After finishing the call with his younger brother, Yugeon immediately packed his luggage. Though the entire situation was confusing, only one thing circled in his mind.
He could return to the island.
Having packed the bare minimum of necessities and left the house as if fleeing, Yugeon took a bus toward the dock his younger brother had mentioned. It was a distance that took 2 hours, transferring buses twice. Sitting anxiously at quite a distance, just looking out the window, the phone in his hand started vibrating.
Yugeon hurriedly checked the caller. He wondered if it might be his younger brother. But the caller was Choi Jacheol. Only then did Yugeon realize he’d left without saying anything to Choi Jacheol or his mart colleagues.
“Hello.”
[Yugeon, you up?]
“Yes, Ahjussi, um… I’m going back to the island.”
[What? Really?]
“Yes.”
[When are you going? I should see your face before you go.]
“Ah… I’m on my way there now…”
[Now? You’re going now? You’re on your way?]
“Yes… I left in such a rush that I forgot to say goodbye.”
[No way… Are you leaving for good? You’re not coming back?]
“I don’t know…”
[What about your room? Did you cancel it?]
“Ah…!”
[You really are going recklessly, aren’t you?]
“Mm… I’ll go to the island first, and if the problem is resolved, I’ll decide whether to stay on the island or come back. I’d like to come back if possible…”
[Right. You need to have a home to come back to.]
“Yes.”
[Alright, then have a safe trip. Keep in touch.]
“Yes, I’ll go and come back. Please explain things well to Imo and the others too.”
[Sure.]
After ending the call, Yugeon let his hand holding the phone drop and stared blankly out the window.
He deliberately didn’t mention that his father had passed away. He thought they might come to pay condolences. He didn’t want to cause any more worry.
After traveling for 2 hours, he arrived at a small dock. Perhaps because it was remote and small, there weren’t many people around.
Yugeon looked around the quiet dock searching for a familiar face. Imokdo was a place without regular ferry service, so it could only be reached by the residents’ fishing boats. He wondered if his younger brother would come out in person, but his brother said he was busy with funeral matters and would send other people.
Yugeon’s gaze, which had been looking here and there, stopped at one spot. It was because he saw two faces that weren’t familiar but somewhat recognizable. They were adults from the island who had come to see him periodically until he became an adult.
When their eyes met, the two looked Yugeon over with uncomfortable faces, but soon raised their hands with awkward faces and called Yugeon’s name.
“Yugeon.”
It was proof they had come to meet him. Yugeon deliberately hid his awkwardness and greeted them, and soon was able to board the fishing boat they had brought.
The fishing boat carrying Yugeon soon left the dock and started running. If they were on friendly terms, there would have been conversation like “how have you been” or “have you been well,” but all that passed between the three people was silence. Occasionally, only whispers passed between the two people excluding Yugeon.
After running for about forty minutes from the dock, an island could be seen in the distance. He remembered it as a small island, but it was bigger than he thought. Imokdo was an island with an area of 0.45 square kilometers, with sea cliffs developed along the coast here and there, and scarce flatlands. From afar, it looked like a large mountain standing tall on the sea. The boat soon docked at Imokdo’s only pier, and Yugeon set foot on his hometown island for the first time in 17 years.
The two people who moored the boat left without a word of greeting to Yugeon, and Yugeon, who had been watching their retreating backs, turned his gaze to look around the scenery of the dock. At the dock, people who appeared to be islanders could be seen sparsely, and without exception, the gazes looking at him were not kind.
Yugeon swallowed dry saliva without realizing it.
Surely Imokdo was a clan village of the Lee family. The people living on the island were all people of the Lee family. Yet now, the gazes looking at him were all hostile without exception. As if looking at an unfamiliar outsider, wary and cautious of outsiders. Why? He was also a Lee, and they should be one family…
“Hyung.”
Just as the gazes were becoming uncomfortable, he heard a voice calling him. It was a soft and neat voice that was pleasant to hear. When he turned his head, a tall young man with a handsome face was standing there.
As if mocking a life under the sun with nowhere to hide, he was a young man with distinctly white skin. When their eyes met, the young man smiled and approached. The closer he got, the more Yugeon’s head tilted up.
“It’s been a while, Hyung.”
The young man greeted him while taking Yugeon’s luggage.
“…Mi, Migeon?”
“Yeah.”
At the other party’s affirmation, Yugeon was at a loss for words and wits.
With a five-year age gap, he had been a younger brother who always clung to his arm looking up at him. That young brother had become a tall young man beyond recognition.
Around the time he turned six, a newborn baby that his father suddenly brought, calling him his younger brother. That was Lee Migeon. Since there was no mother, since his father had always been alone, even at a young age he had implicitly thought: He’s probably not a full brother.
He didn’t know well when he was young, but seeing him now, he seemed to know for certain. His younger brother Lee Migeon didn’t resemble anyone on the island, including himself. Just his height alone—wasn’t he standing tall all by himself?
After lightly greeting the people at the dock, Migeon grabbed the dazed Yugeon.
“Let’s go, Hyung.”
“Huh? Oh…”
Yugeon moved his feet as if being dragged. Just as he was about to be flustered by the strangely forceful touch, once they left the dock and entered a small path, the hand that had been holding him cleanly fell away. At the same time, the unkind gazes that had been clinging to him also stopped being felt. Yugeon turned around to look at the dock once. But because the road curved, the dock wasn’t visible. His shoulders, which had been stiff with tension, relaxed all at once.
Yugeon sighed softly and looked at his younger brother. His brother was silently looking straight ahead.
“Father… what happened to him?”
Migeon only rolled his eyes to look at Yugeon.
“He went out on a boat.”
Though he didn’t finish the sentence, Yugeon tightly closed his eyes as if he knew the rest without hearing it.
“…How did you decide to do the funeral?”
“The funeral has already been held.”
“What?”
It was bewildering that the funeral had already been held when he said he was calling him to hold the funeral.
“You already held it… Where did you enshrine him? I should at least go visit the grave…”
“We did a sea burial, of course. We can’t be buried on this island.”
“…A sea burial? What do you mean we can’t be buried on the island?”
At Yugeon’s question, Migeon stared at Yugeon intently. Then he turned his gaze to look straight ahead again. There was no answer. When no answer came back even after waiting, Yugeon tried to ask again, but the profile that wouldn’t look at him seemed too much like a stranger for him to ask further.
“Um… what happened to the talisman by any chance?”
“Talisman?”
“I asked Father to send me a talisman… You don’t know?”
Migeon shook his head with an innocent face, then made a face that needed explanation. Yugeon looked at the ground, contemplating where and how to start explaining.
“There was a talisman that Grandmother gave me… but it got damaged somehow. After that, I kept seeing strange things… I thought it might be because of the talisman, so I asked Father to send me another one, but even though he said he would, no matter how long I waited, he didn’t send it. I couldn’t contact him either.”
Migeon sighed softly.
“The waves have been rough the past few days, so we couldn’t launch a boat. Communication with the mainland wasn’t working well either.”
Yugeon raised his head to look at his younger brother.
“Was that so…?”
The questioning voice had softened somewhere. His father hadn’t been ignoring him.
“Besides, if it was a talisman Grandmother gave you, it would have been one she wrote herself…”
“Grandmother…?”
“Yeah. She was a shaman.”
Yugeon’s eyes widened. It was the first time he’d heard this.
“Wh-where is Grandmother now?”
It was a question that implicitly contained “Is she on the island?”, but the answer that came back was unexpected.
“She passed away.”
“……”
Bewilderment crossed Yugeon’s eyes. Not just because Grandmother had passed away, but because the face of his brother answering was too alien. A face showing no emotion, as if conveying someone else’s story. The matter-of-fact voice delivering his father’s obituary momentarily flashed through his mind.
Did he have this face then too?
“Grandmother… was she also given a sea burial?”
“Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you tell me then?”
“Because Father was there.”
“?”
“Father was the only one who could contact Hyung. Father was also the only one who could call Hyung to the island.”
“?”
“Because he was the head of the family. Father had all the decision-making authority over the island’s overall affairs.”
“Ah.”
“Hyung… why did you never once think to visit the island?”
“…I didn’t know the location. I left the island when I was too young… Even when I searched the internet, it didn’t come up.”
“Well… It’s a privately owned, closed island. It’s not well known to the outside.”
“This island is private property?”
“You didn’t know? The island itself is owned by the direct line of the Lee family.”
This was also the first time he’d heard this fact. He knew it was a clan village of the Lee family, but he didn’t know the island itself was privately owned. Then, thinking that his father who was the family head had been the owner of the island, Yugeon suddenly wondered who was the family head now that his father who was the head had passed away, and looked at his younger brother.
As if reading Yugeon’s question, Migeon smiled gently.
“Father’s only direct family left are now just you and me, Hyung.”
It was like cold water being poured on his head. Only him and his younger brother? For a moment, he wondered if the reason his brother called him was because of inheritance rights.
“I did inherit the position of family head and the ownership of the island for now, but if Hyung wants to become the family head, I don’t mind. I’m not Father’s biological child anyway.”
“What? No, why are you saying that?”
“I also want Hyung to inherit the position and stay on the island.”
