Chapter 11
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: Head in the Box (11)
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Before the Dokkaebi arrived, Sia received a call from Taeju.
[Sis, is there any way for Jeonghan to talk directly with the Dokkaebi?]
It was a pretty straightforward question with clear intent, and Sia answered yes. As long as the person himself agreed, it was entirely possible.
“You want me to stay here? Me?”
“Yes. You just need to stay in this place.”
Sia said curtly.
“You said the Dokkaebi would come inside here?”
“Yes, that’s what will happen.”
Sia nodded. Jeonghan’s expression crumpled even further.
“And you still want me to stay inside?”
Jeonghan asked in a tone that suggested he couldn’t comprehend it at all.
“Didn’t that Taeju guy send me here because it’s dangerous?”
“Yes, but the dangerous thing is the Dokkaebi, not this place. This spot is safe. A lion might be dangerous, but that doesn’t make the zoo dangerous, right?”
Sia spoke with a confident smile.
“We have solid safety measures in place.”
Sia explained how she would protect Jeonghan, but even after hearing it all, he still wore a subtle expression.
“Um… Do I really have to be there?”
He understood the safety was guaranteed, but he couldn’t grasp why he had to do it anyway.
He had no desire to stand in front of the Dokkaebi if he could help it.
“Honestly, I’m scared.”
“Of course, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to. But aren’t you curious?”
Sia asked Jeonghan.
“Aren’t you curious what the promise was?”
At Sia’s words, Jeonghan seemed at a loss for words for a moment, frowning as he pondered.
Sia wasn’t particularly skilled at persuading people. She simply conveyed what needed to be said without hesitation.
“If we face each other directly, will I find out? What I’m curious about right now?”
Jeonghan asked, as if he’d somewhat made up his mind. Sia nodded, thinking it was just as Taeju had predicted.
“I don’t know what doubts you have, so it’s hard for me to say. But if you need it, I’ll create an opportunity for you to ask directly. In exchange, there might be cases where you have to answer the Dokkaebi’s questions.”
“…Then I’ll do it.”
Jeonghan’s face showed fear, but also a touch of resolve.
There was one unbearable curiosity gnawing at him.
* * *
“What the?”
The room had expanded compared to what the Dokkaebi first saw, but not dramatically so. If anything, it was less than a single mat in size.
Even for a Dokkaebi, it was a small enough space that it didn’t raise any sense of incongruity.
But a space that size was plenty to hide a person in. The Dokkaebi hadn’t even imagined there might be someone inside.
The Dokkaebi recognized the face of the man standing there hesitantly but on his own two feet. Even if Dokkaebis weren’t great at remembering human faces precisely, having seen him up close for about a week made it recognizable.
“Surprised, right?”
Taeju asked with a smile. Jeonghan, who had spotted the Dokkaebi well in advance, seemed fairly adjusted. But for the Dokkaebi, it was so sudden that his face showed extreme shock.
“Since when?”
The Dokkaebi said with a bewildered expression.
“No, no. What a stupid question.”
“Yeah. Of course, from the very beginning.”
Taeju replied with a laugh. The setup had been in place even before the Dokkaebi first entered the room.
“There was a reason Sia guided you into this room, and a reason Woli entered first and stood in her assigned spot.”
Sia had first checked the room to ensure it maintained a stable balance that the Dokkaebi wouldn’t notice, and Woli had stood in between to protect Jeonghan even if things went terribly wrong.
Despite her personal feelings making her glare at the Dokkaebi the whole time, Woli hadn’t responded to a single word or moved a single step—there was a reason for that.
“Heh… You fooled me completely.”
He’d been tricked, the Dokkaebi thought. But he didn’t stand up right away.
“This doesn’t seem like just some prank to mess with me.”
The Dokkaebi scratched his head for a moment before asking.
“Why go through all this trouble?”
The Dokkaebi asked.
“Half of it was a prank.”
At Taeju’s words, the Dokkaebi didn’t get angry. He just let out a hollow laugh of disbelief.
“A prank? On a Dokkaebi?”
“There’s no rule saying only Dokkaebis can play pranks. It seems someone extremely rare was here in the world.”
At Taeju’s words, the Dokkaebi fell silent as if at a loss, then spoke again.
“So half of it wasn’t a prank?”
Taeju didn’t wipe the smile from his face as he replied.
“For the other reason, I thought it was necessary to create a situation where these two could face each other.”
“Why not just do it straight?”
“There was one problem with that.”
“Problem?”
The Dokkaebi tilted his head.
“First, we needed to clear up one misunderstanding.”
The biggest misconception, and the starting point of this whole affair.
“The person you made the promise with is already dead. As I told you, he died of illness.”
“Yeah. You said that.”
The Dokkaebi nodded. He had believed it without much doubt, sensing the truth in Taeju’s words.
“Then who’s this guy?”
The Dokkaebi pointed at Jeonghan with his finger. Despite no hostility, Jeonghan flinched for a moment. But he didn’t panic as much as the first time.
“This is Mr. Jeonghan.”
“Ah, skip the name. I wouldn’t remember it anyway.”
Taeju nodded at the Dokkaebi’s words. A name wasn’t the kind of info a Dokkaebi would care about.
“I thought for sure this was the guy I made the promise with. So who is he?”
“He’s not the one who made the promise. He was just one of the people there when the box was buried.”
“So he’s not completely unrelated.”
The Dokkaebi nodded at Taeju’s words, then let out a hollow laugh.
“Ha, so no lies, huh? That’s a pretty mischievous prank.”
“Honestly, there wasn’t much else to get you to listen without getting excited.”
“Mm.”
Dokkaebis generally had extreme tendencies that even they couldn’t deny, so the Dokkaebi just let out a grunt.
“Even if it was mischievous, we didn’t trick you for any unfair gain, so call it a prank.”
It was somewhat sophistry, but the Dokkaebi nodded as if he could accept that much. It was the expected reaction. Dokkaebis had no ground to complain about pranks—they did them all the time themselves.
“And if I had to pick one more reason,”
Taeju said, glancing slightly toward the back. These words weren’t just for the Dokkaebi in front of him.
“I wanted to balance things out a bit.”
“Balance?”
As Taeju intended, a voice came from behind this time. It was Jeonghan asking.
“Yes. Humans can’t help but feel intimidated meeting a Dokkaebi, while a Dokkaebi would try to pull pranks on anyone who looks like an easy mark.”
So, they prank the Dokkaebi first, creating an atmosphere where it can’t pull any more.
Conversely, it helps the human get used to the Dokkaebi. For the passive Jeonghan especially, it was essential time.
Otherwise, any direct confrontation would make proper negotiation impossible. One side would just be dragged along overwhelmingly.
“Yeah, so you calculated this out, huh.”
“One variable was that you came inside so obediently.”
At Taeju’s words, Sia nodded unconsciously.
That part had gone surprisingly smoothly. The Dokkaebi, charitably speaking boldly, or uncharitably speaking thoughtlessly, had just waltzed right into the room.
“Anyway, it doesn’t seem meaningless. Mr. Jeonghan has heard what you had to say, Dokkaebi, and now you can get answers from the person you demanded the promise from.”
The Dokkaebi stared intently at Jeonghan’s face after hearing Taeju. Then Woli appeared, blocking the Dokkaebi’s gaze.
“Ah, that thing’s really annoying.”
“…Hmph.”
Woli let out a small irritated snort.
“Because glaring at him is a threat in itself. By the way, what were you planning to do if the promise wasn’t kept?”
Taeju asked the Dokkaebi first. He knew the answer but asked anyway. Jeonghan didn’t know.
“I’d make them keep it. Go to someone else, or the dead guy’s family. Somehow, I’d get what was promised.”
At the Dokkaebi’s words, Jeonghan frowned.
Taeju had no particular reaction to the words themselves, but he made one clear point.
“That’s what makes it a threat. Though you probably don’t get it.”
The headache was that the Dokkaebi’s words were sincere without malice.
He thought not killing or injuring was plenty moderate.
From a human perspective, though, it was no different from threatening to make friends and family go through the same ordeal.
“Anyway, the Dokkaebi appearing to you was a case of mistaken identity, but also something that would’ve happened eventually.”
Taeju said to Jeonghan.
“In the end, you’re involved in this too.”
So in a way, it was fortunate. They’d met while the Dokkaebi still had patience.
“In the end, this situation was just a matter of time. So, Mr. Jeonghan, what do you think now?”
“About what?”
“Do you want to keep the promise? Note that I’m not asking about possibility. I just want to hear your own will.”
The Dokkaebi held his breath at Taeju’s question.
“You said I need to show something of value.”
Jeonghan said with an ambiguous expression.
“Honestly, I still don’t know what that valuable thing is.”
Jeonghan averted his gaze slightly as he spoke.
“It must be something pretty amazing.”
The Dokkaebi nodded at Jeonghan’s words.
“I don’t know what it is, but I think so too.”
So it was still a bit hard to answer, Jeonghan thought.
“That clears things up a bit.”
Taeju said.
“Only two people experienced what happened back then. The Dokkaebi and that Mr. Jeonghwan. There were other friends there too, but even without them—since the client doesn’t know the situation well—it won’t make much difference.”
At Taeju’s words, both nodded unconsciously.
“Why don’t the two of you talk a little about what happened when you made the promise? Maybe something will come to mind while you’re sharing the story from back then?”
The Dokkaebi nodded right away at Taeju’s suggestion, but Jeonghan hesitated a moment before asking.
“Um… could I ask one thing before we start the story?”
Jeonghan raised his hand and said. It was his first question.
He was tense, but not as scared as at first.
Watching the conversation go on had made him more accustomed, and above all, he couldn’t hold back his curiosity any longer.
“By any chance, were you that person back then?”
The Dokkaebi looked straight at Jeonghan at his question.
“The one who helped us bury the box…”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
The Dokkaebi admitted readily.
“That was me.”