There was no answer. Just a disheveled breath sounded once from above his head. And slowly, very slowly, only after a long while did he hear a voice asking back.
“What?”
Yugeon, who had been holding his breath for no reason, inwardly felt relieved at the slow response and hesitantly raised his gaze.
“Th-that… that.”
He should say ‘kiss’ but he couldn’t bring himself to say kiss.
“K…”
“?”
“Kith…”
Watching Yugeon barely manage to say “kith” with his face burning bright red, Migeon muttered “Kith…” as if incredulous. Thanks to that, Yugeon became even more flushed, his face looking almost dark red as he shouted.
“Why, why did you do it!”
“Can’t I give you a kith, hyung?”
“What kind of… k-kith do siblings give each other? Besides, th-that, not somewhere else but on the lips?”
“…I did it because I wanted to.”
“What?”
“What does it matter, we’re siblings.”
It was the sibling excuse again. Yugeon frowned.
“Do you think being siblings is some kind of free pass?”
“Then is it okay if it’s not on the lips?”
“What?”
“I’m asking if other places are okay.”
“Of course not!”
“Why? We’re siblings.”
“That’s why I’m asking if siblings are a free pass!”
“Did I commit a crime?”
“Huh?”
“Me giving you a kith isn’t a crime. As you said, hyung, it’s not even a kiss, just a ‘kith.'”
“……”
“Or is the kith the problem? Then is a kiss okay?”
“No, why are you doing that to me in the first place!”
“We’re siblings.”
“Why would siblings kiss? Besides, we’re both guys!”
“Ah, so guys are the problem?”
“No, that’s not it!”
“Then there’s no problem, right?”
“……”
Yugeon couldn’t refute and just gaped his mouth. He was completely caught.
Staring blankly up at his little brother, Yugeon held his forehead as if he had a headache.
“Do that kind of thing later when you make a lover or get married…”
“…I don’t want to.”
“What?”
“Haven’t you ever thought about it, hyung?”
“Thought about what?”
“What if you hadn’t left the island and grew up here?”
“?”
“You were originally someone who had no reason to leave the island. If you hadn’t become a sacrifice instead of Jaeyeong, if you had continued to grow up on the island with me, what would it have been like?”
“Wh-what does that have to do with you giving me a kith?”
Migeon stared intently at Yugeon, then smiled pleasantly.
“If that were the case, you wouldn’t have had such doubts.”
“……”
Yugeon couldn’t say anything. Because his little brother was smiling as if so happy.
He absolutely couldn’t fathom what meaning was contained in his little brother’s words “siblings.”
“Jaeyeong keeps coming around?”
Migeon, sitting on the wooden bench with an ice cream bar in his mouth, asked.
Yugeon nodded while making a hand visor as if the sunlight seeping through the hackberry tree branches was blinding.
“Yeah. Before, even when he came around, I didn’t get such an uncomfortable feeling…. Rather, the brief conversations and time we shared were quite comfortable and enjoyable. But after he asked me to run away together last time, it’s a bit…”
Migeon added a visor made with his own hand on top of Yugeon’s hand and asked back.
“A bit?”
When a large shadow above his head blocked the sunlight, Yugeon naturally lowered his hand. He was now used to his little brother blocking the sunlight for him.
“I should say scary…”
“When I came earlier… was Jaeyeong there too?”
“Yeah…”
“What did he… do to you, hyung?”
“No, it wasn’t like that…. He just stood in the shade of that tree over there, smiling and waving his hand.”
“……”
Migeon silently stared intently at the tree Yugeon pointed to.
“Jaeyeong… I’ll take care of him.”
Yugeon looked at his little brother as if surprised, but couldn’t say anything particular and bowed his head. Normally he would have told him not to, but right now his mouth wouldn’t open.
Rumble, a sound like thunder rang out from somewhere. Migeon raised his head to look at the sky.
“Is it going to rain?”
But the sky was clear without a single cloud. Then once again, a rumbling sound rang out. Migeon, who had been looking around to find the source of the sound, only then looked at his hyung.
Yugeon’s face and both ears were flushed bright red.
“Hyung, didn’t you eat?”
“…Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you eat?”
“Just, I wasn’t hungry.”
“So you’ve been like this all this time after only eating breakfast? What time did you eat breakfast?”
“……”
“Don’t tell me… you didn’t even eat breakfast?”
“……”
When Yugeon kept his mouth shut like a mute who ate honey, Migeon hurriedly grabbed Yugeon’s hand and stood up.
“Let’s go.”
“Where?”
“Home. Let’s go eat and come back.”
“No, why go that far?”
“You skipped both breakfast and lunch, right?”
“I’m not really hungry. And it’s only a few hours until dinner anyway.”
“Not hungry? Your stomach is making a racket right now. Hyung, at this rate you’ll be nothing but bones! You’re already incredibly skinny.”
“I’m not skinny!”
“How much do you weigh right now, hyung…?”
“Huh? Why are you asking that?”
“62-63 kilos?”
Yugeon silently avoided his gaze. When he was working at the mart, he weighed about 61 kilos. Then he lost a lot of weight while being tormented by nightmares and ghosts, but he hasn’t weighed himself since then, so even he doesn’t know.
“Hyung, stand up.”
Migeon urged while pulling Yugeon’s arm.
“Huh?”
When Yugeon half-stood with a puzzled face, Migeon’s hands instantly dug under Yugeon’s armpits and lifted Yugeon up in one swift motion. Yugeon was dangling in the air.
Horrified, Yugeon yelled angrily.
“Hey! Put me down!”
“Hyung, you don’t even weigh sixty kilos, do you?”
“I, I don’t know either! Put me down!”
“H-hyung… you’re not going to disappear like this, are you?”
“What nonsense! Put me down!”
Yugeon flailed wildly in the air. Migeon, who was holding up the wildly thrashing Yugeon so easily, made a face full of worry and carefully set Yugeon down.
“Then at least eat some bread.”
Migeon quickly went into the store, then came out with a cream bun and white milk and placed them in Yugeon’s hands. There was no way to handle his little brother’s stubbornness. Yugeon obediently unwrapped the cream bun as if resigned. Then he split the bread in half and held it out to his little brother.
“Let’s share.”
At Yugeon’s action, Migeon jumped up.
“Why share this again! Hurry up and eat it all! I’m going to watch.”
“Geez, who’s the hyung and who’s the dongsaeng…”
Yugeon grumbled and put the bread split in half into his mouth. Migeon really seemed intent on watching until Yugeon finished eating the bread. Chewing the bread while looking at the distant sky with enlightened eyes, Yugeon looked at his little brother as if remembering something.
“By the way, which of our grandmother and grandfather was the outsider?”
“Huh?”
“No, never mind. I don’t think that’s what comes first.”
“Huh?”
“The sacrifices…. Why are they all only children?”
“……”
“The children’s parents… do they just accept it? Even if the islanders do, do the outsiders accept it? Without complaint? How can the island’s secret be maintained for so long without leaking out?”
Migeon silently lowered his gaze. The milk in Yugeon’s hand was still unopened. Migeon took the milk, opened it, and handed it over while answering.
“Children of outsiders… we try not to use them as sacrifices.”
“…Then why are the sacrifices children?”
“Who do you think… owns this land, hyung? Us? Or the Imugi?”
“What? Suddenly what…”
“This land… belongs to the Lee family, but what’s built on it belongs to the Imugi.”
“?”
“We have no choice but to hold the Imugi here.”
“?”
“So the sacrifices must all be children.”
“I don’t understand what you’re saying…”
“…You’ll find out gradually. Because you’re an Imokdo person too, hyung.”
“……”
Yugeon just looked at his little brother with his brow deeply furrowed as if confused.
“Oh, and grandmother and grandfather. Neither of them were outsiders.”
“What?”
“They were both people who were born and raised on this island.”
He thought and thought again all night about the conversation with his little brother, but he couldn’t understand it at all. Almost none of his questions were resolved. What was the reason the Imugi wanted sacrifices in the first place? Yugeon, who had been pondering until just before falling asleep, made a decision while looking at his little brother clinging to him in his sleep. He would go find the Imugi.
As soon as Yugeon opened his eyes in the morning, he told his little brother he wanted to go find the Imugi. Migeon seemed surprised at first, then seemed displeased, but he nodded briefly. He didn’t ask things like the reason for wanting to go find the Imugi.
The two brothers immediately got ready and headed for the top of the island. While heading to the crater at the summit, Migeon seriously worried watching Yugeon who seemed to be gasping for breath, but Yugeon waved his hands off as if he was fine and diligently walked so as not to fall behind.
After arriving at the crater, they went down to the lake and waited for the Imugi, but no matter how long they waited, the Imugi didn’t show itself. Yugeon, who couldn’t stand it anymore, even shouted and called for the Imugi, but they couldn’t meet the Imugi.
The two brothers had no choice but to come down empty-handed. The fortunate thing was that unlike last time when it was his first time, the muscle soreness wasn’t that severe.
* * *
Yugeon, sitting with his chin propped at the store register, was wondering when he should visit the lake again to meet the Imugi. As expected of a divine creature. It didn’t seem like he could meet it just by visiting recklessly. He must have been lucky last time.
Yugeon was sitting with his chin propped in one hand and tapping the register with the other hand, blankly staring outside the store where harsh sunlight was beating down, when he opened his eyes wide and jumped up from his seat.
“?”
Something that shouldn’t be outside the store was standing there. Yugeon ran out of the store with a horrified face.
About 5 meters away from the store, there was a man. Though he was naked with long hair hanging down, he could tell because he’d met him once before. That it was the Imugi.
Shocked, Yugeon hurriedly looked around, and after confirming there was no one around, asked haltingly.
“H-how…?”
The Imugi’s face was still hidden by his hair and couldn’t be seen. But he clearly felt his gaze directed at him. The Imugi seemed to look at Yugeon for a moment, then said slowly.
“If you want to meet me, come alone.”
“What?”
At the same time as Yugeon’s question, in the blink of an eye, the Imugi disappeared.
He stood there for a long time thinking it might be a dream, but he didn’t wake up.
