Kapitel 9: Flying Sandals

Gayoon quietly unlocked the door and peered into the house. It was almost sunrise and she returned home after a week of doing night duties. She had stayed at the station, busy with the numerous cases and arrests but her grandmother would not listen to all that. The woman may have become old but her strength was no joke. With her sharp tongue and equally fiery attitude, Kwak Shujin was the most fearless woman Gayoon had ever seen.

She carefully tiptoed inside, trying not to make a noise to wake up the sleeping dragon. If her grandmother caught her, she would be flayed to an inch of her life. Even though she was 26 years old, Gayoon greatly loved and feared her grandmother.

Thankfully, the house was dark so that meant her grandmother was asleep. Only a few steps to my room, she thought as she hurried towards it.

Suddenly, the room lit up. Gayoon, who was in the middle of sneaking around like a thief, craned her neck to the side. Kwak Shujin was sitting on a sofa, glaring at her.

"Hi granny," Gayoon squeaked.

A sandal came flying at her. Gayoon dodged it by an inch, her heart skipping several beats.

"DON'T YOU SAY HI TO ME YA BRAT!" Grandma Kwak yelled. Gayoon made a run for it but the old woman chased her around the room with a broomstick in her hands.

"Grandma I can explain!" Gayoon begged as she tried to dodge her. They were circling around the long dining table, with granny trying to catch her.

"EXPLAIN?"

She threw another sandal at her. Gayoon leapt aside, running around the table to escape her grandmother's clutches.

"You came back after one week! A whole week!" Granny exploded, whacking Gayoon with the end of her broomstick.

"Ow! Granny! I was working!" she protested.

"Working?"

The phrase earned her several more whacks, some very painful ones.

"Granny I'm a cop!" Gayoon shot back.

"And now you'll be a dead cop!" Granny screeched, hitting her more. "A whole week you didn't come home and were at work!"

Gayoon had enough and stopped running. She angrily turned to face her grandmother.

"Where else would I be?" she yelled back. "You should thank heavens I was at work and not with some random guy!"

"Thank the heavens for that?"

Granny hit her arm hard.

"What was that for?" Gayoon exclaimed in anger.

"I'd be happier if you had spent the whole week with a man instead!" Granny scolded her. "Work and work! Don't you ever get tired of work? Just go to a club like the regular millennials and hook up with a guy!"

"Granny!" Gayoon protested but granny smacked her head.

"Don't you yell at me!" she thundered. "Twenty seven years old and you couldn't even snag a guy! At least hook up with someone and give me a great grandchild before I die!"

"You already have one!" Gayoon reminded her. But Grandma Kwak threw the broomstick away and began to beat her up with her hands.

"AND YOU GAVE MY PRECIOUS GRANDCHILD AWAY TO A STRANGER!" she roared.

She pulled Gayoon's ear. The latter cried out in pain.

"Granny that hurts!"

"Good coz you don't seem to learn at all!"

With a few last whacks to the head, Grandma Kwak finally got tired and let Gayoon go. Gayoon was massaging her arms with an irritated look on her face. The old woman would not stop berating her over the lack of love life and the great grandchild Gayoon had given up many years ago.

"I'm too busy to date!" Gayoon grumbled. The old woman threw a dirty look at her.

"Just get a guy!" she snapped. "I don't care who! Rich or poor. Dumb or deaf. Young or old. Just find someone, get married and move out of this house! At least let me die in peace!"

"Too bad I'll stick to you like a glue," Gayoon taunted her, sticking out her tongue.

WHACK!

Grandma Kwak hit her on the head again. "You won't even let me die in peace!" she complained. "When you said that you were pregnant, I was so happy! But then you said you were giving the child away to its real father and never to meet them again!"

"You know why I did it!" Gayoon exclaimed. "I wanted to get rid of that bloody gift you passed down to my mom and my mom passed it to me! I was eighteen and desperate for a normal life!"

Grandma Kwak snorted. "What's so normal about your life?" she shot back. "Twenty seven and still single. Even I got more dates than you! Just look at my dating app. Men still vie for my attention whereas you rot away in that silly police station. Did we pass on our good looks to you only for them to be wasted?"

Gayoon gritted inwardly. Her grandmother was not only up to date with all sorts of social media and technological advances. She had over a thousand friends on her social media accounts, most of whom were old men she flirted with.

In her eighties, Kwak Shujin was still a fine woman with her high cheekbones and silky white hair. Her face was lined with wrinkles but any one who looked at her could tell that she was once a beauty in her youth. Gayoon got her eyes and sharp features.

"Aren't you too old to be hanging out with men?" she asked warily.

"And yet, at my age, I can still get a date whereas you can't."

A nerve twitched on Gayoon's head.

"I'm tired!" she announced. "I'm going to bed."

"Wash the clothes and dry them up on the roof when you wake up!" granny ordered.

"Alright!"

"And also cook lunch!"

"Fine!"

"And don't forget to pay the water bill!"

"ALRIGHT!"

The old woman knew how to nag at her. Gayoon was annoyed to face her so early in the morning but there was little choice. Her grandmother was all she had left in the world.

….

Kwak Shujin slipped into Gayoon's room after an hour. Her granddaughter was still asleep. She was tired after working so hard and was finally getting some rest.

But Shujin could see that her granddaughter was not at peace. Even in her sleep, Gayoon's face was contorted with a grief which could never be erased. Sometimes, she blamed herself for the way Gayoon's life had turned out to be. If only her family did not have the ability of the second sight.

Many years ago, a shaman had gifted one of their ancestors with the gift of seeing ghosts. Only the female members of their families could see the spirits. Once the women give birth, they end up losing the second sight and pass it on to their daughters. If a son is born, then the gift does not go to him but passes on to the daughters of his line. Usually, the birth mothers end up losing the sight completely. But Gayoon...Gayoon turned out to be a different case.

Gayoon's ability was too special even within a strange family like them. Unlike the other women who only saw the spirits when they passed by or summoned willingly, Gayoon attracted many spirits at once. Her aura was very strong which only pulled them towards her, making them restless to meet her. Something about Gayoon was irresistible to them.

Moreover, even after giving birth to a child, Gayoon only lost the ability to see the ghosts but somehow could still feel and hear them. Most of the time she ignored their words and they left her alone so she was able to live a fairly normal life.

But what about the daughter she birthed? What happened to her?

Shujin knew how desperate Gayoon was. The spirits had haunted her whole childhood, isolating her from everyone. Gayoon saw horrors which were impossible to imagine even for Shujin. So when she had turned 18, Gayoon saw the surrogacy as the only way to give up her powers. Young and naive, Gayoon did not realize how painful it would be to give up that child. Gayoon's agony was beyond anyone's imagination, but the girl kept a strong front by completely trusting the man she had given her child to. For some reason, Gayoon was confident that her child was safe with the father which eased her sadness a lot.

Even though Shujin was against it, her granddaughter's plights finally made her relent. She could not bear to see Gayoon's sleepless nights and the constant fear anymore. The girl had suffered enough in life and Shujin did not want her to endure any more pain. She was well aware that Gayoon secretly prayed for her child's safety even if she never spoke of it.

She gently stroked the sleeping girl and kissed her forehead. Gayoon was still sleeping like a log, oblivious to her grandma's worries.

"I really wish you could be reunited with your daughter again," Shujin whispered, patting Gayoon. The latter stirred and turned around, still immersed in a deep slumber.