The idea of moving to Jejin – a small town in North Gyeongsang Province – wasn’t appealing in the slightest. Kim Nara wasn’t exactly a fan of countryside. Born and raised in Seoul, she couldn’t imagine how it felt like to live without malls and subways. But it’s not like she had another choice.

Her parents would be in grave danger if she continued to stay with them.

Her cousin, Kim Yona, was already waiting by the bus stop when she arrived at Jejin. Jerking her head towards Nara’s luggage, Yona asked, “Is that all?”

Nara nodded and Yona led the way to her car. It was parked under the tree, near the bus stop. While Yona was loading her luggage into the trunk of her black sedan, Nara was taking her time in studying her surroundings.

Jejin was a tiny town compared to Seoul. Behind the bus stop was the path to the forest that led to the mountain. The bus stop itself was located at a ledge that overlooked the whole town. Looking from above, Nara could see that Jejin was surrounded with forest and mountains. A clean river came down from between mountains and narrowed as it flowed through the town. A few small farms were visible from where she was standing, decorating the paths between the town and the forest.

To her horror, she caught sight of quite a lot of shrines and temples within the town. She’d learnt that those kinds of things were never a good sign for her.

Shaking off her bad thoughts, Nara walked to Yona’s car and was about to get in when she saw a yellow umbrella leaning against the tree. Was it there before?

Nara was the only passenger that had got off the bus at Jejin, so who could have left the umbrella?

“Yona, is that umbrella yours?” Nara asked as she inched closer towards the tree.

Yona closed the car trunk. “What umbrella?”

So it isn’t hers?

Nara thought that she should put the umbrella on the seat at the bus stop for the owner to see when they came back to retrieve it.

“Don’t touch it, Nara!” Yona shrieked in terror.

Nara spun around to find Yona rushing to her side. Bewildered at Yona’s terrified expression, Nara turned to look at the umbrella which was only a few inches from her hand. It seemed to be an ordinary umbrella at first, until when a big eye snapped open in the middle of the canopy.

Screaming out of shock, Nara fell back on the ground. Yona protectively stood before her, staring down at the thing that started to look less like an umbrella.

Two hands appeared from each side of the collapsed umbrella and its shaft turned into a leg. At the speed of light, the thing fled into the woods and disappeared from their sight.

“It ran away, huh?” Yona turned and helped Nara get up. “Are you okay?”

Nara was still badly shaken up, her eyes wide. “What is that thing?”

Nara had been able to see spirits from the moment she’d been born, but she had never seen the ones who resembled objects. All the youkai that she’d met looked like humans and animals.

“Kasa-obake,” Yona casually informed as she was brushing dirt off Nara’s clothes. Noticing Nara’s puzzled look, she elaborated, “It’s a youkai. Or a monster. Or a spirit. Or a demon. Whatever you like to call it. They’re from Japanese folklore.”

It was a new information for Nara. “Japanese folklore? Then what are they doing in South Korea?”

“You don’t know anything about youkai?” Yona groaned as something seemed to spring to her mind. “I keep forgetting that your parents can’t see them. Basically, they are everywhere in every part of the world. Not only in South Korea. But because Japanese, Korean and Chinese were derived from the same old Chinese, they mainly exist in the three countries. As for the reason why, it’s complicated. Don’t ask me about it. I can only tell you that it has something to do with the fact that the three languages use the same Chinese characters. You’ll understand soon.”

Nara had so many things to ask Yona, but her cousin didn’t look like she was going to answer any more questions, so she decided to keep them for later.

Yona could see spirits like Nara. That’s the reason why Nara’s parents sent her to Jejin to live with Yona, thinking that Yona would be able to help their daughter. Or more likely to get their troublesome daughter away from home.

People like Nara and Yona were destined to be surrounded by troubles. They attracted spirits wherever they went. Nara knew some of them were harmless, but a great number of them were exceptionally harmful.

There’s a time when all of the plates at Nara’s house shattered by themselves. They had once come home to find all the books had been shredded. And when her mother had been pushed down the stairs by an invisible figure and heavily injured, her parents hadn’t been able to take it anymore.

The choice of sending Nara to live with Yona might have been the best decision.

From how Yona had dealt with the situation when they’d met that Kasa-obake, Nara could see that Yona was well-experienced with youkai. And she was well-informed about them, too. By staying with Yona, Nara hoped that she would get to know more about youkai and how to deal with them.

Her family had been hurt many times because of her incompetence. All of the accidents that had happened to them were her faults.

Despite all the things she and her family had gone through, Nara never blamed youkai for the troubles she’d faced. She believed youkai had reasons to do everything they did. There must be reasons why they hated humans. Just like there were reasons why humans hated them. Befriending some of the youkai, she could tell that a few of them were actually kind. And she kind of liked having them around.

“There’s a spare room upstairs. The first door on the left.” Yona jerked her thumb towards a door in the first floor after they arrived at her house. “Mine’s downstairs. You can go to your room and unpack. I’ll prepare dinner.”

With that, Yona went to the kitchen, leaving Nara alone to look around the house. Yona was seven years older than Nara – she was twenty three years old this year – and she had been living alone in this house for three years already in Jejin. Actually, Nara knew very little about her cousin, besides the fact that they shared the same talent.

Nara didn’t even know what Yona did for a living.

Yona’s house could be considered too spacious for only one person to live in. Nara wasn’t sure whether it was because Yona earned that much money from her job or the house’s price in this town was cheap. It was also very minimalistic. There weren’t many furniture and the design was simple with few colors and patterns.

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