Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 69⟩
“Is that a short-term memory loss? Didn’t You ask to tell a scary story? I remembered a very suiting one. It’s good enough that You won’t listen to any scary stories for the rest of Your life …”
“Don’t!”
Yu Dan shouted. Why did he try to help when he should’ve just stayed quiet? He could forget scary things that he saw, but the scary stories were different. Once he turns off the lights and pulls on the blanket to try to sleep, he will be thinking of it. What’s worse, if it’s a scary story by the standard of the fox yokai, who lived for over thousands of years…
“We were wrong!”
“We apologize! We will never pester You in the future!”
The twins abruptly stood up and grabbed the dusting clothes again.
“Everyone is so fickle, eh? Don’t ask if You don’t like it.”
Baek Ran started to read the book again with a pleased face. But then he abruptly said:
“But in the old days…”
Yu Dan was startled.
“Don’t say it!”
“That’s not that story. That’s a different story.”
“A different story?”
“Yes. I suddenly thought of it.”
Yu Dan stared at the fox yokai, who was sitting with his back to the rainy window, with suspicious eyes.
“No way, you aren’t trying to tell that scary story by any means necessary, right?”
“Why can’t You trust me?”
“I can’t trust you, because you’re a fox.”
“That’s reasonable, but not this time. Do You remember the story I have told You before? The one about the dragon, who was chased out by a great monk and holding a grudge, changed into a willow tree to take revenge on the diplomatic envoy?”
“Ah, that one?”
Of course he remembered. It was the story that he told him when they took out the mirror of cause and effect to find out the truth about Honghwa and Cheonghwa, who became wisteria flowers after death.
“It was a strange tale. That man loved that willow tree so much he rebelled against the king and in the end died.”
“Yes. Anyway, the name of the great monk, who chased away the dragon in the first part of that story was Hyetong. I remembered the story from monk Hyetong’s young days. It was before he entered the monastery, shaved his head and became a monk, when he was an ordinary person.”
“What is the story?”
“One day he caught and killed an otter, and threw its bones at the hillock. But the next day, when he came looking for them in the morning, the bones were gone and bloody footprints were left on the ground. Following those bloody footprints, he found that the otter’s bones returned to the burrow where it lived and were hugging five of its young. Seeing this, he was so greatly impacted that he became a monk and changed this name to Hyetong (Led Through Affection).”
“That’s a strange story. The mom’s bones returned to her young?”
“Yes. Such things can be described as nothing but truly strange. Even after death, some powerful things remain in the soul, and make it do things. Usually they’re negative emotions like pain, hate, anger, resentment, etc., but not always. Love and gratitude. Moreover, they are engraved so deeply, like imprints on the soul, that they summon it again and again. So the dead appear again.”
Yu Dan blankly listened to what the fox said.
Things engraved so deeply, they are like imprints that summon it back again and again…
Suddenly a thought occurred to him. He quickly looked at the clock, it was 5:36 pm. He abruptly stood up.
“I have to go.”
“Where are You going?”
The twins, who were mopping, looked at him in surprise.
There was no time to explain, as he hurriedly ran down the stairs. The dokkaebi, who was sitting in the corner, dozing off, suddenly opened his eyes.
“What is it? Where are you going?”
The serpent yokai also jumped out holding a ladle.
“Where, suddenly!? Dinner is all ready!”
“Later! Later!”
Yu Dan ran out of the Banwoldang. He waited on the bus, and hurriedly got off on the subway station. He got off the subway on 6:21 pm. Barely making it on time, he ran up the stairs.
Here? This way?
He wandered for a bit and saw the park on the other side. It was 6:37 pm. He had done it. He caught his breath, while walking slowly.
There were no people today in the rainy park. It was completely empty. At the entrance he checked the time and waited.
The time of crime was 6:53 pm.
Even on the sidewalk on the opposite side of the road, there was not even a shadow of a human. Only between the dark green plane trees[1] standing in the rain, sometimes a car passed by.
Then, at a certain moment, a highschool girl appeared.
Looking exactly the same as before, holding an umbrella and dripping with blood, she waited in front of a crosswalk for the light.
The light changed from red to green.
The highschool girl crossed the crosswalk. Under the umbrella, her face wasn’t visible, as she gradually drew closer to him. Then she abruptly stopped at the entrance of the park again.
“What’s the matter?”
There was no answer. Why the hell was she like that?
“Is it scary? That man was caught. He is in prison now. Not here.”
Even so, the girl didn’t even twitch.
He knew it. There were ghosts who could act like humans and were possible to communicate with, but some souls were too damaged to even hear anything.
Yu Dan walked to the girl’s side and looked.
At last he saw it. The pitch-black darkness was lurking behind the park’s toilet. Was it perhaps the place where the murder took place?
The girl was looking in that direction, completely shaken. Her soul was cracking like a broken television and seemed like it was about to break down at any moment.
What should he do?
Yu Dan approached the darkness.
He tried to snatch it with his hand like when he beat up the yokai, but he only grasped empty air. Why couldn’t he do it? Was it because it was not something that existed in reality, but was only seen by her? Then what should he do?
Suddenly, a thought occurred to him.
The thing landed in his palm right away. Yu Dan looked down at the dokkaebi horn emitting black light in his hand.
Would that work perhaps?
To test it, he slightly held it up. The instant the tip of the horn touched the wriggling mass, the darkness was sucked up inside.
“Uh?”
He looked at it in surprise.
He didn’t see it wrongly. The darkness that was lurking in this place was completely gone now. Yu Dan turned back to look at the girl.
“It’s gone now. You can go.”
Of course, she couldn’t hear him, but…
The girl started to move again.
Yu Dan followed. Holding an umbrella and dripping with blood, she walked through the neighborhood park with her back turned to him. They walked for a while, crossing another crosswalk, when she stopped in front of a small flower shop with yellow-green awning.
Yu Dan also stopped.
The girl was looking down at the flowers. Big pale purple blossoms covered in raindrops like in a morning dew. Yu Dan also looked down too.
“Oh, the school ended, huh? Those came this morning…”
The owner lady, who came out, naturally speaking up to him, suddenly stiffened, and her face paled when she looked at Yu Dan.
“Unnie, what’s the matter? Did you see a ghost?”
Another woman, who was sitting in the shop, smiled and asked. The owner lady at last gathered her wits.
“Oh my, I think I really did see a ghost.”
“What do you mean? Really?”
“Yeah! That kid was clearly standing here a moment ago?”
“Who?”
“That kid, you know. The daughter of the pharmacist. Last year she, aah, I can’t talk about this. My heart hurts even when I think about her now.”
“Ah… Did she come here often?”
“Rather than coming here often, she would stop in front of the shop every time she was going home, to see what flowers came. A moment ago it felt like she was standing right there. I unknowingly spoke up, but it was this student.”
The owner lady shook her head, and looked at Yu Dan again.
“Sorry. What are you looking for?”
The girl was looking down at those pale purple flowers just like before. Yu Dan pointed at the flowers.
“What is it?”
“Hydrangeas?”
The owner lady stared at Yu Dan with a blank expression again.
“Oh my, she really liked hydrangeas…”
“Please give them to me.”
He received a rich bouquet of purple hydrangeas and came out. The girl started to walk again as if she was waiting.
A Jindo dog, that was laying in the dog house in front of a jewelry shop, suddenly jumped out. The girl stopped in front of it for a moment. The dog wagged its tail and jumped lightly. It was happy. The girl looked down at the good dog, and then stretched out her hand. Blood droplets dripped from her fingers.
Yu Dan petted the dog. Soaked in the rain its fur was damp.
The girl started to walk again. She saw two grandmas, wearing plastic rain coasts and walking in the rain, and bowed her head under the umbrella. Yu Dan greeted them for her.
“Hello.”
“Ah, hello. Coming back now?”
“Who?”
“Neighbor daughter.”
One grandma absentmindedly replied and then froze. She looked at Yu Dan and rubbed her eyes.
“Was I seeing things?”
The girl left them behind and continued walking. Next, she stopped in front of a brightly lit in the rain fruit shop, and looked at the peaches piling up like a mountain.
“Delicious, right? This year Red Heaven Peaches are especially sweet…”
The owner, who was fluently introducing him, suddenly stopped in surprise and looked at Yu Dan.
“Strange. Surely a moment ago…”
“Please give me peaches.”
He received a heavy bag and left.
The girl continued to walk.
When passing a bakery in the corner, her steps slowed for a moment. The smell of bread and coffee mixed together and wafted over. She slightly moved the umbrella and looked at the stall behind the window filled with bread. And then she walked again.
It was a quiet neighborhood.
The girl, who continued to walk, soon stopped in front of a certain house. Red summer roses thickly covered the fading ivory wall with a little bit of color. With her back turned to him, the girl holding an umbrella stood in front of the gate, quietly looking at the tightly closed door.
Here?
He stood by the girl’s side and looked at the entrance, when the door suddenly opened.
A withered and disheveled woman and middleschooler stood in the doorway. The two looked at Yu Dan with wide open eyes. The young girl mumbled like an excuse.
“I heard unnie’s voice…”
Then seeing the hydrangeas and peaches, she was shocked. The sound of drawing a breath was heard loudly even in the rain.
Yu Dan was embarrassed.
“Um, this is…”
He didn’t know what to say. He thrust the package as if he was throwing it, and just tried to run.
“Wait!”
The little girl ran and caught him.
“Don’t go! What is this? Did You meet our unnie? Did our unnie send You?”
The mom also followed and grabbed him.
“Where is our child? Where is my daughter? Is she okay? Please tell me! Where is our pitiful daughter now?”
Yu Dan looked at the mother and daughter.
The bloodied soul didn’t become clear. She didn’t appear in front of her family to say her last goodbyes. She didn’t depart wrapped in light. The girl just disappeared like nothing. Just as suddenly as she died. With only the rain pouring from the sky.
It was just that. There was really nothing to say. Even so, he felt like he had to say something.
“I think she just wanted to come see You for the last time. Not because she was in a lot of pain and suffered… but because she was so thankful, she was able to come to visit…”
The mother and daughter finally burst out crying.
Yu Dan turned around like he was running way.
Even though he got an umbrella, the rain hit him fully and his clothes were completely soaked. Even so, he kept running, and when he thought he could do no more, he hid under the eaves of a shop.
He kept thinking of the look in the mother and daughter’s eyes. The look that couldn’t be described in any way. It was the lie that one could understand others’ pain. Like a wound gouged with a knife couldn’t be the same no matter what, each one was too different. He knew more painfully than anyone else that others couldn’t solve anything. As expected, it was impudent of him.
Yu Dan took out the horn and looked down at it.
Even so, wasn’t it even a little bit better than doing nothing? Wasn’t it better than just passing by a girl walking covered in blood, pretending to know nothing? He thought about this.
Under the awning, the rain kept falling on the world. The light leaking from the shop cast glimmering orange mosaic on the road.
In the world soaked cold in the rain, there seemed to be nothing warmer than this.
*~*~*
[1] plane trees — Platanus orientalis
Translator’s note: Perhaps this book should come with a box of tissues.
End of the story ‘Departed in the rain’.
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