The Imugi stood by Yugeon’s side the entire time Junghyeok and Seyeong bought things and exchanged brief small talk with Yugeon. But Junghyeok and Seyeong didn’t notice the Imugi’s presence.
After seeing off the two who took a short rest at the store and left, Yugeon turned around and asked.
“Those two… can’t see you, Imugi-nim?”
“Usually.”
“Then why can I see you? Is it because I’m a sacrifice?”
The Imugi silently looked down at Yugeon’s chest area. The energy is faint. When the Imugi just looked at him silently without speaking, Yugeon thought that wasn’t it and threw out another question.
“Then when you’re in that, snake… form, are you invisible to people too?”
He thought that might be why the villagers had never seen the Imugi. But the Imugi shook his head.
“No. Rather, I’m quite visible.”
“Ah… then why have the villagers never seen you, Imugi-nim? They should have seen you at least once by chance…”
“…It’s better not to see.”
“Why?”
“I dislike humans.”
“……”
Does that just mean they avoid each other well? Or does it mean he kills them if he’s spotted?
Thinking of the latter made him feel inexplicably eerie.
Right now the Imugi was standing blocking the front of the register, so he was trapped inside the register area. If the Imugi intended to harm him, there was nowhere to escape. Yugeon unnecessarily swallowed dry saliva while examining the narrow store interior. The relatively widest place, a place where he could escape if necessary…
“Sh-shall I get you something? S-something cold?”
“No need.”
Yugeon, who had tried to escape to the refrigerator under the pretense of offering something, drooped his shoulders when his plan fell through. The Imugi stared intently at Yugeon like that, then stepped back two steps. So that Yugeon could leave the register area and go out the door at any time.
Yugeon ended up being a little surprised at the Imugi’s action, which seemed to be consideration after noticing he was uncomfortable. And he realized once again that the Imugi had no intention of harming him.
“Why… did you come here again?”
“Just, I came to see you.”
“Why me…?”
The Imugi had no answer. However, there was a subtle change in the gaze looking at Yugeon.
The Imugi, who had just been silently looking at Yugeon, left saying he’d be going and went out the door and disappeared. Yugeon stared blankly at the spot where the Imugi had been standing, like someone whose soul had left their body.
What was contained in the gaze that had been looking at him was faint affection and longing.
* * *
After Yugeon confessed his fear of Jaeyeong to Migeon, Jaeyeong really stopped coming to the store. Not only did he stop coming, but he completely disappeared from the island as if hiding, not visible at all.
Instead, the Imugi started visiting once every 2-3 days, but one problem was that he still went around naked. It was fortunate that he didn’t seem visible to the villagers’ eyes, but what about his own eyes?
“C-could you please wear clothes when you go around?”
Yugeon said with a frown to the Imugi sitting on the wooden bench. Either wear clothes or don’t spread your legs. It was maddening. Fortunately, the long flowing hair cleverly covered the important parts, though.
He’d brought his little brother’s clothes a few times, but the Imugi didn’t even glance at them. As shock therapy, he tried to take a photo with his phone to show him how indecent and unseemly his appearance was, but it didn’t even show up in photos, which made him even more crazy and ready to jump.
Even now, he wanted to just slap the back of the blatantly ignoring Imugi and send him back to come wearing clothes.
“Yugeon? Why are you outside in this heat?”
Just then, someone called him. When he turned around, Jin Gageum was approaching with a benevolent smile.
“Grandmother?”
Yugeon was startled and glanced at the Imugi before approaching Jin Gageum.
“There are no customers, and it’s cool in the shade. What brings you here, grandmother? Did you come to buy something?”
“My back hurts, so I came to buy some pain relief patches.”
“I see?”
Yugeon smiled and went into the store while supporting Jin Gageum as if assisting her.
Standing at the register, he could see the Imugi sitting obediently on the wooden bench.
The Imugi had initially been inside the store. But when he complained about the inconvenience of the path being blocked because of his large build, he started positioning himself on the wooden bench outside the store.
Yugeon, who had given the Imugi a glancing look, focused on Jin Gageum again. When he handed over the pain relief patches she needed and told her the price, Jin Gageum requested to put it on her tab. Yugeon took out the one with Jin Gageum’s name from the credit ledger on one side of the register and opened it, then opened the drawer looking for a pen.
While Yugeon was taking out a pen, Jin Gageum discovered something in the drawer and reached out her hand. What she pulled out was the photo frame Yugeon had brought from his grandmother’s house.
“This is… where did…?”
At Jin Gageum’s trembling question, Yugeon raised his head. Then he looked at the frame in Jin Gageum’s hand and sighed “Ah.”
“I went to grandmother’s house a while ago and found it, so I brought it.”
Jin Gageum nodded without taking her eyes off the frame, then stroked the surface and muttered.
“…I miss them.”
Come to think of it, everyone in the photo was deceased. He thought it might be a photo that particularly evoked memories for Jin Gageum.
“Now that I look at it, Yugeon, you really resemble your mother a lot.”
“…What? M-mother?”
When Yugeon asked bewilderedly, Jin Gageum smiled and pointed to the woman in the photo.
“Yes, here.”
Yugeon looked back and forth between the woman in the photo and Jin Gageum as if flustered.
“Aunt… isn’t it aunt? Geon-ah said aunt…”
At Yugeon’s question filled with doubt, Jin Gageum made an ‘oops’ face.
“Ah, th-that’s right, yes. I, I guess my memory is going back and forth as I get old.”
Then with a face drained of color, she rambled incoherently and quickly fled as if running away.
Yugeon stared blankly at Jin Gageum’s retreating figure, then creakily lowered his head to look at the photo in the frame.
“Mother…?”
Not aunt?
Yugeon sat down heavily in the chair as if his body had lost strength. And he stared at the frame for a long while.
How long had he been like that—suddenly remembering the Imugi, Yugeon urgently raised his head. But there was no one on the wooden bench outside the door. Yugeon stood up and went out to look, but the Imugi was nowhere around.
“Did he leave…”
He felt inexplicably sorry. He hadn’t even noticed him leaving, his mind preoccupied elsewhere. With a bitter taste in his mouth, Yugeon returned inside the store and picked up the frame he’d left on the register. Then he turned his head to look at the open sea. It would soon be time for his little brother to return.
Yugeon, who had been checking the time repeatedly and just staring at the sea, eventually headed to the dock with the frame in hand as if unable to wait any longer. When Yugeon arrived at the dock, the people at the dock welcomed him, asking what brought him there. Yugeon greeted them somewhat perfunctorily and received greetings while only watching the open sea. He had no capacity to pay attention to them.
As he waited like a faithful wife waiting for her husband, his little brother’s boat began to come into view.
He became even more anxious when it started to become visible rather than when it was out of sight. Yugeon, who had been stamping his feet alone, approached next to the rope hook and started waiting, and made eye contact with Lee Dongha, who was standing by on the approaching boat to hook the rope onto the rope hook.
“Yugeon hyung?”
Dongha called to Yugeon as if puzzled while skillfully hooking and tying the rope to the rope hook.
Yugeon gave Dongha a cursory nod and scanned the deck here and there looking for his little brother. Then he ended up seeing an unexpected person.
“…Jaeyeong?”
Jaeyeong, who had been sitting blankly in a corner of the deck, suddenly turned his head at the low call and looked at Yugeon. At the same time the boat stopped, and Jaeyeong stood up abruptly, smiled and waved his hand, then started approaching with large strides.
Flustered, Yugeon unconsciously stepped backward. But Jaeyeong couldn’t get past Dongha and was caught by him, and at the same time a familiar voice called Yugeon.
“Hyung?”
Yugeon urgently turned his head toward where the voice came from. Migeon was coming out of the wheelhouse with a somewhat flustered face.
“Geon-ah!”
Migeon glanced at Jaeyeong, then quickly got off the boat and approached Yugeon. Only then did Yugeon seem relieved as he grabbed his little brother’s collar.
“Why is he there?”
“I’m keeping him with me so he can’t approach you, hyung. But hyung, why are you here…”
Only then did Yugeon seem to remember his purpose as he pulled the collar he was gripping and thrust the frame right in front of his little brother’s nose.
“I have something to ask you.”
“Huh?”
“This person, you definitely said she was my aunt.”
“?”
Only then did Migeon shift his gaze to look at the frame.
“But the store grandmother said so. That she’s my mother!”
At Yugeon’s voice, the surroundings became quiet. The air seemed to freeze. Everyone’s eyes turned to the two brothers. They were gazes filled with wariness and tension.
“……”
“What’s going on? Am I not father’s biological son either?”
“Let’s go home first. Let’s go home and talk.”
Migeon started dragging him away forcefully before even hearing Yugeon’s answer.
