SJ | Chapter 1.4

“Jihee, you’ve forcibly opened the spirit gate, so don’t leave the house for a week. I’ll tie a sacred rope around your home. Let no one in, or you’ll be tormented by spirits and lose your body. Understand?”

“Yes.”

Seeing the villagers wailing, Jihee realized his failure to receive the spirit was a grave mistake. Sniffling, he couldn’t lift his head in shame. Shaman Yeonhwa wrote a talisman and placed it on Jihee’s forehead.

“Close your eyes and go home. Don’t look back if someone calls you.”

“Okay.”

“Yeongja, guide Jihee home.”

Had he used the pearl to wish to become a seonin instead of reviving Grandma? But that was a dream. Jihee simply lacked his grandma’s spiritual power.

Holding Yeongja’s hand, eyes closed, Jihee walked, each step frightening in the darkness. Stumbling, he finally reached home, where Shaman Yeonhwa’s daughters brought a sacred rope, charcoal, peppers, yellow paper, and red dye. Shaman Yeonhwa wrote talismans in Jihee’s room, weaving charcoal, peppers, and talismans into the sacred rope.

She encircled the thatched house with the rope. On the porch, she placed a bowl of salt and lit incense to mask Jihee’s sweet scent.

“Take care, and don’t leave the house for a week. Goodbye, Jihee.”

Shaman Yeonhwa left with her daughters. Jihee carefully removed the talisman from his forehead and picked up his phone. Most of his peers left the island after high school. He didn’t see the point of going to mainland universities, but many wanted to.

Hanseok, Jihee’s friend, left for a university in Yeosu. Jihee browsed the mainland wonders Hanseok shared in the chat. The mainland seemed like a different world, full of fascinating things. On Gyoindo, visiting a café meant a one-hour bus ride over the mountain to the western town, but on the mainland, cafés were everywhere.

The eastern part of Gyoindo, where the dock was, held strong to traditional beliefs, making it feel like the Joseon era with TVs and phones. Jihee sometimes regretted not going to university, but he wasn’t good at studying and lacked the confidence to take the entrance exam. His grandma strongly opposed it, saying the mainland was dangerous.

Yet, his grandma tried to send him to the mainland and disappeared, which puzzled Jihee. Could those on the unfamiliar yacht he saw have kidnapped his grandma?

Yes, that could be it. His grandma was the most important high shaman on Gyoindo, capable of prophecy, so greedy mainlanders might have kidnapped her. Mainlanders were said to be violent, committing robberies and murders, unlike Gyoindo, where houses had iron gates and door locks for protection.

Fuming, Jihee cursed the mainlanders who kidnapped his grandma and loosened the uncomfortable hanbok jacket. His small, cute cherry blossom-like birthmark on his white chest was exposed. As he texted Hanseok, a strong wind rattled the paper door.

[Jihee, it’s Grandma. Please open the door.]

“Grandma?”

Jihee jumped up and approached the door. Strangely, no shadow appeared on the paper screen.

“Is it really Grandma?”

[It’s Grandma, my child. Please open the door.]

Something felt off. If it were Grandma, she’d open the door herself, not ask Jihee to do it. Jihee quickly ran to the kitchen, filled his mouth with saltwater, and the voice mimicking his grandma’s disappeared.

After waiting a while, he spat the saltwater into the sink. His mouth was salty, so he rinsed it with water. Lacking appetite from the ritual stress, he grabbed the two mackerels from the bag and ate them. Though less tasty than when alive, he had no choice.

As he gnawed on the mackerel, strange voices echoed.

[Sweet smell. Delicious. No greater wish than to taste that white, tender flesh.]

[Must eat it before it arrives. Then I’ll become a god!]

[Open the door! White mouse, open the door!]

The paper door rattled as if someone was pulling it. Startled, Jihee quickly wedged a spoon into the door latch. He had to pretend not to see or hear anything for a week to close the spirit gate again.

He dashed into the bedroom, turned the TV up loud, and hid under the covers. He was scared. With Grandma, those spirits would be nothing…

Jihee sniffled, calling for Grandma, and cried himself to sleep.

⛩ ⛩ ⛩

Fishermen’s mornings are unusually early. The captain got up at dawn, ready to board the ship. But what awaited him was a fierce storm, evident at a glance. The old mermaid, who used to calm the swirling currents, had disappeared.

The crew waiting for the captain at the dock said they couldn’t go fishing today and returned home. Well, today isn’t the only day. The captain also went back home. But the next day, and the day after that, the sea rose like a wall with huge waves.

The fishing boat tied to the dock post leaped like an angry bull, tossed by the waves. At this rate, the boat would be destroyed, and the villagers would starve. In the barren land of Gyoindo, fishing was the only means of livelihood for the residents.

The captain counted the days until Jihee’s spiritual gate would close. Including the day of the ritual, today was the seventh day, and counting a week from the next day, it was the sixth day. Anyway, not being able to fish for a week resulted in significant losses.

With things as they were, he decided to embrace Jihee, whom he had long desired. When the high shaman was around, he feared divine punishment and revered her, but now that Jihee was alone, it was different. Without the power of the god, Shinjikki was just an ordinary human.

With bloodshot eyes, the captain stormed into the high shaman’s house, cutting the sacred rope encircling the thatched house with a knife used for cutting nets. He kicked the bowl of salt placed in front of the paper door and opened it.

Inside, a sweet scent that made his mind hazy filled the air. His groin swelled hard, and his breathing quickened. He had never harbored impure thoughts while caring for Jihee, who was like a son to him.

He deliberately placed a large fish tank in the house, filled with mackerel, to make Jihee visit often, and sent his son, who had a crush on Jihee, away to the mainland.

Jihee, with eyes shining like grapes and skin like white peonies, was an incredible beauty that made one’s eyes pop open. Living only on the island, he seemed unaware of his appearance, but if he lived on the mainland, he would have been on TV.

He always thought it would be nice to make Jihee his wife, but he couldn’t because of the high shaman. However, the situation had changed now. He felt sorry for his son, who had a crush on Jihee, but Jihee would bear his child and become Hanseok’s stepmother.

The captain tiptoed through the living room.

⛩ ⛩ ⛩

Awakened by the alarm, Jihee stretched out his hand and yawned.

Having worked at the sashimi restaurant all day or caught fish at the beach on days off, doing nothing and staying home for the past few days made him restless. He sent a message to Hanseok, but he was in class and couldn’t come to chat.

Dreaming of becoming a sashimi restaurant owner, he studied how to slice fish on YouTube but soon rolled around on the yellow floor out of boredom. It was the sixth day. Just one day left until the spiritual gate closed. Thinking he only had to endure today made time flow slower and feel several times more tedious. How had he managed to endure all this time? Tomorrow morning, he would go to the city early to report his grandmother’s disappearance to the police.

Jihee yawned widely and turned on the TV. The screen suddenly flickered, and a ghost with a long, torn mouth and sharp teeth appeared.

[That kid looks delicious.]

Seeing Jihee frozen, the ghost laughed gleefully. A black hand emerged from the TV screen. Looking around in panic, he saw the yellow talisman he had taken off his forehead and quickly stuck it on the TV.

Then, as if the evil spirit had never been there, a regular broadcast appeared on the TV. He quickly turned off the TV with the remote and also turned off his phone. Thanks to the sacred rope placed around the house by Shaman Yeonhwa, ghosts couldn’t enter, so what was going on? Could a mischievous bird have flown in and cut the sacred rope?

Anyway, seeing this happen even in broad daylight, there was definitely a problem with the sacred rope. Because of that, it seemed like ghosts could come and go through something shaped like a square door. If so, the mirror in the bathroom would also have issues.

He took the talisman off the turned-off TV and ran to the bathroom, quickly sticking it on the mirror. That’s when he sensed someone.

Jihee hurriedly locked the latch on the bathroom door. In the thatched house with only paper doors, the bathroom door, where he did his business and washed, was the only sturdy wooden door. It suddenly felt reassuring, like understanding why mainlanders installed iron doors at the entrance.

He heard footsteps approaching the bathroom, confirming no one was in the main room. Could it be the evil spirit that ate his grandmother had returned? No, that was a nightmare. Then who on earth had come to see him, who shouldn’t be in contact with the outside world?

Were the footsteps outside human or ghostly? Jihee crouched in the corner of the bathroom, trembling.

“Grandma, I’m scared. Grandma.”

He thought he couldn’t cry anymore, but tears flowed.

“Jihee, it’s Uncle. Where are you?”

It was the captain’s voice. But since there had been a ghost mimicking his grandmother’s voice, he couldn’t trust it. He covered his mouth tightly with both hands to suppress the sobs that threatened to burst out and watched the outside situation.

“There you are.”

The words from beyond the door sent a chill down his spine, as if he had been doused with cold water, and his hair stood on end. He heard the doorknob turning. When the door didn’t open, the captain spoke.

“Open the door quickly. The high shaman has returned.”

“Grandma’s back?”

It seemed she had just gone somewhere for a while. Jihee jumped up and opened the bathroom door. Seeing the familiar captain, he felt relieved. He was embarrassed to have hidden in fear over nothing. His grandmother would quickly close his open spiritual gate.

“Uncle, where’s Grandma?”

He looked around the house after leaving the bathroom, but his grandmother was nowhere to be seen. That’s when the captain grabbed Jihee’s wrist and dragged him into the main room.

“Ouch! It hurts! Uncle, let go!”

“It’s all your fault. If you had properly received the god, this wouldn’t have happened!”

Under the captain’s force, Jihee was thrown onto the mat. The rough hands of the fisherman, scarred from handling nets, rummaged through Jihee’s top. The hard fingertips groped his chest, making the small pink nipples stand erect in surprise.

The captain climbed on top of Jihee, preventing him from struggling, and pulled down his pants. He couldn’t understand what was happening and was only terrified.

“No, go away! Go away!”