Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 50⟩
⟨Rain right on time⟩
It was not long ago when he had thought ‘Did the spring come?’, and it already was this hot?
Yu Dan stopped his bicycle. Though the sky was murky, the day was strangely sweltering. The weather he hated the most. Even the frozen solid water completely melted at some point.
He drank lukewarm water, as he absentmindedly looked at the other side of the road.
The side bushes rustled and a small hairy yokai slipped out. After it looked left and right, it crossed the bicycle road and handed a parasol to a different yokai, who was combing through a trashcan.
Yet another yokai took out satgat[1] and put it on. Other small things gathered in the distance also opened parasols one after another.
… Uh?
Yu Dan looked up at the sky.
The white clouds just a moment ago, turned dark. Was it going to rain? The moment he thought so, raindrops poured down as if on a signal. The murky sky became thickly covered with clouds in an instant.
“What?! So suddenly…”
Because of the sound of pouring rain, even his voice wasn’t heard properly. It didn’t look like just a passing rain.
Unable to help it, he turned the bicycle around.
Because of a sudden downpour, the traditional street was frantic. The shop owners hurriedly put covers over the stalls and packed items. Yu Dan trudged through the curtain of rain and barely stood in front of the shop.
The twins were startled and opened the door.
“You’re completely soaked!”
“Come in quickly! You’re going to catch a cold!”
Chaeseol brought a towel and Chaeu put the bicycle under the eaves. The moment Yu Dan entered inside, he sneezed.
He didn’t really catch a cold, right?
Hurriedly, he dried himself with the towel. As if the wild ginseng yokai girl put some magic on it, the water was quickly sucked in, and he instantly became dry and soft.
“There was no mention of rain in today’s forecast.”
“That’s what I said too.”
Chaeu cleared the items from the table. Books, boxes, hanging scrolls and things like that piled up.
“There were no customers today, so we were cleaning. Please wait a moment. We will roughly organize them and bring You tea.”
“Ah, I’ll help too.”
The rain showed no signs of stopping. Outside the window was submerged in the wet haze of fog. Because he sometimes glimpsed the eaves of old roofs or windows and door-like things, he felt as if the time was moving backwards.
His hands slowed. Yu Dan discovered something strange in the mountain-like book pile. It seemed like a novel, which was in fashion in the Joseon period, but the pictures were moving as if they were alive.
“Ah, that is Water Margin[2].”
“Water Margin?”
“Please read it. It’s fun.”
“Right! The hundred and eight heroes are all very wonderful!”
Chaeseol eyes sparkled, as she added a word, but suddenly her face darkened.
“But all of them die.”
“Hey! How can you spoiler the ending!”
“I’m worried that Yu Dan will also be wounded like me. For reference, the Ten Feet of Blue Hu Sanniang is the coolest. Is that also a spoiler?”
“No! That’s not a spoiler! Because Little Li Guang Hua Rong is the coolest!”
“No! What is cooler than a pretty lady riding a horse and wielding twin swords?”
“Hua Rong is a great archer who could shoot even a flying goose! What’s more, his righteousness is deeper and his loyalty more amazing than anyone else!”
The twins started to quarrel. They didn’t fight just with words, Chaeseol wielded two brooms like twin swords and Chaeu, instead of shooting, was throwing all kinds of objects.
“Surrender, Hua Rong!”
“Do as you say and surrender, Hu Sanniang!”
In a blink of an eye the stuff cleaned up just a moment ago became a complete mess. Do-ssi, who was sleeping in the corner, was woken up.
“What are you saying!? Why is Hua Rong and Hu Sanniang fighting!”
“Uncle-ssi. Calm them down.”
Do-ssi rubbed his eyes. He at last clicked his tongue as he figured out the situation.
“Heh! Fighting over the heroes again, eh? Obviously Resourceful Star Wu Yong is the best. The cleverness to deceive even a ghost! That was the best scene. He disguised himself as a liquor trader and snatched the birthday gift of the corrupt official…”
“Please don’t spoil!”
Whether he said it or not, Do-ssi started to interpret and describe in detail the scene he thought as the best. While he was at it, the twins’ fight intensified. And at last Hu Sanniang stepped on and crushed the pottery knocked by binyeo[3] thrown by Hua Rong.
Heuk-yo came running at the sound of shattering.
“Kids-ah! Older brother!”
She looked at the shop that became a mess, unable to close her mouth. As if she figured out right away what happened, she immediately took out a pair of axes from the kitchen and came out.
“All said and done, Black Whirlwind Li Kui is the best.”
“Aaack!”
In front of eyes flashing, dual ax wielding Heuk-yo, everyone screamed and fled. And the things were cleared at a lightning-like speed.
The matter was settled in a moment.
Heuk-yo put down the twin axes and emptied her hands. This time the serpent yokai’s cold gaze headed in his direction. Yu Dan raised both of his hands.
“My sin is nothing but being spoiled.”
“By who and what? Stand up. It’s good you’re here. I need a porter.”
“A porter?”
“There is a shop that opens only on days such as today. I have things to buy.”
“Do I have to go?”
Instead of replying, she glanced at the twin axes. Yu Dan quickly stood up.
“I suddenly feel like having something in my hands. Something big, heavy and square. Yeah. Like a baggage.”
“Foolish punk! You can pack it in just one empty bag. Go out quickly!”
The rain was still pouring down. It wasn’t a violent downpour like before, but it didn’t end. He stood in the yard, while waiting for Heuk-yo to come out, the window of the upper floor creaked open.
The fox yokai stuck out his head.
“Are You busy right now?”
“Why?”
“I have something important to say.”
“What?”
“Please come closer.”
“What’s up with you?”
“A bit closer. This is very important. You have to make sure to remember it.”
“What the hell is it?”
“To save the leader Song Jiang, Resourceful Star Wu Yong forged a letter, but he made a mistake in the title and seal, and instead his collaborator Dai Zong is put in danger. This part stands out in the reverse, saying that even clever people like Wu Yong made mistakes.”
“What?”
When he looked up, stupefied, Baek Ran smiled very much like a fox.
“I was worried that You would be surprised when You read it.”
“You called me closer because you wanted to spoil me that? I’m really thankful to everyone. I already feel like I read the whole novel.”
He grumbled and turned around, but the fox called him again.
“Wait a moment.”
“What again?”
“Aren’t You taking an umbrella?”
Something dropped out of the window. It was an umbrella made out of bamboo and paper.
“There are even umbrellas here?”
“You can’t do without that umbrella. Because it’s easy to lose way in such a rain.”
Just in time, Heuk-yo come out, holding the same paper umbrella. The umbrella had a small fox painting.
Lose a way? What on earth did that mean?
Yu Dan opened the fox umbrella.
Heuk-yo followed and stepped out into the rainy street.
The rain drops thumped against the paper umbrella. Under the umbrella, the images of the streets flashed past. Souvenirs under the rain soaked plastic. The traditional street sometimes reflected in the puddles in the road cavities. Water droplets splashed around their feet.
“Can’t you walk a bit more carefully?”
“You’re all soaked anyway, so what is there to be careful about?”
“There is really no communication with you.”
“It would be strange if we communicated, right?”
“That’s right, but… but can’t you walk carefully?”
“You’re all soaked anyway, so what is there to be…”
As they walked, having a dog and cat like fight, he glimpsed someone passing by under the umbrella. Female students leading a dog. The white puppy was wearing a raincoat, and when their eyes met, it energetically wagged its tail.
Wait a moment.
He saw that puppy somewhere.
Soon he remembered. Whitey, which the boy, who came to find him as a guest from afterlife, loved like a dongsaeng. They ran into each other like this? He brought him to the house that seemed like it would raise him well, but it seemed he really was raised well.
He observed the back of the dog disappearing in the distance for a moment, and Heuk-yo asked.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
He started walking again. When he turned around the corner, someone again passed under the umbrella.
“Hey, really. I think I’ll keep on living like this. At the time I was so out of my mind, I thought of taking a car during her part-time job and ramming into her. If I was just a bastard with a bit more screwed up brain, her life would have been finished.”
Yu Dan looked at the back of the man, who was walking fast, while splashing water.
That man, from the time at the Han River…
“What is it?”
Heuk-yo asked again.
“Ah, nothing.”
The rain continued to fall.
The street was completely clear. He walked looking at the droplets jumping in all direction, when he heard the sound of splashing water from the opposite direction.
“Slow down! What are you going to do if noona loses you!?”
“You won’t lose me!”
The running kid stopped. He looked back and stuck out his tongue.
“Noona lost me that day. You lost me before, right?”
“When did I?!”
“When mom and dad went to the conference! You even cried because you lost me! I saw it all!”
The kid ran again. The female student, holding books, hastily chased after him.
“We’re going together!”
The two’s laughter spreadd out in the rainy street.
Yu Dan stopped in place and looked at the backs of the noona and her dongsaeng for a while.
Heuk-yo didn’t ask why now. After he twirled an umbrella to shake off the water droplets, he silently moved.
A family holding the same umbrellas brushed past them. Mom, dad and a young daughter.
“I didn’t think the three of us would be able to walk like this again…”
“It stills feels like a dream to me… Mom and dad are very happy, but why is our Hyeji sulking?”
“That’s not it! That’s not that fox! It’s not the golden fox who was with me during the hide and seek game!”
The child shook her head, and shouted. But she didn’t want to let go of the desert fox plushy in her arms.
The three soon disappeared in the rain. Heuk-yo, who looked at them, smiled with a corner of her lips.
He spotted a small street vendor cart in front of them. In the thick fog, the chorong lanterns[4] hanging from the roof cloth spread out faint light.
“Here. I’ll come back after buying, so wait here for a moment.”
Yu Dan nodded.
He stood, listening to the sound of the droplets thumping against the umbrella, when he heard someone’s voice outside the umbrella.
“… I wouldn’t know. No, I really don’t know. I’m busy taking care of my own business right now. If I knew it would be like this, I wouldn’t palm that misfortune bead off to him. Perhaps all of those unlucky things occur because that bastard became a vengeful spirit and is stuck to me. Huu, should I find a skilled shaman somewhere to preform exorcism? I can’t live…”
Something, that didn’t look like human, was walking down the street conversing with a friend. Unable to see Yu Dan, it bumped into him. It grabbed a hold of its crutches and quickly apologized.
“My apologies. My body isn’t in a good shape. I deeply apologize. Please don’t be angry.”
The limping yokai soon disappeared.
The cloth curtain of the street vendor cart lifted. Heuk-yo holding huge plastic bags in each hand came out.
“What are you smiling for?”
“No, nothing…”
Yu Dan accepted one bag and started walking. They didn’t walk long, when Heuk-yo suddenly halted.
“Alas, I forgot about that, huh? Wait for a moment.”
She put down the bag and ran back to the street vendor cart.
He stood helplessly, holding an umbrella…
Suddenly he spotted something.
At the entrance to the first floor of some building, a certain child was sitting bracing against the rain.
Yu Dan stared blankly at that child.
His slightly messy hair was soaked in rain and stuck to his face. A wet dark spot formed on the bag with the picture of a manhwa character. Because he hated wet things, even his scarf, he rolled it up and pulled it into his arms.
Why was it raining?
The child glared at the ground with such an expression.
He hated rain, he hated that everyone had an umbrella and were moving, and he hated that if he returns home, there will be no one there. So it was a day when he crouched in the middle of nowhere. The memory that tediously repeated itself a couple of times a year every time the showers came.
Yu Dan looked at the child sitting with a sullen face for a while.
And then he slowly approached.
The child only looked at the ground, but when he realized that the rain suddenly stopped, he glanced up. He found an unfamiliar highschooler holding an umbrella for him, he turned his head with a scowl.
Yu Dan stretched out the umbrella handle a bit further.
After he stayed like this for a while, the child soon reached out his hand and hesitantly accepted it. He wrapped his scarf around himself again and stealthily wiped his eyes.
He heard footsteps behind him.
Turning around, he found Heuk-yo.
She was holding the plastic bag, which was left on the ground. Splashing water, she slowly approached and held up an umbrella over Yu Dan’s head.
The raindrops falling over his head disappeared.
Yu Dan asked a bit awkwardly.
“What did you forget?”
“Ah, nothing particular.”
Heuk-yo put curry powder in the bag.
“Let’s go.”
“Okay.”
The two turned around sharing one umbrella.
The rain showed no signs of stopping.
— End of 『 Banwoldang’s Bizarre Story 』volume 2 —
*~*~*
[1] satgat — 삿갓 — straw or bamboo conical hat
[2] Water Margin — Outlaws of the Marsh/ All Men Are Brothers by Shi Nai’an.
[3] binyeo — 비녀 — Korean traditional hairpin
[4] chorong lanterns — two color (usually red and blue) paper lanterns.
Translator’s thank you note:
I really want to read Water Margin, but everything I know about it tells me that I’ll cry by the end of it. Also, I sure hope there was no one afraid of spoilers for an around 900 years old Chinese novel in the audience.
But with this chapter, the volume 2 is finished! Thank you for coming this far with us. Your readership, your comments, your conversations about the novel and recommendations for it, are just like Heuk-yo buying curry powder to make Yu Dan’s favorite curry. It’s warm, sweet and precious. Thank you for offering it to me.
I hope to see you again in the future.
(Also, Jas (Personal Ghost) who edits it deserves the world, so leave some tea and sweets on the counter for them.)
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