A Night of Misty Rain (2)

Ji-won, leafing through the exhibition design drafts with a hand too lazy to pretend it cared, lasted barely ten minutes before picking up his phone again. He opened the hidden folder in his photo album and stared for a long while at the single portrait he had taken in London.

"CEO, the backdrop here is rather decent. Shall I take a photo of you?"

"No, thank you. If I leave traces in too many places, the people who have to erase them will have a harder job of it."

Gaon refused flatly, her tone uncharacteristically clipped, then fell silent for a moment as if turning something over in her mind. At last she murmured, almost to herself:

"Though… I suppose there's no longer any need for that."

It was the kind of remark that made a cold shiver run down the listener's spine. Unable to bring himself to probe further, Ji-won had merely kept a wary eye on her, feigning interest in the scenery — and only when her attention drifted elsewhere did he manage, barely, to salvage a single side profile. Snapped in haste, the shot was slightly out of focus, but he hadn't dared try again.

"You have surprisingly cute tastes, you know…. Look at this. People just don't realize it, but you really do have an eye for things."

In the photo he had pored over until it was worn smooth during that week, Gaon stood before a souvenir shop where charming little trinkets were prettily arranged in the window. Her face was expressionless, yet to Ji-won — who had watched over her with careful attentiveness for days — it was unmistakably a good mood. What had caught the eye of Gaon, who was habitually indifferent to nearly everything, was an adorable little teapot painted with the London Eye and a red double-decker bus.

"Does that one please you?"

"Yes, it's cute."

"Shall I buy it for you?"

"…Pardon?"

Gaon, unable to keep pace with how quickly he already had his wallet out, could only blink before shaking her head a beat too late.

"No. I doubt I'd ever have a use for it. Something someone put their heart into making should go to a person who'll use it well."

True, she would never brew tea with it herself — but if she liked it, she could simply keep it on a shelf as an ornament. People sometimes bought useless things just to indulge a mood, regretted it later, and went on living — wasn't that how it worked? The memory of Gaon turning away without a flicker of regret lingered long in Ji-won's mind.

For the whole flight home, he had wished to see more varied emotions surface on that composed face of hers, which remained flawless even in sleep. And that wish had waged ceaseless war against a far more fundamental question: do I even have the right to want this person?

Reasonably speaking, there were countless reasons why he shouldn't. The gulf in the years they had lived was too vast to fathom, and the duty and mission she carried in her hands were so immense and so solemn that no ordinary human standard could hope to measure them.

Yet the hundred thousand reasons for folding away his private feelings lost their strength, helplessly, before one primal and overwhelming desire. I know perfectly well she's not someone I can just casually hit on. So what? I've already fallen for her. What am I supposed to do about it? No matter how hard I try to distract myself, she keeps popping into my head. Sweeping his hair back with an irritated hand, Ji-won glared for a long time at a calendar bearing only a few meager entries. Of course, staring at it wouldn't conjure a schedule out of thin air.

I really, truly want to see her in person now…. The guide meeting is next Thursday, and the counseling session the week after. Haah. Why isn't there a single troublemaking spirit these days? There's no excuse to visit headquarters at all. Would it be too much to complain that my allowance calculation looks off? Yeah, that would be. However urgent I am, I can't afford to look like a cheapskate. And if I just say I stopped by out of boredom, people will think I've lost my mind.

Clicking his tongue in frustration and kneading the back of his neck, Ji-won suddenly sensed movement and glanced toward the door. The clack of high heels — that would be Kim Soo-bin. If she had something to say, why not knock and come in instead of pacing outside? His head was already a tangled mess; he didn't need someone dawdling at his door.

"Come in."

"Yes? Oh…, yes."

At his raised voice came a flustered reply from beyond the door, and then it opened with the utmost caution. Soo-bin shuffled in, her face drained of color. Taking in the wild agitation in her eyes, Ji-won let out a short sigh. It had been half a year since the incident with her stalker of an ex-boyfriend — since the day he had dispatched the man's spirit — and she hadn't so much as met his gaze in all that time. If she had come of her own accord, it could only mean something serious.

"What is it?"

"Um…, Director."

"Go ahead."

"Haah…, it's, well…. About thirty minutes ago, a middle-aged woman came into the parking lot, and…."

When Soo-bin trailed off, her face on the verge of tears, Ji-won — who had been watching her steadily — arched an eyebrow at once and urged her to finish. He was well aware it wasn't a generous way to treat someone already terrified out of her wits, but his patience, never stocked in generous supply to begin with, was currently invested entirely in one place, leaving nothing to spare elsewhere.

"And?"

"She keeps talking to thin air."

"Alone?"

"Yes. She raises her voice sometimes…. From what I could overhear, it sounded like she was trying to persuade someone about where they needed to go…. Oh! She said they have to go to Jungcheon."

Ji-won, who had been resting his chin on one hand with a mildly bored expression, widened his eyes slightly and straightened up. Talking about Jungcheon — then she's a guide. Come to think of it, the world is full of remarkably clueless ghosts. I've heard that even the departed, stripped of every sense, feel a chill of dread when they come near a High-Level Guide. Do they have no survival instinct whatsoever? Ah — right, they're already dead, so of course they don't.

"Which parking lot?"

"The VIP lot. Right near where your car is parked, Director."

"Understood. I'll go take a look, so get back to work."

After sending off the visibly relieved Soo-bin, Ji-won first raised the blinds on the window overlooking the parking lot. The VIP lot behind the gallery building was open only to clients who had booked appointments in advance to purchase high-value works, so apart from his own car it was almost always empty. For a parking lot with so little foot traffic to be this densely populated was unprecedented in the gallery's history.

One human, three spirits…. Good grief. What nerve does an ordinary guide have, taking that on? They look like they left the world the hard way — what if she gets attacked? If talking them down doesn't work, she should cut her losses and walk away.

Clicking his tongue as he studied the haggard, sweat-soaked face of the middle-aged woman, Ji-won examined each spirit's countenance with a careful eye. It was the twisted mien peculiar to spirits who kept up their wicked ways even after death. Well, that makes them easier to draw, at least.

"The guide, I can understand — burning with a sense of mission and all. But where do you three think this is, swarming in like a pack? Hm? Shameless. Other spirits don't dare come within ten feet of this wall when I'm inside the gallery."

Pulling out his sketchbook, Ji-won swiftly captured the spirits' faces, then pushed open the door to the emergency stairwell. The instant he did, the guide and spirits locked in their tense standoff whirled around, startled. The spirits, instinctively sensing that Ji-won was a different order of being from anyone they had ever faced, began rolling their eyeballs wildly in search of an escape route — while So-hwa, who had chased the three blocks until her strength gave out, her face crumpling with exhaustion, stood frozen.

I finally found spirits with a decent success fee…. I was almost done, too…. Of all places, why did I have to run into a High-Level Guide here? The unfairness of it nearly brought her to tears.

"Ah…. Hello."

"You know who I am?"

Unable to hold back the sigh rising in her chest, So-hwa nodded slowly. There was no way she couldn't recognize one of only three High-Level Guides in all of Korea. They said he could send a spirit to Jungcheon in an instant without laying a finger on it. A young man dressed in clothes that expensive — clearly blessed with devoted parents, too. The world was simply far too unfair.

Ji-won studied the despair written across her face for a moment, then cast an indifferent glance at the spirits already scattering like startled fish. No rush, anyway — I only need to burn the sketches I've already made. Go on, enjoy your last taste of freedom in this world. It won't last long.

"You're a guide, I take it?"

"Yes. I'm Im So-hwa."

"Cha Ji-won. Ms. Im — how far have you been chasing them?"

"From Segang Hospital…."

At an answer far beyond anything he had expected, Ji-won's eyes widened a fraction. If she had walked here from Segang Hospital — even by the shortest route, that was an hour and a half. His gaze swept over her in an instant: bare feet in nothing but plastic slippers. He clicked his tongue inwardly. So this is the guide I've heard about — the one caring for a daughter left comatose by a car accident. No wonder. I wondered if this work really demanded this much of anyone. She knew it was beyond her, and chased them anyway, hoping to add even a little more to the hospital bills. Having roughly pieced together her circumstances, Ji-won made an effort not to let pity show on his face and broke into an easy smile.

"You've had a hard time of it. I've already sketched their faces, so all you need to do is burn them, Ms. Im. You did inform the spirits of the proper protocol, didn't you? Shall I lend you a lighter?"

"I — no…. You're the one who did the work. How could I possibly…."

"Not at all. It's thanks to your hard pursuit that they came to my attention in the first place. Take it. If I burn them with my own hand, it gets recorded in the ledger as my achievement — and I'm not the kind of leech who steals credit for someone else's labor."

"Still…."

Though her face brightened a little at his jesting tone, So-hwa couldn't readily accept his kindness. What a diligent person. Handling three spirits who had been dead more than five years would settle at least two weeks' worth of hospital fees.

"If it still troubles your conscience, buy me a cup of coffee sometime after your daughter has made a full recovery."

"…!"

"I have an excellent memory, so don't even think of wriggling out of it. I'll be waiting."

"…Thank you."

As So-hwa murmured the words in a stifled voice and hesitantly accepted the spirit portraits, the smile at the corner of Ji-won's mouth deepened a touch. Really, there's no need to be so moved — I have my own calculations behind all this.

"You must have walked a long way — you must be terribly hot. Come inside for a bit and have a nice cold tea before you go."

Having finally pressed a glass of iced tea on So-hwa despite her repeated protests, Ji-won returned to his desk the moment she left, his face bright with expectation. When he had sent Park Jae-kwon to Jungcheon last year, it had taken headquarters roughly an hour and twenty minutes to dig through his records and come find him in person. How long would it take this time? Arms folded, he fixed an unwavering stare on the phone he'd laid on the desk — and at last, when the long-awaited caller's name appeared on the screen, he broke into a wide grin.

"Yes, Cha Ji-won speaking."

"Is that so? I did witness a guide dealing with some spirits a little while ago, but I wouldn't say I did anything to interfere…. Shall I come to headquarters and verify the Buganrok myself?"

"Would you be willing to do that?"

Willing? Of course I'm willing.

"I'll head over right now."