CS Chapter 1

“Just kill me! Please, just kill me! Aagh!”

 

Seowoo inserted the needle into the arm of her younger brother, Junseo, who was thrashing and begging to die. The needle, piercing through his dry, thin skin, would, as always, extend his life by another day. At least when the pain subsided, he wouldn’t think about dying, at least for a while.

 

“It’s a sedative. You’ll be alright now.”

 

“Ha… Noona¹… Go tell Mom to please just give up on me… I’m so tired…”

 

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

 

After coldly dismissing him, Seowoo left the room, leaving her gasping brother behind. She hadn’t been able to study properly for her upcoming GED exam² because she had been taking care of her brother since morning.

 

She sat at a low, makeshift desk in the corner of the living room and opened her GED textbook. One of the desk legs was broken, so she had propped it up with some scrap paper to level it. The desk wobbled every time she moved her pen. 

 

Scratch, scratch.

 

Despite the incredibly unaccommodating environment, she tried to focus on solving the problems, but Junseo’s cries echoed from his room again. He was pleading, filled with resentment, to be allowed to die, to be given up on.

 

But Seowoo merely stared at her GED textbook with an impassive face. Junseo’s outbursts were nothing new; they had been going on for years.

 

Her brother’s illness, which had started when he was in middle school, had tormented him for six long years. Unfortunately, it was an undiagnosed rare disease with no known cure.

 

“Noona! Noona! Spider! There’s a spider inside me again! Aagh, aagh!”

 

Junseo screamed as if he were about to die.

 

That damn spider.

 

The source of all their misfortune was a spider that had somehow invaded her brother’s body one day.

 

One sunny day, Seowoo received a call from her brother’s school. Junseo had suddenly had a seizure during class.

 

-Junseo keeps saying he swallowed a spider, ma’am. He keeps saying a spider is crawling around inside him… He’s frantically scratching himself. I think you need to take him to the hospital right away.

 

Alarmed by the teacher’s words, their mother immediately took Junseo to a local clinic. When the doctor asked him what was wrong, Junseo repeated the same thing: a large spider was constantly crawling inside him, tormenting him.

 

However, it was biologically impossible for a spider to survive inside a human body and gnaw at its organs. The doctor reassured Junseo, saying that even if he had swallowed a spider, it would have been dissolved by stomach acid.

 

But Junseo was stubborn. He yelled that something was definitely biting him all over. Exasperated, the doctor clicked out his tongue, wrote a referral, and told them to go to a university hospital since there was nothing more he could do.

 

They rushed to the university hospital, where Junseo underwent CT and MRI scans, but no physical abnormalities were found.

 

Even the psychiatrist, their last hope, couldn’t offer a clear solution. The doctor said the cause was likely psychological and prescribed some medication along with the generic advice to get regular sun exposure, exercise, and maintain a regular lifestyle.

 

Junseo suffered for years without any improvement. His constant screams day and night about spiders crawling all over his body, eventually forcing him to drop out of school.

 

From that point on, Seowoo’s life began to crumble. She had to take over caring for her brother, replacing her mother, who was the head of the household. Having spent most of her youth nursing her brother, she gradually lost her smile and became noticeably quiet.

 

Desperate to save her only son, their mother, clutching at straws, brought in a shaman. Shamanic rituals were held every other day, and the cost, exceeding hundreds of millions of won, threw their household into chaos.

 

But their mother never gave up on Junseo. She broke into her savings, canceled insurance policies, sold their house, and eventually resorted to loans and private lenders, desperately trying to save her only son.

 

If there was a God, one would think such maternal devotion would be acknowledged, but for some reason, Junseo’s condition only worsened. His seizures became more frequent, and he often scratched himself until his body was covered in blood.

 

“If it doesn’t get better after all this, it’s not a normal illness. This boy is possessed by a spirit, I’m sure of it. That’s it.”

“P-possessed? Then what do we do, what about our Junseo?”

“It means your son is destined to serve a spirit, you fool. What do you mean, what do we do? He needs an initiation ritual immediately.”

“Are you saying our J-Junseo will become a shaman?”

“Tsk, tsk. Seeing you hesitate even now shows you haven’t come to your senses yet! Well… there is a way to avoid becoming a shaman, it’s called a suppression ritual. But that’s a bit expensive, so it’s hard to say…”

“I’ll do anything. Please, just save my Junseo.”

 

A mother with a sick child was easy prey. Even though countless shamanistic rituals hadn’t cured Junseo’s illness, the shaman shamelessly kept demanding more money.

 

The outcome was predictable. Mom, believing the shaman’s claim that a nureum-gut³(suppression ritual) was necessary, and offered a hefty sum of 300 million won. After haphazardly performing a sword dance in their house, the shaman vanished without a trace. Naturally, Junseo’s illness…

 

“Noona… you fucking bitch! Can’t you hear me?! You goddamn bastard, aagh! Don’t ignore me! Aagh!”

 

Scratch, scratch, scratch. Scrape, scrape.

 

The sound of fingernails scratching and scraping the floor, accompanied by vulgar curses, filled the house.

 

“Please, just… I wish you were dead, Junseo”

 

Seowoo, having inadvertently revealed her true feelings, gripped the mechanical pencil in her hand until her knuckles turned white.

 

Life was utterly unbearable.

 

***

 

Dozens of well-built men filed past the emblem sculpture designed with a sun motif. The man leading the group was none other than Cha Minjun, the CEO of Daehan Motors.

 

The man in the bespoke three-piece suit, Oxford shoes, and neatly styled pomade hair was a striking figure. His aristocratic, fair skin, captivating gaze, sculpted nose, and well-defined jawline – each feature was perfectly crafted, as if meticulously tailored.

 

He strode in on his long legs, entering the Daehan Motors headquarters. As he confidently crossed the lobby, all the employees bowed to him.

 

As soon as he stepped into the executive elevator, Minjun loosened the tie that had been constricting his neck. His elegant brow furrowed in displeasure.

 

“He’s still inside?”

 

“Yes. Chairman Cha Jinwoong has been waiting since morning… The secretaries have had a hard time.”

 

“That senile old man.”

 

Chief Secretary Joo Chanyeol flinched at Minjun’s clicking tongue. Perhaps only Cha Minjun could dare to utter the word “senile” about Cha Jinwoong, the head of the Daehan Group.

 

Upon opening the door to his office, Minjun was greeted by Cha Jinwoong, who was leaning back on the main sofa.

 

“Why are you just standing there? Shouldn’t you greet your grandfather first?”

 

“You seem to have a lot of free time. If you keep popping in and out without reason, you’ll be treated like a doddering old fool.”

 

“Crazy bastard.”

 

Jinwoong let out a chuckle, a breathy laugh. He had long known about his only grandson’s impudence, so it didn’t seem to bother him much.

 

“Take this.”

 

Jinwoong pulled an envelope from his pocket and waved it dismissively in the air. Joo Chanyeol hurried over, carefully accepted the envelope, and then presented it to Minjun. Minjun scoffed, knowing the contents without even looking.

 

“Another talisman?”

 

“You ungrateful brat! Do you know how much the shaman lady works to extend your lifespan?!”

 

Jinwoong’s booming voice was surprisingly powerful for a man nearing eighty. His face flushed red as he exhaled heated breaths.

 

“I don’t want to argue with you anymore. Just get married this year. If you want to inherit the management rights, bring me a bride-to-be quickly!”

 

“Let’s be clear,” Minjun ran a hand through his hair in annoyance.

 

“What you want isn’t a bride, Grandfather. It’s a human shield.”