First of all, I immediately came up with a fairly reasonable guess as to why Baek Saheon was in this strange rural village.
‘…Baek Saheon was on the Tamra Express!’
That same high-speed train passed by Mokpo as well, and that’s the one I had taken today.
‘Was this his destination back then too?’
It seemed like he was heading to his family’s home, so maybe this village… was Baek Saheon’s hometown?
It was a peculiar feeling.
The scene of a modest, warm country festival just didn’t fit Baek Saheon somehow. All the more so if this rural festival was actually a cultish ghost story about a bizarre, insular society.
“Hey, take that over there!”
“Ah, okay.”
Even now, Baek Saheon, though wearing a sullen face, was obediently agreeing to the directions of other villagers, helping out by serving food and such.But…
Observe the villagers carefully, and try asking to spend the night at the house of the least friendly-looking person you can find!
If I go by Agent Choi’s tip, could that guy be one of the suitable candidates?
It was unsettling and strange, but up to that point I could follow the context. But then…
Why is she here?
‘…Assistant Manager Eun Haje.’
I quickly and naturally turned my head, making sure not to catch Agent Bronze’s attention, and checked that silhouette again.
Assistant Manager Eun Haje was eating boiled pork with soju, having gotten an extra helping. Just as if she were in the office cafeteria.
“……”
Seeing that natural, nonchalant expression and movement gave me a strange feeling.
Almost unconsciously, I focused my gaze in that direction—
Our eyes met.
‘…!’
At that moment, Assistant Manager Eun Haje smoothly lifted her plate of suyuk[1] and bottle of soju… and started coming over here.
‘……?!’
W-Why is she coming this way?
And then she plopped down right at our table and naturally started talking to Agent Bronze!
“There’s quite a lot of suyuk here. Would you like some?”
“……Who are you?”
“I’m a reporter. I heard there was a village festival, so I came to see if there was anything newsworthy… Thought I’d do some interviews, get some impressions.”
‘A-Assistant Manager!’
Eun Haje acted like she didn’t know me at all, chatting up Agent Bronze just like a work-weary reporter.
Agent Bronze’s eyes went dull. He looked as if he’d gotten stuck with an annoying busybody.
“I don’t really have anything to say.”
“Then just let me ramble a bit. From what I saw yesterday, the real lure of this festival for outsiders is…”
DENG DENG DENG DENG DENG!!
“…!!”
The noisy sound of a gong and drum being played together made me turn my head.
The music stopped, and through the people doing the traditional performance, a middle-aged man with a friendly face stepped up and grabbed a megaphone, shouting,
[Everyone! It’s time for the raffle! May you all win prizes and receive the fortune of Jisan!]
“Yes, I think that’s it. The holiday raffle drawing.”
Apparently, they hold a raffle every day during the four-day festival.
Most of the prizes are agricultural products grown in the village, but sometimes there are handicrafts or jewelry as well.
In the case of jewelry, the branch suspects they might be belongings of missing persons.
Villagers spread out, carrying raffle boxes here and there. I heard people saying they won or didn’t win. Someone who drew gold shouted in excitement and received a pair of gold earrings.
“Oh, that’s nice. But those earrings look like secondhand goods to me.”
“……”
“……”
“Well, I guess someone donated them for the festival.”
None of us could answer.
And then, someone came toward us with a raffle box.
A sullen-looking person wearing a medical eyepatch.
‘B-Baek Saheon.’
Was this some kind of Daydream Inc. employee reunion? Now we were about to have a three-way meeting out of nowhere.
But the bigger problem was this.
Agent Bronze recognized Baek Saheon’s face.
“That…!”
The look on Agent Bronze’s face turned cold as he recognized the face of my ‘coworker’ from the serial killer mountain lodge.
And as his gaze alternated between me and Baek Saheon, I shook my head.
“It’s alright.”
“…Yes.”
Agent Bronze calmed down quickly as well.
Because he was sure my identity hadn’t been exposed.
That’s because…
He wouldn’t be able to recognize us anyway.
During the festival, villagers can’t recognize acquaintances who visit from outside.
They treat them purely as welcome guests for the duration of the festival, and there are a few testimonies from people who felt something was off and left, thus avoiding misfortune.
– I even interrogated them to see if they were just pretending, but they really didn’t seem to know. It feels like there’s some strange binding in effect. There’s no info about it in the branch’s records, so if I’m not around, just ignore.
Baek Saheon approached.
His face still didn’t look happy, but even when our eyes met, there was no reaction at all.
He simply…
“Please pick one.”
…held out the raffle box to our table.
“……”
“I heard the prizes are pretty good… Oh, thanks.”
Assistant Manager Eun Haje reached out without hesitation and drew a stick from the box. At the end of the stick, it said ‘Rice’.
“It’s your turn.”
I exchanged glances with Agent Bronze.
Do not refuse the raffle. If you refuse, no villager will let you stay over. If you don’t want to end up hastily calling for backup because you failed the rescue, remember this!
Note/s:
[1] Suyuk – a traditional Korean dish made of boiled meat, with pork being the more popular variation. It’s mainly eaten during ancestral rites, kimjang (kimchi-making season), weddings or funerals.
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