Mudskipper of the Tidal Flats (1)
The village hall was filled with boisterous laughter as makgeolli cups passed from hand to hand. A sticky sea breeze drifted through the windows, brushing against flushed faces warmed by alcohol. One elderly man, already quite tipsy, grinned and tilted the makgeolli jug toward me.
“So you’ve become a woman now. You sure it’s all right to drink that much? Won’t it ruin your body?”
Snickers erupted from the surrounding tables. I casually tucked a stray lock of hair behind my ear and held out my empty cup without missing a beat.
“They call it a quasi-awakening in the city. Only the outside changed, but the inside stayed the same. Ah, except for one thing. No matter how much I drink, I don’t get drunk. Thanks to that, I just end up spending more on booze, and these volleyballs hanging off my chest… still feel damn awkward.”
I pointed at my chest with an embarrassed laugh, and the hall erupted into roaring laughter. The old men slapped their knees, and several chimed in, “Aigoo, Sajeong’s way with words hasn’t changed one bit!” I used their laughter as my side dish and downed a full bowl of makgeolli in one go. The liquid sliding down my throat tasted like nothing more than sour juice.
Just then, the hall door burst open with a loud clatter. It was the village head. His face was flushed red like he’d been drinking, but his frantically darting eyes looked stone-cold sober. He swept his gaze across the hall before striding straight toward me.
“Sajeong!”
That damn name. I frowned slightly and set my cup down.
“Aigoo, Village Head. Please stop calling me that. It doesn’t suit me at all anymore. Can’t you see everyone laughing?”
“For goodness’ sake!” The village head slammed his palm on the table in front of me and bellowed. “What’s wrong with the three characters your parents gave you?”
The laughter that had filled the hall vanished instantly at his angry expression. He took a rough breath before getting to the point.
“Grandma Park, who was digging for clams in the tidal flats, got hurt. It was something like a mudskipper, but they say it was as big as a person. She got startled, fell backward, and twisted her back.”
I tilted my head for a moment, picturing the scene.
“Was the sun still up? Had the tide gone out?”
“That’s right. Sun was high in the sky.”
“You’re sure it wasn’t something else? Sometimes creatures trapped in the tidal channels grow that big.”
The village head waved his hand impatiently.
“Sajeong, we’re talking about Grandma Park, who’s spent her whole life working the mudflats. You think she can’t tell a mudskipper apart? She kept insisting it was definitely a mudskipper, with eyes on top of its head, and we barely managed to carry her back while she was jumping up and down.”
I let out a small sigh.
“Mudskippers don’t see humans as prey. They’re timid creatures that burrow and hide at the slightest sound. It probably just panicked after suddenly growing that size and ended up charging into Grandma Park nearby. The real problem will be if it wrecks the entire tidal flat later, but it shouldn’t cause any serious harm to people.”
The moment I finished speaking, worried voices erupted from among the villagers.
“Then what are we supposed to live on?”
“If it ruins the mudflats, are you saying we should all starve to death?”
I stood up and brushed the dust off my clothes.
“Got it. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it within a week.”
At my words, the once-noisy hall fell completely silent. Even the old men who had been teasing me moments ago quieted down, and the village head pressed his lips together as he looked straight at me. Their gazes held a mixture of apology, expectation, and concern—seeing me as capable yet still worrying. I met their eyes without avoiding them and gave a slight smile.
“Still, drinking and then heading straight to work feels wrong. I don’t want to be covered in mud in broad daylight either… I’ll go once the sun sets.”
When I said it playfully with a smile, the village head snorted and pulled an old smartphone from his pocket.
“I figured as much. You won’t understand how serious it is just from words. See it with your own eyes.”
He swiped the screen a few times and held it out to me. One of the old men watching from the side joked, “You’re not looking at something pointless again, are you?” but the footage on the screen wasn’t something to laugh off.
Grandma Park was stumbling backward on the tidal flats, clearly terrified. And in front of her, something enormous was twisting and rising from the mud. A mudskipper. Its eyes bulged on top of its head just like usual, but its body was massive enough to dwarf even the petite Grandma Park. Staring at the screen, I couldn’t help but let out a hollow laugh.
“Looks like it got startled by its own sudden growth too.”
I set my empty cup on the table and wrapped things up.
“As you all know, these things eat the mud from the tidal flats. They’re timid, so they won’t deliberately attack people. Grandma Park just happened to be in its path while it was thrashing around. I’ll handle it, so until then, please work somewhere else and stay away from the tidal flats.”
I saw several people nod silently. No one pressed further. After all, the villagers had long grown accustomed to these kinds of strange incidents. I finished off the remaining makgeolli in my bowl and stood up. As I opened the hall door and stepped outside, the midday sunlight stabbed at my eyes. I took a deep breath of the hot, humid air mixed with the briny scent of the sea. Without realizing it, a small sigh escaped me as I walked.
‘Another annoying task added to the list. Still, someone’s got to do it.’
Protecting the peace of this village. That was both the reason I lived here in this bizarre, unfamiliar body and my only role. Dragging my heavy feet, I headed into the police outpost right next to the village hall. The moment the door opened, the hot, sticky air disappeared, replaced by a pleasant blast of cool air conditioning against my skin.
“Ah, that’s refreshing.”
Inside the outpost, as always, two people were on duty. One was the young city officer Lee Sun-gyeong, newly assigned to this area, and the other was Park Gyeong-wi, who might as well have been a local. Park Gyeong-wi glanced at me once before casually returning to his coffee in a paper cup and his paperwork. Meanwhile, the youngest, Lee Sun-gyeong, jumped up to greet me. But his face showed more worry than welcome. Catching the smell of makgeolli coming off me, he frowned slightly and started scolding instead of greeting.
“Ms. Jang Sajeong, you drank again? In broad daylight…”
“I’m not here to work. Just stopped by to file a report.”
I waved my hand dismissively and flopped onto the worn sofa. The television on the wall was airing a noisy lottery drawing with upbeat music. Absentmindedly, I rummaged through my pants pocket and pulled out the crumpled lottery ticket I’d folded up. The announcer on screen called out numbers one by one in an energetic voice, but none matched the digits on my ticket. When the final number missed cleanly, I let out a hollow laugh. Watching me, Park Gyeong-wi grinned.
“Missed them all again?”
I tore the ticket in half as I replied.
“Always do. Though strangely enough, the days when nothing matches are when my luck tends to be good.”
“Call it warding off bad luck, then.” Park Gyeong-wi clicked his tongue. He pulled a sheet of paper from a file and handed it to Lee Sun-gyeong, who brought it over to me. I picked up a pen from the coffee table. Familiarly accepting the report form, I neatly wrote in the name, location, and incident description fields: “Appearance of human-sized mudskipper and threat to residents.” While filling out the form, I glanced at Lee Sun-gyeong standing blankly beside me and felt a sudden urge to tease him.
“Officer Lee, think about it logically. To catch a mudskipper the size of a person, does someone as pretty as me really have to go?”
At my sly remark, Lee Sun-gyeong’s face flushed slightly in embarrassment. He waved his hands frantically, at a loss.
“You know how it is! If we carry guns, it’ll be all over the 9 o’clock news…”
Both Park Gyeong-wi and I burst out laughing at his innocent response. I handed the completed form back to Lee Sun-gyeong and continued.
“Besides, it’s true that even with a human-sized mudskipper wandering around in broad daylight and people with dog ears shopping in town, we still can’t use guns, right?”
Lee Sun-gyeong shook his head in exasperation, giving me a look that said, “What on earth are you talking about now?”
“Ms. Jang Sajeong, if you keep this up, you’ll get scolded for making discriminatory remarks. Please…”
He took the form and retreated to his desk, looking thoroughly fed up. Watching his back, I couldn’t help but smile. This body might be younger than Lee Sun-gyeong’s, but my mind was no different from a middle-aged man’s. So whenever I saw such a fresh-faced young guy, that mischievous urge just naturally bubbled up—it was like an instinct I couldn’t help.
After finishing the paperwork, I stood up from the sofa. Park Gyeong-wi, who had finished his coffee, crushed the paper cup and tossed it aside as he spoke.
“Want a ride?”
I shook my head with a playful grin.
“Hmm, maybe if it was someone young and handsome like Officer Lee driving…”
I deliberately turned my gaze toward Lee Sun-gyeong and gave him a wink. Sure enough, he startled and cleared his throat awkwardly. Opening the outpost door and stepping outside, the hot air hit my cooled body like a wall. The heat was so intense that mirages shimmered on the asphalt. On a day like this, the news would be blaring warnings to stay indoors all day, but I stretched my arms high once and began walking at a leisurely pace. The walk from the outpost to my house took well over thirty minutes. For most people, trudging through this scorching sun would be a sure way to collapse, but this body—unaffected even after downing several bowls of makgeolli like water—was fairly resilient to heat too. Once I got home and washed up, I’d feel fine again. Gazing at the sea sparkling on the distant horizon, I headed home at an unhurried pace.