Chapter 4
I checked again in bewilderment, but it wasn’t a ghost. Stray ghosts or vengeful spirits gave off a smell of rotting food. But the man hanging upside down from the ceiling gave off a smell of earth.
‘Ah! That’s it.’
I’d heard in Purgatory Prison that since ancient times, buildings were inhabited by the Seongju-shin (House Guardian God), Jowang-shin (Kitchen God), Cheok-shin (Toilet God), Teoju-shin (Land God), Chilseong-shin (Seven Star God), Samsin (Birth God), and Munjeon-shin (Gate God). These were collectively called Gashin, or household gods. Among them, the highest god was the Seongju-shin. The Seongju-shin, true to its status as the supreme household god, boasted considerable divine power, and if it decided to act, even fairly powerful grim reapers would get thoroughly beaten.
‘And they said Seongju-shin give off a smell of earth.’
I had guessed the opponent’s identity, but I didn’t know how to deal with them, so I was hesitant. In the meantime, the Seongju-shin approached me.
– Hey, what are you?
…….
– You’re a strange one. I thought you were a shaman, but surprisingly you’re a grim reaper… Huh! You’re human?
…….
– Hey, why aren’t you answering?
…….
– Hey, when you were recklessly blasting spiritual energy all over the place, you were all business, and now you’re pretending not to see me?
…….
– Whoa, I can’t believe this? You barge into someone else’s house and throw the first punch, and now that it seems like you can’t win, you’re playing dumb?
I was planning to pretend I hadn’t seen or heard anything as much as possible. But he latched onto my back, screamed right into my ear, and kept being annoying, so I couldn’t not react.
‘Stop making noise and go away.’
That one remark was a mistake. After that, he was so annoying that I couldn’t help but respond.
– Hey, why are you, a grim reaper, pretending to be human?
‘I’m not pretending to be human; I’m just human.’
– You’re human?
‘Can’t you tell by looking?’
– How can a human have spiritual energy, the stuff used by afterlife beings?
‘I’m a person who was dragged to the afterlife and came back. Got it?’
– A human visiting the afterlife? What are you, the rabbit from the Dragon Palace?
‘Believe it or not, I don’t care. Just go your own way.’
– This is my house, where am I supposed to go? More importantly, let me borrow your body.
‘Borrow what?’
– With a body holding that much spiritual energy, even I, with my divine power, should be able to possess it without issue. Let’s just have one cup of coffee. Strong and black.
‘So you’re saying you want to enter my body?’
– If you just give me permission, I’ll go in right away.
‘Crazy bastard, are you asking for a beating? Shut your mouth while I’m being nice.’
– Hey, just do it for me, will you? Even stray ghosts possess humans and eat what they want, do what they want. But I’m a god, and I can’t even possess anyone…
‘Are you out of your mind? Who are you asking to borrow a body from?’
– I’ve been trapped in this building for nearly 40 years. Don’t you feel sorry for me?
‘If you don’t like it, achieve enlightenment.’
– I’m frustrated and itchy too, I want to achieve enlightenment. But the mission is way too hard, so I don’t know when I’ll ever be able to…
‘Don’t bother selling me a story; I’m not falling for it.’
– I’m not selling you a story, it’s the truth. Besides, this building is old; it could be demolished any day now… Just do it for me.
‘No.’
Household gods like the Seongju-shin are tied to their building, a kind of fate-sharing community. So if the building gets demolished, they are destroyed. To avoid destruction, they need to achieve enlightenment before that, but the conditions vary for each household god.
– Little brother, please do me this favor. I’ll definitely repay you properly.
‘Who are you calling little brother?’
– Among the dead, they say you go by the body’s age at death, not the year you died. You’re in your 20s, and I’m 32, so I’m the older one, right?
‘That’s sociological age. I lived in the afterlife for over 8 years, you know…’
– Fine, friend. Let’s be friends! So just do it for me this once.
‘I said no.’
– I said I’ll repay you handsomely. I’m Hwang Jae-hu.
‘So what?’
– You don’t know Hwang Jae-hu? In Korea, he’s revered as the god of music. As someone in the industry, you should know him, right?
‘Where’s this bravado coming from?’
– Bravado? Just look it up on the internet, you’ll see.
‘Stop hanging around and please just go away.’
Dealing with him was only annoying, so I stopped responding. After over an hour of chattering, the Seongju-shin eventually gave up and disappeared at some point.
Meanwhile, a recording session ended, and it was break time. The six members of Blue Velvet came out of the recording booth into the control room. Blue Velvet was a rookie girl group the company was ambitiously preparing, with their debut scheduled for the fourth week of May. Originally, there were five members, but one was suddenly dropped and two new members were added.
The new members, Yewon and Airin, were both 18 years old and were parachute hires. Yewon was the daughter of an investor, and Airin was the daughter of a high-ranking executive at KTBC Broadcasting. Until this morning, I was also in Section 2, so I knew Blue Velvet’s members well.
Semi, Jooyeong, Adela, and Dabin, who came out to the waiting room, greeted me warmly and asked about my health. They said they were sorry they couldn’t visit me in the hospital and that they were sad I moved to Section 4. On the other hand, the parachute hires Yewon and Airin didn’t even make eye contact and just kept grumbling about how hard the recording was.
‘Those two were always like that before too.’
I don’t know why the thought crossed my mind, but suddenly I became curious about Blue Velvet members’ stats.
‘Shall I take a look?’
I lightly emitted spiritual energy and checked the members’ status windows. Yewon and Airin’s status windows immediately caught my attention. They were drastically different from the other members.
[Yewon: Blue Velvet]
Sub Vocal, Sub Dancer, Center.
Personality: Strong desire for achievement, greedy. Ferocious and self-righteous. (Evil > Good)
Special Notes: Severe constipation, extremely picky eater, heavy smoker.
<<Appearance: 91/65, Acting: 28/41, Singing: 64/73, Dance: 74/81, Rap: 17/38, Wit: 55/62, Charm: 66>>
[Airin: Blue Velvet]
Sub Vocal, Sub Rapper.
Personality: Holds grudges. Immature. Selfish. Narrow-minded. (Evil > Good)
Special Notes: Luxury goods addiction, heavy smoker.
<<Appearance: 88/63, Acting: 27/51, Singing: 62/71, Dance: 70/73, Rap: 55/61, Wit: 57/71, Charm: 63>>
‘Isn’t this taking it too far?’
The other members had Singing and Dance scores of 86 or higher. Considering the nature of girl groups, who need to handle not just singing but performances, it was an obvious result. In contrast, Yewon and Airin were pitifully low. Their Singing scores, barely over 60, weren’t much different from ordinary people. Their Dance scores were even lower than the trainees I’d run into at the company cafeteria. It was absurd that they were in the debut lineup with this level of skill. Also, their Appearance scores were peculiarly much higher than their potential.
‘That means they’ve borrowed the power of modern medicine.’
No matter how much they were parachutes, it was shocking that they were this inadequate.
‘And they’re both heavy smokers…’
There’s no field more competitive than the idol scene. Even if the company pushed them hard, even if they got a great song with perfect choreography, if the members couldn’t pull it off, success was difficult. And there weren’t just one but two bombs! I could clearly see Blue Velvet’s future. I felt sorry for the other members, having to carry those two bombs.
While I was stunned after checking the status windows, Lee Woo-seong used the brief moment Park Hyeon-su and Chae Won-tae were away to butter up Jayco and beg for a song.
“Jayco-nim, that song you showed us last time was great too. Please look after our Lovely as well.”
“Give a song to a flop group like Lovely? Do I want to ruin my career?”
“Lovely may have failed so far because the songs didn’t suit them, but with a Jayco-nim song, they can succeed! If you see them yourself…”
“Do I have to keep listening to this nonsense? I’m not in the same league as that flop group, am I?”
Jayco had been annoyed ever since Lovely was mentioned.
“Jayco-nim, I’m not joking. Lovely’s skills and charm are second to none among girl groups…”
“Argh! This is killing my mood. Should I just stop the recording here?”
“…Pardon?”
“If I say stop, you have to stop, don’t you?”
“I’m sorry.”
“You ruin my mood and just saying sorry makes it all better? Aren’t you going to apologize properly?”
“I’m sorry. I overstepped.”
“If you talk that crap one more time, the recording is over. Understood?”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
Despite not having done anything particularly wrong, Manager Lee Woo-seong, who looked to be in his late 40s, bowed his head and apologized repeatedly to Jayco, who looked young enough to be his son. His mood was ruined, but as the weaker party, he had no choice. Feeling uncomfortable watching Blue Velvet’s recording, I took Manager Lee Woo-seong out of the studio.
“Manager, let’s take a smoke break and calm down.”
“Sorry you had to see me like that.”
“Don’t worry about it. But if we can’t find a good song, shouldn’t we postpone Lovely’s activities?”
“We’ve already postponed it so many times, and now you want to postpone it again? What about Blue Velvet, debuting at the end of May?”
“We can just schedule it after that.”
“From late June, a bunch of top-tier male and female idols are scheduled for comebacks. It’ll be harder if we delay.”
“Oh, if that’s the case, we have no choice but to stick to the planned schedule.”
“That’s why we’re going through all this trouble.”
“Why can’t we get good songs?”
“We’ve been flopping since the 3rd album; it’s not easy to get songs.”
A dark shadow fell across Manager Lee Woo-seong’s face as he sighed. Knowing the situation, my heart felt heavy too.
– If you need a song, I can give you one?
The Seongju-shin had approached me at some point. His reason for making this offer was obvious. I pretended not to hear and ignored him, heading back to the waiting room.
– If you just let me possess you, I’ll make you a killer song.
Blue Velvet had already gone back into the recording booth as the break was over. Manager Lee Woo-seong bowed his head and apologized again to Jayco, who thoroughly ignored him and wouldn’t even make eye contact. Watching that, something welled up inside me.
Meanwhile, the recording of the second song began.
– Huh? This disrespectful brat, isn’t this plagiarism too?
…….
– Hey! Are you just going to let that little punk get away with it when the song he’s working on right now is plagiarized?
…….
– Look, plagiarism is a serious crime, you can’t just let it slide. No, if you know and turn a blind eye, that’s a crime too!
‘Stop it, please!’
– I’m not joking, it’s real.
‘Evidence?’
– Of course I have it. I can present it right here, right now. I’ve seen things while working as the Seongju-shin here.
Since there was solid evidence, I couldn’t just let it slide. Truthfully, from the moment I first heard the word “plagiarism,” I’d wanted to land a hit on Jayco. I stepped forward and asked with a questioning look.
“This is strange. This song feels like something I’ve heard before.”
“Han Su-ho, what nonsense are you talking?”
“Hey, are you crazy? What do you know to be acting up?”
“Ah! I get it now. Manager, we can’t use this song. I think it’ll get caught up in a huge plagiarism controversy.”
The moment I mentioned plagiarism—
“Crazy bastard! What do you know to be acting up!”
Jayco stopped the recording and came charging at me, foaming at the mouth. In the tense situation, Lee Woo-seong stepped in to calm things down. But I declared it was plagiarism one more time. What was funny was Park Hyeon-su and Chae Won-tae’s reaction. They scolded me and looked ready to throw punches at any moment.
“Han Su-ho, shut your mouth!”
“Manager Park, you should be the one to think clearly. What do you think will happen if Blue Velvet gets caught up in a plagiarism scandal?”
“Wh-what did you say?”
“You arrogant bastard! I plagiarized? What does a roadie who knows nothing about music know to be running his mouth!”
“It’s the truth.”
“You- you crazy bastard! I’ll sue you for defamation, so be prepared! Manager Park, my mood is ruined—I’m never working with J-Entertainment again.”
“Jayco-nim! Why are you doing this? I’ll take responsibility for this bastard…”
“Forget it. I don’t need any of it.”
“Su-Su-ho, you have solid evidence for this, right?”
In the chaotic situation, Lee Woo-seong brought up the evidence. At that moment, everyone—Jayco, Park Hyeon-su, Chae Won-tae, and even the engineers who had been silently watching—focused on me.
“Evidence? I’ll prove it clearly.”
