Magic on the Dead Chapter 105

Tinkle—

A clear and cheerful chime and the sound of a wooden fish coming from somewhere filled the momentary silence. At the very sudden announcement, everyone tilted their heads at the same time with bewildered faces.

Hajin, who had been leaning his head against a wooden pillar, straightened his back and asked with puzzled eyes.

“Yoon Miso, what are you talking about? Your house is at the very edge of Hwajeong.”

Miso’s family home was located in a place not far from the entrance to Yong-un City. Since it was a distance that would take at least three more days to reach from here, he could not understand at all why she was saying they had to part ways tomorrow.

“You know it too, Hajin, that my dad is a terribly devoted son. I think he probably went to get my grandmother as soon as the situation broke out. Rather than our family home, it seems better to stop by my grandmother’s house first. Grandma’s house is near here.”

Following her words, Hajin’s concerned voice immediately attached itself.

“What if she’s not at your grandmother’s house?”

Miso let out a dry, wilted laugh, as if he were asking something obvious.

“Then I can just go back to my family home.”

“Miso.”

“The route of stopping by grandma’s place first is much more rational than going to our family home, finding it empty, and then coming back this way. Anyway… I’m thinking of going there first. I only made up my mind a short while ago, so I’m telling you now.”

Miso muttered, fiddling with the end of her tightly tied hair.

“To be honest, it’s only been two days since we reunited. I felt sad about it, so I couldn’t make the decision easily.”

Hajin could not speak further and simply closed his mouth. Whoosh whoosh—Byeol, who had been quietly watching the situation while breathing softly, asked in a trembling voice.

“Miso unnie, are you going to grandma’s place alone tomorrow…? Then I can’t see unnie anymore?”

Miso could not answer the child’s question for a long time and gnawed on her lower lip. The tip of her nose, her gaze lowered, had already turned red. Sniff, after sniffling, she steadied her wavering breath.

Jeffrey, who was staring intently at Miso, folded several wrinkles onto his forehead and asked.

[What…. Are you saying Miso is leaving for another place first? This suddenly?]

When no answer came back from anyone, he nudged Eden’s shoulder as if for confirmation.

[Eden, did I interpret that correctly?]

[She says she’s going somewhere other than where we were originally headed. She thinks we’ll probably have to part ways around tomorrow evening.]

With his calm reply, another silence fell. At the unexpected, sudden declaration of parting, shock lingered on everyone’s faces. Hajin stared at Miso with a blank face, at a loss for words, and Eden quietly stroked his chin as if contemplating something.

The sunset, which had embroidered the sky in red and gold, began to fall at their feet. The summer sun struggled to lay its body down beyond the ancestral mountain only after eight o’clock.

[Ah, I really didn’t expect this.]

Jeffrey, muttering in English, wiped his haggard face. In the midst of their long journey, the first finisher to reach their desired destination had appeared, so it was an occasion that deserved congratulations. However, no one could easily break the silence at the farewell that had come before they had even finished preparing their hearts.

Byeol, who was becoming restless in the subdued atmosphere, put Pie down and clung awkwardly to Hajin’s arm. Hajin lifted the child’s body, which was holding onto him like a lifeline, and held him in his arms. The child buried his small face in Hajin’s broad shoulder, deliberately turning his gaze away from Miso.

As if to make up for the instantly gloomy mood, Miso opened her mouth with a bright voice.

“Now that we’re about to part, I felt sad, so I was a bit stubborn about resting early today. Honestly, I didn’t want to just sleep on the roadside until the very end and then part ways. I also wanted to spend it laughing in a comfortable place…. Anyway, you all went through a lot, even climbing a mountain to come to the temple. I’m sorry and thank you.”

However, the more she spoke, the more the atmosphere seemed to sink. The group members, who belatedly understood the heart of Miso who had led the water play in the valley and guided them to the safe temple, were even more at a loss for words.

Whoosh—the night wind softly swept past the grass in the courtyard that had grown up to their ankles.

“Hic, sob….”

Byeol, who had been hugging Hajin tightly, finally burst into stifled sobs. Pie, who was lying prone behind Hajin, licked the child’s tears falling on his cheek and whimpered.

Miso, who was desperately trying to steady her breathing so as not to react to the child’s crying, rubbed her reddened eyes with the back of her hand, ss ss, and then strode under the eaves with big steps.

“Byeol, can you look at unnie for a moment?”

“Sob, unnie….”

“Don’t cry. Okay? I’m sorry.”

She awkwardly patted the shoulder of Byeol, who was in Hajin’s arms. Despite her repeated apologies, the child never once looked back. Miso, too, could not hide her distress and hung her head toward the floor.

Jeffrey stood up from his spot and wrapped his arm around Miso’s bent shoulders, calmly comforting her.

[What is there for Miso to be sorry about. Still, it’s a happy thing that you’ve made it home.]

“……”

[And Miso.]

Her reddened eyes turned towards Jeffrey.

[You look even uglier when you cry.]

“…Hey, I can understand that much.”

As her moist eyes momentarily narrowed into a pout, Jeffrey made a comical expression as if he had been waiting for it. Pfft…. It seemed his effort was commendable, as a silly laugh finally escaped Miso’s lips. At the end of a short sigh, she gathered her laughter and turned her head to look at Eden, who was watching her.

Eden met her reddened eyes and slowly nodded his head towards Miso, as if to say she had done well.

“Let’s go safely until the very end. You’ve worked hard all this time.”

🃏

“Yoon Miso, you’re going to get dehydrated at this rate.”

“I’m done crying.”

Miso, who replied bluntly with a voice thick from a stuffy nose, frantically drank the water she had gotten from Hongju bosal-nim. Late at night, Miso and Hajin, who had come out to the wooden veranda again, were staring blankly at the stars embedded like jewels in the sky.

“Do Hajin, where are you going to live after you find Junseok?”

“…Well. I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

“If you have nowhere to go, come to our family home. Our house has a lot of rooms, you know.”

Hajin, after a short laugh, looked back at Miso.

“I have no intention of marrying you.”

“When did I ask you to marry me? This guy is saying something creepy.”

Miso, who had been grumbling for a while, spoke again seriously.

“You can really come if you have nowhere to go. Of course, it won’t be easy to get here from Yong-un, but….”

“……”

“Or you could come back here to Hwayeonsa Temple. There are no zombies, and there’s a clean valley. Of course, it would be a bit difficult if the rice runs out.”

“I suppose so.”

Looking at the night clouds slowly drifting by, Hajin nodded his head bitterly.

They tried hard to promise a next time, but they were well aware that the probability of meeting again alive was close to a miracle. Nevertheless, using that slim probability as an excuse, the two seriously discussed their future whereabouts. It was because they did not want to treat tomorrow’s parting as an eternal farewell.

Hajin stared blankly at the side profile of Miso, who was lost in thought with her head leaned against the pillar. Yoon Miso, completely intimidated. It was a sight he had never seen during the long years they had spent together. As if embarrassed by his fixed gaze, she rolled her eyes furtively and kicked the back of Hajin’s knee, thwack.

“Why are you looking at me like that.”

“I think it’s the first time I’ve seen you cry.”

“…What, are you teasing me?”

“Can’t I tease you?”

Hajin, who was nonchalantly brushing off the dirt from the back of his knee, suddenly muttered.

“No, that’s not it. There was one time before.”

Miso, who was looking at Hajin with her swollen eyes as if to ask what he was talking about, soon burst out laughing, pfft. After laughing as if she were cracking up for a while, she asked.

“You’re talking about that Oh-Pig bastard, right?”

“Yeah, that Oh-Pig.”

Pushing through dusty memories, Hajin shuddered as if disgusted by the nickname he had uttered for the first time in a long while.

‘Oh-Pig’, who was more often called by his nickname than his name, was the class vice president who had fervently bullied Hajin throughout their first year of high school. For the reason that he did not like the sight of him practicing card magic while sitting in the back, he would always bring his group and, in front of the other kids, would destroy Hajin’s magic props in all sorts of ways.

“I wonder what that bastard is up to.”

“It’s obvious. He’s probably a zombie by now, drooling and wandering around.”

Miso was about to continue with harsher words but then closed her mouth. It was because what Oh-Pig had done was by no means light enough to be used as a light topic of conversation.

When Hajin, unable to find a way to stand up to the merciless bullying, consistently ignored him, he did not even like that and resorted to physical violence as well.

Around the time when small, unnoticeable wounds increased on various parts of his white body and bruises smaller than a fingernail grew to the size of a palm, Miso appeared in Hajin’s life like fate.

As the starting player of the school volleyball team and a provincial representative, she rarely showed her face at school, citing away games and training, but on that day, she had finished her school day early and was seeking a sweet, honey-like sleep, lying on her stomach next to Hajin, who was her desk mate in name only.

Before the morning assembly, Oh-Pig appeared without fail and tormented Hajin.

The jerk gleefully burned Hajin’s magic cards with a lighter and kicked his desk, thwack thwack, but not stopping there, he went on a rampage to search through his bag and ended up accidentally pushing Miso’s head.

As it happened, this occurred the day after she had been diagnosed with a torn knee ligament ahead of the National Sports Festival.