As Giju Wishes Chapter 2.4

Swoooosh- Clack clack-

The gale blew again, and the one remaining door rattled and shook. The bell placed on the wooden altar rang on its own.

“Hey, hey, hey, hey, I think our great spirit is royally pissed right now, but if we bring some honey rice cakes even now,”

“No. It’s too late.”

Giju, who was not a shaman in the first place, had come this far trusting his instincts. Because he didn’t feel any evil energy, because it was the village’s guardian spirit, he thought it would at least grant protection to a village person. But perhaps that was just his own greed. What had the sound of this bell summoned?

“Geon-ah, you should save yourself.”

“What?”

“If you run away, you’ll bring about a greater disaster. You might get cursed like you said.”

Giju pushed Choi Geon behind him as if to protect him. Then he wound the five-colored string around Choi Geon’s body.

Clang clang clang-!

The sound of the bell grew louder and louder.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“This is a trick. You’re going to become a tree for a moment. You have to be quiet, got it?”

Giju intended to take responsibility for Choi Geon until the very end.

“So I stay put and you die instead…?”

“Yes.”

Choi Geon looked at Giju’s resolute expression and then mercilessly tore off the string from his body.

“What are you doing…!”

“Fuck it, I’ll just catch a shark or something.”

Just then, the sound of the bell abruptly stopped.

At the same time, a tremendous gale blew. In that moment, Choi Geon placed the five-colored string on Giju’s neck.

“No!”

And Giju, as if to protect him, pulled Choi Geon’s head into a tight hug.

Swoooosh!

The wind passed through Choi Geon. Choi Geon felt a strange sensation, as if his body was floating. Because of that, he thought he was being cursed and was seriously fucked, but in an instant, his vision blurred and his consciousness faded. For less than a second, he felt a pressure so strong his knees buckled. When he came to his senses, the wind was no longer felt.

“Geon-ah!!”

Shin Giju’s face was in front of him. And he also felt a warm embrace holding him. He smelled a scent similar to damp grass. It was also like the mountain fog. Thinking it was a body scent that was very much like Shin Giju, he closed his eyes.

🔖⛩️📿

“I have a lot of money and I do whatever I want, so why does life suck so much.”

“That’s because you’re possessed by a ghost.”

Shin Giju said with wide, round eyes. For some reason, Choi Geon felt like he knew the source of the suckiness.

“Shit, I think I know.”

“Because you’re unlucky?”

“No, you fucker!! You! You, you bastard!!”

“Why are you blaming me?”

Giju blinked his eyes as if asking what he was talking about.

“Still, I’m glad we at least got a blessing.”

The two, their hair disheveled from being hit by so much wind, were walking down the road.

“Yeah. Though we almost got screwed because of those damn bean rice cakes.”

“The bean rice cakes had nothing to do with it.”

Giju was frustrated with Choi Geon, who had been harping on about the bean rice cakes since a while ago. Beans were so savory.

“Hey. Even Buddha would get so pissed off at bean rice cakes that he’d forget all about mercy and get enraged. If there had been just one more bean in that rice cake, we would’ve been struck by lightning and died. How dare you call that a rice cake… Pfft, damn.”

Choi Geon said, roughly sweeping his hair back. Thinking about how he almost died because of bean rice cakes made his mood turn very sour.

“Okay, I’ll bring honey rice cakes next time.”

Giju, who had been staring at Choi Geon, for some reason, meekly agreed to change the rice cakes. Choi Geon, who had expected Giju to snap back, glanced at the docile Giju, wondering if he was possessed by a ghost.

“Why are you acting out of character?”

“Because I felt sorry for you when you got a nosebleed and collapsed so fragilely.”

At the word “fragilely,” a vein popped on Choi Geon’s forehead.

“Let’s get this straight. It wasn’t fragilely, I collapsed with a thud, okay?”

“You collapsed, so it’s the same thing.”

“Hey! …Fuck, whatever, whatever. What can an unlucky guy like me say?”

“Hey, you’re lucky now. It’s still amazing even when I look at it now. To think it was really a great spirit.”

Giju recalled the situation from earlier, finding it fascinating. He thought he had summoned a stray ghost, not a spirit, but it was really a great spirit. The great spirit had bestowed a blessing on Choi Geon. Giju, with his spiritual eyes, could see it. The sacred energy enveloping his body. It was a form that could be mistaken for a malevolent ghost, but its energy was fundamentally different from such stray ghosts. He instinctively felt that such sacred energy could only be given by a great spirit.

“Are you sure it was a great spirit or whatever?”

Just a while ago he was calling it “our great spirit,” but as soon as they left the seonangdang and got what he wanted, his tone changed. In truth, Choi Geon was still suspicious. He had definitely felt something, but was it a blessing and not a curse? He even had a nosebleed, leaving a very bad taste in his mouth.

“Didn’t you feel anything?”

At Giju’s question, Choi Geon thought for a moment.

“My body felt heavy, like I was cursed.”

“Have you ever been cursed before?”

“I think I’m about to be, because of you.”

At the innocent question, Choi Geon let out a frustrated threat.

“Speaking of which, can’t you give me another amulet? I’ll pay for it this time. How much is it?”

“Why an amulet?”

“To carry around as a spare.”

“Do you need to? You’ve received the great spirit’s blessing, so you don’t need an amulet. And my grandma isn’t home right now.”

Choi Geon stared at Giju.

“What in the world does your grandmother do? From the looks of it, she seems more powerful than that Shaman Cheon. Can’t you send me to your grandma to get fixed? I can go up to about 100 million won.”

“That’s not possible.”

At the rejection without a moment’s hesitation, wrinkles immediately formed on Choi Geon’s brow.

“Why not?”

“I don’t know where my grandma is.”

The shape of the wrinkles changed bizarrely.

“…Who do you live with?”

“My aunt. But, Geon-ah.”

Choi Geon, who couldn’t understand anything surrounding Shin Giju, looked at Giju with the bizarrely shaped wrinkles still on his face.

“I have to go eat now.”

The bizarrely shaped wrinkles became even more bizarre.

“I’m leaving!”

Choi Geon unconsciously grabbed Giju, who was about to suddenly disappear again.

“You…”

Choi Geon trailed off with a still-crumpled expression. There were many things he wanted to say, but he was choosing what to say first.

“Are you possessed by a ghost that dies if you don’t eat your meals on time? Or do you have some kind of compulsion,”

“Grandma told me not to skip meals.”

The crumpled expression changed to one full of anger, as if he was about to hit Giju. Then, at Giju’s face, who was blinking his eyes innocently, he let out a hollow laugh.

“Hey, let me come with you and eat some of that ‘food’.”

“Huh?”

Giju, who hadn’t expected it at all, asked back uncharacteristically.

“I’m starving to death, so let’s go to your house and eat together. We’re close enough to eat a meal together, right? I’ve even met your incredible ancestor.”

Choi Geon, who called the demon-like grandmother an “incredible ancestor,” took another step closer to Giju, who was making a dazed expression.

“We’ve become friends, haven’t we? Right?”

It was half impulse, but Choi Geon took this opportunity to find out the base of operations of this human named Shin Giju, who was more like a cultist than a cultist. Curiosity won over annoyance.

“My house…?”

Giju asked back like a fool. He had never invited anyone to his house in his life, except for when he was little. He had never even had the thought of inviting someone over. So he was flustered, it felt unfamiliar, and his mood was strange.

Giju thought of his aunt who would be at home. She would definitely tell him to send him back. But like Choi Geon said, he wanted to try inviting a friend over and eating together. Since he had never done it before, he felt a strange sense of excitement.

“My aunt will probably object, so we have to sneak in. Is that okay?”

Choi Geon shrugged. That kind of thing wasn’t even a problem.

“You can’t be too loud either. We have to talk quietly.”

“Should I sew my mouth shut before we go?”

Even at Choi Geon’s nonsense, Giju hesitated for a moment, but then, as if he had made up his mind, he started walking, saying let’s go.

“Okay, let’s go.”

And Choi Geon, wondering what kind of amazing place he lived in to be so hesitant, followed Giju with his eyes lit up.

🔖⛩️📿

Choi Geon quietly looked at the house in front of him, which was called a home. The old two-story house, neither big nor small, had a single front gate with all its paint peeled off, and at the entrance, there was a sign indicating it was a shaman’s house. And nameplates full of incomprehensible Chinese characters were plastered all over it. Choi Geon had seen a similar building before. The abandoned house he saw on the way to a school retreat looked similar to this.

“This is the first time I’ve invited a friend over since I grew up.”

Giju, standing in front of the gate, said to Choi Geon with a rather flushed face.

“I’m so fucking honored, man.”

Choi Geon muttered, looking at the ominously fluttering red cloth.

“Wait a minute.”