Fish (3)
Meanwhile, Baek Yuri instantly realized that the “guardian” Neoul had mentioned was the Sea Witch. And he was surprised that she knew Won Hasin, the CEO. More than that, she was in a position where she could order him around.
“……”
After learning what he could about Won Hasin, Neoul thought it over for a moment and then stood up.
“For now, I believe it would be best to go and see him.”
He couldn’t keep imposing on them forever. And since Baek Namu had flatly opposed the idea of sleeping rough, there was no chance he could spend the time before filming on the street, either.
As for why he had complained that Won Hasin hadn’t come himself, that had only been because he was prickly about being called a fish. He had never meant to truly order some stranger around. Neoul wasn’t that rude.
Dong-dong Gyeomsabok’s behavior in summoning the Sea Witch so carelessly is a little vexing, though….
Neoul was not, by nature, the sort to hold onto negative feelings for long. He was generally easygoing in any situation. A foolish retainer’s slip of the tongue was something he could easily forgive.
If Baek Yuri’s assessment of Won Hasin wasn’t bad, if he seemed to speak comfortably with Dong-dong Gyeomsabok, an outsider, and if he was considerate enough to prepare a Korean tutor in advance for someone who had come from the sea…
Then it should be all right to go and meet him.
Now that he had reached a decision, he moved at once.
Neoul packed away the baggage he had left open and grabbed his suitcase.
“Oh, right, Neoul! I saved my number and Yuri’s in your phone!”
Baek Gi-yeom reminded him that he could call anytime if he needed help.
Neoul thanked him and stepped out the front door.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Dong-dong Gyeomsabok had been as flustered as ever when she first met Neoul, and when he came downstairs, her face lit up and her eyes gleamed. But the moment they got into the car, she clamped her mouth shut and fell silent. She seemed to be constantly watching Song Secretary’s face.
About thirty minutes later, they arrived at a house behind a tall stone wall.
A man greeted Neoul, his hair slicked so tightly back with pomade that not a single strand was out of place, black sunglasses on his face.
He even came out to the gate in slippers to meet him, but the way he stood was crooked and lazy.
“You’re here, fish.”
“……”
What an impudent man.
“If filming’s over, you should’ve stayed put instead of wandering off and making a mess of things for everyone, huh?”
Neoul got out of the car and looked down at him with narrowed eyes. The man’s first impression was nothing like what he had imagined on the ride over.
Why did the Sea Witch entrust me to some lowlife like this?
He wondered whether this was really someone he could trust.
He’s rude in both speech and manner the first time we meet, but I don’t smell rot.
Thankfully, he didn’t seem to be a wicked soul gone bad.
“Are you the one called Won Hasin?”
“That’s right. I’m Won Hasin. For now, let’s go inside, fish. Song Secretary, you can clock out.”
“Yes, Representative.”
After Song Secretary bowed and withdrew, disappearing from view, Dong-dong, the blue-ringed octopus, abandoned the demure act she had been putting on until then and began hopping up and down as she shouted.
“I told you not to call him fish! You land fish!”
“Lannd fishhh? Did you just say that to me? You cheeky little Mun Dong-dong?”
Won Hasin quickly gave the ends of Dong-dong’s hair a slight tug, then let go. It was a childish, mean little gesture, but a timid one.
At once, Dong-dong’s skin changed to a bright yellow patterned with vivid blue rings. Her black hair also shifted, becoming blond streaked with blue.
Neoul watched the change with fascination. He had seen colors change in her while she was in her squat blue-ringed octopus form before, but he had never imagined she would transform like this when she felt threatened in human form.
“I told you not to touch me! Do you want to die?”
“Ah! Look, it’s Song Secretary!”
Won Hasin pointed toward the garage and shouted, and Dong-dong, suddenly panicked, darted behind Neoul.
Neoul turned toward the garage as well, but Song Secretary was already gone. Realizing that Won Hasin had tricked her, Dong-dong’s aggression doubled, and she glared at him.
Won Hasin cackled and ran inside the house, and Dong-dong dashed after him.
Neoul was left alone in front of the front door, which still stood wide open.
From inside came Won Hasin’s scream as Dong-dong yanked out a fistful of his hair.
“……”
Should I have just stayed away…?
For some reason, a wave of exhaustion crashed over him, and he suddenly wanted to go back to Baek Yuri’s house. Baek Yuri was calm, and Baek Gi-yeom, though bright and full of energy, wasn’t the sort to wear a person out. They were the kind of humans one could actually talk to.
Won Hasin was rude, and Dong-dong was loud. Put the two of them together, and his ears rang.
Neoul shook his head and went inside.
Won Hasin, whose stylish hair had been mangled and whose clothes were now in disarray from being tugged and torn, led Neoul to a fairly spacious room.
“All right, this is the fish room.”
Even after being punished by Dong-dong, he stubbornly kept calling Neoul fish. Neoul already had the nickname Raccoon-Raccoon, so, finding it bothersome, he didn’t bother correcting him.
Dong-dong bristled in his place and glared instead.
“You again—!”
“Dong-dong Gyeomsabok. I’m fine. Please stop.”
Neoul smiled and restrained Dong-dong.
Then Won Hasin, delighted, hid behind Neoul and snickered.
“Heh-heh, Dong-dong~ Your prince says to stop~”
“Grr! But, Your Highness! He keeps—!”
“Enough.”
Neoul cut her off gently but firmly.
“Dong-dong Gyeomsabok. If the other party is rude, does that make it acceptable for me to be rude as well? A great person does not lose his temper over such a small matter.”
A mere title was hardly a great thing.
Neoul was kind by nature and generous of heart, so he could easily afford a little such broad-mindedness toward humans.
“What? Are you saying I’m rude and petty?”
Won Hasin muttered in protest, offended on his own behalf, but Neoul ignored him and continued speaking to Dong-dong.
“And this is not the Dragon Palace. I am Prince Neoul only in the Dragon Palace; on land, I am nothing more than Gal-Neoul. Dong-dong Gyeomsabok, please bear that in mind and act accordingly.”
“…I was reckless. I shall keep it in mind.”
Dong-dong lowered her head deeply, ashamed of her words and behavior.
“As long as you’re more restrained in the future, that is enough. Raise your head, Dong-dong Gyeomsabok.”
“Yes!”
Dong-dong looked up at him, her eyes shining.
She had never really had contact with Neoul in the Dragon Palace and had secretly harbored prejudice after hearing only that he was a spoiled little prince, but seeing him now, so mature and fearless, she found herself looking at him differently.
Everyone in the Dragon Palace had wondered whether Neoul would really be able to obtain the rabbit liver that could cure the Dragon King. But now that she saw him, he seemed utterly dependable.
Watching the two of them trade lines like a historical drama, Won Hasin, who felt as though he had been left sitting there like a sack of grain, threw a sidelong glare and clicked his tongue.
He ran a hand through his hair irritably and muttered, “Haaah. Where did the shaman go, leaving these kids in my care?”
It had been a mutter to himself, but Neoul heard and answered anyway.
“She has gone to the Dragon Palace. To deliver the rabbit liver I entrusted to her to my father.”
“Rabbit liver?”
Won Hasin was just about to ask what in the world that meant when Dong-dong cut in.
“Your Highness! You obtained the rabbit liver?”
“Yes. Baek Yuri seonsaeng secured it for me. Thanks to that, the Sea Witch should have already arrived at the Dragon Palace by now, delivered it, and be watching the situation unfold.”
“But why are Your Highness still here? If you obtained the rabbit liver, you should have returned to the Dragon Palace at once! Why have you remained on land, entrusting it to the Sea Witch, no, to Lady Sea Witch?”
At Dong-dong’s question, Neoul hesitated.
She was right. He should have gone back to the sea. He should have seen with his own eyes that his father’s illness was improving.
But when the Sea Witch had said she would take it in his place, he had relaxed. And since then, he had not been able to leave the land.
“I have… matters to attend to on land.”
The idol survival show he had impulsively joined. At first, his only purpose had been to obtain the rabbit liver. But now….
I want to see it through to the end.
He wanted to know what lay at the end of the survival show. What happened if he debuted. What it was that so many people longed for. Why they wanted to seize debut so desperately.
“There is something I want to understand for myself.”
More than anything, he wanted to know whether the indescribable feeling he had experienced on the stage he had stood on for the first time had been only a momentary flicker, a singular instant that could never return, or whether he might feel it again if he stood onstage once more.
I want to feel that once again.
Baek Namu’s high-quality stage had also delivered a shock unlike anything Neoul had ever known.
His ability to carry any genre as though it were his own, his eye-catching charisma and dance skill, his effortless stage presence, everything.
I want to catch up.
Neoul’s first stage had ended before he could even spare a glance at the audience. He had been too consumed by the thought that he had to perform everything he had practiced perfectly, leaving him with no room to breathe.
Even so, he had been happy and rewarded by the feeling that he had made it to the end, and the cheers that poured down on him afterward had lifted his spirits, but….
Baek Namu was different. He was the kind of person for whom the stage itself seemed made.
I want to do that too.
Jealousy stirred in him, and something had begun to sprout in one corner of his heart: a desire to beat Baek Namu.
“A prince shouldn’t be worrying and fretting like that. Just follow what your heart tells you. You’re allowed to.”
Neoul remembered the Sea Witch’s words and opened his mouth.
“My heart leads me here.”
His voice was steady now, and the hesitation from a moment ago was gone.
“It seems there is something I can do on this earth.”
Somewhere on this land, in this country, in this city.
Something that would turn Neoul into more than the second prince who had nothing better to do than defy his father’s orders and wander over the walls of the Dragon Palace.
Something that would let him shine beside these humans, just as they did, scattering light with every bright glance they threw out.
Something…
was here.
Dong-dong and Won Hasin, who had been quietly listening to Neoul’s story, exchanged sidelong glances.
What is the prince even saying? Do you understand any of it?
No idea. How am I supposed to know what you don’t know?
In the end, Won Hasin sat Neoul down, handed him a glass of cold juice, and interrogated him in detail until he had the situation straight.
“So, to sum up... the Dragon King collapsed, the retainers said rabbit liver was a miracle cure, you came to land, and somehow ended up taking part in an idol survival program?”
“Yes.”
“And then a friend named Baek Yuri bought the rabbit liver for you, and because you didn’t want to leave the survival show, the shaman went to the Dragon Palace in your place to deliver it?”
“That is correct.”
“And you just left the two of you, who know absolutely nothing about human society, in my hands like this?”
Damn it! What an awful witch!
Won Hasin curled his mouth crookedly and grumbled to himself.
Would it kill you to explain things first before dumping them on me? What are you, pushing some mysterious celebrity concept or something?
For the Sea Witch, there was the unavoidable taboo of not speaking carelessly of a future she had glimpsed, but Won Hasin, who knew none of that, only felt frustrated because he couldn’t make out what she was thinking.
“All right, fine. So you want to debut, then?”
Won Hasin immediately turned on MYouTube and searched for Idol Travel. Preview videos, the group performance of the signal song, individual live performance clips of the signal song—they all sprang up in a row.
Won Hasin found Neoul’s individual live performance video and played it.
[Welcome back
I wanted to meet you
Someday—
I thought I’d meet you]
Oh...? I thought he’d be bad, but he’s a lot better than I expected...
His shaky dance skills were impossible to ignore, but the voice that seized the ear was so beautiful that the dancing hardly mattered at all.
[I think I must have been waiting for you
For a very long time
The owner of this stage is you and me
It’s the dance we dance together
Let’s stay together! Forever
Let’s dance an eternal dance]
His vocal range seemed immense. His breath control and stability were somewhat lacking while he danced, but his pitch landed with remarkable precision. With just a little training, he could probably debut as a solo singer right away, leaving out the dance he wasn’t good at and focusing on the strength of his vocals.
“Fish. Why do you want to be an idol, anyway?”
“Pardon?”