It was a refreshing spring day.
The torn traditional paper door opened wide with a creaking sound. Sitting on an old thatched roof, the mountain birds, which were busily grooming themselves, made a long run. After opening the door, the child looked around the yard, then sat down on the floor. There was still a trace of sleep on his little face. The child blinked his dull eyes and chased away the afterglow of sleep.
On a stone, the shoes the child had taken off were neatly laid out. The child put on his shoes and ran out of the yard. As if looking for someone, the child looked around the perimeter and stopped in front of a beautiful pine tree. The child spread his arms wide and hugged a tree the size of his house.
“Hungry.”
The child muttered as he put his cheek to the tree.
“I am hungry.”
No matter how long he waited, no answer came. The child wriggled his eyebrows, then shook the tree in his arms with all his might. Then, a pine cone landed on the top of the child’s head.
“Aish!”
As the child rubbed the crown of his head, a soft voice broke from the trees.
“Exactly, you shouldn’t bother the tree.”
“You dropped it!”
“Uh huh, you’re so cheeky, talking back to your master.”
“Oh ho, you’re so cheeky, talking to your master.”
The man spoke in a stern tone, but the child’s eyelids fluttered and mimicked the man’s words. He was full of playfulness in his deliberately ridiculous imitation. The man, perched on a branch as thick as a rafter, chuckled softly.
“A bad-tempered child.”
The child knew the man well. He never once seriously rebuked him. No matter what he said or how irritated he was, he always laughed. He said he was his master, but the man always treated him as an equal. Sometimes it was like a close friend rather than a master and disciple.
“Do you want to eat something?”
The child rolled his eyes at the man’s friendly question.
“Meat.”
The man jumped silently from the tree. Although he jumped from quite a height, he did not raise a speck of dust on the ground.
“Meat as soon as you wake up?”
“Mhm. Meat soup and rice.”
The child has gained quite a bit of weight since he went out with the man. Unlike when he was living like a stray dog in the village, the child had grown up quickly. If he was just a child back then, now if he was a boy he looked like a boy and if he was a child he looked like a child.
The man took the child, who was almost a boy, and taught him the things he needed to live. His life had been unstable because he moved from house to house from time to time, but with the man he was fine. He always slept under a roof and never skipped a meal.
The child and the man traveled all over the country. This time they nested in an old thatched house on the hillside, and they unpacked their things last night. It was full of dust because it was a house that had been left untouched for a long time. Thanks to that, they went to bed exhausted from sweeping and polishing the house until late at night. Now that they had a house to stay in for the time being, they had to fill their hungry stomachs.
“Then let’s go to the market and see. While we’re there, let’s buy some paper doors.”
The man and the child walked side by side on a mountain path to the village. After staying in a remote house in the mountains, they entered the bustling main street and felt the liveliness of the people. The eyes of the child who was looking around the stalls were excited. The sound of bargaining, the sound of grabbing footsteps saying that a good product has been found, the singing of drunken people who are overjoyed… It was literally a marketplace.
The man who was walking through the crowd stopped at some point. He couldn’t see the child who was supposed to be by his side. The man looked around. Fortunately, the child was standing not far away. The child stood with his mouth open in front of a stall lined with well-dried beef jerky. He may have grown up a lot, but he was still a child. The man smiled and called the child. In the middle of the chatter, the child managed to recognize the man’s voice and turned his head.
It was then. The child fell backwards out of nowhere.
“Goodness, are you hurt?”
The man rushed over and picked the child up. He brushed his palms, rubbing his face to see if the child was hurt. The skin was slightly scraped, but luckily he didn’t bleed.
“Someone pulled me from behind.”
“Pulled you?”
The child nodded his head. Just as he was about to move forward, he was suddenly pulled by an unknown force from behind. He glanced back to check on the bag he was carrying, but it was unharmed to the naked eye. The man held out his palm.
“Give it to me.”
“What?”
“Bag.”
The child removed the bag from his shoulder and handed it to the man. The man silently accepted the bag, then untied his straps and slipped his hand into his luggage. The man who had been rummaging his hand around as if searching for something raised the corner of his mouth subtly.
“Oh my…”
“Why?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The child asked curiously at the confused man’s expression. Without replying, the man took out a pouch from the bag.
“Ft… ?”
Ktf qbemt, ktlmt rtbeiv tjnf yffc oliifv klat mblcr, kjr rilw fnfc ja j uijcmf. Ktf mtliv klvfcfv tlr fsfr jcv ugjyyfv atf qbemt. Pa kjr atf rjwf. Rb wjaafg tbk wemt tf xcfjvfv la, atf mbcafcar bo atf qbemt kfgf fzmfrrlnfis kfjx.
“Qtja! Qtfgf vlv jii atlr ub!”
The startled child screamed. No way! The person he bumped into earlier… The child rolled up his sleeves and looked around him. He pouted and was filled with anger.
“No, have you ever seen such a fucker?”
“…”
“What about the limbs? We should just slice the meat and chop them off, all the way to the bone…”
“Uh huh. Stop…”
Passers-by glanced at the child with surprised eyes. As the harsh words came out like a rapid-fire cannon, his man hurriedly raised his hand and pulled his child’s nose. In an instant, the tip of his child’s nose, which had risen sharply, distorted. The child who had been grinding his teeth raised his eyes.
“What’s the point of catching a human. If it was a human who had done it, the entire pouch would have disappeared.”
“Ah.”
The child shut his mouth. Come to think of it, it was true. The man tore off the pouch and checked the contents. All that was left was a couple coins. The man clicked his tongue.
“It seems that there was a money ghost attached to the bag.”
“A money ghost?”
“Yes. He’s a mischievous ghost who likes old coins, but he seems to have woken up after sleeping in the pouch and smelling money everywhere.”
“Then what do you do?”
The money ghost liked to disguise itself as a coin, and sleep among real coins. The older the coins, the more the money ghost was attracted. Then, when they smell the older coins, they move toward it excitedly. It didn’t cause any particular harm to humans, but when moving to another coin, he left with a bunch of coins he liked, and there were often cases where one woke up overnight and got their money stolen. Of course, the owner of the coins that the money ghost moved to would have an unexpected windfall with thick pockets out of nowhere.
“It’s a mistake that I didn’t check in advance, what should we do? It is difficult to catch money ghosts because they have no presence.”
The child looked at the two coins left in his hand with a sullen expression. On the other hand, the man was calm. To the child’s frustration, he made a series of suggestions.
“So you should put a bag of clean salt in the jar where you keep your money. Since the malicious spirits are repelled by salt, the money spirit will also go away. Or, there is a countermeasure to pour all the coins on a straw mat and whip them with a tender oak branch. If you hit the coins evenly with the branches, the money ghost in disguise will be beaten and woken up.”
“So?”
“Hmm?”
“So, what about meat soup?”
“…”
The man stroked his chin with a puzzled expression.
“It seems that today is not the day. Not a chance with two coins.”
The man and the child wandered all over the country, but their pockets were generally plentiful. While moving around the villages, the man received his private commission and earned income in return, which was quite lucrative. These were the kinds of jobs that only a gwijae could solve.
The man put on his hat and went from door to door knocking. He then unravelled the history of the house, something that no one but the owner would ever know. Usually, it was a story of a series of bad things suddenly happening in the house, of having mysterious dreams that kept repeating, or of getting sick after moving the house. After solving the problem like that, rumours were bound to spread. Rumours that a mysterious person wearing a black long robe appeared. Then, on days when the rumour reached the man’s ears, he would leave the village without any regrets.
That’s how he made his money. In an instant, it was gone because of a trivial miscellaneous ghost.
“What can we do.”
The man rolled his eyes around. It’s uncertain to get work right now, and with just two coins…
“Let alone meat soup, it would be difficult to even eat a meal…”
At the man’s words, the child’s shoulders drooped. The man looked at the two coins in the palm of his hand, and he seemed to be pondering something, and he smiled slightly. It looked like he had a good idea. The man lifted his head and looked around, as if he was looking for something, and then he patted the child on the shoulder.
“Wait a minute.”
Leaving behind the wide-eyed child, the man straightened the crooked hat. With a flutter of the hem of his long black robe, he hurried his steps somewhere. Moments later, the man appeared with a large pouch in his hand. It seemed that he had been away for a while to buy this. Was this food? What did he buy? As the curious child tiptoed, the tall man bent down on his knees and showed him the contents of the pouch.
“What’s this?”
“I plan to buy meat soup for my disciple with this.”
The man neatly held out his four finely chiselled pieces of wood.
“This is called yut.”
At the bewildered child’s expression, the man smiled softly.
“On New Year’s Day, we throw these yut sticks and play. Have you ever tried it?”
“How could I? In the meantime, I was busy getting screwed over and beaten up here and there.”
“…”
There was no point in asking. The man awkwardly rubbed his chin.
“Did you buy this with the two remaining coins?”
“Yes, I’ll make up for the money with this.”
“How? Are you going to make money playing with this?”
The child blinked.
“Well, unfortunately, I am not good at that. But I’m good at something else?”
“What?”
“When you throw a yut, and you can tell fortunes according to the outcome of your hand.”
“Are you going to tell fortunes with this?”
“Yes.”
He looked around as the man laughed.
“You set up the board in a place with a good view for passers-by to play. To play, you throw the yuk three times to see the result, and then you interpret fortune from the sixty four hexagrams from the I Ching book. Therefore, a total of sixty four outcomes are obtained by playing yut.”
“Sixty four? Do you know all that?”
“Then, I’ve been reading the book to the point of exhaustion.”
The child widened his eyes. The man always enjoyed reading books, so he had a good understanding of his sentences. He thought he knew a lot, but how could it be that he memorised all sixty-four hexagrams? As the child admired, the man closed his eyes and laughed. Then he whispered in a low voice.
“Actually, I only know about fifteen.”
“…”
Are you kidding?
“Then what about the rest?”
“I told you, I don’t know the rest.”
“But then how will you play yut?”
“I told you, I can use my talent.”
The man led the child to the corner of an empty stall. He then spread his bag on the floor and handed the child a yut stick. As the child stood dumbfounded, the man gestured to him.
“Throw it.”
The child tossed the yut he was holding onto the bag. Clatter clatter. It was nice to hear the sound of the pieces of wood hitting each other. The man, who had been looking down at the hand, gestured again. The child threw yut two more times.
“See. Do, do, gae. A ‘dodogae’ came out. Speaking of ‘dodogae’… ”
“‘Dodogae’. Do you know?”
The man, lost in thought for a moment, nodded his head.
“Rat enters granary (鼠入倉中). It means that the rat entered the barn, which means that wealth is escaping.”
“…”
“Unfortunately, it’s correct.”
The money ghost entered the pouch. The child, who had forgotten what the money ghost had done for a moment, soon looked wistful. If only he knew this earlier… To the child who had become pensive, the man smiled and picked up another yut and handed it to him, and the child who received it lightly threw it onto the bag.
“Now, this time. Do, geol, gae. It’s ‘dogeolgae’.”
“‘Dogeolgae’. Do you know this too?”
“Hungry man gets food (飢者得食). It means that the hungry get food. Hmmm, this is needless to say. I guess we’ll be eating meat soup?”
The boy’s eyes lit up at the man’s words. At first, the child, who was confused, was immersed in yut before he knew it. When the gwijae plays yut, it seems to be a perfect fit. The man picked up the yut again. After handing the yut to the child, he motioned for him to throw it.
“Do, mo, geol.”
“Domogeol, domogeol, domogeol…”
Something was a little strange. The child raised his eyes and looked at the man.
“Is this how it’s supposed to be?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why do they all start with ‘do’?”
“Who knows. Isn’t that a coincidence in your hands?”
“What does this mean?”
The man stifled a laugh.
“Cold man gets clothed (寒者得衣). It means that those who are cold will get clothes, and it also means that they will overcome difficulties with the help of a precious person. Hmm, since I am the only one who has a precious relationship with my disciple, it means that the master earns money to provide for the disciple’s meals.”
“…”
The child silently picked up the scattered pieces of yut on top of the bag. Then, as if savoring something, he stood with his eyes closed, holding a yut. After a while, the child who opened his eyes suddenly slapped it on the ground. Every time it went through the man’s hand, the child picked up and threw this stick, which was not a ‘do’, but ‘mo’.
“Scammer.”
“What do you mean scammer. Didn’t I tell you earlier? Just a trade that made use of my talent.”
“You said you only knew 15 of them, but three times it was thrown, and you know what they all meant.”
The child narrowed his eyes.
The man chuckled and picked up the yut thrown by the child. The child was intelligent and quick-witted, and always did not disappoint the man. In fact, the man knew only the fortunes beginning with ‘do’. So, after his deliberation, he put a feeble spiritual energy whenever the man handed the yut stick to the child. Every time the yut was thrown, the spiritual energy caused the yut sticks to turn over on their own, just as he had pre-arranged.
“Are you offended?”
“Of course. I expected all of that fortune-telling to be real.”
“Well, you never know.”
With that, the child turned away and packed up the bag. There was a lot of sharpness in the eyes that seemed to have a bad temper. Seeing the child’s unusual expression, the man adjusted his hat and laughed embarrassedly.
“I’ll use my talents to make sure your fortune is correct.”
The child picked up the bag and took the lead.
“You will definitely eat the meat soup.”
The child pretended not to hear and left. The street was overflowing with people and ghosts, so the man was worried about letting him go alone. What’s with the sulking? It was just a prank. The man who couldn’t understand the child’s heart followed him with his long legs.
“A heartless disciple.”
The man raised his laugh and his young voice.
“Gyeom-ah!”
‘Gyeom-ah!’
‘Jaegyeom-ah!’
“Jaegyeom-ah!”
Startled, Jaegyeom jerked and raised his head.
“Uh?”
“The homeroom teacher told you to come to the teachers’ office.”
There was an unfamiliar face standing in front of him.
“Ahh. Uh…”
After those words, the child grabbed his bag and left the classroom. Jaegyeom looked around with a bewildered face. Seventh period was geography, and he must have been in class… he fell asleep while resting on his chin. It seemed that classes had already ended and the bell had rung. The classroom was cluttered with students who stayed after school to study, students cleaning the classroom, and students going home.
Jaegyeom, who had been dazed for a while, rubbed his wrist. His wrists throbbed from holding his chin for so long. Jaegyeom stood up after a while and looked at an empty chair inadvertently. It was Cho Youngwoo’s seat. He must have gone home first. Well, since he took out his anger on him for nothing…
“…”
So, did he end up eating the meat soup after all?
Jaegyeom staggered his way through the hallway overflowing with people.
Thank you for the hard work translator! 🧡🧡
Is that his childhood flashback?? I wonder who the man is..
It was “Domogeol” then and it is ” do mogeol” now. Poor Jaegyeom, his first day out interacting with other people and it already brings out memories…