Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 39⟩
⟨Wind wish⟩
Because my uncle often showed bizarre mannerism since his youth, we called him a curio-man. Once I followed him to go sightseeing in the Mudong Mountains, and we stayed at a private house, but upon seeing the house owner, he said “He will destroy many lives, huh?”, immediately packed his bags and left.
While dubious, I followed him, but before we even reached the next town, we heard rumors. After certain rural noble flirted with that house’s owner’s daughter, enraged, he grabbed an ax, slaughtered the noble’s entire family, and after that end his own life, causing a disaster.
Thinking it was strange, I asked uncle about it, and uncle said that he heard the sound of the afterlife cart loaded with the dead from that man. He said that after he thought about it quietly, he figured that as many people will die at once, even the grim reaper won’t be able to tie them all with the red rope[1], so perhaps the grim reaper came with a cart, and then he urgently left that place.
『Grass on the hill boulder』
The bed was so soft, he couldn’t open his eyes.
The pillow and a blanket were like a swamp, sucking his whole body in. He had to stand up quickly. But he couldn’t make the slightest move.
But why did he have to stand up fast?
When he realized the reason, it was already too late.
Something suddenly grabbed his ankle. The rough finger bones borrowed into his skin like a steel.
「It’s because of you.」
He heard a whisper. Neither human nor animal. The voice wriggled like countless bugs.
「Why did only you survive? You also know it, right? It was all because of you. That thing came for you. Even though you knew it, you hid. You watched everyone die. You got this eye for the price of that.」
No.
Yu Dan shook his head.
It was a lie. It didn’t know anything. He only hid to live. After scary things happened, his mother covered his eyes. When he opened them, there was already no one alive.
But when hearing that evil spirit’s whispers, he felt like his memory was wrong, and its words were correct.
「You don’t deserve such an eye.」
Hot breath tickled his face.
He absolutely can’t open his eyes.
But he knew that he would finally end up opening his eyes. He knew he would end up seeing it. If asked why, it was because that thing…
「Don’t pretend to sleep!」
Because while shouting, that thing would forcibly pry open his eyelids.
Just in front of his eyes was a rotting face. A strap of meat, barely attached to the thing’s cheekbones, was dangling down. The cold, jelly-like tissue flowed down its cheek.
「You know that too, right? You don’t deserve such an eye. So give it to me…」
He saw a bluish finger in front of his eyes. The nails were sharp like an awl, and the blood clots on them turned black.
It was too horrible.
Yu Dan squirmed.
Please, please, let me go. If only I could live without seeing those things.
The sharp nail burrowed into his left eyeball.
“Aack! I hate it!”
He screamed and abruptly woke up.
His heart was pounding.
After a long time, he had that dream again.
It happened in reality. When because of the incident, that eye just started to see strange things, every night all kinds of monsters came to him. That bastard was one of them.
His head hurt as if it would split.
What happened after that?
In front of the monsters that came to try to harm him, he was completely powerless. So how did it end?
It was so strange he couldn’t remember that. At some point, their footsteps were just abruptly cut off. Even so, perhaps because of that, when he saw similar bastards, he would punish them in anger…
His vision, which was flickering, became clear. He saw the soft cream walls illuminated by the early morning sunlight.
Anyhow, a dream was a dream.
Yu Dan stood up. He stretched as he walked, but he abruptly halted.
Something was strange. It was surely his house, but it was somehow unfamiliar.
He soon realized the reason.
The room, from one corner to another, was completely spotless. No stains, no wriggling things. Even the corners were empty.
He stood for a while, amazed.
He had no idea his home had such a clean place. He realized ‘I was seeing truly a lot of stains and dust that others don’t see without even knowing, huh?’.
He opened the door and entered the living room.
The living room was also clean. The floor without a single speck of dust was illuminated by sunlight. After a seriously long time, he was slowly eating breakfast at the dining table, without anything flying at him.
That’s what living like a person means, right?
He washed up, put on the school uniform and went outside.
Was the world always so clean?
He felt as if from a place filled with pathogens, he suddenly entered a sterile room. There were no dark energies seeping from people passing by, bloodied faces didn’t suddenly press themselves against the bus windows and there was no something else lying besides a drunk man on the road, affectionately waving its hand.
It was only a moment when he enjoyed this cleanness.
Slowly, he began to think it was strange.
Was there really nothing? If not…
Yu Dan entered the school with an ambiguous mood.
The school was the same. It was so clean, it was twinkling.
There was no way it was true. As it was a school with a long history, there were a couple of long-term residents, there was no way they disappeared overnight.
Also… There was something not visible with just his eyes.
Yu Dan entered a restroom.
He put his face in front of the mirror and examined his left eye, but there was nothing abnormal. Even when he lifted his eyelids to look at it, it was also the same. The sclera and pupils were clear.
“Is it broken?”
He unconsciously mumbled, and then flinched.
Broken? Why did he think like that?
It was normal. Originally, ghosts, yokai and etc. shouldn’t be visible in people’s eyes. The eye that broke when he was seven years old made a full circle and returned to normal again.
But, was it real…?
He couldn’t believe it. There was no way such luck suddenly found him, right? There was no way his life could be freed so easily, right?
Such thing would surely hit him in the back of his head, right?
He entered the corridor again.
No matter how he looked at it, this cleanliness was too unfamiliar. It felt as if he suddenly took off a dirty filter, which he was wearing alone for a very long time.
It was what the world looked like in ordinary people’s eyes. Right now he was seeing the world exactly like ordinary people see it.
Lost too deep in his thoughts, he didn’t realize the flow of time. He came back to his senses, because the children around him suddenly started to stand up. Everyone was packing their bags and going out.
Why?
Ah, they said today they would have only morning classes, right? There was some kind of event and several teachers-nim were going to participate. So, he was looking forward to it, counting days on his fingers with a fluttering heart, but he completely forgot about it because his mind was occupied by the eye.
Yu Dan packed his bag and left.
The world was like a sterile room just like before. There was nothing disturbing in sight.
It’s still up? He was slowly beginning to be bothered.
Abruptly, a transparent box caught his eye.
It was full of earthworm dolls. All of them crooked or turned upside down were looking at him. Their expressions seemed somewhat teasing.
Yeah. That was it.
Isn’t it a perfect place for a yokai to hide in? One of them will move, right? Or their expression will change, right? For certain. It wasn’t one or two times he experienced it.
He stood there and stared at them for a while.
The dolls didn’t even twitch.
For how long did he stare? At some point he felt a presence and looked back. Two middle school girls were holding a coin and hesitating.
“Ah, sorry.”
He stepped back.
The grapple slowly moved, caught the doll’s torso and dragged it out. One. And another one. Thanks to amazing abilities, they were quickly plucked out. In an instant, they got an armful, and they handed one to Yu Dan, who was watching.
“Uh?”
Embarrassed, he accepted it. But it was even more embarrassing to accept it.
“Why are you giving it to me?”
“Cheer up.”
The middle school girls giggled, while walking away.
No way, did they think he was glaring at them, because he couldn’t get a doll? Did they interpret it as a desperate gaze, because he wanted to have it? So they did a good deed and went?
It was really…
He looked down at the doll, dumbfounded.
The earthworm’s expression was also happy. Was it teasing him or laughing at him? Just keep quiet… Where did he see such an expression many times?
Ah, right.
He abruptly realized.
What he was doing right now. Such a fool. He can go there and ask. What happened to my eye?
He was bothered about how he parted with the twins. Just before parting, those children looked strange. Was he perhaps possessed by something? Or was someone playing a joke on him?
Yu Dan headed to the bus stop.
Arriving at the traditional street, the situation there was the same.
The old buildings filling the place were where small spirits often hid, but today he didn’t spot even a tip of their noses. If just not for the people, he would only have items in his loneliness…
Ah, why am I thinking about loneliness right now?
Is that possible?
He shook his head, while walking, and then hesitated in his steps.
Strange. Wasn’t it around here?
In the place, where his footsteps naturally stopped, was a rice-cake shop. On the left was a traditional hanbok shop. And on the right was a noodle shop. No matter how much he looked left and right, the Banwoldang wasn’t in sight.
Did he perhaps enter the wrong alley?
He looked at the street sign in the distance. But no. He was completely correct, he entered the Pagoda Tree Street.
But why wasn’t it here?
When he actually tried to find Banwoldang, he found himself confused. Which number that building was? What shops were around it? What kind of scenery was around it?
He didn’t remember a single thing. From beginning, he had no need to remember that. Because if he just walked without thinking, it would appear in front of him.
He realized that from some point he was biting on his lip.
What? Was he flustered? Why was he flustered? A shop couldn’t completely disappear from here, right?
Yu Dan came back to the very first store again.
He checked them carefully one after one. He struggled to keep his cool, but he gradually grew perplexed. No way, no way, he mumbled, while he checked the last store.
Even then, there was no Banwoldang.
“That’s ridiculous…”
He felt dizzy.
He stood there blankly, when heard a ‘taptap’ sound from somewhere. He looked back, and found an owner lady dusting off pottery in front of her shop.
He ran up to her and asked.
“Do You know about Banwoldang?”
“Uh? What dang?”
“Banwoldang!”
“What is that?”
“A shop. It sells tea and antiques.”
“There is no such shop here.”
“No! There certainly is!”
“No? I did business here for dozens of years, but I don’t know? Do you perhaps mean Hyangwoljeong?”
The owner lady pointed at the tea shop in the distance.
How could it be?
Right now he had an overwhelming feeling of incongruity for the situation itself. It felt as if he alone was drifting away from the surface of reality.
He took out his phone and pressed Mia’s name, but she didn’t pick up. Even though he kept calling a few times, it was useless. It seemed that she was quite occupied.
What now? He can’t see ghosts and can’t find the shop.
Holding a phone in his hand, he went blank.
… It’s the end.
He abruptly had such a thought.
Congratulations. Your unhappiness ended now. The eye, that was broken at the age of seven, returned to normal, and you can return to a normal life again.
Now you can look anywhere as you like. Now you don’t have to be afraid of what hideous things will be mixed in the scenery you looked at without thinking. You won’t see anyone play any pranks anywhere. No one will follow you because your eyes met. No one will try to touch you because of curiosity.
Now I’m free.
He tried to speak that out loud.
“I’m free.”
He felt that only now.
How happy could he be?!
Yu Dan jumped up.
His wish was achieved, so he should celebrate. What should he do? Anyhow, that’s a celebration. Because he was happy.
The feet, which walked with power, slowly stopped.
The passersby were looking at him. The busy walking people looked at him with ‘What?’, while avoiding him.
As he blankly stood in the middle of the road, he realized.
He wasn’t happy.
How could it be? Was it slow?
He waited, but he wasn’t happy at all.
… What?
Yu Dan fell into confusion.
***
He tottered through the dark junction tunnel.
A paper plastered on the tunnel walls caught his eye. It was a flyer about a lost Persian cat, with two different colored eyes.
A lost cat.
Looking back, not a long time ago he found a lost child. Thinking about it, he felt strange again.
Really? You mean I really did it?
He stood there for a while, staring at the flyer, unable to believe it, and then started walking again.
There was a river in front of it.
Perhaps because the weather was good, there were many people on the grassplot. Among them, the man holding a soju bottle and sitting as if he lost his soul caught his eye. From just a glance, he showed signs of a broken heart.
Why do people cry at the Han River during heavy events?
He tried to start to seriously consider it, but… he quit. He wasn’t in a mood for it right now.
He sat down on a bench, and looked up into the sky.
It was truly a strange thing.
Something he wanted so much, his eye returning to normal, happened, but rather than happy and excited, he was uncomfortable. He never dreamed it would be like this.
It was absurd. Even though he was cursing it so much, wasn’t he in fact happy?
No.
Yu Dan wildly shook his head.
He wanted to be comfortable. Like the people who come to this park. Running, walking, riding bicycles, flying kites or playing badminton…
He wanted to live such a life without any worries.
He could do this now.
He clenched his fists.
First of all, he should study, right? Because even if he opens a book, nothing will disturb him. He will study diligently as if showing off. So he should go to university, right? Get a job at a company, right? And then, when the time comes, he should marry and have a child, right? Because they would resemble him, the child wouldn’t listen and be gross, but if a weather was good, he would bring them to the Han River, right? And then he would say to that child “You may not believe me, but in fact when this dad was your age, he could see ghosts…”
No. No.
Yu Dan shook his head.
That won’t happen. There was no way he would remember it until then.
Didn’t the fox yokai say that? People’s instinct is to erase such memories, right? Even though right now it was so vivid, he would soon completely forget about it.
Right. That’s right.
He nodded his head, and then suddenly frowned.
Did he really not like that?
The scene from Banwoldang came vivid before his eyes.
“Huhu. I knew it would be like this. Stupid human punk.” The serpent yokai would smile wickedly.
“He was so stubborn, but in the end he couldn’t help it.” The fox yokai would also chuckle.
“Alas, it’s quiet, so I can live at last!” The dokkaebi would enjoy the peace.
The twins would look sad. But their sullen looks would quickly change when they said “We found an even better human!”.
… He felt a sense of loss.
Yu Dan abruptly stood up.
He had to go back. He had to come back somehow.
*~*~*
[1] red rope — rope to tie criminals.
Translator’s note: ‘Wind Wish’ story is four chapters long. Um… should mental damage be counted? Should I make Yu Dan’s sick/hurt because of supernatural count into 5??
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