BBS (42)

Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost

 
⟨Chapter 42⟩
 

“It was more serious than that.”

The spirit replied.

“He had an expression as if he wanted to check the Han River’s temperature right away. Among all the Han River’s people, yokai, ghosts and animals, he looked the most pitiful. When he was on the verge of tears, he…”

“When did I do that?!”

He shut the mouth of the spirit, who was talking nonsense, but it was too late. Baek Ran, Do-ssi and the twins were looking at him with even more pity.

“It’s strange, eh? Didn’t You say that it would be better if You didn’t see ghosts? Didn’t You say that You wanted to live without bothering what someone does to someone somewhere?”

“That, that’s…”

“Well, what is what? Anyhow, I understand that after searching once, You could do nothing but give up. As You didn’t have any more energy to search. That’s all on me. No matter how annoying, I should have written down for You at least the address.” [1]

“No. It’s our fault. In the future, we will hold Yu Dan’s hand tightly when going out somewhere.”

“And even if He gets lost by chance, we should scatter pamphlets. Mario’s owner also plastered such pamphlets. We better make them beforehand, so we can scatter them straight away.”

“You were so sorry because we didn’t find you faster? Are you relying on us so much? This uncle is moved to tears.”

Everyone said what they had to say and looked at Heuk-yo.

This serpent yokai didn’t say a word yet. She only stared ahead with a stiff face.

“Do you have something to say, sister?”

At Do-ssi’s words, she suddenly glared at him. Her lips moved slightly a few times, and then her eyes turned sharp once again.

“You should have directly stated that if that was the case! Why are you making me yell?! If you received treatment from the beginning, there would be no trouble! I really hate humans!”

Blazing with anger, she entered inside.

Do-ssi shook his head.

“What a personality. She will be sorry about suddenly getting angry a moment ago, but it’s her method of saying that she went through a lot of hardships to find you. But then she will regret it again.”

“Nunim worked the hardest and was the most worried.”

Chaeu had an expression of complete understanding.

“Didn’t nunim get angry, because You bumped into each other when coming through the door last time? I guess She was really bothered by it. How many times did She say ‘I can’t be like that, I should bear with it a bit more kindly’?”

“But that’s useless. She will soon lose her temper again. But unnie can’t stop that.”

Chaeseol tightly grabbed the spirit’s arm.

“Anyhow, I’m glad that thanks to the boatman-nim you were found safely. Thank you, boatman-nim!”

“Uh?”

The spirit looked at Chaeseol with a confused face.

“Did I do something?”

“Ah, no. Don’t worry.”

“There wasn’t any mistake?”

“Right! You did well!”

“I’m glad. I wanted to repay the debt of gratitude even if a bit. I don’t remember what it was, but…”

He looked around.

“Anyhow, I wasn’t here for a really long time. There are many amazing things here, so it’s a truly nice place. Now that I came here, shouldn’t I play for a bit?”

The spirit’s silhouette suddenly disappeared. But it was just that his eyes didn’t follow, the spirit was everywhere in the yard. Every time he moved, the leaves shook and the petals danced.

Now he realized his identity.

A thing that doesn’t stay anywhere. A thing that moves from one place to another in an instant. It was so simple there was no need to think, but he wasn’t able to realize it.

“It’s a wind, huh?”

“Yes. Named Sondol Wind, in the old times…”

Baek Ran suddenly stopped talking.

“Why am I explaining it? What is there to know? If You’re curious, look it up in person.”

And he climbed the second floor. Even the twins staggered as if all their energy was depleted, and disappeared.

“Don’t pay any mind to them. They’re as tired as they were worried. And anyhow, everyone is timid. Should be always calm like me.”

Dokkaebi smiled peacefully, while taking a pipe, putting it into his mouth and lighting it up with a lighter.

***

“Sondol Wind… here it is. A vicious wind blowing, because of grudges of the Han River’s boatman Sondol, who was killed under a false charge. In Goryeo period, when Mongols invaded, the king took Sondol’s boat to escape, but because Sondol went looking around for a safer water route, the king became suspicious of him and beheaded him. Sondol spoke at the brink of death. If the king just throws the gourd, that was in the boat, into the water and follows it, he will be able to avoid the enemy forces and dangerous currents, and escape safely. When the chasing him enemies came, the anxious king thought it wouldn’t hurt to try and threw the gourd, and indeed, as Sondol said, he was able to safely escape to the Ganghwado Island. Only then he realized Sondol’s loyalty and held a memorial ceremony to console his soul… Why are all those stories so absurd?”

Yu Dan put down his phone. It seemed that there were amazingly a lot of cases among the old stories, where introduction, development and turns were plausible, but the conclusion was strange.

“Who gets a death penalty for the price of a goodwill? Shouldn’t he grab a knife and appear in front of the king to cut him to pieces?”

“That depends on the soul.”

The fox yokai replied. He had an expression saying ‘Isn’t it clear?’.

“But I agree this story is a bit strange. The vicious wind blows because of grudges, so people would appease the soul, but even when Sondol was dying, didn’t he tell the story of the gourd, doing his best to help? Would he hold any grudges?”

“Then why was that wind blowing?”

“Just because he was in pain. He was in so much pain, he didn’t know what he should do. When I first met him, he was suffering a lot. So I tried to make him feel better.”

The wind entered through the opened window of the study. Baek Ran stretched out his hand, and the wind softly coiled around his fingertips.

“As I erased the painful memories again and again, I couldn’t help but erase many other things with them. So he can’t even remember his name, and his mind always wanders. And gets things bizarrely wrong by himself. Mistaking a human for a cat yokai was nothing. The only thing that remains in that chaotic head of his is the wish to help someone. Especially to do his best when bringing someone to the place they should go to. Because he was boatman before.”

“But how can he walk around appearing like a spirit? Not only that, people see him.”

“Ah…”

The fox yokai smiled.

“What?”

“He doesn’t look like a spirit in other people’s eyes. He looks like an ordinary grandpa. Just a bit eye-catching. Because his mind wanders, he mistakes others’ thrown away clothes for his, or forgets to wear pants, or…”

“What?”

Yu Dan was horrified.

“Then did I spend time wandering around the Han River with a grandpa that wasn’t wearing even pants?”

“I’m talking about the serious cases. Let’s see… Today he was quite usual, barefoot, wearing a biker gang jacket with the writing ‘Touch me, and you will die’, and heart shaped sunglasses.”

“That isn’t usual at all!”

The fox’s words weren’t even a bit of comfort. Yu Dan sighed, and pressed his left eye.

“I thought it was completely broken, but it saw elder-nim properly.”

“It may be because it knew that he can help You.”

The fox smiled again.

“Besides that, did You feel anything else?”

“Ah, right. The sound of wheels.”

“That’s an afterlife wagon.”

Baek Ran unfolded 『Annals of Past and Present Bizarre Occurrences』.

“It’s a supernatural phenomenon that occurs because a person is about to cause a big incident. Rather than a cause for something, it’s closer to a premonition phenomena. There is a bit of a creepy story about a death reaper preparing a wagon beforehand to drag numerous souls.”

“Let’s see. After hearing the sound of wheels from the house owner, they were staying at for a night, they hurriedly left and avoided the disaster… What? Instead of fleeing, you should stop him beforehand or something like that. It was a person, who gave you a place to sleep. How can you be so shameless?”

“Well, it’s because in old times there was perception that the fate of such things is already decided for people, and humans can’t interfere.”

“Fate?”

Yu Dan asked back with a serious face.

“What’s the matter with You?”

“In fact, when approaching that supernatural, I vividly recalled old memories. The incident at that time… Was it also fate?”

“If You’re asking for my opinion, I think there is nothing fixed in stone. Things are remade time and time again. Didn’t I tell You the story of cogwheels last time?”

“Even so, we can read the future. So perhaps that cartwheel sound was heard from me that day too?”

“Do You mean to say You were responsible for it as well?”

“No.”

Yu Dan shook his head.

“When I was young, there were things that came to me and whispered such things. Of course, I didn’t believe them, but… I sometimes had such a thought. Why was I the only one to survive? What was the reason for that?”

“It would be because of that.”

Baek Ran spoke.

“That day, just before Your eye broke, didn’t the two child ginseng yokai tell You that story? It wasn’t Your fault. And after that, they regretted it for a while, saying they said something presumptions. But they couldn’t not say anything. Because sometimes a voice is really heard. Because You built an immaculate wall, even if we try to listen for something, it will still only be silence unlike with others, but sometimes “It’s because of me.” would be heard. From the listener’s position, it’s very unpleasant.”

“I didn’t know.”

Yu Dan sighed, and replied.

He didn’t know, he thoughtlessly followed the words that those yokai said. But the fact that it was still on his mind…

Was he blaming himself after all?

The silence continued for a while. The wind entered through the window again.

“This Sondol Wind feels pure happiness because he helps people. Thanks to that, he forgot the pain of his gruesome death. It isn’t a sacrifice. It’s survival. Things done to survive. Sometimes there are cases where one has to stretch out their hand to others in order to survive themselves. At that time, the other one who grabs that hand is not others, whose names we don’t know — it’s ourselves. Lost, lonely and trembling child at the place of a wretched incident. A certain child, which thinks that the world is terrible, and perhaps thinks that they themselves are terrible. You can stretch out Your hand to that child.”

“…”

As expected, it was difficult. Such stories.

He wordlessly fell into thoughts, but following the wind that circled the study, a pleasant light entered. Like an aurora, the marvelous five color glory spread out over the books in the study.

“What is that?”

“It’s called Seogi[2]. An Auspicious Light.”

Was it because of the light? The fox yokai’s face brightened.

“It appears when something good is about to happen, wind brought it to us to see, eh? In the past, people treated it as precious, believing it’s a saliva spat out by a divine dragon.”

“Saliva?! That’s dirty.”

“Anyway, that eye doesn’t always see terrible things, right? It’s not always just to help others, but also about sometimes receiving help of others like this. There are many sides to the world, and which direction to go is always up to one’s choice.”

“Is that so?”

Yu Dan nodded.

“But, there is something You don’t have a choice in.”

“What?”

“That eye. Because it keeps flashing, both of my eyes hurt. And if You wander around like that, You will be treated as a walking natural disaster. Please come every day starting tomorrow to receive treatment.”

“Ah, got it.”

He replied reluctantly.

On the first day, as he entered the medical room, he witnessed an amazing sight. The fox yokai took out an iron hammer and an enormous syringe, and twins at his side were trying to stop him, shouting “He will die! Humans die if you do that!”.

But as always, it was just blackmail, and the actual treatment was sucking out the vicious energy with a herbal pouch and eating medicine. He hated the herbal pouch, and hated eating the medicine, but thinking about the iron hammer and the enormous syringe, it was nothing much. Yu Dan diligently accepted treatment.

Starting from the third day, he noticed strange signs.

For some reason, it seemed like the fox, dokkaebi and the ginseng twins were often whispering behind his back. Even while he sat on the first floor, to see if there were any side effects to the medicine, they made sure someone was watching Yu Dan.

What was that?

Even though he thought he was indifferent about his surroundings, it bothered him.

A few more days passed like this.

The time flowed idly, while he ate medicine and looked outside the window, but Baek Ran, who sat behind him in the corner, reading a book, suddenly spoke.

“Coming.”

“Who?”

Just as he finished his words, the door flung open.

The serpent yokai, who didn’t show even a tip of her nose for the last few days, entered with an indifferent face. Her footsteps rang out ‘bang bang’ as she walked, and then put something on the table right in front of him.

It was a can of cola.

“What about it?”

“I picked it up.”

Heuk-yo looked in some other direction, as she replied.

“You picked it up?”

“Yeah. It was laying on the road.”

He looked at the can again.

There was not a single speck of dust on it, and only water droplets stuck to it. With its whole form it seemed to say that it was just bought.

He was surprised.

They clashed a few times because of it. This serpent yokai hated carbonated drinks. If he asked why is there no cola on the Banwoldang’s menu? Or, do you plan to add it in the future?, she gnashed her teeth, saying she would rather put rotten water from the skull Great Wonhyo[3] drunk.

But she went to buy it and suddenly give it to him?

He looked behind her, at the fox yokai.

Baek Ran put down the book and was watching it with a very curious face. When their eyes met, he signaled with his eyes. He put his hands together, shook his head and then put a finger to his lips.

Was he saying it means she is sorry, so pretend not to know and accept it quietly?

He looked at Heuk-yo again.

She looked confident, with her head raised and her arms crossed. But looking closely, her fingers were anxiously tapping her arms.

He should accept it, pretending not to know…

Because of that unfamiliar appearance, he ended up somehow embarrassed.

“It was mostly my fault.”

Strange word jumped out.

Heuk-yo flinched.

“No, who said that? What nonsense—“

She didn’t speak any longer and her face turned red.

She snatched the cola can and fled to the kitchen. The door closed with a bang.

“I tried not to say that now, but…”

The fox yokai opened the book again.

“Fool.”
 

*~*~*
 

[1] “Well, what is what? Anyhow, I understand that after searching once, You could do nothing but give up. As You didn’t have any more energy to search. That’s all on me. No matter how annoying, I should have written down for you at least the address.” — Chaeu’s sentence.

[2] Seogi / Auspicious Light — more precisely, auspicious ki/qi (瑞氣)

[3] Wonhyo — a prolific Buddhist philosopher. There is an anecdote that he obtained enlightenment by incidentally drinking water from a skull.
 

Translator’s note: … I love this novel for those occasional moments of life philosophy. Also, the story Wind Wish ends here.
 

 

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