Come Back

“There, believer.”

“……”

At the sound of the shaman calling Seo Jun-young, the once bustling room froze. Several people who had been seriously considering whether they should leave the mountain now held their breath and focused on her, including Seo Jun-young.

“Can you see the candles lit over there?”

“……”

Seo Jun-young glanced at the candles on the altar behind her. He still had a sullen expression.

“Everyone, from the actors and production staff to even the lowest-level crew members working on this film, all have their own candles on that altar. I received a list of names from Director Kang, and personally wrote each name and lit the candles with my own hands.”

Now that she mentioned it, the candles on the altar were all of different lengths. It was because they had been lit at different times. If such a successful shaman had lit all these candles herself without the help of an assistant, it was indeed a rare sight.

“Director Kang Woo-hyun has never once prayed for the success of a film. He only prays for the production to be completed safely, without anyone getting hurt or harmed.”

“……”

“There’s a huge difference between you and him.”

“What… what do you mean by that?”

Seo Jun-young retorted angrily, but he was overwhelmed by the shaman’s intense presence, only glancing at her from the corner of his eyes.

As if she had been waiting for his response, a smile appeared on the shaman’s face. It was an eerie, unmistakable smile of a medium, one that made anyone who saw it uneasy. She slowly walked toward Seo Jun-young, who had taken half a step back, his face stiff with discomfort.

“If this ceremony is just a primitive superstition where you prepare food, light candles, and pray for your desires, then how is it any different from the selfish prayers you make after donating a small amount of money at church?”

“What… what nonsense… How do you know what I pray for?”

Seo Jun-young appeared startled by the mention of the church. Apparently, not many people knew he attended church, and now he seemed horrified by the shaman’s words, yet he still persisted in his defiance.

“Even after I’ve given you such a hint, you still insult the spirits. Do you want me to tell everyone that your prayers are nothing more than for selfish desires—greed for wealth, envy and jealousy of your colleagues?”

“……”

“Should I expose what you pray for—what rewards you ask for and whose names you mention in your prayers?”

The shaman’s voice and manner of speaking were sharp, like a needle pricking at various places on a person’s body. It was a far cry from the calm and gentle demeanor she had shown earlier when greeting others. Seo Jun-young’s face turned bright red from shame and fear, and he could not utter a word.

She finally stopped in front of him, her presence looming over him as she leaned forward, bringing her face up close.

“Tell me, then. How are your prayers at church or at the temple any different from what we do here?”

The shaman bent forward, her face coming close to Seo Jun-young’s.

“Can you see your god? My spirits, on the other hand, I can see.”

Despite standing lower than him, it was as if her gaze was pinning him down. Seo Jun-young staggered backward, his legs trembling.

“Faith and sincerity for an invisible concept—that is the commonality of all religions!”

With a yell that seemed to shake the heavens and earth, Seo Jun-young scrambled out of the temple. He stumbled down the steps, slipping on the wet and muddy ground from the rain, but still didn’t stop running. He kept glancing over his shoulder, checking if the shaman was chasing him, as he hurried along the narrow path toward the parking lot.

The shaman, who had followed him to the door, stood there for a moment, watching his retreating figure. She then turned and, as she was about to step through the door, glanced at Yoon Hye-an, who had been pushed out with the others, standing near the edge of the group.

The shaman turned back completely as her gaze locked onto Yoon Hye-an with a strange intensity.

“I thought the energy was off, but this is the reason,” she murmured.

Her focus was so intense it felt as if there was no one else in the world but herself and Yoon Hye-an. The crowd instinctively pulled back from the two, and Yoon Hye-an stood frozen, as though bound by invisible chains.

The same powerful energy that would erupt during the peak of a ritual seemed to emanate from her, and Understanding flinched, as though it might leap toward them at any moment.

The shaman, gathering her spiritual energy, calmly spoke to Yoon Hye-an.

“Believer, let’s step aside and talk quietly for a moment.”

“Me… with me?”

“You don’t look well. I must speak with you urgently.”

The voices of the two speaking in the temple were barely audible from where Understanding stood. It seemed like they were talking about her health, but the details remained unclear.

“We must first calm the energy before the ceremony. Please wait here for a moment,” the shaman informed the general producer before trying to lead Yoon Hye-an out of the temple.

Though clearly frightened, Yoon Hye-an hesitated to follow, and Understanding could no longer remain a mere observer.

He forcefully pushed through the crowd that had gathered like it was a spectacle, caught up to them outside the door, and grabbed Yoon Hye-an’s shoulder, stopping her from going any further.

“Where are you trying to take her?”

“……”

The shaman’s gaze turned toward Understanding, piercing him like nails driven into his forehead, shoulders, and chest, locking him in place.

The shaman carefully looked back and forth between Lee Hae-seong and Yoon Hye-an, then nodded.

“It seems you’re not unrelated to this, so if you’re that worried, you may come along.”

Passing beneath the eaves and rounding the corner of the building, they came to a small room where one had to bend slightly to enter.

The cozy room was neatly arranged with various ritual implements—bells, fans, drums, gongs, a sword, sacred knives, staffs, and flags. There was also a small space for resting.

Despite the ceiling lights, the shaman didn’t turn any on. The room was even darker than the front hall. She lit a candle first from the altar and then spoke.

“You must already know why I wanted to speak with you, believer…”

The two candles were insufficient to illuminate the dim room, resembling the darkness of dusk. After lighting the candles, the shaman took a bell from a shelf where the ritual items were kept.

The sound of the bell, shaken gently, created an unsettling and eerie atmosphere. As she rang the bell, she studied Yoon Hye-an’s face carefully. The shaman’s head tilted slightly.

“Is it a ghost or a corpse?”

Lee Hae-seong, standing three or four steps behind and near the door, furrowed his brows.

“Even if one imitates the living by walking, talking, and chewing food, they are still a corpse. Whether happy, angry, sad, or joyful, in the end, they are a ghost. But how did the ghost obtain a body, and how did the corpse obtain a soul?”

The first impression of the shaman had been that of a dignified, clear-minded old woman, but now she had fully transformed into a powerful medium, scolding as if driving away troublesome spirits.

The sound of the bell grew faster, and Yoon Hye-an’s shoulders, visible only from behind, started to tremble rapidly.

Just as Lee Hae-seong was about to step in, the shaman halted, raising the bell high and pausing her hand.

“Do you feel an overwhelming urge to vomit, with sweat pouring from your body, dizziness, and then fainting?”

Lee Hae-seong froze in place. These symptoms were exactly what Yoon Hye-an had shown when he collapsed earlier.

“The Qilin… wearing the Imugi’s disguise doesn’t fit, so it’s suffocating.”

Tsk, tsk, the shaman clicked her tongue, shaking her head as she looked at Yoon Hye-an with pity.

“I only heard about it from the elders, but to see it with my own eyes while alive…”

She set down the bell and clasped her hands in prayer, bowing deeply to Yoon Hye-an.

“Due to the mistake of the ghost of the three realms, the death clothes of the underworld were wrongly placed. Spirits, please take care of this. This soul is innocent.”

Lee Hae-seong could no longer bear to watch Yoon Hye-an trembling under the shaman’s spiritual pressure. The murmurs of the shaman, incomprehensible as they were, the flickering candle dancing wildly as if in madness, all felt like intricate deceptions to him.

Without realizing it, he stepped forward and blocked Yoon Hye-an’s path. The pressure in the air seemed to rise, as though he were submerged in deep water, making it hard to move. Even though he was experiencing it firsthand, Lee Hae-seong could neither acknowledge nor believe what was happening.

He pushed through the shaman, resisting the force that pressed down on him, and stood facing her.

“What are you doing? Can’t you see she’s scared? Is this what you do—bring people here to frighten them?”

The shaman’s eyes dug into Lee Hae-seong’s soul, as if ready to consume it.

Then, as though finding this amusing, she straightened up and met his gaze. Despite being noticeably shorter, Lee Hae-seong felt as though she were looking down on him from an immense height.

“What is it that clouds the vision of the believer?”

“……”

“Faith and sincerity in an invisible concept—that is the essence of all beliefs, and the true nature of love, isn’t it?”

Her words felt like a riddle, an almost ungraspable puzzle to Lee Hae-seong. He had always believed that ambiguous statements like this were mere tricks of shamans.

But why was it?

He found himself thinking over her words, though he didn’t fully understand them.

The essence of love.

To believe in an unseen other’s heart and to devote oneself to it.

The sensation of bare skin brushing against his elbow made Lee Hae-seong suddenly glance down. Yoon Hye-an, sweating and gasping for breath, had moved close to him. With eyes unfocused as though blind, she clung to the area around his elbow, breathing heavily, as if he were the only thing she could rely on.

At that moment, everything else ceased to matter. It didn’t matter if the person in front of him was a shaman or a god. It didn’t matter if Yoon Hye-an was performing some act. He decided to believe in whatever he wished to believe, at least for that moment.

Turning his back on the shaman, he wrapped his arms around Yoon Hye-an’s shoulders and led her out of the room. Holding her trembling form, he took off his coat and wrapped it around her like a blanket. He quickly guided her forward, pulling her into his arms as her body shivered so violently it felt as though their bones were about to knock together.