Magic on the Dead Chapter 49

“…No magician would like their cards getting dirty. That is why we diligently lay down a pad.”

“Hmm.”

When Hajin quietly retorted, Eden stroked his chin meaningfully instead of answering. Hajin, who had forcefully wrung out the laundry, hurriedly changed the subject.

“Byeol was crying a lot earlier. It seems he was startled, thinking we were fighting.”

The moment the tightly wrung laundry was hung on the bathroom stall partition, Eden suddenly burst into laughter.

“Startled, thinking we were fighting? Haha. It would be more believable to say that Jung Byeol is an adult.”

Shaking his head from side to side, he discreetly checked outside the glass door. The rain that had been pouring down fiercely had long since changed back to a drizzle.

“By the way, do you smoke at all?”

Hajin tilted his head as if puzzled by the sudden mention of the word cigarette.

“There were cigarettes?”

“I saw some at the convenience store and brought one to lighten the mood a bit.”

In the hand of the man who had put on all sorts of airs about having shame or not, about taking convenience store food or not, was a pack of cigarettes with a familiar logo.

“Did you get permission before bringing them?”

“From those people? Why? They’re not the owners of this place.”

Answering nonchalantly, he tapped the bottom of the cigarette pack. Tap, tap.

“I plan on taking a good amount of food, as long as it isn’t overdoing it. From what I saw, there are quite a lot of ready-to-eat meals, so we should be fine for a while.”

“…Will they really give us that much? That pseudo-cult group will need to leave some reserves for themselves. We should talk to them,”

Eden, who was rummaging through his pockets for a disposable lighter, abruptly lifted his head.

“After being humiliated like that, you’re still thinking of getting permission from that bastard? Are you serious?”

That was the only reprimand he uttered, but for some reason, Hajin felt like he could read another sentiment in Eden’s expression. It was a face that seemed to say, Is he an idiot, or just naive?

“Th-that’s not it, but still, if that pseudo-cult bastard tries to harm us while we’re taking it…!”

“If he tries to harm us, we’ll just kill him, I suppose.”

“……”

“I’m joking.”

For a joke, Eden’s lips had hardened menacingly, if only for a moment.

“…When Mr. Jung Taegeon says it, everything sounds serious, you know? Please stop making jokes like that. You did the same thing last time.”

“Why. Is it okay for Mr. Do Hajin, but not for me? I clearly heard you warn him you were going to kill him just a moment ago.”

Hajin’s ears burned as if they would explode. The shame of a new embarrassing memory being created made a hot sigh escape him.

“…I just said that because I was angry.”

“It sounded quite sincere.”

Eden smiled and forcefully pushed open the bathroom door. A startled Hajin followed closely behind him.

After handing the hatchet to Hajin, he looked around, searching for a place to smoke. Behind the building, under a tent set up amidst an overgrown patch of grass, two benches were installed side by side.

“Have a seat.”

After some hesitation, Hajin sat down next to him. In the meantime, Eden took out a cigarette.

“What if the zombies come, smelling the cigarette smoke?”

“Hmm. If such an entity exists, I think it would be more appropriate to call it a new species of humanity rather than a zombie.”

Eden, who checked his wristwatch out of habit, shook his head.

“They probably won’t show up because of the smell. If they were going to appear, they should have appeared a long time ago when Jung Byeol was screaming his head off.”

“Ah.”

“If you’re so worried, how about you stand guard for me, Mr. Do Hajin.”

…Who’s protecting whom. What nonsense.

Hajin, feigning indifference and ignoring Eden’s words, carefully placed the hatchet he was holding onto the bench. When he raised his head, he could see clusters of stars shining as if they were about to pour down, embedded between the dark clouds. It was a night that reminded him of the observatory he had once visited with his younger brother, Junseok.

“Wow….”

It was ironic. The fact that they could enjoy a dust-free, clean sky and fresh air thanks to the shutdown factories, and the fact that they could see the Milky Way in the middle of a South Korean city, all of it.

Click, flick. As he was enjoying the night sky, he heard the sound of a cigarette being lit.

“Seeing as you sat right next to me, I figured you probably weren’t a non-smoker.”

Eden took a drag from the lit cigarette and then immediately offered it to Hajin. Hajin carefully accepted the cigarette, which was burning like a red dot.

Soon after, Eden took out a new cigarette and put it to his lips. Inhale, exhale— A sigh-like smoke spread from his mouth.

“You seemed sensitive about hand cleanliness, but do you normally smoke?”

Hajin shook his head while drawing in the thick smoke.

“No. I used to smoke a little back when I did cigarette magic, but, exhale— I don’t smoke now.”

“Cigarette magic?”

“It’s simple. Well, something like this.”

Hajin, making eye contact with Eden, whoosh!— blew out a puff of smoke like a cumulus cloud. Eden faintly narrowed his brows at the smoke that obstructed his vision like a fog. When his vision cleared again, the cigarette that had been in Hajin’s mouth was gone.

“Huh? Where did my cigarette go?”

With his characteristic playful voice, Hajin’s head turned to the other side.

“Ah, here it is.”

When he looked back at Eden, the half-smoked cigarette was perched on Hajin’s lips. He had not used his hands, and not even two seconds had passed. Eden frowned as if to say he was incorrigible, watching Hajin perform magic with just about anything.

“Aren’t you amazed? It’s magic for adults, something I haven’t done in a while, so give me some applause.”

Hajin threw the shortened cigarette to the ground and crushed it with his foot.

“Well, it may not be my taste, but Byeol will like it.”

“Are you crazy? Why would I do cigarette magic in front of a kid?”

As Hajin shuddered, Eden blew smoke towards him as if in revenge. Cough, cough! Just as Hajin, who had quickly fanned the smoke away with his hand, was about to get up to escape it.

Grip. A distinct pressure tightened around his wrist, and Hajin turned his head in a half-risen posture.

“I’m done smoking too, so there’s no need to move.”

“……”

Hajin’s head lowered. Beyond his dim vision, he could see the back of Eden’s white hand and his neat knuckles holding his wrist. The man’s body heat, where his palm and wrist met his artery, felt particularly hot. It was, for certain, the most perfect and flawless hand he had ever seen.

The firm grip was released cleanly as soon as he sat back down on the bench. When the body heat that had held him in place disappeared, he felt a sense of disappointment for no reason.

‘I wanted to look at his hand some more.’

Hajin thought that his mind was not quite right today.

“…Anyway, what was that about Byeol earlier? If he wasn’t crying because he thought we were fighting, then why did the kid,”

“Isn’t the reason obvious? Jung Byeol is your huge fan. As you are already aware.”

Hajin smiled faintly and leaned back against the bench’s backrest. Eden added an explanation for Hajin, who was looking at the distant sky with a languid air.

“To be honest, it’s not that simple. The kid’s condition is rather severe… to the point where an insult towards Mr. Do Hajin feels like an insult directed at himself.”

Hajin’s head, which had been tilted all the way back, now turned to the side. As if responding to his questioning expression, Eden continued speaking.

“It hasn’t even been a year since Byeol immigrated to America.”

As the story he had been secretly curious about came out of his mouth, Hajin’s ears perked up.

“My hyung ran a small restaurant in Korea, and it seems his body was quite worn out, because he suddenly asked me if living in America was any better. Ah, for reference, Byeol’s dad is my hyung.”

Hajin nodded slowly, as if to show he was listening.

“How I was living was something you could easily find out just by searching the internet, but he insisted on hearing it from my own mouth. It seemed like he wanted to come over here, so I told him to come to America without much thought. I could arrange a job for him anytime, and the child’s education expenses weren’t a big problem for me.”

Eden continued to speak, neither too slow nor too fast.

“I thought they were settling in quite well, but then a problem occurred.”

Byeol, who he had assumed would adapt well to the unfamiliar environment due to his energetic nature, soon began to stay up all night crying and throwing tantrums, saying he wanted to go back to Korea.

The child’s depression worsened with each passing day, and on some days, he would refuse to eat and just stare at his phone all day. When that continued for about half a year, even his parents started to lose their vitality.

“One day, I got off work early and went to my hyung’s place next door, and I saw the child laughing out loud.”

Eden’s gaze turned towards the edge of the tent where raindrops were falling, as if he were retracing the scene from that day.

“I wondered what he was watching, and it was your magic videos.”

“…Ah.”

“That was the first time I saw the child laugh. He had never once laughed after coming to America.”

Hajin was in a state of bewilderment the entire time at this unexpected story. He had only asked a light question, but an unexpectedly heavy story was pouring out of his mouth one after another.

“The reason I brought Jung Byeol on this business trip wasn’t actually because of homesickness, but because of Mr. Do Hajin’s magic show. Was it about half a year ago? After you mentioned in a video that you would be holding a magic show, Jung Byeol kept insisting on going to Korea, which gave me quite a hard time.”

He said that Jung Byeol had been so expectant that even on the long-haul flight, he fell asleep hugging the children’s magic show kit that Hajin had sold online.

Eden glanced mischievously at Hajin’s somewhat dazed face and added.

“Do you now understand why Jung Byeol threw such a fit?”