Small Gods of Calamity by Sam Kyung Yoo

Author:Sam Kyung Yoo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Interstellar Flight Press

Chapter 10

Stakeout

With how many scraps of Oh Byungchul’s soul were left over from the worm’s last attack, Han-gil would normally guess that they should have at least a couple of days before the worm needs to feed again. But considering how quickly Lee Junhee went after Oh Byungchul in the first place, Han-gil suspects this is less about hunger and more about spite, which makes things a lot more difficult to predict.

To make matters worse, while Lee Junhee’s parents are still married, Lee Jangmi and Lee Kangdae live separately in different apartment buildings over an hour’s drive apart.

Han-gil and Yoonhae drive to each of the parents’ apartments and set up some of Han-gil’s “alarm bells.” Five braided cords for each parent—four set at equidistant points in a radius around the building and one hidden near the main entrance. Luckily, there is a decorative potted plant in the entry area of both buildings, which makes it a lot easier.

Han-gil’s kumihimo cords are based on the traditional Korean color spectrum, all of them in varying shades of the five cardinal colors and their variants. Aqua, maroon, magenta, green, and amber for Lee Junhee’s mother, Lee Jangmi. Black, white, red, indigo, and canary yellow for the father, Lee Kangdae. Han-gil splits them between his arms—the cords for Lee Jangmi join Dajung’s sunflower yellow cord on his left wrist, Lee Kangdae’s go on his right. It’s not the most crowded his arms have ever been, but it’s getting there.

Then he drives himself and Yoonhae to the midpoint between the two apartment buildings and finds parking at a nearby convenience store.

Any one of the strings will react the moment the worm spirit comes within range, at which point they’ll know which direction Lee Junhee is coming from and, more importantly, which parent she’s targeting next.

But until then, they can only wait.

It’s quiet in the car. Unlike Wonshik, who prefers to fill the air with inane chatter, Yoonhae gives off an almost polite silence even as his soul sings its gentle glass harp melody. It would feel peaceful if Han-gil wasn’t already on the knife’s edge of adrenaline and anxiety.

It’s killing him a little that he and Yoonhae can’t just split up and watch over each parent’s address separately. But though Shin Yoonhae is an effective spirit medium and channeler, he has no offensive or defensive capabilities to speak of.

Also, when Han-gil texted Azuna earlier with the most recent updates, she replied immediately with, Don’t even think about splitting up. As if she could read his mind from across the sea. Han-gil tries not to roll his eyes. In fairness, the last time they had to split up, Han-gil ended up with broken ribs and a concussion. But still.

His phone lights up in his hands with another text message from her.

You should eat something.

Han-gil snorts. Azuna sees and hears all, as always. He can picture her deadpan expression.

Under normal circumstances, he would probably heed her advice and order some jjajangmyeon from the nearest delivery place—it’s the

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