Surviving as a Sorcerer in Seoul - Chapter 1

Chapter 1: I Became a Sorcerer? (1)

TL: DDTL

If asked whether I had a dream, I could answer without hesitation.

Just to earn a decent amount of money.

And live a decent, comfortable life.

Of course, deep down I’d love to own a building smack in the middle of Gangnam and rake in billions as a landlord.

But after twenty-eight years on this earth, I’d figured one thing out.

Reality isn’t that kind.

So I’d found my own compromise.

Study a decent amount, graduate from a decently named engineering school, leverage my decent hobby for games, and get hired at a decent game company.

That was the decent goal of my life.

But was that really such a hard dream to ask for?

“……Now what.”

I stared blankly down at the empty desk.

The figurines, tumbler, and planner that used to clutter my desk had long since been crammed into a cardboard box.

The box was filled just right, neither overflowing nor lacking.

A half-assed weight to it, just like my life.

Tap tap tap…

The other employees in the office just kept tapping away at their keyboards. Not one of them looked up.

As if I’d turned into an invisible man.

It had been exactly thirty minutes since I received the termination notice.

I stared down at the picture frame wedged into a corner of the box.

In the photo, three women were smiling brightly.

Not my parents.

It was my aunt and younger sisters who had taken me in after I lost my parents to a car accident at ten and became an orphan.

My young aunt, who’d gotten into trouble, married early, and wound up alone early.

Along with my nineteen-year-old sister, who had just started studying for the college entrance exams, and my twenty-year-old sister, who had just started college and was busy playing dress-up.

Essentially the only family I had left.

‘Looking at a family photo while you work gives you energy, you know? You should put one on your desk too.’

The words of my old mentor, long since resigned, came back to me.

Bullshit.

Energy my ass.

It didn’t help one bit at a time like this.

If anything, it just clogged up my chest, making it hard to breathe.

How was I supposed to cover living expenses starting next month?

What the hell was I going to tell Aunt?

Looking at the photo, guilt just crept up on me.

Thunk.

I irritably flipped the frame over and shoved it deep into the box.

I was about to pull open the drawer to check one last time for anything I’d missed.

When a godawful voice came from behind me.

“Ju Gi-baek.”

I didn’t need to turn around to know.

That distinct musty e-cigarette smell. And that grating, thin, nasal voice.

Team Leader Park Gyu-shik.

“Yes.”

“Hey, cheer up. Life isn’t that deep, right? It’s not like you’ll starve to death if this place doesn’t work out. You’ll do just fine somewhere else, you.”

Park Gyu-shik perched his ass on the corner of my desk with a greasy smirk.

Fwoo.

He blew a puff of vapor from the e-cigarette in his mouth straight at my face.

A cloying fruit scent spread across the tip of my nose.

In that instant, something hot surged up from my gut into my throat.

This guy was going to do this to the bitter end.

The very bastard who’d made me sign the termination notice.

Now he wanted to play the good older brother?

I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t even work up the anger.

“What’d I tell you, huh. I told you not to do art at the company, didn’t I? Look at the trends, knock off whatever’s hot, pack in some aggressive monetization, simple work. Why do you have to make everything so complicated.”

Park Gyu-shik clicked his tongue and patted my shoulder.

“Digging in your heels, butting heads with the other designers, getting on the higher-ups’ bad side. All because you wanted to be an artist, right? You think I want to make that crap? I make it because the higher-ups tell me to.”

“…….”

“Since you’re leaving, let me give you one piece of advice as your hyung. When you go somewhere else, bend your principles a little. Only work as much as they pay you, only do what you’re told. That’s the secret to lasting.”

Advice as my hyung?

I stopped my hands from packing up the box.

The past two years flashed before my eyes.

Forcing through monetization models users were guaranteed to curse out.

Swapping my design proposals for his own name and presenting them to the executives. Turning my family history into drunken table talk at company dinners.

I’d put up with all of it in the name of getting along at work.

Because I wanted to live a decent life. Not stand out, not be the nail that sticks up.

But this was what I had to show for it.

Fired.

There was no reason to put up with it anymore.

Slowly, I raised my head and looked Park Gyu-shik dead in the eye.

“Excuse me, Park Gyu-shik-ssi.”

“Huh?”

Park Gyu-shik’s eyes narrowed.

Full of displeasure at being called “ssi” instead of “Team Leader.”

“Listening to you, this guy is something else. Talking like I’m getting kicked out because I can’t do my job?”

“What? Hey, watch your tone.”

“You want me to say it right here? That time you lied about working late and got caught by me banging that girl from the next department in the conference room. Last winter, wasn’t it? Wasn’t the whole year of bullshit you put me through just to shut me up about it?”

In that instant, the air in the office froze.

Tap tap tap….

The keyboard sounds around us all stopped at once.

Park Gyu-shik’s face flushed red and blue in a flash. Flustered, he darted his eyes around, scanning the room.

Employees popping their heads over the partitions like meerkats.

Every single one of them buried their head the moment their eyes met Park Gyu-shik’s.

But obviously all their ears were wide open in our direction.

“Wh, what? Y, you just…….”

Park Gyu-shik backed away, stammering.

“Wh, what the fucking shit are you saying?! Are you crazy?!”

“Wow, check out that acting. They should give you the Blue Dragon Award this year. Why don’t you quit game design and become an actor?”

I gave him one scoff, unclipped my employee badge from my neck, and tossed it.

“And from here on, you can go ahead and build that little gambling racket that robs users’ wallets all by yourself. I’m too disgusted to keep at it.”

“You, you asshole! Do you know who I am? You know how small this industry is, right? You think you can walk out like this and be fine? One phone call from me and you won’t get hired anywhere……!”

Park Gyu-shik bellowed, veins popping in his neck.

The industry was small. He’d wreck my reference checks.

In the past, I would’ve trembled at those words.

But a guy with nothing to lose had nothing to fear.

I hoisted the box up and took a step toward Park Gyu-shik.

“Shut up, you stumpy little moron of a bastard.”

“……!”

“I’ll handle my own future, so get out of my way and fuck off.”

I knocked the corner of the box into Park Gyu-shik’s shoulder as I walked past.

“Uh, uh?”

Caught off guard by the physical impact, Park Gyu-shik staggered.

He grabbed hold of a partition and barely managed to steady himself. Even glaring at my back with poison in his eyes.

I could practically hear his teeth grinding from over there.

What?

Did you think I was going to politely apologize and leave quietly like everyone else you’d bullied?

I paused at the office exit. Then turned my head and looked Park Gyu-shik right in the face.

Look at those eyes. Like staring that hard was going to kill anyone.

“If it pisses you off, come to Tapgol Park.”

“……What?”

“I’ll fight you one-on-one. You always said it, didn’t you? That disobedient punks like me just need to get the shit beaten out of them at Tapgol Park to straighten out. If you’ve got the guts, come on.”

“Y, you crazy bastard…….”

Park Gyu-shik muttered the curse under his breath.

His face was red enough to burst, but he couldn’t bring himself to lunge at me and just stood there with his fists trembling.

“Fucking coward.”

I snorted and booted the office door open.

Bang!

The door swung open and the outside air rushed in.

I could hear the murmuring behind me. Not my problem anymore.

I’d been fired anyway. From here on, it was my way.

* * *

“One more.”

“Hey, slow down, you bastard. Your liver’s gonna burst.”

“Hurry up.”

“Ugh, for real.”

In the end, the clear liquid filled my shot glass again. Trickle-. The pouring sound was unusually crisp.

The chilly air of early autumn seeped in through the gaps in the pojangmacha’s vinyl tarp. Steam from the hot udon broth scattered into the air.

I immediately tossed the drink back.

“Haaah.”

The sharp alcohol tang swirling in my mouth.

That hot feeling as it went down past my throat.

Didn’t some drama say it?

If the alcohol tastes sweet, then that day was a truly memorable one.

Well, today definitely qualified.

It was unusually sweet. Sweet enough to make me wonder if they’d dumped sugar in it.

“Cheer up, you bastard. That moron Park Gyu-shik, how far’s he gonna get anywhere? There’s a whole truckload of people who quit because that prick bullied them.”

The guy across from me clicked his tongue and fiddled with his empty glass.

Kim Min-su. A coworker from my hiring cohort and an assistant manager in the general affairs team.

A loyal friend who had rushed over the moment he heard, claiming he was going to console me.

“And that other time, who was it. That bob-haired girl from the design team.”

“Han Seo-won.”

“That’s it! Han Seo-won. She ended up quitting too because Park Gyu-shik groped her at that company dinner. Of course, he wriggled out of it like a slippery fish because of insufficient evidence. Anyway, forget about it. That asshole isn’t going to last long. You know how he is. Swiping the juniors’ work and dressing it up as his own. It’s just a matter of time before he gets exposed.”

Anger lingered in Min-su’s voice.

Watching him get more worked up than I was, I figured I hadn’t wasted my life after all.

But it was already over.

Every time Park Gyu-shik’s name came up, bile rose in the back of my throat.

“Enough. Stop bringing that asshole up. It’s ruining my drink.”

“Fine, fine. Drink your fill then. So, you got a plan? What are you going to do out there? Park Gyu-shik, that asshole’s spent enough time in this industry. He might already be calling around to trash-talk you everywhere.”

“Dunno. Tomorrow-me will figure it out.”

Instead of answering, I pulled the udon bowl on the table closer.

With my chopsticks, I scooped up a fat pile of plumped-up noodles.

Slurp.

With noodles and hot broth going down, my insides at least felt a little more settled.

To finish, I tossed back another shot of soju.

A clean chaser.

I glanced over the table.

Green bottles lined up in a row.

Already on our fifth bottle of soju.

I think I’d emptied four of them.

Min-su was still looking at me with pity.

“You bastard. At least you’re eating the food though. Thought you were gonna sit there chewing on loneliness and pound straight soju.”

“Gotta eat well to make it through tomorrow.”

I said that, but inside I was burning up.

Starting tomorrow, I had nowhere to go to work.

Should I shoot my resume off to some other game company?

But like Park Gyu-shik said, this industry was small.

If a bad rumor got out, getting rehired was pretty much a lost cause.

Should I just pivot to a different field entirely?

I had an engineering degree, so I could go back to being a code monkey, maybe?

As I kept mulling it over, the buzz started creeping up nicely.

The world seemed to be tilting just a little.

I blinked a few times and rubbed my face dry. The heat from my palms transferred to my cheeks.

Maybe I’d gone too hard tonight.

Min-su clicked his tongue and pulled a few bills out of his wallet.

“Aunt, the check over here!”

“What. I said let’s keep going.”

“You’re the bum who gets to sleep in tomorrow, but I’m the working stiff who has to take the hell-train to the office, okay? Watching you get canned hurt so much I’ll buy the drinks.”

“You bastard. Thanks.”

“If you’re grateful, keep this Friday open. I’ll treat you big one more time. You’re jobless, so you’ve got plenty of time, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m dying of gratitude, I really am.”

We stumbled out of the pojangmacha.

The moment we pushed past the tarp, the night air hit us.

My face, flushed from drinking, cooled off in an instant.

Kim Min-su flagged down a taxi.

Before cramming himself into the back seat, he rolled down the window and spoke to me.

“Hang in there.”

“….Got it, so get in already and go get ready for work tomorrow.”

“Right. You’re keeping Friday open? You heard me?”

“I heard you.”

Vroom.

The taxi drove off, leaving red taillights behind.

The moment he was gone, silence fell. The night breeze slipped in through my collar and swept over me.

I started walking toward my studio apartment with hunched shoulders.

Trudge, trudge.

An alleyway lit sparsely by streetlamps.

I stopped blankly and looked up at a streetlamp.

Insects were dancing chaotically around the dim, hazy light.

Moths flinging themselves at it, burning up on impact.

“….That’s me.”

Had I charged in like one of those moths? Should I have held back a little?

No, if I’d held back, I’d have made myself sick.

I had no regrets. It was already done.

Couldn’t undo it, and didn’t want to undo it.

As I reassured myself and dragged my heavy feet along.

I spotted an unfamiliar figure under the wall at the alley’s entrance.

Usually that spot was just piled with garbage bags. But today, someone had laid out a street stall and was sitting there.

“……”

I rubbed my liquor-blurred eyes and stopped walking.

Then I looked down at the old man under the wall.

He was every inch a homeless man by appearance.

A grimy military field jacket and matted hair.

Both hands shoved deep into his pockets, he leaned against the wall with his eyes closed.

The items laid out on the mat in front of him were something else.

A crudely woven Straw Effigy, yellowed old books that looked like they belonged in a museum, a rusted bell, a coin with a hole punched through it…….

Had he swiped props from some historical drama set?

“You want something?”

The sudden voice made me flinch.

The homeless man opened his eyes and looked up at me.

It was a dark corner with no streetlamp, so I couldn’t make out his face well.

Vrooom…

Just then, the headlights of a passing car swept across the homeless man’s face.

Flash.

For a split second, his pupils seemed to glow blue.

A trick of the eye?

Must have drunk too much. A homeless man wearing colored contacts, no way.

“……Just curious is all.”

“Hmm.”

The homeless man cocked his head.

The eyes visible through his tangled hair were strangely deep.

“Had a rough day today, didn’t you.”

“Sorry?”

What the hell, this guy.

Was this one of those “Do you know the Way?” things? Or is he a fortune teller? [TL Note: “Do you know the Way?” refers to a common street-recruitment pitch used by certain Korean cult-like religious groups who approach strangers in public.]

I let out a small laugh and nodded.

“What, is it written on my face?”

“It’s not work trouble. You’ve been hurt by ties with people. Betrayal, or injustice?”

“….”

The buzz snapped out of me in an instant.

“How do you know?”

“Just guessed.”

The homeless man grinned.

His gums were exposed, with several yellowed teeth missing.

Humming a tune, he picked up a Straw Effigy and an old book from the mat.

“Fifty thousand won.”

“What?”

“These two together, fifty thousand won. No card or bank transfer. Cash only.”

The out-of-nowhere sales pitch left me at a loss.

“What even is that?”

“A Curse Doll, and a book of Sorcery that uses Spectral Objects like these.”

“Sorcery?”

I almost burst out laughing.

Was this really 21st-century Seoul, Korea? In a world where AI drew pictures and electric cars rolled around, this guy was going on about Sorcery.

“Grandpa, I don’t believe in that stuff.”

“Don’t, then. But right now, you hate someone enough to want them dead, don’t you? What’ve you got to lose?”

The homeless man’s voice coiled around my ear in a strange way. Sticky and secretive.

Hated enough to want them dead.

Park Gyu-shik’s face surfaced in my mind.

That sneer as he blew out e-cigarette vapor.

The image of him shamelessly stealing my design proposals and getting promoted for them.

Was it the drink? Or was I under some spell from the homeless man’s eyes?

Without even realizing it, my hand went to my back pocket.

When I opened my wallet, a single 50,000-won bill happened to be sitting there.

Money I’d tucked away as emergency cash.

“……Here.”

I’ve lost it, Ju Gi-baek.

Paying money for trash in a drunken stupor. But my hand was already handing over the bill.

“Okay. Deal done.”

The homeless man snatched the money up in a flash.

His hand movements were not ordinary.

I looked back and forth between the rough Straw Effigy in my left hand and the old book in my right.

The book’s cover was covered in unreadable Chinese characters that writhed like earthworms.

The doll was so crudely made I’d have believed it was an elementary schooler’s art homework.

What the hell was I even doing.

As I stood there blankly, the homeless man grinned and tossed in a few more words.

“You look totally confused. Here. I’ll be generous. I’ll give you a special lesson on how to use the doll.”

“There’s a way to use it? What, do I stab it with needles or something?”

“No, no. That’s what amateurs do.”

The homeless man wagged his index finger.

“Picture the face of the person who comes to mind. In great detail. Then channel all that resentment and grip the doll as hard as you can.”

“Grip it?”

“Yes. Transfer your anger through the strength of your hand.”

The only face that came to mind was Park Gyu-shik’s.

That godawful mug. Those arrogant eyes. Those twitching lips.

The moment I pictured him, my hand clenched on its own.

Crunch.

The sound of dry straw twisting.

I clenched my teeth and squeezed the Straw Effigy with all I had. As though I were strangling Park Gyu-shik’s neck.

The crumpled doll was now so mangled it was unrecognizable.

It felt like a little bit of a release.

On the other hand, I felt self-loathing creep in, wondering what the hell I was doing on the side of the road.

“Does crumpling this actually change anything?”

At my blunt question, the homeless man grinned.

“Sure does. For someone with ordinary Spiritual Power, it can induce stomach pain, diarrhea, nausea. Or some mild sleep disturbance.”

“That’s it?”

“What do you mean ‘that’s it?’ You know how miserable it is to have your shit cut off mid-dump?”

It was anticlimactic.

For 50,000 won worth of revenge, wasn’t it a bit underwhelming?

“So what do I do with the doll now?”

“Toss it. It’s done its job. The Curse has already taken flight.”

The homeless man waved his hand and closed his eyes again. An attitude that said he had no intention of dealing with me anymore.

I let out a sigh and turned around.

The Curses were so pathetic I was left speechless.

Stomach pain and diarrhea? It’d be faster to just feed him spoiled milk.

I headed toward my studio apartment with unsteady steps.

Coming out of the alley, I spotted garbage bags sitting under a telephone pole, right on cue.

“Ah, screw it.”

I shoved the crumpled doll in my hand right onto them.

Thump.

The doll that landed on the garbage bag looked pathetic. My 50,000 won had been tossed out along with it.

I couldn’t quite bring myself to throw away the book in my right hand.

It was still a book, after all.

Figuring I could at least use it as a ramen pot rest, I tucked it under my arm.

The moment I got home, I collapsed onto the bed without even changing clothes.

The ceiling spun round and round.

Park Gyu-shik.

That asshole. Go have diarrhea to your heart’s content. And on top of that, suffer on the toilet all night long.

That was the last thing I remember thinking……

* * *

Brrrrring-!

“Ugh…….”

I opened my eyes to the sound of my phone ringing.

My head felt like it was splitting.

A heavy hangover had rolled in. My mouth was bone dry.

My phone was vibrating by my pillow.

Groaning, I reached out and snatched the phone up.

I didn’t have the presence of mind to check the screen, so I just swiped the call button and held it to my ear.

“Hello…….”

─Hey, Ju Gi-baek! You up?

An urgent voice. It was Kim Min-su.

“What…… Didn’t you go to work? Calling at the crack of dawn. My head’s killing me.”

─Forget work right now! Did you hear the news? Wait, haven’t you checked the group chat?

“What are you talking about. I literally just woke up.”

─Listen. It’s some crazy news, so brace yourself.

“What is it? Spit it out already.”

─They’re saying Park Gyu-shik is dead.

“……What?”