The plan to go directly to the god and offer the accessory was delayed a bit. I had been keeping it wrapped in my clothes to keep it warm. At this rate, even the potato would cool down…. Ehyuhyu. Why do the adults hate that mountain so much? To my eyes, it’s only beautiful and exciting. Of course, at night it felt quite scary to me too, but even during the day, the adults feared that mountain and wouldn’t go near it. After playing alone in the field for quite a while, searching for pretty stones and chasing dragonflies, I slowly headed toward the mountain.
Rustle.
An accessory, pretty stones, and even a potato. Since I had so much to offer today, I thought it was actually good that I stopped by the field. My hands and clothes had gotten quite dirty, so I needed to quickly offer what was in my bosom and then set off on my adventure. Thinking that, I walked briskly to the place where the stones were gathered.
“I’m a bit late today, aren’t I?”
I carefully took out the potato and pretty stones from my bosom and set them down in front of it. Then I took out the accessory wrapped in old cloth that I’d been holding in my hand. The moment I placed it on the stone, it dropped down with a thud. I picked it up and put it back on top. Again, thud, it rolled off. As if someone was deliberately making it fall.
“I’ve been curious since last time.”
“Kyaaah!”
I tried to pick it up again and place it on the stone. That is, if not for the voice that suddenly came from right behind me. At the unfamiliar low voice, my body jumped in surprise. Thinking back later, it was quite a pleasant voice to hear—low and gentle—but at that moment, it couldn’t have been more frightening.
When I turned around, a beautiful person with long, sparkling golden hair was standing there. Since I’d never seen such a hair color or face in my life, I forgot my rudeness and just stood there with my mouth open, staring blankly. I probably looked quite foolish—a scruffy, small, skinny child doing that.
“Wow, really pretty….”
When I muttered this, he tilted his head at an angle. His expression said he didn’t understand why I was reacting this way. Even so, with eyes full of curiosity, he approached me closely.
“Why do you keep putting strange things there every time I see you? Potatoes or what… last time you even put sprouts.”
Sprouts—didn’t I put those in spring? To call it “last time” seemed quite a while ago. I looked at the man with puzzled eyes and then smiled brightly.
“Because they’re gifts for the god.”
“Why?”
It seemed like a question of why I was giving them to the god. Still tilting his face as if he couldn’t understand, he reminded me of Nurungi who wandered around the village. Nurungi was a stray dog that the villagers looked after. He especially followed me well, so I would sometimes share food with him. Anyway, Nurungi would tilt his head like that when he was curious or didn’t understand something. Could this be an older brother from another village? Then he might not know about this mountain. I put my hand to my mouth as if telling a secret and approached closely to tell him quietly. When I got close, he seemed much taller than even my dad.
“This mountain is a mountain that the god looks after.”
Nod nod. His eyes looked at me asking, “So?” They were truly curious eyes.
“So I give gifts to say thank you. Thanks to the god, this mountain is beautiful, and the animals are always lively.”
“What does that have to do with you?”
“Because thanks to that, I can run and play here without worry. If the god wasn’t here, I would have always walked around worrying whether I’d get lost in the mountain or whether something that would harm me would appear.”
Still, his eyes showed he didn’t understand. It seemed to be asking what that had to do with me anyway.
“Geez! Frustrating hyung. That means the god is extremely busy!”
This hyung must be from another village and doesn’t know about the god well.
“Frustrating hyung…?”
“How hard must it be to make this mountain peaceful and beautiful? The god needs time to breathe too.”
“So you’ve been leaving these strange things because of that?”
“Strange things? Potatoes are delicious. How nice would it be to sit quietly on this mountain while eating potatoes?”
“That’s why you’re so skinny, eating only those things.”
“I’m telling you potatoes are delicious?”
“Even if you just ate the fruits and berries here, you wouldn’t be this skinny.”
“Oh no. Everything that grows here belongs to the animals the god looks after. You can’t steal and eat them. Understand?”
The man who had been bending down to meet my eyes eventually plopped down in front of me, as if his neck was getting stiff. Ah. Come to think of it, I sometimes wiped off and ate things that had fallen to the ground. This time too, I approached closely as if telling a secret and put my hand to my mouth.
“But I sometimes eat the ones that have fallen. The little ones don’t really eat the fallen ones.”
“Those are for you to… Don’t worry about it and pick fresh ones to eat.”
“I said no. The little ones have nothing but what’s here, so how sad would they be if I took it from them too?”
When I spoke with a serious face, the man chuckled. His eyes still showed he didn’t understand, but he neither denied nor affirmed my words. I didn’t get the feeling he would arbitrarily steal the animal friends’ food. You can tell just by looking. This hyung may have a stiff way of speaking, but his eyes were so gentle. I smiled while looking at those eyes. Then he pointed at what was in my hand.
“That’s also a gift?”
“Yes. Yesterday a really pretty stone rolled down. So I asked my mom and we worked hard to make it together.”
I showed him the accessory proudly.
“If you return a gift you received, you’ll get bad luck.”
“Bad luck?”
“This is a gift the god gave to you. It’s bad if you return it to that busy god you mentioned.”
I see. You can’t give a received gift back to the person who gave it. I learned something new. Hmm, but I worked hard to make it. As I stood there blankly looking at the accessory, the man stared intently at it. When I slightly lifted the accessory, his gaze followed.
“Does hyung need it?”
“It looks warm. I’m also curious what it would feel like to receive a gift.”
“You’ve never received a gift?”
“Not even once.”
“Then I’ll give it to you.”
When I readily held out the accessory, the man looked at me.
“Why? Is there something you want?”
“Hey, who gives gifts because they want something? Since hyung seems to be from another village, I’m giving it to you as a gift.”
“Another village?”
“You’re not from our village. If there was a hyung as pretty as you, I would have known long ago.”
“Pretty?”
The way he repeated after me made him look like a child trying to understand my words. More like a young child than me…. Even while speaking, I looked at him who couldn’t take his eyes off the accessory and grinned. I grabbed his hand and pressed the accessory into his palm.
“Yes. If not that, let’s make it a commemorative gift for our first meeting.”
“Then shouldn’t I give you something? I don’t have anything with me right now though.”
“Um… then just grant me one request.”
“Request.”
Looking at the sky, I still had some time to play.
“Play with me until the sun sets!”
I held out my hand with a bright smile.
“Play? With me?”
As if an unexpected answer came out, his eyes, which had been expressionless the whole time, widened slightly in surprise.
“Yes. Today I was going to go to that big tree over there. Let’s go together, hyung.”
I firmly grabbed the hand of him standing there dumbly and pulled it toward me. Seeing him move his lips slightly and then come along obediently, it seemed to mean he would keep me company. Since it had been so long since I wandered around this mountain with a person, I was excited. Behind me, he who had been staring at the accessory in his hand soon walked beside me, matching my pace. It wasn’t that he spoke to me specially or actively played with me. But the fact that someone was beside me made me more excited than usual. Around that time, the maple tree I always saw was especially beautiful, and the squirrel running above it was particularly cute.
“As expected, being together is much more enjoyable than being alone.”
“Together.”
He who had been repeating my words muttered, “This wasn’t why I spoke to you though.” After that, as if saving his words, I took the hyung who kept his mouth firmly shut and diligently looked around every corner of the mountain. Occasionally, I felt his gaze land on my constantly smiling face. Each time, he who looked at me with curious eyes somehow also seemed like a naive child who didn’t know the ways of the world.
“Where do you live, hyung?”
“Here.”
Here? Does that mean he doesn’t have a home? That’s strange. But I don’t think I’ve ever seen him. Well, the area I go to is narrow, but I heard this mountain is extremely wide and tall. So we might not have run into each other. Convincing myself alone, I nodded my head and looked at the sky. The sunset glow was spreading, so it was time to go down soon.
“Hyung, I have to go now.”
“Okay. The mountain is dangerous when night falls.”
“You should go rest soon too, hyung.”
I hope I can see him tomorrow too. Thinking that, I went down the mountain. The whole way down, my back felt hot. Remembering the gaze I often felt when playing around the mountain, I turned around. Seeing him still standing silently in that spot, I waved my hand vigorously. He tilted his head. Since his reaction showed he didn’t know what I was doing, I laughed “haha” and put my hand to my mouth.
“I’m saying goodbye! I’m really leaving!”
Seeing him nod his head at my words, I smiled brightly, then turned around and came down to the village briskly. On the way home, I happened to meet Dad and returned home holding hands together. Then the two of us washed up moderately and ate rice for dinner for the first time in a while.
“I saw a mysterious hyung on the mountain today.”
“Hyung? There was a person there?”
“Yes. A hyung with golden hair. I’d never seen that hair color before, but it was really pretty.”
“Golden….”
Mom, who had been sewing by candlelight, paused. She lowered her hand and pondered for a moment, then soon drew her usual gentle smile and continued what she was doing.
“So what did you play today?”
“I wandered around the mountain with that hyung. We picked pretty stones and saw squirrels too.”
“…I see, you did.”
“Oh, right. And I gave that hyung the accessory Mom and I made. He said he’d never received a gift even once.”
“You did well.”
Mom patted my head, then chuckled “huhu” and brought another piece of clothing to start sewing. I lay down beside her watching, then crawled over to Mom and lay down using her knee as a pillow. At the warm touch patting my head, I giggled saying it tickled.
