Idol of the Heavenly One - Chapter 1.1
Ji Cheonmyeong.
It means “to realize the will of Heaven” and refers to reaching fifty years of age.
I died on the very day I turned fifty. I slipped and fell just on my way back from the convenience store.
You might say that dying at fifty in this day and age is far too early—wasn’t I resentful? Of course I was. While others my age had two children and sometimes even grandchildren, I had never once dated, let alone gotten married.
What on earth had I been doing with my life until fifty, you ask?
Nothing much.
I just quietly went to work, almost like I wasn’t even there. After work, I came home, had a beer, watched and collected the things I liked, and lived like that. What I liked wasn’t even anything special, just a character. A cute, cheeky little bear with short white ears from a comic called Moongbaek and Friends, which depicted the quiet everyday lives of Baek-i and his friends. It came out about twenty years ago, just after I turned thirty, and maybe because it was a short comic, there was a decent fandom for quite a long time, myself included.
Come to think of it, on the day I died, Moongbaek had just released a limited-edition collaboration with a convenience store: glass cups instead of the usual PC cups. I was on my way back after getting one—my own birthday present to myself. Every nearby store had sold out, so I had gone out of my way to a far-off branch to get it.
I didn’t even get to open the box. I never saw the beautiful gleam of the glass cup in person. I died clutching it to my chest.
I don’t remember how much it hurt at the time, or what sounds I might have heard around me. The moment I slipped on the icy road, I thought, “Huh?”—then the world turned upside down, and when I opened my eyes, I was in an empty white space. Here.
“This must be heaven…”
I instinctively knew it. This was heaven. And I couldn’t help but laugh dryly. Hah. In movies, heaven is often portrayed as an empty white space, maybe it was because people who had been here before came back and described it that way.
“This must be heaven, right…?”
But because it was so white and empty, it was actually a little scary. I began to wonder whether this really was heaven. Still, I had never done anything truly hateful or harmful to anyone in my entire life, was a lifelong bachelor, and even a virgin, surely this had to be heaven… right?
Or maybe not, maybe in this age of low birth rates, even that counted as a sin now.
“Oh, you’ve arrived.”
“Whoa—!”
I must have turned my head for barely a second, and there it was—just a moment ago there had been nothing, but now a folding screen decorated with lotus flowers stood before me, and in front of it was a man in a neat gray suit holding something like an electronic tablet.
“You’re surprisingly calm for someone who’s just been startled.”
It wasn’t that I was calm—it’s just that when you hit fifty, you stop getting too shocked or moved by anything.
Anyway, who was this man, and when had he arrived? Could he be one of those grim reapers you hear about?
“I’m not a reaper. I’m Hong Gil-dong, from the Afterlife Processing Division, Third Team, at the Evaluation Bureau for Worldly Conduct.”
So he could read my thoughts. That confirmed this was definitely not the mortal world. But wait—did he just say his name was Hong Gil-dong?
“Surely not that Hong Gil-dong, right?”
“Of course not. It’s just that here in Korea, we usually use ‘Hong Gil-dong’ as a placeholder name for ‘anyone.’ You’ll forget my real name once you’re reborn anyway, so I just tell you to call me Hong Gil-dong.”
“If I’m going to forget it anyway, can’t you just tell me your real name?”
“That’s fair enough, but we don’t have much time, and my name isn’t important, so let’s move on to the next step quickly.”
Impatient fellow. He may not really be Hong Gil-dong, but he was definitely Korean.
Not that I could complain. The moment “Mr. Hong Gil-dong” told me I was going to be reborn, I understood I was being reincarnated. The question was whether I would be born as a completely different person, or whether I’d get a chance to live this life again.
“Let’s see… Ah, here it is. Oh dear, you passed away on your birthday. What a pity. And the year you turned fifty, too.”
He murmured as he looked at the electronic tablet in his hands. His voice sounded sympathetic as he commented on my dying on my birthday, but his expression was as dry as any overworked office worker’s, which made it oddly dissonant. I probably looked the same back when I was at work.
“Well, you did cause harm to another person just once in your entire life, so you can’t be reborn as a human. Instead, you’ll be reincarnated as humanity’s closest companion—a dog. Normally, you wouldn’t get to choose, but since you lived such a clean life, we’ll let you pick. Option 1: Shih Tzu. Option 2: Maltese. Option 3: Norwich Terrier. Option 4—”
“Wait, wait a second. Is it really that hard to be reborn as a human? And did you just say I harmed someone?”
I was flabbergasted. Being reborn as a human was this hard? And I had harmed someone? The worst thing I’d ever done was sneak a look at Moongbaek and Friends limited-edition goods during work hours!
“October 24, ****. That was the last day of Baek-i’s pop-up store in Jamsil. You realized that fact too late, and so that very morning you applied for annual leave. As a result, a malicious complaint call that should have come to you was instead forwarded to your coworker, Lee Ji-eun. Because of that call, Lee Ji-eun suffered significant stress, and the work stress she had been quietly bottling up finally exploded. She was diagnosed with stress-induced gastritis and couldn’t consume carbohydrates, including coffee, for a full week.”
When Hong Gil-dong finished speaking, I could only blink in dumb shock for several seconds. What on earth was he talking about?
If that counts, then isn’t everyone in the world guilty of harming someone?
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