Chapter 18
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Head in the Box (18)
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Despite accomplishing something so remarkable, he constantly belittled himself by comparing it to an imaginary friend.
Taeju couldn't quite guess just how far he'd devalued his own worth in that manner.
Taeju let out a sigh as he spoke.
“That much effort must be coming from anxiety, right?”
The burden of knowing their current relationship could shatter at any moment was likely what drove Jeonghan to go this far.
What Jeonghan had done up until now went beyond simply fearing the loss of his friends.
It was probably born from sorrow and guilt over what he'd already lost, along with that weight.
But in Taeju's eyes, it was wrong.
Jeonghan was handling everything as if he were being chased.
Insisting on keeping a promise with the dokkaebi that he didn't need to honor was essentially the same thing.
Even now, Jeonghan believed he owed a debt to the dead.
Taeju stood up from his seat.
“I'll say just two things.”
Jeonghan started to rise as well but sat back down awkwardly upon seeing Taeju's gaze looking down at him.
“First, there’s no such thing as a perfect relationship.”
Human connections inherently carry risk.
“After all, every meeting comes with a parting. I know it sounds like something a cultist preaching fateful bonds would say, and it's not my favorite topic.”
That parting would certainly be painful, but obsessing over it to the point of unbearable agony was suffering in itself.
“Second, the people around you aren't so fragile that you have to do everything for them.”
Taeju looked at Jeonghan with a touch of pity in his eyes.
“I don't think they're weak.”
“Really?”
Taeju countered.
“For someone who thinks that, you only ever give help and never receive it.”
From what Taeju had observed, the relationships Jeonghan maintained were pretty one-sided.
“If you're scared that asking for something from them might make them crumble right away, what else is that but thinking they're weak?”
Jeonghan had no reply. Seeing that, Taeju pressed on.
“What you've been through is something everyone faces eventually. It's a very common problem.”
It was a kind of trauma born from that initial loss being too agonizing for Jeonghan. This obsession surely stemmed from it.
But no matter how much they said, they couldn't fix it for him.
“Well, let's drop that for now.”
In the end, he had to feel it himself.
“For now, let's talk about the promise instead. You said you can't keep the one you made with the dokkaebi, right?”
Jeonghan nodded stiffly.
Seeing that, Taeju said in a loud voice.
“You say you can't—so what are you going to do about it?”
“Huh?”
For a moment, Jeonghan couldn't grasp what he meant.
“Oh, this isn't directed at you.”
Only then did Jeonghan look around.
That was when he realized.
“Wait, when did the smoke fill up like this?”
Jeonghan hadn't noticed the smell gradually growing stronger.
He hadn't noticed the white smoke thickening bit by bit.
By the time he belatedly sensed something off, the room was already filled with it.
“You guys…?”
Jeonghan stared at Taeju in shock. But Taeju merely looked toward Sia.
Sia gave a slight smile and waved teasingly at Jeonghan.
Only then did Jeonghan understand what they'd done. It was the same as what he'd pulled earlier.
Just as he'd hidden out of sight while the dokkaebi spoke, the dokkaebi had hidden invisibly while he spoke.
If the dokkaebi had been visible, Jeonghan never would've shared his true feelings.
Taeju asked the dokkaebi.
“So, how did it feel to pull off this half-joking trick yourself?”
“Hiding without hiding but looking like you are—it's pretty amusing.”
The dokkaebi was leaning against the wall farthest from Jeonghan.
The dokkaebi grinned. But soon his expression turned blank.
“But yeah, so that's how it is.”
The dokkaebi said that.
“Yes, that's what happened.”
Taeju picked up.
“He figured out what the promise was, but he thinks he can't show it to you.”
Jeonghan protested at Taeju's words.
“But there's still a day left, isn't there?”
Taeju shook his head as he replied.
“Who knows. Dragging it out won't change anything. You think it can't be done anyway, right?”
Taeju's face was cold.
“Besides, there's less than an hour left until tomorrow.”
It was already past eleven.
“No way….”
“Tomorrow—will it really be any different from today?”
Tomorrow was a weekday, of course. Taeju figured Jeonghan's personality meant he could never call his friends then.
“If we gave you one more day, could you show him that scene?”
“That’s…”
It was impossible. Even on a weekend, he had no confidence. On a weekday, gathering everyone was out of the question.
“Well then, that leaves the final option.”
Taeju said, looking at the dokkaebi.
“It looks like we'll have to fight after all.”
“I know. I heard everything.”
The dokkaebi nodded. Jeonghan's eyes widened. Taeju said to him.
“Since you can't keep the promise in the end, nothing good can come for either of you now.”
“But that's…!”
Before Jeonghan could finish, Taeju cut in.
“Don't worry. We'll keep it from getting dangerous.”
It was just as Taeju said. The dokkaebi only glanced at Jeonghan without doing anything.
It was scary, but definitely restrained.
Seeing Jeonghan fearful yet puzzled at the same time, Taeju said.
“At the very least, he won't lunge at you right now.”
“Why not?”
“Before picking a fight with you, we agreed to settle the one who started it first. That's only fair, right?”
Even with grudges piled up, handle them in order. The dokkaebi nodded at Taeju's words.
He didn't hide his deep disappointment in Jeonghan, but he didn't prioritize it either.
There was a prior relationship before Jeonghan ever remade the promise.
A creaking sound came from the hinges. Not from the front door, but from the emergency stairs door in the back.
Woli emerged from there.
“You're here.”
The dokkaebi smiled, looking somewhat amused.
“Before dealing with that guy, I have to settle things with you first, right?”
Woli stood silently before the dokkaebi, just frowning slightly.
The size difference between them was enormous. Even at a glance, the dokkaebi looked three times bigger.
But the dokkaebi didn't underestimate Woli. With quite serious eyes, he sized up her strength.
“I usually like settling things with wrestling, but…”
The dokkaebi expressed reluctance.
He didn't think her strength was lacking, but her build wasn't suited for wrestling at all. It wouldn't make for a good show.
Shrinking his own body was out of the question. That was a handicap only for matching ordinary humans.
“I'm not thrilled about wrestling with you either…”
Woli felt the same. She had no desire to grapple with a massive, sweat-reeking furball, so she nodded.
“How about arm wrestling instead?”
Woli suggested, but the dokkaebi shook his head.
“I don't count that as wrestling.”
“True, now that I think about it, the desk wouldn't hold up.”
The two continued debating the event.
Jeonghan wondered what this was. He'd expected them to start throwing punches right away, but this looked pretty ridiculous.
“Doesn't it seem a bit silly?”
Sia asked Jeonghan.
“Ah… no.”
Jeonghan replied awkwardly. Sia chuckled at the obvious lie.
“But that's the essence of the dokkaebi.”
Her words were so unexpected that Jeonghan looked at Sia.
“They possess immense strength but try to accommodate humans as much as possible. That's what dokkaebi are.”
That's why they sometimes came off as comical.
“Why is that?”
At Sia's question, Jeonghan unwittingly looked at her.
“…I don't know.”
“I figured you wouldn't.”
Sia smirked as she said.
“Dokkaebi, you see, actually envy humans.”
“They envy… humans?”
“Yes. Not in the sense of wanting to become human or live like one.”
It wasn't for the kind of reasons a human might imagine.
“More precisely, they want the kind of relationship where they can prank humans freely.”
Dokkaebi are beings who itch to play pranks on people. There are no good or bad dokkaebi—only ones who pull different kinds of pranks.
But dokkaebi pranks are never easy for humans to accept. They're frightening, painful, headache-inducing.
One prank could drive a person mad, or sometimes injure or kill them.
Dokkaebi don't dwell on it much, but they know the facts.
“Let me explain it more plainly. What dokkaebi really want, in the end, is to be friends with humans.”
“Friends…? With that thing?”
It was a natural reaction, so Sia just shrugged once before continuing.
“Well, there are stories of dokkaebi who earnestly want to be true friends, but most just fixate on one aspect of friendship—pranking people endlessly without issue.”
To a dokkaebi, that would be an ideal relationship. They'd prank and get laughter in return, maintaining equality all the while.
It was probably a miracle to them. Something even their magic mallet couldn't grant.
“In that sense, what Jeonghwan tried to show was truly a valuable treasure to the dokkaebi.”
A relationship they could never have but always yearned for.
“Even if it was just words a middle schooler spat out without deep thought, it hooked the dokkaebi pretty well.”
That's why the dokkaebi waited a full decade.
“So it's unavoidable. Getting that angry makes sense, doesn't it?”
From the dokkaebi's perspective, it was a genuinely crucial matter.
“But…”
“Yes, but you already said you can't do that.”
Even if Jeonghan somehow gathered people, it wouldn't stem from true friendship. It'd be like handling fragile glassware he feared breaking.
That was far from what the dokkaebi wanted to see.
“With your mindset, you can never show the dokkaebi what it desires.”
So in the end, there was only one answer. Sia took another long drag of the smoke, looking regretful.
After Sia finished, Taeju continued.
“It might look like a joke right now with them bickering, but that dokkaebi at the end will either die or be on the brink of death.”
“Huh…?”
Isn't that too much? Jeonghan swallowed his words.
After all, he might be the one who created this excessive situation.
“Keeping him locked away longer, promising something you can't deliver—isn't that even crueler to the dokkaebi?”
If it were a proper lie, maybe. Dokkaebi fundamentally trusted people easily.
With the right method, fooling one until the very last moment was possible.
But that was still wronging the dokkaebi.
“If you can't show it, there are no other options.”
“But that's—”
Jeonghan started to say something.
“If you hate that, call your friends right now. This might be your last chance.”
At this hour, if he could manage it, Taeju was daring him to try. Jeonghan hesitated.
And that was it.
In the moment he lost focus, something must have been decided—a loud thud echoed.
“Oh dear, it's over.”
He heard it was finished. But Jeonghan couldn't comprehend what had ended.
He learned when he instinctively turned his head.
The dokkaebi's head flew off his body. Like a rocket, it shot straight up into the air naturally.
No blood flowed. Just the head floated away. The headless body dropped to its knees.
Thud, roll roll.
The head bumped the ceiling once before rolling all the way to Jeonghan's feet.
It was just like that time. Back when he didn't even know it was a dokkaebi, the exact same sight of the head he'd encountered.
Seeing the gruesome scene, Jeonghan's face drained of color.
Taeju grimaced at the sight and said to Woli.
“Hey, be careful. You broke the ceiling.”