The Cave That Kills
Looking up at the Imoogi, Kang Hyeong-seok spoke through lips drained white.
"Tell me everything. What is this 'everything'? What on earth has left you no choice but to carry such a han?"
— Everything.
His stomach turned. His mouth had gone dry; his head swam, unmoored.
What on earth is it?
What could have steeped this Imoogi in a han so deep?
"Please... tell me."
— Why.
"Because I will untangle it for you. I will hear your han, and I will be the one to swallow it."
Please. Stop reaping lives.
Only after Kang Hyeong-seok's voice reached the Imoogi — fervent to the point of desperation — did the answer come.
— Why.
"Because it's all I have to give..."
Jaw clenched hard as he faced the Imoogi, Kang Hyeong-seok closed his fist around the sacred shaman bells.
"If that would soothe your han, then I will gladly do it."
For a long while, the Imoogi held his gaze.
Then it happened.
Psssshhhh!
The moment the Imoogi's head began to move, water came pouring off the rain-soaked leaves. The drops fell like a brief cloudburst, and the creature's enormous head sank lower by degrees, stopping just in front of Kang Hyeong-seok. Jaw resting on the ground, it studied him, sliding its red tongue out and drawing it back, over and over.
— You do not know.
For the first time, a fully formed sentence had come from the Imoogi. Kang Hyeong-seok swallowed, throat dry, and opened his mouth with deliberate care.
"Then tell me. Please."
Talk settles a great many things. It calms conflict, clears away misunderstanding, and points the way to a solution.
"What would you have me do?"
— The cave.
"The... cave?"
— The cave with the Geumjul strung across it. The place I cannot enter.
Something flashed through his mind. The cave he had seen along the coast — naturally formed, an old Geumjul rope hung across its mouth.
"What happened in that cave?"
— Go.
Was it sidestepping the question? Or was this the only answer it could give?
"What on earth is in there?"
— Go. And see. I wept softly in that place.
"...What did you say?"
The Imoogi offered no answer, only went on staring at him. Then its long tongue slipped out with a slick hiss, and a moment later the great head rose high — as though it meant, even now, to fade back into the fog.
"Wait! What on earth is in that cave?!"
Kang Hyeong-seok shouted after it — but the Imoogi's eyes were no longer on him. They were fixed on the mountain's summit, and the long, colossal body had already begun to move toward it.
Sssssssssss!
Serpent scales ground against the rain-soaked earth as the Imoogi drew away. And just as the fog began closing in, layer upon layer, its voice came one last time.
Ssssss.
From barely a meter away, Kang Hyeong-seok watched the Imoogi's enormous body glide past, moving like a mountain come to life. The trunk grew thinner and thinner until it narrowed into the tail, and before long it seeped into the fog and was gone.
Pat. Pitter-patter. Shaaaaaa—
The downpour, which had slackened, soon swelled back to its old fury. And just then, the youth president came running, gasping for breath — the very man he had told, quite clearly, to rest at the bottom.
"M-Master Paksu! Master Paksu!"
He was flustered, but his eyes held no understanding. Gulping down the breath that had backed up to his chin, the youth president scanned the ground around Kang Hyeong-seok.
"Wh-what is it? Are you all right?!"
"You didn't see it?"
"See what?"
So he hadn't seen it — the Imoogi. Which meant the Imoogi had never granted the youth president leave to see it.
"No. Nothing."
"...You are all right, aren't you?"
"Yes."
Kang Hyeong-seok turned toward the direction the Imoogi had vanished and spoke.
"Let's head back."
"I'm sorry? Ah— no, wait, you're not going to look at the lake?"
He gave his answer with a nod. The youth president still looked utterly at sea, but there was no longer any reason to climb up to the lake at all.
"I met it. Just now."
Even if they met again, he doubted he would hear anything more than he already had.
Back in the village, Kang Hyeong-seok headed straight for the community hall. It was three in the afternoon. Having told Kim Jae-sik everything that had happened on the mountain, he started with a hot shower in the washroom.
Shaaaaaa—
The water streaming down Kang Hyeong-seok's body and spiraling into the drain ran brown. And it reeked of snake.
Shaaaaaa—
The water pouring from the showerhead was warm. It should have been a comfort — and yet, strangely, his gut was cold, as though he had swallowed a lump of ice.
The cave.
What on earth was inside it? What had left the Imoogi nursing a han this deep?
Knock, knock, knock. When the washroom door rattled, Kang Hyeong-seok lowered the showerhead until the drum of water dulled.
"Yes?"
"Hyeong-seok, the village chief is here."
The youth president must have filled him in. Kang Hyeong-seok shut off the tap altogether and grabbed a towel.
"Professor — would you pass a message to the chief for me? Ask him to gather the villagers."
"Hm? Here?"
"Yes. There's something I need to tell them."
"All right, yes. Got it. Wash up and come out."
Kim Jae-sik answered in a voice that made it plain he couldn't begin to guess the reason, and Kang Hyeong-seok scrubbed the towel through his wet hair. Once he had dried off, he changed into clean clothes — the spares he had packed from home before they set out.
This was never going to be over in a day or two.
Shaking the last of the water from his hair, Kang Hyeong-seok stepped out of the washroom. The village chief was nowhere in sight — off making his announcement, perhaps — and in his place the youth president and Lee Nak-yul sat around Kim Jae-sik.
At the sight of Kang Hyeong-seok, the youth president sprang to his feet and folded both hands respectfully just below his navel.
"Please, there's no need for that."
"Y-you saved my life, after all."
"That's only as it should be. Please, when you do this, it puts me in an awkward spot."
"Yes. Yes, of course."
The youth president lowered himself back down in an awkward half-crouch, and Kang Hyeong-seok took a seat beside Kim Jae-sik.
"Actually, there is something I'd like to ask you both."
"Ask away — anything at all."
Before Lee Nak-yul could open his mouth, the youth president answered, and Kang Hyeong-seok turned to him.
"The cave down by the coast. There was Geumjul strung across it — do you know whether anything ever happened there?"
"The... cave?"
"Yes. I saw it last night, on my way to the cowshed."
"Ah, that much I couldn't rightly say."
The youth president had lived in this village a long time. And even he didn't know.
"Truth is, I don't know the details myself. Ever since I was a boy, the elders told us never to go anywhere near the place."
"...Is that so?"
"Yes, sir. I doubt there's many left who'd know. The chief might, though — maybe we should wait for him?"
That seemed best. Just as Kang Hyeong-seok was about to nod, Lee Nak-yul spoke up in a small voice.
"I know."
"I'm sorry?"
Every gaze in the room — Kang Hyeong-seok's, Kim Jae-sik's, the youth president's — snapped to Lee Nak-yul at once. No one had imagined that a story even the middle-aged youth president didn't know might be familiar to someone so young.
"I heard it from my grandmother."
"Ah. Right."
Kang Hyeong-seok nodded, catching the gist, and then—
"Oh — would anyone care for coffee? I brought a few sticks of the instant kind from home."
"No. I think the cave comes before the coffee."
Forcibly ignoring the oddly wistful look in Kim Jae-sik's eyes, Kang Hyeong-seok pressed on.
"What happened there?"
"She called it a cave that kills people."
"...I'm sorry?"
Calm-faced for someone delivering so dreadful a line, Lee Nak-yul went on.
"A long time ago, she said, someone did something terrible in there. That's why it's thick with a deadly, poisoned energy — no person should ever set foot inside."
A dangerous place. A wicked and forbidding one. Having laid the cave's true nature bare, Lee Nak-yul sealed his lips for a moment, then gave a wry smile.
"It's just an old story. Even you didn't know it, Mr. President, so I doubt more than a handful of people do."
Could a place like that truly be held back by a single length of Geumjul? Kang Hyeong-seok looked to the youth president, but the man only shook his head. Between the cave's sinister look and the insects swarming about it, it seemed no one had ever gone out of their way to find it and step inside.
"Thank you."
"You mean to go into the cave?"
"Yes."
The heavy answer dropped, and a still heavier silence settled over the room.
"Don't."
Lee Nak-yul's quiet voice caught Kang Hyeong-seok's gaze.
"It doesn't have to come to that. You've strung the Geumjul around the village and sprinkled the purifying bungsan too. Couldn't we simply wait for it to end here?"
"The Imoogi's han runs too deep."
Just then, something shifted in Lee Nak-yul's eyes — as though the mention of an Imoogi, a creature out of legend and folklore, was too remote to take at face value.
"It has to be finished before this night is out."
"Tonight..."
"Yes."
Kang Hyeong-seok looked in turn at Kim Jae-sik, at the youth president, and at Lee Nak-yul, then dragged the corners of his mouth up into a smile. He was about to walk into a cave no one knew the first thing about, to soothe the han of an Imoogi that was not even human. A cave he might never walk out of again. It was a dreadful, heavy thing, and every face in the room sank deep with the weight of it.
"My Momjusin watches over me. So it will be all right."
No one said a word.
"Professor."
"Hm?"
"The Imoogi said tonight. Once the sun goes down, I'm going into that cave — so I'd like you to look after things, Professor, together with Nak-yul and the president."
Kim Jae-sik exhaled through his nose, then nodded. His face said he finally understood why Kang Hyeong-seok had asked the chief to gather the villagers.
"And Nak-yul."
"Yes?"
"Would it be all right if I asked one hard thing of you?"
Lee Nak-yul's brows bent into a question, and then—
"Protect the villagers."
"What do you—"
"You can do that much. Can't you?"
From everything Kang Hyeong-seok had seen, Lee Nak-yul was no ordinary person. There was something there — unmistakably, something. Something no charlatan shaman could hold a candle to. So if Lee Nak-yul stood guard at the front of the community hall, the villagers might just come through unharmed.
"The people have to be gathered in one place and kept safe. I'll set out Geumjul and bungsan, but if those can't withstand the Imoogi, it will turn into a catastrophe."
Like the cattle penned inside the cowshed. In a space throbbing with the stench of snake, the villagers might collapse one after another, screaming.
"Can you do it?"
Lee Nak-yul stared at him in silence for a long while, then answered, his voice heavy.
"Yes."
"...Thank you."
What had to be done was settled, and the preparations were nearly complete.
Shaaaaaa—
Listening to the roar of rain beating against the closed window, Kang Hyeong-seok turned his gaze outside.
"Ah — attention, please. Attention. Would everyone currently in the village please gather at the community hall."
The village chief's broadcast had just begun, calling the people together.