Chapter 92: Evil Spirit (3).
Chapter 92 < Evil Spirit (3). >
“Where did you come from?”
Young Raphael sobbed as he told Father Pedro about what had happened at the Black Night Church.
“And… my dad, my dad…”
“Oh, no…”
Father Pedro knelt down and hugged Raphael in his arms.
“You must have had a hard time.”
Raphael closed his eyes. He could still remember the warmth that he had never forgotten.
After putting the child to sleep, Father Pedro carefully stepped outside and stood next to the deputy who was waiting for him.
“There are still heretics these days.”
“What do we do now?”
“First of all, we have to take care of these children.”
“But, Father… we are not well-off either.”
“They are just kids. How much money do you think they need? And…”
He looked through the open door at the young Raphael who was curled up and sleeping.
“How can I abandon that little one?”
Father Pedro in 1992 probably didn’t think much of it. And Father Pedro in 2020 suddenly remembered Raphael’s words and uncovered the truth behind the incident. He was sure that the Black Night Church was a devil-worshiping cult. The outcome was not good, though.
(To Father Raphael.)
After the flashback ended, Father Raphael read the letter that Father Pedro had left.
Father Pedro, whom he had met at the African medical service, didn’t remember him as the child he had encountered when he was young. He only knew him as a Korean foreign priest.
The letter briefly asked how he was doing, and reported on the strange incidents that were happening nearby.
(I found out that there is a heretical cult behind this. I can’t just watch this situation anymore. I need your help.)
A small crack appeared on Father Raphael’s expressionless face as he read the last sentence.
(…Lastly, Father Leo is like my son. I know this is a shameless request, but please help him stay on the right path.)
Father Raphael slowly put down the letter that seemed to foresee his death.
Yeon Seo thought of what he had talked with Director Choi Seongmun when he acted this part.
(This is where Raphael’s emotions are important. Yeon Seo, what do you think Raphael feels for Father Pedro?)
(Well, I think Raphael is a person who is mentally fragile due to lack of affection, so he would feel betrayed, right?)
Director Choi’s eyes sparkled. Yeon Seo had become a communicative actor unlike before. He even apologized for what had happened during the ‘Doll’ shooting when they met separately.
What kind of change of heart did he have… The director waved his hand slightly as if to tell him to continue.
(He would still remember him if he was seven years old, right? For some reason, Raphael was adopted abroad and Leo stayed under Father Pedro, right?)
(Yes.)
(He was treated unfairly by society because he had no mother, and he lost his father too. He ran away to the church, but he was kicked out and adopted overseas. He lost his place in Korea… He would have been discriminated against in the adoptive family because he was Asian.)
And relatively recently, at the African medical service site, Raphael recognized Father Pedro at a glance. But the other person didn’t remember him at all, so he must have felt bitter.
(He would be in a resentful position, so he would only find a letter asking him to take care of Father Leo.)
(…Right. He wouldn’t like it. Then how should Father Raphael act from now on?)
(He wouldn’t ignore the last wish of the deceased, so he would help him, but… He wouldn’t look kindly at Kim Leo. At first.)
Director Choi clapped his hands. Yeon Seo didn’t need directing.
With a complicated expression, Father Raphael put down Father Pedro’s letter and looked out the window.
“Bro!”
“Pass it here!”
He saw Kim Leo playing soccer with the orphanage kids. He was trying hard to fill Father Pedro’s empty spot.
Raphael watched him and saw the small child who had become a priest. He felt a new emotion, and a bit of jealousy. His eyes showed various emotions and then disappeared.
“He didn’t remember me until the end…”
Father Raphael closed his eyes and leaned back on the chair. The scene changed with a sigh-like monologue.
He left Father Pedro and started to investigate the devil and the Black Night Church.
“Father! Where are you going?”
“Don’t follow me.”
“Don’t you need an assistant?”
It was an unwelcome company that Father Raphael didn’t allow. Kim Leo was cheeky, and Raphael was half-resigned.
“How do you know our Father?”
“Not very well.”
“You came all the way from the Vatican to fulfill the request of our Father, whom you don’t even know?”
Father Raphael stopped walking and sighed before answering.
“I met him briefly when I was serving in Africa.”
“Oh…”
In the end, Raphael was dragged by Kim Leo and took care of him, even though he was annoyed.
***
“To perform an exorcism, you need the Vatican’s approval.”
“Come on, Father, don’t you have any flexibility?”
“Isn’t that too nosy of you, Father?”
“Wow, Father, you lived abroad and you don’t know that word?”
They bickered with each other, but they also cooperated. They had the same goal of finding out who was behind making Father Pedro that way.
And in the last scene of the third episode, the remaining person of the three main characters of the drama appears. Park Sua, a journalist and Kim Leo’s high school classmate.
She couldn’t forget an incident that happened when she was a war correspondent in an African conflict zone, and when a similar thing happened in Korea, she started investigating secretly.
She found out belatedly that Father Pedro, who frequented the church she often went to, died of spontaneous combustion, and she visited her hometown for the first time in a long time.
“Huh? Kim Leo?”
“······Park Sua?”
She looked awkwardly at Kim Leo, who was wearing a well-groomed priest’s robe.
“Wow, the scoundrel of Nosang High became a priest?”
“What, I’m what.”
Kim Leo didn’t flinch and raised his chin defiantly.
They asked each other about their recent situations after a long time.
“What are you doing?”
“Oh, I work for a small newspaper.”
“A journalist?”
“Yeah.”
There was also an article that maliciously linked Father Pedro’s death to the church’s poor finances. Kim Leo got up and tried to kick Park Sua out of the church.
“Hey, wait. What’s wrong with you?”
“I decided not to have anything to do with you journalist bastards. If you write another weird article about our Father, I won’t spare you even if you’re my classmate. Get out.”
“I didn’t do that! I didn’t come here because of that either!”
“Then what?”
Park Sua, who was dragged by Kim Leo, pointed to Father Raphael, who was praying in front of the water to make holy water.
“Hey, if you don’t kick me out, I’ll tell you about that Father!”
“What? How do you know Father Raphael?”
“I saw him in Africa before. How can I forget that face?”
“······It is a face that you can’t forget once you see it.”
Kim Leo let go of Park Sua’s shoulder and crossed his arms. Father Raphael, who was praying devoutly despite the commotion in the church, seemed to have a halo around him. Park Sua sighed with relief and straightened her wrinkled clothes.
“Tell me.”
“I’m shooting celebrities now, but I used to fly as a war correspondent.”
“Oh, that’s surprising.”
Park Sua smiled triumphantly and took out a tablet pad from her bag. She showed him a scene photo from Africa. Father Pedro and Father Raphael’s faces were also small in the corner of the photo.
“What, our Father was there too.”
“What happened there was······.”
Here, a flashback scene of the incident that happened in Africa appears.
A minority ethnic group there performed a ritual similar to devil worship, and as a side effect of the ritual, they went crazy and killed their own families, or their bodies suddenly burned and died horribly.
And then, Father Raphael, who suddenly appeared there, stopped this phenomenon with an exorcism.
“But the weird thing that happened in Africa happened here, in Nosang District. Father Pedro’s case too, I have to be suspicious and endure it.”
“So you came here to cover that?”
“A journalist?”
“Ouch, you scared me.”
Kim Leo was startled by Father Raphael, who was close behind him. Park Sua covered her mouth with her hand and laughed at the destructive appearance of Father Raphael, who came closer.
“Wow, that’s amazing······.”
“So, can I see what you investigated?”
Park Sua, who came to her senses at Kim Leo’s words, operated the tablet pad and showed him the roadmap of the strange phenomenon that occurred in Nosang District.
“How is it, Fathers? I’m not bad, right?”
Park Sua, who looked confidently at the Fathers, and the two Fathers, who looked at each other with interest. That’s how Park Sua joined the group and the episode ended.
***
The drama set was busier than the movie set, but these days it was quite spacious due to the 52-hour limit per week. When lunch and a break time came, Yoo Yeon Seo ate with the two lead actors.
“By the way, Yeon Seo, you debuted as One Seven. How did you become an idol?”
Hong Min-ah, the actress who played Park Sua, asked Yoo Yeon Seo, who snickered.
“I just went to a decent company and said, ‘Make me an idol.’”
“Wow, you can joke too?”
“I’m not joking.”
“Really?”
Yoon Yeon Seo nodded with a bright face at Hong Mina’s incredulous words.
“So they accepted you at that company?”
“Which company would reject me?”
Hong Mina opened her mouth at the arrogant and annoying answer. She had heard rumors from senior actors, but she didn’t know it was this bad.
“Wow…”
“I know I’m annoying, so close your mouth. I can see everything inside.”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
Hong Mina clamped her mouth shut. Yoon Yeon Seo smiled slightly at her. She was an interesting person.
“I didn’t think you were annoying, I was just jealous… Anyway, did you also train as a trainee like Hajoon?”
“It wasn’t long, I debuted in less than six months.”
“Oh, well, your singing skills are no joke… Wasn’t it hard?”
Yoon Yeon Seo closed his mouth as he was about to say something. He glanced at Seo Hajoon, who was quietly eating his rice as Kim Leo.
‘Seo Hajoon is too… nice.’
Seo Hajoon started as an idol trainee when he was eight years old. He didn’t get along with his peers from a young age and trained for his idol debut, so he seemed to have received a good education on the entertainment industry.
Especially when he dealt with Yoon Yeon Seo, he was extremely careful and tried to get close to him, and it was obvious that his agency told him to look good to Yoon Yeon Seo.
‘But this is troublesome.’
The problem was that Seo Hajoon’s attitude showed in his acting.
From the next scene, the story would be about the exorcism ritual, and Kim Leo in the drama was a former gangster and an emotional person, and he had a lot of conflicting scenes with Raphael, who was a principled and rational person. But one side was lying down like that…
‘Should I provoke him a little?’
So when he filmed the scene where he clashed with Kim Leo, he sometimes felt that they didn’t match. They should have synergy when they matched, but there was none. Director Choi also felt that, but he compromised in the poor drama environment where he had to film two episodes a week.
I wonder if the other actors felt this way when I was a bad actor, they must have had a much harder time than me. Should I start the debt repayment project soon… Yoon Yeon Seo sighed softly as he was distracted.
“Was it hard?”
And he deliberately sneered.
“Being an idol was so easy, right?”
How about that? Annoying, right? Yoon Yeon Seo watched Seo Hajoon’s reaction.
Some people devote their childhood to barely debut. They struggle to show their faces in the media and get a drama lead role, and finally make their name known as an individual, not a group. But some people have a lot and debut easily and act easily, right?
‘He fell for it.’
Yoon Yeon Seo smiled inwardly as he saw the deep furrow on Seo Hajoon’s forehead.
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