Chapter 18
Arcanum
Chapter 18
Case #5;
The lights dimmed to a blue hue and a hush came over the crowd. The curtains slowly slid open, revealing a shadowy man standing sinisterly with his hands wresting on the knob of a cane.
Suddenly, the six stage lights all flashed on, all focused on the man with the cane.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” announced a voice from above over a drumroll. “And children of all ages, we now present to you, Haha the Hypnotist!”
Cheers erupted from the crowd and the man raised his arms and bowed.
Taehyung leaned over in his seat and whispered in Chaerin’s ear. “Hey, thanks for bringing me here.”
“No problem,” she whispered back. “I got two free tickets from my company.”
With a swish of a red cloth, the hypnotist’s assistant was revealed in a skimpy, flashy dress that looked better suited to magician’s assistant on a Las Vegas stage. She strutted around the catwalk platform, twirling her bright red feathered dress and beckoned for an audience member to come onstage.
“I see my lovely assistant Hyosung has brought us a volunteer!” Haha declared. He reached out a white gloved hand at the volunteer, a boy who looked nervous to be under the spotlight.
“You sir, what is your name?” he asked, moving in as if to shake his hand.
The boy reached out for his hand. “Well, I’m Jung Chanwoo and-”
The magician pulled away at the last second, leaving the boy hanging, before bringing his hand over his eyes. “Now, Chanwoo-ssi,” he began in a deep, mysterious voice. “When I snap my fingers, you will completely forget your own name and believe that it is Sooyoung. Now…”
Click
The boy’s eyes flew wide open and he stepped back as if awaking from a trance.
“Now, sir, let me ask you again,” said Haha. “What is your name?”
“I told you before, it’s Sooyoung,” the boy answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
The crowd chuckled and cackled, and the boy looked around confused. “What’s so funny?” he asked pitifully.
“Now sir, are you sure?” Haha asked with a sly grin.
“Yes!” the boy replied, frustrated. “It’s Jung Sooyoung!”
The crowd burst into laughter and the hypnotist chuckled. “Alright, alright,” he said as he brought his hand over the boy’s eyes once more. “Now, when I snap my fingers again, you will remember your real name. And…”
Click
The boy shook his head.
“Now sir, please be patient with me, what is your name again?”
“Chanwoo.”
Haha the hypnotist took a bow and the crowd clapped, the boy looking more confused than ever. Taehyung rolled his eyes and leaned towards Chaerin.
“Can you believe him? He probably planted that guy in the audience,” he whispered.
Chaerin shrugged and giggled. “Maybe. But you don’t believe this? You believe Yira.”
“That’s different,” he defended as a man in a worker uniform bumped into his chair.
“I don’t see how,” she retorted.
The assistant jumped off the stage and marched right up to the both of them with a wide, lipstick red grin as she offered Chaerin her hand.
Chaerin looked around before pointing to herself. “Me?”
The assistant nodded, and Chaerin excitedly took her hand. She was led onto the stage where the lights her, her slim figure standing tall and relaxed.
“And we have another lovely volunteer!” The hypnotist announced. “Young lady, what is your name?”
“I’m Chaerin,” she smiled confidently, perfectly comfortable on stage.
“And what do you do?” he continued.
“I’m a model.”
“No surprises there!” he laughed, the audience echoing his chortles.
Taehyung watched from below with a slight frown. He wondered what the hypnotist would do with Chaerin since they both knew she wasn’t a planted actress.
“Now, Chaerin-sii, please step forward under this light,” he directed, tapping at the spot with his cane.
Chaerin moved forward but the man stepped out of the way, turning to her back before covering her eyes from behind. “Now, when I snap my fingers, you will follow wherever my hand goes, and when I snap them again, you will stop and forget everything that happened. And…”
Click
Haha moved his hand in slow circles and Chaerin followed, her eyes locked on his palm, rotating around the stage like some well-trained dolphin. The crowd clapped but Taehyung stared in shock. He knew Chaerin couldn’t be doing it on purpose; it was humiliating for her and she was stubborn, but there she was, absent mindedly tailing after a hand.
Haha dropped his hand and clicked his fingers. Chaerin came to an abrupt stop and the crowd applauded and cheered, but Taehyung stared wide eyed in shock, loss for an explanation as Chaerin shrugged and laughed on the stage.
***
“It was the weirdest thing,” he said as he sat with his arms crossed in the corner of the room. “I thought the guy was full of crap but he managed to get Chaerin to follow his hand like she was a trained dog.”
“Huh,” Yira replied, not bothering to look up from the table as she sorted her cards.
“And she wasn’t paid to do it. I asked her and she swore she wasn’t. She didn’t even realise she was following his hand,” he continued.
She placed a single card onto the centre of the table before pulling her hair back and looking up. “Tell me, did Chaerin remember what happened?”
“She told me she remembered vaguely but nothing much,” he answered.
Yira looked down and hummed, as if mildly amused, but only for a moment as she quickly returned to her cards.
Sand poured down through the hourglass and the clocks ticked around the cramped, little room. Hypnotic patterns on the cloths hangings on the wall seemed to move as he as his eyes wandered over them, and he winced and stifled a hiss.
Yira’s eyes glanced up. “Headaches again?”
Taehyung nodded and tensed his brow. “Yeah, a little bit.”
“Where’s your charm?” she asked, dropping her gaze back to the table.
“I’m wearing it,” he answered. “I haven’t taken it off in weeks.”
Yira raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”
Taehyung reached into his shirt. “Yes I’m sure-” His face froze into a look of confusion and he patted his chest and neck, finding it bare. “What the hell?!” he said. “I know I didn’t take it off, where is it?”
Yira shrugged and stood up from the chair, kneeling down to the cabinet behind her table, almost hidden by the shadows.
He muttered to himself as he looked through his shirt. “Did the string snap?”
Yira sighed and walked across the room at a steady pace, stopped before him. Black beads hung from her hand. She took his hand in her own and for a moment, his mind went blank. She pulled the beaded bracelet onto his wrist; a series of perfectly rounded matte black beads with polished silver ones in between.
“These help with healing,” she explained as she dropped his hand. “Make do with these until you get find your evil eye charm. The silver ones are magnetised.”
“Why?” he questioned as he poked at the bracelet.
“They help,” she answered. The silence of the room told him she wasn’t going to bother explaining more.
The candle flames flickered and a bell sounded from behind the doors. Her mother’s voice could be heard greeting the customer. Yira sighed and and looked bored, her voice lowering to a mumble.
“We have a bothersome customer coming.”
Taehyung turned to the entrance out of curiosity, but before he could react, the door jerked open and hit his skull, making him pull back and grunt profanities as he clutched his head.
“Is this Kwon Yira’s fortune telling?” asked an oblivious voice. The girl turned around to Taehyung. “What happened to you?”
Taehyung forced down the urge to snap back and just grumbled.
“Yes, it is,” Yira answered. “Please sit down. I charge thirty dollars with additional charges for extra information.”
“No problem!” she agreed as she pulled out her wallet. Her elbow knocked against an hourglass, tipping it off the table.
Taehyung lunged forward and caught it in his hands just before it hit the floor, a look of panic on his face as he imagined the shattering glass and spilling sand.
“Oh my God, I am so sorry!” she apologised frantically as she bent down to help.
“No, no, it’s fine,” he insisted, waving her away, but she backed into the candles, spilling wax onto the tables and setting alight the edge of her thin scarf.
She cried out in panic and tried to pat it out, comically blowing on it with puffed cheeks. Yira looked ahead with dull eyes, not even noticing as if she were in an empty room despite the terrified shrieking.
Taehyung grabbed his jacket of his seat and spun her around by her shoulders, forcibly smothering the flames by pushing the knit material into the scarf. He pulled it away to reveal a thin trail of wispy smoke, the scarf singed black on the edge. He dropped his jacket in relief and stepped back.
“Oh my God, I am so sorry, thank you so much! I’m a massive klutz, I’m so sorry! I’ll pay for your jacket!” she spat out in rapid speed, her hands flying in all directions as she tried to express herself.
“Stop, stop!” he cried as he grabbed her wrists. “You’ll knock over something else!”
Recognition sparked in his eyes as he saw her face, a round eyed brunette who was fairly plain without the flashy, colourful makeup caking her face.
“Hey wait a minute,” he said. “Aren’t you that hypnotist’s assistant? Hyosung-ssi?” He backed away to his seat but watched cautiously as Hyosung sat down, praying she doesn’t cause another accident.
Her hands hovered over the table, as if unsure of what to do. Her eyes were unfocused as a drone came out of . “Uuuhhhh… What was I doing?”
“Paying,” Yira answered.
Hyosung snapped her fingers. “Oh yeah! Here.” She handed Yira thirty dollars. “Sorry, I’m a bit of a ditz.”
“That’s perfectly alright,” Yira replied warmly. “Now, what is it that you’re here for?”
“Okay yes. Well I’m Hyosung. And well, as he just mentioned, I work as the assistant of Haha the hypnotist.”
“So your boss is a performer.”
Hyosung’s eyes lit up with the sparkle of a child. “Oh no, Haha’s more than a performer. He’s the real article! I know lots of people don’t believe it, but hypnotism is real and he is a genuine hypnotist! I know because I’ve been hypnotised several times along with my other co-workers. I have a video of me clucking like a chicken and I don’t remember any of it!”
Taehyung looked sceptical but he kept quiet. He had trouble believing it, but after everything he’d seen with Yira, he knew to keep an open mind.
“And he’s a great boss too,” she continued. “He hired me even though I’m so clumsy. I’ve always been a bit of an airhead. I lose track of time and a space out a lot so I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the best worker.”
“Your talents are many, you shouldn’t overlook them just to see your flaws,” Yira advised, making the girl blush. “So what is the problem that brought you here?”
“Well… some strange things have been happening at the workplace lately and one of my co-workers recommended that I come here. He said that you were real like Haha, and that you help solve problems as well as tell fortunes.”
“I’m flattered my name is so well known.”
Taehyung rolled his eyes. Yira knew full well of her own fame, or rather infamy. And she didn’t care.
“Well, some of my possessions, and my co-workers possessions are starting to go missing. It’s not always obvious, like only ten dollars might be missing at a time or just a single ring, but it’s been going on long enough that everyone is noticing it. Some of our things are switching places too. My keys wound up in the wallet of a co-worker, and her earrings were found in my dressing room. Even though I swear I didn’t take them. She always wore them; it’s not possible for me to take them straight out of her ear. We told Haha about this and he made more of us work security, but we haven’t found anything.”
“So you want to know why this is happening, and where to find your missing possessions?”
Hyosung nodded. “Yes. So far I haven’t lost anything too important, but I have a pretty expensive bracelet I don’t want to lose.”
“Give me your hand,” she directed.
Hyosung showed her palm and Yira spent a brief second scanning her hand before calmly, sitting back in her chair as if she had all the time in the world.
“These thefts and strange occurrences are caused by someone very close to you,” she began. “Someone you’ve known for quite a long time and someone you’ve respected.”
“Oh no,” she murmured with a look of dread.
“Hyosung,” Yira addressed. “You’re an intelligent girl. But you are prone to being emotional. It wouldn’t serve you well in this case, so I won’t give you a name. However, I’ll give you instructions to follow that will help you find the missing items and discover the thief for yourself. Would you like that?”
Hyosung nodded.
“Tomorrow, call in sick,” Yira instructed. “But take the place of another worker. Any, I’m sure your co-workers would be happy for the paid day off. Now, when you arrive, do not tell your boss that you are there. Avoid being seen by him.”
“Why?” she questioned.
“You’ll know by the end of the day,” she assured. “And if possible, avoid your presence being known by the other workers. Search the premise without being seen, and when four o clock arrives, go to the back door and lock it.”
Hyosung looked uncertain. “I’m not quite sure why I have to do this…”
“You’ll understand tomorrow.”
Hyosung nodded. “Okay. I’ll try. It can’t hurt right?”
She gathered her things and got up to leave.
“Oh and Hyosung-ssi,” Yira added, “you’ll find your friend's ring in your handbag.”
She looked surprised but she nodded, opening her bag as she left out the door.
“Thank you!”
The door shut with a thud, the wind blowing the smoke in billowing patterns. Taehyung stared at her for answers.
“So, is the hypnotist real?” he asked. “Is he another one of whatever you and Jun Jirin are?”
Yira rested her chin on her hand. “There is only a classroom’s worth of us in the whole world. Two at the same place and same time is already a miracle. The odds of three are near astronomical. No, this hypnotist is a normal man. Although quite talented, I have to say.”
“Wait, so he doesn’t have magic?” he questioned. “Then how does he hypnotise people?”
Yira paused, turning her eyes on him before the corner of her lips turned up in the slightest of smiles. She pulled out of her seat, approaching him through the smoke. “Hypnotism is real, although it doesn’t require any other worldly abilities. Think of it as a learned skill.” She pointed her finger at the door. “Tell me, what did you think of that girl?”
“She seems nice,” he said. “Very clumsy and kind of slow though, not to be mean.”
“Exactly,” she agreed. “She’s the perfect hypnotist’s assistant.”
“Huh?”
“That girl,” she explained. “Isn’t unintelligent, but the way she processes immediate information is a little slower than others. You see how she paused for a minute before she paid, didn’t you? This shows how she has trouble transitioning from task to task, like an outdated computer that slows if you open too many programs. She can’t multitask and she’s easily distracted. This leaves her open to suggestion.”
She picked up a pen from the table and twirled it between her fingers like a miniature baton. “The majority of human actions aren’t performed with thought. The human brain goes on autopilot for most small tasks. For example, when you wake up, you immediately go to the bathroom, and brush your teeth. You don’t think about it, it just happens. Now tell me, when you went to see that hypnotist, for the first volunteer, did he offer to shake his hand and then take it away last second?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, amazed. “How did you know?”
“It’s a common and easy trick in hypnotism,” she explained, angling the pen in front of his face. “When someone offers a hand, autopilot immediately sets in motion a series of actions for you to perform without thought. You raise your hand, hold theirs, and shake. However, if you take it away last second-” She dropped the pen but before Taehyung could catch it, she snatched it out of the air, leaving his hands hanging in the air.
She raised her finger onto his forehead. “When I click my fingers, you will hop three times.”
Click
Taehyung hopped three times in the air before a look of horror and shock dawned on his face. “How the hell did you do that?!”
Yira giggled and placed the pen back onto the table. “Out of reflex, you tried to catch the pen, much like how the volunteer reached out to shake hands. But the autopilot ritual was cut off halfway for both of you, which left a brief second of time where neither of you knew how to react, the period where your brain doesn’t realise what happened and is trying to break out of autopilot to think of the next action. This window leaves you very vulnerable to suggestion, and hypnotists take that opportunity and wedge their foot in the door, giving orders during this time.”
Yira stepped back and shrugged. “Of course, it works to different degrees on different people. For example, in Chaerin’s case, the hypnotist told her that she would forget everything that happened, correct?”
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“But she still retained vague memories. She’s strong willed and determined. This means that she was less vulnerable to suggestion. I’m assuming the hypnotist also made her hypnotism spell short and quick as well to make sure she doesn’t break out of it onstage.”
“Yep.”
“Strong willed or clear minded individuals generally don’t fall for it. That being said, hypnotism is less about having actual skill and more about knowing who’s vulnerable. Like Hyosung, her slowed thinking causes her openings to be wide and many.”
“Well damn,” he muttered.
Yira sat down and rested her hands on the table. “So, can you buy tickets to this show online?” she asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Because I think we might just catch a show tomorrow,” she said with a smile.
Suddenly, the six stage lights all flashed on, all focused on the man with the cane.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” announced a voice from above over a drumroll. “And children of all ages, we now present to you, Haha the Hypnotist!”
Cheers erupted from the crowd and the man raised his arms and bowed.
Taehyung leaned over in his seat and whispered in Chaerin’s ear. “Hey, thanks for bringing me here.”
“No problem,” she whispered back. “I got two free tickets from my company.”
With a swish of a red cloth, the hypnotist’s assistant was revealed in a skimpy, flashy dress that looked better suited to magician’s assistant on a Las Vegas stage. She strutted around the catwalk platform, twirling her bright red feathered dress and beckoned for an audience member to come onstage.
“I see my lovely assistant Hyosung has brought us a volunteer!” Haha declared. He reached out a white gloved hand at the volunteer, a boy who looked nervous to be under the spotlight.
“You sir, what is your name?” he asked, moving in as if to shake his hand.
The boy reached out for his hand. “Well, I’m Jung Chanwoo and-”
The magician pulled away at the last second, leaving the boy hanging, before bringing his hand over his eyes. “Now, Chanwoo-ssi,” he began in a deep, mysterious voice. “When I snap my fingers, you will completely forget your own name and believe that it is Sooyoung. Now…”
Click
The boy’s eyes flew wide open and he stepped back as if awaking from a trance.
“Now, sir, let me ask you again,” said Haha. “What is your name?”
“I told you before, it’s Sooyoung,” the boy answered as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
The crowd chuckled and cackled, and the boy looked around confused. “What’s so funny?” he asked pitifully.
“Now sir, are you sure?” Haha asked with a sly grin.
“Yes!” the boy replied, frustrated. “It’s Jung Sooyoung!”
The crowd burst into laughter and the hypnotist chuckled. “Alright, alright,” he said as he brought his hand over the boy’s eyes once more. “Now, when I snap my fingers again, you will remember your real name. And…”
Click
The boy shook his head.
“Now sir, please be patient with me, what is your name again?”
“Chanwoo.”
Haha the hypnotist took a bow and the crowd clapped, the boy looking more confused than ever. Taehyung rolled his eyes and leaned towards Chaerin.
“Can you believe him? He probably planted that guy in the audience,” he whispered.
Chaerin shrugged and giggled. “Maybe. But you don’t believe this? You believe Yira.”
“That’s different,” he defended as a man in a worker uniform bumped into his chair.
“I don’t see how,” she retorted.
The assistant jumped off the stage and marched right up to the both of them with a wide, lipstick red grin as she offered Chaerin her hand.
Chaerin looked around before pointing to herself. “Me?”
The assistant nodded, and Chaerin excitedly took her hand. She was led onto the stage where the lights her, her slim figure standing tall and relaxed.
“And we have another lovely volunteer!” The hypnotist announced. “Young lady, what is your name?”
“I’m Chaerin,” she smiled confidently, perfectly comfortable on stage.
“And what do you do?” he continued.
“I’m a model.”
“No surprises there!” he laughed, the audience echoing his chortles.
Taehyung watched from below with a slight frown. He wondered what the hypnotist would do with Chaerin since they both knew she wasn’t a planted actress.
“Now, Chaerin-sii, please step forward under this light,” he directed, tapping at the spot with his cane.
Chaerin moved forward but the man stepped out of the way, turning to her back before covering her eyes from behind. “Now, when I snap my fingers, you will follow wherever my hand goes, and when I snap them again, you will stop and forget everything that happened. And…”
Click
Haha moved his hand in slow circles and Chaerin followed, her eyes locked on his palm, rotating around the stage like some well-trained dolphin. The crowd clapped but Taehyung stared in shock. He knew Chaerin couldn’t be doing it on purpose; it was humiliating for her and she was stubborn, but there she was, absent mindedly tailing after a hand.
Haha dropped his hand and clicked his fingers. Chaerin came to an abrupt stop and the crowd applauded and cheered, but Taehyung stared wide eyed in shock, loss for an explanation as Chaerin shrugged and laughed on the stage.
***
“It was the weirdest thing,” he said as he sat with his arms crossed in the corner of the room. “I thought the guy was full of crap but he managed to get Chaerin to follow his hand like she was a trained dog.”
“Huh,” Yira replied, not bothering to look up from the table as she sorted her cards.
“And she wasn’t paid to do it. I asked her and she swore she wasn’t. She didn’t even realise she was following his hand,” he continued.
She placed a single card onto the centre of the table before pulling her hair back and looking up. “Tell me, did Chaerin remember what happened?”
“She told me she remembered vaguely but nothing much,” he answered.
Yira looked down and hummed, as if mildly amused, but only for a moment as she quickly returned to her cards.
Sand poured down through the hourglass and the clocks ticked around the cramped, little room. Hypnotic patterns on the cloths hangings on the wall seemed to move as he as his eyes wandered over them, and he winced and stifled a hiss.
Yira’s eyes glanced up. “Headaches again?”
Taehyung nodded and tensed his brow. “Yeah, a little bit.”
“Where’s your charm?” she asked, dropping her gaze back to the table.
“I’m wearing it,” he answered. “I haven’t taken it off in weeks.”
Yira raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”
Taehyung reached into his shirt. “Yes I’m sure-” His face froze into a look of confusion and he patted his chest and neck, finding it bare. “What the hell?!” he said. “I know I didn’t take it off, where is it?”
Yira shrugged and stood up from the chair, kneeling down to the cabinet behind her table, almost hidden by the shadows.
He muttered to himself as he looked through his shirt. “Did the string snap?”
Yira sighed and walked across the room at a steady pace, stopped before him. Black beads hung from her hand. She took his hand in her own and for a moment, his mind went blank. She pulled the beaded bracelet onto his wrist; a series of perfectly rounded matte black beads with polished silver ones in between.
“These help with healing,” she explained as she dropped his hand. “Make do with these until you get find your evil eye charm. The silver ones are magnetised.”
“Why?” he questioned as he poked at the bracelet.
“They help,” she answered. The silence of the room told him she wasn’t going to bother explaining more.
The candle flames flickered and a bell sounded from behind the doors. Her mother’s voice could be heard greeting the customer. Yira sighed and and looked bored, her voice lowering to a mumble.
“We have a bothersome customer coming.”
Taehyung turned to the entrance out of curiosity, but before he could react, the door jerked open and hit his skull, making him pull back and grunt profanities as he clutched his head.
“Is this Kwon Yira’s fortune telling?” asked an oblivious voice. The girl turned around to Taehyung. “What happened to you?”
Taehyung forced down the urge to snap back and just grumbled.
“Yes, it is,” Yira answered. “Please sit down. I charge thirty dollars with additional charges for extra information.”
“No problem!” she agreed as she pulled out her wallet. Her elbow knocked against an hourglass, tipping it off the table.
Taehyung lunged forward and caught it in his hands just before it hit the floor, a look of panic on his face as he imagined the shattering glass and spilling sand.
“Oh my God, I am so sorry!” she apologised frantically as she bent down to help.
“No, no, it’s fine,” he insisted, waving her away, but she backed into the candles, spilling wax onto the tables and setting alight the edge of her thin scarf.
She cried out in panic and tried to pat it out, comically blowing on it with puffed cheeks. Yira looked ahead with dull eyes, not even noticing as if she were in an empty room despite the terrified shrieking.
Taehyung grabbed his jacket of his seat and spun her around by her shoulders, forcibly smothering the flames by pushing the knit material into the scarf. He pulled it away to reveal a thin trail of wispy smoke, the scarf singed black on the edge. He dropped his jacket in relief and stepped back.
“Oh my God, I am so sorry, thank you so much! I’m a massive klutz, I’m so sorry! I’ll pay for your jacket!” she spat out in rapid speed, her hands flying in all directions as she tried to express herself.
“Stop, stop!” he cried as he grabbed her wrists. “You’ll knock over something else!”
Recognition sparked in his eyes as he saw her face, a round eyed brunette who was fairly plain without the flashy, colourful makeup caking her face.
“Hey wait a minute,” he said. “Aren’t you that hypnotist’s assistant? Hyosung-ssi?” He backed away to his seat but watched cautiously as Hyosung sat down, praying she doesn’t cause another accident.
Her hands hovered over the table, as if unsure of what to do. Her eyes were unfocused as a drone came out of . “Uuuhhhh… What was I doing?”
“Paying,” Yira answered.
Hyosung snapped her fingers. “Oh yeah! Here.” She handed Yira thirty dollars. “Sorry, I’m a bit of a ditz.”
“That’s perfectly alright,” Yira replied warmly. “Now, what is it that you’re here for?”
“Okay yes. Well I’m Hyosung. And well, as he just mentioned, I work as the assistant of Haha the hypnotist.”
“So your boss is a performer.”
Hyosung’s eyes lit up with the sparkle of a child. “Oh no, Haha’s more than a performer. He’s the real article! I know lots of people don’t believe it, but hypnotism is real and he is a genuine hypnotist! I know because I’ve been hypnotised several times along with my other co-workers. I have a video of me clucking like a chicken and I don’t remember any of it!”
Taehyung looked sceptical but he kept quiet. He had trouble believing it, but after everything he’d seen with Yira, he knew to keep an open mind.
“And he’s a great boss too,” she continued. “He hired me even though I’m so clumsy. I’ve always been a bit of an airhead. I lose track of time and a space out a lot so I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the best worker.”
“Your talents are many, you shouldn’t overlook them just to see your flaws,” Yira advised, making the girl blush. “So what is the problem that brought you here?”
“Well… some strange things have been happening at the workplace lately and one of my co-workers recommended that I come here. He said that you were real like Haha, and that you help solve problems as well as tell fortunes.”
“I’m flattered my name is so well known.”
Taehyung rolled his eyes. Yira knew full well of her own fame, or rather infamy. And she didn’t care.
“Well, some of my possessions, and my co-workers possessions are starting to go missing. It’s not always obvious, like only ten dollars might be missing at a time or just a single ring, but it’s been going on long enough that everyone is noticing it. Some of our things are switching places too. My keys wound up in the wallet of a co-worker, and her earrings were found in my dressing room. Even though I swear I didn’t take them. She always wore them; it’s not possible for me to take them straight out of her ear. We told Haha about this and he made more of us work security, but we haven’t found anything.”
“So you want to know why this is happening, and where to find your missing possessions?”
Hyosung nodded. “Yes. So far I haven’t lost anything too important, but I have a pretty expensive bracelet I don’t want to lose.”
“Give me your hand,” she directed.
Hyosung showed her palm and Yira spent a brief second scanning her hand before calmly, sitting back in her chair as if she had all the time in the world.
“These thefts and strange occurrences are caused by someone very close to you,” she began. “Someone you’ve known for quite a long time and someone you’ve respected.”
“Oh no,” she murmured with a look of dread.
“Hyosung,” Yira addressed. “You’re an intelligent girl. But you are prone to being emotional. It wouldn’t serve you well in this case, so I won’t give you a name. However, I’ll give you instructions to follow that will help you find the missing items and discover the thief for yourself. Would you like that?”
Hyosung nodded.
“Tomorrow, call in sick,” Yira instructed. “But take the place of another worker. Any, I’m sure your co-workers would be happy for the paid day off. Now, when you arrive, do not tell your boss that you are there. Avoid being seen by him.”
“Why?” she questioned.
“You’ll know by the end of the day,” she assured. “And if possible, avoid your presence being known by the other workers. Search the premise without being seen, and when four o clock arrives, go to the back door and lock it.”
Hyosung looked uncertain. “I’m not quite sure why I have to do this…”
“You’ll understand tomorrow.”
Hyosung nodded. “Okay. I’ll try. It can’t hurt right?”
She gathered her things and got up to leave.
“Oh and Hyosung-ssi,” Yira added, “you’ll find your friend's ring in your handbag.”
She looked surprised but she nodded, opening her bag as she left out the door.
“Thank you!”
The door shut with a thud, the wind blowing the smoke in billowing patterns. Taehyung stared at her for answers.
“So, is the hypnotist real?” he asked. “Is he another one of whatever you and Jun Jirin are?”
Yira rested her chin on her hand. “There is only a classroom’s worth of us in the whole world. Two at the same place and same time is already a miracle. The odds of three are near astronomical. No, this hypnotist is a normal man. Although quite talented, I have to say.”
“Wait, so he doesn’t have magic?” he questioned. “Then how does he hypnotise people?”
Yira paused, turning her eyes on him before the corner of her lips turned up in the slightest of smiles. She pulled out of her seat, approaching him through the smoke. “Hypnotism is real, although it doesn’t require any other worldly abilities. Think of it as a learned skill.” She pointed her finger at the door. “Tell me, what did you think of that girl?”
“She seems nice,” he said. “Very clumsy and kind of slow though, not to be mean.”
“Exactly,” she agreed. “She’s the perfect hypnotist’s assistant.”
“Huh?”
“That girl,” she explained. “Isn’t unintelligent, but the way she processes immediate information is a little slower than others. You see how she paused for a minute before she paid, didn’t you? This shows how she has trouble transitioning from task to task, like an outdated computer that slows if you open too many programs. She can’t multitask and she’s easily distracted. This leaves her open to suggestion.”
She picked up a pen from the table and twirled it between her fingers like a miniature baton. “The majority of human actions aren’t performed with thought. The human brain goes on autopilot for most small tasks. For example, when you wake up, you immediately go to the bathroom, and brush your teeth. You don’t think about it, it just happens. Now tell me, when you went to see that hypnotist, for the first volunteer, did he offer to shake his hand and then take it away last second?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, amazed. “How did you know?”
“It’s a common and easy trick in hypnotism,” she explained, angling the pen in front of his face. “When someone offers a hand, autopilot immediately sets in motion a series of actions for you to perform without thought. You raise your hand, hold theirs, and shake. However, if you take it away last second-” She dropped the pen but before Taehyung could catch it, she snatched it out of the air, leaving his hands hanging in the air.
She raised her finger onto his forehead. “When I click my fingers, you will hop three times.”
Click
Taehyung hopped three times in the air before a look of horror and shock dawned on his face. “How the hell did you do that?!”
Yira giggled and placed the pen back onto the table. “Out of reflex, you tried to catch the pen, much like how the volunteer reached out to shake hands. But the autopilot ritual was cut off halfway for both of you, which left a brief second of time where neither of you knew how to react, the period where your brain doesn’t realise what happened and is trying to break out of autopilot to think of the next action. This window leaves you very vulnerable to suggestion, and hypnotists take that opportunity and wedge their foot in the door, giving orders during this time.”
Yira stepped back and shrugged. “Of course, it works to different degrees on different people. For example, in Chaerin’s case, the hypnotist told her that she would forget everything that happened, correct?”
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“But she still retained vague memories. She’s strong willed and determined. This means that she was less vulnerable to suggestion. I’m assuming the hypnotist also made her hypnotism spell short and quick as well to make sure she doesn’t break out of it onstage.”
“Yep.”
“Strong willed or clear minded individuals generally don’t fall for it. That being said, hypnotism is less about having actual skill and more about knowing who’s vulnerable. Like Hyosung, her slowed thinking causes her openings to be wide and many.”
“Well damn,” he muttered.
Yira sat down and rested her hands on the table. “So, can you buy tickets to this show online?” she asked.
“Yeah, why?”
“Because I think we might just catch a show tomorrow,” she said with a smile.
author's notes
Heyo! Did anyone catch the characters in this chapter? :D Comment down below! PS. THEY'RE GOING ON A DATE OMGGGGG
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Word count: 3187
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https://www.webtoons.com/en/challenge/flicker/list?title_no=385404
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