My name is Lee Gyu-to.

I need to explain a little first.

My name contains no fewer than three characters for ‘earth’ (土).

It is probably rare to find someone with this much earth in a single name.

To put it jokingly, it is a ‘muddy name’ worthy of being called a Living National Treasure.

The number of fortune tellers I have met in my life so far is probably more than most people will meet in their entire lifetime.

From street fortune tellers sitting on mats at the entrance of the neighborhood to the Bodhisattva of Pyeongchang-dong who requires a three-month reservation, the Taoist master of Gyeryongsan, and even the AI ​​fortune-telling apps that are trending these days. I have tried all kinds of things with a mix of curiosity and anticipation.

However, the person who shook my life the most was not a flashy Taoist master.

Thirty years ago, it was a man I met by chance who looked like a ‘steamed bun.’

I laugh about it now, but back then, I truly believed those words as the golden key to my life.

Turning back in time, it was 1995.

I was nine years old, just before I became an elementary school student.

It all started at a small fortune teller’s shop we happened to stop by during a family trip.

A middle-aged man with a warm demeanor was sitting there. He was a person with a round, chubby head who looked like a steamed bun from a distance. He looked at my left hand for a moment, clicked his tongue, and said, “There isn’t a single bit of earth in this child’s horoscope. Earth is land, and land is money. This child’s horoscope is a complete desert.” At that single remark, my parents’ faces froze in an instant. “Then what should I do?” The man’s prescription was surprisingly simple. “Put earth into the name. Fill it up completely. That way, the wealth won’t leak away.” At the time, [he/she] had collected 20,000 won as a fee. Strangely enough, those words sounded like a powerful spell to my nine-year-old ears. Back then, 20,000 won was enough money to buy three chickens. I believed that if adults were paying that much money to hear it, it must be something important. And I became firmly fixated on it. I wanted to become rich. From that day on, I declared at home: “I’m going to change my name. I’m definitely going to change it.” In the end, the child’s stubbornness prevailed over my parents.

I went to the police station to go through the name change process, and I personally selected the Chinese characters to be included in the name.

‘Gyu (圭)’ and ‘To (土)’.

If you look closely at the character ‘Gyu (圭)’, you can see that two Earth (土) characters are stacked one on top of the other.

And I added another 'To' (土) to it.

In the end, my name was literally

soil upon soil, and soil upon that.

In effect, it had become a small construction site.

Whenever I went to school, my friends would tease me by calling my name.

“Hey, Lee Gyu-to!”

Every time that happened, I thought to myself.

‘Fine, call me that all you want. “Money piles up in my bank account every time I call it.” It was a kind of mental victory for my young mind. However, as time passed, strange things began to happen repeatedly. Money I earned would strangely slip away, and I even fell victim to fraud regarding land investments. Just when things seemed to be working out, they would inevitably get tangled up somewhere. It wasn't until I was over thirty that I brought up the topic of my name again. This time, I went to see a renowned master of numerology who was rumored to be truly gifted. As soon as he saw my name, he remained silent for a while. And then he tossed out a remark. “Were you a mole in your past life?” What he added a moment later was even more shocking. “Or do you have a grudge against your name? Why did you pile up the dirt like this?” It turned out that my fortune had a strong ‘Fire’ energy.

They said that a fortune like this needs just the right amount of water; too much earth would actually block the energy.

The moment I heard the explanation, a scene immediately popped into my head.

My life was originally a blazing campfire, but that steamed bun man had essentially dumped damp mud into it with a dump truck.

For the flames to burn and generate warmth, they need to blaze, but my name had suffocated that fire.

For 30 years, I have been holding out in damp mud, unable to burn brightly, yet unable to completely die out.

So, I intend to go to the police station again.

This time I intend to strip away all the earth from my name and find one that is a bit more like cool river water.

However, there is one more final twist to this story.

Later, when I checked the method the fortune teller used to calculate it back then, I realized that the man had added one digit incorrectly to my date of birth.

My horoscope wasn't lacking earth to begin with.

For a mere 20,000 won, a nine-year-old child's name had effectively become 'Pottery Kiln Site.'

The truth I learned only after 30 years was quite bitter.

It was literally a 'truth that tastes of earth.'

Still, one One thing is certain. I, a ‘human earthenware pot’ that has endured for 30 years with three grains of earth in my name, am still alive and well. Although my name was like a flame covered by a dump truck, I now intend to brush off that earth and rekindle my light. Perhaps life is ultimately just such a process. It is the act of brushing away wrongly accumulated earth, one by one, to create a space to burn anew.