Magic on the Dead Chapter 107

I could not understand the reason why the image of myself, left desolate and alone, was more vividly drawn than the moment of a dramatic reunion. After sending off my colleagues one by one, the sight of me wandering aimlessly through the vast amusement park in search of Junseok looked like the final moments of a fool who could not face reality.

But was I not already prepared for this? The current confusion is just a side effect of the fear I had painstakingly postponed, manifesting itself belatedly. Giving up on my only family member is an impossible thing, so as expected, there was no choice.

To soothe the endlessly surging anxiety, Hajin once again picked up several stones. Another wish was placed on top of the lowest stone pagoda. And then the next one, and the next. Each time a round stone was placed sequentially on a stone pagoda, the faces of welcome people in his mind flashed through his head in order.

His younger brother Junseok smiling as if grimacing, Miso vigorously patting his back, a sorrowfully crying Byeol, and Jeffrey who pulls mischievous pranks. And Jung Taegeon….

A sense of dismay momentarily crossed Hajin’s face as he blankly stared at the last remaining stone piece.

“…What am I really supposed to do….”

His careful fingertips, which had applied ointment to my scraped body, spun round and round in my head. In his memory, Jung Taegeon was caressing his scars with an incredibly gentle face.

A warm heat transferred to the stone clutched tightly in his fist. Hajin, who had been clenching and unclenching his fist for a long while, caressing the stone, finally reached his hand out toward the stone pagoda after some hesitation. The moment that last wish was placed, he heard the sound of several footsteps approaching from this direction, thud, thud.

At the familiar, leisurely approaching footsteps and the sound of footsteps resembling horse hooves, he turned around. As expected, a familiar silhouette was visible in the darkness. It was Eden and Pie.

“Mr. Jung Taegeon?”

Seeing Eden walking straight toward him, Hajin raised his body from its crouched position.

“Why are you all the way here…. How did you get here?”

“That is what I should be saying.”

The blue moonlight fell like a spotlight onto the face of Eden, who had come right up to his nose. Hajin habitually stroked the back of Pie, who was leaping on two feet and clinging to his upper body.

“What are you thinking, disappearing without a word?”

Unlike the blunt words he spat out, a worry not usually seen was seeping into Eden’s face.

Hajin, who quickly rubbed his chest which had suddenly become tight, laughed awkwardly.

“Ah, well, I just planned on taking a simple walk and coming back. The inside of the temple is safe, and, um. I was talking with Miso and came straight here, so I didn’t get a chance to…. And I thought you had already fallen asleep.”

While he was stringing together rambling excuses, Pie stuck out his tongue and licked Hajin’s cheek tenaciously. At the fishy smell of saliva, Hajin crinkled his nose and stroked Pie’s forehead soothingly. Eden, who had been silently watching the scene, let out a quiet sigh.

“You have a real lack of safety awareness.”

This ticklish feeling in an unexpected place was not entirely unpleasant. Hajin let out a dry cough and turned his head as if to flee from the gaze that was persistently following him.

“Let’s go now. It’s late, we should get to sleep quickly.”

“What was your wish?”

“Pardon?”

Eden gestured with his eyes toward the stone pagoda that held Hajin’s final wish. Among the stones stacked in layers of various heights, his gaze was fixed precisely on the one Hajin’s hand had touched. Hajin shrugged his shoulders.

“I just wished for everyone to survive safely.”

“I do not think you would have wished for just one thing.”

At this rate, shouldn’t he open up a fortune-telling shop somewhere? Hajin was amazed at Eden’s deduction, which easily saw through him as if it were obvious.

“How did you know?”

“Because your face was full of gloom. I figured one wish wouldn’t be nearly enough.”

Eden, who knelt down on one knee, picked up surrounding stones with an indifferent touch. Clack, clack-clack. The sound of several stones meeting in his large hand was cheerful.

“Pie, choose.”

As if playing a shell game, he clutched the stones in his two fists and extended his hands toward Pie. Pie, wagging his tail flutteringly, bumped his snout against his left hand.

“Good boy.”

Eden boldly threw away the stones in his right hand and got up. Then he placed one stone on top of the highest stone pagoda with a thump, and another stone on top of the pagoda next to it. Hajin, who had been silently watching him make a wish twice, could not hold back his curiosity and asked.

“What did you wish for?”

“Like Mr. Do Hajin, I wished for my people to survive safely.”

“What about the other one?”

Swoosh— The fishy smell of ozone carried on the warm night breeze tickled the tip of his nose. In the momentarily humid air, Hajin’s head lifted upward. The clouds covering the moon were swollen fat, as if they would pour down rain at any moment.

“I wished that Mr. Do Hajin would not refuse my proposal.”

He, who had been looking at the sky with a worried face, slowly turned his gaze to Eden.

“Proposal?”

Eden looked down at Hajin for a long while without answering, then reached out and adjusted the shoulder line of Hajin’s short-sleeved t-shirt. He, who fixed the disheveled clothes with a touch that was indifferent yet gentle, asked.

“More importantly, are you alright?”

Unable to know what the concern was about, he was just staring blankly at him when the low-pitched voice once again settled by his ear.

“Because Ms. Yoon Miso is leaving so suddenly. The amusement park situation I heard about doesn’t seem easy either.”

Because he pinpointed the sore spot so accurately, like a renowned doctor who could find hidden acupressure points even with his eyes closed, Hajin let out a long sigh.

“Well… it’s something that can’t be helped.”

He thought he had given a similar answer to Miso’s question of whether he was okay. He mocked himself inwardly and looked down meaninglessly at the stones that got in the way of his feet. Eden’s unreadable gaze fell stingingly on the nape of his neck.

Should we head back to the room now. Hajin, who was contemplating, felt a sense of disappointment for some reason and changed the subject.

“By the way, how did you know I was here? The temple is quite large, so it must have been hard to find me.”

“I still have Mr. Do Hajin’s handkerchief.”

At the words whose meaning he could not grasp, Hajin’s head tilted to the side. Feeling Pie’s soft tail against his shin, he quietly tried to deduce the inner meaning, and then he soon let out a small exclamation. It seemed that Pie, having tracked his scent, had led Eden here.

Hajin, who was standing dazedly with a look of realization, flinched and tensed his shoulders at the warmth that suddenly touched the nape of his neck. Eden was covering his neck with a crisply dry handkerchief. The smell of cotton fabric, dried thoroughly in the sun, brushed past the tip of his nose.

Even when he looked at him with eyes full of bewilderment, as if asking what on earth he was doing in the middle of the night, he paid no mind and only tied the ends of the handkerchief tightly.

“What are you doing all of a sudden.”

“I am covering it.”

“I know that, but what is this so suddenly in the middle of the night….”

Eden, who was adjusting the knot just enough so that his neck was not choked, suddenly lowered his voice.

“Strangers staring only at the nape of Mr. Do Hajin’s neck.”

A slight annoyance was tinged in the hand that was smoothing out the end of the tied handkerchief.

“It felt worse than I thought.”

At his unexpected answer, which resembled jealousy, Hajin could not hide his bewilderment. As he was just moving his lips, at a loss for words, a confirmation followed.

“So next time, I plan to leave a mark in a place only I can see.”

On the face of the man who was once again promising a “next time” as if it were a matter of course, not a trace of a smile could be found. It was a completely different atmosphere from before, when he had consistently thrown jokes with a lighthearted attitude. Hajin let out a tense breath, as if he would suffocate at any moment in the humid air.

Jingle— A clear wind chime sound came from the hermitage built at the end of the cliff with fantastic rocks. Following the sound, Pie’s ears perked up. The handkerchief tied around his neck fluttered and swayed in the night wind that was gradually growing stronger.

The two of them intuited it at the same time. This unknown attraction toward each other. The grace period for just the two of them, which had been tacitly given under the pretext of exploring that feeling, was coming to an end.

A damp wind kept blowing from somewhere. It was now time to reach a conclusion.

“Mr. Jung Taegeon.”

Hajin impulsively called his name. Eden’s head, which had been casting its gaze into the deep darkness, turned back toward Hajin.

“Do you like me?”

His face, on which the stark blue moonlight fell, was pale, but his gaze was softer than ever before. A serene smile bloomed on Eden’s face.

“Did you only just realize that?”

At the voice in which not a hint of hesitation could be found, Hajin let out a small gasp.

The only thing he had learned while agonizing over his feelings for Eden was that emotions were thoroughly the domain of instinct. That is to say, Hajin knew instinctively. That he, too, had already fallen helplessly for Jung Taegeon.

“I knew already, you know? I’m a magician.”

“Can magicians also read people’s minds?”

“Yes, so be careful.”

The reality he faced was not easy enough to welcome this fluttering feeling with joy, but nevertheless, he could not stop his gaze from repeatedly turning toward him.

To the extent that Miso’s words to do his best while they were together became a great comfort, to the extent that he wanted to take those words as a guide and greedily take him for himself….

The two, who were staring intently at each other, twitched the muscles around their mouths at the same time, as if mimicking the other’s expression. As Eden let out a faint laugh, a ticklish smile also bloomed on Hajin’s face. Jingle— Once again, the sound of the bell shattering its body in the wind was heard.