TAMC 09

Chapter 09

‘Shin Jaye…….’

While Sunwoo silently repeated her name in his mind, Yonghwa the shaman stared wide-eyed, looking back and forth between Sunwoo and Okhyun sitting beside him.

“From this moment on, the two of you must keep what I say in mind.”

Okhyun leaned toward Yonghwa the shaman. Her posture made it clear that she was prepared to follow whatever Yonghwa said, no matter how absurd it might sound.

“Because Jung Sunwoo’s saju is so strong, even if we put a piece of paper with his saju written on it inside a coffin and hold a funeral, we won’t be able to deceive the ghost that brings disaster. So we must deceive it in another way.”

“Yes, Bosa-nim.”

“Jaye will become Jung Sunwoo’s samjae talisman and stay by his side for three years. If you do exactly as I tell you, the powerful energy of the talisman will allow Jung Sunwoo to safely get through his samjae.”

As Sunwoo listened to Yonghwa the shaman speak as smoothly as flowing water, he clicked his tongue inwardly.

She was acting as if she were some kind of god, demanding that people follow her words even though she was nothing more than a human. It was no different from the behavior of a cult.

But Okhyun was different.

“Isn’t this also a meeting prepared by the gods, who felt sorry for your father’s death?”

At the words “a meeting prepared by the gods,” Okhyun began sniffing. Whenever her husband was mentioned, her emotions were deeply shaken.

“I’ll do anything you tell me, Bosa-nim. If you tell me to give up even my own life in place of Sunwoo’s, I’ll do it.”

Blinded by the fear that Sunwoo might suddenly die just like her husband, she could see nothing else.

Sunwoo hated seeing his mother acting like such a devoted believer, but she had spent more than ten years living anxiously after losing her husband first. Because of that, he couldn’t simply scold her.

Until that moment, he had never imagined that they would actually carve a Samduiljokmae into a person.

He had only thought that the person who became the talisman would perform rituals or prayers in his place.

While Sunwoo was going over the human talisman arrangement in his mind, Yonghwa the shaman brought up something completely unexpected.

“Today, Sunwoo will share a hap-hwanju with Jaye at this hermitage and hold a simple wedding ceremony.”

At the words ‘hap-hwanju’ and ‘a simple wedding ceremony,’ Sunwoo frowned.

“A ceremony? What do you mean……?”

He had never imagined that keeping a protective talisman close to his body meant holding a ceremony and living together as husband and wife.

“In a few days, Jeongwol will begin—the first month of the lunar year. The disasters of samjae will start coming in earnest. That’s why I believe we need to create the talisman and keep it by his side as quickly as possible.”

“I’ll do exactly as you say, Bosa-nim. No matter what.”

Sunwoo stared at his mother with an incredulous expression.

“As soon as you come down from the mountain tomorrow, register your marriage with Jaye.”

“Yes. I’ll do that.”

Judging from their conversation, it seemed that everything had already been decided—from the method of turning Jaye into a human talisman to keeping Jaye, who had become the human talisman, by Sunwoo’s side as his wife for three years.

Sunwoo was dumbfounded. He wanted to call the whole thing off even now, but when he looked at Jaye and her mother sitting in one corner of the room, he couldn’t bring himself to say it.

They had just told Jaye that she would have to live beside a strange man for three years, yet even after hearing that, she said nothing and only held onto the hem of her clothes with her pale fingers. Seeing her sickly mother’s face also made Sunwoo unable to tell them that he was backing out and leaving the hermitage.

Because telling them that he was canceling everything felt like pushing two people standing on a narrow single-plank bridge straight into the river below.

“Well, then. It seems the conversation is over, so I should prepare to write the talisman.”

Yonghwa the shaman stood up and sent everyone outside the shrine.

“I’ll take special care with this talisman for Sunwoo. If you keep the talisman close to you and carry it with you at all times, no disaster will be able to harm you.”

“Thank you. I’ll never forget this favor, Bosa-nim.”

Until then, Sunwoo had thought the talisman Yonghwa the shaman was making would simply be an ordinary talisman drawn on yellow paper.

He thought living as a married couple for three years would be manageable. He thought that was all there was to it.

But that was Sunwoo’s mistake.

That night, at 11:30 p.m., during the deep hours when Jasi began, Yonghwa the shaman called everyone at the hermitage into the shrine.

She lit incense, bowed toward the east, and then clapped her hands three times.

She was preparing to make the talisman.

Yonghwa the shaman called Jaye into the center of the shrine, took off Jaye’s top, and made her lie face down on the shrine floor.

When Sunwoo saw Yonghwa the shaman beside her filling a tattoo machine with pigment, he was horrified.

“What the hell is this……? What are you doing right now?!”

Sunwoo was shocked by the unbelievable scene and tried to stop her, but Jaye’s mother grabbed hold of him.

“Stay still, Sunwoo. We can’t take it back now. So just stay still.”

Not only Okhyun, but Jaye’s mother as well, silently watched what was being done to her daughter.

Even Jaye, lying face down on the floor, was enduring what was about to happen to her body.

“Stop this crazy thing right now. You’re going to tattoo a person? What the hell is this……?”

Without listening to Sunwoo, Yonghwa the shaman pressed the tattoo machine against Jaye’s back.

“I said stop! Stop it……!”

Sunwoo shouted, but then he saw Jaye’s hand gripping the blanket spread across the floor and closed his mouth.

The hand she had clenched so tightly had blue veins bulging from it.

“Why……?”

Why was she willing to endure this much pain just to go through with something like this?

As Sunwoo watched Jaye endure the pain without letting out even a single groan, he couldn’t say another word.

Meanwhile, Yonghwa the shaman continued drawing the talisman with swift, practiced movements while murmuring incantations.

He had heard that a talisman had to be completed in a single stroke without lifting the brush.

And Yonghwa the shaman never once lifted the tattoo machine from Jaye’s back.

The only sound in the room was Yonghwa the shaman’s murmured incantations.

“What is this……?”

The head of a Samduiljokmae was completed on Jaye’s white skin by the tattoo machine.

Okhyun let out a sound of admiration, but Sunwoo couldn’t do the same.

He wasn’t seeing Yonghwa the shaman’s hand drawing the talisman without hesitation.

All he could see was Jaye’s pitiful back trembling as she lay face down on the floor.

She endured the pain of having her back covered with a tattoo without letting out even a single groan.

“Please, stop this…… What is this supposed to be? What the hell is this……?”

Horrified, Sunwoo tried desperately to stop Yonghwa, but Okhyun wrapped her arms around his waist and held him back.

“No, Sunwoo. If we back out now, that child will be the only one who looks like a fool.”

Despite the commotion, Yonghwa the shaman continued drawing the talisman, and Jaye’s back was gradually turning redder by the second.

Watching Jaye’s hand tremble like a leaf as she gripped the blanket on the floor, Sunwoo felt a pain so intense that it seemed as if his own skin were being torn away.

“You said you were doing this for me? This ridiculous thing?”

“Yes. It’s all for you. We’re doing all of this for you.”

“Ah…….”

The reason Sunwoo couldn’t call it off now was Jaye herself.

If he stopped it now, she would have to live with an ugly red tattoo covering her back.

And if it wasn’t Jaye, they would try to turn another woman into a human talisman. They would continue coming up with other secret methods under the excuse of preventing samjae.

That dawn, Jaye’s back was completely covered with the terrifying Samduiljokmae that Yonghwa the shaman had drawn.

“With this, Jung Sunwoo’s samjae talisman is complete. A wife is someone who is always by your side, so she will be even more effective than simply attaching a talisman to your house.”

A terrifying image had been carved into the back of a twenty-one-year-old young woman, frightening enough not only to ward off the disasters of samjae, but also to send chills down the spine of anyone who saw it.

Sunwoo gritted his teeth and stared at Yonghwa the shaman.

She was a fraud.

Not only was she skilled at manipulating people with words, but she was also someone willing to perform acts that could completely blind and deceive them.

With the skin on her back peeled away and the deeper layer of her skin exposed, Jaye lay face down on the floor, enduring the pain alone.

Her entire body trembled pitifully, and she couldn’t even lift herself up.

“Are you okay?”

Sunwoo approached Jaye, picked up a clean piece of cloth lying beside her, and covered her back with it.

That night, all Jaye was given after receiving a tattoo large enough to cover her entire back was a single painkiller.

After swallowing the painkiller with water, Jaye’s eyes red from the pain, she drank the hap-hwanju with Sunwoo—the drink that sealed their three-year marriage pact.

The sight of Jaye’s pale hand wrapped around the brass cup, trembling from the pain, was burned clearly into Sunwoo’s memory.

The memory of that day made his heart feel heavy whenever it resurfaced.

Lying on his bed, Sunwoo pressed the back of his hand firmly against his eyes.

Although twenty-one was legally considered adulthood, in reality, a twenty-one-year-old was little more than a grown child who had only just reached adulthood.

On top of that, Jaye had been living with Yonghwa the shaman. She must have been in a position where she couldn’t possibly oppose her.

As someone who had lived longer than her, Sunwoo should have stopped that inhumane act.

But instead, he had become a bystander who watched Jaye’s back being covered in tattoos.

And Sunwoo’s mother had been the person who had arranged for it to happen.

Afterward, Yonghwa the shaman said that, in order to maximize the talisman’s effectiveness, Sunwoo had to take Jaye as his wife.

Marriage.

And even being forced to share a bed.

Something so horrifying was happening inside his own home.

Sunwoo never slept with Jaye while deceiving Okhyun.

Rather than act like the people consumed by madness, he thought it would be better to simply endure whatever disasters came his way.

But now that things had gone this far, he had to step in himself and correct what had gone wrong.

The method Sunwoo chose was to have the tattoo carved because of him completely removed, help Jaye stand on her own as she wished, and take Jaye’s mother—who had been brainwashed by that deranged woman, Yonghwa the shaman—out of the hermitage.

After bringing Jaye to Seoul, he enrolled her in a private university and provided her with an enormous amount of financial support.

But even after doing all that, his guilt over what had happened that day did not lessen.

Whenever he looked at Jaye, he remembered the disgusting things one human being had done to another, and he felt disgusted with himself.

While the two of them lived together as husband and wife, two years passed.

During the two years and eleven months they had shared the same bedroom, Jaye’s attitude toward Sunwoo had always been without ulterior motives.

But her gaze gradually began to change.

Sunwoo was perceptive enough to notice that affection had begun to appear in her eyes.

But when it came to her affection, he couldn’t respond to it.

To him, Jaye wasn’t a woman.

She was simply someone he had a responsibility to compensate for what she had suffered.

He could send her to school and take responsibility for her as her guardian, but he didn’t have the confidence to look at her as a woman or love her.

There was only one month left until their contract ended.

Sunwoo’s only wish was to part ways with Jaye safely one month later.