Chapter 172
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 172
A few days later, in the living room.
Dokyun was piecing together the information he had gathered on the four personalities with Eun-byeol’s usual behavior, trying to uncover a clue about her origin.
‘Painting, father, friends…’
And a die-hard fan of a losing team.
When his thoughts reached that last point, Dokyun’s head tilted to the side.
The first three clues felt like they were leading somewhere, but the last one was so out of place he couldn’t help but be perplexed.
Of course, being a fan wasn’t Eun-byeol’s main trait, but it was the first word that came to mind when he thought of her, which was why he was stuck on it.
“Hmm…”
“Wh-what is it…?”
Eun-ah’s voice broke through his thoughts.
Dokyun turned his head to look at her. She had been writing the final part of The Girl Who Catches Bugs. It seemed she had just finished the manuscript, as she was closing her laptop and speaking to him.
“Oh… just the usual. Thinking about Eun-byeol.”
“Ah…”
Eun-ah nodded.
She knew. She knew that Eun-byeol was the problem Dokyun had been wrestling with the most lately.
“I-I’m sorry I can’t be of any help…”
It was her own problem, yet she was completely useless. Feeling a pang of guilt, she apologized, but Dokyun just chuckled and shook his head.
“Not at all. It’s a problem you couldn’t possibly know the answer to.”
It was unavoidable. Back then, Eun-ah couldn’t even take care of herself, so how could she have possibly grasped something like that?
Even if he tried to ask her what she was thinking at the time, Eun-ah’s time had been frozen on the same day ever since Seo Han-gyeong’s death.
In other words, her sense of time was distorted, making it impossible for her to distinguish what she was thinking during any specific period.
Dokyun understood this completely. He got up from the sofa, hugged Eun-ah tightly, and continued, “I’m only doing this because I want to do a better job. Don’t feel burdened, Eun-ah.”
“Okay…”
Pat. Pat. As he spoke while gently patting her back, Eun-ah gave a small nod.
Feeling the warmth that enveloped her entire body, she slowly began to ponder.
Still, isn’t there something I can do to help?
That was the thought that occupied her mind.
* * *
That evening, again in the living room.
“H-Honeybee…!”
“Yes?”
Dokyun lifted his head at the sound of Eun-ah’s voice.
It came from the direction of the front door. Seeing Eun-ah enter, Dokyun felt a question rise in his mind.
She’s been gone for an hour. Did she go out?
As Dokyun started to get up, Eun-ah, who had already rushed over, grabbed his hand and continued speaking.
Her face was blooming with a bright expression.
“I-I found it…!”
“Found what?”
“Y-Yeah…! A clue…!”
“A clue?”
“Th-This way…!”
She pulled him by the hand, leading him out the front door. Dokyun, still dazed, simply nodded and followed her.
The place she led him to was…
“A storage shed?”
It was a small shed located right behind the garage.
As Dokyun looked back and forth between the shed and Eun-ah with a quizzical expression, Eun-ah giggled and explained.
“Y-Yeah…! It’s where… where we kept old things…!”
“Ah.”
Dokyun’s eyes widened, his gaze fixed on the shed door.
A thought surfaced in his mind.
“Did you come out here to find this because of me?”
“I-It’s my problem, too…. I felt like I couldn’t just leave it all to you, Honeybee…”
She spoke with an embarrassed smile. Feeling a deep thrum in his chest, Dokyun squeezed her hand.
“You should have told me… I would have come with you.”
“It’s a s-surprise gift…!”
A clear smile graced Eun-ah’s face. A radiant smile, like spring in full bloom.
Feeling a warmth rush through him at the sight of it, Dokyun let a smile form on his own lips.
“Thank you.”
“N-Not at all…. W-Well, let’s go in…!”
“Okay.”
After their exchange, Dokyun turned back toward the shed. He took a few steps forward and opened the door.
Creeeak—.
The rusty hinges let out a sound that scraped the ears. The interior that was revealed was a storage space filled with objects covered in a thick layer of white dust.
It was a space that had clearly been neglected for a very long time.
Dokyun fumbled along the wall next to the entrance, found the light switch, and flipped it.
Click—.
Following the sound of the switch, a bright light flooded down, illuminating the inside of the shed.
Now able to distinguish the objects more clearly, Dokyun glanced around before turning his gaze back to Eun-ah. With a wide grin, he spoke.
“Shall we start looking?”
“Y-Yeah…!”
An energetic reply. For some reason, it felt like they were on a treasure hunt. With that thought, Dokyun stepped inside.
* * *
The shed was truly filled with all sorts of things.
Literally, all the traces of the past that Eun-ah had turned away from were hidden here.
He thought that if he had discovered this place not long after he arrived, he would have been trembling in fear, goosebumps covering his entire body. The diary would have seemed like child’s play in comparison. That’s how blatantly this shed was stained with the traces of the other personalities.
Of course, now, they were nostalgic traces.
Along with items belonging to Eun-seol and Eun-byeol, there were also things that had belonged to Eun-ji and Eun-sam, who were now gone.
Dokyun reached out and pulled a sketchbook from a corner of the shed.
The cover seemed to have once depicted a green hill, but the colors had faded so much that it now looked like a sky filled with yellow smog.
He let out a small chuckle looking at it, then opened the cover. The drawings inside made his heart ache.
They were Eun-ji’s drawings.
A large princess. Next to her, an equally large prince.
The two, holding hands tightly, were dancing in a grand palace.
‘…She was a terrible artist.’
Even worse than Eun-chae.
He turned the page. This time, the princess and prince were sitting side-by-side in a meadow. The next page, and the one after that, were the same. The backgrounds and situations kept changing, but at the center were always the brightly smiling princess and prince.
It was a sketchbook that laid Eun-ji’s desires bare.
‘…I’m sorry your prince looks like this.’
He recalled what Eun-ah had told him once, after Eun-ji was gone. That he had been Eun-ji’s prince.
Remembering her words, Dokyun gave a wry smile at the thought that her prince wasn’t quite the fairy-tale type, and closed the sketchbook.
Part of it was the thought that this wasn’t the time to get lost in sentimentality, and part of it was the feeling that if he kept looking, he might start crying again.
Dokyun placed the sketchbook back where he found it, took a small breath to calm himself, and then turned to a tall, tower-like stack of notebooks on the other side.
They were plain, unlabeled notebooks.
But considering they were filled with someone’s writing and were in this shed, they were probably Eun-sam’s discarded drafts for the final volume of The Rusty Sword and the Hummingbird’s Tomb.
Among the personalities, who else would have been so diligent about writing by hand besides Eun-sam?
Dokyun reached for a notebook, intending to open it, but then he froze. A belated thought struck him.
Clues were one thing, but…
‘…Is it really okay for me to look at this?’
A worry, just in case.
These notebooks were probably stories related to the final volume of The Rusty Sword and the Hummingbird’s Tomb, and they were likely written by Eun-sam.
And when he thought of a novel written by Eun-sam, one thing immediately came to mind.
The Legend of the Seven Dicks.
What if she wrote this in the same style?
Was he about to open Pandora’s box?
If he opened this notebook, if he read this discarded version of The Rusty Sword and the Hummingbird’s Tomb, and if it turned out to be a novel that smelled of balls just like The Legend of the Seven Dicks…
When he finally read the completed version, would he be reminded of this?
Would he be unable to feel the pure emotion, instead catching a whiff of something… musty?
Feeling goosebumps prickle all over his body at the thought, Dokyun placed the notebook back where it was.
‘Go Eun-sam…!’
Trying to assassinate me even after you’re gone.
Thud. He placed the notebook back on top of the stack. Shuddering at the thought, Dokyun soon let out a small laugh.
Things that could be called memories.
They were surfacing in his mind one by one, making him feel steeped in sentiment.
The moments they had spent together—laughing, crying, and getting angry—flashed through his mind, evoking a wistful feeling.
Dokyun trembled for a brief moment, letting the emotions wash over him, before turning to look at Eun-ah.
She was diligently rummaging through something.
What is she looking for?
The thought prompted him to walk over to her. He was surprised by what she pulled out.
“A school uniform?”
“Y-Yeah…! I-I thought it might be here…!”
It was the uniform Eun-ah’s other personalities had worn to school.
As Dokyun let out a sound of interest, Eun-ah’s eyes suddenly turned sly. She licked her lips with a faint smile.
“Th-This too… w-wouldn’t it be nice if I wore it…?”
At her words, Dokyun’s gaze studied her expression.
The way she was looking him up and down while licking her lips was the face of someone with a clear, lecherous intent.
Dokyun narrowed his eyes at her expression and then replied.
“…Next time. Let’s find the clue first today. Besides, the uniform needs to be washed, doesn’t it?”
“O-Okay…”
Pouting, Eun-ah drooped her head in disappointment. But then, she realized something odd about Dokyun’s words and looked back at him.
He had already turned away and was rummaging through the shed again.
‘He didn’t say…’
No.
A smile crept out from the corner of Eun-ah’s lips.