Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Indiscriminate Dream Spreading

While Jeong-hyeok’s mom was pacing in front of the public phone for a long time.

At the same time, the house of Taeseong Group Chairman Cha was being turned upside down.

From early evening, the phone began ringing nonstop.

Ring ring.

Chairman Cha answered the phone.

“Hello?”

-Father, this is the eldest. Just now, not only my wife and I but even the children all had a strange dream. Well, the underworld messenger appeared in the dream······.

Chairman Cha flinched.

In fact, he had also had the same dream five minutes ago.

It was a nightmare he had while dozing off for a moment as if fainting while watching the news sitting on the sofa.

-Unluckily, Seong-jun dies a violent death in a plane crash on the first day of the new year.

“Umm!”

-They say Seong-jun has a seven-year-old son, but a wife and child for that wooden fellow? There’s no way he has a child who’s even seven years old. Hahaha!

“Kheum!”

The longer the eldest son’s words got, the more Chairman Cha’s temples throbbed.

It was the same as the content his panicked wife had run over and rambled about earlier, so it gave him more of a headache.

“Just hang up. You’re making too much of a fuss over just having one nightmare.”

-But the underworld messenger reciting the birth date in detail was so vividly creepy······.

“I said stop!”

-Yes. Rest, Father.

As soon as he hung up, the ring ring sound rang again.

“Hello?”

-Father. This is the second. Just now, my wife and I had such a mysterious dream? The underworld messenger appeared in the dream······.

The second son also rambled the exact same words as the eldest.

Chairman Cha felt like his breath was blocked.

“It’s not even eight o’clock yet! From this early evening, you’re sprawled out sleeping soundly, so isn’t that why the company performance you’re in charge of is like that! Hang up!”

The second son hung up right away.

Ring ring!

-Dad!

“You didn’t also dream of the underworld messenger, did you?”

-No, how did you know? Did our Dad receive a divine revelation? In the dream, Seong-jun······.

“Haa······.”

Chairman Cha became very tired.

So he didn’t even respond to his daughter’s call and hung up right away.

Thud.

Chairman Cha buried his body in the sofa.

A coquettish voice and soft gestures.

“Chairman, I brought honey water.”

The wife, twenty years younger than Chairman Cha, set down the tray.

“Drink this and calm down.”

The hand of the wife handing over the honey water was trembling slightly.

She was Seong-jun’s mother, and a woman who blindly believed in superstitions.

So she often went to famous fortune-telling houses with others.

“Chairman, I’m really so scared. What if something terrible like that happens to our Seong-jun······.”

“Nonsense!”

Chairman Cha shouted in anger.

His chest was blocked, so he gulped down the honey water in one go and spat it out.

“Keuheup!”

“That’s hot!”

“This damn······! Bring cold water, why hot honey water in this situation······! Ugh!”

Chairman Cha put the mug down with a thud.

It felt like his already burning insides were completely overturned.

‘How can something like this happen?’

It was an unheard-of strange incident.

‘On the same day, at the same time, the entire family all had the exact same dream. Is this really possible?’

Chairman Cha was a person who didn’t believe in superstitions at all.

In a situation where he didn’t believe in ghosts, religion, dreams, or legends, what about the underworld messenger.

‘Honestly, there’s no way our Seong-jun has a child who’s even seven years old, what kind of bizarre······!’

Chairman Cha had always thought very unfavorably of his wife often going in and out of places she called famous fortune-telling houses.

It was definitely like that······.

Ring ring.

The phone rang again.

Chairman Cha waved his hand because his head was throbbing.

“It’s annoying to death. You answer this time.”

“Hello?”

-Madam, this is the Inwang Mountain Fairy Bodhisattva.

Inwang Mountain Fairy Bodhisattva.

She was a very famous shaman who claimed to enshrine the White Tiger God of Inwang Mountain for generations in the family.

“Bodhisattva? No, why are you calling our house?”

-I just had a mysterious dream. It seems like it’s something for the Taeseong Group Chairman Cha’s household. The underworld messenger appeared······.

“Yes?”

Inwang Mountain Fairy Bodhisattva was famous for correctly predicting everything from Joseon’s independence to the Korean War and the regime changes due to military coups.

In that way, famous figures in South Korea’s political and business worlds wore out the threshold of that house coming and going.

Even high-ranking officials from Japan came to have their fortunes told.

The Taeseong Group madam was also a regular customer of Inwang Mountain Fairy Bodhisattva.

-I did tell you recently that the Gate of Killing was open in Chairman Cha’s household and the energy of sudden death was heavily cast, didn’t I?

The Taeseong Group chairman’s wife felt like her heart sank.

-It was an unusual dream. I called because I thought it shouldn’t be taken lightly.

“Th, thank you for being concerned.”

The hand holding the phone trembled pitifully.

-Madam, let’s meet at the shrine soon. A fortune came out that a new person will enter the household soon.

Inwang Mountain Fairy Bodhisattva hung up.

“Oh my god.”

It was the first time.

Because it was known that cases where the Fairy Bodhisattva called first were extremely rare.

The Taeseong Group madam turned to her husband.

“Actually··· Seong-jun did have a woman.”

“What?”

For Chairman Cha, it was the first he had heard of it.

“There’s someone named Lee Su-jin who entered Korea University as the top student. You also said you briefly met Seong-jun’s university junior in front of the house, Chairman.”

“Ah, that neat and pretty-looking kid with an elegant air. But was that kid Seong-jun’s girlfriend?”

“No. Seven years ago, I gave her a money envelope and separated them······.”

Chairman Cha’s eyebrows rose greatly.

“Then what should we do. You unilaterally pushed the engagement between Seong-jun and the youngest daughter of U-gwang Group, Chairman.”

The youngest son arbitrarily entered the military once the engagement was decided.

After completing his full term of service, he only went around outside saying he was winning construction orders.

That was already seven years.

‘Could it be···, no way?’

Chairman Cha pressed his forehead.

The madam only moved her lips several times before eventually retreating to the main room.

“Secretary Kim!”

“Yes, Chairman.”

“Seong-jun who’s in the Middle East. Send a telegram telling him to return immediately.”

“Understood.”

“One more. Was it Lee Su-jin? Did you also know?”

“Yes. I personally carried out the madam’s orders.”

It meant the money envelope was Secretary Kim’s doing.

“Not long after, she was kicked out of the house and disappeared without a trace. So I didn’t investigate separately.”

It meant it was difficult to find her right away.

Chairman Cha pressed his throbbing temples hard.

“Whether that child named Lee Su-jin is really raising my grandson, where and how she’s living doing what. You take responsibility and find out properly.”

“Understood.”

“I need to meet her once. How many days will it take?”

“She’s a person who has been missing for seven years. It will take at least half a month.”

“Too late! In ten days, it’s the first day of the new year!”

The underworld messenger warned that the youngest son would die in a plane crash on the first day of the new year.

Even if it was a dream, it was too unsettling to bear.

“Find her quickly no matter what means you use! Search the whole country like looking for a louse!”

“Yes.”

“Mobilize the entire Taeseong Group information team, and call all the Myeongdong fixers!”

“Yes.”

“I should make a call to the KCIA too. Who was the guy who’s good at finding people?”

Ring ring.

Chairman Cha answered the phone irritably.

“Hello!”

-Oh, it’s been a while, Chairman Cha. This is Lee Su-jin. The youngest son Seong-jun and······.

No, how can something like this happen!

The person who needs to be found even by searching the whole country like looking for a louse is calling first? And after seven years?

“Oh! I was waiting for your call anyway.”

Chairman Cha welcomed her very happily.

“Yes, what did you call for?”

-I’m sorry. It seems I need to at least inform you of the existence. If something happens to me······.

Informing of the existence in preparation for the future?

This could be called the senile nonsense of an old man, and there would be nothing to say.

“Do you happen to have a seven-year-old child?”

-Uh, how did you······!

Is it real?

“Is it really our Seong-jun’s son?”

-······Yes. I’m truly sorry. I apologize.

“······.”

Chairman Cha opened his mouth wide.

‘Is this a coincidence?’

There’s no other way to explain it?

Chairman Cha squeezed his eyes shut and said.

“Let’s talk about the details when we meet tomorrow. With that child too. Is that okay?”

-······Yes.

Thanks to one phone call, the meeting that was expected to be at least half a month later was moved up to just 15 hours later.

* * *

“Gasp!”

I was lying in a big character shape on the warm inn floor watching TV and was startled.

“This damn······!”

My mind cleared and I sat up abruptly.

“Hey, underworld messenger! Come out in front of me right now. Execute!”

[E, execute?]

Swoosh.

The underworld messenger rose up like smoke, looking bewildered.

I furrowed my brow greatly.

“Are you messing with me right now?”

[······?]

“What? The plane our father is on crashes? I haven’t even met our father yet? What are you going to do about this!”

This is different from the promise!

You said you’d give me a golden spoon!

You said you’d let me meet Father!

[No, I never even entered your dream in the first place······.]

“Then consider that I peeked!”

Suddenly, I realized that King Yama had told me to ask Mother who Father was, but had never promised to let me meet Father.

‘Come to think of it, the youngest son of Taeseong Group died young and Taeseong Construction wavered. Because of that, they dropped out powerlessly without even getting a chance in the subway construction bidding.’

I only knew that the youngest son of Taeseong Group had died, but I didn’t know how he died.

That was just a fact from long ago that had nothing to do with Taeseong Group’s stock price.

But now it’s not.

That was my father’s death.

[W, why are your eyes like that?]

Why are my eyes like that? What? Why!

Yes, right now I’m a person who can’t see anything!

“Hey, guardian deity. An underworld messenger isn’t something that can only operate in Korea, right?”

[······?]

“Transmit the exact same dream to the opposite side of the Earth right now, execute!”

[E, execute?]

* * *

In a Dubai hotel, a man sat up abruptly.

He had been writing construction bidding documents and dozed off for a moment, but ended up having a terrible nightmare.

Cold sweat was drenching his whole body.

“What is it? Why is the underworld messenger in the dream······.”

The person who received the warning that he would die by crashing into the Arabian Sea in a plane crash on the first day of the new year.

Cha Seong-jun trembled all over at the too-vivid nightmare.

Bang.

The hotel room door opened vigorously.

Secretary Lee, his friend and attendant, approached with light steps.

He shook the plane ticket noisily and smiled brightly.

“Umhahaha! I got it with great difficulty! Ta-da, this is the round-trip ticket to Bombay! Let’s go to India and win a ton of construction orders!”

Cha Seong-jun looked at the plane ticket shaking coquettishly in front of his eyes.

Air India Flight 855 departure time: January 1, 09:30

It’s just a nightmare.

Why does this look like a one-way ticket to the underworld to me?

That wasn’t all.

'My child? If he’s seven years old······.'

Even while thinking it was just a dream, his heart was pounding so much that he couldn’t calm down easily.

"Get a plane ticket to Korea. It doesn’t matter if you transit through another country, just so I can arrive as quickly as possible."

"You’re trying to go into Korea?"

"Yeah."

Secretary Lee opened his eyes round.

"For several years, even though telegrams telling you to return poured in every day, you pretended not to know, and suddenly?"