Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
37. Ruins of Myth (3)
Weekend morning.
Under a well lit by sunlight window.
Kim Yuri was holding a glass of ice coffee latte, which ice entirely melted, and sitting alone.
‘I should prepare brunch to eat together.’
As if the class children realized that Kim Yuri, who was left alone in the big house, because of her father’s hospitalization, felt lonely, they often came to play with her.
Even yesterday, all class girls currently attending school came and stayed for the night.
Kwon Lena had a private lesson and Han Yi had a Taehokwon training, so they returned early, but Min Geurin still slept till late and remained.
Ding.
Together with the message notification, a holographic message sent by her best friend An Dain floated up.
[Dain≧▽≦♡] (photo)
[Dain≧▽≦♡] Cute, right?
[Dain≧▽≦♡] Look, it sticks its tongue out while sleeping. It’s Snare picture Uisin sent me, and it’s cute…!
In the picture An Dain sent, a white cotton ball-like puppy was sleeping while sticking out its tongue.
It was a picture that warmed her heart by just looking at it, but other thoughts than admiration whirled in her head.
‘Shouldn’t I tell Dain about the Gwangrim?’
An Dain, who was her best friend for a long time.
Recently, the amount of messages she was sending increased.
It seemed that she noticed that Kim Yuri became uneasy around the final exam, and became anxious.
‘If it’s Dain, she would never avoid me. Even if she was scared, she would stay at my side.’
She knew that if it was An Dain, even if something happened, An Dain would take her side and stay with her.
However, even if An Dain endured fear to stay at her side, she hated for her to have to endure and stay at her side to experience scary things.
Kim Yuri lifted the long sleeve of her pajama to expose her wrist and released the wristwatch.
As she looked at her completely clean wrist, she became depressed.
‘… Wouldn’t it be good if it disappeared together with the Gwangrim?’
On an impulse, Kim Yuri picked up a feathered pen, which was laying on the table as a decoration.
Even though she knew it was no use, she dipped the pen in ink and started to draw the seal of the Gwangrim Sealing Art on her wrist.
The gold-coated handle was uncomfortable, drawing itself was difficult and as the ink didn’t stick to her skin, she had to redraw it a few times to get the shape she wanted.
In addition, as the pen tip was sharp, her skin turned red because of scratching.
Even so, as if possessed by something, Kim Yuri awkwardly drew the drawing of the Gwangrim Sealing on her skin while hurting herself.
“… What are you doing?”
Tok.
The feather pen fell on the table, scattering droplets of ink.
Min Geurin, who was wearing a borrowed pajama, which Kim Yuri was wearing when she was younger, looked at the feathered pen and Kim Yuri’s wrist alternatively with a stiff face.
“You know, that, that’s because…”
How to explain why the wrist, which was usually perfectly covered as she was wearing a long sleeve school uniform’s blouse even in summer, was exposed, and she was drawing something on it?
“It looks similar to the seal of Gwangrim Sealing. Are you trying to draw that?”
“…”
The living room was extremely hot as the sun was up for quite some time.
Because of it, the silence felt even more oppressive and stuffy.
‘What to do? What should I do if she asked why I was doing something like this?’
Jo Uisin and Hwang Jiho, who were in the same class, already knew.
That night, when the seal on her wrist completely disappeared, the two saw through the Gwangrim’s identity straight away.
Moreover, even though they knew about it, they told her it was okay.
But even in the Eungwang School, which gathered particular Players, the two were treated as suspicious and a lunatic.
It was unknown how other children, excluding those two, would react.
“… Do you want me to draw it for you? I memorized its pattern.”
Min Geurin said something completely unexpected.
“I also calm down when I’m wearing AR glasses and hood. Yuri, you need that drawing, because you’re also like that, right?”
At first, when she discovered Kim Yuri’s strange behavior, her voice sounded surprised, but from a certain moment, Min Geurin was speaking like usual.
Min Geurin looked at Kim Yuri, who wasn’t able to respond, and then turned around.
“If you draw it with ink and pen, it will immediately wash away, and your hand will hurt. I’ll bring a permanent pen. Wait.”
Min Geurin dragged her big slippers that didn’t match the size of her feet, and disappeared in the guest room.
The wrist, scratched by the pen tip, burned in pain, but as she recalled Min Geurin’s back, her heart felt warm.
‘I’m glad I came to Eungwang School… I did well plucking my courage at that time.’
Kim Yuri tightly gripped her wrist as she recalled the words of the kind Jin, who bestowed her with a blessing.
January 1st, after she just awakened her Gwangrim.
When her parents-nim, who stayed up all night without a wink of sleep, fell asleep, she came to find her.
The Jin, who suggested giving her a blessing, spoke with a gentle and soft voice.
— Do You not want to receive a blessing?
— I was moved by Your courageous appearance to stand up for Your parents-nim, even though You received a scary Gwangrim.
— The content of the blessing is nothing particular. When all Your courage disappears, I want to help you.
— When Your unnerving courage disappears, I’ll come to meet you again. [1]
The words of the blessing Kim Yuri received from the Jin, who hides their name, was ‘Be a little more courageous.’
As she still had friends at her side, it seemed she could be more courageous.
***
TC Knights, the worst performing team in recent years, was on the unlikely 9 successive defeat streak recently.
The 10 successive defeat streak was as difficult as 10 successive wins.
In the middle of that hard and difficult to achieve record just in front of them, the rumors of replacing the coach in the middle of the season, TC Knights and Ju-Oh Dragons had 3 successive derby matches during the weekend.
The TC Knights, who already yielded in the Friday’s game, were walking on the edge of a cliff.
The fans’ patience and sanity was also on the brink of exploding.
“You will win today, right? You have to win! Right? There is no way you will make into a 10 defeat streak, right?”
I heard the wreck team’s fan, Ok Toyeon, mumble like this with an anxious face.
Perhaps because the game soon would decide whether they would break the 10 defeat streak or not, she didn’t seem to notice my existence.
‘Those are jinx words.[2]’
Every time a new story of PMH was released, I had optimistic thoughts like ‘There is no way you will be killed again, right?’, ‘It can’t get any worse from here, right?’, ‘You can’t take it any further, right?’.
And those thoughts and words gradually bloomed into all kinds of disasters as if they turned into seeds.
“Uh, it’s the Jin that was at the Jamsil Baseball Stadium that day. Looking how She came here again, I guess She likes baseball.”
“Who?”
“It’s CEO-nim of the Moon Rabbit Rice Cakes.”
“Ah, those rice cakes were said to be sold by rabbits. We had them come out as snacks.”
“What!? Eungwang School doesn’t spare money for their student’s welfare, huh? There are times at the Military Academy when sometimes an expensive menu comes out on special occasions, but nothing like Moon Rabbit Rice Cakes ever comes out.”
While Jang Namuk was talking in length about something, the eyes of Tao Sihu, who heard words rabbit and rice cakes lit up.
“Rabbits are fast and… rice cakes…”
As if Yu Sang-hun predicted what words would come next, he tried to cut Tao Sihu’s words, but it was too late and he said it:
“In fact, the fastest rice cake is the hared rice cake!” [3]
For a moment, everyone shut their mouths, and then acted as if nothing had happened.
“Let’s sit down.”
“Okay.”
“You, Sihu, please start from unpacking bacon cheese hot-dog. And unpack the drinks with ice to drink.”
“Uh…”
Ignored Tao Sihu set up the table with a sulking expression.
Today, Tao Sihu volunteered to play the role of the financer, porter and errand boy, so we decided to make him work without holding back.
Looking at the piling up braised chicken, chicken skewers, sausages, fried chicken, hot dogs, carbonated drinks, etc, there was so much food, even the table for 4 people was insufficient, and some food stayed unopened.
And there was an announcement for starting the game.
‘Is this that famous TC’s baseball from the get go?
TC Knights, famous not for playing baseball like trash, but for playing trash like baseball.
Wild pitch, fire shot[4], double play, double play continuing for 3 innings, bonehead play…
It was so much that the fan of Ju-Oh Dragons, Jang Namuk, criticized ‘Our team scored a point, but it feels a bit wrong’.
When it reached the point when I couldn’t tell if it was a baseball game or a handball game by just looking at the score.
Ding.
A device message from Hwang Jiho arrived.
[Hwang Jiho] Why are you at the baseball stadium with Moon Rabbit again? Is another otherworld crack going to appear?
How did this bastard know?
Those doubts were resolved by the next message.
[Ok Toyun] Hello, benefactor-nim.
[Ok Toyun] I confirmed that You’re at the baseball stadium with these articles. Toyeon is also there, correct?
[Ok Toyun] (link)
The link sent by Ok Toyun contained an article with a picture of the baseball stadium’s audience seats.
There was a picture of Ok Toyeon in the middle of furious shouting, and a picture of us four sitting side by side and eating without break.
It seemed that they took the picture, because they found the highschool student Players, who played an active role in the Children Day Jamsil Baseball Stadium incident.
[Ok Toyun] Can You speak up to her and hold her when the game ends? I want to capture her on the spot.
Because I felt Ok Toyun’s pain, I happily agreed.
[Me] Yes. But I don’t think I’ll be able to hold her for long, because I have plans.
[Ok Toyun] Just hold her for 5 minutes after the end of the game. I apologize for troubling benefactor-nim, but I must request it.
As if she was preparing to fly to Jamsil straight away, Ok Toyun’s messages were abruptly cut off.
On the other hand, Ok Toyeon, who was observing the game which had more than 10 points gap, was almost screeching.
Ok Toyeon followed exactly the 5 stages of accepting death.
First stage, denial.
“No way, are you really going to lose? You can’t! What kind of sound is ‘10 defeat streak’!”
Second stage, rage.
“Ju-Oh bastards, stop playing! Go to coin baseball stadium! Just pay for it and play! … Ah, again, again, you missed again you know! Ack! Aaaack! Hey, this is a similar baseball team! Don’t make entertainment and play baseball! TC dogs disband!”
Third stage, fear,
“… You’re not going to build up that tragic number before August like this, right?”
Fourth stage, bargaining.
“It would be good if you at least lost with one point gap. Losing with more than 10 points gap is a bit too much, you know!”
Lastly, acceptance.
“… Umumm, isn’t Korea’s defeat record 18 defeat streak?! We can have 10 defeat streak, right?”
In the end, the terrible game ended with the decision about the 10th defeat, and Ok Toyeon smiled futilely as her mental power came all breaking down.
She, who staggered in her steps as if she was preparing to leave, looked a bit pitiful, but for the sake of an even more pitiful Ok Toyun, I decided to catch her.
“Hello.”
“What, I’m not currently in the mood for greetings? … Uh? Why are you here?”
Other children saw me greeting her and bowed their heads following after me.
We ran into each other in the Jamsil Baseball Stadium, but they might think it’s strange to intentionally come up to her to say hello. Though as highschoolers of the country of courteous people[5], it was expected for us to greet many years older elder first.
“You didn’t come when I asked you to go see baseball with me! Next time, let’s watch it together… uh?”
Ok Toyeon’s red eyes, which were moving busily, landed on Tao Sihu and froze as if someone pressed a halt bottom.
Ok Toyeon, who looked like nothing but a fan of a wreck team until a few seconds ago, seemed to just for a moment have eyes worthy of the To tribe’s head.
***
Nabiryeong was walking through the dark corridor.
The lighting was but a few somewhat small lights illuminating frames on the corridor’s wall.
Nabiryeong visited this space every time after she went to see ‘Them’.
While looking at those numerous frames, her mind, which was unusually cheerful, sunk into tranquility.
‘It’s not going as I thought…’
While she looked inside the frames, one after another, she took one step at the time.
Butterflies, with their wings fully unfolded and pierced by tailor pins, were locked up inside the frames and flapping powerlessly.
Nabiryeong stopped in front of the butterfly fixed on the magnolia painting in the background.
‘It’s time for young lady Magnolia to crumble… Why didn’t She call me? I thought she would call me on the day when the Sealing disappeared.’
Incarnation of Magnolia, who remained unnerved, even though she was forced to establish connections with gods at a young age.
Nabiryeong, who observed that bloodline since Seogu Elementary School incident, had no doubts that they would become outstanding chess pieces with powerful powers.
The Incarnation of Magnolia herself was hiding her power, and the family members who knew the identity of that power were powerless and afraid.
‘It was perfect until the middle stage.’
She succeeded in bestowing a blessing by coaxing her well with sweet and reasonable words that sounded like truth.
Opportunely, thanks to her father falling ill because of her, the Magnolia Incarnation, she was alone.
Until that moment, everything was going according to Nabiryeong’s plan, but somewhere it started to stray away from that plan.
‘Around the start of the summer, the Ho tribe’s head frequently visited her house. And then that child didn’t contact me.’
She thought that when the seal vanished, all the courage the teen human child could build up would disappear, and she would start to depend on her.
‘However, there is a connection through the blessing. There should still be a way to use it.’
Nabiryeong took off of the wall the small frame and put it into her arms while smiling.
*~*~*
[1] Nabiryeong’s tone towards Kim Yuri — she is using a polite tone.
[2] Those are jinx words. — In raws: ‘Words turn into seeds’. An idiom that just means jinxing.
[3] “In fact, the fastest rice cake is the hared rice cake!” — … … … Okay, so ‘hurriedly’ in korean is ‘헐레벌떡 (heallebeoltteok)’, 떡(tteok) is a word for rice cake.
[4] fire shot — when a fireman does a very, very bad job and ‘rather than put out the fire, he brings it and turns into an arsonist’. I’m not sure if it has the same name in english, so I’m semi-explaining it… Also, this translator continues to be terrible at understanding baseball and is sorry about it.
[5] country of courteous people — 동방예의지국 (dongbang-yeuijiguk) – Country of courteous people in the East. Apparently it was an archaic name for Korea in China.
Translator’s note: In english it’s ‘Five stages of grief’, but literal translation from Korean as ‘Five stages of (accepting) death’ felt so much more impactful when combined with Jo Uisin and this novel, I left it as it. I’m not sorry.
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
Leave a Reply