RPPL C6

“…….”

There was no answer. I wonder if he really can’t speak. However, when it came to talking to himself, Bipa was second to none. He was used to just rambling on without expecting a reply.

Usually, Saetani was performed with a five or six-year-old, but the child didn’t look that young.

“Are you eight?”

He shook his head. Bipa counted up, nine, ten. Only when he reached eleven did the child nod his head.

He was too small to be that age. It seemed he had been starving for a while. Bipa wondered when he could get this filth off, or if it would even come off at all, then chuckled and patted the boy’s shoulder.

“See that flat rock over there? The sunlight is good, so go lie down and flip your body a few times, and you’ll dry off. Come back after that, and I’ll give you some clothes.”

For the first time, the child showed a sign of displeasure. It was a very faint sign, but Bipa could read it. Finding it amusing, he had to pretend to have a serious thought inwardly.

The child hesitated. He seemed unable to understand why he had to be naked outside.

“There’s no one to see you. It’s not like I’m going to admire your body. There’s probably nothing to see anyway. Don’t be stubborn and get your butt spanked by me, just go and dry off.”

“…….”

“There’s really nothing to see.”

Bipa was now dead set on teasing him. It seemed he had spent too much time with Haesol. Teasing people like this.

The child didn’t blush, nor did he seem embarrassed, only wearing a mask-like face that revealed nothing. He still seemed to be in a daze. Bipa, feigning ignorance, hurried him along. He even slapped the child’s bare, pale bottom soundly with his palm as he passed by.

“……!”

The child turned around in shock, looking stunned by the fact that he had actually been hit. Bipa feigned ignorance and simply nodded his head.

“Be careful not to get bitten by bugs. You look like you have many places to be bitten.”

The child ran off, making it unclear whether he was fleeing from the bugs or from Bipa. His expression was unreadable, but his actions revealed a little of his inner thoughts. Watching the figure stand out against the greenery, Bipa swallowed a laugh to himself.

He hadn’t noticed it before, but as he entered the room and looked around, it certainly looked more like a lived-in house than it did yesterday.

Bipa rummaged through a chest to find the smallest clothes possible. Of course, there was no such thing. He just grabbed whatever he could find and checked if it was in wearable condition. Then, he roughly folded them, placed them on the wooden floor, and waited for the child. The way the child quickly flipped over upon sensing Bipa coming out was cute.

“I told you I’m not looking.”

Bipa thought as he scanned the bony back, where the shoulder blades and spine protruded.

I need to go to the village.

It seemed he needed to buy some new clothes. And other necessary things while he was at it. If possible, he should buy a lot of food. Rice or meat would be good. First, he should go and feed him something….

And if possible, it would be even better if he could find a place to leave the child there.

The sun was high in the sky. Not long after, the child approached. His body was flushed red, but it didn’t seem to be to the point of peeling. Bipa looked the naked child, who was only covering his private parts, up and down and grinned.

“Thankfully, you can cover it with your hands. Shall we go to the village like this?”

The child didn’t answer, but his eyes held a rebellious glint. A sign of displeasure. Bipa nodded his head and tossed him the clothes. The child, who caught them swiftly, put them on right there on the spot.

After putting them on one by one, he looked just as ridiculous. The long, trailing sleeves and the pant legs that dragged on the ground looked like the attire of entertainers from long ago. Bipa couldn’t hold back his laughter and burst out laughing.

“A street performer would call you his senior!”

With a look that clearly said, “I’ll endure it because you’re my savior,” the child folded up his sleeves. He folded up the hems of his pants too. After a few folds, he looked like a bed-wetter who had hastily stolen and worn his older brother’s clothes. He had at least moved beyond the level of a madman.

Next, Bipa lent him his own shoes. After rummaging under the porch for a while and pulling them out, he dusted them off, and spiders fell out with a patter. The child didn’t flinch at that. Having experienced things more terrifying and horrible than bugs, spiders were probably nothing to him.

“They might be a mismatched pair, but it’s better than being barefoot, right?”

The child lifted his foot as if to show him. They didn’t fit and wobbled.

“Well, at least no one will mistake you for another child.”

Bipa’s voice was indifferent as he said this. The child, sensing that Bipa wouldn’t solve this for him, picked up some round pebbles and filled the heels of the shoes with them. They became a little less loose.

In the meantime, Bipa realized what else was missing. He had no name to call the child by.

“What about your name? You’re not going to tell me your name either?”

The child avoided his gaze. Seeing no reason to press him, Bipa let it be.

“It’s not that you don’t have a name, right?”

This time, the child looked up at Bipa as if glaring at him. It was a strong affirmation, but it didn’t mean he truly had no name. It was a look that seemed to say, “I don’t need the name given to me by the parents who abandoned me.”

“You too are something….”

Twisted, or perhaps wicked. In truth, both words were wrong. Bipa understood the child. It was a grudge he could fully comprehend.

Still, he couldn’t just call him “hey you,” “that punk,” or “kid.” A name that anyone could use and anyone could be called by lacks affection and heart, causing the one who hears it to wither.

Bipa suddenly crouched down and wrote twelve characters on the dirt ground with his finger. Gap (甲), Eul (乙), Byeong (丙), Jeong (丁)…. He wrote the Ten Celestial Stems in a circle around him, then found a stone, closed his eyes, and threw it. The stone miraculously rolled along the circle and stopped at one place.

Mu (戊).

Bipa erased all the other characters except for ‘Mu’ and told the child.

“Since you won’t tell me, I’ll call you whatever I want. Don’t you go cursing me behind my back if you don’t like the name I give you, alright?”

From the child’s expression, it was impossible to tell whether he liked it or not. Bipa continued speaking as he pleased.

“This will be part of your name. If I just call you Mu, people might think I mean a crunchy radish, so let’s add one more character to make a name. How about ‘Muyun’?”

The child savored the word ‘Muyun’ in his mouth. The longer he savored it, the more a subtle sweetness seemed to emerge. He liked it. It was much better than the names he had been expecting, like Kkeutdori, Geoshigi, or Amugae, which could hardly be considered human names. It was an unexpected surprise.

He raised his head, looked at Bipa clearly, and nodded. At the first gentle look he had shown, Bipa couldn’t help but laugh, “Haha.”

And so, what Bipa had taken in was no longer a child, but Muyun.

❀࿐

It is only natural that the place of the living and the place of the dead are separated. Bipa leisurely pushed through the grass that had grown as tall as he was. With every step, small insects jumped about.

If the grass was as tall as Bipa, how would it be for Muyun? Muyun could do nothing but try to keep up with Bipa. And even that, he barely managed. He reached out to grab the white robes fluttering in front of him, then hastily withdrew his hand, moving forward, ever forward.

Then, a grasshopper, startled by Muyun’s gesture, flew into his face. After he brushed away the insect whose flapping wings had blocked his vision, the white robes in front of him had vanished.

“……!”

Muyun, about to gape in panic, bit his lip hard. His hands and feet grew cold, and the dense grass suddenly felt like a solid wall. A ringing in his ears made him feel as if he were trapped in the crock again. It was as if someone had stuffed cotton down his throat, set it on fire, and was slowly suffocating him; he couldn’t make a sound, couldn’t even breathe.

Just as Muyun was about to collapse with a wheezing sound, a hand slipped under his side and lifted him up.

“If you get distracted, you could be trapped forever. See, I just barely found you.”

It was Bipa. He had once again pulled Muyun from the abyss.

Muyun, suddenly lifted to Bipa’s eye level, gaped at the green sea spread out behind him.

Greens of various shades, light and dark, spread out like water, undulating with the wind. The wall that Muyun had feared was, in fact, nothing more than mere grass. It wasn’t a crock where, once your eyes adjusted to the dark, you felt you could see scratch marks, but simply grass that would crush if you pressed it and move aside if you pushed it….

“You’re heavy, I can’t hold you like this forever. So why don’t you walk on your own two feet now.”

Having come to his senses, Muyun struggled. For a skinny boy, he was quite strong. It seemed he was born with a sturdy frame and a strong core.

When Bipa put him down, Muyun was once again trapped in the grass. But it wasn’t as frightening as before.

“You really are a handful. Can’t be helped. Just grab my sleeve. I don’t want to be responsible for creating a lost, wandering ghost.”

Bipa rolled up his sleeves and fanned himself with his hand. It seemed he was only now feeling the heat.

Muyun carefully grabbed Bipa’s sleeve. He hadn’t known him for long, but he felt he was starting to understand him a little. He acted gruff but did everything he needed to do, and while doing so, he was clumsy and imperfect. Relying on the ungracious permission, Muyun grabbed the sleeve and bowed his head low.

Bipa walked, and this time Muyun followed him straight without getting lost. Every now and then, when the wind blew, a blade of grass would tickle Muyun’s cheek, and Bipa’s arm. Muyun walked on, his eyes fixed only on Bipa’s back, who never once looked back at him.