As Giju Wishes Chapter 6.4

Park Yeonhwa, who was about to ask something, gave her permission more easily than expected. At the permission that skipped over many questions, Giju felt both relieved and, for some unknown reason, a sinking feeling.

“I won’t miss the ancestral rites and will definitely perform them. …Thank you, Aunt.”

Park Yeonhwa, who had finished lighting the candles on the altar, placed the bowl of fresh water on the altar to begin her prayers. But for some reason, Giju stood rooted to the spot.

“Do you have any more questions for me…?”

“I don’t, so don’t worry about it and go.”

𝙳𝚘𝚗’𝚝 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚒𝚝.

The content of the text message stuck in his mind like a thorn. At Park Yeonhwa’s gesture to leave, Giju finally went to his room as if released from a paralysis.

After that, everything regarding the extracurricular field trip was resolved swiftly. Like Choi Geon’s avatar, Giju meticulously prepared the required documents and submitted them to the school. Anything he didn’t know, Choi Geon would tell him over the phone every night, so there were no problems. Because of this, they were able to get out of school earlier than expected.

“They say Baegyangsa Temple has been around since the Goryeo Dynasty. There’s a lot of fucking…”

Choi Geon, who was graciously reciting information about Baegyangsa Temple from his phone, furrowed his brow when he saw Giju’s dazed expression. Lately, he often had a spaced-out look, and it subtly turned his stomach every time he saw it.

“Has your discipline gone slack? Are you not going to get a grip?”

“Huh? Ah… sorry.”

Giju came to his senses at the hand pulling his hair.

“Is something wrong? If there is, tell me.”

“I’m just a little nervous.”

At Choi Geon’s question, Giju spoke in a subdued tone.

“You were singing a song about how much you wanted to see your grandmother, but now you don’t want to see her?”

“It’s not that… I don’t really know either, Geon.”

As he said, Giju’s expression was puzzled, and he didn’t feel the same proactive enthusiasm as before.

“Do you feel burdened about meeting her?”

At the direct question, Giju was lost in thought. To feel burdened meant it was awkward to meet her, but he still wanted to see his grandmother. The problem, however, was his own mindset, which was different from before. With his mind in turmoil, he felt it would be difficult to meet the eyes of his grandmother, who saw through everything.

“I want to see her, but I feel like my inner thoughts will be exposed. My grandmother… she knows everything.”

“What are your inner thoughts like?”

Feeling embarrassed, Giju hesitated for a moment. It was because he felt that his own capacity, which he might be mistaken about, was extremely small. A heart that wavered at even small things reminded him that he was still an immature person and made him feel sad.

“I think too much, like a criminal. So sometimes I feel sad, and I’m a little scared that my grandmother will notice.”

A heart like a floating plant on the waves could not be hidden, even if he tried, like now. He felt that it was disrespectful of him to meet his grandmother with such a heart.

“Hey, you have an adult next to you, so what’s the problem?”

Choi Geon, though not perfectly, could understand Giju’s feelings to some extent. It was obvious without even looking that that damn folding screen had affected him, even if he pretended to be okay. The desire to make him realize the truth and the regret of having said anything in the first place felt contradictory.

“I told you not to think so complicatedly.”

“It’s still a little difficult.”

“There’s nothing difficult about it. It’s fucking easy.”

The thing to soothe that complicated mind was, as expected, a short and intense dopamine rush that would make him forget it. Since they had come all this way, it wasn’t a bad idea to have some fun before going to Baegyangsa Temple.

“I’ve got the answer. We’ll just hang around and play for a bit before we go.”

“Huh? Play? We’re about to get off…”

An announcement that they were about to arrive came on in the train.

“Is this whole place Baegyangsa?”

Choi Geon, who took out his backpack from the overhead compartment, held it out to Giju and gestured with his chin.

“You just shut up and follow me.”

After getting off the train, the first thing Choi Geon did was find a place to stay. The first place that popped up as soon as he searched for accommodations in the area was the most expensive luxury hanok pension. Without a second thought, Choi Geon booked the place in five minutes and got in a taxi.

“Where are we going?”

“To heal the wounds I got from that con artist bastard at Dobongsan.”

Giju’s eyes were already filled with question marks at Choi Geon’s questionable actions. On the other hand, Choi Geon was triumphant, as if he had taken on the momentous role of introducing civilization to Giju, the biggest country bumpkin of them all.

“Have you ever been to a pension?”

“What’s a pension?”

He was a country bumpkin of a serious level. Choi Geon briefly reflected on himself for having mistaken Giju for a normal person.

“I was a moron for asking. My bad, just think of it as a place to stay.”

“Is it similar to the room we stayed in at that jajangmyeon place?”

At the comparison of a single room to a nearly 5-star accommodation, Choi Geon was at a loss for words and stared at Giju as if he were an alien.

“You could buy one of the paintings hanging there even if you sold that whole jajangmyeon building.”

Startled by the sudden inflation, Giju wore a dazed expression, as if he couldn’t quite grasp it. It was a proposition that Giju, who had lived frugally his whole life except for the cost of rituals and had only seen simple things, could not understand.

“Is the Jade Emperor enshrined in the painting or something…?”

“Not that, there are probably a few waterfalls painted on it.”

Choi Geon, who let out a snort, vaguely described the usual subject of Korean paintings.

“A waterfall where a deity lives…”

While Giju was quietly muttering to himself, the taxi stopped in front of a large hanok.

“Whoa…”

Giju, who had only seen a few old, dilapidated houses that were called hanoks, was seeing a hanok of this scale for the first time. It was hard to close his gaping mouth.

“Hey, hey, don’t act like a country bumpkin and act natural.”

Choi Geon, who grabbed the wrist of Giju who was looking up as if at a palace, went inside and headed for the desk, following the guide who greeted them warmly.

While Choi Geon was checking in, Giju was intently admiring a painting hanging on one wall. There really was a waterfall painting. But he didn’t feel anything. However, he felt something different from the spiritual sense he usually felt. It was an ordinary appreciation for the painting itself and the humanity contained within it.

The feeling changed endlessly with the texture of the brushstrokes. Giju felt extremely strange at this feeling he had never experienced before. It was a feeling similar to when he encountered the prison, and also similar to the simplicity of an adult.

“What are you doing, let’s go.”

“Huh? Oh…”

Giju tore his gaze away, which held a subtle lingering attachment, and followed behind Choi Geon. After leaving the front desk and passing through a well-manicured garden, a magnificent detached building appeared.

“Please call us if you need anything, thank you.”

The staff who gave them the key left, and Giju, who was once again lost in sightseeing, soon forgot that his bag was heavy.

“Put your bag down before you look around.”

Choi Geon, who snatched the bag, took off his shoes first and went inside. Giju, who was immersed in an unfamiliar appreciation and had been looking at the exterior for a long time, went inside belatedly.

“…Everything is amazing.”

The outside was different, but the inside was even more different. Things he had never seen before were strewn about here and there.

“How is it? Your mind has become fucking simple, hasn’t it?”

If it was simplicity due to shock, it was a success. Amazement had triumphed over complexity.

“As expected, you have to splurge for your brain to be at peace,”

“Are we sleeping here and going to Baegyangsa tomorrow?”

But separate from the amazement, Giju had not forgotten his purpose. The expression of Choi Geon, who was sitting on the sofa with his legs spread wide like it was his own living room, crumpled once again. Shin Giju was raining on his parade of a gentleman’s trip with good water and good mountains. Shin Giju needed to forget about that damn grandmother of his, at least for this moment.

“Shin Giju. It’s right around the corner anyway, so what’s the rush, huh? Your grandmother isn’t going to run away.”