chapter2:< An Unexpected First Job (1) >
On a quiet afternoon, the scenery of the nameless temple, with mountain birds chirping, was the very picture of peace.
From a hermitage far from the Main Buddha Hall where the Buddha was enshrined, the Head Monk leisurely gazed at the peaceful temple scenery before speaking to the man in his early thirties sitting before him.
“So, have you made up your mind?”
“Yes.”
The Head Monk, his face a web of fine wrinkles, gazed intently at Yeonghun's serene face and asked.
“Have you thought about what you'll do for a living?”
“I'm not sure. I plan to just live as fate dictates.”
“It will be a hard life, you know.”
“Would it be right to try and avoid hardship while living in the Secular World?”
The Head Monk said with an apologetic look.
“I let you waste the prime of your life in this dull place. Even after I die and my ashes are scattered to the wind, my guilt toward you will likely never fade.”
“Please don't say that. If I had truly wanted to leave, I could have left sooner. It's only because of my own laziness that I've made up my mind now. I ate well and played well.”
“You won't regret it?”
“I've spent ten years living a carefree, unemployed life that others can only dream of. How could I have any regrets?”
Yeonghun truly had no regrets.
The reason he could endure being cooped up in this old-fashioned temple was, surprisingly, thanks in large part to the power of modern civilization.
When he was full of youthful vigor, the immensely popular StarCraft helped keep him grounded. And just as he was getting tired of StarCraft, World of Warcraft came along and helped him stay focused.
Occasionally, he would make a half-hearted complaint that his computer's performance was lagging and he needed a new one. Feeling sorry for the boy who was confined to the temple in his youth, the Head Monk would scrape together what little money he had to buy him a new computer.
In truth, he had felt he could control the desires in his heart since his mid-twenties.
Yet, the reason he couldn't leave then was because of fear.
The fear of facing the real world, not the one on TV and the internet.
He was sure he could control it, but he couldn't bring himself to tell the Head Monk he was leaving, just in case he was wrong.
“Can you keep your promise?”
“Yes.”
Despite this, the Head Monk was still worried.
Yeonghun was born with the fate of a shaman.
The Head Monk hadn't told Yeongsun's mother everything, but he had told her the most important truth.
That Yeonghun would become a diviner so skilled he could throw the world into chaos, yet also malicious.
When he was young, he thought it was nonsense, but as time passed, he came to understand.
That he had been born different from others.
When he held someone's hand, he could feel a strange temperature besides their body heat.
As a child, he didn't know what it was, but he found out later.
That it signified the hour of the person's birth.
This alone was astonishing, but strangely, he also felt that if he just put his mind to it, he might be able to know a person's mood or worries.
It was after realizing this that he began to fear his own abilities.
That was why he didn't resent his situation, a confinement that wasn't quite a confinement at a young age, and followed the Monk's words, striving to control his heart.
There was only one reason.
He wanted to live an ordinary life, just like everyone else.
“I've told you hundreds of times, but you must never use your talent to give readings and take profit.”
“I know.”
One's innate Four Pillars of Destiny could not be changed.
That's why, to avoid becoming a shaman, he deliberately learned the four pillars of destiny and Face Reading.
It was a kind of preventative measure against misfortune.
Because if someone fated to be a diviner tries to live a completely different life, they might have an accident or be struck by a god's descent—the so-called Shaman's Illness.
The rule about not taking a Payment for a reading was a different matter.
Because if he became a real diviner, a god would enter him.
He had learned the Arts of Divination in accordance with his innate Four Pillars of Destiny, but if he became a real diviner, the nature embedded in his destiny would emerge and harm people.
By now, he knew his own four pillars of destiny better than anyone.
“That's all you've ever learned. What will you do to make a living in this harsh world?”
“I have all my limbs, so I'm sure I'll find a way to get by. Don't worry.”
“The world isn't that easy.”
The Head Monk took a scrap of paper from the small table's drawer and handed it to Yeonghun.
On the paper was written a single cell phone number.
“What's this?”
“You know Yun Bosal, don't you?”
Yun Bosal was the one who gave the most alms to the temple every year.
Born the daughter of a local dignitary, she lived a wealthy life, but she often visited the temple, always worried sick about her children.
“Of course. I know her.”
“It's someone Yun Bosal introduced. They run a business in Seoul and said they were looking for someone, so I got their contact information.”
“What?”
Yeonghun couldn't hide his surprise; he never imagined the Head Monk would have gone so far as to think about a job for him.
After all, he was someone who normally never even mentioned matters of the Secular World.
Of course, he knew it was all because of him.
The monk was likely afraid that Yeonghun's carefully controlled heart might be swayed.
“They said it's in Seoul. Go and meet them.”
And of all places, Seoul.
“Seoul? Aren't you afraid? All the temptations of the world are gathered in Seoul.”
“You've spent your entire youth avoiding your destiny. Do you plan to keep running away even after you leave?”
“That's a good point.”
Yeonghun nonchalantly stuffed the paper he'd received into the pocket of his Monk's Robes.
The Head Monk glanced at the clothes Yeonghun was wearing and said.
“Buy some new clothes, too.”
“You don't think I'd go to an interview in these clothes, do you? I'm not a child.”
“Haha... you're right. You're not a child anymore... Now, go.”
Yeonghun gazed at the Head Monk's face for a long moment, then abruptly stood up and performed a deep bow.
As the Head Monk silently received the bow, Yeonghun offered a short word of thanks.
“Thank you for making a man out of me all this time.”
“I am so very sorry.”
Afraid the monk would see his reddened eyes, Yeonghun quickly left the hermitage, grabbed a few changes of underwear and the bankbook the monk had kept for him, and descended the mountain.
He took a bus into town and got a cell phone.
He'd gotten one before, thinking, ‘Why can't I have a cell phone like everyone else?’, but since he had no one to call him and preferred PC games to mobile games, he'd ended up selling it on a second-hand market site in less than a year.
So, even though he'd gotten a new phone, he wasn't particularly happy or moved.
He just thought, ‘So, am I really becoming a man of the Secular World now?’
It was 10 p.m. when he arrived in Seoul by KTX.
He went to Dongdaemun Market, a place he'd always wanted to visit in Seoul, and bought some casual clothes and a suit for work.
The look of surprise on the clerk's face when he, dressed in Monk's Robes, said he wanted to buy a suit was quite funny...
He enjoyed the bliss of a late dinner of pork belly and soju by himself, slept at a nearby motel, and then found a Gosiwon the next day to unpack his things.
Then, with a nervous heart, he called the number the Head Monk had given him.
“Who is this? Ah... is that right? I see. Well, can you come over then? We're in Myeongdong...”
He'd heard Myeongdong was a shopping paradise, so he wondered what kind of company would be there. As he walked to the address from the text message, a sign that read ‘Myeongil Building’ caught his eye, nestled among tightly packed buildings.
“Is this it... They said the fourth floor...”
He trudged up the narrow stairs of the old building, which had no elevator, and found only one company on the fourth floor waiting for him.
[Myeongil Financial]
Even for Yeonghun, who was experiencing the world for the first time, his knowledge gleaned from TV and the internet was enough to tell him exactly what kind of company this was.
“A Lending Business... It seems Yun Bosal didn't know what kind of company this was. But fate is truly ironic. Could there be a better job to test me than this?”
Yeonghun took a moment to catch his breath, then opened the door and went inside.
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