While we were having so much fun, it became evening before we knew it. Chii helped out by cleaning the table, and I was walking across the courtyard to go to my room when I heard a sudden plop. I had initially thought that it was getting darker because the sun was setting, but while we were eating the dinner, it looked like dark clouds had settled in the sky. It was raining. Pitter-patter. The intermittent sound of rain shifted into a constant downpour. It was absolutely pouring. I stopped walking towards my room and sat down for a bit by the courtyard. The ground that had been so thoroughly baked by the mid-summer sun let off steam. The scent of petrichor rose from the earth. Man, this rain was more than welcome. It was lifting my mood as well.
A flash of light lit up the summer night sky. It was lightning. Then there was the awaited thunderclap, bo-bo-bo-boom! The thunder shook the very ground. The lightning may have struck nearby because the sound was deafening.
I wondered if Rangii was okay. Saehee, with her seemingly bottomless sleeves, was with her, so Rangii should be okay. I wouldn’t be surprised if Saehee had a capsule that could pop out and produce a small house. Hahaha, I’m kidding…seriously.
Flash! There was another flash of lightning. Bo-bo-boom! The thunder roared in sequence with the lightning. That was nice! Put a good scare into my bones.
Now then, I guess I should stop watching the rain and wash up? I went into my room and walked towards the master bedroom with my spare clothes in hand. If it weren’t pouring, I would have walked across the courtyard, but I wasn’t about to do something that stupid.
Everything was exactly the same in the master bedroom except for the blanket with a rounded hump in it. The blanket reminded me of a famous two-player game. (tn: I have no idea.)
But where did Chii go? Was she taking a shower? I checked the bath. No one was there. Hm. She must have gone to the toilet. There was a roof above the entire way to the toilet, so I didn’t have to worry. I showered, got changed, and once again walked across the master bedroom to go to my room. Chii still hadn’t shown up. It sure was taking her a while.
…Hm. Yeah. That was possible. Maybe it took phantoms a while as well. Chii would have killed me if she knew what I was thinking. I opened the master bedroom door when there was another flash of lightning.
Bo-bo-bo-boom!!
The blanket screamed. More accurately, the round thing underneath the blanket, that is. Ah. Come to think of it, wouldn’t a kid curled up underneath a blanket be about that big?
“…What’re you doing in there?”
I lifted the blanket and found Chii trembling with her hands over her ears. Surprised by the sudden light, Chii turned her head towards me.
“B-Big Brother?”
Was I mistaken when I saw there were tears in her eyes? Chii immediately stood up and shouted with the blanket around her shoulders.
“N-Nothing’s wrong! I was just getting ready to sleep! That’s all!”
Chii must be scared of thunder. Was it because she was a bird?
“You sure sleep funny.”
“This doesn’t concern you, so leave!”
The thing is, I was planning on leaving. But it just didn’t sit right with me to leave you trembling like this when you were so scared of thunder. Hm. A flash lit up the world again. Chii’s hair rose up. And there was the expected boom.
“Awooo!!”
Chii seemed really sleepy. Was she that scared of thunder? She might get angry, but should I try and comfort her?
I sat down next to Chii and nonchalantly struck up a conversation.
“You know what divine retribution is, right?”
There was no answer.
“Did you know that lightning is often thought to be divine retribution?”
“Wh-What does that matter?”
Nice, she responded.
“So as long as you haven’t done anything too terrible, you won’t have to worry about lightning.”
“R-Really?”
Chii poked her head a little out of the blanket. She looked a little better. Normally, at this point I would have changed the subject, but I must have secretly been harboring a grudge after losing so many times in a row to Chii earlier. Or maybe seeing Chii so scared was so adorable that I couldn’t help myself.
I gave Chii my most evil smile and spoke.
“But as you know, I’m a seriously bad person. I’m probably going to be hit.”
Chii’s hair rose sky high.
“Awooooooo!!”
“So what’re you going to do when a lightning strike turns everything near me to a wasteland?”
“G-Go away! Get out of the room!!”
Chii swung her hand, motioning furiously for me to leave, but, of course, I had no intention of leaving. Coincidentally, lightning struck. Before she heard the crash of the thunder, Chii covered her ears. Now! I grabbed her hands, and I shouted at Chii in her confusion.
“Bo-bo-bo-boom!!”
“Kyawoooo!!”
Chii’s right hook hit me squarely in the face.
“Gyah?!”
I learned my lesson: don’t mess with someone when she’s genuinely scared. That hurt. Unfortunately, I got what I deserved so I couldn’t complain. The thunder finally came, and after it ended, Chii put her hands down from her ears and screamed at me with her face blushing.
“D-Do you enjoy messing with people?! Th-This is why I hate you, Big Brother!!”
“I wasn’t thinking. Sorry.”
I really was an elementary schooler.
“G-Go die! I don’t even want to see your face!!”
When did you ever? Chii brought the blanket back over her head and went back to how she was before. The lightning had stopped, but she must have really been scared because she was still shaking in her blanket.
“Hup!”
I said as I entered the blanket.
“Kyawooo?!”
Chii squealed in surprise.
“Ah, it’s warm.”
I casually put my hand lightly on Chii’s back and hugged her.
“Wha-What are you—.”
Bo-bo-bo-boom—!
“Kyawooo!”
The sudden thunder caused Chii to stick closer to me despite herself. But that lasted for only a moment. When the thunder died down, she pushed me away with both her hands. But I wasn’t one to be pushed away.
“You scared?”
“Wha-Wha-Wha-What do you mean, scared? I-I-I’m not scared of thunder, not one bit!”
Despite the clear difference between her words and her actions, she looked a lot worse than normal. She really must be scared. And even so, she was acting tough.
“Well, I am.”
“…Awoo?”
Chii looked up at me.
“I told you before. Lightning strikes people who’ve committed lots of sins. So how could I not be scared? I’d be okay if I only committed one or two.”
“Don’t lie! Y-You weren’t scared at all earlier!”
“I was acting tough.”
I hugged Chii tightly. I could feel Chii trembling. So my body started to tremble as well.
“I’m scared too. So stay like this with me. It’s so lonely to die alone, so let’s die together.”
“Die by yourself!”
Chii pushed against my chest. Though she appeared to be desperately pushing me away, she wasn’t using her full strength. Lightning struck and thunder roared.
Chii started trembling terribly.
I felt like I was about to fall asleep.
A rainy summer night in the mountains. It was starting to get cold, and Chii was so warm against my chest that I couldn’t help but be sleepy.
“Let’s sleep. You won’t feel any pain if you’re asleep.”
“Awoo?! Why do I have to die?!”
I felt a little relieved as Chii began to act like normal. I ignored Chii and tapped Chii on the back as I sang a lullaby.
“Sweet dreams, our little Chii~.”
Our little Chii hit me hard in the stomach.
“Gack?!”
“Wh-Who’re you calling your little Chii, who?! Am I a child? You pervert! You degenerate pervert, Big Brother! What do you think you’re doing while I’m not in my right mind?! Die! Go out, get struck by lightning, and die alone!”
Chii spit those words at me like a machine gun, leaving me to writhe as I dealt with both physical and mental damage. Hey, you little brat. There was no need to hit me!
“That hurt!”
“I hit you so that it hurt!”
Throwing my words right back at me, huh?
“What did I do wrong?!”
“Are you asking because you really don’t know?”
I do know.
“Yeah, sorry. I deserved to be hit.”
As I said that, I moved a little out of the blanket and sat up. Chii flinched. What’s wrong?
“Then I’m going to go. Good night.”
“W-Wait, Big Brother!”
She grabbed onto the hem of my t-shirt with her right hand as I got up. I turned around in surprise, and Chii looked down at her hand, surprised into silence by her own action.
“It-It’s nothing! Please go! I’m telling you to go!”
Actually, she yelled at me to leave. But Chii didn’t let go of my shirt. She tried hard to pull back her hand, but two of her fingers refused to let go.
“Huh? What? What’s wrong?”
Confused, Chii pulled her right arm with her left. But it seemed like her right hand had no intention of letting go. As if she really wanted me to stay here.
…There was no helping it.
“Ah, I’m so sleepy so I don’t want to go to my room. I guess I’ll just sleep here.”
Chii finally let go of my shirt. Stifling the laughter that threatened to burst out, I entered the blanket. Chii, who had just previously stared at her outstretched hand, hastily moved away from me as she shouted.
“What are you talking about? Why are you sleeping here, Big Brother?!”
“Because I’m sleepy. Why, aren’t you?”
“I-I am, but you should go to your own room and…”
Bo-bo-bo-boom!
Thunder crashed with perfect timing. Chii immediately stopped what she was saying and,
“Kyawooo!”
Chii clung to me, her entire body trembling. I stroked Chii’s hair and hugged her to me. Unlike usual, she didn’t get mad or slap my hand away with her hair.
“Let’s just sleep together for tonight. Okay?”
“…Fine. After all, as long as Big Brother dies, my life will have been well spent.”
Again with that. But her voice lacked the forcefulness it had when we first met. Content with that realization, I relaxed and my consciousness drifted away…except that was impossible.
Chii’s breasts against my body were weighing on my mind. I’m sorry, but this is the kind of person I am. Even I didn’t know that a kid could bother me this much. Please be compassionate and understand. Because her chest was silently against mine. Because with Chii’s every breath, I caught a whiff of a nice smell and her breasts moved back and forth, closer and farther from me. Wouldn’t it be a problem in and of itself if a hot-blooded youth like myself wasn’t bothered by all that?
Yes, that was an excuse.
It wasn’t like this was some ground-breaking realization. Yeah. I was just bothered. Ah geez. Nothing like this ever happened when I was sleeping with Rangii. Thinking that, I laughed despite myself.
“…Why are you laughing, Big Brother?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
I wonder if I could tell her that I laughed at how pathetic I was for comparing Rangii’s breasts to yours.
“You’re creeping me out. What were you thinking?”
It didn’t seem like Chii was going to forget it. I said whatever came to mind first.
“Because it’s funny that you were talking about killing me and stuff when we first met, but it hasn’t even been a few days and now we’re sleeping in the same blanket.”
I personally thought that that was a good excuse.
“You’re right.”
Chii seemed to agree with me.
“I never imagined–not even in a dream–that things would end up like this. That I would call a scumbag, trash, lolicon, pedophile, crook, dog-forever-in-heat human who tricked the Tiger-nim, our master and the one who would open the world for phantom-kind, Big Brother, and that I would lay with you like this. I cannot even laugh at how everything turned out.
So you still remembered that.
“Forget about that rumor. We both know it’s not true.”
“But isn’t it true that you’re a lolicon?”
“It’s not! Definitely not! Who’re you saying is a lolicon, who?!”
“Big Brother.”
She replied without hesitation.
“…Let’s end the conversation here.”
I closed my mouth. I got a feeling that no matter what I said, she would keep thinking I was a lolicon. Man, I just didn’t know anymore. I should just go to sleep and forget about it all. Rather than thinking of a way to convince her, I decided to just avoid the issue. But Chii brought my attention back to it.
“Big Brother, are you being so nice to me…because you’re a lolicon?”
That surprised me.
I never even imagined that Chii would say something like that.
“So you realized that I’m being nice to you?”
Instead of replying, Chii pinched my cheek.
“Are you in your right mind, Big Brother?”
“That hurts!”
“Unlike… I’m not an idiot, Big Brother.”
“You were about to say, ‘Unlike you, I’m not an idiot,’ weren’t you?”
“So you realized that.”
She got me.
“The truth is, I’ve known for a while, Big Brother. I did my best to deny it until now.”
I asked her what I was most curious about.
“But why’re you asking me that now?”
“This isn’t a spontaneous question. I thought that you were genuinely trying to save my life when you told such a lie back then, but I continued to think and think about the reason. And when it was just the two of us, my worries only increased.”
“And?”
“I found the answer.”
I gave a joke to hide my anxiety.
“Is it because I’m a lolicon?”
“That’s right.”
Chii agreed.
“Hey, you brat! Give a serious response!”
“But what you said is the truth.”
I should go out with Narae. For real. The second I see her, I’ll confess. That should clear up this ridiculous misunderstanding.
“But there is another reason, right, Big Brother?”
Chii changed the tone of the conversation. This brat, I could easily see her becoming Saehee’s successor. I should be careful.
“So I have something to tell you, Big Brother.”
Chii sat up. I couldn’t stay lying down when she was like that, so I sat up too.
“I have a feeling you already know this, but I will tell you something about me. Will you listen to my story?”
I nodded my head, and Chii finally told me about herself with her own words.
Chii’s story wasn’t very different from what I had imagined before. She said that her parents, two phantoms, were the grateful magpies that the traditional fairytale was about. And Chii was that magpie couple’s child. Chii was the baby magpie that was about to be eaten by a snake. She was young and couldn’t run away, and she was about to meet the same fate as her siblings. She was saved for last solely because she was the youngest. And at the last second before she was eaten, a passing scholar shot the snake phantom with an arrow, saving Chii. And that was why the scholar’s own life was endangered. The magpie couple used their own bodies to ring the bell and save the scholar.
“My parents were severely injured by ringing the bell, but they didn’t die like in the story.”
The most important scene in The Grateful Magpie was when the magpie couple sacrificed themselves to ring the bell. But Chii’s parents were phantoms. Shouldn’t phantoms have been able to ring the bell more easily? They could’ve used a tool to ring it after transforming into humans. Saehee gave me 40 points after I questioned whether the couple really could have gotten hurt, and when I asked Chii that, she shook her head.
“The ring of a Buddhist temple’s bell has the power to erase rage, promote wisdom, and save those doomed to be reborn as durgati, things lesser than humans. It has the power to save those damned to hell. The bell comforts those people in hell and brings joy to those people in heaven. And the bell’s ring is similar to deadly poison to phantoms like us. Because we are creatures of chaos.”
That was why the magpie couple were so horribly injured after ringing the bell.
“After that, my parents couldn’t take care themselves. Even their sanity was not fully intact.”
There was even a time that Chii believed that the scholar who saved her life would help her. But after burying the magpie couple, he left without even a second thought for whom he was leaving. Chii dug up her parents using her bare hands. After that, Chii devoted herself to caring for her parents. She didn’t say anything, but I could tell that she felt heartbreakingly guilty for what she did when she was so young.
“It was a difficult time, but I could handle it.”
She continued to care for her parents with the hope that they would one day recover. But one hundred years passed. Two hundred years. Their condition didn’t get better with the passing of time but actually began to worsen. She said that now, they couldn’t even recognize Chii’s face. When Chii said that, she began to cry. I wiped away Chii’s tears with my hand. She didn’t slap my hand away.
“But I didn’t give up. Because I believed that, one day, my parents would get better. And then that person came to me.”
That person that Chii talked about before. I unconsciously tensed up after hearing Chii mention that person, the person she made a promise and swore on her name with.
“The promise was that if I died or Big Brother died, then that person would heal my parents. I then ate the talisman that the person gave me so that I could kill Big Brother even though the Tiger-nim forbade it. That is why I tried to kill Big Brother.”
…Huh? I got a strong sense that something was off. But now was the time to listen to Chii. I should think more about that later.
“At first, I was fully determined. Determined to sacrifice myself after my parents were hurt because of me. And then I met Big Brother.”
Just saying we met is a bit wrong. You dropped from the sky at me.
“I didn’t mind killing you because all I knew of you was what the rumors said. But after slowly getting to know you, I realized that the rumors about you were untrue. …So, Big Brother. Please tell me. I’m ready to listen to what you have to say.”
Chii looked unwaveringly at me.
“I want to know why you are so nice to me. No, I already know. But I want to hear you tell me directly. Whether your actions are due simply to sympathy, or…”
The words caught in her throat, and Chii was unable to say anything more. But what she said was already enough. I understood how Chii felt. No matter what I said, Chii was willing to fully listen to me. So I decided to tell Chii exactly why I treated her the way I did. I decided to, but…that bad feeling I had earlier wouldn’t go away. As if a huge warning bell was going off. As if it were telling me that now wasn’t the time to be having this conversation.
“…Wait.”
I felt sorry for Chii, but I kept feeling like there was something more important to deal with first. I slowly went over in my head the reason for this bad feeling.
Rangii forbade any harm to me. Chii tried to kill me. Saehee doubted what I said when we first met Chii. Chii very nearly killed me. Rangii didn’t notice until it was almost too late.
Ah!
Something clicked inside my head.
I finally understood why I felt like something was off when Saehee left—no, when Chii first attacked me—and Saehee said there was no way someone could have tried to attack me. Saehee said that there were few phantoms who could harm me in Rangii’s territory. And she said that Rangii would notice if such powerful phantoms entered her territory. But when Chii tried to kill me, Rangii wasn’t there. In other words, Rangii failed to notice her. Which means Chii is a weak phantom. But even so, Chii tried to kill me in Rangii’s territory.
That was the strange part.
Saehee was thinking that it was strange that I could nearly have died to Chii in a place where I couldn’t possibly have been harmed!
Wait. Then that means…
At that moment, I remembered what Saehee said.
“However, you will be in danger if you stay here.”
I thought that Saehee was just warning me about Chii. But that was wrong. Saehee knew. Chii would never kill me so long as I stayed in the house. So Saehee was warning me about something else!
Chii, who couldn’t possibly have tried to kill me, tried to kill me. A weak phantom like Chii tried to kill me. And if that unknown phantom’s talisman is enough to prevent Rangii from noticing a weak phantom, then…
Anyone could try and kill me! That was the danger she was talking about! That was why Saehee wanted me to go with them!
This was all a trap! Did the mastermind behind all this send Chii here to trick Rangii into leaving my side for even a short while? Could that phantom be powerful enough to ignore Rangii’s incredible strength? And what bad luck, because the boundary—the wall—was broken! Could the mastermind possibly ignore this opportunity now that Rangii, Saehee, and Baduk were gone? And there was even a rainstorm outside! How could you even get a better opportunity than this?!
“…Big Brother? What’s wrong?”
Chii looked at me uncertainly.
Yeah. The bigger problem was that I wasn’t the only one here. If I were alone, I could use what Rangii and Saehee gave me to run away somehow. Even now, I could run away! But Chii was here. How could I leave Chii here by herself while I ran away? Of course not. Who besides Saehee and me knew that that mysterious phantom sent Chii here as bait? It was actually more likely that the phantom planned on killing Chii as well for giving up on killing me! Actually, that made more sense. Goddammit! Why didn’t I notice this earlier? Why didn’t I think of this? Why didn’t I realize that it was strange that a weak phantom like Chii tried to kill me?!
What should I do? What’s the best option? I put my hand in my pocket and gripped Rangii’s tooth and the cauldron lid Saehee gave me.
How should I use them?
First, I had to make sure Chii got away. Because I can run away by myself! But it wasn’t the same for Chii. So!
“Can you still…not tell me?”
Chii’s face started to darken, and I put my hands on her shoulders. Chii’s eyes widened in surprise. She must have been surprised when the guy who caught up in his own thoughts suddenly grabbed her shoulders, but now wasn’t the time for an explanation.
“Chii!”
“A-Awoo?”
I spoke urgently.
“You trust your oppa, right?” (tn: Chii uses the word “oraboni” when referring to Sunghoon as her big brother. Oppa also means big brother but has a more colloquial and sexual connotation.)
And in my rush, I messed up my words!
“Wh-What are you saying?!”
“Just trust me and run away! I’ll tell you why later, but you have to get out of here and hide somewhere! I’ll find you later, but hurry!”
“Wh-What are you saying, Big Brother? Why do I have to…”
“Chii!”
I gave Chii a brief shake as she was about to talk back.
“I’ll swear on Rangii’s heaven-blessed name, Bumii, about what I’m about to tell you—I’m being serious. Now listen.”
Because I didn’t have one, I borrowed Rangii’s. Though I didn’t fully understand what it meant.
“I like you.”
“Kyawooooo?!”
I quickly continued speaking before Chii could say anything.
“At first, I wanted to help you because you reminded me of Rangii, but as I got to know you, I realized that you were just like me when I was a kid. So I couldn’t just leave you. And that’s how I ended up liking you.”
“D-Do you really think I’ll believe you if you tell me like this?! How do you expect me to…”
“Exactly! I know you can’t believe what I’m telling you. That’s why I swore on Rangii’s heaven-blessed name. Those things are really important to you phantoms, right?”
Chii nodded her head.
“I’ll swear on that name. I like you. I’m serious.”
Chii’s face turned bright-red.
“That’s why I don’t want to see you end up hurt. Don’t say anything and get out of here. I can’t explain right now, but we’re both in a lot of danger. Our lives are in danger. Someone might even show up and try and kill us.”
“Wh-What do you mean?”
“I’ll explain later. Just run away. Whoever shows up shouldn’t go after you. Because I’m probably going to be the first target.”
“Then…”
“I’m okay. Rangii and Saehee gave me something before they left. You’re in the greatest danger if you stay here! Whoever’s coming might think that you aren’t trying to kill me anymore and kill you too! So you need to get out of here!”
“B-But Big Brother.”
Chii turned red all the way to her ears.
“Don’t you trust me?”
“Th-That’s not it!!”
Chii flapped her hair madly.
“I-I’m scared of thunder and lightning! I can’t fly in this weather!”
Ah.
Lightning struck. And along came the roar of thunder.
“Kyawooo!”
Chii was on the verge of tears as she covered her ears and curled up.
…Oh, my God. Now we’re dead. The thunder had us dead in our tracks. This is really bad!
This was the absolute worst situation. If this was all part of some master plan…then this was the end. There was nothing else I could do. I doubted I could run away with Chii when she was trembling at the thunder and it was pouring rain. And I couldn’t just leave Chii and save myself. I could say I was going to tell Rangii, but the truth was, I would just be leaving Chii and running away. I knew that that was the rational thing to do. Because Rangii could probably show up here in a flash. But I was afraid that if I left her for even a moment, she’d go back to mistrusting everyone again. I was speaking from experience.
All that I could do was pray for Rangii to get back soon or for the night to end without anything happening.
Hahaha. Yeah. I could very well be letting my imagination go wild. That must be it. This was all just my imagination. There was no way something like that could really…
I guess I should say this again: what I imagined came true.