As Giju Wishes Chapter 3.1

Thud!

Choi Geon, who had slammed his glass down hard, leaned back against the sofa in the living room-like space. The two of them were sitting casually on the floor, already on their second bottle of soju.

“Uh… I have to go home….”

“Looks like you haven’t washed the ghost out of your system yet.”

Choi Geon forced another drink on Giju, who was still rambling on about the ritual food.

“Hey. I guarantee you, nothing will happen even if you don’t eat that crap.”

Out of spite, Choi Geon had taken down all the clocks on the walls and even confiscated and hidden Giju’s wristwatch. As if to tell him to shut up, he cranked up the volume of the music playing from the speakers. Loud rock music flowed out like an exorcism chant.

“Why the hell do you keep eating that shit, it’s so damn disgusting.”

He downed another shot of soju in a surge of irritation. Even Choi Geon, who could hold his liquor well, was starting to feel a bit drunk. For some reason, the drunker he got, the more annoyed he became.

“Why is it disgusting? I like it.”

Giju, grinning, felt his body float and lay down with his back on the floor.

“It’s all because of you, you bastard, what are you asking for.”

Thump, clang-

The soju bottle, kicked by Choi Geon’s foot as he lay down in the same manner, fell over with a noise. But neither of them paid it any mind, as if they were in a different space. Outside, the sun had already set and it was dark, but no one knew or cared what time it was. For this one moment, Choi Geon was glad that Giju didn’t have a phone.

“Phew… I feel like my soul is getting stirred up.”

Giju, exhaling a breath full of the scent of alcohol, stared at the ceiling and muttered slowly. Choi Geon’s room, lit by a single tiny lamp, was a dark violet color.

“Don’t talk such bullshit.”

Choi Geon, who had already had another stray ghost enter his body, found the metaphor of one’s soul getting stirred up quite unpleasant.

“Geon.”

“What.”

“I’ll be sure to hold onto it for you.”

At the incomprehensible words, Choi Geon turned his head to the side. He could see Giju’s profile.

“Your soul.”

Giju, who had been staring at the ceiling, turned his head toward Choi Geon and said.

“I’ll protect it, so don’t worry.”

Choi Geon stared at Giju’s smile as if he were looking at something unfamiliar. Or perhaps something unknown.

“…Just stop eating that damn ritual food.”

Turning his head back to the ceiling, Choi Geon muttered irritably.

“Let’s eat together again next time.”

“No.”

“I want to eat with you.”

“I’m not eating that crap,”

“Eating with you… makes me feel good.”

Giju said, cutting him off. And Choi Geon said nothing.

“Fuck, you feel good over the stupidest things.”

About 10 seconds later, Giju didn’t reply to what he said. Only the sound of regular breathing could be heard. At the sound of that breathing, Choi Geon himself felt his body grow languid.

“Hey.”

“Mmm.”

When he called out a little louder, Giju finally responded.

“Tomorrow, cut class after school and come running.”

“……”

“You ignoring me?”

“Mmm.”

Though it was close to a mumble, Choi Geon, interpreting it as he pleased, closed his eyes with a sense of satisfaction. Then, with the rising drunkenness and the sound of breathing, he unknowingly let his mind go. He fell asleep without even knowing when.

🔖⛩️📿

Jiggle jiggle jiggle-

Choi Geon, who had been restlessly shaking his leg for a while, stared down at the phone on his desk with a profound and ferocious gaze.

‘I’m leaving!!’

‘Hey! Wait for me in the alley after school!’

That one sentence, yelled at Shin Giju as he bolted out the door the moment he woke up in the morning, was their last conversation. That was yesterday. And Shin Giju had dared not to show up. Choi Geon, who had waited in the scorching sun for over an hour, tried his best to suppress his boiling anger and headed home. Was he getting his mind re-educated by that damn granny ghost or something?

Choi Geon planned to go to the alley again today. If he didn’t show up, he was thinking of going straight to the school and tearing it apart without waiting any longer.

“Why’s your face so shitty? Get doused with water again?”

Jo Jaehyun, sitting next to him, asked along with telling him to stop fidgeting his damn leg.

“…Fuck, I think it’s something similar.”

After briefly looking puzzled as to whether it was that disgusting of a situation, Choi Geon quickly came to a conclusion. In any case, it pissed him off that Shin Giju, who was closely related to his luck, would inevitably crawl back to that house and go eat that damn unlucky ritual food no matter what he did. Of course, he didn’t think too deeply about the reason for his displeasure.

“Pool after this?”

“No.”

Choi Geon refused flatly. Checking Shin Giju’s face to see if he was really possessed by the granny ghost came first. Shin Giju had to be okay for him to go meet that money-grubbing Shaman Cheon.

“Ghosts again?”

Choi Geon usually never turned down a good time, but lately, he had been strangely busy. The group, who knew about Giju’s existence and had witnessed his possessed state, no longer laughed at Choi Geon’s words about going to get rid of a ghost. No, they couldn’t. Giju had been truly terrifying that time. After that, they all started carrying crucifixes.

“Yeah. A fucking bastard of a ghost.”

Choi Geon, with dead fish eyes, started shaking his leg again. All the shitty things that had happened to him until now flashed through his mind like a panorama. When you thought about it, the root cause of it all was that damn ghost.

“Hey, let me see that.”

Suddenly, Choi Geon snatched the crucifix hanging on Jo Jaehyun’s desk and started scratching his back with it. His back happened to be itchy, and it was also an act meant to hurt the ghost’s claw hangnails inside him.

“You crazy bastard, you’re gonna get divine punishment from God.”

Jo Jaehyun said, shaking his head at Choi Geon for using the sacred crucifix as a backscratcher.

“I’m performing an exorcism, you punk.”

Choi Geon, scratching his back with the crucifix, then started rubbing it all over his body like an exfoliating towel, as if that wasn’t enough. Not stopping there, he rubbed his stomach and didn’t spare his groin either.

“Hey, you disgusting son of a bitch. You can have it, just take it.”

Jo Jaehyun, with a rotten expression, kicked Choi Geon’s chair forcefully. Choi Geon, completely unbothered, scratched his head vigorously with the crucifix. As he did, he silently vowed what he’d do if he didn’t show up today either. For some reason, he felt a strange urge to exorcise Shin Giju with the crucifix. Even though he was the one who needed the exorcism.

Shoving the crucifix roughly into his desk, Choi Geon looked down at his phone again. Right now, Choi Geon was feeling what one might call frustration.

Ding-dong-deng-dong-

The moment the bell rang, Choi Geon slung his bag over his shoulder, slipped out of school in an instant, and headed not to their meeting spot in the alley, but straight to Giju’s school. He got to Gurim High quickly on his bike. Getting off his bike, Choi Geon, as he always did, grabbed a random person coming out of the school gate and asked bluntly.

“Hey. Is Shin Giju done?”

The male student, suddenly grabbed, shook his head with a bewildered expression.

“There’s a guy here who’s possessed. You don’t know him?”

“Ah. Him… what about him?”

At the words “possessed guy,” the student immediately figured out who he was talking about.

“I’m asking if class is over.”

“The third years’ classes are over. I was one of the last ones to leave…”

“What, the fuck?”

At the news that it was over, Choi Geon’s brow furrowed. Then, as if he had no more business with him, he walked past the student and headed for the school gate. No, he stormed in.

Once inside the school, Choi Geon again grabbed a random person, found out which classroom was Giju’s, and strode towards it.

Screeech-!

He threw the door open, and just as he’d been told, the classroom was empty, the school day truly over.

“Did these bastards come to school to play? What the hell, finishing so early.”

Choi Geon, having made a trip for nothing, cursed the uninvolved students of Gurim High and was about to turn away without a second thought when his eyes met a male student who was just about to enter the classroom.

“Hey.”

“Yes…?”

The student, who naturally assumed he was an adult despite the school uniform, answered back formally.

“You in this class?”

“Uh, yes.”

“Did Shin Giju go home?”

“Shin Giju didn’t come to school today.”

“What? Why!”

The male student took a step back at his aggressive, ready-to-grab-him-by-the-collar demeanor.

“H-how would I know.”

“Does he skip school often?”

“N-no.”

He skipped school the day after he didn’t eat the ritual food. A chilling feeling washed over him.

“Fuck, did the ghost eat him?”