Imugi’s actions of licking his hands and mouth were infinitely careful and gentle, but Yugeon had no time to feel such attentiveness. He just felt like his intestines were all spilling down below in time with Imugi’s thrusts, then being pushed back up and crushed.
Imugi maintained the repeated thrusts while burrowing deeper and deeper into Yugeon. Every time a place that hadn’t been reached was pried open, Yugeon heard sounds like rip, rip in his ears, as if flesh was tearing. He was even frightened that the outside and inside of his body might turn inside out, centered on the hole.
Wheeze, wheeze—rough breathing leaked from Yugeon’s throat. It sounded almost like an old man’s breathing. Yugeon now seemed to have no strength left to resist and let his whole body go limp.
When Yugeon’s struggling movements stopped, Imugi looked at Yugeon and ejaculated inside him. After thrusting upward inside several times while ejaculating, Imugi pulled out the pair of members, and Yugeon trembled as if having a seizure while letting out a faint moan.
Imugi grabbed and lifted both of Yugeon’s ankles to examine Yugeon’s hole.
“Still okay for now.”
At Imugi’s muttering, Yugeon, who had his eyes half-closed, looked at Imugi slowly. Imugi positioned himself again and pushed the pair of members back in.
“It would be troublesome if you broke already when this is just the beginning.”
Yugeon, who was being shaken helplessly beneath Imugi, felt the sensation of everything around him growing distant from him. His vision grew distant, sounds grew distant, sensations grew distant, then the floor gave way and he felt like he was falling backward into endless darkness.
At the same time, thunder and the roar of heavy rain rang loudly in his ears.
Cold streams of rain struck his face. Yugeon raised his head with hazy eyes.
Writhing black scales, a body undulating as if swimming, a majesty that seemed impossible to look up at. It was like a dragon, but something that couldn’t be called a dragon…
‘It’s a dragon.’
A young voice rang somewhere in his head.
Rain pouring down in sheets. A black dragon ascending to heaven.
Yes, that day. What he had seen on that hill…
“It’s a dragon…”
At the faint muttering, Imugi’s actions stopped. Imugi slowly raised his head to look at Yugeon. Something that had been faintly flickering reflected in Yugeon’s two pupils, which were blankly staring into space, rapidly faded away.
“……”
Imugi carefully reached out and pressed Yugeon’s solar plexus.
He could no longer feel any energy.
Imugi looked at Yugeon’s face again.
“……”
He was dead.
Imugi, who had been looking at Yugeon silently, stroked Yugeon’s cheek and murmured.
“I hate you. I despise you. I despise you…”
Imugi gritted his teeth at Yugeon’s appearance with life completely extinguished, then slowly closed his eyes.
Once every ten years, he flies up taking advantage of the pitch-black darkness.
That day seventeen years ago was the same.
After confirming the child was standing on the hill by the Dragon Pond, he began his ascension as always. He called forth thunder and lightning that shook everything around as if to hide his form and brought down torrential rain. Through it all, he could faintly hear the child’s panting breath, feverish and delirious.
The Imugi who rose from the lake into the sky looked at the heaven he yearned for and squeezed his eyes shut.
The inner core in his hand would soon shatter. And he would plummet back into the lake as if being sucked in.
“It’s a dragon.”
But the child’s voice, heard low as if breathing out a final breath, neither shattered his inner core nor sent his body plummeting to the lake.
Imugi checked on the child with disbelieving eyes.
“?”
The child was gone. He had definitely been standing on that hill just moments ago.
The Imugi who had stopped his ascension came down not to the lake but to the silver grass field and headed to where the child had been standing. And he discovered the child collapsed among the silver grass. Imugi, who had been looking at the child silently, lowered his body to check on the child.
Imugi’s fingertips twitched.
The child had already stopped breathing.
“……”
After looking at the child for a long while, Imugi pushed his own inner core, held in his hand, into the child’s mouth.
The stopped breath opened again, and body temperature began to return to the body that had grown cold.
Like that time seventeen years ago, the inner core was once again held in Imugi’s hand. And he pushed it again into the mouth of Yugeon, whose breath had stopped.
Yugeon’s stopped breath opened again.
Imugi buried his forehead against Yugeon’s solar plexus and muttered.
“I hate you… You’re lovely and I hate you. As much as I hate you, you’re lovely, and as much as you’re lovely, I hate you.”
I hate you because you called me a dragon, and you’re lovely because you called me a dragon.
So I will revive you again and again, again and again.
“You too must suffer for a thousand years.”
Like me.
Leaving behind Yugeon, who was gradually stabilizing, Imugi stood up. And he looked around the cave and muttered.
“He can’t live here…”
Not in this barren and dark cave.
***
Migeon, who opened his eyes in the morning, was startled by the empty space beside him and sat up.
“Hyung?”
He urgently felt the bedding, but the spot was cold. Looking around the room as if flustered, Migeon quickly got up and searched throughout the house. But Yugeon was nowhere in the house.
Migeon’s face quickly turned deathly pale.
Had Imugi summoned hyung again?
Migeon rushed out of the house.
The place Migeon was heading was the Dragon Pond at the top of the island. Migeon’s eyes suddenly turned yellow as he ran frantically toward the back of the island, and he urgently stopped when he saw something ahead.
Something was standing in the middle of an eerie path shrouded in forest shadows.
“?”
Migeon frowned while looking at it with bright yellow eyes.
It was a skeletal man with dark blue skin. He was completely naked, and the area above his mouth was jet black as if painted with ink, so his face wasn’t visible.
The thing that was standing swaying slowly turned its head toward Migeon.
And after staring at Migeon intently, it pointed a finger at him and began cackling while bending backward to the waist.
— Hehe, you came on your own two feet?
As if something was so delightful, it even hopped up and down in place.
Migeon unconsciously flinched and stepped backward. Somehow goosebumps ran down his spine.
The thing that had been cackling stopped laughing abruptly at Migeon’s reaction and tilted its head so far its ear almost touched its shoulder.
— What? That’s strange?
And it began approaching one step at a time, then started running straight at Migeon. Migeon quickly turned his body to avoid it, and the thing that passed by Migeon as if rolling came to a swaying stop, turned its head to look at Migeon. Then it grinned widely and asked.
— You can see me?
“……”
Migeon swallowed dry saliva.
— You can see me. Right?
The thing slowly turned its body toward Migeon. Then it rushed at Migeon again as if charging. The thing reached out toward Migeon, and Migeon instinctively covered his face with his arms. Long, deep lacerations were left on his crossed arms.
The thing giggled and attacked Migeon several more times. It didn’t discriminate between face or body. Each time, dozens of lacerations were left on Migeon’s body.
The thing swung its arm at Migeon once more, and Migeon unconsciously reached out and grabbed the thing’s arm.
“?”
— ?
Both Migeon and the thing stopped in surprise at the same time.
The thing looked at Migeon, who was holding it, with its pitch-black face. Migeon was looking at the thing’s arm he was holding with a disbelieving expression. The thing immediately twisted its hand to attack Migeon’s hand that was gripping its arm, and Migeon, who was attacked unexpectedly, released the thing’s arm in surprise.
The thing, which had put distance between itself and Migeon, tilted its head once more and stared at Migeon intently. Then it tasted the piece of Migeon’s flesh remaining on its fingernail.
The thing that had been slowly savoring the taste gradually opened its mouth and looked at Migeon as if entranced.
— You’re different, aren’t you? Your flesh and blood are different. You’ve been newly formed?
When Migeon flinched and frowned, the thing laughed maniacally and rushed at Migeon again, shouting.
— I was going to kill you and throw you away, but I should eat you too. After eating Lee Yugeon, I should eat you too!
At the thing’s manic declaration, Migeon’s eyes widened. Migeon looked straight at the thing.
‘It’s you.’
That single phrase circled in his mouth.
The thing that had been tormenting hyung all along, starting with the disappearance of the talisman. Hangi.
Hangi aggressively swung its hand at Migeon. If he didn’t dodge or block it, it would leave a large wound on his face. But Migeon didn’t avoid it. While offering his face completely, he instead grabbed Hangi’s throat in one swift motion.
— !
Hangi, whose throat was grabbed in an instant, showed signs of being flustered.
— Wha, what…
Hangi tried to remove Migeon’s hand gripping its throat. But Migeon struck away Hangi’s hands and grabbed Hangi’s throat with both hands, beginning to strangle it as if twisting.
— Gak! Kuh, keurk…!
Hangi flailed both hands frantically as if flustered. Its throat felt like it would be torn off rather than just strangled. Hangi wildly scratched and clawed at Migeon’s face, hands, and arms with hands whose fingernails had grown sharp.
Rather than faltering or loosening the strength in his hands, Migeon strangled Hangi’s throat even more strongly. When the bright yellow pupils flickering with rage didn’t leave it, Hangi felt fear for the first time.
— Uaak! Uaaaak!
Hangi, who had been screaming and struggling wildly, barely shook off Migeon’s hands and fled desperately. The place Hangi fled to was an abandoned house not far away. It was also the place where Lee Jaeyeong had been hiding. Hangi ran into the innermost small room of the abandoned house and hid behind Lee Jaeyeong, who was sleeping curled up on a worn blanket.
Its body, curled up tightly, trembled violently. Hangi kept looking at the doorway with frightened eyes. It worried about what would happen if Migeon followed it, but even after waiting a long while, Migeon didn’t come.
