Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: A Gift?
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A woman clutches her eyes and staggers.
I reflexively support her and ask,
"Are you okay?"
"Wait. Just a moment."
She holds out a hand and takes a deep breath.
Still frowning in pain, she opens her eyes. Like someone blinded by light, her eyelids barely part. Tears well up and trickle down.
"Hoo... hoo..."
Even so, she forces her eyes fully open and finally stands straight, gazing at the world.
I peer into her eyes too.
Odd eyes.
Whoa. First time seeing them in real life.
Her left eye is her original one. Unbelievably pale for a Korean, the iris shimmers yellow like autumn ginkgo leaves.
But the right one has changed. Now it's the black-brown of an average Korean's eye, darker at the edges.
I thought pulling an eyeball as a prize would just give a glass jar eye to insert yourself... but it transplants itself?
Does that mean...
She can see now?
Blink.
Blink.
The pain fading, she blinks slowly. Her furrowed brow relaxes,
"!!!"
Then creases again.
This time, from a different emotion. Shock. Excitement.
Her pupils tremble. They dart to the sky, the ground, this way, that way.
Whoa.
This is...
The expression someone makes seeing the world for the first time since birth...
A girl who looks my age stares at the world like a newborn baby, full of wonder and amazement. Her face shakes with emotion, injustice, on the verge of tears.
It stirs something in me too.
Especially with her ears bandaged from being torn off, fingers gone and bandaged. It makes her look even more pitiful. So heartbreaking.
"C-Can you see well?"
Pushing down my tangled feelings, I wave my hand in front of her eyes.
"!!!"
She hops like a baby bird.
"What was that just now?"
"Huh? What, what?"
"What you just did?"
"What did I do?"
"It moved! Yeah! It moved! Like this! It wiggled! Right? Things move, right?"
"...This?"
I wave my hand in front of her eyes again.
"!!!"
Her mouth drops wide. No one watching someone do three backflips in the air would be this shocked.
"It moved! It moved!"
She rushes right up to me.
"!!!"
"What? What now?"
"It got bigger!"
"Pardon?"
I flinch and check. No, it didn't. No ears, but a pretty girl lunges close, so I got startled just in case... but nope!
Then she steps back.
"It got smaller! It shrank! Whoa!"
Ah...
Don't tell me.
I scratch my head.
"Um. You mean perspective?"
"!!!"
No way. Again? She freaks at every word.
"Perspective! Right. It gets bigger up close and smaller far away. Ah, this is depth perception! Oh my god... oh my god!"
Fair enough.
Blind from birth, she knows nothing. Seeing itself is brand new.
This is kinda fascinating for me too.
"So. That's you. Right over there. You're you..."
"Pardon?"
"I mean. This is you right now... Ouch!"
Thonk!
Excited, she strides forward and bumps her forehead into my chest.
"You okay?"
I try to steady her, but she's faster.
She stumbles back, then widens her eyes again, approaches, and gropes my chest.
"Whoa. Right. This is clothes. This is chest. Shoulder. This is... face."
Up close, her hands cup both my cheeks. Face flushed red without one ear, she looks up at me. Eyes rolling this way and that, beaming.
"Whoa. You're so pretty."
"Huh?"
"People. They're this pretty."
No. Suddenly saying embarrassing stuff.
"It's all dark and light and sparkling colors! So this is sparkling!"
"W-Well. It might be different..."
"Huh? Different?"
Yeah, yeah. It is. Probably seeing shadows dancing on my face. Definitely different.
But she doesn't remove her hands from my cheeks. Instead, she squints her delicate features, kneading my cheeks, nose, chin, eyelids, staring intently.
As my face warms up, she speaks.
"What's your name?"
"Huh?"
"I'm Lee Seol. Twenty-one. What's your name? Age?"
Suddenly?
"Right. Want to exchange numbers?"
She fumbles in her pocket and pulls out her phone.
"Whoa! My phone! So that's what it looks like!"
Giggling to herself, she holds it out to me.
I'm a bit flustered. Honestly, she's cute, so I'm not against it. Same age too. But is this okay? First time meeting today... awkward...
"You're the first person I saw with these eyes. I need to know your name. And if possible... I want to stay in touch. You're the only one who'll remember this moment."
Ah.
That hits home.
I push aside my faint reluctance, enter my number in her phone, and call myself.
"Here."
"Thank you. Ah, Kim I-han."
She smiles brightly as she takes the phone back. Such a pretty smile. With bloodied bandage on her ear. Bloodied left hand sweeping hair behind it.
Lee Seol says,
"Kim I-han. Initials KEH?"
For a moment, my breath stops.
She knows? Busted?
"No. Wait, no. I-han, so KYH. Yi for I, right?"
"Ah... yeah. That's the Romanization..."
I used E-Han on my passport because Yi didn't look pretty. Anyway.
Thinking my ghost story connection won't lead to good, I glance at Lee Seol guiltily.
She just giggles. No idea if she knows or not.
"Anyway. I-han. I have somewhere to go, so I gotta head out first. Thanks for today. I'll call. Really, thank you."
"No, no big deal. I didn't do anything."
"No. Honestly, it was tough earlier. But you worried about me then. It gave me strength. And... you showed up right then, so I pulled the eye. Like a lucky angel!"
She insists she'll buy me a meal next time, looks back repeatedly as she exits the alley. Waves wildly whenever our eyes meet. Then marvels at her moving hand, watching palm and back, grinning wide.
I stare blankly at the alley end where she vanished.
Strange feeling.
A blind person. Someone who'd never seen, almost lost forever, now sees light.
The cost wasn't light... but she's that happy.
Feels so weird.
"Did you... do that on purpose? Win right after I stepped in to protect her?"
I glance at the gacha machine and ask.
Lee Seol mentioned it too.
Timing too perfect?
Brutal penalties nonstop, then I defend her and instant win.
Maybe just coincidence... but suspicious.
⚙ PRODUCT LIST ⚙ Kidney Ear Left Pinky Finger Silver Hairpin Blood Luck Pistol LSD Painkiller Wait.
Lee Seol's kidney, ear, finger as prizes? Okay, fine.
Blood? Sure. Luck? No idea how that becomes a prize, but ghost story logic.
But pistol? Where'd that come from?
And LSD? Isn't that ecstasy or something?
"This thing's insane."
Flash. Flash.
The gacha machine flashes again.
Now I just chuckle dryly.
Fine. Whatever.
Seems it doesn't appear to just anyone. Probably only those with circumstances.
I'll think that way.
As long as no one dies. No deaths, and it's top 0.1% ghost story personality.
"Good job. You did well."
Pat pat.
I pat the gacha machine and turn away.
Head clearer now. Lots I want to try at home.
Ghost stories. How they're made. Time to investigate properly.
Clunk.
"Hm?"
I turn at the sudden sound.
A capsule has dropped from the gacha machine.
"What's this?"
No answer, naturally.
I open the capsule anyway.
Pop.
"..."
Gift - Luck Pill x1 - Lee Seol's Pinky Finger "...P-Pinky finger? Lee... Seol's?"
Why?
This.
To me.
"Why?"
The gacha machine stays silent. Just...
Flash flash.
What. Why. What now.
Flash flash.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇ Right after Kim I-han pockets Lee Seol's pinky finger in confusion and leaves.
A woman appears in the alley.
She's holding a bear doll in her arms.
Spotting the gacha machine, she gasps.
"It's real."
She hurries over, examines it, then her eyes stop at "Rational Gacha Machine From KEH".
"It matches! Exactly!"
She stomps excitedly, checking the tag on her bear doll.
Then.
Shrrk.
The bear doll in her arms stirs.
"Hm? Get closer?"
She leans toward the machine as the doll instructs, and the bear doll places a paw on it.
Flash flash.
The machine blinks like responding,
Clunk! Thud!
The bear doll unhesitatingly plucks out its eye and sticks it next to the machine's slot.
The eye adheres perfectly, pupil rolling this way and that.
She looks down in surprise; the one-eyed bear nods, like it's fine, let's go.
"Wait a sec."
She strokes the bear doll's head, then turns, bows deeply to the machine.
"Thank you, KEH. Whoever you are. I just had to come say thanks."
She stays bowed like in prayer, then slowly straightens.
"See you later."
As she turns to leave,
Clunk!
The machine drops a prize.
"Oh?"
No coin even.
"For me?"
Flash flash.
She bends slowly, picks it up.
"Pretty silver hairpin?"
It's a silver hairpin with a long ribbon. Why give this? As she wonders,
Swish!
"Oh?"
The bear doll swipes, grabs the ribbon, wraps it around its waist.
The long hairpin dangles at its hip like a samurai's sword.
"Ah, so not my gift. It's for our Responding Bear."
She grins, strokes the bear's head, bows to the machine once more, and turns.
"I'll stick a prettier eye on you at home."
Clutching the shabby, worn bear doll now sword-belted at the waist, she chatters away down the alley.
The alley empties again. The once-flashing gacha machine has vanished.