WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ Incarnation of the Malevolent Star ◈

Chapter 17: Part 1 - Whispers of the Dark Brother (17)

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Pastor Kim checked the offering box at the same time every night.

It was not because he was short of money.

Now and then, generous offerings revealed people's conscience, compassion, and gratitude, and that brought joy to a man devoted to service.

Contrary to Old Man Jo Jeong-ho's assumptions, the credit arrangement centered on Pastor Kim's church had run at a loss every month in this aging village.

Without the financial support Pi-deuk and Philip provided under the pretext of tithes and special offerings, Pastor Kim could not have maintained the credit arrangement for the elderly in its current form.

Whenever he found joy in the offering box, the pastor would offer God a special prayer of thanks.

But he did not do so on the day Onik had visited.

"......Could this be what Onik put in?"

All offerings at this church were anonymous by default.

Anyone who wished could write their name, but no one was required to.

Old Man Jo Jeong-ho himself always put money in anonymously. It was out of consideration for villagers in difficult circumstances.

Even so, the pastor knew exactly which villagers brought him special joy. After checking the offering box every day for so long, he had naturally come to recognize them.

On the day Onik had tried speaking to Mr. God for the first time in his life, none of those people, as far as the pastor knew, had visited the church.

So the kind-hearted pastor worried.

‘Is he going through something serious?’

It was strange enough that the child had suddenly prayed when he never had before. Then there was the money, an amount that could not be called small even for an adult.

As an adult close to him, Pastor Kim could not help worrying.

The child had already had his heart torn apart by his father last Chuseok.

This was a village with almost no secrets.

They did not know every detail, but every adult in the village knew that its only child was suffering terribly.

His father had come to see him for the first time in his life, only to leave him so coldly. It would have been stranger if a lonely child had not been left with scars.

The pastor clearly remembered the child who had come by that afternoon saying it was something important.

‘Just asking Yo-han to look into it wouldn't be enough, would it?’

His dependable second son had not been able to look after Onik as much as before. Recently, he had a lover in a precarious situation.

‘Could he have prayed because of Yo-han and Teacher?’

The truth flashed through the pastor's mind.

Still, it was only a guess, so he could not simply let it pass without confirming it.

There was no guarantee that Onik even knew what Yo-han and Teacher were going through.

None of the people involved would tell such a dark story to a child.

Pastor Kim was a little less certain about the Village Youth Association President. But what would that stalker gain by tipping Onik off about his own affairs? It would only hurt him.

The next day, the pastor first called Onik over and quietly asked him.

"Did you happen to put this in? It's five hundred thousand won, after all."

As always, Onik kept his gaze turned away from the pastor, fixed somewhere to the side. With his hands clasped behind his back, he fidgeted with his feet and denied the accusation(?).

"I didn't!"

"Then, Onik, can you tell me what problem you spoke to Mr. God about? Even just a little is fine. It'll stay a secret between us. I promise."

"......"

Onik pressed his lips tightly together. He had no intention of speaking.

The child, whose thoughts ran much deeper than his age suggested, thought to himself.

‘If I tell him, Yo-han hyung and Teacher will definitely feel sorry for me. They'll think they made even a child like me worry. It would be worse because I didn't just pray, I put in a lot of money.’

Yo-han and Teacher were very precious to Onik.

They were already having such a hard time. Onik did not want to add needless guilt and pressure to their burdens.

If that happened, the two of them would consciously try to pay more attention to Onik even while struggling with their own problems. That was an outcome Onik wanted to avoid.

At the same time, Onik was troubled.

He had thought this might happen, but he had not expected things to truly turn out this way. He had only thought it was possible.

‘How did Pastor Kim know? I definitely put it in secretly.’

Like his grandfather, Old Man Jo Jeong-ho, Onik believed the church's credit arrangement was comfortably bringing in money. He deeply trusted the elderly villagers who received Pastor Kim and Yo-han's help.

Onik had also never imagined that Pastor Kim, who always seemed unconcerned with money, would open the offering box every day.

Since his grandfather only gave offerings on Sundays, he had unconsciously assumed Pastor Kim checked the box on Sundays too.

One mistaken assumption piled atop another, leading to optimistic thoughts and actions.

The extraordinary child also trusted his hands, which were quicker than the eye.

If he diverted attention for just a moment, Onik was confident he could openly put money in right before the pastor and avoid being caught most of the time.

‘Ah...... This is strange. Seriously, how did I get caught? This shouldn't be happening......’

The seasoned pastor read the child's hidden distress.

There was a simple way to make Onik unable, or at least reluctant, to lie. Put him in front of his grandfather. It was common knowledge to everyone in the village.

Before putting that knowledge to the test, the pastor gently sounded the child out in a soft voice so he would not be hurt.

"Onik. I truly appreciate the thought, but God would find it difficult to accept this money. I feel the same, as someone who serves in His stead."

"I really didn't put it in......"

"Is that so? Then could we go ask your grandfather together? If Onik truly didn't do it, that would be fine, wouldn't it?"

"......"

"Unless it is a special case, God is not someone who likes accepting money from children. Even when He does accept it, He values the heart behind it more than the money."

Some pastors would have pointed at him and accused him of acting as if he alone were virtuous if they heard him say that, pastors who wanted to wring tithes and special offerings from children however they could.

At last, backed into a corner, Onik's shoulders drooped.

For some reason, the pastor already seemed certain, and the money Onik had put in appeared destined to be handed to his grandfather according to the pastor's conscience. Continuing to deny it would be foolish.

This was the time to negotiate.

‘It would be better to tell the truth and get the money back. I don't want to make Grandpa worry.’

With a gloomy heart, Onik confessed to the crime(?).

"Actually, I did put it in. I'm sorry I lied."

"You needn't be sorry. Giving an offering isn't wrong. Trying to keep it secret wasn't wrong either."

"Is that so?"

"Of course! Our God said, 「Do not let your left hand know what your right hand has done. Keep your charity hidden, and your Father, who sees even what is hidden, will reward you.」 Didn't our Onik give this offering because he thought it would help other people?"

"That's true, but......"

"Then what was wrong with it? Still, as I said before, God, who sees even hidden things, would not be pleased for His church to accept money from children. So I have no choice but to return this to you. Here."

"Okay......"

"Don't misunderstand. Good deeds have no age limit. If you donate to another good cause instead of the church, God will praise you greatly as well. I will too, and so will the other adults. You understand how I feel, don't you?"

"I don't misunderstand. I understand what you mean."

Onik accepted the envelope filled with bills and watched the pastor cautiously. Just as he was about to try negotiating, the adult, who was even quicker to read the room than the child, got there first.

"Don't worry. Let's keep the fact that Onik gave such a large offering a secret between us."

"Really?"

"Of course. You told me the truth, and the money has returned to you, so there isn't any problem anymore, is there? I promise in the name of God above."

Pastor Kim's kind words brightened Onik's face. A faithful pastor had made a promise in God's name, so there was no chance it would be broken.

"Thank you! Grandpa would have worried so much if he found out!"

"Haha. Onik is always so devoted to his grandfather."

"That's because I love Grandpa. Then can I go now?"

"Yes. Off you go."

"Okay! I'll come again next time! Goodbye!"

With his shoulders lighter, Onik ran out of the church in his usual energetic, cheerful way.

Watching the child's retreating back, the pastor apologized in his heart.

‘I'm sorry, Onik.’

Pastor Kim had only promised to keep the offering a secret.

That still left him a chance to quietly tell Old Man Jo Jeong-ho that Onik might have developed some serious new worry. He could not explain the reason in detail, but perhaps it would be best for the old man to look into it.

He would only ask that, if possible, speaking to Onik directly be left as the very last option.

It was a kind of cunning unbecoming of a clergyman.

Yet it was the cunning of an adult worried for a child, so Pastor Kim's God would forgive him with mercy.

‘I should ask Yo-han too.’

He thought it would be an insufficient measure, but that was no reason not to take it.

If his son knew about Onik's worries, he could help in his own way. If he did not, he could still help in another.

There was no one in the village who spoke as freely and comfortably with Onik as Yo-han did.

Pastor Kim picked up the phone.

#

If Old Man Jo Jeong-ho wanted to quietly learn about his only grandson's private worries, Eun-jeong had to be the first person he asked.

Onik was close to Yo-han too, but Eun-jeong was the person he trusted and followed most.

That was, of course, excluding Old Man Jo Jeong-ho himself.

No matter how deeply Onik trusted his grandfather, there could be things difficult to confess to him.

The old man did not consider himself an excellent guardian. That was why he placed deep trust in the female teacher who adored his grandson and took such special care of him.

So Eun-jeong and Yo-han received their respective calls only a short while apart. Eun-jeong received Old Man Jo Jeong-ho's call. Yo-han received a call from his father, Pastor Kim.

Even then, the two were in the same place.

Eun-jeong let out a long sigh and asked Yo-han.

"......This is probably because of us, right?"

It was phrased as a question, but she was really seeking confirmation. Yo-han answered with a bitter expression.

"Probably. It seems we've made Onik worry too."

Yo-han had not been able to give the lonely child in this aging village as much attention as before. Still, he knew the child's daily life as well as the back of his hand.

Even Yo-han could think of no other reason.

Whatever Onik's new worry was, it had to be connected somehow to the two people he cared for most apart from his grandfather.

The simplest possibility was that the child's unease came from feeling left out.

Perhaps he feared that, as his close hyung and precious teacher grew closer, he was slowly being pushed beyond the edge of their attention.

But...

‘That doesn't seem right.’

Yo-han and Eun-jeong both had the same thought, and both shook their heads inwardly.

If Onik were the sort of child to have that anxiety, he would not have tried to bring them together in the first place.

At the very least, signs of that anxiety should have appeared much earlier.

Eun-jeong had received formal teacher training, and Yo-han had done educational volunteer work with children in Africa. They both knew well that children's jealousy and anxiety were far more intense than adults superficially realized, and that children showed those feelings more plainly and directly than adults did.

But Onik, who had formerly been the strongest elementary school student in the province, was very different from ordinary children.

Yo-han and Eun-jeong knew that Onik was far deeper than he looked.

Eun-jeong asked Yo-han again.

"Surely Onik doesn't know everything that's going on, does he?"

"Well, I don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know......? Did you tell him, Yo-han?"

"Of course not! It's only that Onik has said a few things lately that have been bothering me. I didn't think much of them when I heard them, but looking back now, they bother me......"

"What things?"

"Well, he said that he supports me, not the Village Youth Association President...... And that the Village Youth Association President has been going around badmouthing me, so he thought I should know...... Then, um, then......"

"And? What else?"

"Th-that he thought it would be better if I married Teacher soon......"

"......Ah."

Yo-han blushed first, and Eun-jeong was soon overcome with embarrassment.

Whenever Onik supported Yo-han before, the child's imaginary rival had always been the public service doctor, considered the best potential husband in town.

This winter, that had suddenly changed to the Village Youth Association President. That alone should have made Yo-han realize something was strange much earlier.

Yo-han slapped his forehead.

‘I was far too distracted. How could I only notice now?’

Much of it was because his mind had been completely consumed by his lover's difficult circumstances and the disgusting behavior of the fifty-six-year-old stalker.

"What should we do?"

At his lover's question, Yo-han replied.

"Let's think it through together."

Before the two could do anything, though, a thunderbolt fell upon the Village Youth Association President.

Footnotes:

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