“It’s the time you’ve all been waiting for: going home time.”
When Mr. Junghyun, our homeroom teacher, said those blessed words, it was as though the breath of life entered my deceased body. Following Narae’s shocking announcement, I had to overcome my post-lunch drowsiness and review all of my morning lessons during my break period, so I was suffering from absolute mental exhaustion. Ah~ I want to go home and relax by feeling Rangii’s belly. Or maybe I’ll hug Pyeii once class ends. It’s such a shame that Pyeii’s all physically grown up, since that means I can’t do anything with her.
…Wait. Don’t make some weird misunderstanding. I just wanted to pamper those adorable tiger, magpie, and crow children.
“But after school, there’s a massive obstacle known as self-study. All you kids that go home for no reason are in for a world of hurt, so don’t even think about running off.”
…Ah, I forgot about that. What should I do? I wanted to go home to be with Rangii, but what excuse could I give? Mr. Junghyun is weirdly thorough about this kind of thing, so a half-baked excuse is meaningless. I wracked my brain trying to think of an excuse, when Chii raised her hand.
“What do you want?”
I was impressed. He responded in exactly the same way to that cute and lovely Chii as he would to any other student. My opinion of him may need some revision.
“I want to go home to play with Nana, so spit it out already.”
He’s a guy with absolutely no interest in the real world.
“I need to go home with Big Brother.”
The Kyaa~ squeals of joy and the Go die~ curses of malice filled the classroom at the same time.
“Why’s that?”
“Big Brother is so stupid that you can’t leave him alone in the library and expect him to study. He’ll get distracted.”
…Hey, as if that kind of excuse would work.
“That’s true.”
It worked?! Mr. Junghyun rubbed his chin with a serious expression on his face.
“He’d probably spend the entire time in the library dozing off until it was time to go home. All right. You take him home and do a good job teaching him.”
“I will do my best for the sake of my idiot big brother.”
Chii clenched her fists at the same time that laughter erupted in the classroom. Glad as I was to hear that I could go home early, this was a bitter-sweet victory.
“Idiot.”
“…At the very least, I don’t want to hear you call me that.”
[Idiot.]
I should stop talking. After that, Narae said that she was going to a private academy to study, and Pyeii explained that she wasn’t here to study in the first place, so all four of us left school together. That was why there was a spring in my step on our way back home. Regardless of the reason, I got to go home without having to ditch. Plus, it’s not like Chii’s actually going to make me study.
“I’m going to make you study,” said Chii.
“Wait, but why?!”
Chii blushed and flapped her hair.
“If you don’t study, then you won’t be able to find a good job. That would make things difficult for us, as well.”
After all the hardship Chii went through, her thoughts were far too realistic.
[I’m rich, so I don’t care.]
Meanwhile, that brat was far too relaxed.
“That money isn’t actually yours,” said Chii.
[What’s Dad’s is mine, what’s Mom’s is mine.]
“Being such a burden on your parents would make you a bad kid.”
[Beeeh~ Chii, you dummy.]
“Awoooo!”
I ruffled the hair of those two kids were getting ready to have a bickering contest and said:
“You two don’t have to worry about something like that, you brats.”
“That doesn’t mean you’ve forgotten about the quiz, does it? Do you really think you can get away with not studying?”
I did forget. I frowned and said to Narae:
“After everything that happened yesterday, can’t I take a break? My body’s still numb.”
“Saehee already told me you’d be perfectly fine.”
She really is a ghost. One day, she’s going to grab me by the throat and throttle me.
“Plus, I knew you were lying.”
“I’m sorry.”
Saehee was something I could deal with later, so I prioritized the danger in front of me, first.
Right then.
I was in a playground at night.
I was sitting on a swing, as if the street I’d been walking on had never existed in the first place. Confused as I was, my experience with unnatural occurrences like this helped me keep a level head and take in my surroundings. The playground felt familiar, as if I’d seen it many times before, but I had no time to think about that.
“Rest well, did you?”
The voice coming from in front of me cut off these thoughts as I turned my head. Sitting there was a girl atop the monkey bars, the moon illuminating her in a bluish light. She had on a spats that clung to her body, a tank-top, and over her shirt a baseball jacket, put on as if without regard for the weather. Her name was Nyangii, and though I’d first met her yesterday, she was a familiar face to my eyes. Surprised, I tried to get up off the the swing. However, the pressure pushing down against my shoulder stopped me.
“It is best ye stay seated.”
I turned around, and there was a woman smiling behind me. She was Nyangii’s changgwi. I was about to say Rangii’s name as if by instinct.
“Hold on. I prepared this place so that we could talk.”
I wasn’t so naive as to believe her. Not after everything I went through. However, the second I tried to say her name, a talisman stuck fast over my mouth.
“Ub?!”
“If I truly wished to harm you, you would already be a dragonfly in the seizing hands of a child.”
That was an easy-to-understand metaphor. Since a dragonfly like that would end up ripped to pieces and eventually die. The fact that I was still alive lent some credence to her words, but I couldn’t trust her.
“I will repeat myself. I prepared this place so that we could talk. You will not invoke Snowy’s heaven-blessed name, and you will not tell Snowy about what happens here. Promise this, and I will remove the talisman.”
…Whether I believed her or not, I had no reason not to agree to those conditions. However, before I could nod my head, I heard a voice behind me.
“Master, such a kind person ye be.”
“Shut your mouth.”
“Goodness. Ye sadden me so.”
The changgwi rested her ample bosoms on top of my head as she said that, when I felt her put something cold as ice against my neck. I could tell what it was without having to look. It was a knife. It was simply making contact for now, but it could slice through my neck at any moment. With terror filling my brain, I had no time to think about anything else.
“Do you promise?”
I had no option except to do as she said. I carefully, very conscious of the knife, nodded my head. The talisman then dropped off my mouth, as if it was alive. Having recovered my freedom of speech, I asked Nyangii:
“You want to talk after yesterday? What are you planning?”
The changgwi answered instead by setting the edge of her knife against me.
“Master, ’tis best to end this life here.”
Nyangii furrowed her brow as if exhausted.
“First, get rid of that thing, then piss off to the back. Get in my way any longer, and I’ll send your head flying off your shoulders.”
“Oh dear, such cruel words.”
“Don’t think I can’t see what you’re plotting.”
“Plotting? You wound me.”
The changgwi spoke in an exaggerated voice, as if performing in a historical drama, and she raised her hands and backed off. I put my hand to my neck and looked behind me. She was standing several steps away from me, a smile ever-present on her face.
“I apologize. She’s a willful one to the extreme.”
Nyangii jumped down from the monkey bars and walked towards me. I needed to focus. There’s the saying that you can survive a tiger’s den by keeping your wits about you. Rangii and Saehee should find out soon enough that I suddenly disappeared, and they’ll come looking for me. I just had to stall for time until then. She said she wanted to talk, so I could stall for time by talking.
“What is it that you wanted to talk about?”
“You wish to talk, then?”
The corners of Nyangii’s lips rose. …Was she happy?
“Yeah.”
“That’s a relief then. After all, there is nothing more difficult than trying to cook meat fresh from the freezer.”
If you want to cook meat that was kept in the freezer, you have to wait for it to melt first. In other words, she likely meant that it would have taken time to convince me to listen to her if I kept my ears shut. …That metaphor was steeped in life experience. And it was a weird one on top of that.
“You’ve pretty much got me on the palm of your hand, so is there really any rush?”
“Indeed. I suppose I’ll start by explaining why…wait. Did you understand what I said just now?”
Her eyes widened, her tail sticking straight up and her hair forming an exclamation point. She looked genuinely surprised. Even when what she said wasn’t that hard to understand.
“Of course I do.”
“Then explain what I meant.”
I told Nyangii my interpretation. After hearing the whole thing, Nyangii’s face broke out in a smile.
“Impressive! You are the first to understand one of my metaphors on his first try. You’ve got more brains than I thought.”
…This felt like the first time in my entire life that I’d been told I was smart. Though, since my understanding stemmed from my experience in the kitchen, it likely had nothing to do with my brains. Also, wouldn’t it be weirder to not understand a metaphor like that? Just how little interaction has she had with humans? Or maybe some phantoms understood her? However, seeing Nyangii look so genuinely surprised and overjoyed kept reminding me of Rangii, so I didn’t want to outright disagree with her.
“That doesn’t matter. Tell me what you wanted to tell me.”
“Excellent.”
Nyangii took a matchbox out of her jacket’s inner pocket, lit it, and took a drag on her pipe, releasing a stream of grey smoke from her mouth. She’s just a kid, so why is she smoking? …Oh right. She must be old. How could she smoke while looking like a kid?
“First. I currently have no intention of harming you.”
I spoke before I could think better of it.
“If you’re going to lie, at least make it believable. Or did you forget everything you’ve put me through until now?”
I knew that she was the one pulling the strings that almost got me killed. So how could I possibly believe her now?
“I am telling the truth.”
However, Nyangii’s poise wasn’t perturbed in the slightest when she replied.
“Now that Snowy knows I was the one trying to harm you, if I were to kill you now, it would be no different from giving up my life as well.”
“…What?”
“It’s simply best for you to know this. I’m saying that I don’t want to end up like a cockroach in the crosshairs of a housewife of 30 years.”
I decided to accept her words at face value for now.
“I prepared this place so that we could meet without anyone interrupting us.”
“There was no need to go so far. I would’ve agreed to meet you if you just waved a white flag above you.”
“Is there not the one much like a cricket that has taken residence in a sewer by your side?”
I’m sorry to say this, but after Nyangii gave that analogy, I immediately thought of Saehee.
“If you’re worried about Saehee, then isn’t this whole thing pointless in itself?”
“No need to worry.”
Nyangii puffed out her chest. I was intrigued by the charisma she gave off by doing that, something that Rangii lacked entirely. If Rangii were to make a pose like that, she’d just look cute.
“She will only notice after everything has been settled.”
That was unpleasant news for me. Because even with my lacking brain, I knew that meant Saehee would only find me after Nyangii was finished with whatever she was plotting. Would stalling for time not work? Though these thoughts went through my head, I made it a point to act unworried.
“I don’t think you should take Saehee so lightly. Once she realizes I’m gone, I bet she’ll find some way to come here.”
“It appears that you are taking me lightly.”
Nyangii dismissed my opinion.
“This is a place created by magic that connects my mind with yours. Without our permission, no one else may interfere.”
…The heck does that mean?
“So did you forget that I’m a normal human or something?”
Nyangii looked at me like a spaceman staring at a caveman.
“In layman’s terms, you can call this our shared mental world. Even as we converse, the place you think of as reality will remain stuck in time.”
“How the hell is that even possible?!”
Don’t ignore the laws of physics!
“Such is the power of magic.”
“The heck kind of magic is so convenient?”
“There is no need to worry. This magic is not something that can be used lightly.”
“Which means you need time to cast it?”
“Don’t pry for details. I have no desire to answer.”
How willful of her.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to talk?” I asked.
Nyangii didn’t answer, instead taking another puff from her pipe and creating a donut out of the smoke. She even scratched her ear, pretending not to have heard me. Though, I had to admit, despite how laid back she was, her smoking technique was on point. Just what kind of preparations did she make? Would it hurt Nyangii’s plans if I were to find out? While thinking this, I stared intently at Nyangii until she cleared her throat.
“Ehem! Wouldn’t you agree that that is not the important thing? Are you not curious as to why I came to you in the first place?”
“What’re you trying to say?”
That made me nervous. Regardless of how she did it, she, the mysterious phantom, was directly meeting me, so her desire to talk had to be significant in some way. However, Nyangii disappointed me.
“This has to do with your life.”
This relieved my anxiety a bit, but I sighed deeply and gave off the distinct impression that I was disappointed. The act was easy to pull off.
“I’m done with this.”
I even raised my hand to make clear how I felt.
“I-it isn’t like that!”
Nyangii, apparently upset that she was being treated like a swindling insurance salesperson, puffed up her tail as she shouted.
“I’m not interested in religion, either.”
“I just said it isn’t like that!”
At this point, she bent forward at the waist, her fists clenched and her teeth showing because of her seething anger. She looked like a pissed off cat.
“You’re simply oblivious of how vital this conversation is! You’d be willing to pay any price for this knowledge!”
I put my finger in my ear as if I had a small itch, making sure that Nyangii was watching.
“I’m really not interested.”
I’m 17 years old. It’s a short enough time for me to remember the majority of the things I’ve been through. So there was no way I was going to listen to anything this evil phantom had to say, when she has about as much kindness in her heart as Rangii has evil. When I punctuated my show of indifference by flicking a piece of earwax off my finger, Nyangii gave a little pout.
“Grrr~! Do you have the capacity to think or don’t you?! I’m doing something as benevolent as taking the leftover scraps of kimchi in your fridge and making kimchi pancakes out of them for you, so how can you respond by acting like this?!”
When did I ask for anything like that?
“Rather than that, if you would do something as benevolent as returning me to where I was, then I might consider listening.”
I mimicked Saehee’s smile.
“Or do you have a reason that you have to tell me this?”
I’m not the brightest guy around, but I’m not a complete idiot. I knew, through the virtue of experience, that living life without thinking is asking for trouble. I couldn’t trust anything she had to say without first making sure she was telling the truth. However, while I may have grown mentally, my body had stayed the exact same since the start of summer vacation.
“Bold in tongue, I grant ye.”
Everything turned upside down. When I realized what had happened, I was lying on the ground. I belatedly registered the pain of my fall.
“Ugh?!”
The one who threw me to the ground was Nyangii’s changgwi.”
“So long as ye be here, your place is to listen to the Master. No more back-chatter. Lest I kill you.”
“Did I not tell you to shut your mouth?!”
Though Nyangii’s roar caused the changgwi to flinch, she casually took a few steps back and squirmed this way and that.
“Twas a show of fealty to you, Master. I pray you relax your temper.”
“….”
Nyangii looked at her changgwi, apparently displeased, before turning her pipe upside down to empty it of ash and sighing.
“Huuu. I have no idea what I was thinking when I turned someone like her into my changgwi.”
That has nothing to do with me, so don’t expect me to commiserate. I got off the ground, brushing the dirt off my butt as I said:
“Fine. I’ll listen.”
Nyangii’s ears pricked up.
“I’m glad you reconsidered!”
What did she mean, reconsidered? I only agreed to listen because they wouldn’t let me go until I heard what Nyangii had to say. Nyangii was apparently unaware of my inner grumblings because a happy expression spread across her face.
“Have you never thought that you have led an unfortunate life?”
“I guess my life has been unfortunate since a few weeks ago.”
Ever since I met the tiger that was so openly in love with me, my life unfolded chaotically so that I was practically running my own menagerie of animals. To the point where I feel blessed just to be alive.
“That isn’t what I’m talking about.”
Nyangii spoke with an air of superiority, as if she were a teacher giving a lesson.
“I’m referring to your life before you met Snowy.”
I was unable to respond easily. Because I knew that I had had a very different childhood from others. But what did that matter?
“So what?”
Nyangii casually clasped her hands behind her back. It was obviously strange to see her make such a pose, but, strangely enough, it seemed to fit her better than anyone else.
“If I were to tell you the full truth, you, with your dish only big enough to contain a side dish, couldn’t handle everything. After all, we were enemies until now.”
We were still enemies.
“Thus, I will provide you a nudge in the right direction so that you can find the answer for yourself.”
As she said that, the playground warped, swaying and rolling like a heat haze. The ground was no exception. I only barely managed to keep my balance.
“What’s going on?”
Nyangii, her form also becoming wave-like, spoke as if offering me a mystery.
“Think about when Saehee first learned of you.”
After saying that, she disappeared. Actually, disappeared wasn’t quite right. I returned. The road from school that I was originally walking on. The road back home.
“…That was weird.”
“What do you mean?”
Chii looked up at me as she asked this. I kept quiet. I didn’t feel it was necessary to tell Chii about my conversation. I’m sorry to say this, but Chii and Pyeii are weak phantoms in terms of power. Narae’s a member of the Bear Clan, but only partially. There was a specific person I could talk with about this.
“No, it’s nothing.”
I quickened my pace. Pretending not to notice that Narae was eyeing me suspiciously after realizing I was lying was an all around difficult task.