“Oppa, hello.”
Yugeon, who was sitting on the wooden bench catching his breath for a moment, turned his gaze at the bright greeting. It was Lee Jeongyeon.
“Oh, hi.”
Yugeon also greeted her warmly and patted the seat next to him as if telling her to sit, and Jeongyeon quickly sat down next to Yugeon.
“Why are you outside in this heat?”
“The shade here is cooler than inside the store. Want something to drink?”
“Are you buying, oppa?”
At the bold question, Yugeon laughed helplessly.
“Yeah.”
Jeongyeon cheered and ran into the store, then came out with a drink in her hand.
“I’ll enjoy it!”
After greeting him, Jeongyeon gulped down half the drink without even breathing, then let out a thick exclamation, “Kya!” It was a reaction like an ahjussi who had downed a shot of liquor. Yugeon just laughed heartily.
Jeongyeon also gulped down the remaining drink, then shook the empty drink can and asked.
“After that, you haven’t met the Imugi?”
“Huh?”
Yugeon asked back as if flustered, then glanced at his side. That Imugi was sitting stark naked next to Yugeon. The Imugi didn’t seem particularly interested in their conversation and was just looking at the distant sea.
“Uh, uh, I haven’t seen it.”
Yugeon smiled awkwardly and stammered evasively, and Jeongyeon was genuinely disappointed and regretful.
“Ah, that’s too bad. I thought oppa would take a picture.”
“…I’ll try.”
Jeongyeon whipped around to look at Yugeon, then smiled and tossed the empty can into the trash.
“I’m joking. What good would come from seeing the Imugi? It’s best not to meet it if possible.”
“R-right…”
“You might accidentally run into it and it might get upset and kill you. You be careful too, oppa.”
At the sharp advice, Yugeon broke out in cold sweat and glanced at the Imugi. The Imugi, who had been looking at the distant sea as if uninterested, had turned his head toward him and Jeongyeon. He felt inexplicably guilty.
It seemed better to change the subject before trouble started.
“J-Jeongyeon!”
“Yes?”
“No, well… what was it, um…”
“?”
When he actually tried to talk about something else, he couldn’t think of a single topic to substitute.
“Uh, well…. Uh…”
As he rambled incoherently, something suddenly came to mind.
“Ah! Oh, right! Th-that, dr-dragon!”
“Yes?”
“By any chance, if someone called the island’s Imugi… a dragon, what would happen?”
“What? That’s random?”
Jeongyeon laughed as if bewildered. But seeing Yugeon’s face that looked serious unlike herself, she wiped away her smile.
“That wouldn’t happen in the first place? I told you. Young children don’t know the word dragon.”
“What if there was a child who knew? Or the adults could have said it.”
Jeongyeon shook her head firmly.
“The adults would absolutely never do that.”
‘We have no choice but to hold the Imugi here.’
His little brother’s words suddenly came to mind.
“Because we have to hold the Imugi here…?”
“Well… anyway. And if someone had called the Imugi a dragon, it would have already ascended.”
“…Huh?”
“You know, they say for an Imugi to ascend, it has to ascend while avoiding people’s eyes, or someone has to see it ascending and call it a dragon.”
“Ascend…”
Yugeon muttered blankly while looking at the Imugi next to him. He could feel the Imugi’s gaze reaching him too. Ascension. It was obvious, so why hadn’t he even thought of it?
Meanwhile, Jeongyeon looked puzzledly at Yugeon who had turned his head toward her. She couldn’t understand why Yugeon had suddenly turned his head. Is there something there? she thought, but even when she looked with wide eyes, there was nothing. Jeongyeon, who had been tilting her head in puzzlement, checked her wristwatch and stood up.
“Ah, oppa, I have to get going.”
Only then did Yugeon turn to Jeongyeon.
“Huh? Oh, okay.”
“I’ll come again next time!”
Jeongyeon, who greeted him brightly, waved her hand as she walked away. Yugeon, who had been waving his hand to see her off, slowly lowered his hand and turned to the Imugi.
“Why didn’t you ascend?”
The Imugi had no answer.
“You said I called you a dragon 17 years ago.”
“……”
“Can’t an Imugi ascend when called a dragon?”
“That’s when a thousand years have been fulfilled.”
“A thousand years…?”
Does that mean he hasn’t fulfilled a thousand years yet?
“Then will you ascend when you fulfill a thousand years?”
The Imugi stared intently at Yugeon. Though his eyes weren’t visible, hidden by his hair, his gaze felt eerily palpable. Somehow he couldn’t breathe well. A feeling like the surrounding air was drying up.
“Cough.”
When Yugeon held his throat and coughed softly, the eerie energy was instantly reined in. It seemed like he had let out a small sigh too.
“That would be so. Though I’ll become an evil spirit instead of a dragon…”
The Imugi muttered barely audibly. Among the words he couldn’t hear well, he could at least make out the words “evil spirit.”
Evil spirit? He couldn’t understand the Imugi’s words at all. He waited, thinking he might explain more, but there were no following words. The Imugi who couldn’t ascend. People who had no choice but to hold him here.
Suddenly he became curious.
“Imugi-nim… why do you keep staying on this island?”
At Yugeon’s question, the Imugi’s head tilted slightly. He seemed to be expressing doubt.
“Is it because this island originally belonged to you, Imugi-nim?”
“……”
“I heard from grandmother. That this island originally belonged to you, Imugi-nim, and we’re borrowing that land to live on. But you said this island was originally land where humans couldn’t live.”
“……”
“My little brother… said what’s built up on this land belongs to you, Imugi-nim. So we have no choice but to hold you here, Imugi-nim. …Did you make land where humans couldn’t live into land where they could?”
“……”
“You said the island’s lifespan is running out. But why aren’t you leaving either, Imugi-nim? Could it be… you’re remaining on the island for the people?”
Instead of answering, the Imugi turned his head toward the distant sea.
The Imugi, who had been looking at the distant sea, slowly closed both eyes.
He had loved the life forms called humans. He had loved them so much that he wanted to become a god for humans.
Yugeon, who had been staring intently at the silent Imugi, turned his head at the faint noise he heard. The dock area was noisy. When he looked to see what was going on, Yugeon saw the mint-colored boat. Yugeon stood up without realizing it.
“It’s not time yet…?”
As he muttered with a puzzled feeling, he saw people crowding toward his little brother’s boat. Something didn’t look right. He was startled with fear that something might have happened to his little brother.
“I, I’m sorry, I’ll go first.”
Without even looking at the Imugi, Yugeon stammered a greeting and immediately started running down toward the dock. The Imugi’s gaze also turned toward the dock.
Yugeon, who had come down to the dock, started looking for only one person among the busy people. Then he discovered Dongha being supported by people as he got off the boat. Dongha was gripping his side, and both his clothes and hands were covered in blood.
Yugeon was horrified and approached Dongha.
“Dongha?”
Dongha, who had been frowning heavily with a pale face covered in cold sweat, opened his eyes wide when he discovered Yugeon.
“Huh? Yugeon hyung?”
Yugeon examined his condition with trembling eyes. Seeing his clothes and hands soaked, it seemed he had bled quite a lot.
“Wh-what on earth… happened?”
Dongha smiled awkwardly at Yugeon’s face turning even paler than himself, then tilted his head back a little and shouted.
“Hey! Migeon, Yugeon hyung is here!”
At Dongha’s shout, Yugeon quickly turned in the direction Dongha had tilted his head. Far away, he could see his little brother standing among the people. Migeon, who had been turning around at Dongha’s call, also discovered Yugeon and opened his eyes wide as if surprised.
“Hyung?”
Yugeon hurriedly approached his little brother.
“Geon-ah! What on earth…”
Yugeon, who had habitually reached out his hand toward his little brother, flinched and stopped. His little brother’s arm and sleeve were also thickly covered in blood. Yugeon’s fingertips began to tremble.
“A-are you hurt?”
When Yugeon asked seriously, Migeon covered his arm with his other hand and slightly turned his body.
“No, just a little…”
But Yugeon approached with a face that said he wasn’t buying it at all and turned his little brother around. There was a long cut below his sleeve. With a dizzy face, Yugeon lifted the blood-stained sleeve and checked the depth of the cut. Fortunately, the wound wasn’t deep. Yugeon, who meticulously examined his little brother’s body here and there to see if there were wounds anywhere else, asked in a trembling voice.
“What on earth happened?”
Migeon, who swallowed a sigh at Yugeon’s face completely covered in anxiety, held Yugeon’s hand to reassure him and smiled.
“There was just a small accident. I just got grazed a little, and Dongha…”
Cutting off Yugeon’s gentle explanation, Dongha yelled angrily.
“How can that be brushed off as a ‘small accident’? I thought that bastard was riding a cleaver blade! What kind of spirit possession did that crazy bastard receive to suddenly do a knife dance like that!”
Yugeon looked at Dongha as if surprised, and Migeon held his forehead as if he had a headache. Yugeon looked back and forth between Dongha and his little brother, then grabbed his little brother and asked urgently.
“A kn-knife, a knife? A knife!”
