In a high school lunchroom, 19-year-old Ji Yeon eats by herself while her classmates whisper about her having no friends and how scary it is that she supposedly sees ghosts.

Ji Yeon ignores them, just as she ignores the ghost who pesters her on her walk home, calling her Goblin's Bride.

Ji Yeon does a successful job of pretending not to see her, but the ghost doesn't like being ignored and screams in her face, forcing a response. The ghost smirks triumphantly... but when she sees something in the distance, she apologizes to Ji Yeon and scampers off, saying how

"it was true after all".

(Goblin [도깨비] Part 4 (Original Sound Track) - Beautiful by Crush plays in background when Shin and Ji Yeon looked at each other for the first time)

It's Shin, walking down the street in her direction, and they lock eyes for a long moment as they pass. Images flash through Shin's mind, and he stares with something akin to recognition.

Ji Yeon continues on, and Shin turns back for another look.At home, Shin's grandpa servant presents him with travel papers for his trip abroad. The rules aren't explicitly given but it sounds like we're in a transition period, and Shin comes in twenty-year intervals. Grandpa notes that Deok-hwa is now 25, and will be here to serve Shin when he returns. He also notes a little sadly that if Shin leaves now, he probably won't see him again in his lifetime. Shin thanks him

"for every moment."

Deok-hwa bursts in, still sputtering about his canceled credit cards, complaining to Grandpa that it's no good being a chaebol if he's going to cut him off like this. Then Deok-hwa notices the travel documents and asks if Shin is going away to search for his bride. Shin ignores the questioning, and sighs at the idea that Deok-hwa will be serving him when he comes back.

Ji Yeon wakes up early and gets breakfast going for the

"one man, two women"

she lives with her grouchy aunt and two spiteful cousins, who complain that Ji Yeon cooked seaweed soup on her own birthday. Aunt orders her to produce her bankbook today, and when Ji Yeon insists that she doesn't have a secret account, Aunt throws her rice bowl at Ji Yeon's head, saying that the insurance money from Mom's death has to be somewhere.

Ji Yeon swallows her tears and retorts that Aunt was the one who sucked everything dry, including their old house deposit. Her female cousin mutters about Ji Yeon seeing ghosts, and Ji Yeon gets in one dig by saying there's a ghost stuck to her cousin's back.

Later, she sits alone with a birthday cake by the shore, looking out at the water.

Shin sits out in a sunny field of flowers, and thinks back to a previous conversation with servant-grandpa, who'd asked if he was leaving alone again. Shin had sighed that no woman was able to see his sword. The old man had called it human greed to wish for the bride to appear whenever the sword brought pain, and to then also wish at other times that nobody would know about it.

Shin had smiled at him, saying that for tonight he was happy

"You are still with me, the liquor is plentiful, and for tonight at least, I want to be alive."

They clink glasses.

(Goblin [도깨비 OST Part 3] Lasse Lindh - Hush starts playing in the background)

So now, as Shin plucks a handful of flowers and paces in the field, Ji Yeon lights her birthday cake. She'd vowed at the age of nine not to make wishes, but is breaking that now because her situation is so urgent. She closes her eyes and prays

"Help me get a part-time job and do something about Aunt's family and please let me get a boyfriend. Please!"

That please rings in Shin's ear from miles away, as does her plea for a solution to her miserable living situation. Then Ji Yeon opens her eyes and wonders what she's doing, and whom she's praying to, as though god even exists.

Suddenly, Shin's voice calls out,

"Is it you?"

He's standing there by the sea with her, and asks if she's the one who called him here, and how she managed it. Confused, she says she didn't call him, but he instructs her to think about what she did to make it happen. Ji Yeon informs him that it isn't that she called him,

"It's just that I see you. Because I met your eye by accident in the street the last time. That's you, right?"

She explains that he's a ghost, and she sees ghosts. He denies it and asks what her deal is, pointing out that she doesn't see any of the normal things she should see-things like her future.

"I must not have a future,"

she replies. She continues to talk as though he's a ghost, instructing him to choose the good place (afterlife) and to not wander around too long, which isn't good for him.

Noting the flowers he's holding, she asks to have them, saying they don't suit him. He identifies them as buckwheat flowers, and when she wonders what their meaning is, he replies,

"Lovers."

Recalling that she'd been crying, Shin asks which of her wishes (job, aunt's family, boyfriend) prompted the tears. She's startled that he knows about the wishes, and he replies that he sometimes grants wishes.

Ji Yeon asks if he's a wish-granting genie and wheedles for some money. Instead, he gives her the advice to say goodbye to her family, and work hard at her chicken shop job, which she'll be getting soon. He vanishes into smoke, and Ji Yeon calls after him,

"Hey! What about my boyfriend?"

When Shin returns home, he's startled to find the reaper there, and asks what he's doing in his home. Reaper says in surprise, "You live here?"

That's when Deok-hwa appears and explains that this house goes empty for twenty years at a time, which amounts to a lot of missed rent opportunities. Ha, Deok-hwa's such a scammer-in-the-making. Shin indicates Reaper and asks,

"Do you even know what that thing is?"

Deok-hwa chides him for being rude to their new renter and says he runs a teashop.

Deok-hwa tries to make off with the rent by saying that he hasn't received payment yet, though Reaper contradicts him, saying he's already paid. Deok-hwa slinks away quietly.

Shin tells Reaper to take back his money, but Reaper holds up the signed contract.

Shin sets it on fire. Reaper says it's a copy and the original is at the realtor's.

They exchange retorts until Reaper points out that Shin knows what a reaper contract entails, and that he's entitled to take away his buddy Deok-hwa. Conceding, Shin tells Reaper to pick a room and consider this his house. Reaper

"This is my house."

Shin says

"It's mine."

Dinner continues the animosity between them: They sit at opposite ends, and Reaper picks at his vegetables while Shin cuts into a steak.

They bicker some more, and Reaper sends a pepper shaker flying into Shin's water glass, calling it a mistake.

Shin sends red pepper flakes spilling into Reaper's dinner-another mistake.

-1618 words

❤️THANK YOU FOR READING STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT PART❤️

❤️FEEL FREE TO VOTE , COMMENT AND SHARE YOUR CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM❤️