Chapter 03
Three months ago, right after Hae-an was unfairly demoted from his position as team leader of the Seoul Metropolitan Investigation Unit and reassigned to Okyeong Police Station, he was given the case in question.
It was one of those so-called “shaman fraud” cases people often talked about.
The criminal methods and charges were always slightly different, but similar incidents happened quite frequently. And every single time, the person who visited the police station — not as a suspect, but as a witness — was the shaman Kim Bari.
‘You’ve worked hard, Kang Hae-an.’
Setting aside the sudden informal speech, her tone had been far too arrogant for someone meeting him for the first time.
‘Your eyes, nose, and mouth. Unlike your rough past life, you completely transformed.’
‘What kind of nonsense is that when we’ve just met?’
‘I’m saying you worked hard growing up handsome.’
Her blunt speech had no filter at all, and she lacked even the most basic manners toward others.
Kim Bari was, in simple words, completely rude.
And naturally, she was exactly the type of person Hae-an hated the most.
‘You keep talking like you know me, so let’s make this clear. Today is the first time I’ve met you, Ms. Kim Bari. And I have no intention of getting involved with you again.’
‘Well. Can you really do that?’
Her arrogant tone carried the meaning of, If you can, then try running away all you want.
Kang Hae-an was not someone who believed in fate or destiny. He didn’t even believe the saying that brushing sleeves with someone could become a connection.
So he thought meeting Kim Bari would only be a one-time event.
But that was arrogance.
A careless assumption.
A pathetic misjudgment.
‘First strangers become acquaintances, then acquaintances become fate. That’s the natural order.’
At a blind date he was practically dragged into by his adoptive father, Commissioner Woo Gwan-su, the woman sitting across from him had been Kim Bari.
‘Is being miserable your hobby? That tragic expression is a bonus too?’
Then one dawn, after a tiring stakeout, when he stopped by a convenience store to buy beer, she appeared like a ghost once again.
‘Honestly, I hate meetings without logic or reason too, but what can we do?’
She even suddenly appeared on the rooftop break area of the police station — a place outsiders were forbidden from entering — casually sitting on the dangerous railing while swinging her legs.
‘The fact that you and I were married in our past life is the main point and central story of our relationship, Kang Hae-an.’
The final words she spoke as the wind blew through the rooftop were complete madness that no sane person would ever say.
And so, Hae-an decided to define Kim Bari’s existence very simply.
In ordinary words, she was crazy.
Professionally speaking, mentally ill.
However, Korean law was fairly generous toward people who were mentally unstable.
And since Kang Hae-an had always treated the laws of the Republic of Korea as his professional code of ethics, he never harshly pushed Kim Bari away.
Out of the duty and responsibility of a police officer who protected civilians, he had pitied her troubled mental state.
Could that damned sympathy and unnecessary kindness be what caused this disaster now?
Filled with regret, Hae-an faced reality with deep frustration.
The massive disaster created by Kang Hae-an’s unnecessary concern stood right before him in the form of Kim Bari, who remained perfectly calm and upright.
As if she truly believed she had done absolutely nothing wrong.
“Exactly.”
Suddenly clapping her hands twice, Bari laughed while shrugging her shoulders.
“Only someone like my husband Mujangseung’s reincarnation would make threats like that.”
Her voice was sharp, almost scolding him.
Hae-an felt confused by her sudden strange behavior, and Bari took advantage of that moment to step closer with eyes so cold they sent chills down his spine.
“Being charged with stalking an active police officer? Interesting.”
With an elegant gesture, Bari grabbed Hae-an by the chin and lowered his face slightly.
“So? Are you going to sue me?”
Hae-an did not avoid her gaze.
Removing her hand from his chin, he spoke like a warning.
“I’d do worse than suing you if I had to.”
“……”
“If it means getting rid of you from my sight forever, then gladly.”
At his shameless words, Bari let out an uncontrollable laugh.
Unlike her icy eyes, the corners of her lips lifted slightly as they trembled.
“What should I do? That’s supposed to be my line.”
There was only one reason she had endured such a horrifying eternal life for so long.
To permanently erase her mortal enemy — her ex-husband Mujangseung and his reincarnation, Kang Hae-an — from her life forever.
“I’ll say it again. I’m the one who killed you in your past life.”
“There you go with that crazy nonsense again—”
“And!”
Bari suddenly grabbed Hae-an by the collar and whispered into his ear.
“I’m also the one who saved you in this life.”
Bari was telling him that his life and death were in her hands.
At her absurd claim, anger surged inside Hae-an like a volcano about to erupt.
“Think carefully. You definitely met me before, ever since you were very young.”
From the distant past to the more recent past, Bari hoped Hae-an would dig through his memories and understand the cause behind all of this.
Only then did she think he might finally understand everything he had seen, heard, and experienced.
“Just remember this — the saying ‘ignorant people are fearless’ describes you perfectly right now, Kang Hae-an.”
After quietly releasing his collar, Bari smiled meaningfully.
“One day, when you realize for yourself that you owe me a huge debt…”
Her finger pointed toward Hae-an’s sharply raised eyes.
“Then you won’t be able to look at my face proudly with those precious eyes of yours anymore.”
Bari’s burning gaze and Hae-an’s icy stare collided in the air.
The heavenly prayer ritual that began at eleven late at night ended exactly at one in the morning.
After easily walking down the dangerous mountainside where the ritual had been held, Bari climbed into the back seat of the luxury sedan Deok-jae had prepared in advance.
“Give me a lighter.”
As Bari stretched out her hand with a cigarette in her mouth, Deok-jae silently handed her a lighter and started driving.
After lighting the cigarette, Bari leaned her tired shoulders against the fully opened car window.
Then, with her eyes closed, she quietly asked,
“Haetae. You have something you want to say to me. Why aren’t you saying it?”
“Your mind is noisier than mine right now. Why would I deliberately poke at your wounds?”
“So this is your silent way of comforting me?”
“Well, interpret it however you want.”
The summer rainy season had begun.
Deok-jae lowered the driver’s window and stretched his hand out into the rain.
Thinking about it, it had been around this same season.
The first time he saw the underworld gatekeeper Mujangseung reincarnated as the human Kang Hae-an.
Twenty years ago.
The young Kang Hae-an, who had just turned nine years old, had definitely met Kim Bari while she was overflowing with murderous intent.
“That’s right. At nine years old, and again at nineteen, Kang Hae-an always met me.”
Reading Deok-jae’s thoughts, Bari smirked and added,
“Because fate decided by heaven is not something mere humans can resist.”
Deok-jae nodded in agreement at her bitter words.
“And now, by coincidence, he’s twenty-nine.”
“Yeah. Kang Hae-an really grew up a lot.”
The rain gradually became heavier.
Turning on the emergency lights, Deok-jae parked the car by a quiet roadside.
Holding an umbrella, he escorted Bari out of the back seat.
The place where they happened to stop was an unknown river overflowing with massive waves of water.
Walking near the bridge, Bari crushed the unfinished cigarette under her foot and said,
“That unlucky ninth year humans talk about is exactly like this. Every moment feels unstable and dark. That’s why difficult lives become even more tragic and twisted.”
“So that’s why you helped Kang Hae-an all those times?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
The wind blowing across the river made her long hair flutter.
Bari looked at Deok-jae with her mysteriously shining red eyes.
“I raised him nicely so I could devour him later.”
It sounded like a joke, but her tone carried complete certainty.
Because for Princess Bari’s salvation, for goblin Lee Deok-jae’s salvation, and for her only human family member Jeom Jeom-rye to peacefully enter paradise…
this was the only choice left.
“There’s something I promised myself every single day for nearly a thousand years.”
“……”
“The day I first met Mujangseung’s reincarnation, I would tear him apart and kill him. Then I would openly rebel against the Jade Emperor himself.”
Without changing expression, Deok-jae quietly listened.
“But the reincarnation of my enemy ex-husband appeared at a funeral hall.”
“……”
“And I never imagined he’d be just a nine-year-old child mourning his father.”
Maybe because she had lived so long as a shaman.
The habit of pity softened her heart.
She could have snapped that fragile neck immediately…
But she couldn’t.
Was it guilt?
Bari shook her head at the thought.
No.
She simply lacked the courage.
It was shameful and humiliating to admit, but it was the truth.
She couldn’t bring herself to take her husband’s life with her own hands once again.
‘Ha… Fate really is disgustingly cruel.’
Twenty years ago.
Standing alone in the dark funeral hall before dawn, Bari clenched both fists tightly as she took a deep breath.
‘…Who are you, ma’am?’
Nine-year-old Kang Hae-an rubbed his tear-stained eyes and blocked Bari’s path.
‘……If you find out who I am.’
After a long silence, her voice turned ice cold.
‘You’ll die.’
Bari’s bloodshot red eyes slowly moved away from the memorial portrait of the deceased and locked onto young Hae-an’s face.
