Chapter 5
005 – What Magicians Do (2)
[Urgent/Same-Day Pay] Overnight Building Security *Dusk-grade* Daily Pay: 220,000 won.
Location - Construction site near Sanmun University
Duties
-Access control and patrols
-10:30 p.m.–6:30 a.m. the following day
Nighttime snacks and the *Dusk-grade site manual* provided
I clicked on it as if entranced.
220,000 won for one night?
Minimum wage might be steadily rising, but around here, it’s rare to find a part-time job paying over 200,000 won a day.
That was probably because there were so many college students around.
College students devour the sweet gigs near campus first, like termites chewing through a wooden post.
But something in the job description caught my attention.
The term *Dusk-grade* kept coming up.
Was it some kind of security-industry slang?
「Eoseureum: a pure Korean word meaning ‘slightly dark’ or ‘around dusk’」
That was what the internet said.
Since it meant darkness, evening, or nighttime, maybe it referred to ‘night security.’
More importantly, if I didn’t call right away, some cash-strapped college student might snatch the job from me.
I hurriedly called the number listed in the job posting.
# # #
“You’re Ha Yu-seong, right? College students these days are a pain. If they don’t like something about the job, they just quit and run off. The last kid talked a big game, then stopped answering my calls.”
The site office was a shipping container.
A middle-aged man wearing a black vest poured me a cup of instant coffee and held it out.
It was iced coffee, with ice cubes floating on top.
“You’ll get paid in cash when your shift ends in the morning, okay? If you run off halfway through, you won’t get paid, so you need to work diligently.”
“Yes.”
“I like that straightforward answer. Have you worked out or anything? You’re built pretty well.”
I took a few sips of the iced coffee and gave him a casual answer.
“I just do some home workouts as a hobby.”
“Home workouts… Push-ups and things like that? Back in my day, I used to go all the way over to Mount Gyeryu and do pull-ups. But now that I’m older, my joints hurt, so it’s just…”
He started to say something, then glanced at the clock hanging on the office wall.
He smacked his lips, as if trying to get rid of the sweet aftertaste of the instant coffee, then handed me a leather-bound folder.
“There are a few simple rules in there, so give them a read. I’m about to clock out now. There’s nothing difficult, so just take it easy. Take it easy.”
The man took off the vest draped over his shoulders.
Then he changed into a comfortable pair of slippers.
He was clocking out, while I was clocking in.
I hadn’t even started my shift yet, and I was already jealous of him.
I opened the folder to steel myself for the night.
The words were written on a slightly crumpled, discolored sheet of A4 paper, probably old.
「Dori Building Security Rules」
1. Restrict entry by outsiders and vagrants
Keep the entire site closed off. If you find unauthorized trespassers (MeTubers, homeless people, etc.), make them leave immediately.
2. Prevent accidents and inspect materials
Check for hazards around the site, such as falling-object zones and interior pools of water, and patrol to prevent theft of any remaining materials.
*3. No entry to the basement*
*After 10:00 p.m., fully secure all basement entrances and increase patrols. If the basement door is found open, offer the sacrifice at the altar below.*
*3-1. How to manage sacrifices*
*An ample supply of sacrifices is stored inside the basement.*
*4. Survival tips for an encounter with Lord Wagijagi in the basement*
*Remove anything bearing your name.*
*If you make eye contact, say “Komori.”*
*If you encounter a body part such as a leg or arm, offer the clothing covering that part.*
*5.━─━─━───.*
*Odd numbers must become even, and even numbers must become odd.*
*Lord Wagijagi, Wagi-wagi-jagi-jagi─.*
Ugh, what is this?
Up through the second item, they looked like security rules I could more or less expect.
But things started getting weird at number three, and by number four, the rules were full of things I couldn’t understand.
As for item five, someone seemed to have scratched at it with their fingernails, making the words almost impossible to read.
“Excuse me, sir. I wanted to ask about the basement in item three.”
I asked the security guard who was about to clock out.
The man, who was combing his greasy hair after wearing a hat for a long time, raised an eyebrow.
“Item three? What are you talking about? And this building doesn’t have a basement.”
“Huh? It doesn’t?”
“See that sign? They put up four floors above ground, and they started building a parking garage underground, but the construction company went bankrupt and the whole project fell through.”
Beyond the window of the container office, banners fluttered in the wind.
「Lien Enforcement in Progress」
「Trespassing, property damage, or defacing posted notices may be punishable under relevant laws. - Dori General Construction」
The unfinished building was wrapped in construction fabric.
Looking at the fabric draped over steel frames and concrete, gleaming in the moonlight, the building looked like a ‘mummy,’ and it gave me the creeps.
As I stood there, slightly frozen, the man opened the office door and said,
“It’s nothing much. Sometimes some punks calling themselves MeTubers or whatever show up and try to get inside. Just keep them out. If you get sleepy, take a nap.”
A night job where you could sleep if you got tired?
220,000 won a day?
This was easier than falling off a log─.
That was what I wanted to say,
but I couldn’t.
*3. No entry to the basement*
*3-1. How to manage sacrifices*
*4. Survival tips for an encounter with Lord Wagijagi in the basement*
*5.━─━─━───.*
**Words trapped inside the markings.
I thought I had a rough idea what they meant.
Maybe it was something no one else could see, something visible only to me.
In a way, it was like ‘Bori-bori.’
Something out of the ordinary.
Just as I came to that conclusion, the security guard shut the door with a thud and left.
Whoooooosh─.
The old wall-mounted fan spun inside the container office.
I was alone in that place, where the lights flickered.
No—if I counted Bori-bori, curled up in the corner over there, there were two of us.
Maybe curious about the instant coffee, Bori-bori kept staring toward the water dispenser where the sticks were laid out.
“Good grief, I’ll make you one, so behave yourself tonight.”
Sway, sway─.
Bori-bori’s tail, sticking straight up, swayed like a reed.
# # #
**Rules marked with **, visible only to me.
That’s what I’d said, but I think I need to correct myself.
Because someone had written these rules.
Whoever wrote them must have been able to see them, too.
Which meant─.
There were other people besides me who had seen and experienced strange things?
I hadn’t even had a chance to consider it until now, but it seemed entirely possible.
Beep-beep-beep, beep-beep-beep─.
“Wah!”
The sudden sound made me jump in fright.
When I sprang up, Bori-bori was startled too and jumped about five centimeters into the air.
“……!”
Then Bori-bori glared at me.
As if to scold me: “You made me jump!”
I rubbed my chin awkwardly and calmed my racing heart.
“The alarm’s going off, so it must be time for a patrol.”
I picked up the red plastic flashlight and left the office.
Before me stood the building, its fabric flapping in the wind.
Goooooo─.
It was a building I’d passed by around the neighborhood before.
Back then, I hadn’t thought much of it.
Now, having to patrol a place like that felt like some kind of uncanny experience.
To be honest, it was a little scary.
Tap, tap, tap─.
If there was one small comfort, it was that Bori-bori had slipped out of the office and was following me.
I was being chased by a demon─.
In some ways, that might have been more dangerous and frightening than exploring an abandoned building.
And yet, for some reason, I felt reassured by it.
‘Well, what could happen?’
With that thought, I walked once around the building.
That was when I spotted a group shining their phone lights around different parts of the building.
“Aw, shit, it’s the security guard! Oppa, what do we do?”
“Hey, shut up!”
“Everyone, quiet. I’ll handle it.”
One man and two women.
They were young. College students, maybe? I’d barely finished that thought when the man in the black T-shirt walked over to me. He was about my build.
“Excuse me. I’m Jang Geun-beom, and I run the MeTube channel ‘Horror Story Tiger.’”
The man introduced himself.
His tight-fitting short-sleeved shirt showed off a fairly muscular physique.
His face was a little dinosaur-like.
His lips curled up lazily, and he had all the swagger and cockiness a man tended to show off in front of women.
“Huh?”
He came closer, looked at my face, and his expression suddenly changed.
“You’re Yuseong, right? Ha Yu-seong! Sanmun Middle School!”
“Huh─? How do you know my name?”
There wasn’t even a name tag on my security uniform. While I was wondering about it, the man smacked me on the back.
Men might slap each other on the shoulder or back when they’re glad to see each other, but there was more unpleasantness than affection in this touch.
And that unpleasantness stirred up an old memory.
Back in middle school, there was a guy who went around pounding people on the back with his fists.
He was one of the ‘popular kids,’ and rumors went around about him meeting high school and college girls and doing all sorts of things with them─.
Of course, he was good at fighting, too. He was so well-built that no one dared challenge him, so even when he went around hitting people on the back, nobody dared utter a peep.
His name was Jang Geun-beom.
“Hey, Yuseong. It’s really good to see you.”
Jang Geun-beom acted like he knew me.
Even though we’d never once said hello in all three years of middle school.
But somehow, the women picked up on the mood and cheered.
“Geun-beom oppa, you and the security guard know each other?”
“Kyaa! That’s great! That’s great!”
Sleeveless tops and dolphin shorts that showed off their legs.
They were women flaunting their youth to the fullest.
Their hair was all colorful, pink and yellow.
But why was I ‘mister’ security guard while Jang Geun-beom was ‘oppa’?
As I wondered that, the corner of Jang Geun-beom’s mouth twitched upward.
“We were friends in middle school. Yuseong, we’re trying to shoot a MeTube video here. Just let us into the basement for a bit. It won’t even take an hour.”
Jang Geun-beom, the self-proclaimed MeTuber, slung an arm around my shoulders.
I caught the scent of his cologne and felt the strength in his arm, brimming with intent.
But so what?
I was security.
To get paid, I couldn’t let anyone inside.
“Just go home today.”
I smacked him on the back.
Smack─.
“Ow!”
Jang Geun-beom’s face crumpled in an instant, after acting all friendly and running his mouth just a moment ago.
I only gave him back what he gave me. What an overreaction.
“You little son of a bitch─.”
It took less than three seconds for his true colors to show.
It was impressive that he could sum up the ten years since middle school with a single curse.
“Hey. You really won’t let us in? I had a hard time gathering everyone to shoot here today. Those guys over there are MeTubers, too, and if we have to call it off here, I’ll lose face big time.”
“No means no. Besides, this building doesn’t even have a ‘basement.’”
Whatever was down there, it was a place I wasn’t supposed to know about, much less enter.
So I was going to tell them it ‘didn’t exist.’
For all I knew, I was saving your lives, you know?
“……”
MeTuber Jang Geun-beom glared at me.
If this had been middle school, when he’d been at the front of the line in height, I might have lost my nerve right there.
But I was twenty-five now.
I had no desire to play along with some bully’s tough-guy act.
Maybe he sensed how I felt, because Jang Geun-beom spat on the ground and backed away.
“Ha Yu-seong, remember this.”
He was backing down too easily.
He was definitely going to turn around and cause trouble.
Just in case, I searched the area around the building even more thoroughly.
That was when I found a heavy metal hatch behind the building that seemed to connect to the basement.
Clank, clank.
After checking that the chain and padlock were firmly secured, I took a water-based marker from my pocket.
Racking my memory, I carefully drew the symbol for ‘sealing’ that I’d learned recently.
That ought to keep even a rat from getting through.
Grrrrrooo─Bori-bori’s stomach rumbled loudly.
I should make the cup noodles I’d been given as a snack for them.
And so,
time passed.
Before I knew it, it was around two in the morning.
Just as I was thinking I’d die of boredom, I felt a rumble beneath my feet.
“……”
Bori-bori, who’d been resting curled up in the corner, reacted at once.
Bori-bori stared at the ground with their tail held straight up like an antenna, then said,
“…Wagi-jagi!”