WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 2: Garigari Agari

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Morning.

When I opened my eyes, I was staring at an unfamiliar ceiling.

A black, deeply black ceiling, like the bottom of a pit.

Something huge and hard nudged my face, tapping against the corner of my mouth.

"No way."

I carefully craned my neck down.

Lower and lower.

Then I saw a row of white teeth.

"Argh!"

I jerked my head back, and the teeth quickly pulled away.

At least I hadn't smashed my head into them, but the thought that I had been inside that monster's mouth until just now gave me goosebumps.

"Shoo! Back off!"

The memories from last night came rushing back.

I saw a ghost at the convenience store. It chased me, and that mouth ate it.

I had no idea what the mouth really was, but it didn't seem hostile toward me...

It just looked terrifying.

Last night, I passed out from exhaustion, so I hadn't been able to get a good look at it. In daylight, it looked even more horrifying.

First of all... calling it a huge mouth was an exact description.

A gaping mouth, as if someone had ripped off nothing but a mouth from somewhere, floated in midair. Looking closer, tiny white wings bloomed around it like flower petals.

They were so tiny that they didn't look capable of functioning as wings at all, but it was floating perfectly fine in the air, so I had no idea what to make of them.

Clack!

It expressed itself by clicking its teeth together.

"D-Did you sleep well?"

Clack!

I couldn't understand what it meant at all, but it seemed to understand me.

It bobbed up and down as if nodding.

"...."

It was an evil spirit.

That thing was an evil spirit.

And not an ordinary one, either.

What mattered was that this evil spirit had attached itself to me.

You know how it goes in ghost movies and novels.

An evil spirit possesses someone, then follows them around and torments them forever.

The convenience store ghost I saw last night was probably something like that too.

Why had this happened to me?

I'd never seen or felt anything like a ghost in my entire life.

So why now?

Let's go over what had happened to me recently.

My parents died.

It was an accident, and I hadn't been at the scene.

I held the funeral. People from church came, and I was busy dealing with this and that.

Because of that, I stopped going to church.

「Yohan. Don't ever skip church. Remember that. You have to go at least once a week. Okay?」

My parents had been devout Christians, and they had drilled that into me.

I figured it was just because they were deeply into church...

Come to think of it, I hadn't gone recently.

For over a month.

Could it be because I stopped going to church?

No, that was ridiculous.

If not going to church made people see ghosts, why was everyone else living just fine?

Still, I'd heard that evil spirits and demons avoided places like churches.

It was just random trivia I'd picked up from urban fantasy stories.

But with ghosts actually existing, maybe spiritual rules like that existed too.

"Ah!"

I suddenly remembered the original copy of the Book of Enoch Pastor Kim had given me a long time ago.

He said it was a souvenir he'd picked up in Ethiopia.

The drawer where that golden radiance poured out last night was the one where I had kept it...

"It's gone."

It was gone.

He said it was some incredibly valuable relic, so I'd kept it safely in the TV stand. Now it had vanished.

Could it be related to that evil spirit?

No, was it really what I thought it was?

"First... I'll go to church."

I quickly got dressed and headed to church.

Clack!

The mouth followed behind me, clicking its teeth as if it were excited.

This wasn't a walk.

Anyway, I went outside and took the bus to church.

I wanted to take a taxi, but the fare from Songpa District to the church in Gangnam was too much to even think about.

My parents had insisted that they had to attend a church in Gangnam even if it killed them, but I should probably find one closer to home now.

Beep!

When I got on the bus, I saw the passengers' indifferent gazes.

Everyone was too busy looking at their phones.

You'd think at least someone would notice when the mouth got close.

They didn't.

Nobody could see it.

Damn it.

It really was some kind of spiritual being.

Then again, if it wasn't, that came with its own problems.

After around thirty minutes on the bus, crawling through Gangnam's damn weekday traffic, I arrived at Gangnam Holy Temple Church Station.

That's right. The church had a bus stop named after it.

Gangnam Holy Temple Church.

It used to be one of the most prominent megachurches in Korea.

There had been an unsavory incident, so it wasn't what it used to be. Even so, people still came and went from the church on a weekday.

Gulp.

Was it because I hadn't visited in so long?

The air in the church somehow felt fresh.

Probably just my imagination.

Until recently, I hadn't felt anything unusual here.

"Hey, I'm going into church, okay?"

Clack?

Clack!

When I said I was going into the church, the mouth tilted itself for a moment, then clicked its teeth like it was applauding.

It understood what I said, so why was it acting like that?

Shouldn't an evil spirit hate churches?

The possibility I had been suspecting was growing more likely, and that scared me.

Still, even after entering the church, the mouth calmly followed me inside.

"Oh my, isn't that Yohan?"

I ran into someone I knew as soon as I entered.

"Deaconess Park?"

"Did the funeral go well? It's been a while."

She was a deaconess who had been close to my mother. She had come to the funeral and helped us through the proceedings.

"You must have had so much on your mind lately. What brings you here?"

"Ah, I just... felt like coming."

".... I see."

Deaconess Park looked at me with pity, then took an offering envelope from her bag and handed it over.

"You know my number, right? Tell me if you need anything."

"No, this is a tithe offering envelope..."

"Maybe Jesus had a reason for bringing you here today. Everyone's worried about you, so send an update in the group chat too."

"...Okay."

I barely held back the tears welling up in my eyes.

"Um... where is Pastor Park, the senior pastor?"

"Pastor Park left for Rome the day before yesterday. I heard he's going to the Vatican."

It wasn't surprising. The senior pastor taking trips to Italy was a common occurrence.

"Honestly, why do the pastors at our church go to Italy so often? Are they trying to become priests?"

If he left the day before yesterday, I wouldn't be able to see him for a while.

I was disappointed to learn that the pastor I wanted to talk to was away.

"Yohan, have you eaten? Want to eat with me?"

"No, I'm okay. I'll pray in the sanctuary for a bit before I go."

"All right. If you get hungry, buy a meal ticket at the church cafeteria. They're serving spicy pork today."

Spicy pork...

Looks like I picked a good day.

"No, this isn't the time for that."

With the mouth hanging right behind my head, I headed for the sanctuary.

Since it wasn't a regular service time, the sanctuary was dark. Still, faint LED lights had been left on for the few people praying inside.

I sat down, closed my eyes, and prayed.

God our Father.

I've done wrong.

Please let me stop seeing ghosts.

"Amen!"

I opened my eyes expectantly, but the mouth was still beside me, clicking its teeth.

"It didn't disappear..."

Why not?

What, was I supposed to live with this monster attached to me for the rest of my life, seeing ghosts too?

More importantly, this was a church.

A holy sanctuary.

Why wasn't the evil spirit disappearing?

Shouldn't it at least avoid the place?

"Are you bowing your head?"

Were you praying with your eyes closed?

Clack!

This was driving me insane.

When I got up, the mouth trotted after me.

First... let's eat.

Who knew?

Maybe it would feel threatened by the church's holy energy and run away.

Maybe it just needed to stay here longer for it to take effect.

The church cafeteria operated three times a week, and meal tickets only cost three thousand won. It was practically free.

They said more than a hundred thousand people came every week, from the nursery ministry to elementary school, high school, young adults, and adults.

I had no idea how they managed it.

Then again, all sorts of famous politicians and chairmen attended, so their offerings must have been overflowing.

Apparently, even that had fallen off a lot compared to the church's prime.

"Eat plenty~"

The kitchen was completely visible from the dining area.

Spicy pork bubbled away in the stainless steel-covered kitchen.

My tray was piled high with spicy pork, lettuce, and ssamjang.

I also made sure to get soybean paste soup, then sat at one of the scattered empty seats and started eating.

Slurp!

It was good.

Freshly cooked spicy pork and white rice went perfectly with lettuce and ssamjang.

I hadn't paid much attention to food since the funeral, but this was delicious.

Then I saw the mouth subtly bring its teeth closer.

"Wait, can you even eat this?"

Clack!

Apparently it could.

Wasn't it a spiritual being?

Come to think of it, it seemed to squeeze itself in slightly when we got on the bus.

Maybe it just ate normally, since it couldn't pass through things like a ghost?

I cautiously held out my tray, and it clicked its teeth happily.

Clack!

It looked pretty uncomfortable chewing pieces of spicy pork with those enormous teeth.

"Uh... wait a second."

I quickly wrapped up a lettuce ssam and offered it to the mouth. It tried to swallow it in one bite.

"Hey, hey, don't bite my hand too. Slow down."

When I warned it, the mouth actually took the ssam carefully.

Why was this thing so gentle?

Was this really the vicious monster that had chewed up an evil spirit last night?

Clack!

"Not enough?"

Clack!

The mouth nodded.

Well, one ssam wasn't going to make a dent in a mouth that big.

But I was hungry too, so I filled my stomach first.

For the record, the church cafeteria offered unlimited refills.

"Um... could I have some more meat?"

"Sure. You eat well."

The cafeteria auntie gave me a generous serving. Even so, it didn't look like it would be nearly enough.

"Could I... have more, please? I'm really hungry."

"Uh... but there are other people too..."

Just then, another auntie handing out kimchi nudged her.

"That kid had a funeral not long ago. He probably hasn't been eating properly..."

"Oh, dear..."

The auntie's eyes turned watery.

There was no such thing as a secret in the church network, but I didn't expect them to recognize me right away.

Thanks to that, I ended up with a mountain of spicy pork. Getting this much with a three-thousand-won meal ticket made me feel a little guilty.

I took it to a secluded corner of the cafeteria and fed it to the mouth.

Crunch! Crunch!

The mouth swallowed the heaping pile of spicy pork.

Still, wouldn't this be a disaster if someone else saw it?

To people who couldn't see the mouth, it would look like spicy pork was disappearing into thin air.

"...I need to be careful."

Anyway, the mouth finished eating.

When I left the church, it was still perfectly fine and followed me out.

By then, the conclusion was obvious.

The mouth wasn't an evil spirit.

"Seriously..."

I had wondered because of the white wings.

But as far as I knew, the only things with wings were birds.

"Still, calling you an angel with that appearance is a bit much, isn't it?"

The mouth was an angel.

Probably.

I had no idea why an angel was sticking by my side.

"Mouth?"

Clack?

It felt weird to keep calling it Mouth. It sounded like an insult.

"Gari? Can I call you that?"

Clack!

Gari nodded readily, as if it liked the name.

Yeah, I came up with it pretty casually, but it suited it.

On the bus ride home, a foul stench suddenly hit my nose. I covered it.

"Ugh! What is that smell?"

There hadn't been any smell until now. It started the moment a new passenger got on at the bus stop.

I looked around, wondering if I was the only one who noticed, but everyone else was calmly minding their own business.

I was the only one who could smell this horrible stink?

It was like steaming a ten-year-old rag and throwing it into a sealed room.

Even the filthy seniors in the military who never washed hadn't smelled this bad.

Clack-clack-clack-clack!!

Then Gari clicked its teeth viciously.

As if it had found something.

As if it sensed an enemy.

"...Oh."

There it was.

Something that hadn't been there a moment ago.

A gaunt ghost perched on the shoulder of the passenger who had just gotten on.

Hm.

I'd completely become someone who could see them now.

Footnotes:

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