“That’s enough now, tell me.”
Yugeon, who had been obediently led by Migeon’s hand, shook off Migeon’s hand as soon as they arrived home and entered through the windbreak door, urging him.
“Hyung, first calm down…”
“Migeon!”
“……”
“Is my aunt really my mother?”
“…Yeah.”
When Migeon finally affirmed it, Yugeon made a face that said he couldn’t understand.
“Why on earth…”
“……”
“Why on earth did you hide that? Was there a reason to hide that I’m aunt’s son?”
“……”
“Then what the hell is father? Is he my uncle? Did my uncle raise me instead because my mother passed away? Who’s my real dad?”
Migeon slowly shook his head.
He thought even his little brother might not know about his real father’s existence. But.
“Father is hyung’s biological father.”
“What?”
“Hyung… you’re a child born between aunt and father.”
“…What?”
Yugeon stared blankly at his little brother, then covered his mouth as if shocked and staggered. Both his eyes shook miserably. Surprised, Migeon tried to catch Yugeon, but before that, Yugeon braced himself on the porch and collapsed as if crumbling.
“What does that… mean…”
Migeon looked at his own hand that had stopped futilely in mid-air for a moment, then sat down next to Yugeon.
“You asked, hyung. How the island’s secret doesn’t leak outside.”
“?”
Yugeon looked at Migeon.
“The children who will become sacrifices are all born between siblings, between cousins. So there’s no trouble even if they die.”
Yugeon’s face gradually became colored with horror and twisted miserably. Then, as if realizing something, he yelled angrily.
“I, I wasn’t a sacrifice, right? You said the sacrifice was Jaeyeong!”
“That’s right. You’re not a sacrifice, hyung. It’s just… the two of them loved each other.”
Yugeon’s face turned pale. Even though he wasn’t a sacrifice, they loved each other as siblings and gave birth to him?
“What is that…? That’s disgusting…. Dirty!”
“Why is it dirty…? Why is it disgusting?”
“What?”
“At one time, everyone on this island practiced incestuous marriage. To protect the island’s secret.”
Yugeon made a horrified face.
“Then too many sick children were born, so they started marrying outsiders. They brought in people with no family ties and married them, but marrying outsiders created problems with the sacrifices. How many people could kill their own child for an island they have no connection to?”
How many could there be? There was no way there could be any.
“At first, they lied that the child was stillborn and sent them to be raised by other families, but that had its limits too. If only outsiders’ children were stillborn once every 10 years, someone would notice and start to suspect, and it would become uncontrollable. Some people said they should just confess all the secrets and persuade them to get consent, but persuasion wouldn’t be easy either, and if they rashly told the island’s secret, they might run away from the island and spread the word. So…”
“So?”
“So they decided that only the children who would become sacrifices would continue to be born among the islanders. Since they were going to die anyway, it didn’t matter whether they were born sick or not.”
“How can that be…? How could they do such a thing… Were the islanders… okay with it…? Even if their own children died to the Imugi?”
“There are people who aren’t okay with it. Especially, things changed after giving birth to the child.”
“?”
“So just in case, in the year when they make a child to become a sacrifice, at least two or more households get pregnant together.”
“…What?”
“If the person carrying the sacrifice seems to have special affection for the child, they immediately switch the newborn baby. To another family. And they raise them without knowing who the sacrifice is until they turn 10. Only the person raising the child and the head of the family know.”
“That’s… possible? Parents… can’t not recognize their own child.”
Migeon faced Yugeon and stroked his cheek.
“All the islanders look alike. Because they’re all connected by blood. My child would of course resemble me, but they also resemble others. I can suspect whether it’s my child, but I can’t be certain.”
Yugeon slowly shook his head. As if shaking off Migeon’s hand.
“This is strange…. It’s not sane…”
“It might feel that way to you, hyung, who grew up outside, but on this island, it’s natural.”
“……”
Migeon grabbed Yugeon’s chin to make him look straight at him.
“That’s why I’m in love with you too.”
“…What?”
“I like you.”
The moment he thought their faces were getting closer, their lips touched.
“Like grandmother and grandfather, like father and aunt, I love you, hyung. I’ve always longed for you.”
Migeon, who whispered over his lips, embraced the completely stiffened Yugeon and kissed him deeply again.
His mind became distant. It wasn’t because of his little brother’s kiss.
Grandmother and grandfather, father and aunt.
It was because he could finally understand his little brother’s word ‘siblings.’
* * *
“Cough.”
Migeon opened his eyes at the sound of his hyung’s cough. Everywhere was still dark.
“Cough, cough.”
The coughing sound kept ringing out. Between the coughs, wheezing breaths were mixed in. Migeon looked at the back of Yugeon, who was lying on his side with his back to him, then put strength into the arm around his waist and pulled him in. Yugeon was pulled weakly, and his back and chest, which had been close enough to touch, met.
Migeon completely pulled Yugeon into his arms and felt his forehead.
“?”
It was hot. Migeon half sat up and called Yugeon.
“Hyung?”
The two eyes that had been closed as if dead opened, and the two eyes heated with fever turned toward Migeon. But they soon closed weakly.
Migeon quickly got up, turned on the light, and examined Yugeon. A body soaked in cold sweat, a mouth breathing out hot, shallow breaths with difficulty, furrowed eyes, a face flushed from fever. Yugeon’s condition was not normal.
“Hyung? Hyung?”
Migeon called Yugeon as if flustered while grabbing his shoulder and shaking it a few times, but Yugeon only swayed weakly following the touch and didn’t open his eyes.
Migeon urgently went to the kitchen and came back with medicine and water. He sat Yugeon up, made him lean against him, and tried to give him medicine, but Yugeon couldn’t properly swallow even a sip of water.
Without time to hesitate, Migeon put water in his own mouth and kissed Yugeon to pour the water in. When the water poured in little by little pooled in his mouth, Yugeon finally swallowed the medicine and water. Migeon, who exhaled a sigh of relief as if catching his breath, felt Yugeon’s forehead again. As if feeling the touch, Yugeon called his little brother as if mumbling.
“Geon-ah…”
“Yeah.”
“Geon-ah……”
In the tender call was a faint fear. It was the fear of the unknown that a lost person has. Migeon gritted his teeth and embraced Yugeon.
“Yeah, I’m here.”
Yugeon faintly opened his eyes, then closed them again and wrapped his arms around his little brother who was embracing him.
He had a fever, his throat hurt, and his body was heavy, but it wasn’t pain.
Both his body and mind were overloaded.
And there was no way his little brother Migeon wouldn’t know that. That’s why the firm arms embracing him were trembling like this.
“Don’t worry, hyung. Don’t think… Just accept it. Accept me.”
Migeon was also wandering in the fear of the lost unknown. Only Migeon and Lee Yugeon were adrift in this dark vast sea. So he hoped he would hold his hand. His one and only hyung, his one and only sibling, to hold his hand.
He didn’t know when he fell asleep. Migeon drowsily opened his eyes at the sensation of his arm being pulled.
“Did you wake up?”
A voice hoarse and cracked asked. Migeon realized it was Yugeon’s voice and came to his senses with a start. He was sitting leaning diagonally against the wall, and Yugeon was in his arms. It seemed he had briefly fallen asleep while holding his sick hyung all through dawn.
Migeon felt Yugeon’s forehead. It had gone down a lot compared to dawn, but a slight fever remained.
He was thinking he should feed him breakfast and give him medicine again while loosening his hands when Yugeon said.
“I’m hungry.”
“Yeah, let’s eat.”
Migeon nodded and tried to get up. But Yugeon tightly embraced Migeon’s waist and pressed down with his weight to prevent him from getting up.
“Hyung?”
Migeon held Yugeon’s shoulders as if puzzled and called him, and Yugeon quietly embraced Migeon’s waist, then buried his forehead in his chest.
“I still don’t really know. I understand what you want from me, but I don’t know how to do it, what’s right, and I don’t know if it’s right to keep staying on this island.”
“……”
Yugeon raised his head to look at Migeon.
“If I asked you to leave the island together, would you leave?”
Migeon visibly flinched, then slowly, very slowly shook his head with a face that seemed to be suppressing something.
Yugeon seemed to furrow his brow, then soon let out a sigh. And he released the arms holding Migeon and pulled his body away. Surprised, Migeon urgently grabbed Yugeon.
“Where, where are you going…?”
Yugeon stared intently at his little brother like that, then removed his hands and stood up.
“Where would I go?”
“?”
Eyes that were shaking anxiously kept following Yugeon.
“I’m going to make food.”
“…Huh?”
“There are tons of things I don’t understand… but I don’t want to leave you alone, and I don’t want to unconditionally condemn you as being wrong. So, if you’re going to stay on the island, I’ll stay on the island too.”
After finishing speaking gently, Yugeon went to the kitchen, but Migeon couldn’t move from that spot. He just sat there blankly, still leaning against the wall. It felt like a small raft called Lee Yugeon had approached him as he drifted on a dark sea.
A moment later, clattering sounds began from the kitchen. Migeon came to his senses with a start and rushed out urgently.
“I’ll do it, hyung!”
