Shamans Kim

Chapter 18: The northern Shaman

"You are a shaman and you seek to awaken your power."

Shocked, Jungkook's eyes widened and his brain went into boiling. How likely was it that he would encounter people who talked about shamans at precisely this point in his life whereas before his discovery of the Kim shamans, no one had ever spoken to him about them?

 Something was wrong, he felt it, and besides, even if it was true that he was researching magic those days, first of all, no one knew except Jimin, and secondly, he wasn't even a shaman!

"You are wrong, I am not a shaman," he replied, "and I don't know what makes you say that, you must be completely crazy."

There. He was already beginning to speak with a callous honesty that would bring him into conflict with his new host family and throw him out within weeks. It had already happened so often that he no longer counted the number of host families he had passed by.

But instead of getting angry, the couple exchanged a  knowing look as if they had anticipated his response before smiling at Jungkook. The husband said:

"We're not crazy, we just have knowledge that only few people have but if that makes us crazy, then you must be one too since you also have this knowledge, am I not right?"

"What?" Jungkook reacted, stunned. 

"Jungkook, we know that you were kicked out from your previous host family because you slept out and spent the night on Inwangsan Mountain."

This time Jungkook was a little scared.

"How do you know that?! I said I was at Jimin's house, no one knows where I really was that night!"

"Just as we know that that night, you went up that mountain without any trace of magic in you but came down with magic that temporarily activated before before turning off again, which proves that a magic sleeps in you. It was the Shamans Office who informed us."

"T-the Shamans Office? What are you talking about?" Jungkook muttered, lost.

"We weren't put together by chance, you and us. We were sent by the Shaman Office to take care of you. It is the agency that was created to seek out and help shamans to find their place in our modern world."

This vague explanation wasn't enough for Jungkook.

"Why did they send you to me?" he asked suspiciously, because he might as well have been approached by a dangerous cult that was going to harvest his organs while he slept and he was ready to run away from these two crazy people at the slightest doubt.

"Don't be afraid of us, Jungkook," Mrs. Ho said, feeling his distrust growing, "I promise you that we are your allies. We cannot leave a young shaman alone and lost now that we found you. We are few in number now and we are a family."

"A family?" Jungkook repeated. 

The word had only a vague meaning for him, who had never had one. How could strangers form a family?

"Not by blood" the woman clarified seeing the boy frown, "but by our connection to the magical world. Minseo is also a young shaman who we take care of because growing up without her parents, she was never aware of being a shaman. And like you, she hasn't fully awakened her power but she almost made it. And that's because your power has almost awakened that we were able to locate you."

Jungkook felt dizzy. He felt like he was swimming in delirium. He wondered if he had just fallen asleep in the library and was currently dreaming. The Office of Shamans? A sleeping magic inside of him? Him, a shaman? It was impossible, except in his wildest dreams!