“Greetings, Human-faced Bird sir! I am Hong-salgwi. It’s an honor to meet you! I’ve brought offerings for the Mountain God. May I present them directly, or should I perform a separate ritual at the shrine? As this is a rare audience for someone as humble as myself, I dare to ask.”
Dr. Hong took out a fruit basket from the backpack he was carrying. Various seasonal fruits, including apples and pears, sparkled in the moonlight. Crows watching from tree branches flapped their wings excitedly.
Though the Human-faced Bird had a fiery temper when angered, it never used its supernatural powers against humans who showed proper respect.
After glancing at the fruit basket, the Human-faced Bird spoke to Eun-hwi in a supremely dignified voice:
“No need for a ritual. Follow me. The Mountain God is waiting.”
“He says no ritual is needed, just follow him, Dr. Hong-salgwi.”
“Yes, understood, Dokkaebi sir!”
Eun-hwi followed behind the Human-faced Bird along with the other two. His body felt like it was floating with anticipation of soon seeing his father. His feet were light as they climbed the difficult mountain path.
Before long, white silk clothes embroidered with gold thread came into the half-dokkaebi’s view. The flowing garment in the wind created elegant and beautiful lines.
“Mountain God! Hello!”
As soon as their eyes met, Eun-hwi bowed deeply and then scurried up onto the flat rock. The Mountain God, with a benevolent smile on her lips, gently stroked Eun-hwi’s head where the horn had disappeared.
“Child. You’ve finally achieved your wish. Beom, you chose what was most precious to you.”
“It’s all thanks to your grace, Mountain God.”
Yeo Moon-beom knelt on the ground and bowed deeply. Dr. Hong, standing with a moved expression, also prostrated himself.
“Even the heavens cannot overcome a human’s determination to change fate. It was not I but you yourself who acted according to the natural way without being swept up in selfish desires. Now raise your head.”
Looking down at Yeo Moon-beom with a gentle expression, the Mountain God extended her hand toward Yongma Waterfall. The energy spreading from her fingertips momentarily stopped the gushing waterfall.
Soon, a cave that had maintained its primordial appearance, hidden behind the waterfall, appeared before the three people.
“Dokkaebi is waiting for you here. Let’s go inside.”
They walked through a not-too-wide entrance and down a corridor-like passage. Moonlight slanting through holes in the ceiling illuminated amethysts, making everything shine with hundreds of shades of purple.
Normally, Eun-hwi would have opened his mouth in a circle and burst into admiration at this mysterious natural wonder. But right now, neither the crystal formations that looked like clusters of flowers nor the strange icicle-shaped stalactites caught his eye.
Only the jangseung standing tall in the middle of the circular chamber formed his entire field of vision.
The earthy, rustic wooden smell evoked nostalgia. Though he had never seen Gabi in his jangseung form, the half-dokkaebi instinctively recognized him.
That this was the biological father he had been desperately waiting for.
“Father!”
The Mountain God blocked Eun-hwi as he hurriedly tried to run to Gabi’s side.
“Wait a moment.”
“But Father is…”
“Soon the full power of the moon will dwell in your father. It’s not too late until then.”
He recalled how Gabi had once casually mentioned that the full moon was a gift of the night.
The light of lights offered by darkness. The source of dreams. The sun of the supernatural.
Eun-hwi swallowed dryly while staring at the stiffly standing jangseung. As he forcibly suppressed the urge to run over immediately, Yeo Moon-beom quietly took his hand. The warmth that seeped through their interlaced fingers relieved his tension.
Whoosh—
A wind carrying the energy of sky, sea, and earth blew through. It was a wind with such solemnity that it naturally made them bow their heads.
Soon the full moon and the holes in the ceiling aligned perfectly. The bluish moonlight turned yellow.
The countless golden fragments falling from the sky were like fully bloomed evening primroses. The jangseung, enveloped in moonlight as if buried in flower petals, began to emit its own light, whitening the entire cave.
“It’s been a while, Hwi.”
A voice creating deep resonance came through the light that covered everything like dawn mist. It was a nostalgic voice that naturally made his nose tingle and his heart tighten.
“Fa… Father!”
Before Gabi could approach, Eun-hwi’s legs moved first.
Like metal drawn to a magnet, the half-dokkaebi moved toward his blood relation and tightly embraced the body that still retained the cool texture of wood grain. The long hair that hadn’t yet been tied into a topknot fell below his waist and wrapped around Eun-hwi’s hand.
“Welcome, Father. *sob*…”
“You’ve grown so much. It seems like just yesterday when you were as tiny as a bell. Now you’ve become a fine adult.”
Contrary to his worry that Gabi might not recognize him, he looked at the grown Eun-hwi with the most affectionate gaze.
Being a supernatural being rather than human, he couldn’t feel body temperature through his skin. But his eyes were filled with warmth like tree leaves soaking up spring sunshine.
Eun-hwi couldn’t speak as his throat tightened.
Like a child seeking comfort, he rubbed his tear-soaked cheek against Gabi’s chest. The coolness he felt from the arms firmly embracing his back provided great comfort and a sense of security.
“I missed you so much… I missed you so much, Father, that I kept waiting and waiting. Until Moon-beom made me human.”
“I missed you too, child. I couldn’t sleep worrying whether you were eating properly or being bullied somewhere. Every day I only wanted to return to your side.”
Gabi bent down to meet Eun-hwi’s gaze directly and quietly raised the corners of his lips while looking into Eun-hwi’s darkened eyes.
As Eun-hwi slowly blinked, engraving that benevolent smile in his eyes, Gabi wiped the teardrops that had fallen on his cheek and said:
“Still, I believed. That the human I chose would change your fate.”
Black eyes with a green tint, reminiscent of a night forest, looked diagonally past Eun-hwi at Yeo Moon-beom standing behind him. After exchanging a brief eye greeting with a calm and serene expression, Gabi spoke:
“Thank you. For protecting Eun-hwi.”
“I should be the one thanking you for choosing me as your betting opponent. Thanks to that, my life changed too.”
A kind of camaraderie had unconsciously built up during the six-month-long bet. Yeo Moon-beom sincerely expressed his gratitude to this difficult yet familiar presence.
If he hadn’t met the dokkaebi named Kim Gabi, he might have become a wandering ghost trapped in unfulfilled vengeance.
Without ever opening his eyes to the emotion called love.
“Um, Father.”
The half-dokkaebi tugged at Gabi’s clothes to get his attention. Seeing his father conversing with his lover was somehow ticklish. A shy blush spread across his face, which had stopped crying.
“What is it, Hwi?”
“While waiting for you, I learned the bent language from Moon-beom. There’s something I really want to say to you.”
“Is that so? Let’s hear it.”
He felt nervous as he was about to speak. Eun-hwi fidgeted in Gabi’s embrace and slowly exclaimed:
“I like Papa!”
Gabi, who had been watching Eun-hwi with slightly lowered eyes and a more profound gaze, responded with pronunciation as natural as a Westerner’s:
“I love you, son.”
Eun-hwi had learned from books that the word “love” was used between lovers, and he knew the word “son” meant the sun.
So did that mean he liked him as a lover, like the sun?
As Eun-hwi blinked repeatedly looking up at him, Gabi smiled faintly and added the meaning:
“I love you, my son.”
“Me too. I love you too, Father!”
He was amazed that such clear emotions could be shared in a foreign language. It seemed that pure feelings of respect and love could be expressed in any linguistic form.
Embracing Gabi strongly once more, Eun-hwi exclaimed “I like Papa!” over and over, sharing the joy of reunion.
“But, Father. Are you a native speaker too? When did you learn it? You never spoke the bent language in front of me before.”
“With a life where time is all I have, learning languages is just a matter of setting your mind to it.”
Eun-hwi had never really studied before, and had just finished learning the alphabet and started memorizing words.
He wasn’t confident he could simply decide and accomplish it easily as Gabi suggested. As if reading Eun-hwi’s thoughts, Gabi asked:
“You must have felt very disappointed that your father knew things but didn’t teach you anything?”
“No, Father. I wasn’t disappointed at all.”
Gabi smiled with effort, his expression mixed with pain, and said:
“Curiosity is like a wildfire. Once ignited, it doesn’t stop until it burns the entire field. I was always afraid that curiosity about the outside world and new knowledge would take you away from me. Please forgive this father who had to cover your eyes and block your ears, knowing full well you would be ridiculed as a fool.”
Gabi’s eyelids trembled as he quietly confessed. Eun-hwi could now fully feel his emotions that had been too difficult to comprehend when he was younger.
“I won’t forgive you. There’s nothing to forgive, so why should I forgive you? What I don’t know, I can learn from now on. I’ll work hard.”
He had only tried to protect Eun-hwi, who was born against heaven’s laws. Simply because he loved his child so very, very much.
Eun-hwi deliberately raised his voice to change the subject.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
