Chapter 62
Chapter 62
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 62
Chapter Title: A Glad Mission
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“Gweonwoo and Jiknyeo are cwossing the wiver – ao–. Tteol– teol–. Ah dinna.”
Chomp chomp.
Hong Su-jeong, who had been reading a book to Yu-jin, ran her tongue over her gums.
Hong Su-jeong had gathered up a handful of her baby teeth and, the moment she arrived in the countryside, tossed them onto the roof of the mud house. Grandpa had told her that would make new teeth grow in quickly. But the swallows still hadn’t brought any. Swallows raised their chicks twice, and right now they were busy feeding the second batch that had just hatched. Mom and Dad were busy every day too, stuffing her full of food. Was she a swallow chick? If she was, then Mom and Dad were swallows, and Dad must be a Gangnam swallow who sweet-talked Mom. But swallows laid eggs twice a year, so why had Mom and Dad only had her once?
Just like her own mom, the Seoul kid plunged into a deep stream of consciousness.
Yu-jin fished the dazed Hong Su-jeong out of the swamp of her thoughts, her eyes misty.
“Ehe. Chilwolchilseok’s right here, yeah?”
“Ah, that’s wight–.”
Hong Su-jeong scanned with her eyes to the spot Yu-jin was pointing at.
It was a tricky passage to pronounce with her current tooth situation.
Hong Su-jeong could understand why the dads clutched their stomachs and laughed until tears streamed down whenever the kid tried to say something. Even to her own ears, it sounded ridiculous. But even this worldly innocent Son Yu-jin was slyly smirking with one corner of her mouth. A second-grader ought to be grateful when her big sister read to her, not grinning like a cheeky brat.
Then, a savior entered Hong Su-jeong’s field of vision.
The giant was leaning against the sunset, eyes full of melancholy.
‘Hee–.’
Her reliable backup, slathered with spit early as Dad instructed.
A giant who’d gladly do anything she asked without a single refusal or hesitation. Her cousins found Hong Su-jeong annoying, but Son Jin-hyuk protected her like a bodyguard, worried she’d even trip. He was taller than Dad, and handsomer than Uncle from Mom’s side.
‘Now if he just gets famous and makes a ton of money.’
From eavesdropping on Mom and Aunt Han Yu-young, she’d heard that to live in this village, you needed at least fifty million won. Big money kids couldn’t earn. Hong Su-jeong didn’t even have five hundred won. Sure, people might say a rich girl like her shouldn’t be broke, that she must’ve blown it all, but Hong Su-jeong was innocent. She got plenty of pocket money from everywhere, but Mom took it all, so she never saw a dime. Her wise mom Yu Se-ra said kids needed to learn prudent spending and never gave her more than a thousand won. Other friends had ten-thousand-won bills in their wallets. Every time she wheedled for more, Mom hit her with hard words like “financial sense” and “budget management,” sucking the soul right out of her.
Her thoughts wandered again.
Hong Su-jeong shook her head hard to snap out of it and called to the giant.
“Oppa–.”
Jin-hyuk, who’d been staring only at the doghouse, turned at Hong Su-jeong’s call.
The gap-toothed Seoul kid thrust a book up to his chest.
A clear sign she wanted him to read.
The giant, ripening red in the sunset, smiled. Soft as a breeze.
“Sure.”
As soon as he sat on the sofa and opened the book, the two kids stuck to him like glue.
Reading to them let Jin-hyuk calm his troubled heart over General, if only for a moment.
“······And so the magpies built the bridge of birds. Thanks to the magpies, Gyeonwoo and Jiknyeo could meet on the bridge of birds and share their love–.”
“Oppa, oppa. Did Gweonwoo and Jiknyeo stowy end happy?”
“Were Gyeonwoo and Jiknyeo sad?”
How the hell should I know······.
He wanted to say it, but Jin-hyuk tried to be kind to his little sisters. Adults with adults, kids with kids, dogs with dogs. He was the only one who felt like an outsider, lacking that sense of belonging. Being alone was fine, no regrets there, but belonging was a separate feeling.
“They must’ve been sad and missed each other, but knowing they could meet again, they probably endured it maturely.”
“Mm–.”
“Mm–.”
Too hard for them, huh.
Hong Su-jeong and Yu-jin both scratched their heads for no reason.
“Even if it hurts, if you push through and overcome it, you grow as much as it hurt. So Gyeonwoo and Jiknyeo probably got more mature over time and weren’t as sad anymore.”
“Gwowing pains?”
“Growing pains?”
Kids sure had good memories. They must’ve overheard Yu Se-ra and spit it right back out. But was it right to slap any old phrase onto this? Jin-hyuk inwardly tilted his head, wondering if it fit, but nodded anyway. Depends on how you see it, he figured.
“Could be.”
Jin-hyuk kept his smile, hoping that was the last question.
But Yu-jin still looked puzzled.
“Ojakgyo? What’s Ojakgyo?”
Yu-jin slanted her big black eyes.
Jin-hyuk pondered how to answer. What would suit Yu-jin’s level?
Hm, I just read that it’s the bridge the magpies made, but she’s asking anyway. Is it the purpose? The architecture or design? Or maybe the metaphorical meaning? Yu-jin’s no ordinary kid, could be about constellations. Then explaining it as the galactic bridge linking Altair and Vega might work.
Son Yu-jin let out a light sigh.
Her Seoul big sis and oppa both took forever thinking when asked anything. Dad answered right away, though.
Son Yu-jin turned to find Dad in the middle of his game. She bolted straight to him as he munched grapes with smack smack sounds.
“Daddaa, what’s Ojakgyo?”
Ptui ptui. Dad spat out grape seeds, eyes fixed on the Go board, and opened his mouth. Elite as he was, surpassing human intellect, his answer was swift.
“Motel. On the way to Beomsan Market past the town center, there’s Ojakgyo Motel.”
Dad hadn’t been, but he’d heard the facilities were decent. Even had an elevator. Son Gwang-yeon mumbled around grape seeds he was spitting out with his mouth.
‘That dad for real······.’
*
Jin-hyuk got dizzy from Dad’s weird nonsense.
Fated to protect his sisters, he evacuated Yu-jin and Hong Su-jeong to the yard.
“Like this?”
“Yeah. Wike that.”
Hong Su-jeong pulled a black rubber band from her bag, saying she wanted to play rubber band jump. She must’ve brought it from Seoul. She looped one end around the platform leg, and Jin-hyuk crouched holding the other end spread wide.
‘She said she’d never done this.’
After a drink or two, Executive Director Hong would lament her life, and one routine bit was how she had few memories of playing with friends as a kid. Always rushing to academies and tutors, no time to bond. No play memories, she’d sulk.
“Can’t even in this wedneck country town– one day when I wake up ea-.”
But now she played hand-clap games with Yu-jin or Mom, and rubber band jumps too. No one chanting with her, yet she sang alone, hopping lightly and nimbly.
‘Feeling the world change in weird ways.’
They’d skated on pond ice, sledded in snow. Summer water fights, forest adventures. Thinking about it, Jin-hyuk had already painted tons of memories into Hong Su-jeong’s life.
A fresh thought slipped in alongside a sense of responsibility.
She was already living a different world, so no need to agonize over being ordinary or messing with history, right?
He’d worried once. What if the world warped because of him? Not cowardice.
Jin-hyuk feared heavenly punishment or divine wrath harming his family. Petty human angst from a lowly lifeform, but he didn’t want them hurt because of him.
‘Alone, I’d have rampaged everywhere.’
Ignorant of true happiness, he might’ve plotted world’s end. But now, he couldn’t live selfishly alone.
Family-given happiness came with heavy chains of responsibility.
Even if punishment from the heavens for some reason, it was a welcome fate.
Jin-hyuk’s thoughts didn’t go further.
Grrrr! Woof!
Kyaaang! Kyeeeng–!
Curious about the rare rubber band game maybe, General came out and bit Nureungi’s neck. The mutt had pulled some trick waiting for it, but sharp General stayed vigilant.
‘You’re something else too, General.’
Jin-hyuk glanced at Hong Su-jeong jumping the band. Dogs handle dog stuff.
“Ode to–, ode to– what country is it–. The white snow country– huff huff–.”
Panting like that, the kid could use a break.
Better take Nureungi to Choi Mi-kyeong’s before he croaks.
“The most pewilous path– huff huff.”
She wanted to see the puppy, but General had no such plans. Seemed hopeless. Better off as General’s kibble shuttle.
‘Heroes need fitting mates, huh.’
Brave ones, like Hong Su-jeong. Sounded good, but Jin-hyuk shrugged at his own absurdity.
Sigh.
Anyway, pity for General brought a sigh.
‘Heavens. A bachelor living in our house.’
Loser.
Jin-hyuk shook his head.
For some reason, the head-shake lasted long, his face pitifully sad.
Safely returned Nureungi and spent a peaceful night.
But Jin-hyuk’s peace didn’t last.
“Oppa, wet’s go wesewvoi-.”
“To the reservoir?”
“Yeah!”
Hong Su-jeong saved words, hating how the dads laughed every time she opened her mouth. She shoved the book right under Jin-hyuk’s nose. It was an exploration activity, homework to collect reeds.
Man, summer homework had everything.
Jin-hyuk had collected winter buds from four tree types last winter break too.
“Okay.”
“Hee–.”
Oppa’s the best.
Top and bottom front teeth all gone, Hong Su-jeong grinned wide.
Jin-hyuk held back laughter till his face turned beet red.
‘So cute.’
Other kids hit arcades or played hoops in blazing sun. Jin-hyuk trekked through woods and fields to the reservoir with two kids and a mutt in tow.
“Me, me–.”
Hong Su-jeong stomped, insisting she’d cut them herself. Jin-hyuk held her tiny waist from behind as she flailed with small scissors. Not exactly Titanic······.
Still, he turned to check Yu-jin. General nearby was reassuring, but reservoirs and fields crawled with snakes.
‘Too much grass.’
Even the non-venomous flower snake, prettily nicknamed despite no poison, topped his caution list. Camouflaged in grass on rice paddy banks, active daytime, spotted often.
‘Kids’ safety’s on me.’
Yuhyeol-mok. Mottled green body, orange-red near neck and spots. Unlike other vipers, no front fangs. Back molars secrete blood-bleeding, shock-inducing venom. Some say deadlier than the magpie hawk viper, Korea’s strongest.
‘Japanese middle schooler? Elementary kid?’
Jin-hyuk recalled a fatal human case.
Full viper, kids bitten on molars could die fast.
Few in the countryside knew. Jin-hyuk learned during service.
“Oppa, can’t weach.”
No choice, Jin-hyuk loosened his arm around her waist, grabbed her pant leg. Accidentally snagged panties too, flashing a bit. Neither cared. Him on arm strength, her on cutting. Pros focused.
Grrrr.
Snake thoughts jinxed it?
General’s warning growl made Jin-hyuk tense.
Up front, snip as reeds cut.
“Kyaaaaah–.”
Behind, Yu-jin’s scream tore the air.
Jin-hyuk whipped around to see Yu-jin collapsed.
She’d been picking field flowers on the bank. What happened?
Moments later, his heart raced more.
Grrrrr.
A bit away, General shook a over-one-meter snake’s tail side to side viciously.
Yuhyeol-mok.