Chapter 88
Kwon Oh-sung, the chairman of Osung Group, came to the mansion. He was furious when he saw his son, Kwon Suho, who had turned into a dog.
"What on earth is going on here?! My only son has become like this! Chairman! How do you plan to take responsibility for what's happened to my son?"
It felt strange to see Chairman Kwon Oh-sung, a man I'd only seen in news or MeTube videos, shouting at the Chairman. Hong Mi-ri frowned as if she was displeased.
x
"Chairman Kwon. Mind your words. What do you mean the Chairman should take responsibility?"
"My son ended up like this while sleeping in this mansion, of course he should take responsibility! This mansion is the problem! Something similar happened here five years ago too! I said it then! The site of this mansion is bad! Building a house in such a place full of negative energy! There's a limit to stupidity!"
"Five years ago..."
As Ms. Hong Mi-ri seemed to be lost in thought for a moment-
Kwon Oh-sung, looking at the still growling Kwon Suho who was tied up tightly, spoke as if filled with rage.
"It must be that demon they say wanders this mansion! Why did you leave such a thing alone to cause this mess in the first place! You should have caught and killed that inhuman thing long ago! I'll do it myself!"
Swish-!
Kwon Oh-sung drew a sword from his waist.
That's right. It was a real sword. A Japanese sword.
"Gasp!"
"Kyaah!"
The housekeepers screamed at the fierce killing intent and blade of the crazed chaebol. The only ones calm in this situation were the terrifying housekeeper ajumma and Cheon Dae-gon.
Chairman Cheon Dae-gon said,
"Watch your words, you shaman."
"Chairman! Even in this situation, will you protect your flesh and blood! That thing is no longer your family! Just watch. I won't stand by idly anymore."
Kwon Oh-sung, the king of Osung, grabbed his son's nape with his rough hand and dragged him outside the mansion. It was a chaotic morning, as if a storm had swept through.
I felt fear watching Kwon Suho, who had killed and eaten many dogs, become a dog himself.
I must avoid stacking two quirks at all costs.
***
In the end, I ended up meeting the Chairman alone.
Originally, we were meeting the Chairman because of the problem Kwon Suho caused, but now that Kwon Suho had completely lost it, I wondered if the meeting was even necessary.
Cheon Dae-gon smoked in the Chairman's office of the mansion. I say he smoked, but it was thicker than what I usually saw and looked like a sausage.
"Ha Young-won. I hear from Mi-ri that you possess quite an unusual talent."
"...Pardon? Well, I..."
Swish-
The Chairman held out something to me as I sat in the chair pulled up in front of his desk. It was a photograph.
It seemed to be a very old photo, showing a young man in a suit.
"Tell me what you feel when you look at this photo."
What I feel? The fact that it's an old photo. The fact that a man is standing in a suit. And the fact that the face resembled the "Self-Portrait" painting I had often seen.
"Is this perhaps you in your younger days, Chairman? And is this your wife next to you?"
It was a photo of a young man and woman standing together, looking straight ahead.
Given the slightly solemn feeling, I thought it might be from a wedding or some such occasion. But the Chairman shook his head at my words.
"This isn't a photo of me. It's a photo of my sibling. My twin. That's why I've kept Mi-ri by my side for so long. I had a twin. When I look at Mi-ri, it reminds me of that."
Cheon Dae-gon had a twin? This was the first I'd heard of it.
"The reason I established the school foundation and started nurturing talent was also because of this twin sibling, Ha Young-won. Remember this man's face well. You might meet him somewhere someday."
That was the end of Cheon Dae-gon's story.
I decided to leave the mansion now. Honestly, it wasn't a place I wanted to stay long. Kwon Oh-sung had said this mansion was cursed and full of negative energy.
I don't know if that's true, but it really was an unpleasant place.
"Hey. Get in."
I was relieved that Ms. Hong Mi-ri offered to drive me home.
As I was about to get in the car, Yoo Dahee, holding a cat, came out to the garden to see me off.
"Are you leaving?"
"...Yeah."
I felt awkward looking at Yoo Dahee. Of course, Yoo Dahee seemed to be well aware of this fact.
"You've been avoiding me lately. Honestly, it hurts. You're one of my few friends."
"......"
"Summer vacation is coming up soon. I was thinking of going to a villa near a pond during the break, and I was going to ask if you wanted to come along if you're interested."
There's a villa near a pond? Rich people really are different.
Soon, Yoo Dahee smiled with a slightly mischievous look.
"By the way, they say there's a water ghost in that pond. Isn't that super creepy? You like that kind of thing, don't you, Young-won? Things like feng shui and ghost stories. You also like haunted mountain lodges."
...Damn, I hate that stuff. I've never liked it. I'm allergic to ghosts.
But it seems I had been labeled in Yoo Dahee's mind as someone who likes feng shui and ghost stories. So, she invited me to the pond with the water ghost for my sake.
This was Yoo Dahee's way of extending an olive branch. A "let's be friends again" kind of feeling.
In fact, Yoo Dahee had never once accused me of being "the kidnapper's son! Accomplice!"
I was just unilaterally avoiding Yoo Dahee on my own. I thought long and hard and decided to admit that I hadn't been very manly in many ways.
"I'm going to meet Jung-seok and Yang Juhee now. Want to come along?"
"Hmm, sure! Baekseol, guard the house well."
Yoo Dahee casually put the white cat down in the garden and got in the car.
Vroom-
After driving for a while, the car stopped at the "Yeongji Foundation Talent Development Institute". It was where Ms. Hong Mi-ri's office was located.
Familiar people were standing in front of the office. Yang Juhee, Jung-seok, and Bong Ji-yeon. They all seemed to have arrived first by taxi because I had contacted them in advance.
"Kids, let's go upstairs."
At Ms. Hong Mi-ri's suggestion, we all went up to the third floor.
Third floor office. A desk and chairs placed in a fairly large open space. The kids sat awkwardly in those chairs and looked at my face.
"Ha Young-won, explain what's going on. And why did you tell us to come here?"
Jung-seok, who could be called our vice-captain, asked me. I told Jung-seok:
"Ms. Hong Mi-ri will be helping us by acting as a spy for the Chairman's side from now on. She's letting us use the third floor of this talent development institute. In other words, this is our secret base."
"Wow, a secret base! It's almost summer vacation, it'd be great to decorate this place! Let's put a TV here and fill it with snacks!"
Yoo Dahee clapped her hands together, very excited.
Something I've noticed lately is that Yoo Dahee has an innocent side, unlike my vague impression of her as an extremely cold, rude, and aloof cat-like girl.
According to my brain, there are two types of rich young ladies: one is the princess type who grows up to be haughty and arrogant, and the other is the naive young lady who grows up pampered and doesn't know the ways of the world. Yoo Dahee seemed to be the latter. And Yang Juhee was the former, even though she wasn't from a rich family.
"Hey! Forget about that! We all died last night, didn't we?!"
"......"
Right. I understood why Yang Juhee was angry.
What I wanted to say was...
"And you! Why are you being friendly with Yoo Dahee again! Weren't you two awkward because you fought? Why are you sitting next to each other! And why do you smell like the same shampoo! Why!"
Yang Juhee growled like a bulldog unexpectedly hit with a fly swatter. Her eyes were bloodshot and she had a ghostly, ominous aura.
It was because of the quirk.
"You all died yesterday. So now each of you has a quirk. Yang Juhee, yours is a quirk that intensifies jealousy, and Jung-seok, yours is... a golden arrow quirk that makes you go crazy with love."
"Golden arrow? You mean Cupid's golden arrow? You're saying I'm suffering from a quirk right now? I feel completely normal! Is this what it's like to have a quirk? What about Bong Ji-yeon? Does she have a quirk too?"
Jung-seok's eyes blazed as he looked at Bong Ji-yeon, as if they might shoot fire. It's because of the quirk.
No... was he always like this? Bong Ji-yeon said:
"Lies. You're all lying, aren't you? Why did you call me here!"
Bong Ji-yeon looked confused.
Her trembling appearance was just like a cat or dog that had been abandoned multiple times and could no longer trust people.
Hah... I exhaled briefly and then told everyone truthfully about what had happened last night.
"...The corridor opened last night?"
Even Yoo Dahee, who had just been talking about how nice it would be to decorate the secret base, became serious.
Yoo Dahee was always pulled into the corridor against her will when it opened. She must have been surprised that she wasn't there for this random matching.
"The problem is that it takes 100 points to cure each quirk. I only have 280 points right now. Which means one of you three will have to have your quirk cured later."
It's best to cure quirks right away. I vividly felt what happens when two quirks stack up through Kwon Suho's incident today. Jung-seok asked:
"You said when two quirks stack up, a reversal between ghost and human occurs. And your status window can't cure that. Once reversed... can they never return?"
Jung-seok's question was perfectly natural. Even though he was suffering from a quirk, Jung-seok's thinking had a rational side.
As I was unable to answer, Ms. Hong Mi-ri spoke:
"Reversal is different from simple possession. Even if you drive out the ghost, the original owner of the body has disappeared somewhere, so the body becomes empty and dies. Well, they die either way if the reversal state continues. The dead soul eats away at the living body, so it rots while still alive."
Reversal was ultimately death. I started to feel really scared.
"Is it absolutely impossible to return to normal?"
"It might be possible if there was a spiritual expert skilled enough to drive out the evil spirit that has taken root in the body and retrieve the original owner's soul that has been wandering the afterlife. You'd need to bring in a living Buddha or something."
In other words, it was impossible to reverse the reversal. That's when Yang Juhee spoke:
"Teacher, this is all well and good, but aren't you sticking too close to a student? If a teacher and student are that close, it'll cause bad rumors at school."
Yang Juhee was different from her usual self. Somehow, she was full of irritation today.
"And there are too many women here! The smell of powder is so strong I can't breathe!"