Magic on the Dead Chapter 47

After cleaning up from the meal, everyone gathered in small groups as if by prearrangement. It seemed they usually slept inside the convenience store, as several thick blankets were already laid out on the floor.

“If you need to, feel free to take some food before you leave tomorrow. I will set some aside.”

The cult leader, who was arranging the bedding, said in a generous tone with a kind face. Eden, who had been eyeing the food supplies, requested a handshake as if it were welcome news. Hajin inwardly snorted at his uncharacteristically gentle demeanor.

“Oh, what is that card? Do you have poker cards?”

The high school student, who had been sitting far away, spoke to Byeol. Byeol, fiddling with the Joker card she had received from Hajin in her small hand, answered proudly.

“Yep! But my Uncle Hajin gave me this. My uncle has a ton of cards.”

“A ton?”

“Yep. Do you want to see my Uncle Hajin use magic?”

Byeol called Hajin’s magic’magic’and puffed out her chest. Hajin, who was stealthily trying to lie down on the floor, let out a sigh. He thought he had gotten away with it today….

“Samchon! Just show one magic trick before you sleep!”

The child, as if showing off her most precious treasure, desperately shook Hajin’s shoulder as he lay in an awkward position. Eden, who would usually have been busy telling Byeol to be quiet, was strangely silent.

Hajin, getting up again, rummaged in his bag and took out his practice deck of cards and magic pad. The child liked it so much that even though his body was tired, his hands moved on their own.

“I am only going to show you once.”

The people who had been gathered in small groups talking were, at some point, looking at Hajin with curious eyes. The cult leader, who was sipping tomato juice, stared at Hajin’s fingertips with a meaningful gaze.

While shuffling the cards, Hajin contemplated which technique to show and remembered the Clip Shift he had thought of when looking at Jung Taegeon earlier. In addition, he decided to perform a trick applying the ACAAN that even he found amazing.

ACAAN was short for’Any Card At Any Number’, a magic technique where the card named by the spectator is located at the number named by the spectator. Of course, since he was planning to perform a trick combined with the Clip Shift, there was no need to ask for a number.

Hajin placed the deck of cards he was holding on the black velvet pad and asked.

“Student, could you name one card that comes to your mind right now?”

At the refreshing question, the boy hesitated. It seemed he was shy from all the attention.

“One that comes to mind?”

After thinking for a long time, the boy, as if he had made up his mind, shouted with all his might.

“Jack of Diamonds!”

“Jack of Diamonds?”

Hajin frowned and hummed.

“Hmm…. I will give you a chance to change it.”

“I will not change it, I will just stick with the Jack of Diamonds.”

“Really? You will not regret it?”

The boy was somehow beaming. He seemed to be in a good mood because the hyung, who looked much older than him, was using polite language with him. The boy, who had been dragging his feet and pretending to think, changed his mind again.

“Hehe. Just kidding. I want to change it, to the 5 of Spades.”

“5 of Spades…? Really? Is that your best choice? I will give you another chance to change it.”

“Ah, I do not want to. Just the 5 of Spades.”

Hajin, with a small smile, tapped the top card of the deck he had placed down.

“Flip it over.”

The boy, who was eyeing the card with a suspicious gaze, came over on his knees. A look of’no way’briefly flickered across Hajin’s face. The cult leader’s son, half in doubt, flipped the card over with a swish.

“Huk. Sheebal! What is this!”

Startled, he fell backward on his bottom. Jeong Byeol, who had been watching with tense eyes alongside him, also clapped and laughed gleefully. The people murmured, looking back and forth between the flipped card and Hajin’s face.

As the boy had said, the 5 of Spades was lying on top.

“Is this not a prediction at this point? You did not even touch the cards, did you?”

“That is crazy! I did think you looked familiar! You are a magician, right?”

Just like the outsiders who could not hold back their admiration, it was just as surprising for his own companions, Jeffrey and Park Chunbeom. Thanks to Byeol’s pestering, they would watch Hajin’s magic show at least once a day, but no matter how many times they saw it, they were always mesmerized by the dazzling sleight of hand and mental magic that made their eyes spin.

“Hajin! You did not tell me the secret again. When are you going to teach me the arm lock?”

Jeffrey, who had been waiting for the right moment, shook Hajin’s shoulder violently. It was quite a persistent obsession, as he seemed to really want to know the technique performed in the magic show. However, Hajin was no slouch when it came to persistence either. This time, too, Hajin laughed it off like a sly old fox and promised for the next time.

“I will really tell you that next time.”

“When is next time?”

“Hmm… when Jeffrey and I part ways?”

Jeffrey looked rather disappointed, but Hajin even linked his pinky finger as if to say it was for real this time.

“This is a technique that does not even appear in lectures worth tens of millions of won, so I cannot just teach it to anyone. But I will definitely teach it to you when the time comes, so just be patient for a little longer.”

Hajin soothed Jeffrey as if he were a child, intertwining their fingers. Eden, who was watching as if he had seen something he should not have, clicked his tongue, tsk tsk.

Just then, the cult leader, who had been sitting among the noisy crowd with a sullen expression, waved his hands, whoosh whoosh!, and shouted.

“Everyone. Do not get excited over such a shallow trick of the eye. Acting and deceiving people by pretending a fake is real is no different from the devil’s deception!”

“Ah, Dad! Cut it out!”

The cult leader’s embarrassed son snapped in frustration. The cult leader glared fiercely at his ashamed son and then turned his gaze back to Hajin.

“Did you say your name was Mr. Do Hajin?”

Hajin, without getting flustered, smiled and nodded his head. Hecklers who harass and envy magicians existed everywhere. Of course, he had not expected to encounter one even in a place like this.

“Yes, I am Do Hajin.”

“If you had done it with the Jack of Diamonds card that my son mentioned earlier, this result would not have come out, right? You clearly encouraged my son by saying you would give him a chance to change. Trying to manipulate people with this kind of wordplay is not a game, nor is it anything else, it is clearly a fraud. You are no different from Satan!”

As if acting in a play, every single sentence the man spat out was incredibly awkward.

Eden, who was supporting his upper body with his arms propped behind him, watched the situation with interest. Even for him, a third party, it was not a very pleasant thing to hear. However, since he himself had said something similar to Hajin before, he had nothing much to say.

“Hmm… are you saying that if I had chosen the Jack of Diamonds instead of the 5 of Spades, my magic would have failed?”

Hajin, who nodded his head nonchalantly, flipped the 5 of Spades that was rolling around and placed it on top of the deck as if to show it off. Supporting the bottom of the deck with his thumb and holding the opposite bottom with his other fingers, Hajin swayed his wrist left and right lazily. It was a smooth rhythm, like a bartender shaking a shaker.

The people stared at the back of Hajin’s firm hand as if mesmerized. Slowly twice, quickly once. He had only swayed his wrist three times, but the 5 of Spades that was face up on top had surprisingly changed to the Jack of Diamonds. It happened so quickly that people did not even notice when the card had changed.

It was Hajin’s signature technique, the Clip Shift.

Ah. The gasps erupted exactly two seconds later. It was a technique that could only elicit admiration, as if to prove the saying that the hand is faster than the eye. The people just blinked their eyes blankly.

Eden looked at Hajin’s side profile and the deck of cards held by his long fingers and smiled languidly. It was only a short while ago that he had thrown a contemptuous gaze at him, calling him a jokester, but now he found this situation, where he himself was about to be enchanted by his magic, quite interesting.

“Th, this….”

The cult leader, whose face had turned red and was seething with rage, finally pointed his finger.

“If you blaspheme the Great Spirit, you will not escape great disaster! O Great Spirit, who despises those who lie and cherishes those who speak the truth, save these foolish mortals who have been deluded by those devilish hand gestures!”

“Dad, please! I told you to stop!”

“Ugh, mister. It is so tiresome, really! Please stop. Do you really have to ruin a fun performance like that?”

Finally, even the short-haired woman joined in and scolded the cult leader. It was chaos like no other. Hajin, who had smiled bitterly as if there was nothing he could do, was in the middle of spreading the cards in a fan shape on the pad.

Swish! Suddenly, a wet liquid soaked Hajin’s short-sleeved t-shirt and the cards he was wearing.

“…….”

Huk. Someone gasped sharply. Hajin, who was blinking his eyes at the wet sensation, slowly rolled his eyeballs. A red liquid resembling blood was spattered everywhere. Hajin’s mouth fell open in a daze as he barely distinguished the color of the liquid that had soaked the back of his hand and the cards beyond the flickering candlelight.

The unidentified drink was the tomato juice the cult leader had been holding.

“Ah, crazy, this mister, I was letting it slide, but now!”

Miso, who was watching, shot up from her seat. But Byeol, who had jumped up from her seat a step ahead of her, rushed at the cult leader.

“Hey, you bad old man! Apologize! Apologize to my Uncle Hajin!!”

Her small hands mercilessly tore at the cult leader’s bangs as if ripping out weeds.