Part 3. What Must Not Be Seen (2)
『Right turn ahead.』
Kang Hyeong-seok turned the wheel following the navigation's directions.
Ten in the morning on a weekday.
There were no cars about, and it was an old residential district that looked as though a redevelopment plan might be drawn up for it before long.
So, put unkindly, it was shabby; put kindly, it was a place that stirred nostalgia for childhood.
'They said she was the Director's niece, but this is more ordinary than I expected.'
Then again, she was not immediate family.
And she must have found the place in quite a hurry, so there would not have been many options.
『You have arrived at your destination. Ending guidance.』
Kang Hyeong-seok cut the engine and got out of the car.
He was dressed a little more lightly than in his usual casual suit.
A black sweatshirt and jeans.
The backpack was the same as always, but instead of his laptop he had packed a screwdriver, work gloves, a hammer and the like.
And the shaman's bells, tucked carefully into a pencil case.
There was no particular reason to bring them, but they were a precious divine object and he did not want them away from his person if he could help it.
DING-DONG!
That was after he pressed a doorbell whose very sound stirred old memories.
FLING!
The door opened as if she had been waiting, and a young woman thrust her face out.
"Who is it?"
Flustered by Shin Jeong-a's sudden appearance, Kang Hyeong-seok bobbed his head and gave his name.
"I'm Kang Hyeong-seok. From Daejeong Trading......."
"Ah! Come in. Thank you for coming all this way."
Shin Jeong-a, who had been expressionless, put on a working adult's smile and gestured inside.
Kang Hyeong-seok relaxed and followed her in with a careful face.
'A little different from what I expected.'
A face one could call beautiful.
Her neat bob gave the impression of a capable office worker.
But the outer corners of her eyes turned up, which lent her a cold air as well.
"Could you start by putting up the shelves and the clothes rack in the small room?"
"Yes."
"I'll be cleaning, so tell me when you're done."
"You can speak casually to me."
"We'll see."
Ah, this person really was cold.
Kang Hyeong-seok let out a low sigh and opened his bag in the room she had indicated.
The storage place must have delivered everything that morning; a pale layer of dust had settled over it, but there was no need for him to worry about that as well.
TAP, TAP, TAP.
He had padded the hammer with cloth and was assembling the frame of the shelves.
"Have this while you work."
Shin Jeong-a came in abruptly, set down a can of coffee, and went back out before he could say anything.
'Is that just how she is?'
The sense that she would be hard to get close to in various ways came on as strong as the sweetness of the canned coffee.
TAP, TAP, TAP.
"The shelves are assembled!"
"Yes."
Shin Jeong-a brought in boxes and began filling the shelves in the same room as Kang Hyeong-seok.
Neither of them spoke and an awkward air circulated, and it was Kang Hyeong-seok who broke the silence first.
"I heard you're coming in as a manager."
"You heard even that?"
"Yes. Was that rude of me?"
At that, Shin Jeong-a turned her eyes to him.
"You must have asked around a lot."
"It came to me by chance. If it offended you, I apologize."
"No."
For all that, Shin Jeong-a wore the face of someone deeply displeased.
Eyes that said, why do you know a thing like that?
Kang Hyeong-seok pressed his lips shut, straightened the rack he was holding, and spoke.
"You seem uncomfortable with me."
"Sorry?"
Perhaps because of the emotion carried in his voice, Shin Jeong-a's eyes thinned.
"I heard you were coming to our department. I came to help at the Director's request."
"...Sorry?"
"If I make you uncomfortable, I'll get up and go."
As if to show he did not say it idly, Kang Hyeong-seok pulled off his work gloves. When he then opened his bag and moved to put the tools away, Shin Jeong-a spoke in a fluster.
"Y-you're from the company?"
Kang Hyeong-seok stopped his hand on the zipper and looked up at her.
"You didn't know?"
"Oh! Ah!"
Emotion burst across the face of Shin Jeong-a, whose blankness had made him wonder whether that was simply her nature.
"I'm sorry. Excuse me a moment."
Shin Jeong-a took her phone outside with an angry face.
Then, after a long call, she came back with her gaze and her shoulders dropped.
"I'm sorry. My uncle, I mean the Director, said he'd found someone to help, so I thought you were from a labor agency."
Shin Jeong-a was thoroughly flustered, showing her regret and at a loss for what to do.
"Were you just on the phone with the Director......?"
"No! With my aunt. Ah."
Shin Jeong-a squeezed her eyes shut, scratched at her head irritably, and bowed her head to him.
"I'm sorry. That was thoughtless of me."
"Not at all, Manager. I understand completely."
"Ugh, really. It was something I never imagined, so I was completely thoughtless."
Shin Jeong-a repeated her apologies over and over, irritation risen all the way to her head.
"When we have the welcome dinner, I'll pay. I hope you'll let it go."
"...Yes."
"I'm really sorry. Truly."
She apologized to the point of embarrassment, so it was hard not to accept it.
Still, the awkward air from the start had lifted.
They introduced their ages and names to each other again and carried on talking in a far easier mood than before.
"I'm two years older."
"You outrank me, so you can speak casually."
"Ah, even so......."
"It's easier for me too if you're casual."
Shin Jeong-a smiled awkwardly and nodded.
"All right. Then I'll be casual."
She must have felt looked after.
It had been a misunderstanding, but she had made him uncomfortable and he had still responded this way.
Indeed, Shin Jeong-a was looking at Kang Hyeong-seok with quiet gratitude on her face.
"So what about your work today, Hyeong-seok?"
"General Manager Gwak Yeong-ho sorted it out."
"Oh, I feel so bad about this."
"He's a man who understands. He's a good person."
"Is he......?"
"Yes."
"What are the department members like?"
It was as Kang Hyeong-seok, working while they chatted, was finishing the installation of the modular rack.
JINGLE.
The shaman's bells he had put in his bag rang by themselves.
His hands stopped. Rigid, he looked at the bag on the floor, then shifted his eyes to Shin Jeong-a in front of the shelves.
"I asked what the department members are like."
"...Did you not hear something just now?"
"Hear what?"
The response came back that she had heard nothing.
Kang Hyeong-seok looked at the bag, then shook his head and answered.
"Never mind. I must have misheard."
"You must be tired. I feel bad."
"I'm fine. Nothing about this is hard."
"Hold on, I'll order food, let's eat before we go on. You haven't had lunch, right? Are black bean noodles all right?"
"Ah, yes. Please."
"I'll order, so take a rest, Hyeong-seok."
Shin Jeong-a left the room to make the call, and Kang Hyeong-seok opened his bag to check that the shaman's bells were still properly there.
They sat untouched inside the pencil case.
So he could not think they had knocked against something and made the sound.
'...What is this? Why did they ring on their own?'
They were a divine object.
Not ordinary shaman's bells but an object with numinous power.
That such bells had rung with a sound only he could hear weighed on him.
Kang Hyeong-seok put the bells back into the pencil case and into the bag, then slowly moved toward the direction where the rack was installed.
JINGLE.
Confirming that the bells rang again, he looked at the wall behind the rack.
Was something there?
But nothing in particular caught his eye.
It was only a wall neatly papered in white.
Kang Hyeong-seok checked that Shin Jeong-a was still on the phone and ran his palm over the wall.
'They didn't ring for nothing. There's something here.'
It was as he raised even his fingernails to look under the wallpaper.
"Do you want sweet and sour pork?"
Shin Jeong-a had come back and interrupted.
He took his hand off the wall, shook his head, and spoke.
"No thank you. Black bean noodles is enough."
"No? Sir, we'll skip the set, thanks. We'll go with the original order. One black bean noodles and one spicy seafood noodle soup."
As Shin Jeong-a finished the order, Kang Hyeong-seok glanced sideways at the wall where the rack stood.
To look at, it was a wall with nothing wrong with it.
JINGLE, JINGLE, JINGLE.
But quietly, the shaman's bells went on ringing.
And that was fanning an uneasy foreboding.
***
"Thanks for your work. I'll do the rest myself."
It was three in the afternoon.
The sorting was not finished, and yet Shin Jeong-a was telling him to head home first.
"Not at all. Let's finish the sorting together."
"It's fine. There's personal stuff too. I'd rather do it alone."
Kang Hyeong-seok looked at the empty boxes covering the floor and the parcels not yet opened, and nodded slightly.
Everything requiring real strength was done.
The rest was minor tidying, and he did not seem particularly needed.
"Understood. Then, about that."
That was right after Kang Hyeong-seok cast a glance at the small room.
BZZZZZ!
His phone buzzed as if urging him on, and when he checked the caller he narrowed the space between his brows.
It was Director Shin Chang-yong.
"Excuse me. I'll go and take this call."
"Oh, sure."
He passed Shin Jeong-a, stepped outside, pressed answer, and brought the phone to his ear.
(Assistant Manager Kang!)
Shin Chang-yong raised his gravelly voice abruptly.
"Yes, Director."
(I'm sorry.)
"Sorry?"
(How far along is the sorting?)
"The big items are all done, sir. Only the small things are left."
(Good work. Tell her to do the rest herself and come to the office now. Quickly.)
"Understood."
The call cut off at once.
From the flow of it he seemed to be calling him in personally, but the tone was so urgent that Kang Hyeong-seok wondered whether something had happened at the office.
"Was that the Director just now?"
"Yes. He says to come to the office now."
"To the office? Is it urgent?"
"I don't know. He did tell me to come quickly."
In any case, Shin Jeong-a had already told him to go.
Kang Hyeong-seok put the phone in his pocket, took off his gloves, and fetched his bag from inside.
But something nagged at him about going back to the office like this.
It was the small room where the shaman's bells had rung.
"Excuse me, Manager."
Kang Hyeong-seok pointed to the small room visible past the entryway and went on.
"That room there. Will you be sleeping in it?"
"No, I'm going to use it as a storage room."
Good.
There was something not right about that room.
He had lacked the time and the standing to check, but he had a strong feeling it was a room one must not sleep in.
"Understood. Then when you sleep in the big room tonight, I think it would be better to shut that room's door and leave its window open."
Shin Jeong-a looked at the small room with an uncomprehending face and then met his eyes.
"Why?"
"The remodeling can't have been long ago; there's a bit of a paint smell in there. It probably isn't good for you."
Shin Jeong-a's eyes widened.
Then she made a hmm sound through her nose and nodded.
"Got it. Thanks for looking out for me."
"Not at all. I'll see you at the office, then."
"Sure. And Hyeong-seok, thank you for today."
Kang Hyeong-seok bobbed his head once toward her and walked to his car.
Then, as he turned the car toward the office, he watched her house recede in the rearview mirror.
Strangely, that house kept catching in his eye.
As though he had looked at a house where something that must not exist existed.