WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Incarnation of the Malevolent Star ◈
Chapter 115: Part 1 - Whispers of the Dark Brother (115)
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#115.
While the female teacher who dearly loved her student went to every length for him, that student had grown quite close to the high schooler who had been abducted to another world.
They had reached the point where calling each other friends no longer felt awkward.
“...Friends?”
Ju-won grumbled for no particular reason. Even now, after being won over by the kind rural boy's character, he found it terribly awkward to return another person's goodwill with goodwill of his own.
Especially when he was being called that on a broadcast watched by countless people.
“How are you and I friends? Look at the age gap. Even if we're close, you should call me hyung.”
As usual, Onik had his gaze averted. He blinked in confusion.
“If you're my hyung, can't we be friends?”
“How could we be friends? A hyung is a hyung, and a younger brother is a younger brother.”
“We can still just be friends. Hyung, don't you know eight up, eight down?”
“Eight up, eight down? What's that? Is it a swear word?”
The sound of eight up, eight down made Ju-won think of ssipal jopal, a vulgar curse.
Onik could not hide his frustration.
“Goodness... What swear word? Eight up, eight down! Eight years up, eight years down!
It means people within that range build friendships without caring about the age difference!
Everybody did it that way in the Goryeo and Joseon periods!”
“What... Why are you bringing up ancient history now?”
“Because our Songnyeong Jo clan is a distinguished old yangban family! Yangban families have their own customs and rules!
If you've come to our village, follow our village's rules!”
“Don't scam me. You're a scammer.”
“I always say this, but Jo Onik, the strongest in town, is not a scammer!
Lee Hang-bok and Lee Deok-hyeong, famous as Oseong and Haneum, were friends despite being five years apart!
Jeong Mong-ju, a loyal minister from late Goryeo, and Jeong Do-jeon, a founding contributor to Joseon, were also friends despite being five years apart!”
“...Wait. Jeong Do-jeon was on the side that killed Jeong Mong-ju, wasn't he? I might not know eight up, eight down, but I know that much. You're scamming me again, aren't you?”
“I told you, I'm not! It's true that Jeong Do-jeon and Jeong Mong-ju became political enemies, but they really were friends at first!
They studied as fellow pupils under the same teacher, dongmun suhag, and...”
“What is dongmun suhag? Is that a kind of math? Did they study math under the same teacher?”
“Hey! How do you not know that? Hyung, you're bad at Korean, aren't you?”
“What did you say, punk? I still get Level 2 on mock exams! And what does math have to do with Korean?”
“Woooow...”
This time, Onik was truly shocked.
“Hyung, aren't you the one scamming people? How do you get Level 2 in Korean without knowing dongmun suhag?”
“You're using words nobody needs to know! They don't put that in textbooks!”
“They do.”
“They don't!”
Whenever the two bickered like this, Ju-won was always the one who lost.
After a short quarrel, the high schooler whose general knowledge was somewhat lacking raised the white flag before the middle schooler who studied well.
“This is ridiculous... Fine. Treat me like an equal. Be friends with your hyung.”
Onik smiled brightly at Ju-won's declaration of surrender.
Then he quietly turned his eyes to the viewer messages.
“Hyung! The viewers say a dark-looking tsundere high schooler shouldn't act tsundere! They say it's so gross it makes them want to throw up!
And since I thought you'd want to know, the chat is being flooded with ‘blegh, blegh, blegh’ right now!”
“You little...!”
“There's more! They say you should read some books! They say it's too much for a high schooler not to know dongmun suhag! They say your Level 2 in Korean is probably a scam!”
“It's not a scam!”
“It is! I think hyung is definitely the scammer!”
“I'm not! You're the scammer! You scam people every day with physics-engine glitches in real life!”
“That's unfair... Then shall we hold a viewer poll to see who the real scammer is?”
“Go ahead!”
“Okay!”
Onik immediately activated a viewer poll.
Certain of his victory, he quickly wrote the question and put up the choices...
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
“What's this?”
“What is it?”
“What do you mean, what is it? What's this? Why do the choices look like this?”
“What's wrong with the choices?”
Onik looked as though he genuinely had no idea why Ju-won was protesting.
Then he read the choices he had written.
“Choice one, dark-looking tsundere high schooler. Choice two, fresh-faced strongest-in-town middle schooler... Is there a problem?”
“There are lots of problems! Just use our names normally!”
“I only repeated what the viewers said.
Maybe because you don't study Korean, hyung, you're complaining to the wrong person. If you're unhappy, complain to the viewers, not me.”
The strongest-in-town middle schooler answered shamelessly. The dark-looking high schooler pointed at him.
“You... Do you think you won't become that dark-looking high schooler someday?”
“I'm Jo Onik, though?”
“So what?”
“I'm Jo Onik. Even when I become a high schooler, I won't turn dark-looking. Unlike you!”
“Ah, this little... Where does that confidence come from?”
“But I'm handsome, right? I'm fresh-faced, right? I'll stay fresh-faced, right?
I'm the strongest in town, and someday I'll go beyond being the strongest in the province and the country to become the strongest in the world!”
“So annoying...”
Ju-won felt deeply annoyed, but he could not bring himself to argue with Onik.
The strongest-in-town middle schooler really was fresh-faced, fair-skinned, and handsome.
It did not seem likely that he would change for the worse as he grew older. If anything, he would only become fresher and more handsome.
Anyone could see that Onik's looks still had room to bloom.
It was one of the reasons Ju-won had once thought, while looking at Onik through a screen, that he was a child who had everything to an unfair degree.
“...”
But Ju-won thought differently now.
‘Honestly, I can't help feeling defeated when I look at his face...’
Still, he did not particularly dislike that feeling of defeat.
What did it matter if his friend was a little better than him? What did winning and losing matter between friends?
Wouldn't good things happening to his friend ultimately be good things for him as well...?
And Ju-won knew now.
Onik was not a child who only had everything.
“...Huh?”
Onik, who had been proudly certain of victory, tilted his head.
The viewer poll had turned out exactly opposite to what he expected.
“What is this? Is it a bug? Why did I lose?”
The jury of viewers delivered its verdict with near unanimity.
The scammer was not the dark-looking tsundere high schooler, but the fresh-faced strongest-in-town middle schooler.
“Why?”
Unable to accept the verdict, the young scammer stuck out his lower lip at the camera.
“Did you all trick me? It was clearly supposed to be Ju-won hyung who was the scammer. The chat said so! So why? Why am I the scammer?!
I trusted you all! If you're going to be like this, the heart of Jo Onik, the strongest in town, is going to turn dark!”
As the viewers who had fooled Onik through astonishing unity of purpose flooded the chat with laughter, Eun So-rin of Truffle Candy, who had stopped nearby to peek over, casually tossed out a remark.
“But Onik really is a scammer...”
“...?!”
Onik whipped around after being stabbed in the back.
Sorin giggled and hurriedly ran away.
Onik watched her retreating back with betrayed eyes, then soon let his shoulders droop.
His long sigh carried a playful sense of desolation.
“I never knew there would be so few people in this world I could trust...
I shouldn't have trusted Hanwha Eagles fans from the beginning. They've been happy for so long that all their hearts have turned sour.”
Ju-won could not stop himself from objecting again.
“...You say that as though Lotte fans are any different.”
“That's true... Lotte fans are the same... Except for me, the strongest in town...”
“Why are you the exception?”
“I'm different. I only watch games Lotte wins. So my heart hasn't gone sour.”
“...You look incredibly sour to me.”
“It hasn't.”
“And are there even games Lotte wins?”
“Hyung. Please don't. If you keep saying that, I'm going to become a very dangerous person...”
After mixing a little truth into broadcast nonsense like that, Onik soon changed his expression and smiled brightly.
“Goodness... It can't be helped.
I'm not a scammer, but for everyone's enjoyment, I'll become a scammer for one day.
I have to respect the viewer poll results.”
Onik's face, smiling into the camera, looked clear and bright without a single stain.
Watching that face beside him, the tsundere high schooler thought this.
If nothing else, Onik's smiling face really was a scam.
#
As the tsundere high schooler grew closer to the strongest-in-town middle schooler, he learned something new.
Jo Onik's smiling face was a scam.
Not because it was so handsome that it felt unfair.
He had merely glimpsed a little of what the kind rural boy kept tightly hidden behind that smile.
Sadness and depression, loneliness, and an emptiness and lack that could not be filled.
When Ju-won had first been abducted to this remote mountain village, he had hoped to discover Onik's hidden side here.
But...
‘This isn't the side I wanted to know.’
Not long ago, on the last day of January.
Two empty houses had appeared in Onik's mountain village in a single day.
An elderly resident in one house had died of old age.
There had been no other illness.
They had simply grown old, and their organs had aged and stopped functioning.
Objectively speaking, it could be called a reasonably good death.
(It was only called reasonably good because dying of old age is more painful than it appears.)
The death of this bent old person, who had lived alone ever since their husband passed away more than a decade ago, was something most village residents had expected.
Many signs foretelling death had appeared one after another.
They could no longer walk well. They could no longer eat well. They could no longer see well. They could no longer hear well.
Eventually, even breathing had become difficult...
By all rights, this elder should have entered a care facility long ago.
But they could not. There were no facilities they could enter. There were plenty of facilities with buildings but no staff.
The province where Onik lived was where the collapse of rural medical care and gaps in caregiving were most devastating in the country.
It was also a region where the number of elderly people unable to receive even basic blood pressure prescriptions or nutrient IV drips in time was growing beyond control.
People who lived in large cities, especially Seoul, did not know this reality.
They did not know it to a truly astonishing degree, and they often asked:
“Someone suffering from old age receives no treatment and simply dies at home?
What country is that supposed to be? It can't be ours.”
But it was. This was the story of South Korea.
Unless AI-driven technological innovation changed the situation, there truly seemed to be no answer.
Given the circumstances, the death of an elderly resident was one most villagers had expected and had been preparing themselves for day by day.
A boy sensitive to death had sharply sensed when it would come.
With the help of the ominous whispers of the dark anomalous nature clinging to his soul.
The boy's premonition became more accurate as the time drew closer.
And when the morning of the last day of January came.
The lonely boy, lonely because he was frightening, stood before the old house where parting would arrive and let out a sad sigh.
He could feel the frail life inside, wavering like a candle before the wind.
Ah, tonight.
The elder of this house will leave tonight...
Whenever he faced this kind of death, this kind of parting he could not resist, Onik felt both a hollow sense of loss and helplessness in his chest.
It was not simply that he was sad because someone had died, because another adult who cared for him was leaving.
The village where he wanted to remain just as it was forever.
He was even more depressed because this small, precious paradise was collapsing beyond repair.
No matter what else filled an emptying village, it could not take the place of people who had shared long years and memories.
That was true for the lonely boy, and even more so for the boy's grandfather.
His grandfather's sorrow was also the sorrow of the lonely boy who loved his grandfather.
Moreover, every elderly person's death made the boy think of his grandfather's death.
It reminded him of the depressing fact that his beloved grandfather, too, would one day grow old and leave this world...
Still, if this had been the only loss that day, Onik might have managed to pretend he was all right.
But before he could even face the parting he had prepared himself for, another parting stabbed into his heart like a dagger.
Around noon, the boy was greatly startled to see a man who had come from a distant city.
This was someone who usually came to see his father, living alone in the village, only during holidays.
“You're taking him to Seoul? So suddenly?”
There was no shadow of death over that house.
It was a house Onik had believed would remain occupied for quite some time.
...Another parting he had not prepared himself for at all.
The elderly man who owned this house had recently been diagnosed with dementia.
A dementia diagnosis could not be made through a single day's examination.
Usually, only after three or four years of medication and follow-up observation after early symptoms appeared could doctors determine that it was definitely dementia.
And even after a confirmed diagnosis, it did not mean normal life became impossible at once.
When he received the diagnosis, the elderly man had waved his hands.
“Don't worry too much. I'm still all right.
If I make any mistakes from now on, just be understanding. Don't get irritated for no reason.”
He had been deeply discouraged to learn that he had dementia, but he tried to continue living as he always had.
In this village, growing older day by day, dementia was not an uncommon illness.
Two or three out of every ten residents were experiencing cognitive decline, the stage before dementia.
So the villagers were familiar with dementia.
And because they were familiar with it, they also knew how to deal with it.
Most important of all was for the person concerned to fight helplessness and depression.
Even young Onik knew that well.
‘If you're overcome by helplessness and swallowed by depression, dementia progresses very quickly.’
So, as long as they were able, they needed to keep living as they always had.
Within that ordinary life, they needed to try to maintain positive exchanges with others.
Only then could they enjoy a true life for longer.
As someone responsible for themself. As a person who had not yet lost themself...
This was one reason the residents of the aging village often gathered at the village hall.
It was also partly why Onik often brought the village elders together and treated them to meals.
He wanted the elders, who were themselves part of his paradise, to remain healthy and whole in mind for as long as possible.
It was with that wish that Onik gathered ingredients and cooked.
The elderly people did not fail to understand his feelings.
They knew how dearly the village's only child cared for them.
“Oh, our Onik. We live because of you.”
“That's right. If we didn't have Onik, what joy would we have left to live for?”
“Our Onik is such a good boy. It's so wonderful that you look after adults at your age.”
“Onik gives us energy every day, so this grandmother feels much stronger. I feel so strong that I feel young again.”
There were many compliments that usually brought young Onik happiness.
Those compliments were, in large part, truths without any exaggeration.
If one kind and gentle child had not brought life into the village... the number of people suffering depression and the dementia rate in this aging village would have risen far more sharply.
(This was an objectively provable fact when compared with the average figures for rural areas across the province.)
But sometimes the lonely boy's efforts were not rewarded.
Like this day, when two houses became empty in one day.
Though he had dementia, the elderly man could still live alone, and he could not hide his complicated feelings.
He looked at the son who had come to fetch him, then at the villagers who had come out to see what was happening.
The man from the city looked somewhat startled by Onik's question.
Taking him away suddenly? Had he not heard anything?
He asked his elderly father.
“You haven't told the villagers yet?”
The elderly man with mild dementia nodded.
“...That's how it ended up. I wanted to tell them, but I just couldn't bring myself to speak.”
His son understood how his father felt.
“I can understand that.”
Then he turned his eyes to the admirable boy standing before him.
The boy kept his gaze slightly averted, but the adult could still easily read the emotions surging in his eyes.
He rested one hand on his knee and lowered himself.
“Onik.”
“...”
“Our kind and admirable young heir of the head family. Thank you for treating my father so well all this time.
You have no idea how much he talked about you whenever he spoke with me on the phone.
He said you were better than his own children and as lovely as his own grandchildren.”
“...He was probably only saying that to be nice.”
“No, he wasn't. I saw you on your broadcasts, too.
The more I watched, the more I realized everything Father said was true. It made me ashamed as his child.”
“...Do you really feel that way?”
“Of course. Why wouldn't I?”
“Then wouldn't it be all right for the elder to stay in our village a little longer?”
The boy tried to negotiate.
He wanted to delay the immediate parting, the loss, even a little.
“The elder will be happier here in our village than in Seoul.
Everyone here understands dementia. He can keep spending time with people he has known for a long time, and I can make more happy things for him to do.”
Everything Onik listed was a factor that greatly delayed the progression of dementia.
Though it was effective only in delaying the transition from mild to severe dementia.
Ordinary interaction with people one was close to.
An environment where one did not need to feel ashamed of dementia, and emotional stability.
Maintaining a life where the person remained responsible for themself.
And steady physical activity.
The remote village the lonely boy worked so hard to keep from cracking apart was not a bad place for a person with dementia to live, at least in everyday life.
“You know too, don't you, sir? That depression, helplessness, and loneliness are very, very dangerous enemies for people with dementia.
If he leaves the village he has lived in his whole life and goes somewhere unfamiliar, he might become lonely and have a hard time.”
“...Onik.”
“He'll have to part from people he has been close to for so long, leave the vegetable garden he has tended for so long, and go far from the paths he has walked every day for so long...”
“Yes. I know. I know what you want to say.”
The man from Seoul wore a bitter smile.
“Father will probably find it difficult to live as contentedly in Seoul as he did here.
I can't stay with him all day. And Father worried a great deal about becoming a burden to me and my wife.”
“Then...”
“Even so, it can't be helped. There are far too few hospitals here.”
“That's... true, but...”
“I'll work hard too, so Father doesn't become depressed.
And even if he does become depressed somehow... we can respond right away with medication.
That's how it is in Seoul. Unlike this village, where it's hard to get even blood pressure medicine on time.”
“...”
“My siblings and I can't help but think about money first.
In the long term, it costs less if he goes to the hospital regularly while his symptoms are still mild.
Father made this decision with that in mind too.”
The core of dementia care was maintaining the early stage for as long as possible.
If early-stage dementia was left without medication, it usually progressed to severe dementia within two years.
On the other hand, with proper treatment in an environment with solid medical infrastructure, that period could be extended to eight years or longer.
“And there is something more important than money. My father's human dignity.
Our Onik studies well and reads lots of books, so you understand what I mean, don't you?”
“Yes, I understand...”
“Father is already quite old.
So if he takes his medicine diligently and receives treatment from now on, perhaps he can live with dignity until the very end before he leaves us.”
“That... may be true...”
“So, Onik. Our proud young heir of the head family. I hope you can send my father off with a smile.
You can still stay in touch after he goes to Seoul. Your granduncle can as well.”
“...”
“I promise you. During the holidays, I'll bring Father down to the village. We have to visit our ancestors' graves, after all.
Father should meet the people from his hometown once in a while too.”
It was not much comfort to the sad boy.
He was sad that an empty house was appearing in his precious village, sad that an elder he had known throughout his short life was leaving, sad that the village was losing another resident, and sad that his grandfather would feel the absence of a longtime neighbor.
Even so, the boy whose eyes had turned red admitted his mistake and bowed deeply.
“I'm sorry, sir.”
“Sorry? What are you sorry for?”
“I threw a tantrum. I was unreasonable because I didn't want to part from the elder. I shouldn't have done that.”
“Ha ha...”
The man from the city gently ruffled Onik's hair.
“You shouldn't have? It only makes me more grateful. Our young heir has such a warm heart. You're so understanding too.
It's not easy to be this kind and considerate at your age. You're amazing, all right?”
“...”
Though he had been praised, Onik did not look happy at all.
Then the elderly man with dementia, who would soon leave the village, approached him with his cane.
“Onik. I have relied on you greatly, though you're still a child. Thanks to you, this old man without a wife will leave without having known loneliness.”
“Elder...”
“Wait.”
The old man searched inside his clothes with his free hand and took out his wallet.
Then he pulled two crisp fifty-thousand-won bills from his old leather wallet and handed them to Onik.
“Pocket money. You make good money these days, but I still want to give it to you. What was it called? That thing where people give you money on your broadcasts...”
Frequently referring to things as “that thing” was a common trait among people with dementia.
Onik gave the old man, who was furrowing his brow, the answer.
“Donations?”
“Ah, yes. That. Donations. Think of it as a donation I'm giving Uncle Onik, and accept it.”
“Yes... Thank you...”
“I'll cheer for you a lot even after I go to Seoul. So keep broadcasting diligently.
Then I can see this village and the people from my hometown through your broadcasts, can't I?”
“I... will... Please stay well after you go to Seoul.”
“All right. Thank you once again. You stay well too.”
After patting Onik's head, the elderly man exchanged belated farewells with the other villagers.
The night that came afterward was the night of the expected parting, so Onik could not hide his depression.
A deep depression that he might have concealed by pretending to be all right after preparing himself.
Even the high schooler abducted to another world could see it.
The next day, upstream from the village's waterway, after the ambulance had lazily come and gone, the tsundere high schooler saw the strongest-in-town middle schooler crying for the first time.
#
A stream flowed alongside the aging village.
Going a little upstream along that stream revealed a small valley and pool. In summer, it was an excellent spot to rest with one's feet in the water or splash about.
It was a fine place even in winter.
Water that had flowed in layers over large and small rocks had frozen into steps that glittered in the sunlight, while water continued flowing beneath the ice and scattering the light.
When a little snow settled over it, the scenery became even prettier.
It was a place where one could find comfort while listening to the soft burble of water amid a white, sparkling landscape.
After searching here and there, Ju-won found Onik here, sniffing as he tried to swallow his sadness.
And beside Onik was Sera, gently comforting him.
The two sat side by side on Onik's coat, spread over a cold rock, and looked very close.
“...”
For some reason, Ju-won found it difficult to approach after seeing their backs.
And he felt two kinds of jealousy over that fact, large and small.
The smaller jealousy was toward Onik.
‘Lucky little punk.’
To Ju-won, the feelings between them looked close to affection.
At least on Onik's side, that seemed almost certain.
(It would be a serious problem if he had romantic feelings. Both of them had only finished elementary school, but one was an adult and the other a minor.)
But whether it was romantic affection or fondness, how could Ju-won not envy him for being close to a pretty older idol?
Then there was the greater jealousy, directed toward Sera.
‘Onik is the only real friend I have...’
Onik, who had abducted Ju-won to this mountain village in another world, was the first true friend Ju-won had met in his life.
But this only friend had many other people closer to him than Ju-won was.
So Ju-won's jealousy was unavoidable.
It was a different kind of jealousy from the sticky jealousy he had felt toward “Entertainer Jo Onik” before he had been forcibly summoned to another world.
Anyone who had lived the same life as Ju-won would feel this same human emotion.
Ju-won remembered what Onik had said on the first day he was forcibly summoned to another world.
“Well, I haven't decided yet how close we're going to become, hyung!”
“Um, it's just that I still don't know what kind of person you are, hyung.”
“But even if you aren't a very good person, we can become a little close! I invited you with that in mind!”
Now that he thought them over again, every word settled heavily in Ju-won's heart.
Almost like a set of guidelines.
‘...Does that mean I have to be a good person if I want us to become very close?’
When he thought about it, that was only natural.
Why would anyone want to become close to a bad person?
Even people who were obviously bad in anyone's eyes usually spent time together because they thought the others in their group were decent people.
Ju-won wanted the rural boy to see him as a good person.
And he wanted to become even closer friends with him than they were now.
If possible, closer than all his other friends...
Ju-won sank into thoughts brought on by his greater and lesser jealousy.
What woke him from those thoughts was the call of the kind rural boy.
“Ju-won hyung! Why are you standing over there?”
The boy who possessed a sense for strange supernatural things noticed Ju-won's presence without even turning around.
Two people were startled.
One was Ju-won.
The other was Sera.
Sera quickly withdrew the hand that had been comforting Onik and looked around. Before long, she found Ju-won, frozen in surprise.
The moment their eyes met, an awkward atmosphere fell over them.
“Uh...”
Ju-won grew more flustered because he was afraid it would look like he had been spying on them.
In truth, he had been.
And Sera did not know how to react to Ju-won's sudden appearance.
To each other, they were only friends of a friend.
Without their shared friend Onik, they were merely distant acquaintances.
So it was Onik's role to break the awkwardness.
Only then did Onik turn around and look near Ju-won's feet.
Then he wiped at his eyes and spoke in a casual voice.
“Hyung! Did you come looking for me?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah. Of course. I came looking for you. You kept looking down, so I wondered where you had gone.”
“Goodness. Sera noona and hyung too. You both worry too much. I'm Jo Onik, the strongest in town, so you don't need to worry about me this much.”
“...”
“Anyway, come over here. You said you came looking for me.”
“Uh... Yeah...”
The high schooler abducted to another world hesitantly walked over.
He took a place among the rocks along the solidly frozen water's edge, sitting diagonally across from Onik and Sera.
“Hey.”
Still conscious of the awkwardness that had not fully gone away, Ju-won threw out a question just to say something.
“How did you know I was there? I was pretty far away, and behind you too.”
“I had a feeling!”
“...A feeling?”
“Yes! You could say I sensed your presence.”
“Sensed my presence from that far away... What are you, the protagonist of a martial arts novel?”
“Hmm, and I smelled you too!”
“What? Smelled me? What smell?”
“The smell of a dark-looking male high schooler!”
“You little...!”
The dark-looking male high schooler bristled at the fresh-faced middle schooler's provocation.
Sera, who had been listening, let out a small laugh.
Footnotes:
“Eight up, eight down” resembles the sound of a vulgar Korean curse, prompting Ju-won's question.
Dongmun suhag means studying under the same teacher, but its final syllables sound identical to the Korean word for mathematics, which Ju-won misunderstands.
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