My aunt got accused of being a con artist and here's what actually happened

So this is a legendary story from my childhood and I still think about it.

My aunt is a mudang (Korean shaman). One day she got a request for a 넋 건지기 gut — basically a ritual to retrieve the spirit of someone who drowned. She prepped like usual and I tagged along because at that point I was OBSESSED with going to these things. Started as 'get some fresh air kid' and turned into me being a full ritual groupie.

We drove out to this rural town in Chungcheong province. The family who hired her was like, the respected household of the village. Their youngest daughter, a high school girl, had been walking home from school on a really rainy day. Instead of taking the normal road she cut through the reservoir embankment to get home faster.

She slipped. And fell in.

Her dad went looking for her when she didn't come home. Found her bag on the embankment. Found one shoe below it. Just one shoe. He knew immediately.

They searched for days. Called in professional body recovery divers (there's literally a term for these guys, 악어 아저씨, 'crocodile uncles' — men who specialize in recovering drowning victims). Nobody found her. The village couldn't drain the reservoir either because the whole area depended on it for farming. So her body was just... still in there.

Her father was desperate. If he couldn't get her body he at least wanted her spirit retrieved so she wouldn't be trapped as a water ghost. That's why he called my aunt.

We got to the reservoir and I noticed my aunt's face the whole time she was setting up. Something was off. She kept looking around with this expression like she was searching for a signal that wasn't coming.

She told me later: she couldn't feel anything. No presence at all.

Here's the thing about water ghosts — they're the hardest to locate even for experienced shamans. Water itself carries yin energy so a spirit mixed into it is basically impossible to pinpoint. Even the best mudang gets blocked out.

The ritual went on. Way longer than usual. Like double the normal time. I was just running around being a little city kid losing my mind over the countryside.

Finally my aunt went to the family and said: 'She's not here. She's not in this reservoir. We need to look somewhere else.'

The family LOST it.

She DROWNED. In THAT WATER. How is her spirit not there. The argument escalated fast and then it stopped being an argument and became a brawl. The father started screaming that my aunt was a fraud, a fake shaman, a con artist. My aunt screamed back that she's not going to invent a spirit that isn't there just to make him feel better.

(Btw apparently faking a 넋 건지기 is super easy to pull off. My aunt just refused to ever do it. That's the kind of person she was.)

The dad lunged at her. Was about to hit her.

And I. A small child. Ran at him.

I grabbed his leg and BIT HIM.

Looking back I really should've gone for the groin since it was right at my eye level but. I bit his calf instead.

He smacked my head to get me off. I cried. Then I launched myself at him again.

My aunt saw me get hit and completely lost it. Went feral. Why are you hitting a CHILD.

That actually snapped him out of it a little. He got quiet. Maybe felt bad.

My aunt threw the deposit money at him, said figure it out yourself, and walked away. He was still threatening to sue as we left. She said go ahead and got me in the car.

The whole ride home she held me and kept touching the bump on my head where he hit me. Didn't say much.

She told me later that even though I was just a little kid, knowing someone in this world was on her side — actually running into a fight for her — made her feel less alone than she had in a long time. She said it was different from having Ddeuki uncle around (her driver/helper). Different kind of feeling.

That's apparently when she started thinking of me as her son.

Anyway. About a week after all that I was lying in her lap eating fruit at her house when someone called out 'excuse me' from the entrance.

It was the dad.

I jumped up and stood in front of my aunt with my arms out. I was like 9. Tiny. But I was NOT moving.

Except. He didn't come in swinging. He shuffled in looking like a student who got called to the principal's office. Completely deflated.

My aunt asked why he came.

He dropped to his knees in the courtyard. Pressed his forehead to the ground. Started apologizing and saying he'd committed an unforgivable sin.

I was like. ok what is happening.

Turns out after my aunt left, his daughter kept appearing in his dreams. Every night. Crying. Saying 'Dad... please find me faster' :((

And not just him. Multiple villagers started seeing her too. All saying the same thing.

He'd gone back to search and... found her. Not in the reservoir.

Down the drainage canal. Further away than anyone thought to look. She'd been swept out.

My aunt was right the whole time.

He begged her to come back and do the ritual properly. My aunt agreed.

The second gut went smoothly. Girl found, spirit retrieved, family could finally grieve.

And I got to be at my aunt's side for all of it.