When I showed up for work with a hollow face after less than 3 hours of sleep, the office had been turned upside down.
"Associate Kim. Taking a day of leave when it wasn't even approved!"
The director seemed to be in a foul mood over my taking leave and bolting the moment I arrived yesterday. When I looked around the office, there were quite a few empty seats; it looked like a lot of people were gone.
"An official notice will be coming down soon, so refrain from taking monthly leave, half-days, or vacation for the time being!"
Since the audit office had swooped in, it looked like more than half the staff had been cut. But an official notice?
Surely they weren't going to have me fill the department head's seat. I already had so much work that I pulled overtime as often as I ate, and I didn't want any more of it.
"I'm going to quit."
"What?"
The moment I came out of the market yesterday, I had checked the alert that went off on my phone.
A whopping ten million won. It had been deposited into my bank account under the name Ghost Company. I couldn't believe it, so I searched it up, and it was a company that really existed, even registered as a corporation. If I could turn points into cash, there was no reason to keep going to work.
'Better to get into the market one more time than get ground down at a shit-tier small company.'
The director hurriedly tried to stop me, but I showed him my limping foot. I made the excuse that commuting was hard because of an accident, but he must have been desperate, because he kept holding me back, offering me paid leave, and I had no choice but to leave without handing in my resignation letter.
If people were that precious, he should have treated them well while he had them. The snide remark from when I first joined came back to me vividly.
─Someone who was a team leader at Next Vision sent his résumé to our company?
That was when it started. Every kind of harassment, having work piled on me, being treated as an emotional trash can....
What I couldn't stand was that the department head had heard about a private matter from my old company somewhere and spread it around the office. So I had thought things would get easier once the department head was gone, but a shit-tier small company runs the same way, like a hamster wheel, no matter who gets replaced.
'Fucked-up world.'
***
Once my thoughts were in order and a new resolution had formed, I picked up my phone and sent a message to someone I hadn't contacted in a long time. The recipient was Lee Sang-min. I hadn't been able to face him all this time, so I hadn't gotten in touch, but Sang-min, a close acquaintance, was also one of the victims of those two con men.
[Let's meet today. I'll come over near the shop.]
No reply came, but I left the office, withdrew some cash anyway, and headed to the market alley in Bangi-dong. Among the merchants getting their shops ready to open before the lunch rush, I spotted the person I was looking for and went up to him.
"Sang-min hyung. Didn't you see my message?"
"M-Min-jae?"
His face went flustered at the cold words I spat out.
A suffocating silence passed. Soon I let my blank expression go and hugged Sang-min warmly.
"What brings you here? You know I don't really look at my phone while I'm getting ready to open."
I set down in front of Sang-min an envelope holding the five million won in cash I had withdrawn. It was the money I had borrowed.
Hyun-woo and I used to come to this shop often for a drink, and Sang-min, who knew my situation, had lent me money without a word, no hesitation at all. He was having a hard time himself, and still he was hopelessly good-natured.
"Where'd you get this? You could've paid it back slowly...."
"You said you're struggling right now with your household loan too, hyung. Just take it."
I took a cigarette out of my breast pocket and put it in my mouth. A man should have some shame.
I hadn't come to see Sang-min all this time because I had no way to pay him back, but he was a victim too.
"So how much did they fleece you for, hyung?"
"Huh? ...Less than you."
I snorted.
Sang-min might be a good person, but the all-time biggest sucker was me.
The one who had been fleeced for the most money. The amount came to nearly 1 billion won. Now that I had left the company, it was an amount I could never recover from.
"Uh... I'm sorry."
Sang-min, who knew I was still paying off loans in the millions, lowered his head and put the envelope of money in his pocket.
"Hyung, you can ask the people you used to know to find out where Hyun-woo hyung is, right?"
"W...well, I could, but why?"
Having just accepted the money, Sang-min couldn't refuse, and he looked troubled. He had turned over a new leaf after meeting his wife, but before he opened the shop, Sang-min had worked as an illegal hacker.
"Hyung. I used to think living well was the best revenge."
But that was just self-consolation, a way for people who had no power to get revenge to tell themselves they had won. I ground my butt out on the ground and put a fresh cigarette in my mouth. The smoke made my hollow face look even more sallow.
"But it looks like I'm going to have to pay them back after all. I'll get your money back for you too, hyung."
Rather than live on in misery like this, a life worse than shriveling up and vanishing, it was better to climb, even if I had to sell my soul to the devil. Honest and good? Things like that were no help at all in this insane reality.
"This is a retainer. And look into one more thing for me."
"Min-jae. But I don't do that kind of thing anymore...."
"The baby's coming soon, right? I can get your money back for you, hyung."
Sang-min, taking the sheet of paper, lowered his eyes, his face gone pale. Then he answered quietly, almost in a whisper.
"This... is really the last time...."
I took one more drag of the burning cigarette and blew the smoke up at the sky.
Right. In the end, what matters in life is not principles or promises to yourself so much as which choices you make.
I had no intention of forcing my views on anyone else, but Sang-min, who had looked after me to the very end when I had hit rock bottom, was one person I wanted to take care of.
***
On the way home, I stopped by a supermarket and bought a deluxe fruit basket and a box of red ginseng.
I had spent quite a lot of money today, but I could make an investment like this as many times as it took if it got me information about the market.
"Is anyone home?"
When I knocked on the door, the old landlord looked at me with a sour expression.
"What is it? Like I told you, it's an old building, so...."
"I'm sorry about everything."
The old man must have thought I had come to complain about the noise again, because he had been on the defensive, but when he took the fruit basket and the red ginseng I held out, his expression softened considerably.
"I hadn't been at my new job long, so I was under a lot of stress."
"Ahem. No wonder a young man looked so hollow and listless."
Seeing his tone and expression soften, I didn't miss my chance and pressed in.
"By the way, could you tell me which hospital the old woman who lived in my place is at?"
"Why do you want to know that?"
His softened expression turned sharp in an instant.
"Ah. There are photos and things like that in her stuff, so I feel a little bad throwing them away."
"Just throw them out. That old woman's in a fancy hospital; you can't get in without an appointment."
As he waved me off and turned to go back inside, I hurriedly spoke up.
"Can't her children be reached?"
The old man's eyes narrowed to slits. If I pried any further, he would get suspicious, so I had no choice but to go on.
"It's just that while I was sorting her things, about 200,000 won in cash turned up too."
"Really? You didn't have to say anything...."
It was a lie. But because of it, my image was set as an upright young man who had tried to return cash he had stumbled on while cleaning.
"That old woman's children are all overseas. They sold off all the old lady's real estate before they left, so they won't be coming back."
"I see...."
"It's not much money, so the tenant in unit 201 can just keep it. Call it payment for clearing out her stuff."
I decided to be satisfied with this much information for today. Why she had lived in this run-down low-rise despite owning several properties was obvious. It must have been because the entrance to the market was there.
'I've asked hyung for a favor, and I'll find out which hospital she's in soon, so let's not get impatient.'
The urgent matter right now was getting ready to take part in the Colosseum today.
If I just paid close attention based on what was written in the notebook, I should be able to earn points. That didn't mean it wasn't dangerous, but as long as I needed points and funds, it was an unavoidable choice.
I had to raise my grade, even a single day sooner.
Inside the Ghost Story Market, points were absolute.
They could be converted into ghost currency, and also into real-world money. And the most important thing, your grade, was upgraded by stacking up points. The quality of the wishes you could make would rise only when your investor grade did, so they were indispensable.
***
When I entered the market, I ran into the bob-haired woman in a market alley.
I tried to remember the number engraved on that puppy woman's key.
"Ocheonsa!"
At my words, the bob-haired woman's face scrunched up. Then she stared at me as if she were looking at a pervert.
"Fuck. First time I've ever been hit on by a mister."
I stood there blankly, then caught on, and my brow furrowed deeply. Apparently, just because I had said 5004 without the "No." in front of it, she had taken me for a skirt-chasing bastard who would hit on any woman.
"I was saying No. 5004."
"Then don't make such a weird face."
...I had no comeback. Whatever I said here, that bratty woman was obviously going to take it some other way. I was about to just ignore her and walk past when she fell in close beside me.
"Mister. I heard you're in the 3000s?"
This was the first time I had ever talked with her, so I wondered where she had heard that.
"Want to join the group chat?"
I was so surprised I nearly let it show on my face. Given the kind of people who came and went in a market like this, I had assumed they would be touchy about their personal details, but a group chat? It was the first I had heard of one.
"Ah. Do you already have one, mister?"
I would need to look into it properly. If there was already a community outside where Ghost Story Market entrants were active, getting information there would be to my advantage going forward.
"Since this is fate, I'll join if you invite me."
"'Kay. Then scan the QR code. Here!"
It was quietly irritating to be called mister when I was only 28, but from the way she talked and acted, she seemed to still be a student. Still, I didn't ask how she had ended up here. From my first impression, that schoolgirl was definitely a psycho.
"Are you joining the Colosseum today?"
I quietly nodded at the question from the schoolgirl, No. 5004.
"Seriously? Last time that gym-rat mister joined and got wrecked right away."
Ah. Come to think of it, what had happened to him?
A memory I didn't want to think about came back. Even if he had made it out of the market safely, living with his eyes like that would be impossible.
'Should I read the notebook one more time?'
Uneasy, I decided to go over the notebook carefully once more and said goodbye to No. 5004. It looked like she meant to just watch again today, so even if I stuck with her, we wouldn't be able to trade any real information.
***
It was almost time for the Colosseum participants to enter.
[Everyone, the Colosseum game with a record-breaking turnout of participants! Hurry and place your bets!]
As I drew closer to the Colosseum, the ghosts' roars and the voice of the manager egging on the betting spread out from everywhere. When I went into the participants' waiting room to sign up, I came face to face with an unexpected person.
No. 2011.
She seemed to recognize me too, because she gave me a little bow of the head.
So it hadn't been my imagination that our eyes had met over the Colosseum. Taking part in back-to-back games made me wonder how badly she needed points. This was a random game, no less, where you didn't know what difficulty you would land, so either she needed points desperately enough to bet her life, or else she was confident she could earn points no matter what came up.
[Spin~ spin~ the wheel! Today's game is Body Hunt!]
Before I knew it, the wheel had spun and the game was decided. If it was the Body Hunt recorded in the notebook, that was a C-difficulty game. And that game was....
[This game is played in teams of two, and the partner draw will begin shortly!]
Good grief... Team play, in a game where everyone was out to fulfill their own desires. It was the worst.
TL Notes:
TL Note: Ocheonsa — "5004" read aloud in Korean is o-cheon-sa (five thousand four), which is also exactly how you say "Oh, angel!", so she hears a pickup line.