Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
⟨Chapter 51⟩
First story
⟨Breathing Cavity⟩
In the North, there is a fish living in deep sea and its name is Kun(鯤). Kun’s size is unknown, as if it’s a few thousand li[1] long. Kun changes into a bird, and its name is Peng(鹏). The size of Peng’s back is unknown, as if it’s a few thousand li big. When it flaps its wings with all its might, its wings are like clouds covering the sky. When the sea shakes, this bird sets out to the Southern sea, and that sea is called Cheonji (天地)[2], the pond of Heaven.
『Zhuangzi(莊子) 』 「Free and Easy Wandering (逍遙遊)」
Sunlight pierced through his eyelids.
Yu Dan opened his drowsy eyes and picked up his phone. He abruptly jumped up, startled by the number, which appeared on the screen.
Why didn’t the alarm wake him up?
He looked at the bedside, and the alarm clock he used since middle school stopped at 3:40.
“Wow, you have to be joking.”
He hurriedly washed up and put on his school uniform. If he was late, he would get a record again. He hated when there was no one to wake him up. But because he hated to live in his aunt or another relative’s house, he was stubborn.
He thought incoherently as he packed his bag, grabbed one bottle of milk from the refrigerator and ran out.
Up till that point, it was as usual.
The problem was what came next.
As he opened the door and came out, there stood an old man.
Of course, he wasn’t human. He was stumpy, but his bald head was close to two times bigger than his body. He reminded him of a corn-head alien, who he once saw in television. Seeing such a strange old man fluttering his silk dopo[3] in someone’s apartment corridor, he almost dropped the milk bottle.
Regardless of it, the old man spoke up calmly:
“I heard stories about you.”
“Stories?”
Instead of answering, he took out a brilliant lacquerware inlaid with mother-of-pearl box. Inside of it was an object bigger than a fist obediently lying down. It was thickly covered in pinecone scales and emanated with five colored brilliance.
“Do you know what it is? It’s unspeakably precious. After ups and down it ended up in my hands, but in the end I can’t do anything. If it’s you, you will take good care of it. Please kindly accept my request.”
At the word request, he came back to his senses.
“Wait! Who are you to make requests as you please!?”
Before he could finish speaking, the old man already disappeared. Only the lacquerware box was quietly left on the floor.
Why did each ‘why’ end up like this? You endured it once, so you will endure it a second time?
He very carefully approached the object, as if facing nuclear waste.
Luckily, even when he looked at it with his left eye, he didn’t feel any bad energy. It seemed to be just some strange object. He quickly passed it, and then halted. Could he just leave it here? He stared at the tightly closed door.
“Darn it…”
Yu Dan grumbled as he picked up the box.
He may be late to school, and wasn’t able to eat breakfast, but what is that? He didn’t have time to wait for an elevator. He threw the box into a bag and ran down the stairs, the noisy clattering sound coming from his bag.
He ran like crazy, and was able to catch a bus that just came. His hand tightly grabbed the bag in the shaking bus.
He should have just flatly refused the moment he first saw him. Why the perfect response always comes to mind after the matter is over?
He couldn’t feel at ease just because he didn’t feel any wicked energy. It became even worse after he arrived at school. Every time he opened and closed the bag, he became nervous, and couldn’t even comfortably go to the toilet.
“Ah, it’s annoying me to death.”
Yu Dan put his head in the desk in anguish.
However, he learned one thing after being through all kinds of twists and turns. When he runs into such a strange thing, if he doesn’t find its proper place and return it back, it won’t just annoy him to death, and will just truly kill him. On the other hand, though it was just a little bit, he was curious what this oval object was.
So just after the school ended, he headed to the Banwoldang.
The street dense with pagoda trees. Traditional shops lining up on both sides. If one searched this traditional street well, a store operated by yokai would appear. After Yu Dan glanced at the sign with ⟨半月堂 ⟩ written on it, he opened the door wide and entered.
“Please come…”
The middle-aged dokkaebi, who was sitting on the maru[4] and fanning himself, abruptly stood up. When he saw who it was, he sunk back with a disappointed face.
“I thought it’s a customer.”
“There are no customers today?”
“I guess it’s some kind of devil hanging around.”
“It’s not a devil hanging around, but a devil doing business.”
“Do I look so obvious?”
He left behind the dokkaebi worrying about the electric and water bills, and entered inside. The shop was empty. The serpent yokai was dozing off alone, but she suddenly opened her eyes.
“It’s you, huh? Good that you came.”
“Why are you saying scary things?”
“I made a new menu. Will you taste it?”
She immediately went to prepare tea service, lining up a white porcelain kettle and tea cup, and several utensils, and poured tea. Everything was done with natural etiquette.
“These days, learning the language of the blue-eyed big noses is very important in the human world, right? They even talk about getting into the ‘English mindset’.”
“It was like that since a long time ago.”
Yu Dan picked up a tea cup. Even without knowing what it was, it was a pleasant tea.
“English is a basic. If you can’t speak English, it’s difficult to get into university, difficult to get a job, and everything else is difficult.”
“Yeah? So it will sell really well, right?”
“What is it?”
“A tea that makes you into a native speaker.”
“Really? If I drink it, I’ll be able to speak English like a native speaker?”
“No. You will become a native speaker. Something will enter the body of the person, who drunk the tea. The soul of missionary Benedict from the enlightenment period.”
Yu Dan spat out the tea.
“Are you crazy?!”
“Benedict said it was okay.”
“It’s not good for humans!”
“Even though they can become a native speaker?”
“No matter how much I would risk my neck for English, I didn’t fall that low! You’re trying to make some soul of enlightenment period missionary possess their bodies? If you don’t write that clearly on the menu, you will be reported for breaking Consumer Protection Law!”
“Hm? Really? Because they say that a menu distinctive from other shops is very important, I did my best making one. Aah, it’s too difficult for a yokai to do business in a human world. Should I open kendo dojo?”
“You’re changing industry right away?”
At that moment, the backdoor opened and the twin wild ginseng yokai entered.
“Oh, Yu Dan came? We didn’t know anything and were just playing in the backyard.”
“You were playing?”
“Yes. Today there really are no customers. Anyway, what’s the matter?”
At last he remembered. Didn’t he come here for something? At some point he got lost in the chatter.
“What is your master doing?”
“A guest came. A martial art god, Master Gwak-gwak, who lives in Inwang Mountain. A god worshiped in shamanism.”
“Why did he come?”
“Just because. He came to chat after a long time. He wanders around because He is bored now. But dealing with such elders is also Cheonho-nim’s duty.”
“Okay?”
How much could he wait? He should just quickly pass it over right? Yu Dan opened his bag.
“In fact, I was also visited by a certain old man.”
He took out the box and opened it, revealing the oval object emanating a five colored brilliance.
“This, I don’t know what it is, but it’s said to be precious. Is there any person, no, yokai who would want it?”
The yokai looked at it with shocked faces.
“This is…”
Heuk-yo stretched out her hand. Chaeseol quickly blocked her.
“Unnie is a serpent! That’s the opposite of a bird!”
“Ahem, right. However…”
“We will take this.”
“No. I’ll take care of it.”
“We will take it.”
Chaeu stubbornly opposed Heuk-yo. It was even as if he thought only of himself and disregarded other people’s feelings. That was new.
“What? Is it really precious? Were that strange sir’s words real?”
“Yes. We know what it is. It’s Peng bird’s egg.”
“Peng bird? I think I heard it somewhere.”
“You stepped on its feather one time. When you went to the world of monsters, looking for the soul thief.”
Chaeseol spoke with a wide smile.
He remembered. When he ran into a child, who had his soul stolen, Baek Ran took out a feather of Dapeng, who flies a boundless distance in the sky. He chased after the soul thief stepping on them.
“You mean that bird is in this egg?”
“Yes. That very bird.”
Chaeu touched the surface of the egg, covered in dense scales.
“It’s warm. It seems it will hatch soon, so we should make a nest. Noona, let’s go!”
“Okay! Just wait a moment, Peng-ah!”
The twins held the bird egg. They were about to go outside, but as if they suddenly thought about something, they looked at Yu Dan.
“Keep it a secret from Cheonho-nim.”
“Uh, what? Okay.”
“Thank You!”
The twin yokai hurriedly ran out.
“Ah, those kids-ah…”
Heuk-yo stretched out one hand into the air. She had a strange expression. After glancing at her, Yu Dan followed after the twins.
Chaeseol and Chaeu circled the shop, following the wall, and entered a small shed beside a pond. They were about to open a lock, when they were startled by the sight of Yu Dan.
“Why did you follow?”
“I want to watch.”
“Do You perhaps like birds?”
“No. I hate them.”
“I’m glad.”
“Don’t worry. Because it won’t be stolen again.”
Yu Dan entered inside the shack.
It smelled of dry grass. Straw piled up inside. Baskets hung around, and farming implements and hay bags stacked up.
“From what can we make a nest?”
The twins looked around. At that moment, a cracking sound came out of the eggshell. The two yokai were startled.
“It’s already coming out?”
“I guess it heard our voices! Let’s quickly make a nest!”
“Will this do?”
Yu Dan pulled out a huge carton box from the shack’s corner.
“Thank You!”
The twins happily accepted the box, put it in front of a small window, and cushioned it with an untied hay bundle. They placed the egg inside and observed, and soon the shell cracked.
“It’s coming out!”
Chaeseol gripped her two hands, trembling.
The shell broke and through the pierced hole, they saw a sagged clump of fluff. Something wiggled and moved inside. He felt strange when he tried to look inside. He was seeing new life being born for the first time, but should it feel marvelous, or should it feel disgusting?
“It seems it can’t come out?”
“Yeah. Should we break the shell?”
“Right. There is a famous saying Jut-and-tok at the same time (啐啄同時).”
“What is that?”
“What at the same time?”
“It’s only famous for me, huh? Because a chick tries to break a shell from the inside, it makes a ‘juk’ sound, and the mama hen is pecking it from outside, making a ‘tok’ sound. So we have to break the egg at the same time. Noona, break the shell quickly.”
“What if I hurt the chick if something goes wrong? You do it!”
“I can’t! I’m scared too!”
“Step aside!”
Yu Dan grabbed the big cracked piece with his fingertips. Because the thin film inside the egg, it didn’t come off easily. As he carefully put in more strength and took it off, a big hole formed. He saw something strange there.
“What is that? An eyeball?”
“You seem to be right.”
The blue eye moved around inside the shell. The eye was covered in thin film. Ah, as expected, it was disgusting. Yu Dan carefully peeled more of the eggshell. He almost screamed when a head suddenly popped out.
“Hey! You surprised me!”
He saw a curled up body of a bird inside the egg. He also heard the sound of it gasping for breath. The baby bird struggled for a while, and then tightly grabbed the shell with a wrinkled leg and putting all its strength into one thrust, it got out.
“It came out!”
The twins shouted.
The saggy bird was just like a big chick. It laid on the ground and then struggled again, as if working hard to stand up. After working hard, as it flapped its short wings like a penguin, and flopped down, it barely stood up, still staggering. The twins, who watched it, holding their breaths, cheered.
“You did it! Well done!”
“Welcome to this world, baby bird-ah.”
The bird staggered, flopped again, and carelessly stretching its short legs, it moved its eyes looking in all directions. Then it shook its head and cried out.
“Doesn’t it seem to be searching for something?”
“Is it searching for its mom? What to do?! You don’t have a mom!”
Chaeseol and Chaeu hugged the bird in embarrassment. But the baby bird cried out even louder. For Yu Dan, it didn’t seem like it was searching for its mom.
“Isn’t it hungry?”
“Ah, isn’t it?”
“I think it is, noona!”
“Both of you are out of your minds. I’ll bring it. What does it eat?”
The twins thought for a moment.
“Yolk?”
“Right! You can break it into chunks with your fingers!”
“The bird needs water to drink. Clear water.”
Yu Dan said he got it and came out.
It was quiet outside. It seemed that everyone went somewhere. He entered the kitchen and searched for boiled eggs, but there weren’t any.
Do I have to cook them?
He opened a refrigerator, but because something jumped out, he hastily closed it. Wrong refrigerator, huh?
He opened another refrigerator and saw a normal scene. So he took out six eggs and boiled them, then got water from the bottle he found and took it together with the bowl of eggs.
Yu Dan was about to come out, but was startled.
He saw the fox yokai’s back, looking around with his ears perked up. Didn’t they say he had a guest?
This fox liked marvelous things, so it stung him anew that he didn’t show it to him and gave it to the twins. In addition, the twins told him to keep it a secret. It was an uncomfortable situation at every level.
Yu Dan stealthily took a step back. At that moment, Baek Ran sharply turned back.
*~*~*
[1] li — about 500 m
[2] Cheonji (天地) — the world/ universe.
[3] dopo — outer garment of hanbok
[4] maru — open floor
Translator’s note: This story is three chapters long and… and, are you ready for a baby?
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