"HouseWithGhosts, come on in. The password is 1004."
Click.
"Shaman, please help me!!!"
A man came in with a voice on the verge of tears, maybe in his mid-thirties.
He was so desperate he skipped the greeting and went straight to the point.
"Would you tell me in detail what's going on?"
"Y-yes! I moved yesterday and went into a new house, and I didn't sleep a wink all night!!"
"Why?"
"B-because a ghost really came out!!"
―KYAAAAAAK!!!
―It really comes out?
―I heard there's one famous house, is it that one?
―Is it a famous place?
―A 2.5 billion won house sold for 500 million, of course it's famous
"What exactly happened?"
"The TV in the living room turned itself on! And a dish fell in the kitchen!! And someone was looking in the mirror in the bathroom!!!"
"......."
"What do I do? Please help me...... I bought it with a loan from the bank...!"
If a bank will lend you that much, doesn't that mean you're capable?
More to the point, there's something he's mistaken about right now.
"House."
"Y-yes!"
"I did receive a divine descent, but this broadcast is a consultation broadcast."
"Sorry...?"
"I can't exorcise ghosts either."
To begin with, I was a man who didn't even believe in ghosts.
Things changed slightly after I received the divine descent, though.
―Right, Jinwoo is a fortune teller, not a shaman
―He is a shaman, you bastard
―Jinwoo, you can't exorcise ghosts?
―In the movies they shout 'RETURN TO HELL!!!'
―Isn't that exorcism?
―Our Jinwoo is not an exorcist priest
―Anon has donated 10,000 won!―
[I'm a horror movie buff and first we need to know its name]
―Anon has donated 10,000 won!―
[Is it a demon]
"But you're a shaman!"
"Not every shaman is the same shaman. I'm a shaman who only gives consultations for people's troubles."
To begin with, I never learned it properly and I'm doing it unlicensed, so that says it all.
"Then what do I do!?"
"Good question."
What should we do?
Asking me that doesn't seem likely to help much.
Still, I took the consultation fee, so I should do my best to help.
"Let me take a look first."
I sighed and closed my eyes to look into his situation, and a house came into view.
A two-story house with as many as seven rooms.
...It was a house, not an apartment?
I went in through the entrance and looked around the living room, and someone was sitting on the sofa.
A grandmother who looked to be in her seventies was watching TV, so he didn't live alone after all?
"Do you live with your grandmother?"
"Sorry...?"
Leaving the grandmother watching TV behind, I turned my gaze to the kitchen, where a man in his fifties who looked like his father was cooking.
"Your father is cooking."
"What on earth have you been talking about......."
Inside the open bathroom, a student who looked about high school age was looking in the mirror and fixing her hair.
Ah, that's a style I haven't seen in a while.
It was popular back in the day.
Next I looked around the other rooms as well, and in the master bedroom a grandfather was snoring, while in the small room a child of about ten was playing a game alone.
When I went up to the second floor a puppy was running around, and when I went out to the rooftop a woman who looked like his mother was hanging laundry.
This is a full-on extended family.
"You aren't living alone, so isn't it fine?"
"No......."
"Three generations are living together. Grandmother, grandfather, father and mother, a younger brother and a younger sister, and a puppy on top of that."
"The thing is......."
―A whole extended family is living there
―At that point the ghost would run away first
―Seven people plus a puppy in one house?
―Hello, I'm the ghost, please get out of my house
―Why is it your house
"......."
"House?"
When I asked House, who wasn't saying anything, what was wrong, he answered in a trembling voice.
"I-I live in that house alone?"
"Sorry?"
"I live alone, I'm telling you...!"
The instant he cried out the chat window froze, and a chill ran down my spine as well.
So the beings I saw were all ghosts?
If there are seven ghosts... no, six ghosts plus a puppy in the house, I understand why the price dropped by two billion won.
Wow, what do we do about this.
"Then there are seven... no, six ghosts in your house, plus one puppy."
―Seven????
―There's a puppy ghost too on top of six people?
―So there was a reason the price got wrecked?
―At this rate isn't getting 500 million out of him a scam?
―One or two you could adapt to somehow, but this is a bit much
―Anon has donated 10,000 won!―
[Where did the person go who said they'd set out a 36-dish ancestral rite table every day?]
―Anon has donated 10,000 won!―
[I didn't think there'd be that many]
"Shaman, what do I really do!?"
"Good question."
"Sorry?"
"What should we do?"
He was asking in a tearful voice, but what could I do.
I didn't expect this many either.
To begin with, I didn't even know ghosts really existed.
"I can't move out either... I really have nowhere else to live except this house......."
"Even so, this is a bit much."
"The price is one thing, but it's five minutes from my company."
Five minutes on foot, at that.
―Anon has donated 10,000 won!―
[The afterlife sounds closer than the company?]
―Anon has donated 10,000 won!―
[That two billion includes psychiatric treatment, hospital bills and funeral expenses, valued customer]
"Hmm......."
In this situation, there were about two things I could suggest to him.
"House, I'll give you two methods."
"Really!?"
"The first is to move out. But selling the house again will be rather difficult for you."
"R-right. Even when I signed the contract, already......."
"The second method is to simply think of them as roommates."
―Roommates?????
―Roommates with six human ghosts and one puppy ghost?
―A house means no noise from upstairs, let's have a drink
―There's ghost noise, though?
"Roommates?"
"Yes."
"What if the ghosts harm people...?"
"They won't."
If a ghost harmed a person and that person died and became a ghost too, they'd end up meeting each other again, wouldn't they.
And then there really would be a fight to the death.
"Because if that happened, even the ghosts already there would all disappear."
Ah, but Japanese yokai are the exception.
Over there it really is a fight to the death.
―Lolololololololol
―What is this
―Jinwoo's logic is insane
―But it makes sense!!
―What do you call that
―A shaman's rationalism?
"Then why are they in my house?"
"Because it's their house."
"Sorry?"
"They're the original owners of the house. You're the tenant."
―Tenant???
―The positions got reversed
―The ghosts are the landlords and the human is the tenant? Go pull the property records
―Six landlords and a puppy, this is something else
"I'll mediate for you, so go to the house."
"It's frightening......."
"It's fine. I'm not frightened."
"But I am......."
"You have to start by greeting them. Starting is half the battle. And to begin with, you have nowhere to go other than that house."
"......."
―Facts are, to some people, assault
―Ah, if you scraped together everything to buy a house, you live in it whether ghosts come out or not
―Seven ghosts come out, though?
―That'd be a bit much, take care now
After agonizing without a word for a while, he seemed to make up his mind, and a grim voice came through.
"What should I do?"
"I'm going to switch the call to a video call. Are you all right with your face appearing on the broadcast?"
"Yes. That's fine."
"Then I'll switch it."
When the call switched over, a convenience store came into view.
"How long does it take to get to the house?"
"About five minutes."
"Let's go."
"Y-yes!"
***
Lee Gangwoo moved his feet slowly, shaking worse than when he had gone alone to Nonsan to enlist in the army.
"Don't worry too much. What's the worst that happens, death?"
"Y-yes!?"
"I'm joking."
He wondered whether he could really trust a shaman who made such savage jokes, but there was no other way, was there.
Give up the only place he could live right now, five minutes from his company?
For a man who had been a Gyeonggi Province resident, there was no way he could let this chance go.
Because if he went back to how things were, his commute alone would take a full four hours.
But was a four-hour commute really better than living in a house where ghosts came out?
...No, he mustn't let his resolve weaken.
"I've arrived."
Stopping in front of the two-story detached house, he looked at it and felt a gloomy energy.
It had been like this since he moved in.
Lee Gangwoo punched the door lock code in with trembling hands.
Beep beep beep!
The door opened, but he couldn't easily go inside.
Of course he couldn't, since he'd been told there were six ghosts inside plus a puppy ghost.
"Shaman......."
"Yes."
"It's really all right to go in, isn't it?"
"Don't be too frightened. Isn't the truly frightening thing the fact that you have nowhere to go if not this house?"
"......."
―Sleeping outside might be less frightening?
―Sleep outside in this weather and your face freezes crooked
―Sleep in the house and your neck gets twisted, though?
―There could end up being seven ghosts
―KYAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!
He hesitated, but in the end he set foot inside the house, and a chill ran down his spine.
"Greet them first."
"Greet them?"
"Yes. You moved in and you still haven't greeted them, have you? That isn't good manners."
"Understood......."
Lee Gangwoo breathed deeply, and the instant he stepped into the living room he bowed his head.
"Hello! I'm the person who moved in yesterday!!!"
The moment his booming voice rang through the house.
The living room TV turned itself on.
[Yerim is Hyejeong's daughter.]
"KYAAAAAK!!!"
Lee Gangwoo screamed and nearly dropped his phone.
But right then.
A small voice came from the sofa.
"Shh."
At the grandmother's voice coming from the empty living room Lee Gangwoo froze, and the chat window went wild.
―Huhhhh!?
―Didn't you just hear a grandmother's voice!?
―I really heard it!?
―KYAAAA!!!
―It was real!!!!!
"She says Grandma is watching her drama, so please be quiet."
Thump.
Lee Gangwoo's legs seemed to give out and he sank down in the living room, and only the sound of the TV drama filled the house.
"That is the living room grandmother. She seems to like dramas. When I first saw her she was only watching dramas too."
"W-what do I do now?"
"Apologize first. You interrupted her while she was watching her drama."
"I'm sorry for interrupting your drama! Please enjoy your viewing!"
Then a small laugh came from the living room.
"Heh."
"......."
"She says it's admirable how well the young man greets people."
A chill.
―I'm so scared
―I'm sleeping with my mom tonight
―Ask her how she fixed the horizontal coordinate system
―Ugh, are you a science major?
With a chill down his spine, he shivered and forced himself to turn his head.
Of course, a voice coming out of empty air and him not being frightened would be stranger, wouldn't it.
If anything, it might be fortunate that thanks to the shaman he could at least communicate.
Because yesterday he couldn't even hear the ghosts' voices.
"Next, go to the kitchen."
"The kitchen...?"
"There's a middle-aged man there. He seems to like cooking, he was bringing something down on the cutting board."
"...Then is he holding a kitchen knife?"
"No?"
Just as he tried to take comfort from the shaman's voice.
"He's holding a Chinese cleaver, though?"
"......."
He tried to raise himself on his loosened legs and sank back down one more time.
In the end he headed for the kitchen practically crawling, and soon a chilling sound came.
Chop.
Chop.
Chop.
The instant he checked where the sound was coming from with trembling eyes.
A Chinese cleaver floating in midair was coming down on the cutting board.
"KYAAAAAAAAAK!!!!!!"
Thump.
"Uh...? House...?"