Chapter 109
“Herb of immortality…? The legendary plant that grants immortality when eaten?”
Professor Bang Ki-bong blinked his small eyes repeatedly in disbelief as he asked.
“I’m not sure about immortality. But its recovery power is extraordinary enough to instantly heal all wounds on the body when eaten, so it will definitely help.”
Yeo Moon-beom looked down at Eun-hwi, who was barely breathing, unconscious. His body, chilled as if it had absorbed the cold of midwinter, wouldn’t warm up no matter how much he rubbed his skin until his arms might fall off.
His cheeks, which were usually tinged plum-red, had lost their vitality and become gaunt. Frost-like breaths escaped between his pale, trembling lips.
He felt like he was going insane.
Anger toward himself rose to the top of his head, becoming unbearable.
He had lived just like Chairman Jang Gitae, the monster he hated, solely for revenge, willing to use anyone he could use and take anything he could take.
Was it because he had accumulated bad karma by covering himself in filth? Or because he had underestimated the obsession of spirits while being fixated only on revenge?
Despite obtaining the power he had so desperately wanted, he couldn’t enjoy complete happiness with the result.
If he had told the truth from the beginning and sought cooperation, Eun-hwi wouldn’t have received the white fox’s curse.
Yeo Moon-beom stared at the small mole on the half-dokkaebi’s right earlobe before roughly wiping his own face. He utterly despised himself for not feeling any pangs of conscience about exploiting such innate purity.
“Didn’t you say you had no intention of letting go until the end, even if you fell into the abyss together?”
Professor Bang Ki-bong, who had been stealing glances at the back seat, gripped the steering wheel tightly and continued in a trembling voice.
“Now that you’ve obtained the fox bead, it’s enough, isn’t it? Manager Yeo, I’m begging you. If it’s not sincere, please let him go. Don’t create situations that will hurt the dokkaebi again, okay?”
“No.”
Only after thinking that he might lose Eun-hwi did Yeo Moon-beom realize the fear of loss he had forgotten all this time.
A sacred place that could never be defiled despite being surrounded by all kinds of filth.
That place was the only one where he could live and breathe in this muddy world. He couldn’t give up this treasure that he absolutely couldn’t—and shouldn’t—lose.
Professor Bang Ki-bong, whose emotions intensified at his unhesitating refusal, raised his voice.
“Manager Yeo! Are you really doing this? How can a person be so cruel? Do I need to crash this car for you to listen to me?”
Yeo Moon-beom glared at the rearview mirror with sharply raised eyes and coldly replied to Professor Bang Ki-bong, who was making threats, forgetting his place.
“It seems holding the steering wheel has made you lose sight of everything else. I clearly told you this is none of your business.”
“And what right do you have to do this to the dokkaebi? They say humans are worse than beasts… I knew it, but I didn’t realize you were this much of a human trash! Is it that fun to play with an innocent child who doesn’t know anything? Are you planning to turn the dokkaebi into a monster at this rate?”
Professor Bang Ki-bong gasped for breath with a face flushed bright red from extreme excitement. As the red needle on the speedometer rose relentlessly, the scenery outside the car windows disappeared quickly in blurred forms.
Yeo Moon-beom, who had been quietly watching Professor Bang Ki-bong driving as if he might crash at any moment, stroked the lifeless hair and spoke softly.
“Eun-hwi is my rightful possession, received as a prize for winning a bet.”
“Rightful possession…?”
“Eun-hwi’s father, the Jangseung dokkaebi, gave me his son along with this ring.”
Yeo Moon-beom smiled faintly as he showed the thick mask-shaped jade ring on his left middle finger.
His calm face showed no anger, as if to say that Professor Bang Ki-bong didn’t even have the right to question his qualification.
…A prize for winning a bet?
Meanwhile, in a vision that flickered black and white, Eun-hwi listened to Yeo Moon-beom continuing in an emotionless tone.
His brief relief at Yeo Moon-beom’s safe return and warmth was short-lived. The story pierced his heart, freezing it even more than the chilling energy of spirits creeping up from his fingertips.
No. That can’t be.
To think he had won him in a bet with his father.
Surely he must have heard wrong.
‘When have you ever seen me lie?’
‘From now on, believe everything I say.’
He was someone who never told lies. This must be a nightmare where the white fox wearing Yeo Moon-beom’s skin was trying to trick him to suck his blood.
Eun-hwi tried to make a sound by moving his lips, which didn’t work well. However, the questioning words flowed out of his mouth as unintelligible mumbles, unable to take a clear form.
“Ugh… uuuuh…”
Hearing his groaning, Yeo Moon-beom pulled up the blanket that had slipped below his neck. With his gentle touch, he was not some five-tailed fox monster but the lover whom Eun-hwi knew so well and had loved so dearly.
It’s a dream.
It must be a dream…
Though he tried desperately to deny it again and again, the sensations of reality that couldn’t be felt in dreams clung to the half-dokkaebi’s skin.
Thus, a small doubt bloomed and burrowed deep into his heart, completely shaking his trust and confidence.
He suddenly recalled words of Yeo Moon-beom’s that he hadn’t considered important and had forgotten.
‘Dokkaebi are beings that appear and disappear mysteriously. Even the almighty Kim Gabi wouldn’t know where he is or when he’ll return. Certainly.’
‘Well, there is a story about a dokkaebi who lost a wrestling bet and became a broom… But I don’t know if that’s about Kim Gabi.’
A dokkaebi who loses a bet returns to its original form.
If it’s a light bet like wrestling, they can return to human form in a day, but if it’s a bet that stakes their life, the story changes.
If the reason his father hadn’t returned all this time was because of Yeo Moon-beom…
If he really had won the bet with Gabi and taken the ring and himself…
‘Well, I just swung it because I was angry… Did Kim Gabi lend his power to make it happen that way?’
How could a human without spiritual power use a dokkaebi’s divine power with just a ring containing his father’s energy?
A dokkaebi who has returned to being a Jangseung could only absorb the essence of earth and moon.
The confusion soon became a massive tsunami threatening to swallow the world, engulfing his entire body. Even as his heart was being eroded and scraped away, Eun-hwi clung to the memories Yeo Moon-beom had given him, not wanting to abandon his faith in him.
He tried to deny reality by recalling the man who would unexpectedly put sweet candy in his mouth. The man who would blow on his injured knee. The man who always boosted his confidence and courage at his side. The man who protected him from all dangers. The man who whispered love and embraced him.
“Does the dokkaebi know?” Dr. Hong asked cautiously as he continued driving.
Yeo Moon-beom, who had been silent for a moment choosing his words, slowly opened his mouth.
“No. Nothing.”
Ping—
The moment he witnessed the clear truth, the half-dokkaebi lost the thread of his heart that he had been barely holding onto.
His heart, suddenly distant, flew away like a kite with a broken string, disappearing into the darkness.
‘Even if it’s difficult now, I’ll definitely find a way for you to become human and make it happen. I always keep my promises.’
Lies.
‘I like you, Eun-hwi.’
Lies.
‘I want to build a solid castle with you that won’t collapse even when high waves come, becoming closer than we are now. Even when you eventually become human.’
Lies.
‘Whether you’re the bride or the husband, whatever is fine, just be my lover.’
Lies…!
They were all blatant lies.
To think that all the moments of happiness together were lies.
To think that he had come to love the one who had taken his precious family.
‘There is no monster more cruel than humans.’
No spirit was as ugly, vile, and cruel as humans.
He hated humans. His wish, which he had believed would be eternal like unchanging diamond, shattered into pieces.
The half-dokkaebi no longer wanted to become human. At the same time, he resented the cruel fate that required him to become human in order to meet his father again.
Plop. Plip-plop. Plop.
Heavy raindrops pounded against the car window. It was the crying on behalf of his frozen body that couldn’t even shed tears.
Though Yeo Moon-beom embraced his rapidly cooling body over and over, his arms that rejected the warmth hung limply down.
Before long, the sea, shrouded in thick sea fog, appeared before them. The small boat they had taken when leaving Wolhwa Island was being pushed back and forth by the waves, like their unsettled hearts.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
