Chapter 109
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 109
Seventeen years ago, when he was in the thick of middle school. That was when he first saw that novel.
It was another one of those days when he was squirming with boredom.
As is the case with any country town, what was there to do besides run around outside or stay inside and read a book?
Of course, most kids his age preferred to go out and move their bodies. They seemed to love sweating together while playing ball.
However, he wasn't the kind of boisterous kid who enjoyed roaming around outside, so his options naturally narrowed to reading.
Besides, reading was considered a refined hobby, so it wasn't like he'd get any disapproving looks. It was the perfect environment. The conditions to enjoy his hobby were all in place, and so he had naturally started to read.
He read fairy tales, then novels, then the classics. After reading everything he could get his hands on, he ran out of things to read and went to a used bookstore in search of more.
That’s where he found it.
It all started when he saw that book, tucked away in a dusty corner of the used bookstore he’d visited, hoping to find anything at all to read.
The Rusty Sword and the Hummingbird's Tomb.
A title riddled with metaphorical expressions. Guessing it was probably a novel, he picked it up and began to read. On that day, he felt a joy greater than any he had ever known in his life.
The story of another world he had never imagined. The story of a world where magic and miracles were alive and breathing.
Every single element that could drive a middle schooler like him crazy was right there.
He devoured it as if possessed. When he realized the story was cut off, he scoured the biggest bookstore in town for the next volume, and when he couldn't find it there, he started searching the internet.
Thankfully, he was able to find the next volume online. He spent all the allowance he had painstakingly saved to buy every installment that had been released.
Months passed like that.
He would read what he’d already read, and then, when the thought struck him, he’d read it again.
Back then, he was a person living madly for a single book.
It was so much fun.
He still remembered the 11th of every month. The day a new volume was released, he was happier than on his own birthday, his heart pounding with anticipation. For the few days it took for the book to be delivered, he could barely sleep.
But then, once the book arrived and he read it, he’d reach the last page all too quickly, and it was always so disappointing.
And so, for several months, he lived his life pouring all his time into the book called The Rusty Sword and the Hummingbird's Tomb.
Quite naturally, the thought occurred to him that he wanted to share his thoughts about this book with others.
The guys he called friends were all soccer fanatics with no taste for this sort of thing, so in his search for other people to talk to, he discovered internet communities.
…Thinking back on it now, he wondered if it wasn't the biggest mistake of his life, but in any case, he spent his time frequenting those communities, talking about the novel, and even getting into fights when opinions clashed.
To put it a bit dramatically, you could say he was in love with that book.
The middle school brat Chae Dokyun had chosen that fantasy series of a dozen or so books as his first love.
Did he regret it?
If asked, he could say with certainty that he did not. Those days spent in love with that book remained preciously stored in his heart as a fond memory, even now, seventeen years later.
It was a happy time, a happy memory.
However, the fact that the end of that memory was not beautiful still remained a source of sadness.
And what a wicked thing life is. It announced the end of those happy days in a way he had never imagined.
The author’s suicide.
An unprecedented event that set the entire community he was active in ablaze.
It happened when there was only one volume left until the finale. Exactly one week before the final volume’s release.
Just like that, his first love had unilaterally declared their breakup.
A farewell that arrived at an unexpected moment was always like that.
It starts with denial. You fool yourself into thinking you’re just having a very bad dream.
Then, once you come to accept it, that’s when it truly begins.
It hollows a person out, makes them sad, and then, before you know it, has you searching for any trace left behind.
He remembered being half out of his mind back then. It was so bad that his parents had even taken him to a hospital.
If someone asked why he was being so dramatic, he’d have no excuse, but to his young, sensitive self, that farewell was the saddest thing in the world.
Looking back, he thought that was when it happened. When he first learned the face of the novel’s author.
A face printed on a page of an internet news article.
A woman who looked to be just over thirty. An impression of a graceful lady, a word that suited her perfectly.
That face, seared into his mind, tormented him for a long time. It was so bad it even appeared in his dreams.
And that wasn't the end of it.
In that time, now a distant memory, another fact was belatedly revealed after her face became public. It was the author, Seo Han-gyeong’s, background.
The daughter of a conglomerate chairman so famous that even a country kid knew of him. The heiress of a chaebol family.
He remembered that background being revealed, and how the community—and even the media—had erupted in flames once more.
As Dokyun recalled this, he finally understood the source of this family’s—of Eun-ah’s—incomprehensible wealth.
A third-generation chaebol heir.
It wasn't a joke. She was a real third-generation chaebol heir.
A dry laugh escaped him for a moment. With a face full of confusion, Dokyun looked back and forth between the picture frame and the notebook.
He understood that her mother was Seo Han-gyeong. He also understood why their writing styles were so similar.
But, but why. Why was the world-building guide for the novel written in the handwriting of a young Eun-ah?
His thoughts spiraled, and a low groan escaped his lips.
Honestly, it wasn't that nothing came to mind. But to treat that thought as fact, there were parts that just didn't make sense. Besides, if his thoughts were true, wasn't that just too pitiful for Eun-ah?
Veins bulged on the back of Dokyun’s tightly clenched fist.
The hypothesis that had surfaced in his mind was…
‘She stole Eun-ah’s story.’
Seo Han-gyeong had stolen young Eun-ah’s story.
It was a ridiculous notion.
At the time the novel was being serialized, Eun-ah was just a little kid, barely five or six years old.
Seo Han-gyeong was an established author who had published other literary works before this one.
There were too many inconsistencies to simply say she had stolen it.
Nevertheless, his mind grew complicated as the hypothesis kept surfacing. Dokyun’s face crumpled into a deep frown as he turned his head toward the door.
In the living room, there was someone who knew the answer.
* * *
Dokyun walked out, held the notebook out to Eun-seol, and spoke.
“…Can you explain this?”
At his words, Eun-seol stared at the notebook in silence for a long moment before getting up, heading to the kitchen, and taking out a bottle of liquor.
This time, too, there were two glasses.
“Are you drinking?”
“…Yes.”
Dokyun answered with a small nod. He felt he needed a bit of a buzz.
At his affirmation, a smirk escaped Eun-seol’s lips, and she began to fill a glass.
“What you’re thinking is correct. Seo Han-gyeong stole Go Eun-ah’s story.”
She spoke as she handed him the glass. Dokyun’s fist clenched tight.
“How…”
How was that possible, he meant. Stealing her own child’s story was one thing, but was it even possible for a kid who hadn’t even started elementary school to write something like that?
As Dokyun stared at Eun-seol with a face full of confusion, she poured her own drink and continued.
“Where should I begin….”
Eun-seol lifted her glass, swirled the liquor, and after a moment of thought, she spoke again.
“Right, let’s start with Go Eun-ah. That’ll be easier to understand.”
She took a drink mid-sentence. Draining the glass in one go, Eun-seol refilled it and continued.
“Go Eun-ah was special. She was special from the moment she was born.”
She spoke with a smirk. When Dokyun tilted his head, Eun-seol glanced at him and went on.
“She was just different from others. I mean, to the point where you’d wonder if she was even human.”
Dokyun watched Eun-seol as she spoke, another question rising in his mind. He couldn't quite grasp the intent behind her words.
“Just understand it like that. There’s no other way to explain it. A human whose realm of thought is beyond the human category. That’s Go Eun-ah.”
Dokyun pressed his lips together, listening intently to her words.
“She learned to read on her own without anyone teaching her. She’d crawl into the study and devour all the books. She’d look at an object and understand its purpose all by herself.”
Eun-seol’s gaze turned to Dokyun.
“She’s a monster. A monster in a human mask.”
Monster.
As Dokyun repeated the word, he thought the expression on Eun-seol’s face looked somehow sad.
“Seo Han-gyeong didn’t know at first, either. She probably just thought of her as a precocious kid. It would have been better that way, but the truth was revealed too quickly.”
A long sigh escaped Eun-seol’s lips. The dark circles under her eyes seemed to deepen.
“Due to the nature of her work as an author, Seo Han-gyeong was always surrounded by books. Likewise, Go Eun-ah also lived buried in books. When Seo Han-gyeong discovered that Go Eun-ah could read, she was just happy at first. It makes sense. What parent would hate it if their daughter liked the same things they did?”
Dokyun felt a flicker of doubt at her words and asked a question.
“…Discovered?”
He asked because she had said ‘discovered,’ not that she had shown her the books.
At his question, Eun-seol’s gaze turned to him again, and she nodded before answering.
“Seo Han-gyeong had no interest in Go Eun-ah.”
“Ah…”
A long sigh escaped Dokyun’s lips. Ignorance born from indifference. Eun-seol was saying that Seo Han-gyeong had neglected Eun-ah.
“Anyway, after finding out that Go Eun-ah could read, Seo Han-gyeong started making her read one book every day.”
Dokyun knew what she was talking about.
“The diary.”
The diary he had found when he first went into the study. That was the content.
Mother made me read a book, and I was praised for reading it.
As Dokyun spoke, Eun-seol nodded.
“You’ve probably figured it out by now. If she didn’t read a book, Go Eun-ah had to be punished. As you can see from the diary, Seo Han-gyeong wasn’t in her right mind either. She was a patient with severe depression. She would self-harm at any given moment. She could be fine for a while and then suddenly start slamming her head against a wall. Thirsting for attention, she would always wander the streets at night. And all that time, Go Eun-ah was left to watch the house.”
Eun-seol, who had been speaking nonstop, moistened her throat with liquor, caught her breath, and continued. The expression on her face was one of contempt.
“You can imagine. That bitch doesn’t even know who Go Eun-ah’s father is.”
A thick contempt, instantly recognizable. It was the most blatant emotion Eun-seol had shown thus far.
Immediately after, Eun-seol clicked her tongue, shook her head, and spoke again.
“Well, you just need to know she was that kind of woman. The problem starts from here. As the days went by, Go Eun-ah’s strange points became more noticeable. She started to feel that this was no ordinary child. Realizing it belatedly, she began to fear Go Eun-ah.”
A parent fearing their own child. It was an absurd thing to say.
“Her mental illness got worse. Because the thing that came out of her own womb was something her mind couldn't comprehend. And so, on the days her depression flared up, she started tormenting Go Eun-ah, trying to overcome it somehow.”
As he heard her words, a sentence flashed through Dokyun’s mind.
—Mother was in pain because she was punishing me.
—I am a bad child who hurts my mother.
It was a story he had anticipated to some extent. But hearing it for real was still staggering.
Seo Han-gyeong had put on a self-harm show in front of little Go Eun-ah.
“Go Eun-ah knew that what was happening wasn't normal. But she didn't admit it. Because Seo Han-gyeong was her entire world.”
Eun-seol’s brow furrowed, creating a wrinkle. Her tone was filled with irritation.
“Stupidly, she thought it was her fault whenever Seo Han-gyeong became strange. She won’t hold me because I did something wrong. That’s what she thought.”
His stomach churned. His chest ached the entire time he listened.
“So she has to do good deeds. To be held by Seo Han-gyeong, she has to become a better child. And that’s when Go Eun-chae popped out.”
His breath caught in his throat.
It was a story he had never once imagined, and for that reason, it struck him all the more painfully.
Just as his expression crumpled and his head grew hot, Eun-seol’s next words burst forth.
“And just as Go Eun-ah was breaking down like that, Seo Han-gyeong met Go Eun-chae.”