy shopping bag in their arms was none other than the landlord grandfather. As soon as Shim Seo-woo bowed his head in greeting, the grandfather handed over the shopping bag.

“It must be hard studying, so eat this while you do! You have to manage your energy well in summer!”

Inside the shopping bag was hot samgyetang. At the seemingly heavy weight, Shim Seo-woo answered with a troubled face.

“It’s okay. You’ve been looking after me continuously lately, so to receive more would be shameless…”

Recently the landlord grandfather had frequently brought him nutritious food. Precisely, it started from the night after visiting HN, and he had been giving him food, saying that health was important in the summer.

Since the grandfather had distributed nutritious food to tenants once each summer before too, thinking it was like that this time, he gratefully accepted at first. But the gifts didn’t stop at once. Gomtang (beef bone soup), duck baeksuk (boiled duck), grilled eel, abalone porridge, and so on, he came every day with a variety of things.

In fact, Shim Seo-woo tended to refuse gifts from others unless absolutely necessary, but it was difficult to refuse what the landlord grandfather brought. Not only the hierarchical relationship of landlord and tenant operated, but also confucian cultural reasons.

Instead, when he received something from the grandfather until now, he would repay at a corresponding level, but recently the frequency of gifts was too frequent.

“What you’ve given until now is already enough.”

“No no, it’s not. You can never take care of health too much! Besides, isn’t it Daehan University’s exam period right now? So you need to eat even more heartily!”

“The food you gave before still remains…”

“You can eat that gradually! I gave it to everyone else, so it would be awkward to leave out only student Seo-woo.”

The grandfather tried to forcibly grab his hand and pass over the shopping bag, but, swish, him Seo-woo stepped back. A heavy silence almost settled due to strong rejection, but, ahem!, the grandfather coughed with a tearful sound.

“Actually, seeing my friend collapse recently has made me worry so much… They say there’s no order to die, right? While you’re alive, you must eat well and live well. Enjoying it!”

Though it was somewhat rambling talk, it was content difficult to refuse further. He couldn’t be sensitive about the health anxiety caused by his friend’s incident.

In the end, Shim Seo-woo received the shopping bag with both hands while expressing thanks. In his head he was already thinking about how to repay this next time.

But as soon as he took the shopping bag, the grandfather smiled brightly, then quickly stepped back and shouted.

“Ah, there’s one more gift inside the bag, so make sure to look! Make sure!”

The way he left cleanly made it seem like he’d been targeting just this moment. At the movement filled with determination to reject rejections, Shim Seo-woo just blinked for a moment. It was the first time seeing the grandfather move so quickly, to a bewildering degree.

Anyway, giving one more gift sneakily like this. Shim Seo-woo opened the shopping bag with a slightly uncomfortable feeling, then soon tilted his head in puzzlement.

“…A keyring?”

Inside a transparent bag was a small doll keyring. A black puppy doll hugging a four-leaf clover as big as its body.

It was a gift he’d never expected to receive from an elderly white-haired grandfather. Since he got along well with other tenants, mainly students since it was near a university district, perhaps he heard about trending items and prepared this together.

Perhaps because it was an unexpected item, his gaze kept going to the puppy. Opening the bag and taking it out, he liked the soft texture too, so Shim Seo-woo fiddled with it several times before impulsively hanging the doll on his bag.

Dangling from the white crossbody bag, it looked quite cute. Shim Seo-woo gently patted the puppy’s crown with his fingertip and departed for school.

*

Finally all exams were over.

“Waaah, now it’s vacation!”

“Until yesterday I was sad about finals, but now exams? Grades? What’s important?”

“Ah, I need to add tons of spicy sauce to my pork cutlet.”

Park Dong-ju and So Da-hyun, who were lively as usual, shouted excitedly, and even Yang Ga-young, who was relatively calm, tapped the table’s kiosk with an extremely excited face. Madness dwelled in her eyes as she endlessly added spicy sauce, saying it was a reward to herself for her hard work.

Right now, the four including Shim Seo-woo had gathered to eat lunch together to commemorate the end of finals. So Da-hyun made plans saying she happened to have four movie tickets, so she made a plan to hang out together.

Shim Seo-woo wondered why she wouldn’t watch separately with her boyfriend Park Dong-ju, but it turned out she wanted to be with her longtime best friend Yang Ga-young more, so she included Park Dong-ju as a bonus. So Park Dong-ju said he also had friends and brought in Shim Seo-woo, forming a gathering of four.

The four headed to a restaurant famous for being delicious nearby before going to the movie theater. Having been cooped up in the school library eating only cafeteria food or convenience store food, now that exams were over, they should rightfully have a good meal.

“Look at the color of Yang Ga-young’s pork cutlet. It’s almost bleeding, isn’t it?”

“You’ll die eating that…”

“I can share a bite.”

“Ugh, no thank you. Please eat it all yourself.”

Though she had very gentle features with curly hair like a sheep, Yang Ga-young’s taste was terrifying when it came to food. Park Dong-ju and So Da-hyun clicked their tongues, then sighed seeing Shim Seo-woo next to them dipping cheese pork cutlet in honey and eating it.

So Da-hyun, who’d been looking at him with interest knowing he secretly liked sweet food, exclaimed ah!

“Right, Meong-seo. I heard from Dongdong-ju that you’re planning to just do part-time work this vacation? Do you have a place decided by any chance?”

“…Mm, no.”

As soon as Shim Seo-woo answered after swallowing all the food in his mouth, So Da-hyun brightened.

“Perfect! I went to El-chan Cafe last night and the owner asked about you. They asked if you’d be willing to come to the cafe if you don’t have other work!”