As Giju Wishes Chapter 7.4

The ritual master glanced at Giju and lit a candle.

“Beginning now.”

His snake-like eyes met those of his colleague standing across from him.

🔖⛩️📿

Looking at his phone as if he might crush it, Choi Geon tore at his hair. This wouldn’t do. Once he found Shin Giju, he was going to lock him up and start with some mental re-education. How could anyone be this pathetic?

He wondered why those crazy people had even dragged away someone with no money. Scenes of Giju getting beaten up for constantly talking back despite being broke kept playing in his head.

Choi Geon wiped his heated face, trying his best to stay calm. Of course, that was incredibly difficult. Shin Giju was the type to stubbornly insist on what was right even while being hit, which would obviously only incite more of a beating.

“God dammit.”

He didn’t even have time to curse. He had to find him a second faster using the few clues he had. Choi Geon, who wasn’t far from where they had fought, started sprinting toward that spot blindly.

“Huff, huff.”

As soon as he arrived, he looked around and around again. He desperately hoped the cultists were still active. Perhaps for someone as unlucky as him, finding what he wanted might be impossible. However, he was second to none when it came to persistence.

Choi Geon didn’t stop for a moment, running through the vicinity over and over. He was out of breath to the point it reached the tip of his throat, but he didn’t even feel the exhaustion because of his worry for Shin Giju. It would be correct to say his eyes had gone a bit wild.

“Gasp, huff, excuse me, have you seen a guy with a pale face, kind of skinny, wearing a white T-shirt and brown cotton pants? He’s a high schooler,”

The passerby, suddenly grabbed, looked at Choi Geon—who was pouring out words without a break—with surprise before bowing their head apologetically with a troubled expression.

“I haven’t seen him.”

“Then do you know any cults that operate around here?”

“I’m sorry… I don’t really know.”

At the word that they didn’t know, Choi Geon turned away without lingering. He then looked for suspicious people who looked like cultists or grabbed others to ask the same question.

“Have you ever seen any cultists around here?”

“I’m not from this neighborhood, so….”

But the reactions were all the same. Sweeping back his sweat-drenched forehead, Choi Geon gritted his teeth and ran in the opposite direction this time. In this situation where every second counted, even the time to be angry was a waste.

“Those cultists still haven’t disappeared.”

“I know, right. I heard they got raided a long time ago.”

“Are they from out of town?”

Just then, right before crossing a traffic light, the conversation of a couple standing next to him accidentally reached his ears. Choi Geon’s legs, which were mid-run, came to a dead stop.

“Huff, what did you say?”

“Pardon?”

The couple backed away a few steps in surprise at the sudden, point-blank question. Choi Geon followed and closed the distance by that same amount of steps.

“I’m sorry, but tell me about those cultists. There are cultists wandering around this neighborhood, right.”

“Uh… yes.”

The man answered first at the mention of cultists.

“Are they the ones talking about ancestral luck or whatever?”

Despite the flustered reaction, Choi Geon asked aggressively, and the couple asked back a beat late.

“Ah, yes. But why….”

“Because a kid who’s a bit slow followed them. Do you know where those bastards’ base is?”

The man and woman looked at each other, not knowing.

“I’m not sure….”

“Ah! I know.”

The woman’s eyes widened as if she remembered something.

“You know Ji-yeon from our major. She got caught and followed them there. It was… where was it, next to that failed bowling alley.”

“Let’s Go Bowling Alley?”

“Yeah, yeah, there.”

The woman clapped her hands vigorously at the man’s words. This much information was enough.

“You’re sure, right.”

The couple nodded uncomfortably at the question that sounded like a threat.

“Thank you.”

After a quick thank you, Choi Geon luckily caught a taxi passing right in front of him.

“To where,”

“Let’s Go Bowling Alley. I’ll pay you double, so please go fast.”

Choi Geon spoke before the driver could even finish. At that, the taxi driver quietly pulled the gear. It was because he looked like he was about to beat someone to death. The taxi, which started running like a bullet, headed quickly toward the bowling alley.

“How long will it take?”

Choi Geon, who was shaking his legs restlessly about a minute after departing, asked.

“Just hang in there for 10 minutes.”

At the mention of 10 minutes, the shaking of his legs grew even faster. Truly, every minute and second was agonizing. Sweat from his forehead trickled down his temples. After their messy parting, Choi Geon had tried to enjoy his time alone with a firm resolve not to look for Giju. He had eaten expensive food and gone shopping ostentatiously, telling himself to let Giju feel his absence for once.

However, that didn’t last long because of a news report that happened to come on the TV. When a case of high school students being exploited as factory slaves nearby appeared while he was shopping, Choi Geon threw his pride to the wind and immediately called Giju as if possessed. And the moment he realized the phone was off despite so much time having passed, he threw away the shopping bags he was holding. He was going crazy that the phone wasn’t turned on even though it was night.

Once the image of Shin Giju becoming a ginseng slave and getting beaten up came to mind, he lost his mind halfway and ran around this unknown neighborhood without stopping. The inside of the taxi became filled with the heat radiating from Choi Geon.

“Mister, there are cultists living here, right.”

“Ah, the Daeseung Truth Sect?”

Being a native of this neighborhood, there was no way the taxi driver wouldn’t know those cultists.

“You know them well?”

“Of course I do. If you live in this neighborhood, you can’t not know. There’s a brick house next to the bowling alley where you’re going, right? That’s their base.”

With this, the final confirmation was complete. It was certain that Shin Giju was there.

“In the old days, it was a mess with the police coming because they made minors go out begging….”

Choi Geon clenched his fists so hard that his fingernails left marks.

“They’re still going around ripping off suckers; if you go in there, you come out naked.”

“Is that so? Then it’s fine for me to beat them up instead of the police.”

“…….”

Silence lingered in the car for a moment.

“I’m on my way there right now anyway. Their eyes for spotting suckers are quite excellent, aren’t they.”

Somehow, it sounded bloodcurdling. The taxi driver swallowed hard.

“Y-yeah….”

“By any chance, do you know if the security there is tight or… anything?”

“From what I know, it’s a small-scale branch, so they decorated it like a regular house on purpose….”

The driver gave all the information he knew within his limits.

“A relief in the midst of misfortune… these sons of bitches….”

The driver decided not to say anything more. After a period of such bloodcurdling silence, the bowling alley finally began to appear ahead.

“Stop in front of that brick house.”

“Yes, understood.”

As the car stopped with polite words, Choi Geon placed the cash he had in his hand on top of the console box and practically launched himself out of the car. The first thing he saw was the closed gate. He kicked the gate—which didn’t even count as an obstacle—with the momentum to shatter anything that got in his way, and entered the yard easily. Choi Geon, who entered the yard quickly, happened to find a shovel leaning against the wall and headed toward the front door while holding it.

Clatter— perhaps the sound of the gate was too loud, someone opened the front door and stepped out.

“Who are you”