As Giju Wishes Chapter 1.4

This time, he didn’t pay attention to the foxtail grass and entered the alley with a rather proactive stride. And as soon as he entered the alley, he found the boy. The boy approached at a frightening speed.

“Hi.”

Giju greeted him casually. Choi Geon, who was about to tell him to fuck off, managed to hold back the curse and just furrowed his brows fiercely.

“So, what did you find out.”

As he got straight to the point, Giju held up a hand, saying, “Just a moment.” Then he took out a small notebook and a stubby pencil from his pocket.

“By any chance, is your sleeping environment hostile, or do you see ghosts?”

“No.”

At Choi Geon’s answer, Giju started writing something down. Peeking over, he saw it was an X mark for the question.

“Is there a shaman in your family?”

“No.”

Choi Geon answered, staring down at the questions written in the notebook. Do you have a talisman? Have you ever followed a stranger? Have you ever been to an abandoned house? The wrinkles on his furrowed brow deepened at the bullshit questions that sounded like a children’s quiz. For a moment, he seriously considered just leaving again.

“The answer to all of them is no, so cut the crap with these useless questions and bring something else.”

Choi Geon needed something convincing. He needed a plausible reason for this bad luck. He couldn’t bring himself to believe the mentally unstable guy in front of him who kept spouting nonsense. Going back and forth between a scam and a real ghost all day was incredibly stressful.

“These kinds of questions are standard procedure. Don’t think of it as too strange.”

“What you found out can’t be just that, can it? Let’s get to the real… wait, what exactly did you find out?”

Choi Geon looked at Giju with suspicious eyes.

“How to get rid of the aekgwi.”

Apart from being unreliable, it was a satisfying answer to what he had been hoping for. Choi Geon didn’t waste any time.

“Do it now.”

“Right now?”

“Yeah.”

“But you might be surprised….”

“I’ve been mentally preparing for a week, so just do it.”

“Hmm… okay.”

At Choi Geon’s threat, Giju, as if having made up his mind, slung the backpack he was wearing to his front.

“I’m not a shaman, but I did my best to find this out.”

“So just hurry up and do it.”

“Are you ready?”

What is it that requires preparation? Choi Geon, with a look that couldn’t hide his apprehension, obediently nodded his head.

“Don’t be surprised.”

“What, you got a human head in there?”

“Not that, but I’m worried it’ll hurt you.”

At the word “hurt,” Choi Geon felt a bit of tension for the first time. As Giju opened his bag and put his hand inside, he unknowingly swallowed hard. How amazing could it be? He still thought it was a cult’s conspiracy, but that one percent of apprehension made him believe Giju. If that aekgwi or whatever was really attached to him, he wanted it gone as fast as possible.

“I’m prepared, so don’t hesitate.”

“Okay. I’ll start.”

Giju slowly took his hand out of the bag. And he threw what was in his hand at Choi Geon.

Swish–

Coarse salt was thrown at Choi Geon.

Swish, swish.

Giju kept putting his hand in and out of the bag, throwing coarse salt.

“Ah.”

For a moment, all thought disappeared from Choi Geon’s mind, and he soullessly complained about the stinging. He couldn’t understand what the hell he was doing, so no words came out. Choi Geon suppressed his rising anger and spat out the salt that had entered his mouth.

“It’s not over yet. Wait.”

Seeing that it wasn’t having much effect on the aekgwi, Giju took something else out of his bag. This time, it was red beans.

“Out, out.”

Then, recalling how his grandmother used to do it, he shouted boldly. At that sight, Choi Geon just closed his eyes. Am I not the idiot for believing in some ghost nonsense and coming all the way here? He let out a hysterical laugh at the absurd situation.

“Wow, a ghost would be so scared it’d piss itself and run away.”

Regardless of what Choi Geon said, Giju, who was concentrating and checking on the aekgwi, this time took out a branch from his bag. This was a peach branch that had grown towards the east. After much deliberation, he had mustered up the courage to secretly take it from the shrine. Giju flipped through the notebook he was holding and began to read what he had diligently written last night.

“Um… Cheongsawonsajingun Yukjeongyukgap Je, Jedaesinjang Obangyeongsin-saja Dongbangcheong… jesaja, Hot!”

Stuttering as he recited the exorcism scripture, confused by the Chinese characters since it had been a while, Giju hit Choi Geon with the peach branch he was holding.

“Why’d you hit me, fucker.”

Choi Geon, the precious only son who had never once been hit even by his parents, started to lose it as he was suddenly hit here and there. He was already pissed off, and this just added fuel to the fire. He grabbed Giju, who was diligently reading the exorcism text, by the collar and lifted him up. But Giju stubbornly did not stop hitting Choi Geon with the peach branch.

“Just bear with it a little, it can’t be helped. Uh, Nambangjeokjesaja Seobangbaek, jesaja Bukbangheukjesaja… Jung, Junganghwangjesajadeung-eun gaksolgwi-byeonghaya….”

Smack, smack–

As Giju hit him annoyingly like a magpie, Choi Geon, still holding his collar, shook Giju’s body back and forth.

“Hey, you crazy-aren’t you gonna stop?!”

At that moment, the laughter of his friends hiding behind the wall began to be heard. Unlike the enraged Choi Geon, their breathless, wheezing laughter seemed uncontrollable.

“Oh, stay still. This is called the beating method, it’s how you chase away ghosts. Hwanghonbulgwi namyeogwi bimyeonghoengsa namyeogwi yoyakyudok namyeogwi cheo, cheonhaji… ah!”

Choi Geon, seeing that Giju had no intention of stopping, threw him to the ground while still holding his collar. At that, Giju fell, landing on his butt. The notebook and the peach branch he had been brandishing also tumbled to the ground.

“Why are you angry? I’m trying to help you….”

Giju, with an aggrieved look on his face, shot up like a roly-poly toy.

“You call that talking right now…?!”

“Do you know how hard it was for me to get this? If I get caught, I’ll get in trouble too.”

Giju was a little frustrated with Choi Geon, who couldn’t even appreciate his free kindness.

“This is the first time I’m helping someone else. It’s because I’ve never seen someone with such bad luck, so I wanted to help. You’re cursed with bad luck. Gaejaesu. You really have worse luck than a stray dog. Ah, but gaejaesu means someone with terrible luck, ah, where are you going!”

Giju grabbed the arm of Choi Geon, who was turning to leave. His eyes were calm, on the verge of beating him up from being so pissed off.

“Get lost if you don’t want to get your ass kicked.”

Choi Geon was desperately holding back his violence. The ghost was that bastard right there. It was obvious. How could he not be an unlucky aekgwi when he was messing with him like this?

“But what can I do, it’s the truth! You’re really cursed with bad luck-”

“Won’t you get lost?!”

Choi Geon roughly shook off his arm as if shaking off something unlucky and quickly walked away.

But Giju was worried that the nameless boy would get into big trouble. Because it was truly the first time he had seen someone so cursed with bad luck. It was the first time something had caught his eye to this extent, and he wanted to protect that strong soul. Perhaps because of that strange pull, he developed an unusual persistence that was unlike him.

Giju did not give up and tore a page from his fallen notebook to quickly write down an address. Then he ran to Choi Geon.

“Go here! You have to!”

Thinking he might throw the note away, Giju forcefully shoved the piece of paper into Choi Geon’s pocket. And before he could hear a torrent of curses, he turned and ran away. Because it really felt like he was about to get hit.

🔖⛩️📿

Choi Geon, his eyes sunken and cold, glared murderously at the class president at the sound of dripping water. The class president, who had only spilled a little of the water he was drinking, quietly wiped the water that had trickled down his chin with the back of his hand and turned his head away.

Lately, Choi Geon was extremely sensitive. Especially to water. If someone offered him water to drink, he would say strange things like, “Did that bastard tell you to do this?” The whole class was walking on eggshells around Choi Geon.

“Hey. It must be a coincidence.”

“But it’s too much for a coincidence. How many times has he been hit by a water bomb?”

“No, but still, a ghost? Does that even make sense….”

The group each commented on Choi Geon’s situation, whose sensitivity had reached a peak to the point where it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a nervous breakdown. Indeed, even to them, Choi Geon had been strangely unlucky recently. How could he get hit by a water bomb every single day like that?

For it to be a cult’s scheme, the plans were woven as intricately as a spider’s web. Spilling water at the perfect time took extraordinary effort. Because of the hard-to-explain phenomena, it really did seem like the work of a ghost.

“Just go. You’re going to get a mental illness at this rate.”

Lim Hyojun unfolded the note that had been lying around on Choi Geon’s desk for days.

[OO-eup 56-1 Yongbong Mountain, Shaman Cheon]

Choi Geon, who was bouncing his leg, looked at the note like an annoying wart. It was a poisoned chalice.

“They say this is a famous shaman’s house.”

“Yeah, just go, what have you got to lose?”

Choi Geon looked down at the note and sneered.

“It’s all that bastard’s scheme. Am I crazy enough to fall for this? Fuck, I’d rather just get hit by water bombs. It’s not like I’ll be getting hit forever.”

Choi Geon, narrowing his eyes, glared at the note as if it were his enemy.

“That place is definitely that bastard’s headquarters.”

He still hadn’t gotten over the anger of being hit with that branch the other day. Being hit with such bizarre things was nothing short of a humiliation. Choi Geon slammed his fist on the desk hard enough to break it.

“He could really be trying to help, you know. I don’t think you can judge properly because you’re so sensitive right now.”

Lim Hyojun glanced at his completely crazed eyes and shook his head.

“Yeah, you haven’t thrown it away because you’re bothered by it too.”

Jo Jaehyun stared pitifully at the piece of paper that had been rolling around on the desk for days. Its corners were frayed from being touched so much.