Part 7. I'm Counting On You, Assistant Manager Kang! (3)
The longer Ha Jang-seo's deliberation went on, the drier Kang Hyeong-seok's mouth felt.
Sweat gathered in the fist he had curled under the table, and beside him Namgung Min-a rolled her eyes about as though the situation were awkward.
It was then.
"There's nothing in particular I've brought into the house......."
The words that came out of Ha Jang-seo's mouth were disappointing.
Kang Hyeong-seok pressed his lips shut, and Namgung Min-a watched him in silence.
"I'm sorry. However I think about it, nothing comes to mind."
"Not at all. What I mentioned may not be the cause anyway."
Ha Jang-seo smiled apologetically, only drawing the corners of his mouth.
Theirs was a relationship one could call nothing more than business.
Even so, he was grateful for a man who thought about it and worried over it as though it were his own affair.
"While you're here, have a look at the fields at least. Until the end of this year I'll keep the farming on track even if the sky splits in two."
"That would be good, but will you be all right?"
"Surely I can manage that much. Really, it's fine, so have a look before you go."
Reading his earnestness, Kang Hyeong-seok nodded with a smile.
"Ah, but there are two fields now. Do you have the time?"
"Sorry?"
Kang Hyeong-seok looked at Namgung Min-a without meaning to, then drew his eyes back.
This was news to him as well, so there was no way she would know it.
"The truth is I signed for a new field this time. It was hardly even a field originally, just a clearing, but it's been prepared for planting."
"Been prepared......?"
Which meant nothing had been farmed there yet.
Which meant it was land bought recently.
'It could be.......'
That the cause was not an object but a place.
Kang Hyeong-seok tipped his water glass to wet his throat and spoke.
"You never mentioned it before. When did you sign?"
"I was going to say something once it was reasonably ready. No, never mind. There'd be nothing to see anyway. Just look at the original field and go."
"No, please."
Kang Hyeong-seok half rose from his chair without meaning to.
"I would very much like to go. Very much."
It was a side of him rarely shown at the office.
Beside him Namgung Min-a looked up at him with startled eyes, and Ha Jang-seo was flustered too.
"Yes. All, all right. Let's go."
Sitting back down, Kang Hyeong-seok wore a face of relief.
***
The newly signed field was only twenty minutes away by car.
Not that it was somewhere one could stroll to lightly.
It sat at the foot of a mountain, and though the sunlight fell on it well, it gave a strong impression of being oddly out of the way.
"It looks like this because there are so many trees around, but the soil isn't bad and neither is the land. And it was cheap."
Walking shoulder to shoulder with Ha Jang-seo, Kang Hyeong-seok stared at the green shoots grown thick to ankle height.
"This doesn't look like garlic."
"Beans, that's all."
"Beans?"
"Just a trial planting. I've no thought of harvesting. Plough it all under later and it becomes fertilizer."
Ha Jang-seo put a cigarette in his mouth with a troubled face.
If only his health had not turned, he would have been full of plans to grow garlic across this broad field as well.
"You aren't hiring anyone?"
"No need. I mean to plough it under anyway, so there's no worrying about water deer or boars either."
Ha Jang-seo gazed at the bean shoots for a while and blew out a deep stream of smoke.
"I wanted to do well by it. It's a real shame."
Kang Hyeong-seok looked out over the field with his lips shut tight.
He was not wearing his backpack.
He had left the backpack with the shaman's bells behind, since carrying it would have looked strange. If he had brought it, would the bells have rung?
'Probably.'
As Kang Hyeong-seok saw it, they would have.
TRAMP.
The soil seemed to cling as he set his foot down, and the trees ringing the place wrapped around the field like a wall.
The sunlight fell well and yet the energy pooled here enough to make it feel out of the way.
Land like this is not good land.
At least not for people.......
"Sir, wasn't there an elementary school around here?"
"Hm?"
Namgung Min-a, silent until now, began to open a conversation with Ha Jang-seo.
"Actually, I'm from Danyang."
"Oh, are you?"
As Ha Jang-seo's eyes widened in surprise, Namgung Min-a smiled with her eyes crinkling, like someone who had met an elder from home.
"There was an elementary school near here, wasn't there? I went to it."
"Ah! Ah, there! Over by the crossroads?"
"Yes! That one!"
"Well, I never would have guessed. I took you for a Seoul girl through and through."
"Hehehe."
Watching her handle the conversation better than expected, Kang Hyeong-seok lifted the corner of his mouth.
Yes, buy me some time like that.
TRAMP, TRAMP, TRAMP.
Kang Hyeong-seok walked as if surveying the field and scanned quickly around him.
Would it have been better if a geomancer had come along?
No. Pointless.
It was not the land he had to read but the energy.
The energy that had drained Ha Jang-seo's vitality was somewhere in this field.
He had to find it, restore the man, and see that the business relationship held.
Only then would there be no harm to Namgung Min-a, or to himself.
SWISH, SWISH!
Walking on past the bean shoots brushing at his feet, Kang Hyeong-seok stopped dead in one spot.
"Sir! What are you doing?"
Namgung Min-a's voice came from behind.
"There's nothing to see over there. If you've seen enough, let's head back."
Ha Jang-seo called out too, but Kang Hyeong-seok gave no answer and stared at the thing that had stopped him.
There was a tree there.
Its bark was abnormally stripped, with the clear marks of healing over, and holes were punched through it as though a woodpecker had worked at it.
'...A folk hex.'
The traces of someone having laid a curse.
They were left plain on the tree, in a position that overlooked this field.
"Sir?"
Namgung Min-a spoke up from behind as though something were odd.
Kang Hyeong-seok let out a large breath, looked back at her, and shook his head.
Then he met Ha Jang-seo's eyes.
"Sir, are you free tomorrow, by any chance?"
"Hm?"
"The mountain here looks rather good. If it suits you, I would like to hike it tomorrow, even briefly."
Namgung Min-a's eyes went round, and Ha Jang-seo, flustered, drew up the corners of his mouth.
Even just being asked was something to be grateful for.
A person who looks after you when the farming goes well is not so precious.
But a person who looks after you when things are hard is.
"No, there's no need to push yourself for my sake......."
"Not at all, sir. Who knows when I'll be down here again?"
When Kang Hyeong-seok said it firmly, as though he would not give way, Ha Jang-seo's eyes dropped to the ground.
Then he raised his head and nodded hard with a grateful face.
"Let's do it. Let's be sure to do it together."
Kang Hyeong-seok smiled as though copying the man's expression and nodded.
***
(So you're saying you'll come back tomorrow?)
After parting with Ha Jang-seo, in the center of Danyang.
In a busy strip full of motels, convenience stores, and bars, Kang Hyeong-seok sat with Namgung Min-a at an outdoor table by a convenience store.
The sun had gone down and a dim darkness was staining the sky.
"Yes, sir."
(Haah. This is a problem.)
He had already passed on that Ha Jang-seo would farm only through this year.
Because of it Gwak Yeong-ho's voice was full of worry.
(Is his health that bad?)
"From what I saw it doesn't seem that serious. But his spirit seems badly broken."
(This is... sheesh!)
Kang Hyeong-seok gestured at Namgung Min-a across from him.
A gesture telling her not to worry so much and to drink the coffee in front of her.
"For now I'll hike with him tomorrow and try to persuade him as best I can."
(Do you think it's possible?)
Expectation came through thickly in Gwak Yeong-ho's voice.
The only ones on the ground were Namgung Min-a and Kang Hyeong-seok.
And of the two, the only one Gwak Yeong-ho could trust and lean on was Kang Hyeong-seok.
(If the account is lost it becomes a real headache. Hold on, is Min-a beside you?)
"She is, but you can speak freely."
He was not on speaker, and it was not quiet around them, so there was no chance of the voice leaking.
(It isn't anyone's fault, but the look of it is bad. An intern goes on her first trip and a long-standing account is lost.......)
"It is."
Life at a company comes down to image in the end.
Even when a thing is not your mistake, a bad image gets stamped on you all the same.
And once stamped, it follows you for a long time like a tag.
(Assistant Manager Kang, stay another day, no, two more if you need to. Can you turn Mr. Ha Jang-seo around?)
"He said it was a health problem."
Kang Hyeong-seok reached out and took the coffee in front of him.
Convenience store coffee, poured from a plastic pouch into a cup of ice.
"But he still has the will to keep farming. If I persuade him well, I think it can be managed somehow."
(Contact me right away if you need anything. I won't report upward yet, but if it's something I can handle at my level, I'll do what I can.)
It must have been the length of the call.
Namgung Min-a was fidgeting with her fingers with an uncomfortable face, and Kang Hyeong-seok lifted the corner of his mouth and shook his head.
It was not only for her sake that he did.
"Thank you for saying so, at least."
(Anything unusual, call me straight away.)
"Yes."
(And I'll approve all the expenses, so sleep somewhere comfortable! And eat something good!)
Kang Hyeong-seok nodded as he answered, even though the man was not beside him.
"Understood."
(I'm counting on you, Assistant Manager Kang!)
The call ended.
Kang Hyeong-seok set down his phone, tipped his head back, and looked up at the darkening sky.
A town was a town.
Whether from the lights or from the pollution, the large moon was visible but the stars were not.
"Sir, what did the General Manager say......?"
"Nothing for you to worry about."
"Come on, that isn't true."
Kang Hyeong-seok raised the corner of his mouth wryly, lifted his coffee, and met her eyes.
"I mean it's nothing for Namgung Min-a to worry about."
It was not something an intern needed to fret over.
Kang Hyeong-seok drank down the rest of his coffee and turned his eyes to a suitable motel nearby.
"Let's get rooms first. You must be tired."
"Ah, yes, yes."
Namgung Min-a hurriedly dropped her eyes and wiggled her feet.
He had not noticed because he had not been looking, but her feet must have been sore; she had taken off her shoes.
"Excuse me."
At the motel counter, Kang Hyeong-seok laid out the conditions quickly before the clerk could speak.
Overnight, two rooms.
If the clerk asked whether they wanted it by the hour, the situation would become mortifying.
CLINK.
Taking the key cards, Kang Hyeong-seok kept one and handed the other to Namgung Min-a.
"Rest well, then, and we'll meet in the morning. If you need anything there's a convenience store out front."
Namgung Min-a blinked at him with the key card in her hand.
She had naturally assumed they would go up together.
But Kang Hyeong-seok's feet were planted firmly, and his body was angled toward the door.
"Sir, where are you going?"
"Just out front for a bit."
"Oh? I'll come too."
"No. You just rest. Call me if anything happens. Or I might call you."
Namgung Min-a rolled her eyes as she thought about where he could be going.
But she could not begin to guess, so she smiled awkwardly and only bobbed her head.
"Yes! Go safely, then!"
"Ah, in case it needs saying, you may drink, but don't drink too much."
"Yes, sir!"
Watching her answer so briskly, Kang Hyeong-seok turned.
He was about to go out the door when a voice from behind caught his feet.
"Huh? You're not leaving your bag?"
Kang Hyeong-seok looked back at her and simply nodded with a smile. Then he wiped the expression from his face, opened the door, and stepped out.
In that short time the street had sunk entirely into night.
'I have to go to the field.'
Kang Hyeong-seok came out onto the street as though dissolving into the crowd and started walking.
Ha Jang-seo's health.
A contract that must not be lost.
Namgung Min-a's conversion to permanent staff.
A bean field, a tree with nail marks left in it.
And a folk hex.
The further he walked, the more thoughts filled his head.
JINGLE.
As if urging him on, the shaman's bells in his bag rang once, faintly.