“Hey.”
Yugeon called Lee Jaeyeong and gestured. When Lee Jaeyeong approached with a face asking what it was, Yugeon pointed to the woman in the frame and asked.
“This person here, do you know who she is?”
Lee Jaeyeong looked down at the frame with a puzzled face, then moved even closer to Yugeon’s side. Because the frame was only palm-sized, the person in the photo wasn’t clearly visible.
“I don’t know either?”
“Isn’t she an islander?”
“I don’t know, I’m seeing her for the first time.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah, but she really looks like you.”
Lee Jaeyeong raised his head to look at Yugeon as if to confirm the resemblance. But Yugeon’s face was right in front of his nose. Lee Jaeyeong unconsciously stiffened his body. He didn’t know he was this close. As he hurriedly pulled away in confusion, a pleasant scent briefly brushed past the tip of his nose.
Lee Jaeyeong quickly covered his nose with the back of his hand. Along with that, his face turned bright red.
At Lee Jaeyeong’s behavior of creating distance with an exaggerated manner and even blocking his nose, Yugeon frowned with one eye.
“What are you doing?”
Anyone watching would think he was the plague or something. When he showed his bad mood without reservation, Lee Jaeyeong buried his face completely in his forearm. His two ears could be seen turning bright red. Just as his mood was about to worsen further, an out-of-the-blue question was thrown.
“Do you… wear something?”
“What?”
At the sharp retort, Lee Jaeyeong slowly raised his head and gauged Yugeon’s mood. His face looked like a boiled octopus.
“N-no… the other guys only reek of sweat, but you smell nice….”
The wind was completely knocked out of him. What kind of reaction was that for just asking that one thing? Making people misunderstand.
“I just use what Geon-i uses?”
“……”
“Should I find out what it is for you?”
“…No.”
At Lee Jaeyeong’s reaction that had become lukewarm, Yugeon muttered quietly, “How ridiculous,” and looked at the frame again.
“But you said she looks like me?”
“Huh? Uh… she does seem to look a bit like you….”
“What could it be. An aunt? I’ve never heard that I have an aunt….”
“Isn’t it your mom?”
“Huh?”
Yugeon looked at Lee Jaeyeong in surprise, then checked the woman in the frame again. It would be surprising if it was an aunt, and surprising if it was his mom too.
“I wonder if Geon-i knows….”
When Yugeon muttered, Lee Jaeyeong frowned. Lee Migeon again.
Yugeon, who had been looking at the frame silently, put the frame back inside the side room. At that sight, Lee Jaeyeong relaxed his frown and asked.
“Aren’t you taking it?”
“I’ll take it when I go home. It’ll just be luggage if I take it now. We’ll come back this way, right?”
“Uh, yeah….”
“Right, then let’s go.”
Yugeon turned his feet without regret and left the house, and Lee Jaeyeong followed behind.
The path to the top of the island was quite rough. It was an unpaved road that seemed completely untouched by human feet, and they had to go completely around to the back of the island to climb up.
He thought that his younger brother climbed up and down this path every night looking for him.
When his whole body was soaked in sweat and his breath was gulping in his throat, they were able to arrive at the top of the island. There wasn’t a single tree at the top of the island. In the middle of a space hollowed out like a crater was a huge lake, and the surroundings were all silver grass fields.
There wasn’t a single shade to block the sunlight, but perhaps because of the high altitude, a cold wind blew, making it cool.
Yugeon straightened his back while catching his rough breath and took a big breath. The sea and the island’s entire view could all be seen in all directions, unobstructed and wide open. He even felt refreshed.
“You’re living in an amazing place.”
Yugeon, who had been looking around while muttering sarcastically, suddenly realized Lee Jaeyeong wasn’t visible and turned around. Lee Jaeyeong wasn’t coming up to the summit and was hesitating with his body half-hidden behind a large tree.
“What’s wrong?”
When Yugeon asked, Lee Jaeyeong answered haltingly with a haggard pale face.
“I… don’t want to go up there….”
“Ah… because of the imugi?”
Lee Jaeyeong just nodded without speaking. Yugeon swept his gaze around the summit once. No matter how much he looked, he couldn’t see anything like an imugi, but he didn’t want to force someone who was scared to come up.
“Mm, if you’re scared, you can go back first.”
“What?”
“I just have to go back the way we came, right? I think I can manage alone.”
“I-I’ll wait here!”
“? Do as you like then.”
Since he said he’d wait, there was no need to forcibly send him back. He didn’t want to spend time persuading him to go back either. Yugeon agreed lightly and headed straight down to the lake.
As he walked down through the silver grass field, the lake’s surface sparkled, reflecting the sunlight. It was dazzling. Yugeon squinted while making a visor with his hand for a moment, and when he opened his eyes again, there was a black, gigantic snake right in front of him.
Bright yellow eyes with vertical pupils looked at him.
“……”
He had come looking without thinking, but honestly, he didn’t think he’d really meet the imugi. He thought it wouldn’t easily reveal itself. And it was strange. In dreams it was such a frightening existence, but now it wasn’t. Was it because of the gaze looking at him? Nothing felt realistic.
No thoughts came to mind, so he was just blankly looking up at the imugi when the bright yellow eyes came closer and a low voice rang out.
“Call me.”
“?”
“Call me.”
For an instant, a young voice mixed with the sound of rain pouring down like a downpour and thunder and lightning faintly came to mind.
‘It’s a snake.’
“Snake….”
When he muttered without realizing it, the imugi’s eyes narrowed, then it turned around and moved away smoothly. Yugeon, who suddenly came to his senses, hurriedly chased after the imugi.
“Excuse me, wait… wait a moment!”
The imugi didn’t answer. It only moved away quickly. Realizing he could no longer chase it, Yugeon shouted desperately.
“What’s the reason you call me out every night? You must call me out because there’s a reason!”
Instantly, as if struck by lightning, all the nights came to mind.
On all those nights, the imugi wanted him to call it.
‘Call me.’
‘Try calling me.’
It was always just those words. And when he answered, it would silently turn back.
“……”
Yugeon just stood blankly and watched the imugi moving away. After standing for a while at the place where the imugi disappeared, Yugeon came up from the crater, looking back several times in the direction where the imugi disappeared like someone with lingering regrets.
And he looked for Lee Jaeyeong to go down the mountain. But Lee Jaeyeong wasn’t visible.
“Lee Jaeyeong?”
Thinking he might be hiding behind a tree, he came down to where the trees were, but Lee Jaeyeong wasn’t behind the trees either.
“Is he playing around, what the hell?”
Yugeon muttered with a face of disbelief and tried calling Lee Jaeyeong loudly just in case, but no answer came back.
In the end, Yugeon, who came down the mountain alone and returned to the fish market stall, massaged his legs that had been overworked with harsh exercise while looking at the frame he had brought from grandmother’s house.
“Uh… come to think of it, what should I ask?”
To ask his younger brother who the woman in the photo was, he had to show him the frame, but he wondered what to say if asked where he got the frame from. That he brought it from grandmother’s house? If asked why he went to grandmother’s house, how he knew to go there?
‘I wanted to go to the dragon pond, so Lee Jaeyeong guided me. Haha.’
His imaginary self grinned shamelessly.
Even though it was just imagination, he really wanted to punch himself a few times.
Yugeon, who had been suffering while clutching his head, suddenly brightened his eyes.
“Should I sell out Lee Jaeyeong? Say he gave it to me…?”
Yugeon pondered for a moment.
“……”
It was despicable.
“……”
And petty.
He had even taken him to the dragon pond without complaint, and it didn’t seem right to sell him out like this. Besides, everyone would think Lee Jaeyeong hated him, so wouldn’t it be strange if he suddenly brought grandmother’s family photo to him? He might receive more glares from the islanders for no reason, wondering what scheme he had.
“Whew….”
In the end, Yugeon had no choice but to put the frame deep in the cash register drawer of the fish market stall.
“Nothing happened, right?”
At his younger brother’s meaningless question when he came to pick him up in the evening, Yugeon felt startled for no reason, but answered with a smile without showing it.
“Yeah.”
The two brothers left the fish market stall and began walking side by side. As they walked exchanging small talk about the trivial things that had happened to each other during the day, Migeon asked.
“Is there anything you want to eat for dinner?”
“Huh? Um… I want to eat something cool. It was hot today.”
Well, he was drenched in sweat from climbing the mountain.
“Mm… do you like cold soybean noodle soup?”
“Hm? I like it.”
“Then should we eat that?”
“Good.”
The two brothers returned home discussing whether to put salt or sugar in cold soybean noodle soup and ate cold soybean noodle soup together harmoniously. Yugeon was team salt. Migeon was team sugar+salt.
After eating dinner and talking about various things, they went to bed. Even without watching TV or looking at his phone, the day was really full and flowed by steadily, which felt good. Yugeon closed his eyes in a good mood.
Inside a hidden stone cave in the crater bathed entirely in bright moonlight was a coiled imugi. The imugi opened its tightly closed eyes and slowly came out of the stone cave. Having completely exited the cave and standing under the moonlight, the imugi had a human form. A bleak wind that blew swept past its long hanging hair and bare body.
The imugi looked down at somewhere on the island with yellow eyes.
And silently clutched its chest.
“I hate you. I despise you….”
If you had been like the others, I could have hated and cursed you to death to my heart’s content.
