As Giju Wishes Chapter 2.2

“…If you pick something like a little mouse, you should’ve said so.”

“Let’s eat before we go.”

The two left the store side-by-side and sat on the wooden bench out front. An umbrella above them blocked the sunlight. Unlike their usually rushed meetings, this was a rather leisurely afternoon break.

“Hey. Gimme your trash.”

Choi Geon naturally took the ice cream wrapper and threw it into the trash can beside them. Then he took a large bite of his ice cream.

Slurrrp-

At the sound of something being sucked on intently, Choi Geon stared at Giju. Giju was diligently sucking on his ice cream. Until the chocolate coating inside was revealed.

“Why the hell are you eating it like that?”

“This is how you’re supposed to eat it.”

Choi Geon, who had never once in his life sucked on an ice cream, looked at Giju with a mixture of curiosity and weirdness. He wasn’t just sucking on it moderately; he was doing it with great gusto and delicacy. Like a little kid.

“It feels good when only the chocolate is left. It’s like you’re peeling back the layers of life according to its natural order. You should try eating it like this too.”

Choi Geon stared blankly at Giju, who was spouting utter nonsense. He swore that if he ate like that, goosebumps would erupt all over his body and he’d turn into a chicken.

“You go ahead and eat a lot of it.”

Choi Geon shook his head and chomped on his ice cream like a real man.

“Oh, you don’t have a candy.”

Just then, Giju, who had neatly left only the chocolate, exclaimed with wonder as he looked at Choi Geon’s almost-finished ice cream. At that, Choi Geon looked down at his own ice cream.

Just as he said, the candy was nowhere to be seen. Although there was only one bite left, Choi Geon, just in case, popped the rest into his mouth. As expected, the candy did not exist.

“…Isn’t it supposed to be missing?”

At those words, Giju took a large bite of the top part of his own ice cream. Then a sparkling candy was revealed. It was a defective one, a huge candy that looked like two had been fused together.

“Oh, I have one!”

Choi Geon silently stared at Giju’s candy, then looked back at his own lonely-looking empty stick.

“Student, share this.”

Just then, the grandfatherly owner from behind handed something to Giju. It was none other than a slushie in a paper cup.

“You said it was broken earlier….”

“I plugged it in and it started working again. Heheh.”

“Wow, thank you. By the way, sir, do these sometimes come without candy? I have one, but my friend here doesn’t.”

As Giju pointed to Choi Geon’s empty stick and spoke, Mr. Kim, the convenience store owner, looked at it with curiosity.

“If it’s missing, it’s a defect, but this is the first I’ve seen in 10 years. Looks like you’re having an unlucky day, student, kkeol kkeol kkeol.”

“My friend here is unlucky, but I didn’t know he’d be this unlucky even with something like this. How fascinating, wahaha. He’s in the middle of overcoming it, though. I’m helping him, you see.”

Choi Geon looked at Mr. Kim and Giju with a sour look on his face.

“You’ll have to help him a lot, really. Kkeol kkeol kkeol. We can just call it even for the slushie since there was no candy, right, student?”

“Ah, of course. Thank you for the treat~”

After telling them to enjoy their food, Mr. Kim went back inside the store, and Giju sucked the cool-looking slushie through a straw.

“Go on, make me look like a total asshole.”

“Whyy, you’re getting a lot luckier, aren’t you? You’re not getting doused with water anymore.”

Choi Geon, now looking at Giju, who was overflowing with luck unlike himself, with eyes full of betrayal. The ghost must have been faking it earlier to mess with him.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake.”

His mood soured again, Choi Geon threw his ice cream stick hard into the trash can.

“Have some of this, Geon-ah.”

Giju offered the slushie he was drinking to Choi Geon. Choi Geon, looking down at the slushie, snatched the cup as if to steal it and downed it all. Then, he shamelessly held the paper cup back out to Giju as if telling him to drink it. Only about a mouthful was left inside the cup.

“You could have left a little for me….”

Though Giju smacked his lips as if disappointed, he wasn’t angry at Choi Geon for finishing the slushie. It was because he had the huge, marble-like candy.

Giju lost interest in the slushie and happily sucked on his candy. Seeing this, Choi Geon, as if unwilling to admit his own bad luck, went back into the supermarket and bought another one of the same ice cream.

“Did you go to buy an ice cream? Chomp, you must be really sensitive to the heat, chomp.”

Giju said, sucking on his candy. The way he spoke with wide eyes looked very infuriating. Choi Geon tore off the wrapper and immediately bit off half of it.

“At least there’s a candy this time. If there wasn’t, I was going to buy you a candy.”

Indeed, there was a candy inside. Choi Geon felt his mood lift and grinned. Then, unable to tolerate himself getting excited over something so trivial, he immediately wiped the smile off his face.

“If it was a defect this time too, I would’ve had to just go die.”

If it was defective twice in a row, it would be a statistical probability that he was just an unlucky person, so it would be better to just neatly kill himself.

Chirp chirp-

A cicada cried from the large tree next to the bench. At the same time, a truck loaded with garlic rattled past the front of the supermarket. It was hot, but eating something cold under the shade made the heat much more bearable. The two sucked on their candies and leisurely gazed at the blue sky and the low-slung blue roofs.

“How have you been?”

Giju asked, breaking the silence.

“No water-dousing. But I have a weirdly bad feeling.”

Crunch-

The candy shattered between Choi Geon’s teeth.

“Are you carrying the amulet properly?”

“Ah. The amulet.”

Only then did Choi Geon realize he had left the amulet behind.

“I left it. I usually carry it around.”

Giju didn’t scold Choi Geon for not bringing the amulet. It was just a temporary measure anyway. The amulet’s power wasn’t meant to last forever. It was merely a precaution.

Giju turned his head and stared at Choi Geon. Under that gaze, Choi Geon felt a little pang of guilt.

“No, I usually carry it every day. It’s just today. Really.”

Watching Choi Geon scratch his head vigorously, Giju wondered why his soul was like that. Why did it look so precarious? When he was so full of life.

If it was curiosity at first, now he wanted to fix it. This was the first person he had ever laid his hands on in his life. Because of that, Giju felt a sense of responsibility in his own way. So he wanted to resolve it completely, until the very end.

“Geon-ah.”

Choi Geon met Giju’s eyes.

“Look at me.”

Giju, who was staring intently, unknowingly immersed himself in Choi Geon’s soul. To be precise, in the gap where the soul wasn’t perfectly attached to the body. Giju, whose spiritual eyes had been open since birth, could see it.

The thing that looked black was something he had never seen before in his life, a gap that didn’t exist in other people. Without knowing what it was, Giju recklessly looked inside.

He saw black darkness. He delved into the darkness and looked deeper inside. Blood began to flow from Giju’s nose. Even so, Giju did not stop.

“Shin Giju…?”

Giju didn’t answer Choi Geon’s call and remained immersed.

“Hey! Shin Giju!!”

A shape came into view. Giju had no idea what it was.

“Who are you?”

Giju’s eyes were looking at Choi Geon, but they weren’t seeing Choi Geon. Choi Geon knew that too. His eyes were as if they were looking at someone else.

“Who do you think? It’s Choi Geon.”

Despite that, Choi Geon answered firmly. He was Choi Geon.

“Were you Choi Geon from the moment you were born?”

“What?”

Giju’s eyes, focused intensely on Choi Geon, gradually became strange. The black of his eyes began to roll back. Sensing the gravity of the situation, Choi Geon began to shake Giju.

“Hey, hey!! Snap out of it!”

Choi Geon lightly slapped Giju’s cheek. He didn’t want to see that demon-like grandmother again. Nor did he want to see a nosebleed.

“Shin Giju!!”

“Uh, uh….”

Giju answered dazedly, and his eyes returned to normal.

“Who am I?”

Choi Geon, just in case, went for the kill confirmation.

“The unlucky Choi Geon….”

“Fuck. It really is Shin Giju.”

Giju tasted the blood that dripped into his mouth, smacking his lips.

“Why the hell are you eating that?”

“It went into my mouth.”

He instinctively knew his body had been strained. Hating the sight of it, Choi Geon spoke more harshly to the bleeding Giju.

“It’s gross, so don’t eat it.”

“It’s not gross.”

“I said don’t eat it.”

Giju, whose feelings were hurt by being called gross, dabbed his nosebleed with his finger and smeared it on Choi Geon’s lips. Then he giggled.

Hehe.

A vein popped on Choi Geon’s forehead. He really wanted to hit Shin Giju. He had felt it before, but the guy was truly asking for a beating.

“I’ve even tasted chicken blood, and it was a bit savory. But mine is just salty. Really.”

Choi Geon looked at Shin Giju with the dead eyes of a rotten fish.

“You want me to turn your whole body into a salt block?”

Choi Geon spat out curses as he roughly wiped Giju’s nosebleed with the back of his hand. Then he wiped it carelessly on his uniform shirt.

“Geon-ah.”

“What.”

“There’s a seonangdang nearby, let’s go there.”

Choi Geon instinctively knew something was wrong.

“What did you see?”