Episode 124: Beyond the Door You Opened.
The nobleman was busy organizing the study.
I took out the books one by one, dusted them off, put them here and there, and wasted my energy on an arrangement that no one would care about.
After organizing the books like that, I placed the fragrant incense here and there in the study and boiled water to make tea when Im Hyang arrived there.
“Your Majesty the Prince.”
“Miss Im. Come in. It’s a mess because you didn’t clean it up.”
Anyone could see that it was gleaming brightly because it had been cleaned up, but Im Hyang smiled and pretended not to notice.
“There are so many books.”
“There were more originally, but I cleaned up a lot.”
“There are so many books here. I didn’t know you read so many books.”
The spirit felt so good.
“This book here is a book written by the author himself. He received it directly from this room. And this book here is a book I went to the bookstore to get. If you want to know about ghosts, you can read this book. Would you like to borrow it?”
“Ah, ah. Yes.”
The nobleman took out a book and handed it to me.
“It’s going to be a lot of fun. Oh, if you like this, read this too.”
“That’s okay.”
“This book here is… … .”
The spirit explained the books. Im Hyang was so excited that she couldn’t stop him and just listened. But when the explanation became too long, she said,
“Shall we have some tea?”
“Oh, I’ll ride it.”
The spirit was full of heat like boiling water.
He could not forget the day he first saw her.
The nobleman who attended the banquet of the later indexes held somewhere was wandering around that day as well.
Even if it wasn’t to the extent of deliberately ignoring me, I felt like I was being secretly ignored. Prejudice against ghosts is one thing, but the most critical factor was that ghosts were not the type of people who got along well with others. They all had so much to say. They wanted to brag about something.
When I came out feeling suffocated, Im Hyang was there. I thought she was such a pretty and atmospheric woman, and it was then that she spoke to me first.
“Not really?”
The nobleman was embarrassed. She was the first woman to speak to him at the banquet today.
“I’m talking about the banquet. The musicians today, the taste of the alcohol, and the people who gathered.”
It’s something the spirits can’t even imagine. Talking to someone they’ve just met without any hesitation.
“I am Im Hyang of the Im clan.”
“I am the Duke of Gui.”
“ah!”
For a moment, the spirit regretted it. He should not have revealed the truth. Even if he had, he should have talked to them more before revealing it.
But her reaction was unexpected. Instead, she expressed interest.
“I’ve heard a lot about the ghost story.”
“What did you hear?”
“It’s such a mysterious sect.”
I wanted to talk a little more, but someone inside called out to Im Hyang.
“They’re calling me. See you later.”
Im Hyang went inside first.
After a while, the spirits also went inside.
In the distance, Im Hyang was seen surrounded by many people, talking. She was popular.
Im Hyang recognized her and waved her hand. This drew the attention of those around her, but she paid no attention and smiled.
Even after returning that day, the nobleman continued to think about her for a while. For a while, he diligently attended banquets.
The nobleman smiled and said as he brought the tea back with great care.
“If there is a book you want to read, please borrow it.”
* * *
Ian, who was looking at the night sky from the window, said to me.
“Master? Do you know what the most common wish people make when a meteor falls?”
“What?”
“Ouch! Ouch! Shit! This is the deal.”
I smiled at her words and said,
“I have quick eyes and mouth, so I never miss it.”
“Is that really so?”
“Just wait and see.”
The two of us looked up at the night sky, determined to make a wish without fail. Then Ian suddenly said.
“That was the first time I brought up the topic of my parents.”
When I was talking to Im Hyang at the guest house, she brought up the subject of her parents.
“I wanted to tell you something at least once, and I thought it would be good, so I said it.”
“I thought so.”
“Okay, then please comfort me.”
“What about comfort? Actually, I don’t know much about the relationship between parents and children. You know that too, right? My mother passed away when I was young, and my father is a very blunt person. So I don’t know what to say to you.”
“Actually, I am like that too. When you were having a hard time because of the leader, I wanted to comfort you. But what do I need to know to comfort you? Rather, I learned everything I should have learned from my parents from you.”
“We grew up together with a runny nose, so what did you learn from me?”
“But my nose was cleaned by the master. I learned a lot from the master and depended on him.”
I tried to say something comforting to her, but stopped myself. We just stood there together, looking up at the night sky.
“By the way, how’s the operation going?”
“I’m thinking about it.”
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“I need some stimulation!”
“What kind of stimulus?”
“How about kidnapping Lady Im and then having Prince Seo rescue her?”
“If you do something reckless, an accident will happen.”
“There has to be something thrilling between a man and a woman!”
“Ian, think back to the most exciting moment of your life. Was it a kidnapping, a rescue, something like that?”
“… … There wasn’t any.”
“There will be no one else.”
The thrill of my life came from everyday life, and most of it came from what someone told me.
What my father said, what Ian said, what Seo Dae-ryong said, what Jang Ho said, what the Ma-zones said, what the Pungcheon Cult Leader and Go-wol said, and what I said… … .
As those countless words piled up, my life changed. I don’t change easily, but my life was changing.
“That’s why I kept telling him.”
At that moment, a meteor streaked across the night sky.
Ouch! Please… … Eight! Shit!
* * *
A few days later, I rented a nice manor and invited Gui Ling Zi and Seo Jin. I invited them as a way to repay their invitation to the last banquet.
The spirit had already developed a favorable impression of me, and Seojin also felt good about Ian. So the two of them readily accepted the invitation.
It was a small banquet with only the four of us and the delicious food prepared by a skilled host, but the nobleman preferred this kind of atmosphere.
While Ian and Seojin were talking, I talked with the ghost.
“Thank you for inviting me.”
“you’re welcome.”
While we were talking about this and that, I casually brought up the topic of marriage.
“Are your wedding preparations going well?”
“Thanks to your concern, I’m doing well.”
“Sometimes I envy married couples.”
“What are you jealous of?”
“You know each other so well. Just by looking at each other’s eyes, you can tell what that person is thinking. You can tell what that person will think and do in this situation. I think it would be great to have at least one person like that in your life.”
The spirit must be brought down to the ground. Right now, he is floating and flying in the sky. He must be made to stand on the ground with both feet and calmly look at the woman in front of him.
“When you see Lady Im, can you sense what she is thinking?”
The spirit seemed to think for a moment, then shook his head.
“Honestly, I don’t know yet.”
I didn’t say anything. I let him think about this for a moment.
I wasn’t in a hurry.
I stopped talking about marriage and gained his favor by talking about ghost magic. Since I had learned the time-space transfer technique and had a deep understanding of this type of secret art, the conversation about ghost magic went well. With the addition of the flattery technique, the ghost master was completely absorbed in the conversation with me.
After that day, I tried to meet him somehow.
The nobleman was busy, but there was no need to meet for a long time. A quick cup of tea was enough.
Some days, I would wait for him in the guest room of his house while reciting the Cheonmahosingong.
When I met the spirits, we talked about various things and then we started talking about marriage and women.
As I kept visiting him, at first the ghost was suspicious and thought, ‘Hey, you’ve only had one meal, why are you doing this? What are you after?’ But as time went by, he secretly enjoyed talking to me. After all, he had never had a single friend in his entire life.
I started it intentionally, but I gradually began to enjoy talking to him. I found myself needing less and less flattery.
“My sister-in-law says that you shouldn’t be too nice to a woman.”
“Why is that?”
“It’s human nature to feel disappointed if you do something well ten times but fail to do it well once. I guess that’s how it is.”
“Wouldn’t it be okay if you did it well ten times?”
“Wouldn’t people’s hearts change as time passes?”
“I won’t change.”
“Even Confucius is human, so he will change.”
“I am different! I will never change!”
When you’re being so stubborn, I want to run up to you and yell at you.
You’ve changed! You’ve really changed! Oh, let’s stop it, let’s stop it. Let’s just tear it off, tear it off.
“Don’t be too nice to me. Bad guys are popular on the streets.”
“Ah! I felt that too. When I see people at banquets, there are many times when I want to like that kind of guy.”
“So, don’t be too nice to me. If you treat me well once in a while after not being nice to me for a while, wouldn’t it be touching? People can’t be nice to me all the time.”
“That makes sense.”
The old spirit wanted so badly to talk to me. At that time, he only had one drink and went off to get ingredients again.
Let’s really talk about the stories we couldn’t tell back then.
As time went by, I kept meeting him and talking to him like a rat in a haystack.
“The date you go to get the important materials needed for the training of the spirits overlaps with So-Jeong Im’s birthday?”
“Right. Then which one would you choose?”
“Of course I have to celebrate Lady Im’s birthday.”
“Even though it’s an important ingredient? If I miss it this time, I’ll have to wait three years?”
“Still, it’s not worth comparing.”
When something similar happens someday, you, the spirit, remember what you said today! There will definitely be a difference between what you never said and what you said even once.
I tried.
I pretended not to know, I tried to persuade him, I tried to instigate him. I gave him courage, I gave him hints, I gave him information.
He was a ghost who betrayed me, who had been collecting Dafa materials all my life, and tried to go back to the past himself, but I was grateful that I was able to come this far thanks to him, and I tried hard until the very end.
I finally met him one last time the day before the wedding.
“I never thought I’d see you until today.”
The nobleman who had been so lucky revealed his honest feelings.
“Honestly, I still don’t understand. Why are you so nice to me?”
It was a question I had been holding back on, and it was also proof that we had become close.
“Didn’t you say that you liked me when you first saw Lady Im? I felt the same way. When I saw Seo Gongja, I felt like he was like an older brother, like a friend, and like a good feeling. I had no other intentions. The reason I saw you so often is because after the wedding tomorrow, I plan to leave again and I don’t know when I’ll see you again.”
The spirit still had a suspicious look in his eyes.
I raised my hands toward the sky.
“I swear to heaven, if what I say is false, I will be dragged away by the Heavenly Demon!”
The nobleman waved his hand.
“Stop it! There is no need to make such a terrible oath! I will believe you. If it is such an oath, then I must believe it.”
He held out his hand.
“Thank you.”
“Congratulations on your wedding.”
We held hands. Come to think of it, it was the first time I held his hand before or after the return.
The next day, the wedding took place.
Ian was excited because it was his first time to see a wedding. As expected of a prestigious wedding, it was splendid and had a lot to see, and Ian watched everything carefully, and if there was something he didn’t know, he asked the people who were conducting the ceremony.
Of course, I couldn’t be the main character of today, so I wore a bamboo hat with cotton thread and clothes that didn’t reveal my body.
At the end of the wedding, I said to Ian.
“Now let us go back to the church.”
“Yes, your highness.”
“Did you enjoy this trip?”
“I will never forget it for the rest of my life.”
I could tell how much she liked it because she even kept a record of it in a book.
Ian and Seojin had a sad farewell. The two seemed to have become quite close. When I met the ghost, Ian spent a lot of time with Seojin. I had left Seojin’s fate up to Ian.
My eyes met with the old man who was greeting the guests from afar. I waved. He smiled and waved back.
I don’t know if this will be the end of our relationship or if we will meet again. I don’t know what kind of life he will live.
I just hope that the conversations we had will bring change to his life, and that those changes will add up to change the outcome.
I don’t know what’s beyond the door you opened today. Will there be only regrets that everyone talks about, or will there be a companion who knows each other just by looking at each other’s eyes? I’ll ask you just one thing. No matter how hard things are, don’t give up. Just as you’ve waited for me all my life, don’t give up on your life until the end. I’m also moving forward without giving up beyond the door you opened for me, so I hope you’ll be the same. Spirit, please be happy.
I left the house with Ian.
“Okay, let’s go back now, Ian!”
