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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 37
Chapter Title: The Baby Shaman and the Bell Goblin
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"Ready, action!"
Lee Jiseok knocked on the main gate. Thump! Thump! He knocked as instructed in the script, but he felt something standing on the other side of the door. Startled, Lee Jiseok knocked again.
To director Choi Daeman, this felt even more natural. It looked as if the evil spirit in 'Suhyeok's' body had sensed the divine power of the baby shaman beyond the door. As expected, there was a reason great actors were great.
Thump! Thump!
The door opened. It had seemed quite thick when he was knocking, but it opened lightly. A child in a pure white hanbok appeared.
"They said there was a skilled shaman here…"
The line was supposed to end there, but Lee Jiseok—no, Suhyeok—found himself stopping short.
Two pairs of eyes were staring at him. One belonged to the sparkling eyes of the baby shaman. The other belonged to something inside him.
Director Choi Daeman, watching the monitor, didn't feel it as intensely as Lee Jiseok did. But he knew something not quite human was there. Because he had felt the same thing during the audition—the feeling that there was something inside Seojun.
Some of the staff felt an otherworldly presence from the child, while others didn't, but everyone held their breath, captivated by Seojun and Lee Jiseok's acting. The silence the two actors created was enough to make the hair on their arms stand on end.
The baby shaman's gaze moved slowly from Suhyeok's head to his feet. Suhyeok couldn't keep his composure as that thing scrutinized his very soul.
Suhyeok felt the evil spirit within him dancing. The blood in his veins seemed to move in time with his pounding heart. He could feel his pulse from the tips of his toes to his fingertips. Eventually, even his head began to throb.
The baby shaman's gaze lifted, and slam! The door closed. Soon after,
"Cut! OK!"
The director's voice rang out, but Suhyeok—no, Lee Jiseok—remained frozen, staring at the door. Seeing the actor motionless, the other staff members quietly exchanged glances. Just as a puzzled Choi Daeman rose from his chair,
The door creaked open. Lee Jiseok instinctively took two steps back.
"Oh, were you still filming?"
When Lee Seojun's guardian, Kim Heesang, appeared, Lee Jiseok snapped back to reality. In Kim Heesang's arms, Seojun was smiling brightly and waving at him. Unlike before, there was only one pair of eyes.
"You both did an amazing job! Take a short break while we set up for the next shot."
As Director Choi Daeman said, they now needed to film the close-up and bust shots.
While the staff set up cameras near the wooden gate to capture the actors' vivid expressions, the two actors sat in chairs, waiting.
Lee Jiseok watched Seojun sitting maturely in his chair, sipping cocoa, and opened and closed his mouth several times.
How did he do that? How is that kind of acting possible? He wasn't like a small child who had just started acting, but like a seasoned veteran.
No, could an ordinary actor even pull off a performance like that?
As Lee Jiseok continued to stare, Seojun put down his cocoa mug and touched his face.
"Uh, is there something on my face?"
"No."
Lee Jiseok shook his head. There were actors of that caliber.
Actors with God-given talent. Born to be actors.
That kind of talent wasn't something an ordinary person could understand just by having it explained.
It was no different from someone saying, 'I just studied from the textbook.' No, in a case like this, it was more like, 'I just had a feeling it would work, so I tried it, and it did.' Lee Jiseok sighed inwardly.
Still, just acting alongside such an actor could sometimes improve one's own skills. Simply by holding your own against an overwhelming performance, you could take a step forward.
Lee Jiseok smiled. If I can't learn it the proper way, I'll just have to steal it.
"We're starting the next shot!"
Lee Jiseok and Seojun stood up and headed to the set.
After all the filming for the day was done, the actors returned to their lodgings while the staff stayed behind to pack up the equipment.
The camera director spoke to Choi Daeman in disbelief.
"Lee Jiseok is one thing, but Seojun holds his own. The sparks were really flying between those two…"
"I don't think so."
"What?"
"The way I see it, Jiseok was the one trying not to be outshone by Seojun."
* * *
The next day.
The filming for Seojun's scenes finished quickly. They filmed a scene where the baby shaman carefully lays out his bells and talismans to prepare for an exorcism, steeling his resolve. They also filmed a scene with the grandfather the baby shaman lives with.
Since these scenes weren't time-sensitive, they were all done by lunch.
Unlike Seojun, Lee Jiseok had many more scenes to film.
They were shooting a scene where Suhyeok learns about the baby shaman's past from his grandfather, and another where Suhyeok fights the evil spirit, which wants to stay in the village while Suhyeok tries to leave to avoid harming the baby shaman.
"Grandma, this is delicious!"
"It's incredibly good."
Seojun and Kim Heesang, who had decided to explore the village, were caught by the grandmother of the blue-gated house where they were staying and ended up eating handmade noodle soup. It didn't seem to have many ingredients, but it was unbelievably delicious. Seojun slurped up the noodles with gusto.
"My, the little one sure can eat."
"I'm Seojun!"
"Is that right?"
The blue-gated house seemed to serve as the village's gathering spot, as all the locals appeared to be there. An old man, mid-sip of makgeolli, spoke up.
"Heard you're filming? Where can we see it? On TV?"
"It's for a movie. You'll have to see it in a movie theater."
"The movie theater... well, you'd have to go all the way into town for that."
"Still, our village is going to be in it, so we have to go!"
"The village chief's car and the cabbage seller's car… two should be enough, right?"
"Even if the chief's car is big, we'll need at least four!"
They all started planning a date to go see the movie. The grandmother asked,
"So what kind of movie is it?"
Kim Heesang thought for a moment. An exorcist? Spirit banishing?
"It's a movie about fighting bad ghosts!"
Seojun answered before he could. Bad ghosts? The villagers tilted their heads.
"There's a shaman, and a priest, too. It's that kind of movie. An exorcism, I guess?"
"Oho. A shaman!"
"The shaman in the next village was really something else."
The topic quickly shifted from the movie to shamans.
Seeing that Kim Heesang and Seojun had finished their bowls, the grandmother was about to offer them another ladleful, but they both quickly declined. Honestly, they had eaten too much.
Seojun and Kim Heesang, who had decided to go see the Seonangdang at the edge of the village, stood up, said their goodbyes to the villagers, and left the blue-gated house.
After they left, the old man who had been pouring makgeolli into his bowl spoke.
"If the shaman from the next village were still around, I'd have asked her to tell my grandson's fortune…"
"Ah, wasn't it just the other day that Mr. Choi's grandson came to visit?"
The villagers recalled Mr. Choi's grandson, who had been walking around with his shoulders slumped. Having grown up in his grandfather's house until he was ten, the boy was like a grandson to all the elders of Ogyeri.
"Why's he wandering around without even eating lunch?"
"He went to see the Seonangdang this morning. I wonder if he'll be back late again tonight."
"Life in Seoul must be tough on him."
They all raised their makgeolli bowls and drank.
* * *
The Seonangdang of Ogyeri was a very old tree. It wasn't the oldest tree in Korea, nor was it the biggest.
It was just an old tree, the kind you might find in any countryside village.
"It's huge."
"Looks like it's been here for 200 years."
Seojun dashed forward and stood before the tree. When he tilted his head back, it looked enormous. Red, blue, yellow, and white cloths were tied to every branch, hanging down toward the ground. The trunk of the tree was encircled by a low stone wall.
Kim Heesang raised his camera from a distance.
"Seojun, over here!"
"Cheese!"
Kim Heesang was diligently taking pictures of Seojun to send to Seo Eunhye and Lee Minjun. After enthusiastically modeling for the photos, Seojun went back to admiring the massive tree once Kim Heesang said he was done.
The large branches reached for the sky, and the trunk was thick. The long, colorful strips of cloth brought back a memory.
The Bell Goblin's grave felt like this!
Could it be! Is this the place! His eyes sparkling, Seojun slowly walked a circle around the Seonangdang. Kim Heesang, like a professional photographer, eagerly snapped pictures of him.
He searched everywhere, but he couldn't find the hole where Kim Seobang had placed the broken bell.
"I guess it's not here."
He was a little disappointed. It would have been nice if it was. Heesang Samchon would have fixed it in no time.
"What's not here?"
"Nothing!"
Seojun ran over to Kim Heesang.
"Samchon! Let's go to the mountain!"
Was this mountain that mountain? A long time had passed, so it might have changed, but thanks to the Life's Book, which he had read like an old fairytale whenever he was bored for the past month and a half, he had grown fond of mountains. This one truly felt like a place where a goblin might live.
"Alright. But there are a lot of rocks here, so no running."
"Okay!"
Seojun and Kim Heesang slowly walked up the small path next to the Seonangdang.
The mountain was close, and they had only walked a few minutes before the branches and leaves blocked out the summer sun.
"The shade feels so much cooler."
"Look! A flower!"
Seojun spotted a nearby flower. It was nice being outside and seeing things like this.
Excited, Seojun pointed here and there. He spotted a bird. Then a squirrel. Kim Heesang, following Seojun's pointing finger, said,
"At this rate, we might even see a wild boar."
"A pheasant!"
"A pheasant?! Are we really going to see a wild boar?"
Seojun, who had been happily walking along spotting animals, stopped in his tracks and,
Whoosh!
He turned his head.
He had heard something on the gentle breeze. It wasn't a bird's call; it felt like it had… intent.
Like a rabbit twitching its ears, Seojun raised his head and looked around. Kim Heesang, who had been following closely, called out to him in confusion.
"Seojun?"
"Shh!"
Seojun focused his senses. It was coming from far away. Something. But it was too faint to pinpoint the direction.
"Kim Seobang."
"Huh?"
"Let's play."
[Activating the Bell Goblin's 'Teasing Kim Seobang.']
Seojun sent out the goblin's energy like a bat's sonar. It was a method he'd devised after watching a nature documentary, wondering if there was a way to shape his inner energy and use it more effectively.
Only Kim Seobang would react to this energy.
Seojun concentrated. It was a low-grade power, so it wasn't much. In a wide-open space like this, its reach was short.
So, Seojun decided that he, the epicenter, would have to move around.
With Heesang Samchon behind him, he had planned to stick close to the path, but the faint sound he had heard was now completely gone.
This was a dangerous situation.
Quickly changing his mind, Seojun left the path and walked into the mountain forest.
"Seojun?!"
Kim Heesang called out as Seojun veered off the trail into the wilderness, but Seojun just apologized internally and walked on, carefully watching his step.
Samchon! I'm not running! The little boy scurried about here and there like a squirrel.
Kim Heesang quickly followed after him. The terrain was rough, and Seojun was so fast it was hard to keep up. You are in so much trouble!
The gently flowing goblin energy hit a block in one spot. Seojun immediately headed in that direction.
"Found it!"
"Seojun, you! You are in so much trouble with Samchon!"
"Samchon! Over here! There's a person!"
"I'm telling your mom and dad… What?!"
Startled by Seojun's words, Kim Heesang rushed over in an instant.
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