Chapter 81
“…A dokkaebi exorcism?”
It wasn’t like fixing a broken water pipe. The situation was a continuous mess – block one place, and another would burst; block that, and the first would leak again.
Yeo Moon-beom’s already furrowed brow creased even further. He picked up his phone, which he had left on the ground while his consciousness was taken by Eodukseoni, and immediately checked the screen.
As expected, there were several missed calls and messages that had come in over quite a long period.
It was a mistake from the start to switch to airplane mode because he didn’t want to receive any calls today. In a situation where he couldn’t blame anyone, Yeo Moon-beom read the messages from Park Jeongbae with an irritated gaze.
Park Jeongbae:
Brother!!!!! The old folks have all gone crazy, what should we do??? They say they’re going to call a shaman to drive you out!!!!!!
4:16 PM
Sunam and I will try to stop them somehow!
4:17 PM
Damn, the shaman’s here with knives and a chopping board
8:23 PM
The crazy old men brought two chickens, saying they’re going to sprinkle the blood at the dokkaebi site
8:52 PM
The village chief locked Sunam in the storage room ㅜㅜ We’re outnumbered and can’t handle this, what should we do, brother?
9:09 PM
Brother, are you sleeping by any chance????
9:30 PM
Brother????????
10:01 PM
Nothing bad happened to you, right????? I’m worried sick, please answer the phone, okay????
10:05 PM
They say they’ll start the exorcism as soon as the clock strikes 12, and during the break, they’ll all grab farm tools and go up to the dokkaebi site. It looks dangerous, so lock the door so no one can come in and hide somewhere
10:57 PM
Fighting with Eodukseoni had left only about thirty minutes until midnight, which Park Jeongbae had warned about. Feeling urgent, Yeo Moon-beom rubbed his rough face with his hands, giving himself a dry wash.
Hide because it looks dangerous?
He couldn’t do that.
Life was always about getting hit from behind. So before getting hit hard, one had to strike the opponent’s forehead first.
After regretting a lifetime of floundering in fear, this had become his creed. Yeo Moon-beom quickly racked his brains to find a solution.
A mere shaman wouldn’t be able to overcome the divine power of a dokkaebi. Only those who possessed the divine tool of a Jangseung dokkaebi, like himself, could cross the barrier.
However, no matter how powerful the barrier set by the Jangseung dokkaebi was, it couldn’t block out the loudly resounding noise. He didn’t want to inflict another wound on Eun-hwi, who had already been hurt by humans.
If this were to increase his distrust of humans even more…
While he was on edge trying to find a solution, the half-dokkaebi, sensing the gravity of the situation, muttered quietly.
“I didn’t do anything wrong…”
Eun-hwi still vividly remembered the dokkaebi exorcism that the villagers had performed on the night of the first full moon ten years ago when he started playing hide-and-seek with Gabi.
‘Let’s quickly get rid of the man-eating dokkaebi monster before it spreads plague in our village!’
That night was filled with burning torches and the smell of burning resin. The cursing words shouted by the villagers and the loud bell sounds that shook the entire island echoed in his ears like an auditory hallucination. Eun-hwi unconsciously covered his ears with both hands and shuddered.
Why was everyone so desperate to catch him?
Since he started living in the same house with Yeo Moon-beom, Eun-hwi had never gone down to the village. He resented the villagers who, not content with tormenting Yeo Moon-beom, were now even performing a dokkaebi exorcism, despite him not having done anything to offend them.
He wanted to turn back time to when he was watching fireflies in the secret place. Watching the half-dokkaebi who was praying with clasped hands for nothing to happen, Yeo Moon-beom spoke in a resolute tone, as if he had made a decision.
“Dr. Hong. Please wait outside for a moment. I need to talk with Eun-hwi and prepare some things.”
“…Prepare?”
It sounded like he was preparing to confront the villagers, just as he had fought a life-and-death battle with Eodukseoni. Eun-hwi looked up at Yeo Moon-beom with anxious eyes.
Even if he had been a constable who caught bad criminals, it was too much to jump into a fight against multiple humans.
Especially right after facing a terrible memory that was difficult to come to terms with.
“It’s nothing much. Nothing for Eun-hwi to worry about.”
As if he had read his mind, Yeo Moon-beom smiled gently and softly patted his head.
The warmth of his large hand was reassuring. He had promised to believe whatever he said, so he had to take his words at face value that there was nothing to worry about. Nodding his head, Eun-hwi turned to Dr. Hong and asked.
“Dr. Hong-salgwi. Can you wait alone?”
Although Eodukseoni had disappeared and there was no risk of losing his soul like before, he was still concerned. As Eun-hwi gazed at him with worried eyes, Dr. Hong, wearing the dragon-eyed prayer beads around his neck, raised both arms and answered.
“Of course I can wait, Dokkaebi-nim! This Dr. Hong-salgwi will stand guard like Dhṛtarāṣṭra protecting a temple!”
“If anything happens, call me. Understood?”
“Yes, I will do that, Dokkaebi-nim!”
Eun-hwi left Dr. Hong, who had recovered quite well, behind and opened the front door to enter. The cozy and comfortable atmosphere inside the house should have eased the tension, but given the situation, he couldn’t relax.
“Take off your pants first. I’ll apply some medicine.”
Yeo Moon-beom quickly fetched the first-aid kit and took out some ointment. As Eun-hwi hurriedly untied his waistband and pulled his pants down to below his calves, Yeo Moon-beom started gently applying the ointment with a thin stick with cotton wrapped around its tip.
“Does it sting?”
“No. It doesn’t sting at all.”
“I’ll apply it on the inside too, so spread your legs a bit more.”
Perhaps because his attention was focused elsewhere, the stinging sensation on his skin wasn’t very noticeable. The half-dokkaebi looked down at the face of the man who was kneeling and carefully examining between his thighs.
Although he was maintaining his composure as if nothing was wrong, Eun-hwi could tell. The anger that filled his eyes.
The rough breathing that leaked out intermittently and the fiercely distorted eyebrows clearly revealed his emotions.
He had been driven out of the village after being pelted with eggs out of nowhere, and then nearly lost his life to Eodukseoni’s attack. It wasn’t an incomprehensible reaction, so Eun-hwi just stared blankly at his deeply sunken dark eyes.
“Eun-hwi.”
“Mmm?”
“Want to go to Seoul with me?”
“Seoul? …Hanyang?”
“Yes. Hanyang. Let’s go eat delicious food, sightsee to our heart’s content, and come back feeling refreshed.”
“When?”
“Now.”
“…Now?”
So that’s what he meant by needing to prepare things – packing for a trip right away. Eun-hwi finally understood what he had meant earlier.
Hanyang…
Becoming human.
Making human friends.
Freely wandering around Hanyang in human form.
It was a wish he had desperately longed for for a long time. Although he hadn’t become human yet, his heart pounded at the thought of being able to see the sights of Hanyang, which he had only seen on TV, with his own eyes alongside his human friend.
But.
“I’m still in the middle of playing hide-and-seek with father…”
Sometimes he had wanted to secretly board the boats of the village’s Mr. Kims to go to the mainland, but he couldn’t break his promise with Gabi, so he had endured.
Moreover, he couldn’t just leave home indefinitely when he didn’t know when Gabi would return.
“You can think of it as just pausing the hide-and-seek for a bit and continuing when we get back. We’ll stay for about a week. I don’t plan to stay long.”
“…A week?”
To a dokkaebi for whom a year felt like a month, a week was an extremely short time.
Compared to the ten years he had spent waiting for his father who had disappeared somewhere, it was an infinitely short, momentary time.
“But what if father suddenly comes while I’m gone?”
“The mountain god said so, didn’t he? That he’d return when Eun-hwi becomes human.”
“Still…”
The half-dokkaebi was conflicted in the situation where he had to make a sudden decision.
For him, being bullied was a daily occurrence, but it seemed Yeo Moon-beom was finding it difficult to endure the villagers’ mistreatment.
But if he sent Yeo Moon-beom to Hanyang alone, he felt anxious that they might never meet again.
What should I do…
His throat choked with words he couldn’t bring himself to say. Eun-hwi, who had been just moving his lips, finally spoke while maintaining eye contact with Yeo Moon-beom, who was looking at him straight on.
“In the past, when the village’s Mr. Kims performed the dokkaebi exorcism, I hid in the light. If we leave them alone, they’ll give up and stop.”
“Leave them alone? Are you going to live your whole life being pushed around without saying a word?”
“…”
“Humans are beings who become more and more arrogant the more the other party remains silent. They misunderstand that they’ve won because you don’t talk back.”
That was true not only for humans but for ghosts as well.
At these words that seemed to rebuke his attitude of avoiding conflict out of fear of getting hurt anymore, Eun-hwi hung his head low and just chewed on his lips.
Yeo Moon-beom stuck a large, palm-sized bandage on his thigh and said,
“I have a good plan.”
“…A good plan?”
“A plan that will make people unable to touch Eun-hwi from now on. But for that, we need to go to Seoul.”
“…”
“If you’re really worried about Kim Gabi, we can leave a letter and go.”
Ah.
There was a way to leave a written message.
“Okay. I’ll write it quickly and come back.”
Nodding at this plausible solution, Eun-hwi finished putting on his pants and headed to the study. He intended to write a letter to leave for Gabi while Yeo Moon-beom packed their belongings.
He ground the ink stick in the inkstone to make ink. Then, dipping the brush in the ink, he began to write one character at a time in his clumsy handwriting.
