Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
〈Chapter 83〉
〈Mermaid legend〉
Once the thick sea fog settled in the Hwanghae Province, Jangyeon-jin Arang-po, mermaids were captured in droves. Their faces were as pretty as fairies, and their scales were translucent and shining like jade. If a fisherman captured a mermaid, they would release them back into the sea, afraid of enraging the sea gods.
But once, a fisherman named Bak Nam secretly sold a mermaid to a relative of the lord, Kim Eulgwi. Kim Eulgwi released the mermaid in his home pound and taught her, but several days later, the mermaid’s cloud-like hair all fell out and her pretty face turned ugly, and she died.
Bak Nam was dragged and beaten for it. After this, no fisherman of Arang-po ever sold a mermaid for any price.
『Scattered Pages Of Friendly Dream 』
Yu Dan was embarrassed the moment he entered the bookstore.
Was it perhaps why the streets were empty? It seemed that all people of Seoul gathered here. Adults were comfortably seating here and there, reading books, while children were excitedly running around. It was like it wasn’t a place selling books, but a summer resort. He didn’t dare to go through them.
Even so, he already came here, so shouldn’t he achieve his goal?
Thinking of it as a sort of game, he adjusted his mindset and barely managed to squeeze through the crowd to the study section. There, he hesitated again.
“Uum, where… where are they?”
He looked up the list of subjects beforehand, and found them one after another with great difficulty. But then he had another thought.
Will I be able to take in all of it?
Yu Dan looked down at all the workbooks in his arms. Why won’t you release me? He felt like he was hearing the cursing of the ghosts in the workbook anew.
Yeah. Let’s not be greedy.
He put them back one after another, and left only one book in his arms remaining. How is it that he becomes infinitely careful and modest only at such times? He went out while he worked hard to ignore the voice in his head.
The sunlight stabbed his eyeballs. He squinted his eyes and put a hand to his forehead, when he saw a tall woman standing in the shade, across the street. The jeogori and haneulgeori[1] fluttered under a black parasol. He flinched, recognizing an all too familiar silhouette.
“What the heck—.”
“Why are you coming out so late?”
Heuk-yo glared at him first. He got confused.
“Were you waiting for me perhaps?”
“You’re saying big things. Then would I be waiting for some other man here?”
“Why were you waiting for me?”
“Because you walked too fast, so I couldn’t talk to you!”
“So you kept chasing after me? Since I got off on the bus stop?”
“No! I was chasing after you all the way from our neighborhood!”
“Then you rode a bus with me?”
“Then should I walk alone?”
“You couldn’t speak up to me, even though we rode the bus together?”
“What could I do when you never glanced my way!?”
“Damn. No sense at all, huh?”
“I’m a warrior who wielded a sword for hundreds of years.”
“Why are you suddenly introducing yourself?”
“It means that it’s only fair that I have no sense. Now, let’s go to the shop.”
Her face was serious. Wait. Did something happen, perhaps? They didn’t talk any longer, got on the bus and went to the Banwoldang.
Heuk-yo went up to the study straight away. Baek Ran, who was talking about something with the frog jeongseung, was surprised.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing to do with Cheonho-nim. Please just continue with Your work.”
Baek Ran looked at Heuk-yo with a flustered face. But she didn’t look his way. Clearly, her mind was focused on something else right now. She sat Yu Dan down in the corner and suddenly said.
“Summon that thing for a moment.”
“What?”
“That pitch black horn.”
Yu Dan flinched. Didn’t things go wrong when he took it out when crossing the Milky Way, and he lost his way? After that, he was very cautious with it.
“Why all of a sudden?”
“Don’t prattle and summon it. I suddenly had a thought when I tried to sleep last night. I couldn’t take it out afterwards.”
What the hell?
Anyway, it seemed he had to do how he was ordered. As he carefully summoned the horn, Heuk-yo’s eyes lit up, no, they sparkled.
“Aren’t you good at using this thing right now?”
“I don’t think so…”
Nonetheless, could she barge into the fox’s study and make so much noise? Yu Dan’s words trailed off, as he noticed her gaze. The fox and the frog also halted their conversation, and were looking at this, blinking their eyes with faces that said ‘what are they doing?’.
“That’s probably because you have a lot of distracting thoughts. You’ll do well. I know it.”
Heuk-yo said something he couldn’t understand, and really stuck her face to the horn, examining it. As if she couldn’t conceive the idea of daring to touch it with her own hands, she only just looked. Then she asked:
“Speaking of which. Doesn’t it eliminate things like wicked spells and illusions?”
“Um. Probably?”
“Wait a moment.”
She abruptly stood up and delicately brought over one of the round white porcelains that sat on a shelf.
“Do you know what is it?”
“Cultural asset.”
“It’s one of them, a hundred years old moon jar. You have no idea how graceful it is when you break a branch of red plum blossom in the winter and put it in. The problem is, it will wilt in a single night. Do you know why? It’s because some wicked thing secretly watched this pot, and poured its dirty breath into it. I tried all kinds of ways, but it didn’t erase it. So how about you try out that horn?”
Heuk-yo talked without a pause, while she pushed the white moon jar in front of Yu Dan. There was indeed a shimmering stain on the surface of the pot, but as if it was alive, it continued to move.
Somehow, it felt like a circus animal…
But he couldn’t disobey in front of Heuk-yo’s gaze.
Yu Dan intently watched the stains and aiming for the time when they clearly appeared, he lightly hit them with a horn. With a bang sound, a ripple appeared — like when one touched a water surface. The black stain was instantly sucked in.
“As expected!”
Heuk-yo clasped her hands. With an extremely pleased face, she turned around the now stainless pure white and shining clear moon jar, and admired.
“Ah, I’m so happy. I feel like I got rid of a weight hanging on my heart for dozens of years. Cheonho-nim. Please look at this. Isn’t it wonderful? This punk’s eyesight and this dokkaebi horn’s combination is truly the best.”
Baek Ran’s expression was very subtle.
“I thought it was natural, including that stain.”
“But it bothered me every day, each time I entered the study. You look at this moon jar, and the most eye-catching thing is that stain.”
“That’s paranoia.”
“I know.”
“I’m glad You know. Please take this pot as souvenir.”
Half-answering, half-running off, Heuk-yo soon returned with another armful of items. That was why she dragged him here, huh? Even though he knew it was useless now, he tried to oppose at least once.
“I just made up my mind and bought a workbook, so…”
“You have to take easy on studying.”
The answer that was unlike her came back. Heuk-yo was already completely absorbed. Her always coy and haughty face was unusually flushed. Yu Dan gave up on rebelling and picked up another item.
“Uh? When did You come?”
“What are you doing right now?”
The wild ginseng twins, who were passing by, sat beside him.
“Ah, shouldn’t we step aside?”
The frog, who was at a loss for words, also got absorbed in at some point. Baek Ran, who had lost his conversation partner, wandered around for a while, and then — unable to help it — joined the spectator group.
Yu Dan was concentrating. The wind blew lightly and each time the trees under the eaves of second floor would shake lightly. When placing the willow cloth box, which had its stains cleanly erased, on the floor, he abruptly felt a gaze on his back.
Looking back, he saw a face behind the door pillar. Someone was hiding and staring at him.
“Isn’t that uncle-ssi? What is he doing there?”
The twins also looked over.
“Please come here! That’s truly amazing!”
“The story is currently empty anyway and there are no people on the streets. Let’s watch together.”
Do-ssi took a step back.
“Ah, no. I’m fine.”
He spoke hesitantly, and disappeared. Yu Dan was confused.
“Why is he like this? That’s strange.”
“Uncle-ssi was being really strange for the last few days. He is distracted when he talks, and hides behind pillars like this, secretly watching Cheonho-nim.”
“As expected, it must be because of that letter.”
“Right. He was strange, since he received that letter.”
Baek Ran looked at the twins.
“Letter?”
“What kind of letter?”
Heuk-yo also asked. The twins shook their heads.
“We don’t know. It looked like an important letter.”
“Was it perhaps a letter sent by his old first love?”
“Aye, no way.”
The two children giggled.
Yu Dan continued the work of erasing stains from the antiques again. Heuk-yo, who went to the first floor, saying she will look for other items, suddenly rushed over.
“I found it! It’s this letter, right?”
Saying this, she waved the densely covered in writing Korean paper. Do-ssi rushed in after her with a pale face.
“Sister! You can’t! Give it to me!”
“I don’t like this. I’ll peek who is sending letters to older brother. The writing is really pretty.”
“Please give it here.”
When Baek Ran stretched out his hand, Do-ssi became flustered. He fidgeted and then suddenly bowed down.
“I won’t hide this anymore. This letter was sent by Seokryu. It seems that a big trouble occurred at Elder Bokchon’s house.”
Everyone’s complexion changed. Heuk-yo and the twins looked at Baek Ran.
“Ah, is that so?”
Baek Ran’s face turned cold and apathetic. It was the first time he made such an expression. The atmosphere didn’t feel very good.
“So, what happened?”
When Chaeu askd, Do-ssi sighed.
“They also have no clue. They got so anxious, they had their fortune read, and it appears that a disaster was brought by bringing in a wrong item.”
At the words ‘disaster brought by a wrong item’, Yu Dan felt a shiver.
That meant a disaster brought by touching an object with a ghost or strange power wrong. He still had a vivid memory of being cursed and almost dying when he brought the painting with the ghost from the Joseon era.
“That’s it. They can’t find what item it is. Because there is nothing they can do, there is already plenty of dokkaebi laying sick. It’s obvious, whether you look or not. It’s those Seochon dokkaebi bastards’ doing again. They’re trying to take down the elder, chase out our family and try to take over the mansion by any means necessary. I really didn’t want to get involved in such a headache-inducing matter, but that’s a request from the bastards, who are my relatives, so… In fact, I understand why are they clinging to me like this. If Cheonho-nim makes just one visit, everything will be solved in no time.”
Baek Ran’s face hardened.
“Flattering is useless. Why would I be going there? You’re trying to play some trick again.”
“Aigoo, that’s true, true.”
Do-ssi was sweating.
“Of course, I thought it’s my own matter to deal with. I should go and say it. Have you no shame to make such a request? Aren’t you ashamed? I’ll give them scolding and go back. Can I go?”
“Since when do You need a permission to go somewhere? There are no customers, do as You like.”
“Thank You.”
Do-ssi got out of Baek Ran’s face. His face was full of despair, but he tried hard to pretend it was nothing.
“Then I shall be going.”
As he hand-fanned himself, he stealthily looked around everyone.
“Is there any yokai that perhaps wants to go solve a curse on a dokkaebi mansion? It’s highly praised.”
Heuk-yo avoided his gaze, fidgeting.
“I didn’t think it was a letter sent by Seokryu. I was thoughtless, older brother. However…”
She secretly checked Baek Ran’s complexion. The fox’s face was white and stiff as if it was made out of plaster.
“Ah, now is not a good time. I have to quickly wash the laundry.”
“I have to sweep the maru.”
“I have to go to water the flowers.”
Heuk-yo and the twins quickly fled the study. The frog jeongseung also suddenly remembered some urgent matter and disappeared.
Do-ssi turned around with a dejected face.
“I don’t need them.”
The back of the middle-aged dokkaebi, who mumbled weakly and prepared to go out, looked really sad.
Yu Dan hesitated.
Was he going to stay quiet? What was he going to do? Can’t he make heads or tails out of it? He approached with a though ‘Aye, I don’t know’.
“If the problem is that some wrong object entered the house… How about I go with you and take a look? I may see something with my eye.”
Do-ssi raised his head. His eyes were shaking.
“You? You mean you will go with me?”
“No, well. I’m curious about dokkaebi mansion. Anyway, now that I came here, I feel like everything is going to go wrong even if I grab the workbook and study. But I don’t know anything in particular, so at best I’m just going to look around…”
“I’ll be really thankful if you do that!”
The middle-aged dokkaebi shouted loudly. Yu Dan expected him to flatly refuse saying ‘you can’t do that’ or ‘where are you meddling’. But he unexpectedly smiled brightly and was truly pleased. Looked like he too really didn’t expect it.
“Good. Then let’s go quickly.”
At that moment.
“Where do You think You’re going?”
Baek Ran abruptly cut in. His face was stiff and white like before, but Yu Dan wasn’t going to act tactful like Heuk-yo, the twins or the frog.
“What? The dokkaebi, who are taken out because of the curse aren’t going to do anything to me. I’m going with uncle-ssi, so what’s the problem? I’m just going to look around once. If I’m going to find anything strange, good. If I can’t find anything, then what can I do?”
“Since when are You such a dokkaebi-cherishing and loving person?”
“What nonsense are you spewing?! Where have I said I like dokkaebi? No matter how much uncle-ssi’s family are mean and troublemaking folks, they’re his family, but everyone pretends not to know, so I…”
But he suddenly felt pissed inside.
“Why do I have to make any excuses? Isn’t it up to me where I’m going? Everyone knows what kind of logic it is! You hate going somewhere, so you block others from going, it’s so, so…”
“What? Childish?”
“I didn’t say that!”
Baek Ran stiffened like a stone. His ears were standing up almost like an eleven centimeters long ruler, and his lips were pressed tightly.
“Alright. I’ll go. I’ll finish it in a minute I get there.”
“Yess?”
Do-ssi asked back, startled. Baek Ran coldly replied.
“You’ve succeeded.”
“Succeeded? Cheonho-nim, what… No, what I…”
“Please call me when You arrive.”
He cut him off, as he threw a paper fox at him.
Do-ssi hastily packed the thing. He seemed he was greatly relieved that Baek Ran said he would come and solve it, but on the other hand he shook his head, like saying I really can’t deal with him.
Yu Dan was the same.
He couldn’t understand the thought process going through that skull at all.
*~*~*
[1] jeogori and haneulgeori — jeogori is an upper outer garnet of hanbok, haneulgeori is a type of skirt.
Translator’s note: No one in this house knows how to interact with people. Especially not Baek Ran.
Mermaid Legend story is five chapters long.
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