As Giju Wishes Chapter 7.3

“Then please just write down your name and address for now.”

Perhaps mistaking his hesitation for wariness, the woman readily moved on.

“I’ll give you my number for now, so make sure to give me yours when you leave~”

“I really don’t have one….”

“Do you happen to have ten thousand won? Cards are fine too.”

Ignoring Giju’s words, the woman asked about the presence of money.

“I have ten thousand won.”

“When performing an ancestral rite, the fruit and rice cakes are all part of the sincerity. You have to set at least a minimum table for the ancestors to feel your sincerity, don’t you think?”

“Is it performed as an ancestral rite? I’m good at those because I did them often at home.”

Giju felt a sense of kinship. He had wondered what this ‘sincerity’ was, and it turned out to be an ancestral rite. If it was a rite, he was confident he could do it well without missing a beat.

“Are you from a head family of a clan?”

“No?”

The woman stared at Giju with a peculiar look and was silent for a moment.

“…You said you have ten thousand won, right?”

“Yes.”

“You can pay that as the rite fee. By any chance, how much can you pay right now?”

“Ten thousand won.”

As far as Giju knew, ancestral rites were originally sometimes done for free. A rite can be performed even with just a bowl of clean water, so he thought ten thousand won wouldn’t be insufficient as a first token of sincerity.

“Do you have exactly ten thousand won right now?”

“Not exactly, but I have to save money. Ten thousand won is fine for a first rite. When performing a rite for ancestral gods, it’s sometimes done just by fetching and setting out pure water. Even that is enough, my grandmother said.”

The woman was silent again.

“…You shouldn’t compare this to a normal household. Not a single bit of sincerity that goes into the rite is omitted. Otherwise, the ancestral luck won’t be unblocked, student. That’s not how you do it.”

Giju had things to say, but he didn’t bother to refute. It was partly because he didn’t feel the motivation, and partly because he thought there was something he didn’t know. Unable to properly perceive the situation due to a mental shock he was experiencing for the first time, Giju fell into the illusion that the woman’s words were all correct.

“I see… But can’t I just pay ten thousand won today?”

“How much do you have?”

“I have twenty-one thousand won, but I have to buy my friend something delicious….”

Since the bus didn’t go all the way to Manyeonsa Temple, he had spent a lot on taxi fare. On top of that, he’d spent money on the hamburger, so he didn’t have much left. Giju really wanted to buy Choi Geon something delicious. It was because he felt sorry.

“Hmm, well then, let’s just pay ten thousand won today and add more sincerity next time.”

“How many times do I have to do the rite?”

“Oh, you have to keep doing it. If you stop halfway, imagine how resentful the ancestors would feel.”

“Can’t I do it individually at home?”

Whether she disliked Giju talking back since a while ago, the woman’s expression turned a bit cold.

“If everyone did it individually, everyone would have ancestral luck; why would we bother helping? We personally write the ancestral tablets and the paper tablets, and help you from the side. We do the Chamsin (Initial Greeting) and the Dokchuk (Invocation) and everything. You don’t know what those are, student.”

The woman spoke while treating Giju like a child who knew nothing. Or like a person who was lacking. Giju kept his mouth shut this time as well. In truth, Giju, who had grown up watching Chamsin and Dokchuk from the sidelines, knew them much better, but now he just wanted his so-called ancestral luck to be unblocked so that the heavy stone on his heart—his agony, would become lighter.

“Even if your luck opens up, you mustn’t let your guard down. You have to keep offering sincerity. Some people give tens of millions of won. Do you know what that person is doing now? Their business succeeded and they became a rich landowner in Gangnam. There’s more than one or two people like that.”

“Not becoming rich, but… is it possible to have things like relationship improvement or mental cultivation?”

“Yes, yes, it’s all possible. Just do ten thousand won today and you must definitely come back in about a week to offer sincerity again. Got it?”

The woman applied pressure while pretending not to know that Giju’s house was quite far away.

“Uh… I’ll try.”

He wasn’t sure if he could come again because he didn’t know what his future plans would be. If he couldn’t come, he planned to do it at home, so he wasn’t too worried. Since he knew all the procedures of the rite well, Giju thought there wouldn’t be a big problem if he watched today and saw what kind of invocation was recited.

“Ha, it’s not about trying; it’s something you must do.”

“I’ll definitely try. Don’t worry.”

The woman was starting to get annoyed by the uncertain answers.

“Give me the ten thousand won, and come this way.”

The woman, who snatched away the ten thousand won he took out from his lucky pouch, stood up and left the room. Giju, who was tidying his bag, hurriedly followed her. The place the woman headed for was the room right next door.

“Leave your bag, cell phone, and all your belongings here and change into this. You mustn’t bring anything with you when you do the rite.”

“Yes.”

When the woman left without even a reply, Giju, left in the room, placed all his belongings in a basket. Then he changed into the hanbok that was hanging there familiarly. After changing quickly, he happened to check the clock on the wall and saw it was already past 8:00.

Giju crouched down and stared at his bag in the basket. It was obvious it would take a long time if he even performed a rite. Sincerity was sincerity, but he felt he shouldn’t be too late in contacting his friend. Giju decided to call Choi Geon before entering the rite, which he didn’t know how long would take.

He turned on the cell phone for the first time in a very long while. Fortunately, there was plenty of battery. He was about to press the call button for the name saved as ‘My Friend’ when the screen suddenly changed. A call came in before he could make one. From ‘My Friend’.

Giju answered the phone with a face that was happy yet uneasy because it weighed on his mind.

“Hell—”

—Hey!

As soon as he answered the phone, a loud voice came flying.

“Geon-ah.”

—My name comes out? Huh?! Do you know how many times I called? Ha, where are you.

“I went to Manyeonsa Temple and came back.”

Silence flowed across the cell phone for a moment.

“You were right, I’m sorry.”

His pride was still hurt. He was upset too. But it wasn’t something to be so cold about.

—Where are you.

A much-softened voice asked as if coaxing him.

“I came back to the place where we fought, and Geon-ah, I had a fateful encounter there.”

—What…?

An anxious voice asked back at the out-of-the-blue words.

“While I was grieving, someone told me that I have ancestral luck, of all things.”

Giju explained with a bit of excitement, believing that he could overcome all these worries and anxieties.

—Ancestral what?

“Ancestral luck. My ancestral luck is blocked, but they said if I perform a sincere rite, the luck will be unblocked and everything will be okay. This time for sure, I can really help you, Geon-ah.”

—…You didn’t follow them, did you. Don’t tell me you followed them, seriously.

A suppressed voice flowed out in a low tone. Giju, who didn’t notice it, answered brightly.

“I offered sincerity with a hamburger and followed them to the study room, but I have to go perform a rite soon. I called in advance because I thought it might be too late if I contacted you after it’s over-”

Clatter—

“Are you all changed?”

At that moment, the door opened without a knock and the woman asked while scanning Giju from head to toe.

“Ah, yes. I’ll be there soon.”

“You have to come now. Do the cell phone after the rite is over.”

At the woman who spoke with peak sarcasm upon spotting the cell phone, Giju hurriedly said into the phone.

“I have to go perform the rite, Geon-ah. I’ll call you when it’s over!”

—You crazy bastard!!

Unfortunately, Giju cut it off without hearing Choi Geon’s desperate scream.

“I’m coming now.”

The phone vibrated, but Giju followed the woman out of the room.

“But that cell phone from earlier isn’t mine. It’s my friend’s, he lent it to me for a bit.”

Giju said while following behind, thinking she might misunderstand. However, the woman had already internally labeled Giju as a fox-like human.

“Ah, yes. Make sure to leave your number later. Go in here and sit at the very front.”

Stopping in front of a room door in the meantime, the woman spoke bluntly and then left. And Giju opened the door that was slightly ajar and stepped inside.

Inside the large room, there was an altar, and on top of it, a table setting of rice cakes, fruit, and so on was placed. Just as she said, it looked truly sincere. There were about five people inside; except for the ritual master, everyone else was sitting on their knees. Giju, who sat on his knees on an empty cushion with a familiarity that would be strange for a normal person, looked up at the altar.