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Chapter 14. Take Him Away (1)
Filming was temporarily halted because of the old man’s commotion.
The neighborhood people who had been watching frowned as they looked at the old man.
At a glance, it did not seem like this had happened only once or twice.
A staff member approached the old man, who was shouting at the top of his lungs.
“Excuse me! Sir! You can’t do this here.”
“Why can’t I?”
“We’re filming here after receiving all the proper permits.”
“Did you get permission from me?”
“Pardon? This isn’t your land, sir.”
“I use this road. Since you’re blocking it, I have to go around!”
“Ha…”
Since they had received permission, they could have called the police and handled it that way. But this was not a location they would use only for this shoot. It was a place that would appear often in the future too, so they could not call the police every single time.
If possible, they had to resolve it somehow on good terms so he would not interfere again next time. But… if he were the kind of person that would work on, he would not have caused a scene in the first place.
Myeongin quietly stared at the old man.
An unpleasant and uneasy feeling.
He tried not to pay attention, but he could not take his eyes off the old man.
Just then, Chang-su, worried that Myeongin might be alone amid the commotion, hurried over.
“Myeongin, don’t worry. All kinds of things happen when filming… Hey, you…?”
Chang-su’s face stiffened when he saw Myeongin’s expression.
“Y-You, what’s wrong?”
“Me?”
“You… You look similar to when you were acting just now… Your eyes are like that too!”
Myeongin rubbed his own face. He could feel it himself too. The moment he saw that old man, the life of the murderer the grim reaper had shown him came to mind, and that man’s face overlapped with the old man’s face.
Their appearances were clearly different, but the feeling he had seen back then was far too similar.
Eyes filled with anger for no reason.
The way he deliberately caused trouble to create some absurd justification that he had been harmed and had no choice but to kill.
Most of all, that way of speaking, like a person from Gyeongsang Province awkwardly speaking standard Korean.
The sight of him shouting on purpose to hide the fact that he was afraid was far too familiar.
“Myeongin! What’s wrong, man?!”
“I don’t really know either…”
“Hey, hey! Relax your eyes!”
Even so, Myeongin looked far from normal, so Chang-su hurriedly led him out of the filming site. Only then did Myeongin return to the gentle, mild expression Chang-su usually saw.
“Why were you like that? It’s not like there was any similar scene, and you weren’t practicing acting either.”
“I don’t really know either… The moment I saw that grandfather, I just couldn’t hold it back…”
“That old man who was shouting?”
“Yes…”
Perhaps because it was the first time he had seen Myeongin like this, Chang-su looked bewildered.
Even so, he tried to understand Myeongin’s expression somehow.
“Was it because he interrupted the filming site?”
“I don’t know either.”
“From what I saw, that seems to be it, doesn’t it? You like filming sites so much, so maybe you got angry after seeing it get interrupted?”
Myeongin could not answer. Since he had felt unpleasant the moment he saw him, he could not give an exact answer.
Because of that, he even wondered if the reason Chang-su had given might be right.
“You really startled me.”
Chang-su meant it.
He had always worried that Myeongin, who was like a big puppy, might follow even strangers around wagging his tail.
But seeing him just now, it seemed like he could bite too.
“Have you calmed down a little now? Before we leave, let’s at least have a cool glass of water.”
There was a supermarket right in front of them. Not a convenience store, but a small old-fashioned supermarket that was rare to see these days.
As soon as they entered, the owner lady showed interest in Myeongin.
“Are you an actor?”
“Pardon? No. I’m not an actor.”
“You look like an actor, though? Maybe a supporting role or something! Come on, don’t be like that, give me an autograph. Before you get famous later.”
“I’m really not an actor.”
“You aren’t? Goodness, you’re so tall and handsome.”
It seemed she could sense Myeongin’s presence because he was with Chang-su.
After asking several more times whether he was really not an actor, the lady brought up something without even being asked.
“Then you must be someone who works at the filming site. Hoho, please use our store often. I’ll give you service items and everything.”
Myeongin, who had been too distracted by the old man until just now, completely returned to his usual self thanks to the owner lady kindly speaking to him first.
“I just came to watch.”
“Really? But what are they filming? I took a quick look, and I didn’t see a single famous person. Is it an independent film or something?”
“I heard it’s a drama. There are lots of famous people. An idol group member appears in it too.”
“Ah, so it’s a drama with young people in it?”
Chang-su, who had only intended to buy water and take him out, let out a hollow laugh at the sight of Myeongin already deeply absorbed in the conversation.
‘This guy likes people and talking this much, so why was he like that earlier…’
Even now, he was happily talking with the owner lady as if he had been a regular for ten years.
He was even eating sweet potatoes before anyone knew it.
“This is something I sell, but it’s really delicious.”
“Wow! It really is delicious. Is it okay for you to give me this for free?”
“If you’re going to pay, give me a million won. Otherwise, just eat it. Hohoho!”
Then, while they were talking, the lady looked outside and suddenly frowned.
Just as Myeongin was about to turn his head too,
“Don’t look! If you make eye contact for no reason, he’ll throw a crazy fit.”
“Pardon?”
“There’s an old geezer living in this neighborhood, and he’s gone senile.”
“Ah!”
It seemed she was talking about the old man he had seen at the filming site just now. Myeongin tried to turn his head again to confirm the feeling he had felt earlier, but he could not because the lady firmly grabbed his face.
“I told you not to look.”
Instead, Chang-su, who had been at the scene with him, checked.
“Do you know that elderly man well?”
“Of course! I’ve run this supermarket here for twenty years. Why? Do you know that old man?”
“No. He was shouting at the filming site earlier.”
“So he was throwing a damn fit again! Ugh, that crazy old geezer.”
There was no need to ask the lady anything else.
Because she began telling them about that old man on her own.
“He wasn’t originally like that. He was such a gentleman.”
“That elderly man was?”
“Of course! Before the market over there disappeared, he used to be a private academy teacher there. He was so gentle.”
“Really?”
“I’m telling you, really. But when they were doing construction on that market, that old man got into an accident. What happened was, since they were tearing down the market and doing construction, cars were constantly going back and forth, right? So at the crosswalk where lots of kids passed by, he was directing traffic so the kids could cross safely.”
“That old man did that?”
“I told you he was gentle, didn’t I? But he got into an accident with an enormous truck. It had to turn right over on that road, and I guess it didn’t see a child. The old man saved the kid and got hit himself with a bang.”
“Whoa!”
“They said it only tapped him, but he flew about ten meters.”
“It tapped him and he flew ten meters? If he flew that far… that must have been an enormous accident…”
“I’m telling you, it’s true. Everyone in this neighborhood knows. So he nearly died, he did. His head split open, and there was blood all over the road, good grief. Every single person in our neighborhood thought that old man was dead.”
At the explanation that made it feel as though the accident were happening right before their eyes, Myeongin and Chang-su became absorbed in the story.
“He must have been hospitalized for almost a year. I heard the child he saved back then is going to university now. A university in Seoul.”
“No, so that old man fortunately recovered just fine?”
Chang-su brought the conversation, which was about to wander elsewhere, back on track.
“Fine? Not at all. From then on, that gentle man changed completely. Picking fights every day and getting into arguments, ugh! He should have died back then. Why live and get cursed at like this? If he had died back then, he might even have been written about in a biography.”
“How exactly did he change…”
“Didn’t you see him earlier? He looks at people like he’s about to kill them. When he comes to the store while I’m alone, it gives me the creeps. But I can’t exactly get into a fight with him either. If I fight with an old man who looks like he’d die if I gave him one light shove, and he really dies, it’ll become a huge mess.”
“Ahh…”
“Everyone in this neighborhood says that. You avoid poop because it’s dirty, not because you’re scared of it.”
As Myeongin quietly listened to those words, a thought occurred to him. It was not certainty, but suspicion.
Just then, Chang-su’s phone rang.
“Oh! It’s Ms. Ha-ryeong. Myeongin, we have to go now.”
There was nothing more to ask the owner lady, so Myeongin hurriedly said goodbye and followed Chang-su out.
* * *
After returning home, Myeongin was seeing Chang-su off.
“You can sleep here before you go.”
“Later. For now, I have things to do at home too. Rest well today. You worked hard.”
“When will Senior Ha-ryeong contact you?”
“I don’t know. I told her everything I could do for her, so if she’s interested, she’ll contact me, right?”
“What about that manager too?”
“Phew. I might end up with an employee without meaning to. I was planning to do all the managing myself for a while to save money.”
“Still, it’d be good to have an employee. But if you have an employee, don’t you need an office too?”
“We’ll think about that later. Hey! Are you going to keep talking to stop me from leaving? You’re just like that supermarket lady from earlier right now.”
Chang-su chuckled and waved at Myeongin.
“Rest well. I’ll come tomorrow morning!”
“Yes!”
After Chang-su left, Myeongin took a clean shower and came out.
Then he checked the time. Perhaps because he had spent the day looking around so much, it had gotten quite late.
“It’s eleven…”
Usually, around this time, he would go into his room, use his phone, then fall asleep. But right now, Myeongin did not go into his room. Instead, he stared at the talisman stuck to the wall as if he were troubled.
“Mm… I wasn’t scared, though…”
Myeongin thought about it for a while, then soon went into his room.
Then he came back out to the living room with a pillow in one hand.
* * *
Myeongin, who had fallen asleep in the living room, opened his eyes at a sound ringing in his ear.
“Kim Chang-jin, Kim Chang-jin, Kim Chang-jin! This isn’t it! Ah, I’m so pissed!”
When he woke up groggily and looked beside him, the grim reaper he had seen when he fell asleep in the car was crouching by his ear this time, playing a name-guessing game.
“Huh? You opened your eyes?”
“Uh… Hello.”
“What a funny guy. Are you and I in a relationship where we greet each other?”
Myeongin looked around. It was definitely his house.
However, he could only sense the living room. He could not sense the rooms or bathroom that should have been there.
Of course, the living room also felt a little different from how it usually did. It was like it was floating.
‘Well. It was like that when I first saw him in the car too.’
Just then, the grim reaper, who had been crouching, stood up.
“I found out where you live. This is your house, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“Seeing you tell me so obediently, I guess it’s not. Huh, you thought I’d be fooled?”
“It really is our house.”
“Forget it! Trying to deceive a reaper! I’m definitely going to find it. Just you wait. What the hell kind of guy are you?”
Myeongin, who had been lying down, sat up.
“Please sit down first.”
“Sit down, my ass! This guy is nuts. Trying to buy time, are you! I don’t have time for that, and I’m going to continue what I couldn’t finish last time. I’m definitely finding it today!”
When the grim reaper took out his tablet, full of motivation, Myeongin opened his mouth.
“There’s something I’m curious about.”
“Yeah, I won’t answer.”
“You said this to me last time.”
“Yeah, talk to yourself.”
“That a dead spirit might be inside my body.”
“Yeah, you’re a master of monologues!”
“Can that apply to other people too? I got that kind of feeling. The lives of the murderers you showed me last time, remember? I felt something far too similar to the person I saw back then. The first person you showed me, his name was… Choi Young-bae? Did you catch that person?”
“Yeah, keep working hard on your narration… What did you say? Choi Young-bae?”
The grim reaper rummaged through his tablet and looked at Myeongin.
“How do you know?”
“Know what?”
“How do you know Choi Young-bae hasn’t been caught?”
Myeongin told him about what had happened at the filming site today.
Then the grim reaper stroked his chin with a thoughtful expression.
“You felt that…? So what’s that old man’s name?”
“I don’t know that.”
“You just knew the moment you saw him, like, that’s the person?”
“Yes. I’m not certain, but I got exactly the feeling I felt back then.”
“…Wait a second.”
This time, the grim reaper took out his phone.
By now, Myeongin even started thinking, ‘Maybe the afterlife wouldn’t be too bad to live in?’ because he had everything from this world.
“Hey, there’s an animal hospital near the Dongnam District Office in Cheonan. Take a look at the old men living around there. Choi Young-bae might be among them, you see? Yeah. Look into it right now. Don’t hang up.”
It seemed the grim reaper had more than just one or two colleagues.
Then the grim reaper’s words could be heard.
“…You caught him? He was living together with a dying soul? Uh… Yeah. Take him away for now…”
The grim reaper hung up the phone, then stared at Myeongin with an extremely shocked face.
“Was it right? Was it that Choi Young-bae person?”
The grim reaper looked at Myeongin, whose eyes were sparkling as he looked at him, and opened his mouth as if he found it absurd.
“What are you, seriously?”
