BBS (82)

Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost

 

〈Chapter 82〉
 

Having the pair of captured moon rabbits slip them, they pulled their hair in rage.

Stones and branches flew madly. But none of them reached the boat.

“It’s useless!”

“Try to throw some more!”

The twins stood on the gunwale and shouted. Yu Dan put down the pole.

“Is it done?”

Then, the boat suddenly tilted.

“Uh?”

Everyone was flustered. The small boat was leaning to one side. As the boat tilted on the side where they placed the trap holding the female rabbit, water surged through a gap in the boat’s deck.

“The floor is leaking!”

Flustered, Do-ssi tried to block it with his palm.

The water surged, and the boat tilted even faster. Everyone hastily moved to the opposite side, trying to create balance, but it was useless. It was a ridiculous situation.

“That’s absurd! There is a few of us!”

“What can we do? At that time there was no one here. Just two moon rabbits on a boat.”

Baek Ran slightly bit his lip.

“We can’t do anything if it was like this originally, but…”

After examining his surroundings, he secretly tipped his spear into the river’s water, a yokai resembling an enormous lizard appeared and propped the boat. The tilting boat barely regained the balance. But it was just for a brief moment, the lizard also started to gradually shrink.

Baek Ran sighed.

“I guess this is where it ends.”

All was in vain. Yu Dan powerlessly sunk to the floor.

“After we made such a desperate escape!”

“We knew it was going to be all in vain anyway, from the very beginning. Looking how we succeeded so far, I guess the two moon rabbits succeeded in the past too — up to here. They somehow escaped and took this boat. However…”

Baek Ran’s words trailed off.

In the end that boat capsized. It was an unchangeable fact.

The male rabbit was in despair.

“No! Honey! Honey!”

He desperately shook the trap, but there was no way that what didn’t budge before would suddenly open. Furry paws came out from between the iron bars.

“Honey…”

The voice of the female rabbit trembled. The two tightly grasped their paws and touched each other’s foreheads.

The tilting of the boat was accelerating.

“Hold tight.”

Following Baek Ran’s command, everyone tightly grabbed the gunwale. When they were about half drowning in overflowing water, it suddenly capsized.

It ends like this, huh?

Splash! Waves stood up — snow-white.

The river water splashed, like it went mad to swallow the small boat. Yu Dan and the yokai were helplessly swept up. The pair of moon rabbits tried to somehow hold onto each other through the iron bars, but the flowing water ripped them apart.

“We can’t part like this! Honey! We will meet again! We won’t part like this next time! Let’s be reborn as humans!”

“Okay. This is a promise. Let’s be reborn as humans and meet again in the place where we first met on Chilseok. Let’s live long and happily in our next lives.”

The two were swept by the powerful river currents. They tried to hold onto each other’s paws until the end, but in the end they were driven apart.

The dark blue river swallowed all.

Yu Dan struggled. Even though he knew it was an illusion, he couldn’t help it. Suddenly his hand knuckled against hard floor.

He slightly opened his eyes.

The rampaging river disappeared at some point, gone. Around him were only walls, he was in an empty room.

The male rabbit, no, the Chilseok night’s guest flopped on the floor. He had a face like he didn’t wake up from the dream yet.

“Now I know. Why my heart remained cold and closed towards any woman I met. Because I only love my wife.”

He abruptly raised his head.

“I succeeded! Look at that! I kept a promise and was reborn as a human! My wife must have succeeded too! And today is Chilseok! I have to go! She must be waiting for me in the place we first met! She must have been waiting for me all this time!”

He scrambled to his feet and ran. Passing through the corridor, he rushed outside the shop. But the moment he came outside, he stopped in his tracks.

Half moon floated in the night sky of Chilseok. Beyond the tile roofs of the darkness filled traditional houses street, he saw a building shining brightly with electric lights.

In front of that sight, the male rabbit couldn’t take a step further.

“What’s the matter?”

Chaeu asked.

“I don’t know…”

He weakly replied. Heuk-yo urged him and asked.

“What don’t you know?”

“The place where we first met. I don’t know where it is. The world changed so much in the meantime.”

“Everyone says that.”

Yu Dan hastily spoke.

“Try to go first. If you just roughly tell us the direction, I can go with you. I brought people like that a few times.”

He stared at Yu Dan.

As if he plucked some courage, he moved again, but that was just a moment. The male rabbit wasn’t able to take even a few steps, when he stopped in his tracks. He just circled in place for a while.

“I guess it was such a long time ago, that he has forgotten.”

Baek Ran quietly said.

Stupefied, the man just absentmindedly stared at the dazzling city under the dark sky. After what felt like an eternity.

They heard the sound of grandfather clock from the shop.

“It’s the end of Chilseok night.”

At Baek Ran’s words, the man fell to the ground in despair.

“It can’t. It wasn’t a coincidence that I came to this shop. I must have been led here by fate.”

“I thought so too. You have forgotten a promise of Chilseok, you have made in distant past and lived with an empty heart, but after much difficulty you have somehow visited to get help.”

“There is no way that our relationship can end like this. I can feel the place where we first met isn’t far away from here. She would be there somewhere. But I can’t meet her, not knowing where it is…”

“Perhaps it’s just Your own delusion. There is no guarantee that Your wife reincarnated. Even if she did reincarnate, she may not remember her husband. Guest-nim didn’t remember anything until You’ve come to this place. Even though it was such a sorrowful parting.”

It seemed that Baek Ran diligently tried to comfort the other person, but those words only made the man more lost. Yu Dan also stared into the darkness with him. The city under the dark night sky. Dark night sky. Dark…

He abruptly had a thought.

“Perhaps…”

Everyone looked at Yu Dan. Heuk-yo asked.

“Perhaps what?”

“Isn’t it because of the Milky Way? That night that we saw a moment ago, there was the Milky Way. Didn’t you say that when you first met on Chilseok, the Milky Way was shining in the night sky? But now that Milky Way cannot be seen in the sky. If the Milky Way shined exactly the same as that day, you may remember where was the place where you first met…”

Yu Dan added.

“Of course, there is no logic to it.”

“No! There is a logic to your words!”

“Right. Our memories are buried deep in the subconscious. Some kind of stimulant can become a trigger for you to suddenly remember them.”

“And the Milky Way on Chilseok night has mysterious powers.” [1]

Heuk-yo and the twins supported him. Hope peered on the male rabbit’s face. But it soon changed to despair.

“But how can the Milky Way appear in this sky again? Because of the light pollution, it can’t be seen now.”

Everyone looked at Baek Ran.

“The fox always has a method.”

Baek Ran replied.

“The day my pockets are empty will be the day when I lay down my head. The problem is time, the Chilseok night ended. But if there is still time maybe…”

Saying this, he swiftly turned around and hurried upstairs.
 

***
 
“Feathery worm is a worm[2] with wings. In other words, it implies it’s a bird. Strange events caused by birds are called feather worm disasters. In the historical books like 『History of Goryeo』 there are several examples of those feather worm disasters. In Injong era, thousands of hoot owls gathered and swarmed above gwanghwan gate for ten days and then disappeared. Or during Uwang era, murder of crows came from the east and covered the whole sky, but they too scattered after ten days.”

They were on top of the roof. Everyone followed after Baek Ran, and climbed a ladder to the top of Banwoldang’s roof.

“There is naturally one Milky Way. But during Hyeonjang time, two Milky Ways appeared in the sky. No one knew it, but in fact it was also a feather worm event. But feather worms weren’t from this world.”

Baek Ran held up a piri[3]. It was a mysterious jade color piri.

“I’m going to now try to call those feathery worms.”

Everyone looked at the fox yokai with expectant faces.

Baek Ran put piri to his lips.

Yu Dan leaned in his ears. But he heard no sound. Was it because of frequency? Perhaps like dolphins ultrasonic waves, it was out of human hearing range?

But he saw the sound instead. Piri music rose into the sky like a mysterious heaving sea — a Northern Pole’s aurora. The delicate brilliance spread wide through the heavens, and enveloped the night sky with its sparkling afterimage.

And a moment after.

The murky darkness cleared away and blinking stars appeared. In the middle of the dark night there was a long crosswalk of silver stars. It was no different from the Milky Way.

The male rabbit looked into the sky with an unbelieving face.

“You really did it!”

“We have to hurry. I can’t summon them for long.”

At the fox’s words, he hurriedly climbed down the ladder.

Yu Dan and the twins exchanged glances. And they ran after the male rabbit, without choosing who goes first. Chaeseol asked.

“How is it? Do you think you can find it?”

“I don’t know!”

He stepped outside and hesitated for a moment. But soon he started to run in a certain direction with all his might. Everyone dashed after him.

Past midnight, the Milky Way suddenly appeared in Seoul’s night sky. Its light descended upon the world.

The woman, who was walking, holding a convenience store bag, raised her head and looked up. The drunks, who were burning cigarettes, pointed at the sky in surprise. People were taking pictures with their phones.

It was not a thing from this world, but a supernatural phenomenon caused by feather worms. In other people’s eyes, it probably didn’t look so clear. In addition, after this moment passed, they would forget about it. They would later discover an out of focus picture of the night sky and tilt their heads — asking themselves why they took it. Such was supernatural. However, he hoped that the people wouldn’t forget. He hoped that some things remained to hold. Having such thoughts, Yu Dan ran.

“Pardon, pardon.”

The man ran mindlessly, pushing away pedestrians that came from opposite directions. Yu Dan and the twins panted, while chasing after him.

“Seems like he knows the direction?”

“Yes! He must!”

“He surely remembers now!”

It was the most pressing moment in the man’s life. He almost fell when his feet floundered, and he was gasping for breath out of exhaustion, but he ran because he had no time.

Before the magic of the Milky Way created by the fox yokai disappeared, the man ran mindlessly. His appearance overlapped with the moon rabbit, who mindlessly ran, chasing after the trap that took his wife. As such, they couldn’t help but cheer for him. Love or whatever it was, it was a soul that struggled for something they believed to be precious.

They ran following the banks of Han River. Black water reflected the mysterious Milky Way. The man ran into a walktrail among the thickets and soon stopped in his tracks.

“Here? Is it here?”

Yu Dan asked. His heart raced so fast, it felt like it was going to explode. He slowly caught his breath and looked around.

Han River wetland surrounded by darkness. The damp summer smell filled his chest to the brim. Trees quietly cast down their branches and grass grew thick. The man walked the wooden deck trail, searching around.

“Honey…”

His trembling voice echoed clear.

No one answered. There was no presence of another being, just silence. The man called out again with the trembling voice.

“Honey…?”

A bird flew up from somewhere, flapping its wings. They heard the quiet sounds of wetland animals. Besides that, it was still silence.

“Aghhh…”

The man leaned against the observatory railing, like he was going to collapse.

“I think it was here. Was I wrong? I thought she would be waiting somehow. However she is not. Was she really not able to reincarnate? Or did she completely forget me? Like I did…”

At that moment, the twins looked back.

Crunch crunch. They heard the sound of something hard rolling over branches. Someone was slowly approaching from the darkness. She looked this way and hesitated in her steps.

“I didn’t expect anyone to be here…”

They heard a quiet and soft voice.

“Ah, I apologize. I’m behaving like I owe the place. I mean this is my favorite spot. If it’s okay can I look at the river with You?”

Under the light of the Milky Way, her face was revealed.

Even though he expected it, he almost screamed.

The man’s gaze was glued to her. The face of his wife, which he missed so much across the long life was here.

It was a strange thing. Even though he ran, believing so strongly in a miracle, when it really happened in front of his eyes, he couldn’t believe it. The strange sound of rolling they heard was a travel bag.

“I’m sorry. Was I noisy?”

She apologized again.

“Actually, it may sound crazy, but I flew from US to come here. Even though I studied and got work abroad, each year I had a thought that I have to make sure to come here at least once. I felt like I couldn’t not do that. I arrived in the evening, was going to stroll around until midnight and then go back. Don’t ask why, please. I don’t know. I had a thought that I should slowly stop this crazy behavior now, while I was just about to take a bus to the airport, when I looked into the sky and saw the Milky Way. Suddenly my head went white, and I was completely overwhelmed by a thought that I have to go back here. So I absentmindedly returned.”

The woman told the story no one asked for like an excuse, while she stood with him together at the railing. With shining eyes, she looked up at the sky.

“I don’t know how long it was since I saw the Milky Way.”

“…”

“But it seems a bit fainter than before. As expected, it’s too late, isn’t it?”

The man at last came back to his senses.

“No.”

For the first time, a bright smile appeared on his face.

“It’s absolutely not too late.”
 

*~*~*
 
[1] “And the Milky Way on Chilseok night has mysterious powers.” — Chaeu’s sentence.

[2] worm — 벌레 (beolre) would usually refer to animals with simple body structures, but it can also refer to most invertebrates (animals with spines). It’s the same thing as with 蟲(chóng) that can specifically mean worm, or can mean an animal.

[3] piri — a type of Korean double reed instrument.
 

Translator’s note: End of ‘Chilseok Night’s Guest’ story.

 

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