Rabbit Alliance (3)
Baek Yuri, who had gone downstairs to the first floor ahead of everyone else, finally reached the last step and collapsed onto the floor the moment the tension left him.
His wrists still tingled where they had been bound with tape. His heart was pounding so hard it felt as if someone might come running after him at any second, and cold sweat prickled at the back of his neck.
“Mr. Baek Yuri. Are you all right?”
Neoul asked.
Baek Yuri opened his mouth to answer, but at the sound of someone sprinting down the stairs, he jolted upright as if shocked by electricity, dashed into the hallway, then stopped and turned back.
It was Dongdong, the woman who had even come to Neoul’s home to take him away.
“Haa….”
Baek Yuri let out a long, hollow breath as if the floor had given way beneath him, then crouched back down where he stood.
“I don’t think I’m all right…. I want out of this house right now.”
He had forced himself to stay calm while he was upstairs, but the truth was that he had wanted to scream his head off. Something about the atmosphere felt like a knife that hadn’t even been disinfected yet was about to cut him open on the spot.
Help! Baek Gi-yeom! Call the police, quick! I’m going to die! Aigoo! Baek Namu! If you can see this from the heavens, drop something heavy on those people’s heads and knock them out! Buy me time to run!
Neoul, please! Untie me! Or at least lift the chair and carry me outside, anything! Why won’t you let me go!
Are you in on this too? No, you’re not, right? Say you’re not! I even bought you a whole kilogram of rabbit liver! Are you going to repay my kindness with betrayal? Waaaah!
His mind was in complete chaos.
Above all, the oppressive aura radiating from the Sea Witch in her conical hat and ritual robes was no joke. This was the second time he had faced her, but she felt even more frightening now than she had the first time.
Well, the first time she left after saying she’d take good care of the prince, but this time she tied my wrists up and said I might be the rabbit!
Could I really be the reincarnated rabbit?
Just a moment ago she had been saying that, since he and his twin shared blood, the power must have been split in two, but that had only been Baek Yuri’s own reasoning.
Wasn’t it possible that the mountain god’s elixir had been absorbed only by Baek Yuri?
When he lifted his head, his gaze met Neoul’s. For a split second, it struck him that Neoul might be thinking something very similar.
Baek Yuri edged farther away from Neoul and Dongdong.
“You do believe me, right? I’m really not a rabbit. I think this life is probably my first. Everything I do, except for reading books, turns out hard and messy, like I can’t do anything right. If this weren’t my first life, there’s no way I’d be like this.”
“……”
“……”
“…Of course. I believe you.”
Why was the answer taking so long? Why were they hesitating like that?
Baek Yuri felt like crying.
His guess had been right. Neoul had not fallen for Baek Yuri’s sophistry.
After all, the rabbit had once been clever enough to fool his father, the Dragon King, and every single subject in the Dragon Palace before escaping. Neoul was treating Baek Yuri’s plausible excuses with caution, not taking them at face value.
Still, he was confused.
I thought everything would be settled once the rabbit liver was delivered to the Dragon Palace.
It had to be the liver of that rabbit from 1,400 years ago?
And yet that rabbit had been reborn as a human?
That meant, if necessary, he might have to hurt a human in order to save his father.
The world went dark.
Besides, what if Baek Yuri really is that rabbit’s reincarnation…?
Baek Yuri had been the one who taught him how to walk and even went so far as to bring him rabbit liver without asking for anything in return. Hadn’t he even lent him money without hesitation when Neoul had abruptly demanded fifty thousand won?
He was a human with a clear soul and a kind heart.
If Kim Ji-rok, rotten to the core, or vulgar Gye Tae-seok had turned out to be the rabbit, it would still have been unpleasant to cut open a living person’s belly. And yet Rabbit Candidate No. 1 was Baek Yuri of all people.
Even Baek Yuri’s cousin, Baek Gi-yeom, had helped Neoul a great deal and had grown close to him during the first team battle.
Baek Yuri’s deceased twin brother, Baek Namu, had been his best mentor—the one who had lifted Neoul’s miserable dancing from hopeless to something just barely fit for the stage.
And now what—after losing his brother and struggling against grief for so long as he fought to move toward his dream, Neoul was supposed to ask for his liver?
I’ll use your liver to save my father, so you can go hold a one-night Hanpuri Concert with your twin brother, who’s become a Grim Reaper, in a shut-down amusement park?
And then Baek Yuri’s mother would lose both her sons.
He wouldn’t be the only one made miserable. Even imagining such a situation made his heart beat unevenly.
This… this isn’t right.
Neoul could not do it. The thought filled him with a deep, instinctive repulsion.
He could not even bear to look straight at Baek Yuri’s face, so he lowered his head.
Then Baek Yuri asked carefully, “Are you crying?”
Neoul shook his head. No tears came. He simply felt tangled and at a loss, unable to tell what he ought to do.
The window rattled in the wind, as if echoing Neoul’s confusion.
Baek Yuri, too, seemed troubled. He stared up at the ceiling, then at the wall, then down at the floor, sighing heavily before speaking with visible hesitation.
“Is it because you feel lost? Well… for now I really am not the rabbit. I don’t have any memories. But if, by some miracle, my past life memories come back…. If, really, if I turn out to be the actual rabbit.”
“……”
“Then I’ll let you take my liver.”
“What…?!”
Neoul looked up, stunned stiff-faced.
Had he gone out of his mind?
Maybe Mr. Baek Yuri had been so shocked by the Sea Witch’s commotion upstairs that his wits had slipped.
Neoul frowned with concern.
But Baek Yuri was perfectly sane. He was not speaking recklessly. He meant every word.
“Not all of it. Maybe about seventy percent? If it’s that much, I won’t die.”
Not die…?
Neoul’s eyes widened.
Baek Yuri scratched his cheek and kept muttering.
“If the Dragon King is ill because of polluted water or rising temperatures, then as a human who’s contributed to environmental pollution, I guess I’d feel a little responsible too. And… if my past life was a rabbit, then the karmic debt would be huge, considering I stole someone else’s medicine and misused it without a prescription, even overdosing on it.”
“No, is it true that you won’t die even if your liver is taken?”
“I’m telling you again, taking all of it won’t do. Then I’d die. I mean taking only part of it.”
“……”
“Of course there could be aftereffects, and there’s no saying there’s zero risk. Still, liver donation surgery is performed safely, and there are excellent doctors.”
“……”
“It might take some time before I fully recover my health, but… I’m strong, so wouldn’t I bounce back quickly?”
Neoul listened with his mouth slightly open like a fool, then asked belatedly, “How much is only part?”
Realizing that Neoul did not understand percentages, Baek Yuri held out his palm and explained visually.
“If the liver were this big, then maybe… around this much?”
More than half.
Humans were much larger than rabbits, so their livers would be much larger too. Then maybe taking only part of it really could save his father?
It seemed entirely possible.
“But you said it could still be dangerous, so how could you….”
“Because I’ve watched a sick family member suffer too.”
Baek Yuri gave a bitter smile.
“I can’t fully understand how you feel, Neoul, but…. In the end, if someone has to grieve because of a family death, I’d rather it end with me.”
“……”
“I don’t want to see someone sad because I could have helped and didn’t. That would hurt me more than the fear of surgery.”
Strange.
Human behavior was mostly unfamiliar and full of things he could not understand, but even among that strangeness, Baek Yuri’s words were exceptional.
Just a little while ago, he had been so frightened he had collapsed in place. Now he was suddenly brave enough to sound like an entirely different person, saying things he could never take back.
Only moments earlier, an evil mermaid and an octopus had been surrounding him, threatening to see whether he was the rabbit or not—and yet here he was, worrying about someone else while he ought to have been worrying about himself.
Neoul wanted, quite badly, to accept this kindness at once.
To say things like, “No take-backs,” and “If you don’t keep your word after saying it, you’ll start going bald from the crown of your head.”
But Baek Yuri was currently participating in Idol Travel. He was working harder than anyone to debut, and from the look of it, being an idol meant being busy without a moment to breathe once you debuted.
If the rabbit’s memories returned in the very near future….
Baek Yuri had said that if he had part of his liver removed, it would take time to recover. That could interfere with his debut or activities.
“Then let us do it this way.”
Neoul opened his mouth.
“If Mr. Baek Yuri is the rabbit, it will be decided within three years. You said the past life memories would return before you turned twenty-five.”
“I suppose…?”
“Still, even if I learn early that you are the rabbit, I will not ask you to hand over your liver until four years and ten months have passed.”
“……Would that be all right?”
“The Sea Witch has bought us five years, so I will gratefully receive your liver a little before those five years are up. If I swim without rest for days on end, I can reach the Dragon Palace from here within fifteen days, so even then there will be enough time.”
“Still….”
Would it really be all right to stay on distant land while leaving behind a sick family member?
It must feel as though blood were draining away from him day by day.
At Baek Yuri’s concern, Neoul returned the question.
“If I do not wait, would you yourself be all right, sir?”
“Huh?”
“You must debut and stand on stage, mustn’t you?”
At the words debut and stage, the tip of Baek Yuri’s nose went red and his eyes grew moist.
“That’s right. In truth, I have a huge amount left to do, but I kept thinking, what if my memories came back tomorrow and I had to get surgery right away? Then I’d be stuck recovering and might not even be able to debut.”
“……”
“If I had surgery immediately after debuting, debut itself would fall apart. If I had to have surgery in the middle of promotions, then what? I kept worrying about that inside.”
Baek Yuri rubbed at the corners of his eyes with his palm.
“If I debut… I want to do everything one by one, the things I promised to do with Baek Namu. Release an album, hold a fan meeting, go on concert tours.”
“I see.”
“I want to win Rookie of the Year too, and I want to do a world tour. And someday, I want to take the highest award at the Korean Popular Music Awards.”
The highest award.
Even his father, the Dragon King, sometimes bestowed rewards on subjects who had done well. Neoul nodded as he listened, then suddenly had a good idea—how to repay the kindness of this reckless benefactor who was so ready to hand over his liver.
“The highest award.”
“Yes?”
“I will make sure you receive it.”
“Huh?”
“I will help you. Before the five years are up, we will win the highest award at the Korean Popular Music Awards.”
“W-what?”
Baek Yuri’s tears that had been threatening to fall suddenly vanished. His eyes rolled in disbelief.
In five years? Could they really pull it off?
Neoul and I are nothing but survival-show contestants who haven’t even debuted yet.
And there was another problem that troubled him.
Probably by now, because of Neoul’s explosive statement in the bus scene, there were already hundreds of thousands of antis.
In a field where people pounced on every small mistake like a swarm of piranhas, Neoul had fed them from the very start.
We have to pull the image back up first.
You could not rewind time and stop an explosion that had already gone off. But you could gather the debris, clean up the surrounding mess, and dilute the image of Neoul as “rude.” It would depend on what happened from here on out.
Fortunately, there was a lot to look forward to: wherever Gal Neoul went, he was a rare, precious visual and a main-vocal-type talent.
And on top of that, he wrote melodies with that stunning tone of his?
Not only idol fans but the industry itself would never let Neoul slip through their fingers. He was exactly the kind of talent everyone would have their eyes blazing for.
His dancing was still lacking, but for someone who had taken his first steps only a few weeks ago, his learning speed was striking. Astonishingly so.
He blended in perfectly during the first team battle without standing out at all. His facial acting was actually pretty convincing, too.
It was a bizarre rate of growth, like someone had secretly invited over a pro idol and given him one-on-one lessons tailored to his level.
At this rate, by the time the survival show ended, it was almost frightening to think how much better he might become. The production team would definitely be watching him for his growth arc, so debut would be secure enough.
Baek Yuri mentally assembled a team, including Gal Neoul and a few others, and wondered whether they could make it all the way to the Korean Popular Music Awards together.
Then he stopped thinking altogether and just laughed.
I’ve gone too far. Enough complicated thoughts.
“All right. Let’s do it, then!”
Baek Yuri did not expect much. He was ambitious, but he lacked faith in himself. Optimism was, frankly, a world away from him.
But watching that absurdly unreal being in front of him say absurdly unreal things as though they were nothing, he began to think maybe it wasn’t entirely impossible after all.
I haven’t known him long, but Neoul isn’t the type to say empty things.
Once he spoke a promise out loud, he would throw himself into it with everything he had. He had the kind of passion and persistence that would let him dance through the night without sleep.
That terrifying growth rate of this mysterious mermaid prince might not be limited to him alone. It might give the whole group wings.
Feeling better, Baek Yuri said, “If it turns out I’m not the reincarnated rabbit, I’ll definitely help you find it.”
“Thank you for your concern.”
“Not at all. It’s a win-win. We’re comrades now. On the same boat.”
Baek Yuri held out his hand for a handshake. Neoul had grown used to it by now and returned the gesture smoothly.
“I have no need to board a boat. I swim about.”
“That’s not what I meant….”
“……?”
In any case, the rabbit alliance was thus formed.
—