Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 43⟩
⟨Ladies of wisteria flowers⟩
During the reign of the 24th king of Silla Jinheung, there lived two beautiful sisters in the Jeomryang region Seorabeal, named Honghwa (Red Flower) and Cheonghwa (Blue Flower). Irony would have it, the two sister burned with love for the same dashing Nangdo[1]. However, they could not even imagine this fact, until they found out when going to offer flowers to the Nangdo, who was departing to the battlefield. Honghwa and Cheonghwa tried hard to forget Nangdo for the sake of each other.
But one day, they heard a rumor of Nangdo dying in the war. The sisters forgot that they tried to forget him, and threw themselves into a pond, out of the great sorrow. But that was just a nonsensical rumor. When Nangdo, who returned after becoming Hwarang, ran to that pond, he found two wisteria trees there. One tree bloomed with radiant and red flowers like Honghwa, and the other bloomed with elegant and blue flowers like Cheonghwa.
『Anthology of Spring Year』
Yu Dan carefully put on a mask and gloves.
The twins nodded with nervous faces.
The three stealthily came out to the front yard.
The target entered their vision. Siberian husky innocently running around catching butterflies.
They signaled with their eyes. One, two, three!
They ran at the same time and caught the dog.
“Caught!”
The husky was startled and struggled to escape. Chaeseol slapped the dog’s butt.
“Stop! You’re shedding hair these days. You can’t wander around the shop without combing!”
“Right!”
Chaeu added a word.
“Nunim especially is making a fuss that the fur is getting into food! Relax and endure for a bit. Hey, look who is here?”
The struggling dog glanced at Yu Dan. At last, her tail dropped, and she made a ‘I can’t help it’ expression.
Chaeseol hastily handed everyone a comb.
“Look at that! She became obedient straight away! As expected, she likes Yu Dan the most!”
“Why the hell would she?”
“Does there need to be a reason to like someone? That’s just the heart. If I was to give an example. When she was young, she truly liked a piano teacher-nim. Every time he gave a praise, he would snap his fingers. Snap! A very cool sound would come out… Ah, as expected, I can’t do it.”
“You mean that?”
Chaeu snapped her fingers. A perfect ‘Snap!’ sound rang out. Chaeseol’s face turned sour.
“I’m sometimes very sorry for that kid.”
“I understand your feelings.”
Yu Dan combed her hair diligently.
The Furious Thunder’s body was losing extremely large amounts of hair. When they combed everything, there was enough to make a blanket. In addition, it wasn’t ordinary fur. Was it because she was a yokai? If he looked away even for a second, it would gather together and stealthily move by itself.
“Where are you going!?”
When he stomped on the fur clump with a foot, it flattened. It took on the form of a piece of paper and started walking again.
“Wow, it’s alive!”
“Please, look at that!”
“Come here!”
The thing recognized Yu Dan’s voice and approached. The twins burst out laughing.
“Amazing. I guess You made Your first subordinate. Having a subordinate is really comfortable. You can order them to bring You a tv controller when You’re lying down, or find Your phone when You forgot where You put it, or to tie Your shoelaces when it’s too annoying to tie them again…”
“Ah, really?”
Yu Dan rejoiced, but then looked at Chaeu.
“But how do you know so precisely about my lifestyle?”
“That, well…”
The ginseng yokai avoided Yu Dan’s gaze.
“Anyhow, it will die like this. Quickly, give it a name. That’s important.”
“A name? What should I name it?”
“That won’t do, let’s ask Cheonho-nim for a name!”
The three immediately ran upstairs.
The second floor door was tightly closed. And ‘人間 謝絕’ note was stuck to it.
“Human… what?”
“Humans banned.”
Chaeseol took out a notebook and hastily wrote.
‘It’s understandable that you feel bad. Your yokai subordinate follows Yu Dan more—‘
“No.”
The voice came from behind the door. Chaeseol dropped a pencil in embarrassment.
“No?”
“No.”
“Then will you grant our request? Look at this! Yu Dan made his first yokai subordinate! But as it was made from the stomped dog fur, it’s weak. It seems it will die at any moment. So please give it a power with a good name.”
“Dog Fur.”
“What?”
Yu Dan was dumbfounded.
“If you hate it, just say you hate it!”
“What are You saying? Even though I put my heart ant soul into giving it a name filled with ancient wisdom, You’re throwing it away? I feel wronged.”
Baek Ran replied, playing innocent.
“Do You know about Emperor Gojong? Do You know what child name he was called when he was young?”
“How should I know?”
“Dog Poop.” [2]
“What?”
“Then do You know about Hwanghwi jeongseung[3]? Do You know what Hwanghwi jeongseung’s childhood name was?”
“No.”
“Pig.”
“What?”
Yu Dan was shocked.
“Why are they like that? For what reason? Why are they so twisted?”
“It’s not twisted. In the old times, the people pretended to treat precious children poorly. Smear soot on their faces, dress them in rags and call them by vulgar names like Dog Poop. It was because they feared ghosts may get jealous. The brighter the light, the darker the shadow. They believed that if they gave a child a too good name, the ghosts would think ‘this child is precious, huh?’, and steal them out of envy.”
Baek Ran explained.
“Therefore, Dog Fur.”
Hearing that, it was somehow plausible.
Yu Dan looked down at the comb of fur. The moment he called ‘Hey, Dog Fur!’, the fur scattered in all directions.
“It died!”
It was all in vain.
“What putting your heart and soul into the name containing wisdom of the ancient! You wasted so much time it died!”
“I came up with a name straight away! The explanation took a long time, because You lack common knowledge.”
“Hm. But Cheonho-nim. Are You going to keep us outside like this?”
“No. I’ll send you downstairs.”
“…”
“Please go downstairs.”
The three went downstairs.
“I fell like we lost everything.”
“I feel like we didn’t get back the original investment.”
“I feel like saying ‘You still had a long way to go’.”
Chaeseol took a clump of dog fur from Yu Dan’s hands and sobbed.
“Dog Fur-ah, why did you die so young?”
“You were a good child. I won’t forget you.”
Chaeu also sobbed.
The two went to the backyard to dig a hole under a tree and bury Dog Fur. He listened to the on-spot funeral oration, read line by line.
Yu Dan yawned and leaned back against a chair.
Languid and relaxing spring afternoon…
The moment he had such a thought, the door opened without a sound.
“Welcome—.”
The words that were to reflexively come out, disappeared in his mouth.
The customers were a man and woman. Was that what common folks called a beautiful man and woman? The man was handsomely tall with a good impression, and the woman was pretty and virtuous looking. But there was someone standing a few steps behind the woman.
It wasn’t a human.
Long hair. Pale face. Old clothes with blue flower pattern.
She only glared at the woman, as if nothing else existed. It was truly a miserable look.
When the man and the woman spotted Yu Dan, they exchanged glances. Perhaps because his appearance of staring into air looked so grave, the man carefully opened his mouth.
“Do you perhaps see something?”
The twins, who sensed a strange atmosphere, quickly came in.
The children also saw the ghost and were surprised. Chaeseol run to the second floor, and Chaeu went to bring Do-ssi and Heuk-yo.
After everyone gathered, the man spoke.
“Ehem, we heard that it’s a place which solves strange things, so we came here. We soon plan to marry.”
The woman grabbed the man’s hand. It seemed to be an unconscious action. Do-ssi surveyed the new pair and admired.
“Looking at you, you two truly suit each other.”
“Thank You.”
The woman blushed slightly.
“It’s shameful to admit, but everyone says we’re a match made in heaven. And we also think so. From the moment we met, we had a very strong conviction that we will spend our entire life together. Both families were happy and gave their blessings, everything was progressing smoothly, and now all we have to do is to hold a wedding, but…”
Instead of the woman, who hesitated for a moment, the man spoke.
“Recently strange things keep happening. She said that it feels like someone keeps glaring at her back. But if she turns around, there is nothing.”
Yu Dan glanced behind them.
The ghost was glaring at the woman as before. It seemed that she didn’t bother where she was, who they were, and only concentrated on the woman.
“At first I thought I was just sensitive before the wedding. But then, in the photography studio I saw a woman glaring at me in the make-up mirror. I thought that I saw it wrong, because I was tired, but the moment I looked at the pictures taken that day…”
“The woman with long hair was photographed behind us. I clearly saw it. But when I looked again, she disappeared…”
“I had a nightmare that night. A bloodied woman was glaring at me with eyes of resentment and said that I can’t marry. Let go of the groom, He is mine, I won’t stay still, I won’t let go… She said such scary words, while cursing me.”
“From that moment, the incidents started in the earnest. Suddenly a glass cup would fall on Suyeon’s[4] head, or the brakes of a safely parked car would loosen, and it would roll down on her, or…”
“I clearly saw the streetlights change, but as I was about to cross the street, they were red. If I realized it a bit later, I would be crushed by a car.”
The woman’s voice dropped, and her eyes filled with tears. The man hastily wrapped the arm around her and hugged her.
“Please help. I often have a bad feeling about it. No matter how I think about it, something really bad will happen at the wedding day.”
“I don’t believe in evil spirits, but because I thought something out of ordinary is happening, I asked everywhere and barely came here.”
Everyone listened to the man and woman’s story with serious faces.
After a moment, Do-ssi opened his mouth.
“Yeah. There is something stuck to you.”
“Really?”
The man and the woman trembled, as they looked back.
“I don’t see anything…”
“First, we will take it off you. Sister.”
“Yes.”
Heuk-yo went to the kitchen and came out with a golden rope, she wrapped it around the shop’s entrance.
“If you cross this rope, it will fall off.”
“Really?”
“You will know right away tonight. Even so, can you give us your contact information in case something happens?”
“Ah, yes.”
The pair took out business cards from their wallets.
“We would also like to have means of contacting You if something urgent comes up, so if it isn’t too much to ask, can You give us Your contact information?”
At the pair’s polite request, the yokai looked at each other.
The fox, dokkaebi, serpent and the child ginsengs didn’t have smartphones. Finally, while thinking ‘What? Why me…’, Yu Dan typed his phone number into the pair’s phones.
“Then we’ll go first.”
“Thank You. We will contact You again.”
After the pair gave a goodbye bow, they turned around and holding hands, they carefully crossed the shop entrance’s golden rope.
The ghost also tried to follow them outside. But the moment she crossed the entrance, she was pushed back as if she hit an invisible wall. She smashed into it with her full power again, and was pushed back with a ‘bang’.
The store door closed in front of her eyes.
Seeing the pair disappear in the distance, the ghost was embarrassed. She shouted something at them, but only her mouth moved and no voice came out. She desperately smashed her body into it again.
“It’s useless.”
Baek Ran spoke coldly.
The ghost was startled, and looked back.
At last, she seemed to notice the fox yokai, Yu Dan and several yokai. She blinked surprised, and shouted something, but they couldn’t hear what she said.
Baek Ran raised his hand and something like a small golden arrow flew and shot through the ghost’s body. In an instant, the ghost’s form became much clearer.
“Why are You blocking my way?”
The trembling voice was also heard clearly.
Baek Ran asked instead of replying.
“You’re already dead and for so long, Your energy is used up, so why are You still tormenting living people?”
“I… tormenting living people?”
The ghost sunk to her knees. She burst into tears suddenly.
“How can You do this, when You know nothing? Please let me go.”
She laid down on the floor, crying while pleading.
“It’s because of that wicked woman that I’m like this. She made sure only I don’t reincarnate and put her hand on Hwarang-nim. Because of You, Hwarang-nim is going to marry that evil spirit without knowing anything. If that wedding is held, He will die! I have to stop it!”
Yu Dan and the yokai looked at each other.
“Isn’t that story a bit strange? The bride is bad right now?”
“Well. She didn’t look like that.”
Do-ssi’s forehead furrowed deeply.
“Miss, didn’t you throw a glass at the bride, released the brakes of a parked car, and whispered to her to cross the road when the light was red?”
“No! I promise You I didn’t do that! As this fox yokai-nim said, my energy is all used up. I can’t even speak, so how can I do such things. The bad things happening around Honghwa, it’s because that woman is an evil spirit. Because of that evil spirit, the evil things gathered.”
“Honghwa?”
Baek Ran looked at the ghost.
“Did You say Honghwa?”
“Yes. And my name is Cheonghwa.”
She pointed at the blue flower pattern on her clothes. The fox yokai nodded.
“Honghwa. Cheonghwa. I know what story it is. The Wisteria Flowers’ Ladies.”
“That’s right. That’s us.”
The ghost nodded, with tears dripping down.
“The two women, who were in love with the same Hwarang-nim.”
***
The ghost of a woman from an old age with long hair hanging down, sat at the table and sobbed…
Even when he observed her a few times, she kept feeling unfamiliar.
The ginseng yokai boy, who had a lot of empathy, brought a tray. A cup of steaming tea was put in front of her.
“Please cheer up. Just the smell of this tea will relax Your mind.”
“Thank You.”
The ghost bowed her head slightly.
Even though those yokai imprisoned her, she didn’t get angry or resent them. She just stomped her feet in sadness.
“Honghwa and Cheonghwa. The Wisteria Flowers legend…”
Baek Ran mumbled.
“In the Sillia period. There lived sisters named Honghwa and Cheonghwa. The two fell in love with the same Nangdo. They decided to back down for the sake of each other, but after hearing a rumor after that about Nangdo’s death on the battlefield, they couldn’t bear their sadness, and threw themselves into a pond, dying. After that, Honghwa became a red flower wisteria and Cheonghwa became a blue flower wisteria…”
“That’s a pretty story.”
At Chaeu’s words, the ghost shook her head.
“It wasn’t like that. The story is just a story. The reality isn’t pretty at all.”
She sighed.
“From the beginning, our personalities were polar opposites. Honghwa was extravagant, strong-willed and proactive. I was quiet and passive. At first, because we lost ourselves to sadness, we threw ourselves into the pond, but… After learning that He didn’t die, Honghwa started to torment me.”
As if vividly recalling that memory, the ghost chocked on her tears again.
“Honghwa firmly believed that Hwarang-nim liked her more. He would choose me anyway, but because of you everything is ruined, she would say, while harassing me terribly. In the end, we decided to jump into the cycle of reincarnation again. And we decided that we would be born not as sisters, but as people unrelated to each other, and see who He would choose. So we reincarnated, found Hwarang-nim, and He…”
The ghost’s face turned red.
“He chose me. Cheonghwa. It was like a dream. I was really happy. But unlike the promise, Honghwa didn’t accept the result. Cursing me, she committed suicide on the day of our wedding. She pledged that she would be reborn again and make sure to take Hwarang-nim. Perhaps because of Honghwa’s curse, we were born yet again and met Him. But this time also Hwarang-nim chose me, Honghwa cursed me again and committed suicide.”
“That’s truly something.”
The dokkaebi clicked his tongue.
*~*~*
[1] Nangdo — a noble youth training under Hwarang (a division of talented youths, who studied for military and official positions, sometimes also used as child soldiers in Silla).
[2] Dog Poop — I wish to say Baek Ran is bullshiting Yu Dan, but he isn’t. It’s true.
[3] jeongseung — something like a prime minister
[4] Suyeon — her name could be interpreted as a ‘little flower’.
Translator’s note: If one only looks at the notes, they may think this chapter is about mistreating children…
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