BBS (56)

Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost

 
⟨Chapter 56⟩
 

Yu Dan turned around and was just about to run downstairs, when he bumped into someone.

It was none other than the dokkaebi, wearing a pajama with rabbit pattern. Do-ssi rubbed his sleepy eyes and yawned.

“What is all this noise? Did something appear? Calm down. Cheonho-nim is here. If it’s because of that human punk, there is no need to worry. I already evacuated him. He fled in a hurry as if he was scared to death for some reason…”

“Who?”

Do-ssi blinked. Finding Yu Dan standing right in front of him, he was terrified.

“How did you do that!? You just left!”

“What are you talking about!? I didn’t leave!”

Baek Ran urgently asked.

“Did You open the door?”

“Yes, I opened it for him! He was like a puppy scared by the thunder sound, trying to open a door and making a commotion. It was so silly and pitiful, I quickly opened the door for him…”

“What did You say? Older brother opened the door for him?”

Heuk-yo ran upstairs and asked. The twins were following after her. Baek Ran spoke to them.

“It’s as You said. It slipped out.”

Everyone looked at Yu Dan with pale faces.

He expected they would shoot him with lightnings because he tried to stab the fox yokai and made a fuss a moment ago, but that wasn’t it. Their gazes were sympathetic and sad. Even Heuk-yo’s.

Yu Dan was confused.

“What’s the matter?”

“I’ll explain.”

Baek Ran lit up a candle.

The light returned, and shadows came back with it. But Yu Dan’s shadow was nowhere to be seen.

“Did my shadow really run away?”

“That’s not a shadow. It’s geureumae.”

“Geureumae?”

“Shadow monster. It devours people’s shadows and mimics their shadow instead, possessing those people. It must have hid somewhere here, and stealthily grabbed You when You were sleeping.”

Chaeseol spoke, depressed.

“We made such a strong talisman and placed it beside you.”

“It’s useless. The strange things the power of that eye draws out are much stronger.”

“Anyway, then I wasn’t suddenly playing with the knife because I’m a psycho? It was because of the monster? I’m glad…”

Something slapped Yu Dan’s face.

“What are You glad about? That’s not a time for sleeping. Wake up. This is a crisis situation.”

As he barely opened his eyes, Baek Ran was hitting his face with a book.

“You have to come back to Your senses. First, You have to understand it.”

Another book was suddenly thrust in front of his eyes. It was 『Annals of Past and Present Bizarre Occurrences』.

“This is the content of the exile diary called 『Baeksa’s Days Records』. Among the records of each day in the place of exile, there was a part that talks about geureumae in detail. There is nothing more for me to add. Please take a look.”

Baek Ran pointed at the drawing of some woman staring at the floor in front of the buttumak[1]. Her shadow was dancing on its own.

“Geureumae often appears in summer. They say that in summer everything becomes active and shadows become clear. As I said, that thing devours people’s shadows, and pretends to be their shadow instead, and when they glance at it, it possesses them. When the sunlight shines down brightly. When everything melts like yeot[2]. Abruptly You have a doubt ‘Did my shadow just move on its own?’. You stare at it to confirm if You were wrong, and become possessed.”

Yu Dan rubbed his eyes, and looked at the drawing.

“But I never stared at my shadow like that woman.”

“You surely did. It wasn’t when You were together with us, it would be after You woke up. You had to be possessed by geureumae at that time. Didn’t You suddenly feel strange?”

“Please think carefully.”

Chaeu also put in a word. Everyone looked at Yu Dan.

Thinking about it, he remembered something.

“I woke up and went to the storage room at the end of the corridor. I just went through things, and discovered a kind of mirror. Cheval mirror was it? I’m talking about the mirror that reflected the back of my mind. It was the first time I saw it, but for some reason I was able to easily assemble it. As it reflected, the darkness behind me was moving. It felt good to look at.”

“That was the moment. No, I get it. You have a Heavenly Eye, and became extremely sensitive because it’s early summer, so it wouldn’t be easy to possess You, and so it used the cheval mirror to burrow into Your mind. Very sly.”

“You said that…”

“Don’t sleep!”

Baek Ran shook him awake again.

“Someone please bring me ice water. Fill the entire jar.”

“I got it! Got it! Eyes open!”

He drilled his eyes into the 『Annals of Past and Present Bizarre Occurrences』. The tip of the fox yokai’s finger pointed at the drawing. It was the scene where the madam, who was staring at the shadow a moment ago, stabbed some old woman to death with a kitchen knife.

“Please look. In the 『Baeksa’s Days Records』, the madam possessed by the geureumae killed a person. She stabbed the neighbor old woman, with whom she often quarreled, and killed her. That’s how geureumae is. There are impulses and desires in our hearts, but we don’t act on them in reality, because we’re afraid of repercussions we would suffer when carrying them out. We keep the reins. But when possessed by geureumae, those reins become loose.”

Baek Ran made a rabbit shape using his other hand. On the wall, a rabbit shadow appeared.

“Originally, shadows follow people, but when possessed by geureumae, it’s the opposite, the person follows the shadow. Consciousness goes inside, and the unconscious gets outside, and the human is turned inside out. They forget about the division between good and evil and rules learned in society. They act like a three or four year old child, not knowing what is what. They randomly commit things they usually wouldn’t even think about. At first, it starts with light pranks, but gradually they become bolder. Because it’s just fun, or became because it’s just upsetting, You can just stab someone. That thing now wanders around as it likes. Looking exactly like You, the darkness of your heart.”

His heart sunk. Only then did he abruptly come back to his senses.

“What should I do?”

“That thing became even more powerful as it escaped. Because the current age is different from the past, the nights are also bright.”

“Aren’t shadows the opposite of light?”

“That’s not right. Please think about it. There had to be light for the shadows to appear, don’t shadows become darker the more light there is? Think about what I did a moment ago. What did I do to weaken geureumae?”

“Blew out the candle.”

“Yes. Originally, when creating perfect darkness, we would be able to easily catch it because geureumae would melt on the spot. But now that it escaped…”

Baek Ran cut off his words. The fox ears perked up. As they quietly listened, a sound of something thumping came from the 1st floor. Everyone was startled.

“Oh no, it started.”

Heuk-yo quickly jumped out.

“Huhu. What a sorry thing. I wanted to help, according to my conscience, but now we have our own fish to fry. Huhuhu.”

“We will finish it quickly and help.”

“Good luck.”

Do-ssi and the twins hastily ran out.

The thumping sound gradually grew louder. It mixed with a strange cry like that of an archaeopteryx. His head tingled.

“What is that again?”

“The storage’s items. It may seem like it’s haphazardly piled up, but it has its own order. They suppress each other’s energies and maintain a delicate balance. As they were touched, it became a mess.”

“Ah, what should I do?”

Baek Ran stretched out a golden dagger towards him without a word. Yu Dan flinched.

“Stop the useless talk and commit a suicide?”

“What are You saying? It’s not the time to worry about others. You have to quickly catch geureumae and stab it with it to eliminate it. That thing can’t be allowed to wander around wearing a human’s mask.”

He didn’t readily take it.

He clearly recalled holding that dagger and grinning. He was controlled by a monster, but was it really not him at all? If it was the darkness he hid in his heart?

“I hate this knife.”

The fox yokai’s face hardened into ice.

“Don’t act like a child. If that thing commits an irreversible act, the guiltless person will have to deal with all of it. The woman from the story was dragged to the governor office because of the crime committed through geureumae, and probably was sentenced to death for murder. There were several cases besides that, where a person received false accusation or was buried by society because of geureumae.”

Baek Ran didn’t say it, but if something like that happened in connection to this place, even yokai would be implicated. Thinking about this, he couldn’t help it. Yu Dan accepted the blade.

The hilt was cold to touch. Because he left the storage room abandoning the scabbard, he wrapped the blade in cloth handed to him by Baek Ran.

“From now on, You have to keep your mind steady.”

“Got it.”

He carefully held the golden dagger and quickly ran down to the first floor. Abruptly, he thought of something, and took the bag, left lying on the backyard maru[3].

The moment he left the Banwoldang, his breathing got heavy.

It was still early summer, everything was damp and heavy. The city’s heat was uncomfortable. He realized anew how bad his body’s state was right now. It was absurd how out of energy he was.

He slept well, but what was it now?

It was a feeling of being ripped out from a comfortable blanket. Yu Dan was angry. Damn monster bastard. In addition, it was dawn, so buses and subways were out. While walking, he caught a taxi.

“Uncle-ssi, it’s very urgent, can You go quickly?”

The taxi diver with narrow eyes, had no thought of starting the car and stared at Yu Dan.

“Hey, it’s urgent, so…”

“Ah, sorry. Get in quickly, student, sir.”

The moment he took the side-seat, he realized. He currently was holding a deadly weapon wrapped in cloth and didn’t even have a shadow. What guts does he have to ride a taxi? But it was already too late to go out. After he fastened the seat-belt, the driver looked at him with a very strange face.

“What’s the matter?”

“Ah, nothing. It’s just a bit particular.”

“Doesn’t everyone fasten the seat belts?”

“Uh, yeah. Of course. This uncle is just talking nonsense. Where are you going?”

The driver shook his head, trembling, and before even hearing the destination, rushed on the morning street. He thought that he was an unreliable and strange person, but his driving skills were amazing. Was it one of those bullet taxis he only heard about? He glanced at the speed meter, but he doubted his eyes. His current condition was very bad, but even if he was about to lose his mind, he couldn’t miss it.

“How was it? I got here quickly, right?”

“Ah, yes. Thank You.”

Yu Dan hastily left. When he suddenly looked back, the taxi driver came out and bowed deeply towards him, while putting his hands together.

“What?”

It was very embarrassing, but it was not a time to be bothered by it.

As he hurriedly ran and got to his house, the lights were off. He couldn’t know if something wasn’t inside. His heart was a mix of half anxiety, half anger. He unfolded the cloth wrapped around the blade, and stepped out of the elevator, in the right hand tightly holding a dagger, and carefully opened the entrance door.

His senses became extremely sharp, but he didn’t sense anything. Just darkness. He wasn’t able to detect any special energy of supernatural. Even so, he gripped the dagger’s hilt, he carefully muffled his footsteps, and entered.

The tip of his foot bumped into something. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he soon recognized its shape. For a second he thought it was a skull and was terrified.

No. Wasn’t it probably a soccer ball?

After he stretched out his hand and turned on the lights, the scene inside the house was fully revealed.

Yu Dan couldn’t close his mouth.

It already came and went, eh?

This thought hit his mind.

It looked like a bomb exploded. Nothing was in its original place. Was it like this because a giant shook the whole apartment and then dropped it down? He was so dumbfounded, he couldn’t speak.

“This is crazy…”

He almost tripped over something while walking. It was a tarantula plush that looked like a real thing. He didn’t even know that he had such a strange thing in the house. Even the Monthly Eastern Painting Magazine, which he bought at Banwoldang in the past and put on the shelf were all taken out and scattered on the floor. He thought his house was rather empty, but there were so many things.

He opened the fridge and looked at the stuffed in acoustic guitar, and then he suddenly felt a chill down his spine.

“You can’t possibly!”

He ran into the bedroom, and it of course was also a mess. The wardrobe door was wide open. Yu Dan opened the drawer in fright.

Luckily, the eight scarfs were all there.

You can’t lose it. You must always wear it, because you might catch a cold.

The words of his mom rang out in his head again, as he turned around, and he flinched again, unknowingly stepping back.

A robot was tossed on the pile of blankets.

Where did that come from?

His mind went dark. It was as if a fossil buried somewhere deep was suddenly dug out and thrown into light. It was the robot his dad bought. He could clearly see the peeling paint and fading colors, even with his eyes closed. At the time it was the most precious treasure in the world.

The robot was covered in the bright red poster paint. How terrifying was that coat that looked like blood.

Didn’t they say that the darkness of his heart would act as it pleased?

A strange feeling wriggled deep within his heart, as a shiver ran down his spine for a second. He had no idea what it was. Yu Dan hastily turned his head, as if he didn’t see anything.

What should he do now?

When he entered the living room, the dizziness hit him again. His head was spinning.

No. He couldn’t sleep. He had to think.

He cleared the old and tattered baseball gloves and sat down on the sofa, thinking of what Baek Ran said.

The consciousness goes in, the unconscious goes out, the inverted human. Act like a three or four year old child. If he returned to be three or four years old, where would he go after leaving the house?

Yu Dan thought deeply.

His head dropped at some point. Yu Dan fell asleep without even realizing.

A sharp sound of an incoming call alarm broke the silence.

When he startled raised his head, it was bright outside the window. Was it already morning? It seemed that he slept for about two hours. As he tried hard to come back to his senses, the alarm kept ringing.

Why were they calling?
 
*~*~*
 
[1] buttumak — flat area around the pot fireplace in traditional Korean kitchen.

[2] yeot — 엿 — a stretchy candy or syrup.

[3] maru — open floor.
 

Translator’s note: Folks, I think Yu Dan needs a pajama with a rabbit pattern on it.
 

 

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