Even Mustering Courage, It's Scary Enough to Wet My Pants
The campfires stood in several directions around the piled luggage.
Since the fires were spaced a fair distance apart, the children played hide-and-seek among them and ran about freely.
In this world, even children performed age-appropriate tasks, so the kids stayed busy during the day.
The hours before bedtime were the most energetic and joyful playtime for them.
The children hid in corners or darted between the bundles of luggage, playing among themselves. As long as they didn’t stray too far, the adults left them to it.
After all, the children knew perfectly well how frightening the darkness beyond the fires could be, so there was no real need to worry.
Strange.
Today, none of the children were in sight.
Normally, even when they hid, I could still sense their presence somewhere.
Wondering what was going on, I followed Popcorn. Soon, small voices drifted toward us.
It was the children.
It seemed that had been Popcorn’s destination all along.
They had gathered near one of the outermost campfires, right at the edge of where play was still permitted.
In the darkness beyond the firelight, the children sat in a tight circle.
It looked as though they were trying to comfort a crying Ji-geu.
When I drew closer, the children fell silent all at once.
Ji-geu hid his face and hung his head.
His sniffling and sobs continued, but he clearly didn’t want anyone else to see him like this.
Popcorn flew above the group and lifted both tiny arms into the air, as if declaring, Big trouble! The kid’s crying!
He must have panicked when he saw Ji-geu in tears and flown straight to me.
Whether it was a general trait of spirits or simply Popcorn’s own nature, he adored children.
If they could see him or speak with him, he would have made a wonderful friend.
I crouched down in front of the children.
“What’s the matter?”
“Well…”
The boy who usually fought with Ji-geu—the one who now acted as their little leader—began to speak. Ji-geu’s head snapped up.
He shook his head frantically at the leader.
The boy leader and the other children exchanged glances.
While the rest stayed quiet, the leader seemed to steel himself and spoke to Ji-geu.
“This isn’t something we can keep to ourselves. We have to tell the grown-ups. I know you like Uncle Geob-bo, but this is different.”
Wait, what was this about? Had Geob-bo done something?
Ji-geu glanced at my face, lips twisting.
Tears rolled steadily down the boy’s cheeks.
“B-but… if you tell, I won’t be allowed to play with Uncle Geob-bo anymore. And he’ll get in trouble. They told me not to go near him, but I did anyway.”
“It can’t be helped. I’m the oldest, so I have an imoo to protect you all.”
Not imoo—duty. The children had been listening to stories lately as part of their lessons, and it seemed he had picked up the word but mispronounced it.
Cute, if a little off.
Still, the conversation was growing more suspicious by the second.
I suppressed my rising concern and smiled gently.
“Children, will you tell me what happened?”
Ji-geu shook his head again, but the boy leader spoke up immediately.
“Uncle Geob-bo tried to hit Ji-geu. He said never to come back, that he was annoying. He even called him a little brat.”
“And he pushed him so hard Ji-geu fell.”
At the children’s words, Ji-geu’s sobs grew louder, as if the memory had returned in full force.
I could have dismissed it by thinking that was simply the kind of man Geob-bo was, but something felt off.
Geob-bo had always seemed genuinely fond of the children.
Moreover, from everything I had seen, he showed no violent tendencies.
If anything, he was usually the one getting beaten.
“Can you tell me exactly what happened?” I asked Ji-geu.
The boy stammered through his tears.
The more I heard, the less it made sense.
According to Ji-geu, they had been laughing and talking normally that morning. But when he went to see Geob-bo in the afternoon, the man had suddenly cursed at him, called him a brat, and told him never to return. The story didn’t add up.
It was completely unlike the Geob-bo I knew.
“Does this mean I can’t play with Uncle Geob-bo anymore?” Ji-geu asked, still crying.
“For now, it’s probably best to stay away. But… I’ll look into what’s really going on.”
When I stroked his hair, the boy nodded even as he sniffled.
“All right, let’s head back toward the center. This area is too far out. We shouldn’t stray too far from the middle.”
“Okay.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Let’s go!”
The children answered in bright chorus, then grabbed Ji-geu’s hands and ran off.
Popcorn flew above them, occasionally thrusting his little arms upward with all his might.
It looked like encouragement.
As I walked back toward the center, I searched for Geob-bo and the thugs, but they were nowhere to be seen.
That wasn’t particularly unusual.
They often disappeared at night.
Still, they never went far. Beyond the safety of the fires lay beasts and monsters that would tear them apart. So they simply stayed out of sight in the darker areas.
They had no supplies and couldn’t possibly run away, so the villagers didn’t bother searching for them when they vanished after dark.
Most of the villagers were gathered near the campfires, sharpening axes and knives or repairing broken tools.
Some were weaving baskets from reeds.
Others crafted simple straw shoes—children’s sizes, men’s, women’s. They had only started after dinner, yet dozens already lay in neat piles.
When I approached, the people shifted slightly to make room.
“Chief, sit here.”
It was a bit cramped, but I settled among them.
One person ladled hot water from a pot and offered me a cup.
“Thank you.”
It was a brew made from wild grasses that grew in the fields. They said it helped with sore throats and numbness in the hands and feet.
One of the villagers had learned it from his grandmother when he was young.
I took a sip. A strong, bitter flavor like over-steeped green tea flooded my mouth.
It was incredibly bitter.
My face scrunched up before I could stop it.
The village men burst into loud laughter.
“Chief really can’t handle bitter things.”
“You’ve had it several times now, but it still gets you?”
No, this was just unreasonably strong.
The herbal tea tasted similar to green tea, which I normally enjoyed. But this version was like green tea concentrated fifty times over.
It wasn’t me who was strange—it was the people who drank it like water.
Someone fetched plain hot water from another pot.
“Here. If it’s too bitter, mix this in.”
When I diluted the brew, it finally became tolerable.
As I sipped the tea, I asked whether anyone had seen Geob-bo and the thugs during the day. Several men nodded.
“Did you notice anything unusual about them?”
The men tilted their heads.
“Not really. Same as always.”
“Geob-bo got beaten again today. They took his food, too.”
“It was worse than usual. They don’t usually hit him that hard, but today he spat out a whole mouthful of blood.”
I asked for more details. One man frowned as he recalled something.
“Now that you mention it, for the past few days those bastards have been whispering among themselves. I thought it was just their usual nonsense, but since you asked, it suddenly seems suspicious.”
He said they had been far more cautious than normal, glancing around as they talked.
The thugs whispering more than usual. Geob-bo suddenly beating Ji-geu severely and telling him to stay away.
In my mind, the pieces slowly began to connect.
While I sat quietly thinking, the village men remained silent so as not to disturb me. The only sound was the crackling of the campfires.
From a short distance away, I heard Ji-geu’s father speaking with someone.
“Who’s on watch duty tonight?”
The question suddenly occurred to me. The man who had brought the plain water answered.
“I am tonight.”
“Do you know who has it tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow… ah, it’s Ji-geu’s father.”
Another piece clicked into place.
Normally two people guarded the supplies, but with so much work to do it had been reduced to one.
If the thugs were planning to escape, they would need food first.
But they couldn’t approach the supplies themselves.
The best option available to them would be to threaten a child’s parent.
When I shared my suspicions, the men jumped to their feet in agitation.
“I knew those bastards would pull something like this eventually.”
“We won’t let them get away with it this time.”
“Kill them or drive them out.”
We scanned the area lit by the fires, but Geob-bo and the thugs were nowhere to be seen.
I and about a dozen villagers grabbed torches and began searching for them.
* * *
“Hold him tight.”
The leader’s voice slithered darkly through the shadows.
Geob-bo trembled violently and shook his head.
Sobs leaked out, but a cloth stuffed in his mouth silenced them completely.
Not a sound escaped.
After dinner, once the villagers were absorbed in their tasks, the leader and his men had dragged Geob-bo to a spot slightly removed from the settlement.
The village wasn’t far.
If he screamed loudly enough, someone might hear and come running. But the rag was crammed so deeply into his mouth that even a groan couldn’t slip out.
If he wasn’t careful, the cloth might block his throat entirely.
“Hah, I never thought you’d pull a stunt like that.”
The leader ground his teeth.
They must have overheard Ji-geu crying and telling the other children what happened.
That was how they learned Geob-bo had deliberately driven the boy away.
“You dare disobey me? Did you really want to die that badly? If that’s your wish, I’ll grant it.”
A fist flew out of the darkness.
With a dull thud, Geob-bo’s head snapped sideways.
In the pitch-black night, stars sparkled before his eyes.
He had been beaten plenty of times before, but this was the first time he had literally seen stars.
“How’s that? Does it hurt less when you’re taking the hits for that little brat?”
“…”
Of course not.
Geob-bo wept and shook his head.
The leader punched him several more times.
Though the surroundings were dark, once his eyes adjusted, the moonlight and starlight revealed shapes.
Every time he saw the leader’s fist coming, terror flooded his mind.
But with his comrades pinning him from the sides, he couldn’t dodge.
Two blows to the face, three to the stomach.
He endured the beating helplessly.
After that, the stars disappeared.
Nothing sparkled anymore.
Whether his forehead or his eye had split open, he could no longer see the stars in the sky.
His vision blurred.
“Now then, you’ll be able to bring that brat tomorrow, right?”
Geob-bo remained silent.
The thought of Ji-geu enduring this kind of pain terrified him.
Of course he was afraid of being beaten himself, but the image of that small child being struck by those huge fists frightened him even more.
The leader raised his fist again.
Geob-bo’s body shook uncontrollably.
He wanted to nod, to get through this moment at least, but whenever Ji-geu’s face floated before his eyes, he couldn’t.
“Not answering? How many more hits do you need before you speak?”
Even in the dark, he could see the leader’s fist flying toward him.
Ah, it’s really scary.
The moment he thought that, a fierce pain slammed into him.
That was when he noticed his pants growing wet.
It seemed he had wet himself.
His comrades sniffed and spat curses.
“This bastard really pissed himself.”
“Unbelievable.”
“It’s scary enough to make you wet your pants, yet you still won’t nod?”
“The guy’s rebelling.”
The leader spat on the ground.
“Fine. If you want to die that badly, there’s nothing I can do. Once you’ve died once, maybe you’ll change your mind.”
As he spoke, the leader raised his fist high.
“Mmph—mmph—mmph—” Geob-bo thrashed against the gag. Then he saw the flickering light of a torch approaching from afar.
It was a torch.
Only the villagers carried torches in this area.
But the leader had his back turned, and his comrades were too busy cursing Geob-bo for wetting himself to notice the approaching light.
If I miss this chance, I’ll really die.
Geob-bo summoned every ounce of strength and thrashed wildly.
With a startled grunt, the man holding him let go.
In that instant, Geob-bo yanked at the cloth stuffed in his mouth.
There was too much of it to pull out all at once.
With the rag still half in his mouth, he screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Saaave meeeeee!”
The words came out distorted, but he had to shout it again and again before they caught him.
“Saaave meee! Saaave meee! Saaave meeeeeee!”
Save me, save me, save me!
Geob-bo screamed until his throat felt like it would tear apart.