Part 3. What Must Not Be Seen (3)
RING-RING-RING! BEEP.
(Assistant Manager Kang, how far have you gotten?)
"Yes, Director. I'm near the office."
(Don't come into the office. You know the cafe out front?)
"Benepia?"
(That's the one. I'm here with General Manager Gwak, so come over.)
Kang Hyeong-seok hung up, narrowed the space between his brows, and sighed through his nose.
What on earth was this about?
To be truthful, he had been hoping to clock out from the site, so the Director's summons was unwelcome.
And the fact that General Manager Gwak Yeong-ho was there too made it feel more uneasy still.
FLING.
He parked in a public lot near the cafe and pushed open the door of Benepia.
"Assistant Manager Kang, over here!"
Shin Chang-yong, holding a table and seated facing Gwak Yeong-ho, greeted him with a face full of apology.
"I was out of line. Do you have any idea how much my wife scolded me?"
Shin Jeong-a had indeed called her aunt.
Seeing that the fallout had reached Shin Chang-yong, Kang Hyeong-seok sat down beside Gwak Yeong-ho with an embarrassed face.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know a call would go out like that."
"Never mind. I'm an old-fashioned man, so I make mistakes like this now and then. Bear with me."
"N-not at all, Director."
Blood really was a frightening thing.
The way he apologized with that flustered air was the spitting image of Shin Jeong-a, and it brought Kang Hyeong-seok out in a sweat.
He looked to Gwak Yeong-ho for help, but the man only nodded with a curious smile on his face.
"We've come to a cafe, so we should drink coffee. What will you have?"
"I'll buy it, sir."
"Never mind. General Manager Gwak, buy him something cold with this card."
"Yes, sir."
With General Manager Gwak Yeong-ho going off to buy him coffee, Kang Hyeong-seok truly felt as if he were sitting on a cushion of thorns.
But Shin Chang-yong was sending him nothing but apologetic, grateful looks.
"Tsk, tsk. Ah, dear me."
Shin Chang-yong sipped his coffee, his throat perhaps parched.
CLATTER.
When Gwak Yeong-ho returned with the coffee, Shin Chang-yong first drew an envelope from inside his jacket.
"It's a small thing, but take it."
"No, Director."
"Don't feel burdened, just put it away. They're gift certificates."
"Gift certificates......?"
"I don't even know how to use these anyway. Just think of it as today's overtime pay and put it away."
NUDGE.
While Kang Hyeong-seok could not bring himself to reach out, Gwak Yeong-ho nudged the tip of his shoe with his foot.
A signal to just take it.
"I'll accept it with thanks."
It was not an easy thing.
Receiving an envelope of gift certificates handed over by a director in person.
Or handling an envelope of certificates this thick.
"And, General Manager Gwak. You should have told me from the start, 'This isn't right.' I was the only one who got scolded for nothing."
"I'm sorry, Director. But this fellow here volunteered to go, and briskly at that."
"Did he?"
That was after Shin Chang-yong moved his gaze from Gwak Yeong-ho to Kang Hyeong-seok.
"He's a rare sort these days. And a subordinate I rely on a great deal."
"Hmm."
Shin Chang-yong's gaze on Kang Hyeong-seok grew steadily more serious, and Gwak Yeong-ho went on praising him as though he had been waiting for this moment alone.
"His ability, his handling of the work, all of it. His loyalty to the company in particular is better than most managers or deputy managers."
"Ah, is that so?"
Shin Chang-yong was a founding member of the company.
So Gwak Yeong-ho's words, that the man was capable and loyal besides, seemed most welcome to him.
"I'll do my best to bring him along, Director."
"How long have you been with us?"
"This is my third year, Director."
His eyes said the answer was quite a shame.
"A pity. If only your experience were a little longer......."
"Indeed, sir."
"General Manager Gwak, bring him along well."
"Understood."
"Well then, I've given what I came to give, so I'll get going. And, Assistant Manager Kang."
"Yes."
Seeing Kang Hyeong-seok rise with him, Shin Chang-yong smiled and gestured for him to sit.
"You went through trouble because of an old man's foolishness. I keep forgetting the times have changed. I'm sorry."
"No, not at all."
"Keep at the job well. I'll be watching too."
The cafe owner's 'Have a good day' followed Shin Chang-yong out the door.
In the quieted cafe, Kang Hyeong-seok fingered the envelope and met Gwak Yeong-ho's eyes.
"What did you say to him, sir?"
"You think I'd just sit there and say nothing? Looks like you've made your face properly known."
"Thank you."
"And those, there's a shoe repair stall just up the road. They'll change them for cash there. Minus ten percent, or was it twenty."
Gwak Yeong-ho showed his curiosity about how much was in the envelope.
It was thick, and Shin Chang-yong had handed it over himself, so of course the amount was of interest.
RUSTLE.
When Kang Hyeong-seok eased the envelope open, crisp certificates showed themselves, though the issue dates went back a while.
Hundred-thousand-won and fifty-thousand-won notes were mixed together, and even at a glance it looked like five hundred thousand won.
"Not bad for overtime pay. Spend it well, Assistant Manager Kang."
Gwak Yeong-ho was as pleased as if he had received the certificates himself, and he kneaded Kang Hyeong-seok's shoulders.
"Get home safe, then! I'll be off as well."
"Sir, I should also......."
"Work at this hour? Just clock out."
The hour really was an awkward one.
Still, there was no denying it left him with plenty of time.
Kang Hyeong-seok held the envelope as though it were precious and bowed his head as Gwak Yeong-ho went out the cafe door.
***
CLATTER.
Shin Jeong-a, slipping clothes out of a box onto hangers and hanging them on the rack, rolled her stiff shoulders.
"Ugh, this is hard."
She clicked her tongue and fiddled with the cigarettes in her pocket. But she did not take one out, and instead looked over the parcels filling the room.
There were far too many clothes.
Strangely, on ordinary days it seemed she had hardly anything to wear, yet at times like this there were so many clothes that her breath caught.
"Tsk."
Should she have asked Kang Hyeong-seok to help a little more while he was there?
She thought about it for a moment, then smiled wryly and shook her head.
There was a lot of personal luggage, and she was not so shameless as to ask a man she had just met to help sort her clothes as well.
'Should I just live like this for a while?'
Luggage sorted itself out as you lived with it.
She had set aside what she would wear to work tomorrow and packed her bag, so she did not need to push herself any further today.
'No, let me at least hang all the clothes.'
Otherwise they would wrinkle.
With a troubled face Shin Jeong-a hung the clothes on the rack one by one. Out-of-season clothes went into vacuum bags and got shoved under the rack, and her shoes went neatly into the shoe cabinet.
A little more, a little more.
Sorting clothes like that, Shin Jeong-a felt her eyelids growing heavier.
Nodding off, she yawned widely and put a cushion under her head.
'Let me just close my eyes a moment. I can do it before dawn.'
She was not ignoring Kang Hyeong-seok's advice to sleep in the big room.
But she was not going to sleep properly.
Meaning only to rest a moment, she turned off the light alone and dropped into a shallow sleep.
It was around the time the hour reached one in the morning.
PATTER-PATTER.
A sound from above disturbed Shin Jeong-a's rest.
"Mmmm."
She groaned and turned over, but the sound soon came again.
PATTER-PATTER-PATTER.
It was somehow different from footsteps.
Shin Jeong-a opened her blurred eyes faintly, and soon she saw what the sound was.
A dark night.
A black ceiling.
Something was stuck to that ceiling.
'Huh......?'
Shin Jeong-a shut her mouth by instinct.
Because the thing on the ceiling had a shape like a person's.
PATTER-PATTER-PATTER.
It crawled toward the door, pressed flat against the ceiling.
All the while Shin Jeong-a watched it without so much as blinking.
'What is that?'
She had a premonition that the moment she blinked, it would come toward her.
She could not even let out the sound of her breathing, and it went on roaming the ceiling.
PATTER-PATTER.
The noise was the sound of its palms meeting the ceiling.
It was using both arms to crawl across the ceiling as fast as if it were a floor.
PATTER-PATTER-PATTER.
It vanished past the open door, and Shin Jeong-a dragged ragged breaths through her nose and swallowed dry.
Was it gone?
Was this sleep paralysis from the change of surroundings?
Or was she simply having a viciously vivid nightmare?
It was the moment she tried to move her body, frozen with fear.
PATTER-PATTER-PATTER!
It came back fast and made one wide circuit of the ceiling.
As Shin Jeong-a pushed rapid, soundless breaths through her faintly parted lips in maddening terror,
TAP.
It pushed off the ceiling with one hand and raised its upper body.
Directly above Shin Jeong-a.
Hanging upside down like a bat, it reached a hand toward her and raised its head.
And so its face and Shin Jeong-a's drew gradually closer.
A face blackened, rotted, and festering.
Skin split wide open as though it had been hacked with a knife.
There were no eyes, and unnameable insects seethed in the sockets.
SWAY, SWAY, SWAY.
Lying on the floor, Shin Jeong-a had no choice but to stare at it as it swung like a pendulum.
Because if she made even the slightest sound, it seemed it would lunge.
SWAY, SWAY, SWAY.
Fingers swaying close to her eyes.
After watching this for a long time, Shin Jeong-a let go of consciousness as though fainting.
Even so, it hung from the ceiling for a good while before vanishing with a patter-patter.
***
"Good morning."
Kang Hyeong-seok, in early again today, looked around at once.
'Has Manager Shin not come in yet?'
There were still fifteen minutes until start time.
Thinking she would be along soon, he opened his bag and set out what he needed one item at a time.
He turned on his monitor, and by the time he came back with coffee in his tumbler, Assistant Manager Lee Jin-pyeong and Namgung Min-a had arrived as well.
As he greeted them briefly, Shin Jeong-a came in with Gwak Yeong-ho.
"You're all in early. Say hello, everyone. This is Manager Shin Jeong-a, our new arrival."
Shin Jeong-a, standing beside Gwak Yeong-ho, bobbed her head.
"I'm Shin Jeong-a. I look forward to working with you."
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP!
That was after the department welcomed her with applause, starting with Gwak Yeong-ho.
"Assistant Manager Kang, show her around the office. That all right?"
"Yes, sir."
Kang Hyeong-seok was the only one who had met Shin Jeong-a before.
So her face showed quiet gratitude as he rose from his chair.
"The fax and the multifunction printer are over there. I'll send you the company intranet ID and password by messenger later."
"Got it. And the A4 paper?"
"We usually keep it under the printer. If it runs out, Assistant Manager Lee Jin-pyeong or I refill it. If there's none, just tell me."
"Got it. I'll count on you."
Her voice was oddly listless.
Kang Hyeong-seok, about to lead her to the pantry, narrowed the space between his brows and looked at her.
"What?"
"Were you sorting things late last night?"
"No, no. I just slept badly."
"You did sleep in the big room, didn't you?"
"Ah, right."
Recalling what Kang Hyeong-seok had told her, life came back into Shin Jeong-a's eyes.
"You said there was a paint smell in the small room, right? Maybe that's why I slept badly. I had a nightmare."
Remembering the night before, Shin Jeong-a pressed her thumb against the corners of her eyes, where exhaustion and irritation sat side by side.
"...You slept in the small room?"
"I was sorting clothes and dozed off."
Kang Hyeong-seok pressed his lower lip with his upper teeth and looked around.
Everyone was busy with their own work.
"Let me show you the pantry. There's an espresso machine and it's a bit complicated to use. Come with me."
With Shin Jeong-a following without any suspicion, Kang Hyeong-seok went into the pantry.
It was working hours, so there was no one inside.
So Kang Hyeong-seok worked the espresso machine and rubbed the corners of his eyes.
The spirit eye.
The eye that sees ghosts.
Now able to handle perfectly the power he had once been unable to control, he turned to look at Shin Jeong-a with his spirit eye.
"Nothing complicated about it. I've used one before."
Shin Jeong-a was looking at the espresso machine, knowing nothing.
Her words did not reach him.
Directly behind Shin Jeong-a.
Because he could see a petty ghost that looked like an old woman strangling Shin Jeong-a's neck with its loosened hair.