Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: Ebonarch
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: The Yandere Fairy's Gaze is Strange
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—Han Jeonggu-ssi, is this your son?
It was truly an enigmatic day.
The relentless collection calls had been coming in endlessly due to overdue loans.
Yet even though it was the same ringtone I'd always heard, it sent an inexplicable chill down my spine.
-Yes, that's me. What's going on?
-Hello. This is Severance Hospital. Your father suddenly collapsed—
I don't actually remember what the hospital staff said after that.
All I felt was that my dreadful premonition had come true, coupled with the grief of losing my only remaining family.
The same went for when I dropped everything at the construction site and rushed to the morgue.
Smoothly—!
"Han Haeseong-ssi... please confirm if this is your father."
Normally, I was such a scaredy-cat that I wouldn't even dream of stepping into the morgue, where goosebumps prickled my skin.
Even when the morgue attendant carefully lifted the white sheet covering my father's face to verify his identity, I fought to hold onto my sanity rather than letting the tears fall.
It felt like I'd just confirmed there was truly no one left for me in this world. If I broke down right then, I might not even manage a funeral before hurling myself into the Han River.
Swish.
Why did you work so hard for everything?
Why didn't you abandon me like Mom did?
Did you ever regret raising a worthless kid like me all on your own?
Didn't you resent having a son like me who ended up divorced?
Or did you secretly blame yourself for all of it, carrying guilt deep in your heart?
'Ha...'
Why was I only now trying to ask my father the mountain of questions piled up inside me...?
With a quiet sigh, I slowly lifted my head and scanned the morgue.
A space where even the faint light seeping through the large window was shrouded in darkness.
A place that felt like it could choke the breath right out of you any second, but there under the white lights, Father lay peacefully.
"...I've confirmed it. Please take good care of him, Father."
After leaving the morgue, things got even more hectic.
I temporarily placed Father's body and went through the funeral arrangements.
Why was everything so complicated? From renting a bus to selecting a columbarium...
At twenty-eight years old, it was truly overwhelming.
If my friends hadn't rushed over the moment they heard, I couldn't have dreamed of handling it alone.
"Junseok-ah, you really went through hell."
"What're you talking about between friends?"
"I'll buy you a proper round of drinks soon. Ungseok worked hard too—let's pick a day and meet up."
"We can set that up later... but Kang Jua really didn't show."
"It's awkward for her to come after the divorce."
"Hey! Because of her scam, your dad couldn't even move into that apartment he was planning to buy after paying off her debt!"
Junseok, who usually avoided any talk of Kang Jua to spare my feelings, must have been worn out from guarding the funeral hall for three days straight.
I had no choice but to shut my mouth at his rare scolding.
"...Let's drop it."
"Sigh! So what now?"
"I'll head to Father's house first and sort through his belongings."
"Want me to come?"
"No, thanks. You've already done so much just being here from the funeral hall to the columbarium."
Junseok's mouth twitched like he had more to say, but it turned into a sigh instead.
"Hoo!!! Call me if you need help sorting the belongings."
"Yeah, thanks."
I saw off the exhausted Junseok and got into my car to head to our hometown.
The exhaust from a car that could break down any second.
Did it feel especially relatable today, or was that just my imagination?
Screeech—!
And so, I floored the accelerator nonstop from the hospital and arrived at our hometown house.
As I cautiously stepped into the house still full of Father's traces, the first thing to greet me was a large frame hanging in the living room corner.
Everything else was worn out, but this frame alone gleamed like he'd polished it daily amid the furniture.
And inside it, Father and I were smiling.
"Kuhk—!"
It burst out.
The tears I'd stubbornly held back poured down like a waterfall.
I'd thought he resented me, but he didn't.
He was just gruff.
Father had always been the same; it was I who'd changed.
"Kuhk... hk..."
I sat on the living room floor and wailed like a lost child, sobbing loudly.
Father, who I'd thought would always be there silently watching over me if I turned around.
With that solid, reliable pillar gone in an instant, how could I not collapse?
"Keuk... kuhk..."
The house was filled with silence.
The only sound echoing was the lament of an unfilial son regretting his loss too late.
Gulp—!
I realized the soju bottle in my right hand was now light.
Forgetting all dignity, I drained every last drop from my tongue and let out a short sigh.
'Have I drunk all the booze in the fridge now?'
It had been a week since the funeral and my return to the hometown house.
Empty soju bottles were now scattered everywhere inside.
There were no more tears.
Just a pathetic unfilial son, eyes glazed over, desperately craving more alcohol.
"Ha..."
I scowled and checked each soju bottle on the floor.
To see if even a drop remained.
"Fuck, drank 'em clean."
Why not just go to a convenience store nearby?
No. There isn't one.
Not that I lacked money for soju—it was that there were no convenience stores at all.
Even Grandma Choi's neighborhood supermarket closed at six in the evening.
Father's house was in a remote mountain valley in Gangwon Province.
When I was a kid, there were quite a few peers for a mountain village, but once we grew up, they all headed to the city like me for success.
Now, were there even twenty houses left?
It was a wonder the village had kept going with so few people.
Click! Click!
At least I still had cigarettes left. Small mercies.
I wanted to hold onto this pleasant buzz until the supermarket opened.
"Hoo!!"
I tilted my head back, puffing away on the cigarette, and scanned the house again.
If that damned Kang Jua hadn't fallen for the scam, Father wouldn't have breathed his last in this rundown old house...
Well, that was my fault too.
I never imagined the woman I married would lose her mind over money.
"Up we go!"
I stood up.
The clock read 3 a.m.
Even Grandma Choi, infamous for never sleeping in, wouldn't open her store this early.
'Might as well breathe in some fresh hometown dawn air after so long.'
No point trying to sleep anyway, with no booze left.
I stretched my arms wide and climbed the outdoor stairs to the rooftop.
As a kid who loved the stars, I'd sneak up here every evening without Father's knowledge.
Back then, it felt as vast as a school playground, but now with adult eyes, that childhood wonder was sadly gone.
Thud—!
Suddenly, my foot hit something heavy.
Startled, I looked down to see bags of cement.
"What's this?"
My mouth fell open.
Looking closer, there were piles of cement bags behind it, along with fancy marble tiles like you'd see in a bathroom, neatly stacked.
And though it was still dark and hard to see clearly, the center of the rooftop felt like something built up with bricks.
I turned on my phone flashlight and carefully examined the rooftop.
Swish—!
Bricks stacked into a wide rectangular shape, joints and walls smoothly plastered with cement, and the floor densely laid with those marble tiles.
'What on earth was Father trying to build here...?'
It was baffling that a man who could barely get around had come up to the rooftop to make something.
Until I spotted the paper on the wooden table.
"Haeseong Bathhouse Construction"
Beneath Father's handwriting was a crude sketch and blueprint for the structure.
In that moment, childhood conversations with Father flooded my mind.
-Dad, where's the kiddie pool that was on the rooftop?
-It got a hole, so I tossed it.
-Why'd you throw it away! I loved that pool so much!
-It's too small now anyway. I'll take you to a real swimming pool next time.
-N-No! Buy me the same one!
-Hmm, if Haeseong washes up well and grows big and strong, how about Dad builds you one then?
-You'll really make me a bathhouse...?
I must have nagged him for months back then because I was so stubborn...
No way—he remembered and was trying to build that bathhouse?
Thud. Thud.
Tears I'd thought dried up started flowing again.
Even using that childhood 'bathhouse' talk as an excuse, Father had tried to reconnect with me.
While his idiot son was too busy chasing his own path to notice.
"This worthless son... how much regret do I need before you'll find peace, Father!?"
Shouting at the sky brought no answer.
The rural stars just twinkled mockingly bright.
Rattle—!
I used the shovel like a cane and double-checked Father's sketch and blueprint.
Wiping away the tears pooling in my eyes with the back of my hand.
"Ha..."
Even getting mad at Father for secretly lending money to Kang Jua behind my back—it was just my own defensiveness now that I thought about it.
And yet, to reconcile with this fool of a son, Father had revisited old memories to build a bathhouse on the rooftop.
Rattle! Clatter—!
I knew what I had to do.
I wanted to finish the bathhouse Father couldn't with my own hands.
That way, if we met in heaven someday, I'd have at least a shred of face to show him.
Clatter! Rattle—!
It was 3:30 a.m.
That's probably when the shovel in my hand started moving busily.