Translator: SourKimchi
"I'm gonna confess to her for real soon."
Park Ji-hun tapped the desk with his fingertips.
The viewer he was talking to went by Estima.
The voice coming through the screen was half nerves, half excitement.
"Who?"
"A girl in my major. I've liked her the whole semester. I'm planning to confess soon...... it'll go okay, right?"
Park Ji-hun looked at the monitor.
A Vision flickered past.
The face of a pretty girl surfaced.
He saw her too, beaming, her arm linked through someone's.
But the one beside her was another guy.
They looked at each other with eyes full of affection, like they'd been together a long time.
The way the girl looked at Estima, though, had none of that. It was the look reserved for a good friend.
Park Ji-hun said, curtly.
"Don't."
The kid shot back at once.
"Huh? Why?"
"She's got a boyfriend."
For a second, the other end of the mic went silent.
Without taking his eyes off the screen, Park Ji-hun went on.
"You're just the only one who doesn't know it."
"N-no...... hold on. There's no way. We literally went to a movie together just the other day, and got drinks after."
The student's voice wavered, plainly.
It was the reaction of someone who didn't want to believe it.
Park Ji-hun didn't bother dragging out an explanation.
"That night she went back to the boyfriend's place and slept over. Confess, and you're the only one who ends up more pathetic for it. We good?"
"......Fuck."
The connection cut out then and there.
Unbothered, Park Ji-hun spoke.
"Next."
He was just about to move down the Reservation List when it happened.
A donation alert popped up large across the screen.
[Nathan-nim has gifted 100,000 Water Drops.]
-Nathan : you saved my life for real, my dad told me to go for it for the first time ever. oh right, i wanna do another reading later, that cool?
100,000 Water Drops?
Ji-hun's eyes went round with surprise.
The chat flipped out in an instant.
-MuteRoom : 100k?? insane, damn
-SseomyeonMaster : whoa 100k drops is 10 million won right?? thats crazy
-mk912 : guess things worked out for nathan lol congrats
Park Ji-hun stared at the monitor for a beat, then opened his mouth.
"Appreciate the donation, but you know cutting in line's a no-go, right? Wait your turn."
Nathan's message came up right away.
-Nathan : yeah ill wait
That was when it happened.
Park Ji-hun skimmed the chat for a moment, then narrowed his eyes.
Tucked off in one corner of the chat, an unpleasant stare had snagged his notice, the kind that raked over a person.
It wasn't that they'd typed anything.
But they were watching his every move, without letup.
Park Ji-hun scanned the chat with an unbothered face.
The account stayed silent.
Not leaving a single line of chat, just watching, quiet.
Park Ji-hun narrowed his eyes.
'Not here for a reading, are you.'
A brief silence passed.
Then Park Ji-hun spoke.
"You're today's freebie. cjh0409, get in here."
The one who'd been getting under his skin this whole time.
He pinned him precisely, picking him out.
-Boseok : so jealous lol
-RedMaple : why do you never pick me :(
-BiBiBaBaBu : how do you even get picked??
But cjh0409 gave no answer.
"Not coming in?"
A moment later, an alert appeared in the chat.
[cjh0409-nim has left.]
The chat immediately buzzed.
-SseomyeonMaster : huh? why'd he bounce?
-Kkoka : first time ive ever seen someone bail on a free one lol
-RedMaple : fuck you, if youre gonna leave at least hand me the spot first!
Park Ji-hun looked at the screen, saying nothing.
The guy's leaving made it certain.
No intention of getting a reading, and bolting the second he was chosen.
At this point, no ordinary onlooker.
Factor in the Vision that had flickered past for a split second, and only one person came to mind.
'Someone from Nathan's family, maybe.'
Curious why the son had changed, were they.
Digging around in the son's life, they'd have traced it all the way here.
Park Ji-hun didn't dwell on it.
Even if the other side had made a move, nothing was going to change right this second anyway.
"Alright. I'm not taking that last guy, like I said. Kkobukseobang. You, get in here."
***
Secretary Choi bowed his head the moment he stepped into the Chairman's office.
The Chairman had been turning over documents since early morning.
"Did you look into it."
A short question.
Secretary Choi answered at once.
"Yes, sir. I've identified the broadcast the Young Master has been watching consistently of late."
"What kind of broadcast?"
"It was a Spirit Reading stream."
The Chairman's eyebrow twitched, faintly.
"Was there any reason to watch it?"
Secretary Choi continued in a voice free of any emotion.
"There was something a little unusual."
"Unusual?"
He chose his words for a moment, then added:
"When I went in myself, I only watched, without typing a thing in the chat, and yet he suddenly called out my ID."
The Chairman's gaze turned to the secretary.
"He singled you out, Secretary Choi?"
"Yes. He said he'd give a free reading and called my ID, exactly."
"You don't think it was coincidence?"
Secretary Choi thought for a moment, then spoke.
"At least as it felt to me, he seemed certain I was there to keep watch. It unsettled me, so I left right away."
A short silence passed.
The Chairman drew his gaze away again.
Turning a few more pages, he said in an indifferent voice:
"So the Third Son's been watching that sort of thing."
"Yes."
"Do you think that broadcast changed the Third Son?"
Secretary Choi answered carefully.
"I can't say for certain. The timing lines up, though. After the Young Master started watching that stream, his manner changed."
The corner of the Chairman's mouth moved, ever so slightly.
There was no way the Third Son had become a different man overnight.
But there was every chance someone had given him a push. And by the look of things, the owner of that stream was likely the trigger.
The Chairman slowly leaned back and asked.
"Did he seem Skilled at Divination?"
Secretary Choi caught his breath briefly.
"There did seem to be a reason people believe in him. At the very least, it wasn't something coincidence alone could explain."
The Chairman fell into thought, saying nothing.
After mulling it over a long while, the Chairman nodded and said:
"Good work. That'll be all."
"Yes, Chairman."
Once Secretary Choi had gone, he picked up his phone.
Then he pressed speed dial 1.
The line rang a few times, and the other party picked up at once.
"Chairman. What brings you to call at such an early hour?"
"There's an important matter I need to discuss today. Can you come?"
"When the Chairman summons, naturally I'll be there. I'll call on you at your residence."
"Good. Take care on the way."
The Chairman hung up just like that.
After that, still seated on the sofa, he skimmed the materials Secretary Choi had brought once more.
PerpetualJobSeeker.
A stream that claimed to do Spirit Readings.
His third son, who had donated over 10 million won to that stream.
Tonight, he intended to confirm for himself whether the man was the real thing or a fraud.
***
Come evening, the mansion's drawing room was still.
The Chairman sat on the sofa, and after a moment, the door opened and an old man stepped inside.
His back wasn't fully bent, but his steps were oddly slow.
A thin coat thrown over a gray hanbok durumagi made for a plain figure, yet the moment he set foot inside, the grain of the air seemed to shift, ever so slightly. [TL Note: durumagi, a traditional Korean overcoat.]
The Chairman spoke first.
"It's been a while."
The old man gave a light laugh.
"For the Chairman himself to send for me first, it can't be any ordinary matter."
The Chairman didn't waste breath on lengthy pleasantries.
He pushed the document envelope sitting on the table across to him.
"It's about my third boy."
The old man's eyes narrowed.
The Chairman asked in the same cold, dry tone.
"The boy's been different these past few days. He was never one to have a mind of his own. But this time he's changed, no question about it."
The old man listened, saying nothing.
"I had Secretary Choi look into it, and it turns out he's been watching a Spirit Reading stream."
"A Spirit Reading?"
"That's right. Figured it was some laughable nonsense, at first."
The Chairman caught his breath for a moment, then went on.
"But it's reason enough to call it the thing that changed the Third Son."
"So that's why you called me. You'd have me confirm whether the man is the real thing or not."
Instead of answering, the Chairman nodded.
"The Third Young Master's Aura certainly has shifted these past few days."
"Has it?"
"Yes. Which is why I'd reckoned a Patron would attach himself to the Third Young Master, and that may well prove true."
"Look into it."
The old man slowly opened the envelope.
Inside were several pages of material Secretary Choi had compiled, screencaps of Park Ji-hun's broadcast, a profile photo, and a brief background.
The old man picked up the photo lying on top.
A brief silence passed.
The Chairman watched him without a word.
He wanted to see what the man would read off it.
The old man didn't turn the photo this way and that.
He only gazed down at it for a long while.
His stare grew deeper and deeper.
After a moment, he spoke.
"Looks perfectly ordinary...... how interesting."
The Chairman's eyes narrowed.
"Interesting?"
"Yes."
Without lifting his eyes from the photo, the old man went on.
"On the surface there's nothing remarkable about him. But strangely, the look in his eyes snags at me."
A short silence passed.
Looking down at the photo again, the old man added quietly:
"I don't think I can say for certain from a photo alone."
The Chairman asked.
"The odds he's a fraud?"
The old man answered.
"A fraud would have come at it some other way. Imitating a shaman is no easy thing."
When he'd finished, the silence settled in again.
The Chairman asked slowly:
"You're saying you'd need to see him in the flesh?"
The old man slowly nodded.
"To see clearly, yes."
Then he set the photo down on the envelope and drew a phone from his pocket.
"Even if I can't look closely, I should be able to gauge roughly whether he's a true shaman just by watching the broadcast."
The Chairman nodded.
With unpracticed hands, the old man downloaded the Ocean app, then typed the name into the search bar.
PerpetualJobSeeker.
A live broadcast came up.
The viewer count was pushing 7,000.
"I'll take a look."
"Go ahead."
The old man's gaze settled, going still.
With his finger, he lightly tapped PerpetualJobSeeker's broadcast.
After a brief buffering, the screen came up.
In that instant, the old man's face contorted, ghastly.
It was the look of a man whose breath had caught, as though he'd come face to face with something baleful.
Reflexively, he killed the broadcast.
The Chairman, who had been watching intently, felt his gaze waver for the first time.
In the decades he'd known the man, this was the first time he'd seen him so shaken.
The Chairman looked at the gasping old man and asked in a low voice:
"What did you see?"