You Knew All Along, Didn't You?
Neoul came to a creaking halt.
“You mean you chanted a spell and made rabbit liver?”
Was Baek Yuri a shaman or a witch, like the Sea Witch?
As Neoul drifted into this absurd thought, Baek Yuri handed the box over.
“No, not that kind of spell… Anyway, there’s a thing for that. If you buy it online, they send it by delivery.”
Neoul opened the lid. Inside was something dark reddish, vacuum-sealed in plastic.
“I couldn’t exactly bring this to the dorm and hand it over there, so I called you here. The ice pack is still cold, so it shouldn’t have spoiled.”
“Is this truly rabbit liver?”
“Yes. It’s one kilogram.”
Neoul looked stunned and clutched the cooler box to his chest with both arms. His nose tingled.
So this is the miracle medicine that will save Father!
How had he obtained something so precious?
Neoul, who had assumed there would still be a great deal of time to waste, was at once overjoyed and dazed.
“Thank you. Rabbit… no, Baek Yuri-seonsaeng. But what is this?”
Neoul asked, noticing the small medicine box placed beside the vacuum-sealed liver. Baek Yuri touched his forehead and explained a little awkwardly.
“It’s a dewormer. Medicine to get rid of parasites. You probably won’t be making fire underwater, and I’m guessing you’ll eat it raw… just in case.”
He wasn’t sure whether the Dragon King would truly need deworming medicine, but on the off chance, he had stopped by the pharmacy and bought it separately.
Then he remembered Neoul trying to eat a chocolate bar without removing the wrapper and hurried to add, “Make sure he doesn’t eat the package. He has to take only what’s inside.”
There was no way to let the Dragon King swallow plastic and vinyl packaging.
At first, Neoul had looked bewildered, but now he nodded happily and began to bow all the way down.
“I shall repay this kindness no matter what. Please receive my bow, seonsaeng.”
“Agh! What are you doing? Get up!”
“I am expressing my gratitude….”
“It’s fine. It wasn’t even expensive.”
As Baek Yuri hurriedly stopped him, he felt relief well up inside. He had thought he’d simply paid money and been scammed when the seller didn’t answer his messages, but fortunately a reply had come the day before, apologizing for the delay.
The rabbit liver that had first been sent by courier was likely spoiled because of the shipping delay, so they had retrieved it and quickly sent a fresh one.
Thanks to that, he’d been able to deliver it to Neoul before it was too late.
“There’s enough, right…? I mean, the Dragon King isn’t so huge that you need to catch a hundred rabbits or something for it to work, is he?”
“...?”
Neoul’s eyes went round. He seemed never to have considered how much would be needed.
Baek Yuri’s expression turned doubtful.
“Should I order more…?”
“What?!”
Neoul’s eyes widened even further.
“You mean you can obtain rabbit liver again?”
“Yes, well…. This is a world where anything can be bought if you have the money. Does the Dragon Palace have delivery or courier services?”
Neoul shook his head at the unfamiliar words.
“I vaguely thought that if intelligent life existed in the deep sea, it would have developed a similar civilization, even if at a somewhat different pace…. But I suppose it must be quite different.”
Baek Yuri turned his gaze toward the road and buildings on the opposite side of the beach. Between the palm trees used as street trees, cars flashed by with loud engines.
“When are you going back to the Dragon Palace?”
“I must return as soon as possible. This amount of liver seems sufficient. Truly, thank you.”
Neoul thanked him again and again.
Baek Yuri turned and met his eyes.
“Then go tell the PD right now that you’re dropping out.”
His tone was firmer than anything Neoul had ever heard from him.
“A team has only just been decided, and practice hasn’t even really started yet. If you’re planning to leave, you need to say so as quickly as possible.”
“Ah….”
At Baek Yuri’s unexpected words, Neoul’s voice trailed off.
As he had come to the beach, he had never imagined that Baek Yuri would hand over the rabbit liver so quickly. He had not expected to be forced back like this before even the first team battle. It was all so sudden, so bewildering.
Neoul thought of the teammates who had been chatting so brightly together.
Woo Cheong, who had been delighted to have a main vocalist.
Baek Gi-yeom, who had helped him, along with Baek Yuri, learn to run and dance.
Daiki, who had been pleased to learn that Neoul could speak Japanese.
And little Ko Un-gu, round and bright-eyed like a penguin.
They had all been kind people, happily pushing meat dumplings and rolled omelets toward him.
He had been too distracted to truly taste the food, but… the smell of it had been rather good.
After a moment’s hesitation, Neoul spoke.
“Baek Yuri-seonsaeng. Since you have kept your promise to give me rabbit liver, I shall keep mine as well. I will go swiftly to the Dragon Palace and then return to rejoin you. I will surely debut together with you.”
“No. There’s no need.”
But Baek Yuri cut him off cleanly.
“I only mentioned debuting because we were in front of the camera. You don’t have to do it. I’m giving you the rabbit liver for free. Even if I didn’t mean to deceive you, not telling the truth from the middle on was still misleading, so think of it as an apology gift and accept it. And honestly, it cost far less than I expected.”
“…….”
Neoul had nothing to say.
It was certainly a good thing.
He should be happy and grateful to receive the rabbit liver without paying any price.
Then why does it feel so disappointing?
Neoul tried to speak again. Even so, since he had received such kindness, he would come back and repay it properly.
But Baek Yuri spoke first.
“You don’t even really know what an idol is, do you? Why are you so boldly talking about debuting when you don’t even know what it means?”
“...!”
“Mermaids should live freely in the sea. Why come up onto complicated land just to take the hard road, of all things?”
Neoul was startled, thinking Baek Yuri must be reading his mind and answering before he could speak.
But Baek Yuri had no such strange superpower. Neoul’s dejected expression was simply too transparent to hide anything.
“Once you debut, even if you want to go back to the sea, you won’t be able to. You’ll be tied to land for years under contract. If you leave on your own, that counts as a breach. Could you really do that with your ailing father waiting for you?”
“Father is strong. He is the Dragon King who ascended the throne the moment he became a dragon and has guarded the sea for more than three thousand years. He will not die so easily.”
Neoul said it quickly, almost defensively.
Baek Yuri watched him with an unconvinced look.
“Can you be sure of that…?”
Neoul fell silent, then slowly shook his head. It was the first time he had ever seen the Dragon King collapse.
His father had always seemed the strongest being in the world.
According to the Sea Witch, a mermaid’s lifespan was about two hundred years, assuming one was not eaten, did not fall ill, and died peacefully of old age.
Compared to dragons who lived for thousands of years, it was a far shorter life—so short it might as well have been nothing at all. If one of them were to leave first, it would naturally be Neoul.
That was why he had never once imagined that, while he still lived, he would see his father looking weak. In truth, he still could not fully believe that the Dragon King was in grave danger.
Once he returned to the Dragon Palace, it felt as though his father would simply rise, perfectly fine, and roar at him for wandering off somewhere dangerous again.
“Still… Father is a strong man. Once he eats the rabbit liver, he’ll get right back up as though nothing ever happened.”
He had believed that all his life, and he still wanted to believe it now. Neoul’s voice, lacking conviction, sounded small and gloomy.
Baek Yuri tried to persuade him gently.
“I want you to make a choice you won’t regret, Neoul. And if you’re exposed as a mermaid, the world would explode. It’d be almost on the level of discovering aliens.”
“…….”
“Bad people might put you on display in an aquarium and use you to make money, or lock you up and draw your blood every day while researching and observing you. There are so many frightening people in this world.”
Wasn’t it always like that in movies? And reality was usually even crueler than the movies.
There were plenty of selfish humans who cared only about their own rights and didn’t give a damn about anyone else’s. So how would they treat a life that wasn’t human at all?
It would be a blessing if they only designated him a natural monument and protected him.
Baek Yuri’s mind kept drifting to awful images—people tearing through the sea because they thought there might be more mermaids, or trying to attract tourists by putting on mermaid shows.
But Neoul didn’t really understand why Yuri was trying to stop him.
Every human he’d met so far had been kind to him.
Neoul tilted his head, puzzled.
Even the choreographer who had barked at his dancing had, after seeing how hard he worked, seemed to take pity on him and brought him a few extra bottles of water.
And Baek Yuri, standing here now, had gone to the trouble of getting rabbit liver for him and worrying about him.
Father’s subjects said humans slaughtered mermaids to obtain mermaid oil…
Neoul simply could not believe it.
He thought of the quiet deep sea and the busy Dragon Palace. In the palace, everyone had been busy except him. Even the youngest prince, Morae, had been occupied with training to become a dragon, while Neoul had nothing to do but eat, sleep, and play.
That was why he often defied the Dragon King’s order not to go out and secretly slipped away from the palace.
For him, the time he had spent on land…
there hadn’t been a single moment to be bored.
This beautiful other world. A paradise where light overflowed from the sky, from the buildings filling the city, and even from people’s eyes.
The more he learned, the more curious he became.
What exactly was an idol, that so many people wanted to become one so desperately, sweating and striving and dancing until they were drenched?
That was why he did not want this to end here.
Then it happened.
Swish! A thin stream of water splashed against the back of Neoul’s head.
Startled, he whirled around.
“?!”
The Sea Witch stood there, aiming at him with a tiny dolphin-shaped water gun in one hand. The corners of her mouth curved into a sly grin.
“Your Highness. Want me to take that for you?”
Lowering her hand, the Sea Witch pointed with her chin at the cooler box Neoul had been clutching so tightly.
With a bewitching smile on her lips, she strode closer, her heels clicking.
“I’ll go deliver it. You just keep doing what you were doing here.”
At that moment, Neoul warned Baek Yuri.
“Baek Yuri-seonsaeng. Do not make a sound.”
“...?”
Baek Yuri looked back and forth between the Sea Witch and Neoul, tense.
When did she appear? Does he know her? Why can’t I speak? Is she dangerous?
The Sea Witch’s black bob brushed the nape of her neck as it swayed. The ends of her hair stuck out slightly, and her bangs covered only half her forehead.
She flicked the dolphin-shaped water gun toward Baek Yuri. He caught it reflexively.
Having emptied her hands, the Sea Witch held one out to Neoul.
“Give it here.”
“Sea Witch. Before that, I have a question.”
Neoul lifted the cooler box high above his head and dodged her hand.
Baek Yuri was a little startled when he heard the words “Sea Witch,” the woman who had helped Neoul. From the name alone, he had imagined someone like a hermit dressed as a shaman, but the woman before him looked like a movie actress on a red carpet—stunning, glamorous, and impossible to ignore.
Her half-lidded eyes gave off something faintly strange and arrogant, almost languid.
“When I said I had found the rabbit, why did you not tell me the truth—that it was not a real rabbit?”
At Neoul’s words, Baek Yuri flinched and took a step back. Neoul glanced at him once, then turned his gaze back to the Sea Witch.
“Sea Witch, you knew everything, didn’t you?”