Chapter 44
Five. Dreaming Daytime Moon
“We’ve contracted one more house.”
Yeo Moon-beom received the land sale contract handed over by Yang Jincheol and checked its contents. Under the fine print of real estate legal terms, the red fingerprint in the seller’s spot caught his eye.
The unclear fingerprint impression revealed hesitation. Even without checking, he could tell how strong the villagers’ opposition was.
However, as there’s no business before money, someone had fallen for the temptation. From this start, villagers swayed by the atmosphere would surely appear.
“Now it’s two households…”
After confirming that the Wolhwa Island residents had visited the village guardian shrine, the Mountain God Shrine, to offer prayers before going fishing, Moon-beom circled the village once.
Seeing how they placed rice-filled jars on their jangdokdae (traditional Korean storage platform for fermented foods) and prayed earnestly every day, he could tell how much they valued the Mountain God.
It was cynical to see them praying in front of the Mountain God’s portrait of a white-haired old man with a long beard, not a fox-like woman, and looking down on innocent dokkaebis.
However, if he could well utilize the custom of blindly believing in superstitions and the underlying anxiety, he could achieve the desired result.
The winner in a gambling house is not the gambler who wins the game, but the owner who designed the game. Knowing this better than anyone, he needed to prepare the situation meticulously.
Yeo Moon-beom stroked the long scar on his chin and turned his gaze to Yang Jincheol. Perhaps feeling ashamed of the slow progress even after a month, he stood at attention with his head bowed.
“How many households are left?”
“Sixteen households… remain.”
“Sixteen out of eighteen households means we’re at a level where we’d have to close shop without even earning seat fees… Did Park Jeongbae just eat while running errands? His jowls seem to have grown another line.”
He closed the cover of the approval form and tapped Yang Jincheol’s fleshy chin. As red lines appeared on his skin from just a slight impact, Park Jeongbae and Jeon Sunam, who were watching, turned pale.
“I’m sorry, boss! I’m truly sorry for not meeting your expectations!”
“If you’re sorry, don’t create situations to be sorry about.”
“Yes! I’m sorry… Ah, no. I’ll take your words to heart and work harder.”
As Yang Jincheol bowed his head repeatedly, Yeo Moon-beom tossed the approval form to him and said,
“Tell the village head. Say I saw a human-faced bird yesterday.”
“A human-faced… bird?”
“A bird with a human face.”
“Huh? Is there such a bird?”
“I saw it clearly with my own eyes near Yongma Waterfall. It seemed ready to kill any human or beast on sight. Tell them to cooperate before they meet a terrible fate, as we’ll have to clear the entire mountain to get rid of those disgusting things.”
“Yes, I understand!”
Yang Jincheol shouted loudly and nodded, and Jeon Sunam immediately took out his phone and started dialing.
“Ah, damn. Why isn’t this old man answering the phone at such an important moment?”
The village head couldn’t be reached, probably busy working at sea. Jeon Sunam nervously shook his leg and bit his thumb in frustration.
“Damn it. Answer already. I’m telling you a monster has appeared.”
Yeo Moon-beom watched them with an indifferent face as they waited for the call to connect, full of hope that they could close the deal soon.
For the residents of Wolhwa village who revered the Mountain God, a human-faced bird was not an ill omen but a good one. With a legendary bird appearing at the mystical waterfall, they would likely band together more tightly and firmly oppose the demolition team.
An external enemy strengthens internal cohesion.
If fewer people fall for Jeon Sunam and Yang Jincheol’s tricks and stamp the sales contracts, they can request a delay in construction plans using the conflict with residents as an excuse. Given Chairman Jang Gitae’s personality, he wouldn’t leave it alone, but since he was currently focused on promoting himself for future elections, he probably wouldn’t resort to forced demolition.
“The package.”
“Here it is.”
Park Jeongbae brought a large box that he had received yesterday. Since everything needed for daily life had been purchased through him, he curiously stared at the sender’s name on the package as he handed over the delivery box, wondering about its contents.
“You want it?”
“…Pardon?”
“I asked if you want what’s inside.”
“Ah, no, not at all!”
“Then why are you staring at it like that?”
“Well, that’s… Since you received a separate package without ordering through me, I felt like I wasn’t being helpful to you at all, boss…”
“You’re being plenty helpful, so go get the ice box.”
“Ah, really? Yes, yes!”
Park Jeongbae’s mouth opened wide at the praise, and he went to get the ice box full of food ingredients. Now that they had a refrigerator, they were receiving two or three days’ worth of ingredients at once.
“Are you sure you don’t need my help?”
With one shoulder supporting the luggage and the other hand holding the ice box, Park Jeongbae once again confirmed Yeo Moon-beom’s intention.
“It’s fine. It’s not that heavy.”
Whether due to the elixir of immortality or gradually absorbing the dokkaebi’s power, it was true that he had become stronger than before.
Seeing how the wound on his hand from a recent knife cut was healing at the usual speed, it seemed more likely that the elixir of immortality was just a one-time recovery drug rather than living up to its name.
He turned around, effortlessly carrying the luggage. Having thrown the bait, all that was left was to wait for them to take it; there was nothing more to do.
“I’m heading back now.”
“Yes, take care on your way back, boss! We’ll contact you as soon as we reach the village head!”
“Take care!”
“Have a safe trip!”
Although sweat was flowing from even slight movements due to the hot weather, his steps felt particularly light today. Recalling last night’s events, the sensation of rubbing the pink genitals came to mind first, rather than the feeling of splitting a ghost’s head with an axe.
It was the first time he had been excited about someone without feeling murderous intent, so this current feeling was unfamiliar.
He couldn’t help but laugh, as he never imagined things would turn out this way when he first set foot on Wolhwa Island and encountered the baby dokkaebi.
‘I don’t know the circumstances, but to think the day would come when you’d ask me for such a favor.’
He remembered the words of his mother’s old colleague who had sent the package. She couldn’t hide her surprise, wondering what could have happened for someone who never contacted her except on his mother’s death anniversary, always using the excuse of being busy, to suddenly reach out.
She was the only person to whom Yeo Moon-beom, who trusted no one and allowed no one close, could make a request. Of course, that didn’t mean he trusted her one hundred percent to the point of opening up about everything.
“Indeed, Aunt. Who would have thought the day would come when I’d ask for something like this?”
Muttering to himself, Yeo Moon-beom applied force to the arm supporting the box and hurried up the mountain. In the deep forest where no one else was around, a young dokkaebi was waiting for him alone.
A half-dokkaebi whose wish was to become human.
“Phew.”
After emptying the container full of weeds and plucked potato flowers, Eun-hwi wiped away the sweat flowing under his straw hat with a sigh.
Thanks to having less laundry than yesterday, he was able to pay a bit more attention to other household chores. The half-dokkaebi, who had been working on tidying up the backyard all morning, finally finished and headed to the bathhouse across the yard to wash his sweat-soaked body.
“Oh? You’re back already?”
Yeo Moon-beom had just arrived home and was placing a large box on the porch. Though Eun-hwi thought he would return late in the afternoon due to business in the village, it seemed he had only picked up mainland goods as usual.
Although he had been driven out of the village, it appeared he still maintained relationships with the residents, which made Eun-hwi secretly worry that he might suddenly leave for the village one day. Even though they had promised that he would stay here as both a friend and a boarder, the constant anxiety was probably because he was still an incomplete dokkaebi.
Still, he came back soon.
Feeling his mood lighten like dandelion seeds blown by the wind, Eun-hwi ran over to him.
“Did you finish all the work?”
“Yes! I cleaned, tidied up the yard, and did some field work too.”
“You’ve worked hard since morning.”
Yeo Moon-beom slightly lifted the brim of Eun-hwi’s straw hat to meet his eyes. Eun-hwi’s image was fully reflected in those black eyes that resembled a dawn lake.
An indescribable sense of satisfaction was engraved in his heart. A desire arose, hoping that no other Kim Seobang would be reflected in that lake.
“Aren’t you curious about what’s inside this?”
“I am!”
In truth, from the moment he first saw the box, he had been curious about what amazing mainland items would come out of it. As Eun-hwi nodded eagerly, Yeo Moon-beom opened the sealed box and took out its contents.
“Here, new clothes.”
“New clothes?”
There were several sets of clothes that humans wear inside the box. As he said, they all looked newly made.
“Why these clothes?”
Eun-hwi was puzzled as the color and style were completely different from the dark clothes Yeo Moon-beom usually wore. As he stood there, blankly admiring a white top with a small rabbit embroidery on one side of the chest, Yeo Moon-beom held it out as if urging him to try it on.
“They’re all yours.”
“…Mine?”
“Yes. Eun-hwi’s.”
