Shamans Kim

Chapter 17 : Strange host family

"Jungkook, you're in the moon!"

"Sorry what? Jungkook asked as he stopped looking at the mountain through the classroom window and looked at the history teacher who had just spoken to him.

"The date of the end of the Korean War?" the teacher asked with annoyance.

"Oh... 1953," Jungkook replied effortlessly, much to the displeasure of his other classmates who didn't like him and wanted to see him make a mistake.

But Jungkook was a good student, much better than them and he loved nothing more than to prove to them.

Seokjin wasn't wrong to say that his soul smelled of arrogance, Jungkook thought, giving a discreet smile that he quickly erased: why couldn't he stop thinking about Seokjin when the other had refused leave him a tinypiece of his soul but wanted to unite his soul with Namjoon's? When he told him he never wanted to see him again before he died?

"That's correct," Mr. Park sighed. "You have a good memory but still pay attention in class to have information to memorize."

"All right."

Classes started again, more boring than ever for Jungkook. He didn't care how the South Korean economy rebounded after the war, because at that moment, he just wanted to know if the shamans of Inwangsan Mountain knew there had been a war at that time.

Probably since they are the only ones who can care for the souls of the deceased, he realized. Besides, had they managed to manage all this influx of souls? How many were there? He raised his hand.

"Yes, Jungkook?" Mr. Park asked, surprised by his obvious interest.

"How many people died during these three years of war?"

"More than two million people," the man replied. "It was a murderous war."

"That much?!" Jungkook exclaimed.

"Yes, because we also count civilian victims, not just soldiers. There are the soldiers who died at the front but also all the people who perished in the bombings and those who simply perished because of harsh conditions such as famine and disease."

"I see..." Jungkook said thoughtfully, before asking: "among them, do you know what proportion of people committed war crimes?"

The teacher looked perplexed. He obviously didn't know the answer, but it was the question that surprised him and reinforced the other students in the class in their idea that Jungkook was really a weirdo.

"I have no idea, why ask such a question?" M. Park asked.

Jungkook seemed to come out of his thoughts and quickly said:

"Just to satisfy my personal curiosity. Please, continue."

As the teacher gave him a weird look before continuing with the lesson and the other students gave him mocking looks, Jungkook fell back into his thoughts.

He had asked these questions to establish statistics in his head, wanting to know, among these millions of victims in Korea whose souls had had to join the path of souls in crowds, how many of them had been gurimdja and how many had been chomyeon.

Even though at that time the shamans of the Twilight sanctuary weren't Seokjin and Taehyung, Jungkook wondered how they had handled this influx of souls. He initially thought there was more of a dark soul since it was a war setting with people tending to lose their humanity due to the horror but considering the civilian deaths, he realized that there must have been a higher ratio of luminous soul, again.

So, was it always the shaman in charge of the gate of Light who had to take care of the greatest number of souls? Dark souls were probably harder to deal with but it still seemed unfair to him.