WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Incarnation of the Malevolent Star ◈
Chapter 18: Part 1 - Whispers of the Dark Brother (18)
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The firestorm began with a phone call between Eun-jeong and Jo Jeong-ho.
Worried about his grandson, the old man made a request of the teacher. He said he would be truly grateful if she could take Onik out again, as she had before, and gently sound him out.
The teacher answered with deep regret.
“I want to do that more than anything, but I don't think I can for a while. Something has happened, and I can't freely go out anymore. I'm sorry, Grandfather. I feel so sorry for Onik too......”
Until now, the stalker had tended to slip away whenever the teacher was with the lonely child.
Still, as someone responsible for protecting Onik, she could not assume the stalker would continue behaving that way.
Nor could she use a child as a shield.
If the stalker, who seemed to be growing more unhinged by the day, harmed Onik because of her, Eun-jeong would never forgive herself.
That ruled out taking Onik anywhere.
Her house was not guaranteed to be safe either, so bringing him home was no better.
Even if Yo-han were there with her, nothing would change.
Eun-jeong and Yo-han were already preparing for the possibility that the stalker might show up carrying a weapon.
How could they bring a child into such a dangerous mess?
Not even for a moment. Onik's unusual abilities did not change that.
Yet Jo Jeong-ho, who did not know the details, could not help worrying after hearing the teacher's answer.
‘Now that Onik has graduated from elementary school, does she plan to pay less attention to him? That can't be...... Onik likes Teacher Lee so much......’
He knew Eun-jeong was not that sort of person, but as Onik's guardian, he could not help thinking it.
To reassure him, Eun-jeong honestly told him that a vicious stalker was targeting her.
“How can there be such a horrible person in this world?”
Jo Jeong-ho could not contain his outrage after hearing about the teacher's situation. How could such a terrible thing happen to someone as kind as Eun-jeong?
Eun-jeong did not tell him who the stalker was. She was careful by nature and always considered the worst possible outcome.
‘There are countless cases of stalkers hurting people around their targets. If I tell Grandfather everything, he could get hurt for nothing.’
If anything happened to him, Onik would truly be alone.
Eun-jeong knew how much Onik loved his grandfather.
If the worst possibility came true, nothing she did could fill the place his grandfather had left behind.
Eun-jeong had considered all this, but there was one thing the city-born teacher had failed to take into account.
The power of the web-like network of connections unique to rural areas.
Once Jo Jeong-ho, who stood at the top of the hierarchy in this clan village, began making calls to learn more about Eun-jeong's situation, the President of the Village Youth Association's misconduct could not stay hidden for long.
Until then, the Village Youth Association President had worked hard to create secrets in a village with none.
One of the people who had helped him was the village's only legal hunter.
After receiving a call from Jo Jeong-ho asking him to look into the matter as well, the hunter thought:
‘Tch. This is going to be a disaster......’
Among the other village elders who knew Jo Jeong-ho well were many parents and relatives of active police officers.
Quite a few had received help from Jo Jeong-ho or his father, independence fighter Jo Yang-jin, during difficult times.
They were old matters, but old people did not easily forget them. Unlike the young, who lived looking toward the future, old people lived reflecting on the past.
The truth that had been hidden until now would likely reach the village's most senior elder sooner or later.
Even if he somehow avoided that likely outcome, the truth would come out once the court handed down its ruling.
The Village Youth Association President was loudly insisting there was no chance of that happening.
But as a friend who had known him for years, the hunter could recognize his bluff.
‘If I get on Onik's and the old man's bad side, it'll be a real problem for me. If the truth is going to come out anyway, wouldn't it be better to earn some points while I have the chance?’
To the legal hunter, who committed plenty of illegal acts, Onik was a prospective business partner he absolutely had to team up with.
When he considered the money the extraordinary boy would earn for him in the future, age did not matter in the slightest.
But if this continued, his plan would go wrong.
He was about to earn the deep resentment of not only Onik himself, but also Jo Jeong-ho, his guardian.
‘What kind of man are you, keeping your mouth shut while your friend did something like that......? They're going to lump me in with him and tear me apart too. It's obvious.’
Already gripped by anxiety over aging and declining income, the hunter quickly rationalized his decision.
That was right. Wasn't true friendship about correcting a friend when they were headed down the wrong path, instead of staying silent?
‘Good. I'll tell on him! Faster than anyone! Before everyone else!’
Speed was important when telling on someone. That was how you earned the most points.
As a result, Jo Jeong-ho flew into a rage.
“Jo In-cheol, you wreeetch!”
It took less than an hour for the rumor the Village Youth Association President had desperately suppressed to spread through the entire village.
「Screeeech!」
After microphone feedback blared from the loudspeaker mounted high on a utility pole, the old voice of the village section leader rang across the village.
「Ah, ah. Microphone test. One-two, one-two. This is the village section leader speaking from the village hall. There is a grave matter to discuss concerning our Village Youth Association President, In-cheol, so all residents are asked to gather at the hall immediately. I repeat. There is a grave matter to discuss concerning our Village Youth Association President, In-cheol......」
They called it a matter for discussion, but there was no real discussion to be had. The Village Youth Association President was plainly in the wrong.
They had only gathered so they could hear what the person involved had to say.
“What's wrong with one person liking another?”
Realizing things had already gone badly wrong, the Village Youth Association President complained before the village elders.
“Just because a woman shows she doesn't like a man, does that mean he has to immediately give up? Just because she likes another man more, does that mean he should simply give up? How many people would ever be able to get married if that were the case?”
“You little bastard, and you still say that?”
“To be honest, I'm deeply hurt! Kim Yo-han is an outsider in the end, isn't he? He's just a stranger! Even if I made a sliiight mistake, you should take my side! Don't you feel sorry for me, still living alone at this age?”
If Yo-han had truly been no more than an outsider, most of the villagers would have sided with the Village Youth Association President. In this area, what he said was common sense itself.
But public opinion among the villagers, including the elders, was not kind to him.
“Look at the way that brat talks. Who raised him like that? Huh? He holds his head high in front of his elders, and look at those eyes, wide open and fierce. Why don't you just eat us alive?”
“How is Yo-han just a stranger......? Where are you going to find a boy as kind as him, other than Onik......?”
“You fool! If you call him a stranger, you have no shame! Once a person has no shame, they stop being a person and become a beast! It's fortunate Pastor Kim and Yo-han aren't here to hear this!”
All the slander the Village Youth Association President had worked so hard to spread was useless at that moment.
Jo Jeong-ho, who had silently listened until then, called his grandson.
“Onik!”
“Yes, Grandpa.”
“Go bring me the fire poker!”
“......”
“Now!”
Onik hesitated briefly, but then ran swiftly to fetch the fire poker and placed it in his grandfather's hand.
“Here......”
Veins and tendons stood out along Jo Jeong-ho's arm as he gripped the fire poker with all his strength.
Ever since his worthless son had practically abandoned his grandson in his care and left, Jo Jeong-ho had felt a duty to live as long as possible for Onik's sake.
Exercise was essential if he wanted to live long and healthily.
And a Vietnam War veteran's standards for exercise were far higher than those of ordinary people.
The exercises he had done in the army to build up his body before deployment had become his measure.
Even now, Jo Jeong-ho filled a huge rice bowl dating from more than half a century ago at every meal, and every morning he carried a sack of rice on his back while doing squats until his thighs burned.
That was why his lean body was densely packed with muscle. Firm muscle built through love and worry for his grandson.
(The blood of independence fighter Jo Yang-jin had not been inherited by Onik alone.)
The old man, whose body could have held its own against the current players of the world's strongest baseball team, the Lotte Giants, beat the Village Youth Association President with a furious thrashing.
Even the Village Youth Association President's impressive physique, thirty-one percent body fat, mild sarcopenia, and a solemn belly, could not withstand the merciless beating.
“Argh! Ah! Aaagh! Elder! Elder! Urgh! My bone, my bone got hit......!”
The loud thwack of wood striking flesh rang out.
While the Village Youth Association President was being beaten mercilessly like a dog marked for slaughter on the hottest day of summer, only his parents tried to stop Jo Jeong-ho.
“Oh, Uncle, hyung! I failed to raise my child properly, so hit me instead!”
“Elder Jeong-ho, please calm down! Oh dear, oh dear!”
The forms of address were a little strange, but perfectly normal in this village. In terms of clan seniority, he was an elder uncle, but their ages made them more like older and younger brothers, and they had been close since childhood.
Apart from the Village Youth Association President's parents, the other villagers stood with their hands behind their backs, leisurely watching the beating and adding their thoughts.
“Yes. Children need to be raised with beatings like that. Jo In-cheol grew up getting hit far too little.”
“Sometimes, there are children like Onik who grow up kind without being hit, aren't there?”
“Good grief, woman. Is that fool the same as Onik?”
“No, he isn't......”
“Oh, our eldest brother is still alive and well. He's still so strong.”
Unable to stop his grandfather and standing awkwardly among the elders, Onik quietly took out his phone and recorded the Village Youth Association President crying as he was beaten.
After recording for about thirty seconds, he uploaded it to the group chat with Teacher Lee and Yo-han hyung.
「Teacher. Yo-han hyung. Please look at this. But don't show it to anyone else or post it anywhere.」
He felt sorry for the Village Youth Association President, but since things had already turned out this way, Onik hoped Teacher Lee, who must have suffered so much, might at least feel less stressed after watching it.
The Village Youth Association President had done something wrong, so he would have to endure this much.
「What's this?」
「......?」
Eun-jeong and Yo-han were puzzled at first, but once they watched the video, their responses turned bewildered.
「Ah......」
「;;;;;」
「Um, Onik. I think I can guess what's happening, but shouldn't you stop your grandfather first......?」
「Elder;;;;; He's going to hurt himself like that;;;;;」
Onik felt a little troubled. He had wanted to ease Teacher Lee's stress, but it seemed he had only given her more to worry about.
‘Was that thoughtless of me?’
As Onik reflected, the old fire poker Jo Jeong-ho had been swinging snapped with a crack!
The beating had still been in full force when it broke, so the broken half spun violently through the air and flew far away.
It looked like a baseball player throwing a bat with all his strength.
“Huff, huff......”
Jo Jeong-ho dropped the remaining half of the fire poker and caught his ragged breath.
The Village Youth Association President, his eyes swimming with tears from the beating, must have thought this was his chance. He cried out miserably.
“Elder! I won't let this go! I'm going to sue you! I'll sue you!”
Then his mother, who had been sweating as she tried to stop Jo Jeong-ho, twitched an eyebrow and struck her child across the back with her palm.
“You fool! What do you mean, sue him? Are you trying to make it so your mother can't show her face anywhere? Who do you think you are, trying to sue the village's most senior elder? You shameless brat!”
“Mom! Why are you doing this too? Aren't you going to take my side?!”
“If you've done something that deserves punishment, you should be punished! And if you and Elder Jeong-ho both get taken to the police station, what about Onik? Are you trying to leave that poor child alone at home?”
“No, that's, ha, that's not what I mean......”
“Then shut your mouth and reflect on what you've done, you brat! What kind of disgrace is this, making your father and me suffer this at our age? Huh?”
The moment his mother mentioned Onik, whom he cared about too, the Village Youth Association President visibly wilted.
He still looked utterly miserable and aggrieved, but he could not voice any further complaints. He only groaned to himself.
Onik hoped this thrashing would make the Village Youth Association President reflect on his actions and stop troubling Teacher Lee.
He had also made a proper request to Mr. God, so he hoped things would come to a good end.
#
The Lunar New Year holiday passed peacefully, without incident.
The village visibly lost more vitality every year, but a holiday was still a holiday.
Homes visited by children and relatives for the first time in a while filled with warm laughter.
But a bitter air hung over the house where Onik lived alone with his grandfather. It felt as though the unseen wounds left by his father, who felt like a stranger, were still there.
As recently as the previous Lunar New Year, grandfather and grandson had spent the holiday in their own bright, happy way.
They had both made a conscious effort and considered each other to create that atmosphere, but whatever the reason, at least judging by outward appearances, it had been a warmer, gentler time than usual.
They cooked together, exchanged gifts, watched holiday specials side by side, and happily attended the clan association ancestral grave rites......
They also warmed up special dishes they had bought in advance in town and at the market before the holiday, and took trips together into town or the city......
Of course, they did the same things that year too.
But no matter how hard they tried, they could not create the same atmosphere.
The more they tried, the more clearly each saw the other's effort, and the air in the house only grew heavier.
That year's holiday was closer to those of elderly people living alone whose children had not come to visit.
After spending such a Lunar New Year, Onik watched the Village Youth Association President whenever the chance arose.
During the holiday, the Village Youth Association President had to remain in the village because of his role.
Although this village had a comparatively loose Confucian order for a clan village centered around a main lineage, it still had more communal affairs than an ordinary village.
And most of those affairs were concentrated during the holiday period.
Whether the Village Youth Association President had truly reflected on his actions could only be determined by watching him for some time after the holiday ended.
After watching for seven more days, Onik tilted his head.
‘Did he really reflect? Did my prayer work?’
Whether it was his prayer or Grandpa's harsh beating, the Village Youth Association President did not seek out the teacher after the holiday ended.
Still, it was too early to feel safe. His face, marked with bruises, remained full of simmering anger.
Whenever he happened to cross paths with Yo-han, it was easy to see the resentment boiling up inside him.
So Yo-han continued his routine of protecting Eun-jeong for the time being.
He did not know when the Village Youth Association President might turn back into a vicious stalker and seek Eun-jeong out. Yo-han also thought that if he himself stayed out of the village during the day, he might provoke the Village Youth Association President less.
(Of course, Yo-han also wanted to stay with his lover until late at night. The young couple, still new to romance, needed excuses to overcome their embarrassment.)
And so, on the eighth day after Lunar New Year.
Onik saw the Village Youth Association President loading something strange into his Porter truck.
The item he had taken from the shared village storage shed was a black, steel-core plastic trellis line used for agriculture.
‘What is that? Is there any field that needs trellising now? There shouldn't be.’
Onik had grown up in the countryside and was unusually clever.
He knew the planting seasons for all the village's main crops, when seedlings were transplanted into fields, which crops needed trellises, and everything else.
After hesitating for a moment, he decided to ask the man directly.
“Hello, mister!”
“Argh! You startled me!”
The Village Youth Association President, who had been slowly loading a single small bundle, jumped at Onik's voice behind him and fumbled. He had been startled enough to nearly fall over.
If he had not been leaning against the truck bed, he would have collapsed completely.
“Oh, it's Onik...... Goodness, you scared me.”
“Why were you so startled?”
“No, it's nothing. What is it?”
The Village Youth Association President's forehead was shining with sweat.
It did not look like sweat he had just worked up, which made Onik even more curious.
The Village Youth Association President was not especially fit, but carrying one bundle of trellis twine and loading it into a truck should not have left him drenched in sweat.
Not on such a cold day.
The steel core made it heavier than it looked, but it was still only one bundle of trellis twine.
‘Is he sick?’
Onik glanced at him again, then tilted his head and asked.
“I was wondering where you were going to use the trellis twine! It's still a long time before peppers, cucumbers, and pumpkins get planted in the fields!”
“Huh? Huh? Oh, this? Hahaha, hahaha. I just have somewhere to use it. Yeah.”
“Where are you going to use it?”
“Uh, um, right, a greenhouse in the next village! I'm fixing the greenhouse of someone I know!”
“Oh...... They don't have any trellis twine there?”
“That's right. They used all the stuff they had. Hahaha......”
“I understand! Thank you for telling me!”
“R-right. You don't need anything else?”
“No!”
“Okay. I'll be going now, then. All right?”
“Okay!”
Onik accepted the explanation for the time being.
Trellis twine was not used only to set up trellises, and the Village Youth Association President had connections not only throughout the village but all around the area.
For someone known even in town as a well-connected man, it was a plausible enough thing.
‘He must not be feeling well today.’
The man had been suffering greatly since Grandpa, in a towering rage, had given him a sound spanking.
Maybe his body was hurting because his heart was hurting.
Onik himself was strong for no good reason and had never experienced anything like that. But he knew very well that “ordinary” people like the Village Youth Association President could be that way.
Master Bowyer was a case in point, having grown physically weak from emotional suffering.
The boy took his eyes from the Porter truck as it drove away.
#
That night.
Yo-han died.
Footnotes:
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