The Dokkaebi Waiting for the Moon

Chapter 23

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“…Good night, Yeo Moon-beom.”

A gentle, beautiful voice murmuring to itself seeped faintly through the gap in the paper door.

Yeo Moon-beom, lying on his side with one arm propping up his head, lifted the corner of his mouth. His long, narrow eyes curved lazily, forming a gentle arc.

He didn’t need to open the door to check. He knew how much the half-dokkaebi, who had let him into the house despite his father’s warnings to stay away from humans, was now conflicting because of him.

Listening to the sound of retreating footsteps, Yeo Moon-beom quietly closed his eyes. He had planned to approach slowly and carefully until the time limit, but with Professor Bang’s appearance, he had to completely revise his plan.

It was to maintain his current advantage even in unpredictable situations.

If someone with connections to the jangseung dokkaebi like himself came, or if a dokkaebi hostile to humans appeared and interfered, it would be a big problem. There was a high possibility of losing interest and being pushed to the back of the line.

That’s why, even knowing it might seem hasty, Yeo Moon-beom had cast his bait.

People who are psychologically withdrawn tend to make emotionally driven choices when faced with binary options. Having observed all kinds of human behavior while running a gambling den, he could confidently assert this.

That the young half-dokkaebi would ultimately choose him.

Yeo Moon-beom was determined to use this opportunity to become his top priority and make him submit to him.

“Did you call me?”

Just as he was relaxing and comfortably drifting off to sleep, a thin voice from outside reached Yeo Moon-beom’s ears.

Since his mother’s death, he hadn’t had a single day of deep sleep. His body, always on alert, automatically awakened his consciousness.

What’s going on?

He quickly got up and approached the door. Concentrating all his senses on the sounds outside, he heard a small voice tinged with curiosity and puzzlement once again.

“That’s strange?”

The strange one wasn’t out there, but in here. He couldn’t understand why Eun-hwi was talking to himself like that when he had been lying down without making a sound.

Doesn’t he have the ability to accurately hear conversations from afar, as if eavesdropping? Yet he’s uncertain like this…

Could it be.

He didn’t expect an unpredictable situation to come so quickly. An instinctive sense of crisis washed over him.

Yeo Moon-beom carefully opened the door and went out to the main hall. Sure enough, he saw Eun-hwi’s back heading outside as if possessed. His hair, sparkling as if sprinkled with stardust, was shining in the darkness.

Even if Eun-hwi was like that, if the other party was a spirit, there was a high chance of being detected while tailing. Yeo Moon-beom put on the dokkaebi hat that was decoratively placed on top of the chest and immediately followed the half-dokkaebi.

“Oh my, thank you. Thanks to you, dokkaebi-nim, I’ve been able to keep my life.”

Following the movement of light and entering the grass where Eun-hwi had disappeared, Yeo Moon-beom noticed a gloomy-looking mass. It was Professor Bang, whom he had definitely put on a boat and sent away earlier in the day.

…Should I kill him?

For a moment, his vision turned red and murderous intent boiled up. Yeo Moon-beom was furious at Professor Bang for pulling this kind of stunt, knowing full well he had crossed a line that shouldn’t be crossed.

Why are all humans like this?

Endlessly foolish beings who, unable to abandon their desires, deceive and mock others, ultimately bringing harm upon themselves. If they had just stayed put, they could have at least been mediocre.

He felt the urge to snap his neck right then and there. He clenched his fist, curling his trembling fingers inward. The protruding bones on the back of his hand turned white.

He couldn’t commit murder in front of the half-dokkaebi who had trembled even at a crow’s attack. Yeo Moon-beom crossed his arms, suppressing the rising excitement.

He intended to watch and see just how far Professor Bang planned to go.

“I’ve brought some offerings, would you like to eat them?”

Professor Bang took out some rice cakes from his backpack. Seeing how they were neatly wrapped in a cloth, it was clear he had brought them intentionally even before arriving on Wolhwa Island.

“…Yeo Moon-beom told me not to carelessly eat things given by others.”

Contrary to the expectation that he would reach for the appetizing-looking rice cakes without hesitation, a rather firm rejection came from the half-dokkaebi’s mouth. His expression as he shook his head was so solemn, he looked like a clever child who wouldn’t fall for a kidnapper’s tricks.

How good.

Yeo Moon-beom smiled without realizing it. It was the result of excellent education.

“Well done, Eun-hwi.”

He took off the dokkaebi hat he was wearing and appeared before them. Startled by the sudden appearance as if he had sprung up from the ground, Professor Bang screamed and quickly hid behind Eun-hwi.

“D-d-dokkaebi-nim! Please spare me. Please save me!”

Yeo Moon-beom furrowed his brow at the unsightly sight of the large body visible behind the small, thin one. The deeply drawn frown lines clearly revealed his angry emotions.

“Come here.”

Eun-hwi hesitated for a moment between the Baekdu Mountain tiger-like man gesturing to him and the raccoon-like man trembling all over.

Even to him, Yeo Moon-beom looked like a grim reaper, though he wasn’t wearing a gat or a black durumagi. Without knowing the full context, he could somewhat understand why the outsider, Mr. Kim, was so frightened and begging for his life.

“Are you going to call the grim reaper now and send him to the afterlife?”

“Afterlife? I’m not sending him. I’m calling you to praise you.”

“…Praise?”

“You kept your promise, didn’t you? Believing what I say. So just leave that human alone and come to me.”

His face looked scarier than a demon mask, making Eun-hwi think he was angry at him too.

Staring up at Yeo Moon-beom, who had taken a step closer first, Eun-hwi put down the box of rice cakes at the outsider Mr. Kim’s feet. Then he slowly took his hand.

“Ah…”

The warmth that had briefly touched his fingertips and faded away now pooled between their palms. The disappointment and regret that had been troubling his heart melted away as if it were a lie.

It was a warmth he didn’t want to carelessly lose again.

“Ugh… I’m dead now.”

The outsider Mr. Kim, who had been wailing and pulling his hair in fear, suddenly turned off his flashlight and started to run away in a panic.

“Oh? If you go that way, it’s dangerous…”

Before Eun-hwi could finish speaking, the outsider Mr. Kim tripped over a long tree branch stretching out to the side and fell with a thud. Having experienced something similar a few days ago, Eun-hwi slightly wrinkled his nose bridge. The memory of the pain he felt then was vivid, making his knees tingle unnecessarily.

“Ugh… That must hurt.”

The cylindrical flashlight that had been in the outsider Mr. Kim’s hand rolled over and stopped in front of Eun-hwi. Seeing him wriggling like a bug while lying face down, probably in severe pain, didn’t make Eun-hwi feel good.

Eun-hwi let go of Yeo Moon-beom’s hand, who was standing unusually still without any reaction, and said, pointing towards the house:

“I’ll go to the room and bring the Moon Rabbit’s bandages. Let’s put them on your wounds.”

Although it was a shame to use the bandages carefully stored in the mother-of-pearl box, treating the injured Mr. Kim came first. Nothing was as sad as enduring pain alone without anyone’s comfort.

“Yeo Moon-beom?”

Although it was too dark to see anything, strangely, his gaze was precisely fixed on the outsider Mr. Kim’s back. It was like the eyes of a beast eyeing its prey.

“Hand.”

“…Huh?”

“Hold my hand again. Like before.”

Looking up with a puzzled face at the sudden request, Eun-hwi obediently took Yeo Moon-beom’s hand as instructed. The warm temperature, slightly damp with sweat, felt unfamiliar yet pleasant. As he wiggled his fingers while holding the hand, Yeo Moon-beom let out a faint sigh.

“Hah…”

“What’s wrong, Yeo Moon-beom?”

“I can see too well.”

“What?”

“Everything. As if a light has been turned on. Clearly.”

But I didn’t light a dokkaebi fire.

The small head tilted in confusion. Both the outsider Mr. Kim and Yeo Moon-beom had been saying incomprehensible things for a while now.

Do humans usually speak such nonsense?

Eun-hwi opened his eyes wide, earnestly searching for what could be seen so well, as if looking for a human as small as an ant in a painting of Geumgangsan.

As he was rolling his eyeballs around, looking here and there because nothing particularly stood out, Yeo Moon-beom quietly spoke.

“Eun-hwi.”

“Yeah?”

“In my room, there should be a box with a cross pattern on it.”

“A cross?”

“A white box with a red mark in the shape of the character for ‘ten’. Can you find it?”

“I know, the character for ‘ten’!”

Although he didn’t know the exact characters for hundred, thousand, or ten thousand, he knew the character for ten. As Eun-hwi answered with a confident voice, raising his hand high, Yeo Moon-beom gently smiled and patted his shoulder.

“Don’t waste the gift I gave you. Bring the white box. There are other bandages in it too.”

“Okay, I’ll do that!”

“Put the hat back in its place.”

“Yeah! Got it!”

He had been glaring so fiercely as if he was about to eat him, but it seems he finally had the heart to treat the outsider Mr. Kim. Relieved, Eun-hwi took the dokkaebi hat in his hand and ran back to the house to get the box he mentioned.

“You’re quite lucky.”

After confirming that Eun-hwi had disappeared, Yeo Moon-beom bent down to pick up the flashlight. He turned on the light and shone it on Professor Bang lying on the ground, revealing the strangely bent leg of his glasses and one cracked lens clearly in his view.

It was exactly as he had seen through the half-dokkaebi’s eyes just moments ago.