WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ How to Rewrite Ghost Stories ◈
Episode 38: Subway at 11 p.m. (3)
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“Mr. Jaehyeon, how on earth did you get out of there? Didn’t you see any ghosts?”
“I did. It seemed like a subway ghost story, so I escaped through a subway-exit ghost story.”
“You can get out that way?”
“Since it was on the same Line 4, I thought it might work. It actually did.”
“H-How did you do it?”
“Ah, do you know this ghost story? It mentions getting out at this part, so...”
‘That’s the civilian with the unusual constitution...’
Seo Taegyeom watched Seon Jaehyeon explain his escape from the subway ghost story to Choi Seongun, lost in thought.
Ever since the Ghost Story Records Corporation had been founded, people with unusual constitutions had not exactly been rare.
There were families known for receiving shamanic spirits, people with especially strong spiritual energy, people who were particularly prone to getting caught up in things, and all sorts besides. Old records even mentioned people of mixed human and ghost heritage.
But none of them resembled Seon Jaehyeon’s case. Strictly speaking, Seon Jaehyeon himself was a strange phenomenon that needed recording.
His wealth of knowledge about ghost stories, folktales, and miscellaneous trivia, along with his cleverness and quick mind, could be considered personal traits.
But complete immunity to all cognitive erasure and rewriting.
The ability to find a goblin artifact that had spent seven years without an owner, then become its owner without a single clue.
The ability to enter and leave Distortions freely without a horizontal coordinate system.
The fact that he suffered no mental contamination even inside a Distortion.
That was not all. He accurately grasped a Distortion’s nature, phenomena, and range, then overlaid it with the exact Distortion needed.
He even erased phenomena by using the characteristics and collisions of different Distortions against one another.
And through all that, he did not merely escape alone. He could carry someone else out with him.
Even experienced Corporation employees formed teams, made extensive preparations, and risked their lives whenever they went into a Distortion to rescue someone.
One or two strokes of luck were possible. Some civilians survived alongside them.
But it was impossible for anyone to accomplish such varied feats alone, again and again.
If there was a person capable of that...
‘That talent is too dangerous to leave unchecked.’
If he was not on their side, he was a literal variable who had to be eliminated. He could not be allowed to become an enemy. He had to be controlled.
‘Then can he be brought onto our side?’
Was he good? Evil? Self-serving? Self-sacrificing? Motivated by wealth? By ego?
Seo Taegyeom’s eyes blinked rapidly while scanning Seon Jaehyeon from head to toe and comparing him against the information already available.
He looked particularly exhausted, as if every meeting had left a note reading 〈In fatigued condition〉 in his file, but he was still fairly handsome. He was tall, with straight posture.
His personality was cheerful and easygoing. He knew how to make people like him and was socially adept. He said he worked for a marketing company, and his sense of when to push and when to retreat was remarkable.
He had also said that he had personally handled nearly all the planning for The Mirror of the Otherworld pop-up, proving that he had excellent instincts in that area as well.
The question was whether money could win him over. Mok Inha had failed once to recruit him, so he did not seem to be someone moved by chivalry or compassion. Yet judging by the fact that he had rescued Choi Seongun, perhaps he was deeply attached to people after all.
‘If money and Choi Seongun were placed on opposite sides of a scale, would he still choose to save a person?’
Probably not.
According to Choi Seongun’s testimony, to make himself count as one whole person, Seon Jaehyeon had twisted a ghost story’s trick and committed the insane act of cutting more than several kilograms of flesh from his own body.
Most people could not even slice off a shred of their own living flesh. It was not something an ordinary person could do.
Seon-u In had judged him to be similar to himself. Seo Taegyeom could not agree with that yet. In terms of insight, they certainly shared some similarities.
But while the Seon-u In Seo Taegyeom knew had eccentricities but at least pretended to observe the boundaries expected of a civil servant, Seon Jaehyeon had the decisiveness to boldly cross dangerous lines.
Seon Jaehyeon was mad. Not in a bad way, but there was madness lurking inside him.
A talented madman with both luck and skill.
Ah. Their eyes met.
Seo Taegyeom met Seon Jaehyeon’s gaze directly. They were eyes that seemed to see straight through people. The sort of person who, after watching long enough, would find your weakness and hold a Joker card right under your nose.
‘...If I cannot bring him onto our side, I must at least determine whether he can be controlled.’
Seo Taegyeom made up his mind and walked over to Seon Jaehyeon.
❖ ❖ ❖
‘...Why has that person been staring at me like that? It’s making me nervous.’
The back of my head had been prickling the entire time I was telling Choi Seongun, with more than a little bragging mixed in, how I had escaped the subway ghost story.
What could anyone get from looking at the face of someone worn down by overtime work? I was the victim here. I had gotten caught up in a subway ghost story.
Then he started walking toward me. Hmm. Should I run? The more I looked at him, the more his stiff manner reminded me of Mok Inha.
“Mr. Seon Jaehyeon.”
Ha. I had missed my chance to run. Damn it.
“Yes. Is everything over?”
You could not spit in a smiling face, so I forced a smile. Seo Taegyeom’s expression became even stranger. I did not think I looked that terrible. Just how grimy had overtime made me?
“I am glad you are unharmed. There do not appear to be any other issues either.”
“That’s a relief. Though I’ll still have to take a taxi.”
And I had lost about an hour of sleep...
I was briefly mourning the difficult week ahead, starting from Monday, when Seo Taegyeom spoke.
“We will cover your taxi fare. You were caught up in one of our patrols, after all.”
I should have been happy, as if I had been offered compensation for a delayed subway train, but considering where Seo Taegyeom was from, I should probably refuse.
I had barely gotten as far as the first syllable of a refusal when Seo Taegyeom beat me to it again.
“Would you have dinner with me in return?”
“I... am not looking for a new job.”
“I know. I am not asking because I want to hire you at the Corporation. I simply want to treat you to a meal and talk.”
Suspicious.
But then footage from Jangsalgot suddenly came to mind.
Perhaps Seo Taegyeom read my hesitation as reluctance to accept, because he added one more thing.
“We are not bound by a 50,000-won limit.”
“That isn’t what I was worried about. It just feels wrong to let you pay for everything.”
“I will come by your office whenever is convenient for you. Would tomorrow work?”
Did everyone at the Corporation just move at their own pace? Someone who did not seem likely to back off even if I put this off was best dealt with quickly. I shook my head.
“Let’s meet Friday. I finish a little early that day.”
Only then did Seo Taegyeom’s expression soften as he handed me a business card.
“Seo Taegyeom... Section Chief?”
“That is correct.”
“I normally only see section chiefs during meetings, so seeing them one after another has me all excited.”
I threw out a joke that did not quite land. It was not a good attempt.
“I will contact you. Then, I will excuse myself. We are packing up.”
Seo Taegyeom gave me a perfunctory handshake, then left first to direct the operation. Choi Seongun called a taxi for me instead.
We came out through the subway exit, each with an ice cream in our mouths, and waited for the taxi. I was the first to start talking.
“How have things been at the Corporation? Is it manageable?”
“Everyone is kind to me. Maybe because a lot of people commute in and out, they provide dormitories too. I’m sharing a room with someone else now.”
“It isn’t Section Chief Seon-u In, is it?”
Choi Seongun gave a brief laugh at my joke. Right. That was how it was supposed to land.
“How is the search for your home going?”
“If the test results next month say I can stay outside for a long time, we decided to visit the address I remember and the place where I came out into the market. Places like Busan Station are still the same, and I remember which buses I took home, so we’ll use that to figure out which house matches the address I remember.”
“That’s good. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“You’ve already helped me so much. More than that? I feel terribly sorry...”
“Contact me whenever you want. We are market comrades who literally went through life and death together, aren’t we?”
When I pretended to tip a scale, Choi Seongun smiled faintly.
“Then... would you come with me when the time comes? I think it would give me courage.”
“Of course. Just let me know in advance, and I’ll keep my weekend free.”
Choi Seongun’s expression brightened further. When he was quiet, he had a rather cold impression, but the moment he spoke, the corners of his eyes crinkled into a smile. He was a truly warm person, and even his eyepatch and burn scars could not hide it.
“And call whenever you want. Even if it isn’t something urgent.”
If he also happened to tell me about what the Corporation was doing and where, that would be twice as nice. With a little selfish interest mixed in, I decided to keep building a good image with Choi Seongun.
“I will.”
The taxi Choi Seongun had called arrived. It had come sooner than I expected, and I realized why when I saw it was a premium taxi. Thanks to that, I enjoyed the spacious back seat and got home in under ten minutes.
“I’m home, Hertz.”
I had grown used to greeting Hertz when I got home. As if it had been waiting, the radio turned on in the dark house and old jazz began to play.
— Welcome home, partner. It looks as though you have had a long day.
“Don’t start. I’ve been meaning to ask whether you opened up some kind of spiritual sight in me.”
I tossed aside my jacket and bag, then threw myself onto the daybed sofa I had recently bought.
— Sounds like there was a ghostly incident.
“Is that beyond your control?”
— I cannot simply command the phenomena that appear there to disappear. I can use them as an indicator, though.
“Like a Distortion or ghost story occurs where there are ghosts, or is about to occur?”
— The causality is reversed. Once a ghost story begins to exist, its characters appear there at random. It is rather like an absurdist play.
“That is terrible for my mental health.”
— Do you not like frightening things?
“Now that you mention it, there are ranks and grades to horror, Hertz. If you think about it, the experiences you bestowed upon me...”
By the time I came to my senses, it was already past three in the morning. After talking for hours without drinking even a sip of water, my throat was rough and a dry cough slipped out.
“...I got too worked up.”
The radio gave the sound of a needle skipping off a broken record, followed by the sort of spectacular malfunction sound effect that belonged in an old cartoon.
“...Hertz?”
— Of course I am fine. Listening to stories is part of a radio’s job.
The voice was still gentle and kind, but somehow it sounded three times noisier. It also seemed to break off here and there, like a stretched-out tape.
“...I got a little excited. Sorry.”
— Thanks to you, I had time to learn a great deal about my partner... It was very informative, yes. Good...
“I’m really sorry...”
I had to break the habit of launching into an otaku filibuster whenever horror and ghost stories came up. I had gone on without stopping until dawn, clutching my strange bonsai pet the whole time...
Sleep was ruined, and so was I. A rush of self-disgust came over me, and I scrubbed my face dry.
— Then the best story for my partner would be an adventure where my partner can become the protagonist.
“Why would you understand it like that?”
— My partner finds flaws in stories and rewrites them into new ones. That is a role truly suited to a protagonist.
“Don’t protagonists in horror stories always end up losing their minds, dying, or going mad? Like Lovecraft?”
— Stories where strange beings love the protagonist are popular too, are they not?
“There’s no use in being loved by things like that. Even being loved by a god only tangles up your fate.”
— ...
Hertz’s final sound was too quiet for me to hear properly.
“What did you say?”
— I said that you have less than three hours left to sleep, so I will play the quietest music possible.
That did not sound right. But I did not have the energy to say anything more, so I quietly showered and decided to get what little sleep I could. There was plenty to do this week as well.
And I had awful dreams.
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