RPPL C5

Bipa kicked Haesol’s knee. The part of the knee revealed by the kick was already dirty with dust. Haesol immediately frowned.

“You’re going to sleep in a place like this? Are you crazy?”

“I’ll take care of it. Besides, aren’t you leaving now? Just get the hell out of here, and stop nagging.”

“Bipa. Why are you so dishonest? I distinctly heard you say ‘don’t go’ earlier.”

So annoying. Bipa felt like snatching Haesol’s dokkaebi club and swinging it wildly. But Haesol used his hair instead of a club. He wouldn’t suffer any harm until all of that thick hair was pulled out. And besides, his hair grew back as fast as it was plucked.

“Raise it well. If you really can’t do it… just leave it be. It’ll leave on its own once it’s a bit older. Then the child will be happy, and you’ll be happy.”

“Don’t talk about raising a person like you’re talking about growing corn. And why are you so nosy about this kid in particular?”

“It’s a pretty child.”

“You definitely said it looked like a drowned rat.”

“It does now, but it’ll be different when it grows up. Trust a dokkaebi’s aesthetic eye. The eyes are especially pretty. If it had become a saetani, I would have plucked them out.”

Bipa shuddered as goosebumps rose on his skin.

The eyes were indeed pretty. The sparkling light was extraordinary. But when Bipa first met that gaze, he hadn’t thought it was pretty, but rather, oops. It felt like he’d been caught in a trap. No, that was a premonition. That I’d end up saddled with this…! This time, Bipa really did mutter, oops.

“My, my. The sound of the fire dokkaebi wailing is so loud.”

Haesol dug in his ear with a finger three times thicker than Bipa’s and stood up.

A newborn dokkaebi was a favorite nourishing meal for malevolent spirits. Yet, he was postponing his trip to the young dokkaebi because of him. Realizing he couldn’t hold him back any longer, Bipa, out of embarrassment, uttered words he didn’t mean.

“Just go. I’m fine.”

“Really?”

“I’m thrilled to death. Look at my face.”

“Well, what’s there to worry about. You’ll handle everything. Of course. You even have something to raise now.”

“There you go again, talking about a person like corn…”

Wahahaha, his laugh rang out, and Bipa’s body tingled as if hearing thunder up close. Bipa covered his ears and asked.

“By the way, how long has it been since a young dokkaebi was born?”

“A very long time. Really, a long, long time. There are many broom, mortar, and sickle dokkaebis, but this is the first fire one.”

Haesol stretched this way and that. Each time he bent his waist, a strong wind blew. Haesol soon clapped his hands together and leaped high. Even though he dashed off and disappeared in an instant without a proper farewell, Bipa didn’t feel particularly hurt.

With Haesol gone, he decided to wash himself first, rather than cleaning the house as he had nagged. Bipa scooped up a full bucket of moonlit well water, washed his hair, and scrubbed his body. His teeth chattered from the cold water, but heating water was an exceptionally bothersome task.

Letting his damp hair down, he roughly cleared the floor to make a place to sleep. It was fortunate that it was a summer night; in winter, his hair would have frozen crisp. By morning, flesh icicles would have frozen his scalp solid.

Hating the feeling of his wet hair wrapping around his body, he lay down and pushed his hair straight up. Spreading it out like the ribs of a fan felt much more comfortable.

But not long after, Bipa couldn’t stand lying on his back and unconsciously rolled over.

He had a habit of sleeping on his left side, curled up, but when he lay that way, he could see the child’s face. Looking at the gaunt face, its complexion ashen, made him feel unwell. He didn’t know if he was looking at the child or facing a mirror. Bipa turned over callously. He curled up tightly on his right side and twitched his tired legs.

“……”

His body was tired, but the position was uncomfortable, so he couldn’t fall asleep. It was all because of this unexpected burden. But Bipa stubbornly refused to turn back over. The sound of the child’s breathing behind him seemed unusually loud.

‘Save me! Save me! Please get me out!’

He had never heard its voice and didn’t even know if it could speak, but the voice the child had probably screamed until its fingernails were crushed inside the crock sawed through Bipa’s mind.

❀࿐

The child woke at dawn.

The surroundings were as bright as if it were morning, not dawn. As soon as it woke, it fled to a corner. It buried its head in the corner and trembled, but then, realizing this was not the inside of the crock nor a shaman’s house with scary paintings, it slowly calmed down.

This place was not a shaman’s house, nor a village shrine, nor a ruined house, but it was just as dirty. The child lifted its forehead from the dusty floor and slowly turned its head. Then it saw a man fast asleep, curled up and turned toward it.

And the long hair spread out around him. The child gulped.

That man was the vision he had seen yesterday. To be precise, what he had thought was a vision.

He had thought that from the terrible hunger, loneliness, and fear, he had finally seen something not of this world. So much so that he thought it might just fly up to the sky at any moment. That was why the giant man next to him who had leaped onto the roof in a single bound had not seemed strange.

The child cautiously approached and touched the hair. It was soft like sea mustard and tangled in its hand like a skein of thread. This feeling was definitely real.

Next, it ran its hands over its own body repeatedly. There were no wounds, and it was still a mess, like a beggar with dirty water running down. Only after slapping its own cheek with a weak hand did its reason slowly return.

“……”

The child, still on its knees, looked down at the man who had saved it.

‘The man who saved me.’

If he had to describe him, that was the only way he could put it. Even though his stomach was empty and his throat was dry, he couldn’t take his eyes off him.

The world without a single speck of light had shattered, and the first thing he saw was this man. The midday sun, past its peak, was shining on him, firmly separating his world from mine. Shining, warm, dazzling…. The prettiest thing I had ever seen….

So the child just stared at the man, mesmerized. It didn’t even notice the corn right next to it, just stared blankly.

❀࿐

Bipa woke to a presence. When he opened his eyes, he saw a pillar. It was a pillar in the main room, which he had never dared to enter. Why am I in the main room? And moreover, the area around him was clean enough for a person to lie down.

Was coming back to the house yesterday a dream? Bipa, bewildered, looked around. He saw corn husks. The memory of sharing them with Haesol last night was vivid. It wasn’t a dream. Bipa ran his fingers roughly through his disheveled hair and came out.

As he stepped out of the room, he saw a pair of worn-out pants, about to get a hole, right in front of him. A bottom, lifted in the air, was diligently crawling forward. It was the child he had brought yesterday. The child was wiping the wooden floor.

So diligent. Bipa leaned against the doorframe and yawned long.

The child, having finished wiping one row, turned and spotted Bipa standing there.

“Ah…!”

Like a servant who has found their master, it immediately stood up and wiped its face with a tattered sleeve, but its appearance was still a mess. It was cleaning the house without washing itself first.

The child couldn’t even lift its head and bowed to Bipa. Bipa muttered in a somewhat troubled voice.

“You don’t have to clean.”

The child asked back with its expression. Its eyes asked if he was being serious, so he looked away, embarrassed.

“You should have washed first.”

The child lifted its arm and sniffed. Bipa hadn’t meant to criticize, so he felt a little embarrassed. He was about to say that wasn’t what he meant, but then thought, is there any need to make excuses, it does smell after all, and let it go.

“It would be better to wash your body before cleaning the house. The house is a place where people live, after all, so the person living in it comes first.”

Bipa said that and stepped onto the wooden floor. The feeling of the squeaky-clean floor was nice. It had been wiped with a wet cloth and then a dry one, so it was shiny but not damp. It seemed to have quick hands. Or maybe he had just slept for too long.

The child, of course, had no shoes. Bipa, belatedly regretting not buying clothes and shoes on the way, took the child to the well. Then he diligently drew clean water with the bucket.

Though the surrounding stones were mossy and the bucket was old, this was precious purified water that even spirits sometimes came to drink. When the moon reached its highest point in the sky, it would be perfectly captured in this well, and in the process, the water would be cleansed. With water good for drinking and washing, he washed the grime off the child’s body.

Small hands washed its hair and scrubbed its body. One needs talent to wash someone else, but Bipa, who only knew how to wash himself, just drew the initial water and watched from the side.

At first, the child seemed flustered and didn’t know what to do, but it soon lost itself in washing. Though its appearance was dirty, its personality seemed to be naturally neat.

How many times had he changed the water? The tangled hair became soft, and its body revealed its true skin. Bipa, who had been sucking on flower nectar nearby, looked at the child and was inwardly impressed.

Its basic features were clean-cut and elegant. Indeed, Haesol’s aesthetic eye was correct. Of course, for now, you had to look very closely and with great effort to tell…. Bipa spat out the flower and asked.

“How old are you?”