Later. Rangii was moping as she half-heartedly ate. Normally she’d always be stuck to my side, but now she was keeping far from me. Was that all? Her tail was down and she kept her head lowered, indicating with her whole body that Rangii was unhappy. Saehee tried to get her to eat, but Rangii just shook her head. And after seeing that, Saehee put down the chopsticks with a loud clack and glared at me.
That glare was beyond anything Chii could do, a look that only a ghost who could kill with a look could deliver. Dinner had become a warlike affair, but Baduk seemed unaware of this as she ate animatedly with her hands as usual. I was jealous. I wish I was as immune to these things as her.
Saehee was also directing her deadly glare at Chii, who appeared unaffected by Saehee as she continued to eat. But the hair above her ears remained perfectly static, and her hands were shaking so much that more food was falling on to her lap than into her mouth. She was trying not to show her fear, but her efforts were pointless.
“Now.Then.I.Shall.Clear.The.Table.”
We weren’t even half way done through dinner, but Saehee stood up. Chii, who was sitting next to Saehee, flinched as if she received an electric shock. And not only Chii, but even Baduk was so surprised that she dropped the bone that she was eating, completing the atmosphere of terror in the room. And me? I was keeping my eyes down. Because I’d die if I looked up.
And Rangii, the one sitting in the middle and the only one who could calm Saehee down…kept up her melancholic silence.
This couldn’t go on. I couldn’t stand it any more. Saehee’s behavior was one thing, but I didn’t like that Rangii was acting so gloomy. No, it hurt my heart. It stung a little, right here. Because the biggest fault lied with me, for yelling at her.
While Saehee was in the kitchen to drop off the dishes, I tapped Chii’s hand.
“…?!”
Chii stared at me with a silent scream. I gestured to the outside of the room and got up first. I took a deep breath once I got outside. Phew. I thought I was going to die.
After we made a bit more distance from the master bedroom, I spoke to Chii who was following behind me.
“What’re you going to do?”
“This isn’t my fault. Big brother need only act cute to the Tiger-nim to lighten her mood.”
“If acting cute were enough, then I already tried it.”
Chii frowned and covered her eyes with her hands.
“Please do it when I’m not looking. I might go blind if I see.”
“I’m not in the mood for jokes.”
“Big brother, you’re the one who tricked the Tiger-nim with your honeyed words. Please do as you see fit.”
“I’m telling you because I can’t do it alone.”
“What do you mean you can’t? It’s clear to me that hitting on the butt would make everything nice and peachy.”
Chii stuck her tongue at me.
“Why are you so against hitting the Tiger-nim when you hit me so mercilessly?”
“It’s obvious. Rangii hasn’t done anything wrong. If Rangii does something bad, then I’ll hit her no matter what anybody else says. The same goes for you.”
After I said that, Chii gave a childlike smile. As she swayed her head from side to side, her smile became that of an evil demon. For some reason, I got the chills.
“Is that so? I understand, big brother.”
Chii left after mysteriously saying that. For some reason, I got a bad feeling. And as a rule, feelings like those aren’t typically wrong.
A little later.
Slam!
She slammed the door open as if planning on being guilty of a total of three counts of destruction of property, and ran into the courtyard. Her earlier melancholy was nowhere to be found as her eyes were shining like the north star and her tail was wagging like a flag on a windy day. Yeah. Rangii looked best like this. A real Rangii-like look…this may be, but why was Rangii looking at me like a falcon looking at prey?
“Sunghoon!”
As I hesitated over whether to avoid her or not, Rangii shouted my name.
“I will do bad things!”
“…What’re you saying?”
Why’d she say she’d do bad things all of a sudden? And why was she saying that to me? I looked around for someone to explain what was going on, and behind Rangii I saw Chii hiding her laughter behind her hand.
Ah.
That was when I realized why Rangii said that. This brat, she was planning on doing bad things to intentionally get me to hit her. I couldn’t help but sigh.
Did you contract a disease where you’ll die if you don’t get hit on the butt?
“Rangii.”
First, I should try and stop her. Next would be punishing Chii.
“I won’t answer! Because it’s bad to ignore you even when I heard you!”
Rangii proudly stuck out her chest, and I spoke in a voice lower than normal so that my words had more weight.
“I hate kids who do bad things.”
“…!?”
She stood up straight as if struck by lightning and looked shock, that simple-minded brat. She hadn’t even thought of that.
“But Rangii’s a good girl, so you won’t do bad things, right?”
“U-Unyaaa…”
“I like good kids.”
Rangii was confused as she waved her hands around, clearly unsure of what to do. It was as if smoke was going to rise from her head.
“B-But if I don’t, then Sunghoon, just to Kkachi, so if you didn’t like me…huweeeeh.”
Now her eyes were moving frantically while she shook her head. I was about to tell Rangii to come over to me because I was worried she might collapse if I didn’t stop her, but Chii, who was standing behind Rangii until now, came up to Rangii and whispered something in her ear. After hearing that, Rangii suddenly went back to normal and looked at me with even more serious eyes.
“You won’t trick me! I know! I know that no matter what I do, Sunghoon will never hate me!”
Hoo. That was what I wanted to tell you back when you were so worried. But, Chii. Do you really want to be punished that badly? I mean, for telling Rangii such a useless fact. When I’m done, you’re dead.
I scratched my head and asked Rangii something as she, in a state of excitement, tried to think of something bad to do.
“Well, that’s true. But do you know this as well?”
“Huweh?”
Rangii made a question mark with her hair.
“I don’t pet the heads of bad kids.”
“!!”
It must have been my imagination when I saw lightning strike Rangii and a dark shadow being cast over her back.
“And not only that, but if Rangii becomes a bad kid then I won’t sleep with you, I won’t hug you, I won’t kiss your cheek, I won’t hold your hand, and I won’t eat with you.”
“I-I don’t care! E-Even so, I’ll become a bad child!”
Hoo? This brat really made up her mind. But I had something else to say.
“Then say, ‘Sunghoon is a bastard.’ If you’re a bad kid, then you should be able to say that, right?”
Normally I would’ve used a more choice word, but there was no way I could tell Rangii to say a swear word.
“…Unyak?”
“C’mon, spit it out. Sunghoon is a bastard.”
“Su-Su-Sung, unya, hoon, uuuu, Sunghoon is-is a…”
Rangii spit those words out as if each one pained her, then,
“I can’t do iiiiit!!”
She finally shouted that as if bursting into tears and ran to nuzzle into my chest. She climbed up my t-shirt and lowered her head while wrapping her arms around my waist and rubbing her cheek on my belly. Hey, you’re stretching my shirt.
“Sorry, I’m sorry! I won’t ever do anything bad! I’ll be, I’ll be a good kid so don’t make me say such scary things! Rangii isn’t bad! Rangii’d a good kid!! Uwaaaaaah.”
Heh, just as planned. But she changed her speech style again. (tn: Rangii normally speaks in an antiquated form of Korean but her last few sentences were in normal Korean.)
“Yeah. Okay.”
I patted Rangii’s head and stuck my tongue out at Chii who was watching.
“Awoooo!”
She frowned angrily. Ha! You’ve still got a way to go. Before you can manipulate Rangii better than me!
…What in the world was I thinking so proudly?
Okay, now was the time to punish Chii for coaxing Rangii on this road to badness.
“There, there. Everything’s okay now. But why did our good little Rangii say something like that all of a sudden?”
I spoke softly and tenderly like a kindergarten teacher to Rangii, rubbing her back as I searched for an answer from Rangii. Hey, you little phantom brat. Now doesn’t seem like the time for you to act like you’re about to throw up?
Rangii looked up from my t-shirt and spoke with her eyes full of tears.
“Kkachi said that you’d hit my butt if I did bad things. So that’s what I thought for a bit. I’m sorry. I won’t ever think that again.”
Her speech style went back to normal, maybe because she calmed down.
“Yeah. Then that’s fine. Thank you for speaking honestly, Rangii.”
I tapped Rangii on the butt to signal to her that she did a good thing.
“…Unya?”
Rangii’s ears pricked up and she looked surprised.
“What’s wrong?”
Rangii lowered her head, then,
“Ah…so that’s what it was. The important thing wasn’t that. It wasn’t that!”
She said something I didn’t understand and was so happy that it seemed like she was going to start jumping in joy. No, she really was jumping in joy. Well, I guess this is basically her routine. That was almost a given, considering Rangii could get a gold medal in the olympics in being childlike and innocent. More importantly, I had to punish Chii first. Because she dared to make Rangii cry. But there’s someone more suited than me in times like this.
I called out the name of the one who was always watching.
“Saehee.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
Saehee silently appeared next to me in a ghost-like manner, and I sentenced Chii to death.
“Would you mind punishing Chii for me?”
“Understood.”
“Awooo! Why do you always have to play so unfairly, big brother?!”
Chii grit her teeth and shouted at me, perhaps not having thought that I would call for Saehee. How the heck is that unfair? It’s only natural to ask for help from an expert when you can’t do something yourself.
“I’ll leave it to you.”
“Of course. Though it does not bother me if the Young Master is becoming a sadist, but I think that Kkachi-nim deserves a suitable punishment for attempting to turn Master into a masochist.”
Saehee said some nonsense while looking at Chii. Based on how Chii’s face paled, I could imagine what Saehee’s expression was like.
Don’t worry, Chii. I promised we wouldn’t kill you, didn’t I?
“Y-You may have gotten me this time, but I’ll get you next time! Just you wait for next time!!”
She was angrily shouting a third rate bad guy’s cliched exit line, but hey. If you say something like that while your legs are shaking like crazy, it’s only funny. No, right now she might even be pitiful?
“Please come this way for a bit, Kkachi-nim.”
“P-Please let go of me! I’ll go by myself!”
Chii shook off Saehee’s hand and walked unfalteringly behind Saehee. She may be walking on her own two feet now, but I wonder why I feel like she’ll be crawling on all fours when Saehee’s done with her? (tn: There’s a pun here. “Her own” is spelled the same in Korean as “four”)
Okay, now that everything’s been settled, I guess I should put the now for whatever reason happy Rangii to bed? It’s slowly starting to get darker, so Rangii’s bed time is getting closer.
“Then, Rangii.”
“Yeah! What’s wrong, Sunghoon whom I love ever so much?”
As usual, she was a consistently lovely kid who added weird things to my name.
“Let’s go to bed.”
“Okay! Then before we sleep, let’s…”
I had a feeling about what she’d say, so I cut her off.
“You can bathe by yourself, right?”
Rangii gave a cute “Unyak!” after I said that and looked up at me. She was looking at me with eyes that were plead to me stronger than a thousand words could. But though I’d like to give her everything she desired, doing that wouldn’t be good for her education. I felt a slight pain in my conscience, but I spoke firmly.
“No.”
“Unya…”
Don’t look at me like I’m so heartless. I’m doing this all for your sake. If I don’t have you develop the habit of bathing by yourself, it’ll be troublesome later. Not for others, but for me. Admittedly, I think it’s already late for this, but there’s that famous saying that you’re only too late if you say you’re too late. (tn: A reference to an episode from a South Korean television program, Infinite Challenge.)
…But I think it was used for something else?
“Okay. Then I’ll be right back.”
Rangii removed herself from my chest and trotted towards the bathroom. Then I guess I should wash myself as well?
…But what did she mean, she’ll be right back?
That meant she was planning on invading into my room. She was in my room, smiling with her face nice and clean after washing up, and she said,
“I’m going to sleep here tonight!”
And to Rangii, I said,
“No.”
And it was tougher than I thought to say that.
“Why not? I didn’t do anything bad today! So isn’t it okay for me to sleep with you?”
“I can’t tell if you’re smart or dumb.”
Or maybe it’s just that you have the instincts of a wild animal. I wasn’t able to immediately say no after you said that. And as she pressed firmly on my weak point, she tilted her head to the side, thought about something, then poked me on the heart. Ah, she’s so cute, that brat. So why can’t you be cute in the normal sense? Tch, I didn’t have a choice. I needed to keep what I said. She bobbed her head this way and that, and I didn’t make this decision because I thought she was cute.
I lifted the blanket a little. And then Rangii was about to take off her shirt like it was perfectly natural…
“Wait.”
Her hands that had gone up to her chest went back down.
“What’s wrong?”
“Why’re you taking off your clothes?”
Rangii avoided my eyes as she spoke.
“Saehee said sleeping naked is…”
“The real reason.”
Look at you, trying to trick me.
“Uu—. I really like sleeping while naked and hugging you.”
“…Tell Saehee to give you pajamas.”
Rangii made a question mark with her hair.
“What are pajamas?”
Come to think of it, I’ve never seen her wear pajamas before. I’ve only ever seen her sleep in her regular clothes or naked. Well, it wasn’t a big deal for her to go to sleep with what she has on right now, but this seemed like a good chance to teach her about pajamas.
“It’s what you wear when you’re going to sleep for a long time. Saehee will know what they are and give them to you.”
Rangii looked at me and spoke cautiously.
“Uu—. I don’t want to wear that. Can’t I just sleep with my clothes off? I’d rather do that.”
“I’ll kick you out.”
This was the line that I absolutely would not back down from. Though that line’s already been erased multiple times without my intention, that didn’t matter. Because if the line’s erased, then all I have to do is draw it again.
“Okay.”
She was obviously disappointed, but fortunately, Rangii listened to me.
A bit later, Rangii came in wearing pajamas…no. Rangii came in wearing a white button-down shirt, not pajamas. The kind of shirt you wear with a suit. The men’s shirt, too big for her, fell to her shoulders and fluctuated about her chest, nearly exposing it. My mouth dropped open at Rangii’s shocking appearance as she held up the drooping shirt.
“…Did Saehee give you that?”
“She said it was fine to wear this.”
I shouldn’t get mad. This wasn’t something to get mad at Rangii for. Tomorrow. Tomrrow, I’ll grab Saehee by the neck and shake her back and forth. No, there was no need for that. Yeah. It didn’t bother me what Rangii wears. What did it matter to me? Rangii is Rangii. I didn’t care at all. She may look three times cuter and ten times lovelier, but that wasn’t a problem.
But I lamented this terrible situation.
Shit! A dress shirt! Naked dress shirt! The number one thing that I want Narae to wear! It looked cute on Rangii, but I wanted the first time I saw someone in a naked dress shirt to be someone sexy like Narae! Uwaaaagh!
“…What’s wrong?”
“…It’s nothing.”
What did I just do in front of a little kid? I regained control over my mind and lifted the blanket a little. Rangii zipped towards the covers and crawled by my side.
“I’m turning off the lights.”
“Ah, but before that.”
“Hm?”
As I was about to turn off the lights, I waited for Rangii to finish what she was saying.
“Saehee gave me this and told me to ask you to read this to me.”
Rangii used her tail to give me a book. Huh? But there was nothing on her tail just a moment ago?
“Where’d that come from?”
“Ah, it’s magic! Even I can do this much, ehem!”
She lifted her chin and acted all proud. It seemed like the same kind of magic that Saehee uses when she takes something out of her sleeve. I was surprised to find out that Rangii could use that magic as well.
The book Rangii gave me was a children’s fairy tale. Though it seemed thick for a children’s book. It was The Grateful Magpie. A story that everyone (in South Korea) knows.
“What kind of story is it?”
A story that everyone besides Rangii knows.
Does Saehee now want to give Rangii a proper education? It’s a little, no, very late, but if not now, then when? Though after three or four thousand years, to think that that education could do even a lick of help…sorry. I can’t even imagine it.
“Then I’ll read it for you.”
Rangii went right up next to me and propped her body up with her arms, holding her chin up with her hands. But why is your head leaning on my shoulder when you’re doing that? And also, hey! Hey, damn it! If you turn your head, then I can see everything because the shirt’s too big! It’s okay right now because you’re young, but…no, it should be okay later as well. What am I even thinking? Something like that will never happen. I concentrated on reading to keep my eyes off Rangii.
“Once upon a time, 457 years ago, although they lacked even a spec of spiritual power, there lived a magpie phantom couple that accepted their reality and subsisted by living in a sewer.”
I immediately closed the book. What the heck is this? Something’s off. The year is too specific and the wording doesn’t belong in a fairy tale, but most important is that it says magpie phantom. Doesn’t it normally say they’re regular magpies?
“What’s wrong?”
But Rangii found my suddenly shutting the book stranger than the book’s contents.
“…It’s nothing.”
Yeah. Rangii’s a phantom, too. So I should think of it as an old fairy tale adapted for young phantoms.
Besides the magpies and the snakes being changed into phantoms, there should be nothing else different from the story that I know. A passing scholar saved a baby magpie phantom whose life was being threatened by a snake phantom.
…I probably shouldn’t be bothered by the fact that the scholar killed the snake phantom with a bow and arrow. The story’s from a long time ago, and there was nothing that our ancient scholars couldn’t do. Well, regardless, as night approached, the scholar took shelter in a cabin only inhabited by a woman and a child. But the woman was actually the wife of the snake phantom the scholar had killed earlier that day! The scholar, now in terrible peril, somehow got the snake phantom who was about to get her revenge to agree to a promise. The promise was that if the bell at the abandoned temple rang before the sun rose, then the snake phantom would spare his life. And the grateful magpie couple who heard this sacrificed their own lives to to ring the bell and save the scholar who rescued their child. The scholar was narrowly spared death, and although she was furious, the snake still kept her promise. Finding it strange that the bell at the abandoned temple rang, the scholar went to the temple when the sun began to rise. And there he found…
“Sno—ore.”
An asleep Rangii. No, that wasn’t it.
I accidentally mixed up my words as I was about to say what the scholar found because of Rangii’s deep breathing. She was sleeping well even with her face buried in her pillow. After all, these fairy tales are supposed to sound like fairy tales to children. I adjusted her position so that she could sleep comfortably. I was about to close the book so that I could sleep as well, but something was weird. The story was almost over, but there were more pages left than there should have been. Why is that? Curiosity drove me to continue reading.
Unlike what I expected, the story ended the same as the one I knew. But on the next page, it said “Things to think about” in large text and the following was written below it.
1. No matter how weak the magpie couple is, would simply ringing the bell really cause them to lose their lives?
2. Would the snake really have given up on her revenge?
3. What could have happened to the baby magpie?
…This fairy tale’s really asking a lot from these kids. The answers for this section were way too dark. Thank goodness Rangii fell asleep before we got to this part. Saehee. Isn’t it too early to give something like this to Rangii?
My thoughts after reading those three questions disappeared like phantasms when I read what came after them.
[Please submit a 20 page response to all of these questions on the following lined paper by tomorrow morning, Young Master. From Saehee]
The pages behind that were filled with lined paper. I closed the book. On the back, it said Author: Kang Saehee. For the publisher, it said Rangii’s Recommendation. I sighed, turned off the lights, and lay down. Saehee’s the kind of person who spares no effort, time, emotion, or money in bullying others.
But I understood why Saehee gave this book to Rangii. This book was intended for me, not Rangii.
In order to help me.
Ah…I knew it. Saehee’s plotting…no, her thoughts run deep.
I continued to mull over the answers to the hints Saehee gave me until I fell asleep. What bothered me most was the last question.
What could have happened to the baby magpie?
Was it because of that? That night, Chii showed up in my dream.
In my dream, she covering her mouth and giggling like a kid.