He couldn’t say anything, couldn’t react at all.
He called for me? He kept calling for me? He was looking for me in that situation?
Migeon’s face slowly crumbled. He covered his mouth and lowered his head. He couldn’t meet Yugeon’s eyes. He hadn’t been able to help him. He hadn’t heard the call. He was a terrible sinner.
“I’m sorry, I… I’m sorry, hyung. I, I… I’m really sorry…. I’m sorry….”
He really was a terrible sinner.
Yugeon slowly scanned Migeon’s reddened, bloodshot, and heated eyes. He clearly hadn’t cried, but he looked worse than if he had.
His younger brother apologized to him for a long time. Though he had spoken as if blaming his younger brother, it wasn’t his brother’s fault. Absolutely not…. Even though he knew it wasn’t, his brother didn’t stop apologizing, and he couldn’t say it was okay.
“Hyung….”
Migeon, who had been sitting blankly as if exhausted, called out to Yugeon in a low voice. His cracked and hoarse voice was pitiful. When Yugeon, who had been sitting between Migeon’s legs, answered “Yeah,” Migeon grasped Yugeon’s hand then flinched and let go.
It suddenly felt like this person called Lee Yugeon was so weak and fragile that he might crumble without a trace. After hesitating for a moment, Migeon grasped Yugeon’s hand again. Even more carefully and delicately.
“What do you mean you called Imugi… a dragon?”
Yugeon looked at his younger brother quietly, then shook his head.
“…I don’t really know either. But Imugi said so. That I called him a dragon. That’s why he saved me.”
Migeon made a face that showed he couldn’t understand how 10-year-old Lee Yugeon would have known the word ‘dragon.’ But he finally learned the reason why Lee Yugeon had returned alive 17 years ago.
“Dragon….”
When Migeon murmured softly, Yugeon nodded and added.
“He said because I called him a dragon, he couldn’t curse and kill me with peace of mind. Is that why he hates me? Because he can’t kill me? But then why did he find me through the snake liquor? To kill me now?”
“That can’t be…. Imugi has no intention of killing you, hyung.”
“…How do you know that?”
“Imugi said so, didn’t he? That he couldn’t curse and kill you with peace of mind. If he could have killed you, he would have done it 17 years ago.”
“That’s… true, but. Then why can’t he kill me? Looking at how he hates me for calling him a dragon, it doesn’t seem like calling him a dragon gives any special meaning to Imugi….”
“……”
“Do you… know anything?”
Migeon shook his head.
“Father passed away so suddenly that I didn’t hear everything either. But I do know that in order for us to live on this land, we need to keep Imugi here, and the price for that is offering sacrifices once every ten years.”
“From what you’re saying… it sounds like Imugi wanted the sacrifices.”
“?”
“Imugi said… that it’s human, our greed that offers the sacrifices. That it’s not what Imugi wanted, but that we’re voluntarily offering sacrifices….”
“…What?”
Migeon furrowed his brow as if to say what kind of nonsense was that.
“But if we don’t offer sacrifices, Imugi harms the island. The proof is that after you returned alive, the island’s soil and water started to rot….”
“He said that’s because the island’s lifespan is ending.”
“What?”
“Originally this island was land where people couldn’t live. Imugi made it so people could live….”
‘This land… is the Lee family’s property, but what’s built upon it belongs to Imugi.’
Suddenly, words his younger brother had said once before came to mind. Yugeon stared blankly at his younger brother.
“You knew, didn’t you?”
“Huh?”
“You said it before. That this land belongs to the Lee family, but what’s built upon it belongs to Imugi.”
“…I didn’t know it was land where people couldn’t live. I only knew that he created soil that could become a foundation and water that could be drunk.”
“…Anyway, if the reason we’re holding onto Imugi even while offering sacrifices is so we can live on this land… why did they hide the word ‘dragon’ and only offer young children as sacrifices?”
“That’s to prevent Imugi from ascending….”
“I already called him a dragon 17 years ago.”
“……”
Migeon’s jaw dropped slightly.
“Besides, that Imugi said even if he’s called a dragon, he still can’t ascend.”
“…An Imugi who can’t ascend even when called a dragon?”
“Why would we voluntarily offer sacrifices to hold onto such an Imugi?”
Migeon shook his head slowly with a dazed expression.
“I don’t… I don’t know….”
He thought he knew most things about the island, but that had been overconfidence. Rather, it seemed his older brother Lee Yugeon knew more than he did.
And that meant he’d been meeting with Imugi behind his back just as much.
Migeon’s eyes sank deeply.
If Father had been alive, could he have heard all the secrets?
Migeon’s mood sank considerably. But Yugeon, as if unconcerned, tapped his younger brother’s arm and asked.
“Is there any possibility that one of the other village elders might know?”
“That’s unlikely. Unless a direct elder is still alive…. I don’t think they would have told such important things to branch family members. It would be like handing over the family head’s authority.”
“I see….”
“But, that thing that followed you, what is it?”
It was a sudden question. Yugeon quickly raised his head and looked at his younger brother, then furrowed his brow and hesitated before answering.
“…A ghost.”
“A ghost?”
“I told you before that I’ve been seeing ghosts since the talisman burned.”
“Ah, yeah….”
“Now that I think about it, the ghosts were all saying strange things.”
“What?”
“You have something good. Where did you hide it. It’s mine. Things like that.”
“?”
“But among them… one… every time it appeared, it emitted cold energy…. I was… should I say possessed by a ghost… something like that happened. And after that, my stomach started to swell slightly….”
Migeon, who had widened his eyes in surprise at the mention of ghost possession, hurriedly looked at Yugeon’s stomach when he said it started to swell.
“Then I gave birth to something, or… should I say gave birth… I’m not sure. Anyway, something did come out from inside me…. And that… seems to have followed me to the island.”
Migeon alternated between looking at Yugeon’s face and stomach with disbelieving eyes.
He’d heard of ghost possession before. But even with ghost possession, a man’s stomach swelling and giving birth to something?
While Migeon couldn’t take his eyes off Yugeon’s stomach, Yugeon squeezed his eyes shut as if recalling something, then opened them.
‘Here, inside here is mine, and I came out from inside here. Remember?’
“I don’t know if the hangi followed me or if what I gave birth to that day followed me, but somehow I feel like those two things… are the same existence…. And it seems like that was inside Lee Jaeyeong.”
When Lee Jaeyeong’s name came up, Migeon’s face scrunched up badly. Yugeon had said it wasn’t Lee Jaeyeong’s doing, but if a ghost had possessed Lee Jaeyeong, it meant that in the end, Lee Jaeyeong’s body had done those things to Yugeon.
Yugeon slowly raised his hand to touch his solar plexus while looking at his younger brother.
“There seems to be something here.”
“?”
“Some nights I was paralyzed by sleep paralysis all night while something dug through my solar plexus.”
“……”
“Today… that hangi said it would devour me too. And it seemed to touch something around my solar plexus, I felt like something inside my body was being stolen….”
Yugeon was silent for a moment, but soon continued.
“I vaguely understood.”
“What…?”
“If all of this is stolen, I’ll die.”
“…What?”
Migeon’s face turned deathly pale.
Looking at his younger brother’s face changing as if he might die at any moment, Yugeon closed his eyes as if in pain. One breath. He didn’t tell his younger brother that he had exactly one breath left. No, he couldn’t tell him.
Migeon sat blankly beside the sleeping Yugeon.
Yugeon said Imugi had chased away the ghost that tormented him. But he’d only chased it away, not dealt with it. It would still be wandering somewhere on the island. It would try to reach Yugeon again at any time.
He didn’t know why Imugi saved him today when he said he hated him, but next time he might truly just watch him die.
Migeon raised his knees and buried his face.
How on earth do I block a ghost? How do I protect hyung?
Hyung might die….
He wanted to scream and cry.
After sitting for a long time with his face buried in his knees, Migeon suddenly raised his head and looked somewhere. Then he hurriedly ran outside. The place Migeon headed was in front of the slope leading up to the bamboo forest. Migeon looked up at the slope, swallowed dryly once, then began climbing toward the bamboo forest.
Migeon, who had pushed through the darkness where he couldn’t see an inch ahead and entered the center of the bamboo forest, began shouting with all his might.
“You’re here, aren’t you?”
“Please answer me!”
“Sangun-nim, please!”
Migeon’s shouts that echoed throughout the bamboo forest soon became desperate cries.
Please protect hyung, please, protect hyung from the ghost.
But the quiet bamboo forest didn’t give an answer.
The tiger only watched Migeon quietly from the darkness.
Then with an unimpressed face, it snorted, lowered its chin onto its stacked front paws, and closed its eyes.
‘Who does he think he is, calling me Sangun on his own.’
The egg ghost standing beside it screeched persistently. The tiger’s closed eyes twitched, then as if annoyed by the noise, it swung its tail and smacked the back of the egg ghost’s head, and the egg ghost fell forward and rolled away.
The tiger seemed to think “oops” as it opened one eye slightly and checked on the egg ghost. It would be a bit troublesome if that thing scurried off to tattle. Fortunately, the egg ghost that had rolled far away got up abruptly, then ran back squeaking as if protesting. The tiger closed its eyes in relief and snorted.
This was a human matter. There was no reason or need for it to get involved. The whim from last time was enough. Besides, even if it dealt with that ghost fetus, the energy remaining in Lee Yugeon’s body would scatter and disappear soon anyway.
It didn’t want to lend its efforts to meaningless, troublesome, and pointless matters.
