An Exorcist Magical Girl! Chapter 78

Recess time.

 

I went straight to Kim Hae-yoon’s fifth-grade classroom. My account was 80% open.

 

Kim Hae-yoon was in such a hurry that she waited for me outside the classroom.

 

“Ms. Baek Iri, Ms. Baek Iri, Ms. Baek Iri, over here!”

 

Her short side hair fluttered like wings as she jumped up and down.

 

“Can I go to the classroom?”

 

“Yes, yes, of course…!”

 

Hae-yoon’s seat was in the back row of the second section.

 

On top of the chair was the head of a brown stuffed rabbit, just like Hae-yoon said.

 

The rabbit’s head had tiny green ribbons in its ears.

 

It was definitely the head of the doll in the photo Yin Charang had shown me.

 

“No, I wasn’t sitting on it, I was standing at the back of the classroom. You know, by the janitor’s box, by the big desk…”

 

I looked as if I didn’t want to touch a doll that someone else had crushed up their ass, and Kim Hae-yoon quickly explained.

 

She must have misunderstood me because I was staring at the chair.

 

“No, no. It doesn’t really matter.”

 

I wasn’t fixated on the doll at all.

 

“Have you ever had a dog?”

 

Kim Hae-yoon was startled by the sudden question.

 

“What? Oh no, my mom is afraid of puppies, she said she almost got bitten once when she was in college…”

 

“Hmm, I see.”

 

Then what is this puppy?

 

I slowly pulled my eyes away from the puppy ghost that looked like a fluffy cloud circling around Hae-yoon’s seat.

 

“So, have you seen or petted a puppy up close lately?”

 

“Uh, no… I’ve seen a lot of stray cats, but no puppies. Oh, and I petted a guinea pig at a friend’s house last week…”

 

“Hmmm, is that so, or do you have any memories of being friendly with your neighbor’s dog when you were very young, or anything like that?”

 

“Well, I don’t think I ever did. My neighbor’s grandmother had a parrot, but we weren’t really close… Oh, anyway, none of my neighbors have ever had a dog, not any of my friends, not any of my relatives.”

 

Then what the hell is this?

 

“Uhm, Senior, is something wrong…?”

 

Kim Hae-yoon started shaking because I kept talking about puppies without telling her why.

 

“Oh, nothing’s wrong, don’t worry. By the way, Hae-yoon.”

 

“Senior, tell me!”

 

“Sorry, can I just throw this?”

 

I ask, pointing at the brown rabbit head and Hae-yoon looks surprised.

 

“Uh, what? What? Uhm… of course, of course. That-that-that, but why…”

 

“I want to check something, so can I throw it?”

 

“Yeah, sure…!”

 

I carefully picked up the rabbit head from the chair.

 

It was covered in dirt and tangled, but its fur was softer than it looked.

 

It stopped spinning around, looked at me, and barked.

 

“Arf! arf! arf!”

 

After making sure no one was walking by, I threw the doll as hard as I could down the hall and out the back door.

 

The rabbit’s head flew in a parabolic arc.

 

Its brown ears flopped like the wings of a sparrow.

 

And a puppy ran out of the classroom after it.

 

***

 

Thump, thump—

 

As the doll hits the floor, the puppy scoops it up in its mouth and runs like the wind back toward the classroom.

 

“Ah, it’s–.”

 

“Kyaaaaahhhhhhhhh!”

 

Suddenly, Kim Hae-yoon let out a tearful cry.

 

“What’s wrong?!”

 

“Senior! My head, my head, my head, my head…!”

 

Oh no. Kim Hae-yoon hadn’t seen the puppy.

 

No wonder she was surprised.

 

To the untrained eye, it would have just looked like a doll’s head floating away and coming back.

 

“Oh, I’m sorry… I was wrong…”

 

I patted Kim Hae-yoon’s back as she almost fainted.

 

“Don’t be afraid, it’s just a—”

 

“Se-se-se-senior. I don’t really want to know. I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

 

As if I’m about to say something like, “A bloody body with its head missing and torn to pieces appears and runs away with its head,” Kim Hae-yoon silences me.

 

It’s not like that. It’s just a cute puppy.

 

“It’s not really scary.”

 

“Oh no. But I think it’s better if I don’t know. I don’t want to know…Gahhhhhhhhhh!”

 

Kim Hae-yoon, who had refused to hear how the floating doll head worked, was surprised once again.

 

The dog had placed the doll’s head on the chair, chin up.

 

“Calm down, Hae-yoon.”

 

She looked like she was going to collapse, so I held on to her right arm.

 

I felt sorry for Hae-yoon, but this convinced me.

 

The reason the doll kept coming back no matter how many times she threw it away was because the puppy spirit kept asking for it.

 

If it wasn’t a puppy related to Kim Hae-yoon, it was probably a puppy related to the doll’s owner.

 

The ghost of the child that Yin Charang is trying to free.

 

When I texted Yin Charang to ask if the child had a puppy when she was alive, I got this reply.

 

─Hehe!!! That’s right!!! How did you know? !!!?!! Are you some kind of psychic or something???

 

…I’ll have to explain later because it’s annoying.

 

We know why this puppy is obsessed with dolls.

 

Now the only question is, why would she put it in Kim Hae-yoon’s place?

 

No one she knows has ever owned a puppy, so I guess she didn’t even know the dead kid who owned it.

 

So, is there something in that seat?

 

“How long have you been sitting here?”

 

“Oh, I’ve been sitting here since I started school. My teacher said they only change seats once a semester…”

 

“Hmmm, so have you touched or changed anything recently?”

 

“In this seat?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Uh, um… Huh? Oh, right.”

 

Hae-yoon’s eyes narrowed as she realized something.

 

“What is it, tell me.”

 

“Well, I, uh, brought an amulet… last Tuesday.”

 

“What?”

 

“Oh, I put it under my desk, but I forgot about it…”

 

I crouched down and saw a small yellow piece of paper, about the size of my palm, stuck under the desk.

 

After the events of last Friday’s palm time, I’ve had a few kids bring in talismans like this.

 

“I guess she was the one in trouble?”

 

“Yeah, but my mom said it was a protective talisman. It’s been on our front door for 20 years and we’ve never moved, we’ve always lived in the same house.”

 

“And nothing has ever happened to you at home?”

 

“Yes, I’ve never been haunted in my house, I’ve never seen a ghost, I’ve never had anything really scary happen in my house!”

 

Hmm, so what was really wrong?

 

I didn’t see anything suspicious except for the amulet.

 

“Hae-yoon, I’m so sorry, but do you mind if I throw the doll again? Oh, and do you mind if I move the amulet around a bit?”

 

I wanted to make sure that it was really the amulet that was the problem.

 

“Sure, sure, I’ll take the amulet off right now.”

 

Hae-yoon took the amulet from under the desk and handed it to me, and I stuck it on the inside of the cleaning toolbox by the back door. 

 

Kim Hae-yoon, who was watching, shouted at me.

 

“Se-senior, if you could just give me a countdown before you throw it… I’d like to prepare myself.”

 

Actually, I didn’t throw it without warning.

 

Well, I decided to let the little thing slide.

 

“Okay, on the count of three. Three, two, one!”

 

Kim Hae-yoon closed her eyes tightly and I threw the doll towards the front door.

 

“Arf! Arf Arf!”

 

The puppy ran to the front door and put the doll in his mouth, but this time he landed in front of the cleaning supplies box instead of Kim Hae-yoon’s seat, put the doll down, and sniffed around.

 

Ah, the amulet was the problem.

 

I’m well aware that amulets are a problem… Honestly, I’m not an expert on amulets, so I can’t figure out what’s wrong.

 

Instead, I know someone who is.

 

“Hey, while you’re at it, do you mind if I take the amulet as well? I’ll just check it out and give it back to you.”

 

“Oh yeah! Take it! Oh, and if there’s anything wrong with it, can you just rip it off and throw it away…”

 

“Uh, sure, I’ll do that. And don’t worry, I’ll make sure the doll never shows up in front of you again.”

 

“Thank you!”

 

I went back to our classroom with the doll’s head and amulet in my hand.

 

***

 

Now that I had the doll’s head in my hand, the puppy ghost naturally followed me.

 

“I’m returning it to its owner, so be patient and don’t try to bite it.”

 

When I sat down and checked my phone, I found a new gif from Lee Soo-yeon asking for Seo Jun’s phone number.

 

I quickly sent Seo Jun’s profile and just in time, Seo Jun returned to her seat.

 

Without measuring, I showed her the amulet.

 

“What is this?”

 

“Help me. I’ll buy you a new hot dog from the cafeteria.”

 

“For lunch?”

 

“For lunch or dinner or whenever you want to eat.”

 

“Okay.”

 

Seo Jun takes the amulet and scans it with her eyes.

 

“It’s crystalline, at least 15 years old, maybe 20.”

 

I know it right away. She’s an amulet expert.

 

“Is it broken or damaged or something?”

 

“The amulet itself is fine. Why?”

 

“This puppy keeps chasing the amulet and I don’t know what’s wrong with it.”

 

Seo Jun looks at the puppy at my feet and repeats that there is nothing wrong with the amulet itself.

 

Then she asks me a question.

 

“Did she ever tell you where she usually puts it?”

 

“Oh, yes. She just brought it to school, and before that it was on the front door of her house. For 20 years.”

 

“I see.”

 

“Why does the location of the amulet have something to do with it?”

 

I asked and Seo Jun nodded.

 

“The amulet absorbs the energy of the place it’s attached to. The longer it is attached to a place, the more it takes on the aura of that place.”

 

“Oh… So since this amulet has been on the front door for 20 years…?”

 

“It must have taken on the aura of the front door of that freshman’s house.”

 

Seo Jun picked up on my comment.

 

I was lost in thought.

 

Why would a ghost want to stay at the front door?

 

Oh, it’s a dog ghost, so maybe it’s reliving memories of waiting on the porch for its owner to return to life?

 

If that was the case, it was even stranger.

 

The energy of the amulet’s front door is the energy of a stranger’s front door to the puppy.

 

The puppy didn’t even know Kim Hae-yoon.

 

So what’s the point of snooping around if it’s not even her own front door?

 

It’s almost an obsession.

 

I see it now.

 

I put the amulet on my desk and she puts her front paws on it and won’t budge. 

 

I think it was an enchantment.

 

My thoughts were endless.

 

Did this dog really care whose front door it was?

 

Was it just attracted to the property of the “front door” itself?

 

The attribute of the front door…

 

Hmm, does it open and close? Can it be locked?

 

I can’t think of anything.

 

My head was spinning with all kinds of problems.

 

And it was Seo Jun who was responsible for more than eight percent of the questions in my head.

 

On the day of CPR practice, when Yang Ji-won and Kwon Yuri were involved in the school’s first place ghost story and became disembodied.

 

And when Lee Soo-yeon disembodied.

 

Seo Jun stopped them from going to the hospital.

 

She said that they shouldn’t take their disembodied bodies too far away.

 

At the time, I dismissed it as just that, but looking back, it was strange.

 

Yeo Seon-yeo and Hwang Hanju, who had the same out-of-body experience, were fine after being taken to the hospital.

 

I won’t get any answers by thinking about it alone.

 

At times like this, it’s best to face the problem head on.

 

“Hey, Seo Jun. Let me ask you something.”

 

Seo Jun turns his head to look at me.

 

Her eyes are the same as always. Dry and emotionless.

 

“Is it true that it’s dangerous to move a body with its soul far away?”

 

“Ah, that.” Seo Jun answered, her voice still calm.

 

“That is half a lie. Usually it’s not dangerous at all.”

 

“Usually?”

 

“Uh, yes. The “danger” I’m talking about is a logic that only applies to this school.”

 

“What does that mean?”

 

At that moment, the bell rang, signaling the start of class, and the next teacher entered.

 

“You can see for yourself after class.”

 

Tapping the amulet on her desk, Seo Jun whispered.