WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Incarnation of the Malevolent Star ◈

Chapter 15: Part 1 - Whispers of the Dark Brother (15)

──────

The place Onik called God Uncle's house was Pastor Kim's church.

A faded sign reading Three-Way Intersection Restaurant hung on the church.

The faded sign remained because the church occupied an old restaurant that had closed back when the four-way intersection at the village entrance was still a three-way intersection.

The building was that old, but Pastor Kim was satisfied as long as it kept out the rain and wind.

The gentle pastor told the villagers,

"A church is a place where people's faith dwells within God's love. Hang a single cross wherever believers gather, and that place becomes a church. It's also easy for the elders to come and go from here, so I'd like to hang my cross here."

"Come by when you're bored, or when things are hard. Please visit often. God's house will always welcome you."

Everyone in the village knew why Pastor Kim had settled there.

While volunteering in a conflict zone in Congo, Pastor Kim had lost a fellow aid worker in a rebel terrorist attack. That worker had been a missionary from this village.

Before dying, not yet fifty, the missionary had made a request of Pastor Kim.

They asked Pastor Kim to tell their mother back home what had happened upon his return to Korea. They wanted her to know what kind of life her child had lived before leaving this world and, if possible, asked Pastor Kim to check in on her regularly.

Pastor Kim promised that he would.

It was a promise made by a shepherd in God's name, with his faith on the line.

After returning to Korea, the pastor kept his promise to the dead.

He told the grieving mother countless stories from the days when her child was alive. Then, going beyond simply checking in on her, he chose to settle in the village and become one of its people.

Even that mother had now passed away, yet Pastor Kim remained in the village. He was practicing his faith in an old village slowly fading away.

The villagers did not see Pastor Kim as a mere outsider.

When Onik came running from the Master Bowyer's persimmon-tree yard and entered Three-Way Intersection Church, Pastor Kim was repairing a broken television someone had left with him.

Having volunteered for many years in Africa's harsh conditions, the pastor had picked up all sorts of skills. He could handle minor problems with everyday machines and appliances, sometimes after looking things up online.

The pastor set down his multimeter and welcomed the boy.

"Onik, you're here. What's wrong? Yo-han isn't here right now."

"I didn't come to see Yo-han hyung today! I came to talk to God Uncle!"

"Hmm? With God? You? What brought this on?"

The pastor's eyes lit up as he looked at the boy.

As far as he knew, the lonely boy had never prayed even once.

Onik gave a vague answer and held out the bundle of pheasants.

"I just have to! Here, take this first!"

The pastor looked back and forth between the bundle and the bow slung over the boy's shoulder.

"Where did all these pheasants come from? Did you catch them yourself?"

"Yes!"

"That's impressive. Your bow is impressive too. But are you sure it's all right to give all of these to me?"

"I already gave five to the Master Bowyer! And the ones I'm giving you, Pastor, you'll share them with people too! After you cook them and everything!

"So it's fine! Put them in the rice cake soup! I can catch more! I'm going to catch some more before I go home today too!"

"I see. Our Onik is such a kind boy. Thank you, I'll gladly take them. I should clean them before they spoil."

Pastor Kim had been used to such rough gifts even before coming to the village.

He still had the knack for preparing the game that indigenous African hunters sometimes brought him, then using it for free meal services.

The pastor rose, took the boy's bundle, and headed into the kitchen.

Limp. Limp.

Pastor Kim walked with a limp because one of his legs was prosthetic.

The ankle consumed by a land mine was the price of spending so long volunteering in dangerous areas without sparing himself.

Since the church had originally been a restaurant, its kitchen was open to the main room.

Standing in the kitchen, the pastor looked at his young visitor and said gently,

"Don't mind me. You and God can have a talk by yourselves."

As always, the boy asked without making eye contact.

"You said it before, right? That God Uncle listens even to people who don't believe in Him, like me."

"I did. Whether people believe in God or not, everyone in this world is His child. That includes you, Onik. He loves everyone."

"Um... I don't want to be God's child yet. But I'll still tell Him something. It's important."

"Go ahead, then."

Pastor Kim smiled warmly.

He had always thought that a lonely child who felt the absence left by his parents needed God's help.

If God filled the emptiness in the boy's heart, it would greatly help a child growing up without parents stay on the right path.

That was why he had once told the boy this.

"If something is difficult, rely on God. He is the Father in Heaven, Jesus Christ, and a merciful being who loves everyone in this world without limit. He will be a good father to our Onik too."

Onik had not shown it at the time, but when he was two years younger, he had not liked the pastor's words very much.

Suppose God truly knew everything and could do anything.

Then hadn't it also been God's will that his mother died in childbirth and his father left him?

If so, God could never be a good father.

That was why Onik had shaken his head two years ago.

"I don't want to believe in God yet. So God isn't my father. I'll just call Him God Uncle. Is that okay?"

Pastor Kim did not force his faith on the child.

"Our Onik can do whatever feels comfortable. He is infinitely generous, and He waits without end."

Thanks to that, Onik had continued to visit the church freely.

With his worries in mind, the boy walked toward the cross.

The interior of the church, arranged with the villagers' comfort as its first priority, was very different from an ordinary church.

All the low dining tables from its restaurant days had been left in place, making it feel like an old, long-running restaurant that was still open for business.

In fact, except on Sundays, the church was often used like a communal gathering room.

Like the village hall, it was a shared gathering place for everyone in the neighborhood.

Bookshelves that reminded Onik of an elementary school classroom library stood in one corner of the gathering room where the cross hung. Among the many books on them was Yo-han's manga collection.

A comic about a pirate crew with a rubber-bodied man.

A comic about a delinquent who was good at fighting, fell in unrequited love, and started playing basketball.

A comic about an immortal vampire who fought the Vatican, then fought Nazi cyborgs invading London.

And the eternally unfinished comic about a clergyman resurrected from death, who fought to the death against a fallen angel sealed in a sarcophagus and the angel's apostles...

The Romance of the Three Kingdoms comic tucked among them reminded Onik of a conversation with Yo-han.

"Which character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms do you like best, Onik? Liu Bei? Guan Yu? Zhang Fei? Or Zhuge Liang?"

"I like Lü Bu best!"

"Why? Because he's the strongest general?"

"No! Because he has three fathers!"

"...Well, that isn't a good thing."

It was a warm memory for Onik, even if Yo-han's reaction had been a little strange.

Without Yo-han, who got along with him so well and played with him, the lonely boy's past would have been far lonelier.

Before kneeling at the prayer bench in front of the cross, Onik first slipped money into the offering box while Pastor Kim was not looking.

'If someone like me, who doesn't believe in God Uncle, just asks Him for something, He might think I'm rude and shameless...'

Onik did not think God Uncle was a being who was only kind, as Pastor Kim said.

The request he planned to make was not for himself, but he still felt he should show at least a little sincerity.

He put a full five hundred thousand won into the offering box.

Still, that was all right, because Onik had a lot of money for a child who had only just graduated elementary school.

He received a monthly allowance and New Year's money every year from the village elders and adults in his clan association.

There was also the money adults gave him at village hall feasts because they thought he was such a good boy.

It almost all piled up without ever being spent.

Every bit of money Onik received went into his piggy bank or his National Agricultural Cooperative savings account.

Other than going to Lotteria with his school friends, buying a new Lotte Giants uniform when he outgrew the old one, since his grandfather bought his other clothes, or buying his grandfather a birthday present, he had little use for it.

He did not play games that required cash payments, and he was always busy roaming around outside in search of things he could kill, things he was allowed to kill, and things that were good to kill.

So he rarely had reason to order anything online.

Onik did not think the money was a waste.

'I can spend this much for Yo-han hyung and Teacher.'

It would be fine even if God Uncle took the money and did nothing. After all, the person actually managing the offerings was Pastor Kim.

The kind pastor would use the money Onik put in to help the villagers.

Or, by some small chance, he might notice that a child had put it in and try to return it.

Having sorted out his thoughts, Onik knelt at the prayer bench, clasped his hands, and closed his eyes.

It was the lonely child's first prayer to the Christian God.

'God Uncle, please listen to my prayer. There are people who need Your help.'

Onik focused and pictured Yo-han and Teacher Lee Eun-jeong so God Uncle in Heaven could look into his heart and there would not be any chance of mistaking them for someone else.

'Did You get a good look at them, Uncle? Yo-han hyung and Teacher like each other. Please support their love, God Uncle, and don't let the Village Youth Association President bother them anymore.'

Onik hesitated for a moment, then offered a small defense of the fifty-six-year-old man who insisted he was young.

'The Village Youth Association President is doing bad things, but he isn't only a bad person, so please take that into account too.'

After reading some of the Bible at Pastor Kim and Yo-han's urging, the lonely boy had come to think that God Uncle sometimes chose means that were cruel and violent beyond necessity when solving problems.

Those methods were occasionally cruel even by the standards of a frightening boy.

They were also as violent as the Lotte Giants' record of Korean Series appearances and championships, befitting the world's strongest baseball team.

God Uncle was such a frightening being...

That was why the boy added that the Village Youth Association President was not entirely a bad person to his prayer.

What if an angry God Uncle struck him with lightning and killed him?

That would probably make the boy sad right now.

'Not me, but Yo-han hyung believes in You a whole lot. And he's really kind. Shouldn't You have helped him long before I even prayed?'

In the boy's opinion, Yo-han had more than earned God's help.

He was kind, diligent, and deeply faithful.

Yet the problem had remained until an entire winter had passed. Wasn't that God Uncle neglecting His duties?

'If You do a good job helping them this time, I'll reconsider whether to believe in You too. I don't want to call You Father, but I can still believe in You, right? Ah, that doesn't mean I'll definitely believe. I mean, I'll think about it. Sincerely, seriously.'

It was a prayer that might have sounded presumptuous.

But this was how the boy truly felt, so there was nothing to be done.

If God was the kind of god who would not know his true thoughts when he hid them inside, then He probably did not have the ability to answer the boy's prayer in the first place.

After his unfamiliar father left following their brief meeting and Onik heard the previously hidden stories from his grandfather, the boy's opinion of God Uncle had fallen even lower than before.

'So please take good care of Yo-han hyung and Teacher. I'll end my prayer here. Lunar New Year is coming soon, so have a happy new year and stay well up in Heaven. Amen.'

After finishing his prayer, Onik looked up at the cross. Diamond-shaped sunlight streaming through the window fell slantwise across it.

Whether the god beyond that cross would grant the heartfelt request of a worried boy was something only time would tell.

#

Teacher Lee Eun-jeong stood by the window and parted the blinds with her fingers.

The days were growing longer, but it was still the tail end of winter.

The hour when afternoon sunlight began to mix with the colors of sunset arrived earlier than dinnertime.

Her expression darkened as she peeked through the gap between her fingers and saw a blue Porter truck parked in the lot, washed in the pale sunset light of early evening.

It belonged to the vile, self-proclaimed young man who had been stalking her for months, making her skin crawl.

'I thought maybe he wouldn't come today...'

Eun-jeong did not know that the stalker hounding her, the fifty-six-year-old who insisted he was young, had spent the day going door to door through the village with gifts while badmouthing Pastor Kim's second son.

As her faint hope fell apart, the teacher's heart grew heavier than it had been that morning.

The new school year was close, and she needed to prepare, but lately her troubled mind would not settle, making it hard to focus on anything.

All she could do was sigh.

Then a low voice came from behind her.

"He came after all?"

"Yes. Unfortunately."

As Eun-jeong answered and turned around, she saw Yo-han sitting tensely on the sofa.

More than a month had passed since he began visiting her home, yet he had not fully lost his stiffness.

If someone who had served in the military saw Yo-han now, they might have said he looked like a new recruit at his first assignment. He was sitting that rigidly, with his whole body tensed.

'He hasn't even touched his tea.'

This innocent side of him was a warm comfort that soothed her heart every time she saw it.

Almost nothing good had happened since the stalker began pursuing her.

Still, it was not entirely bad that she had gained an excuse to invite such an awkward man as Yo-han into her home.

It was all the more so because this was something Eun-jeong had no experience with either.

(She had had plenty of opportunities. Eun-jeong had been popular in college.

But before meeting Yo-han, she had been almost excessively detached in these matters. She was also somewhat shy when she became conscious of a man as a romantic interest.)

Without the excuse of needing protection from the stalker, their relationship might not have reached this stage even after another year had passed.

It was the first relationship for both of them, and Onik, the province's strongest elementary schooler, who had worked so hard to bring them together that even Eun-jeong noticed, had moved on to middle school.

Thinking of her beloved student, who was about to go beyond the super elementary schooler stage and become a super middle schooler, made Eun-jeong's heart feel even warmer.

"Will you... call the police?"

At Yo-han's question, Eun-jeong gave a faint, gloomy smile.

"Would it mean anything if I did?"

"Um..."

At least in this area, and in this matter, the police were not people Eun-jeong could trust.

She had reported him too many times to count, but they never took proper action.

It was not as though they did absolutely nothing.

A written warning had been followed by orders prohibiting him from physically approaching her or contacting her through any means of communication.

When the stalker came to her home like this, calling the police would also bring a patrol car to make him leave.

But in reality, that meant the criminal and the officers would chat amiably before parting ways.

The police officers treated the criminal with scrupulous respect.

Each time, the criminal would straighten his shoulders, climb into his truck with a relaxed air, and drive away, as if he were doing the officers a favor by considering their circumstances.

Eun-jeong had overheard some of their conversations and felt devastated.

"Ah, nothing to be done. I suppose I have no choice but to leave for today. Sorry for troubling you officers every time."

"No, sir. We're only doing our jobs."

"Still, I'm sorry. I'll put in a good word about you to a distinguished elder, all right?"

"We'd appreciate that. Take care on your way home."

"All right. Then let's meet again under better circumstances."

That was not all. When Eun-jeong demanded stronger measures, the officers made troubled faces and said something unbelievable.

"Ma'am, we understand how you feel, but it isn't a crime for one person to like another, is it? He's a good person who has contributed greatly to this local community. Rather than pushing him away so firmly, why not give yourselves a chance to get to know each other gradually?"

It was not a crime for one person to like another?

That had been the very same excuse the stalker wrote in a letter he left in her mailbox one day.

How absurd it was for the police to repeat that excuse word for word.

It made the teacher feel anger and fear at once.

When Eun-jeong replied that there was already a man she had feelings for, the police gave her kind smiles and once again spoke nonsense.

"Even with a goalkeeper, goals still go in. Isn't that how love works?"

After hearing that, Eun-jeong gave up expecting anything from the local police.

From then on, she began steadily gathering evidence to bring the matter into public view.

She could have exposed it immediately.

But because she did not know how far the connections of that fifty-six-year-old man claiming true love might reach, she decided to be as patient as possible.

'That awful man must have some serious connections... If public attention flares up too early and then fades, he might end up getting nothing but a slap on the wrist in the end.'

Trials took time. There was no guarantee it would end with the first trial.

Before the final ruling was confirmed, it might take several more years.

Having considered the worst possibility, Eun-jeong hardened her resolve.

'That can't happen. If he did something like this, he has to pay the price.'

The end awaiting the fifty-six-year-old man claiming true love had to become a lesson for every adult in the region, an event that changed their awareness and behavior.

Only then would the children in this area grow up in a better, safer environment.

Of course, she could only make such a decision because Yo-han was beside her.

He was a reliable person trying to protect her daily life.

Without him, Eun-jeong would have had to make a decision as though she were being chased, driven by fear and stress.

Some love grows stronger by feeding on hardship.

In these circumstances, Eun-jeong's trust and affection for Yo-han deepened day by day.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried