Magic on the Dead Chapter 83

“Hey, hey, why are you kids trying to go in there!”

The place the children were heading toward was the room filled with corpses. Panicked, Hajin ran over and blocked the doorway.

“I told you to go home, why aren’t you listening? Huh?”

At his scolding, the younger brother answered, sniffling.

“O-our dad said there are vitamin drinks in here… He said he bought some last time. There are puffed rice snacks too… We’re hungry, we want to eat…”

“…Ah.”

He was at a loss for words again. The food the children mentioned was all currently inside the bundle he was carrying.

Hajin scratched his cheek in embarrassment and his eyes met with Eden’s, who was watching them with his arms crossed.

🃏

On the rooftop of the village community center, at a parasol table.

Eden quietly watched the children as they frantically ate the puffed rice snacks, getting powder on the space above their lips. Their faces were grimy with dirt, and tear tracks had dried all over them.

“Dad said he was going to bring food, that he’d be back by 3 o’clock. We were so hungry. But then I remembered he said he bought drinks at the community center a while ago, so I came with my little brother.”

“A-and we lost our grandma, um, she was right in front.”

Eden, who had nodded once in response to the children’s disjointed story, chided them with an indifferent face.

“Still, you shouldn’t be wandering around by yourselves without an adult. What would you do if something bad happened? Don’t do it again.”

“…Okay.”

The children looked on timidly, their faces full of fear.

Looking at the children’s round eyes, which contrasted with their ragged appearance, he was naturally reminded of his niece, Byeol. Had he been influenced by Do Hajin, who constantly talked about his longing for their companions?

Was she eating well, was she sick anywhere, was she behaving… Even though these weren’t problems that could be solved with worry, he had been wasting his emotions a lot more lately.

“Kids. Eat slowly, you’ll get indigestion.”

Regardless of Eden’s thoughts, Hajin had sat down right next to the children, taking on the role of a guardian. When it seemed like they were choking, he would hand them a vitamin drink, and if they said they wanted sweet bean jelly, he would peel the wrapper himself and place it in their hands.

And when the siblings held back tears while missing their dead grandmother, he even joined them, the tip of his nose turning red.

Meanwhile, he seemed to be hungry himself, as he didn’t miss out on his own share, stuffing it into his mouth. His thin cheeks puffed up like a squirrel hiding acorns.

Eden scanned Hajin’s rather long hair, the space above his lip where not a single whisker grew, the sharp and soft bridge of his nose like the toe of a traditional Korean sock, and his cheeks that had been noticeably flushed for the past few days.

As he savored the strange face where shabbiness and neatness coexisted, a small question suddenly occurred to him.

‘Just when did I become so… soft on Do Hajin.’

Like the current situation of sharing food with children he didn’t even know, there were an increasing number of moments when he would choose to see Hajin’s comfortable face, even if it meant taking a loss.

Was it the fingertips that had handed him the purple flower that was the beginning? Or was it the lips that had boasted he wouldn’t die?

As he traced back to the starting point, various afterimages flashed through his mind. Scenes with nothing in common began to press down gently on his chest.

The heat that bloomed in their clasped hands, and the strong Adam’s apple that had endured sorrow…

Just then, Hajin, who had been patting the child’s back, glanced back at Eden.

“……”

“……”

Perhaps misunderstanding his thoughtful gaze, he fidgeted and offered an unprompted excuse.

“I’m eating well. So you should eat too, Mr. Jung Taegeon.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

Ahem! Hajin, who let out a dry cough in embarrassment, rummaged through the bundle. Soon, a bright red Hwatu card case appeared on the table.

“Where did you get that?”

To the question laced with bewilderment, he fanned out the Hwatu cards neatly and shrugged.

“I saw it when I was digging through the food earlier. It would’ve been nice if they were poker cards, but I brought them as a substitute.”

His fingertips, much more damaged than before, slowly traced the texture of the cards. Curiosity began to fill the eyes of the children, which had been as dead as a pollack’s.

Hajin easily drew their attention.

“Okay, from now on, we’re going to play a very fun game. First, I want you to pick the prettiest card from here. Don’t tell me, just think of it in your head. Got it?”

“…P-pick now?”

“Yep. Don’t point with your finger, just in your mind.”

Their hesitation and nervous glances were brief; soon, the children were completely captivated by Hajin’s amazing patter and dazzling sleight of hand.

“Wow!”

In response to their cheers, he performed various impromptu tricks.

Do Hajin, who had boasted that he wasn’t so easy as to perform magic for just anyone, was wasting his talent more freely than anyone else. He had intended to rest, but instead, he ended up just wasting his energy.

“If I spread it out here… the two chrysanthemum cards you mentioned earlier! How about that?”

“Woooow…!”

After that, the enthusiastic show continued tirelessly.

Eden, unable to watch any longer, had to tell him to stop before the show, which had lasted a full hour, finally ended. Hajin gave the two chrysanthemum cards to the children, who were stomping their feet in the lingering excitement, as a souvenir.

“Magician hyung, thank you.”

“Thank you!”

The children, with much brighter faces than before, gave a vigorous farewell. Soon, the siblings, seen off by Pi, disappeared down the stairs.

Hajin approached the railing and quietly watched the backs of the children as they left. Thankfully, there were no signs of zombies. As he let out a relieved sigh, beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

“Why go to such lengths? It’s not like you have energy to spare.”

When Eden, who had approached him at some point, admonished him, Hajin waved his hand dismissively.

“We still have a lot of break time left. I’ll make sure not to cause any trouble…”

“I’m not nagging you, I’m worried about your condition, Mr. Do Hajin. Do you even know what your own face looks like right now?”

Swallowing his annoyance, Eden tapped his reddened cheek with the back of his hand. Tuk. Hajin blinked and then let out a foolish exclamation.

“…Oh.”

“What’s with that reaction?”

“It’s just that, Mr. Jung Taegeon… just when I think you’re kind of a jerk, you’re also strangely kind.”

Eden’s body froze as he was about to return to the parasol. He sighed and pulled on the arm of the overwhelmingly honest Hajin.

“When I look at you, there’s really nothing you won’t say.”

At the low, muttered voice, Hajin belatedly took the hint.

As they sat down again under the parasol, the tail of Pi, who was dozing on the floor, wagged. Thump, thump. Hajin, who had poked Pi’s wet nose, tok, smiled sheepishly at Eden, who was handing him a bottle of water.

“Seeing the kids reminded me of the old days. When I was exactly their age, I was very self-conscious and often acted in ways that weren’t age-appropriate.”

He stared into the air as if searching his memories.

“I think I was 10. A magician came to the community center, and he was particularly playful with my brother and me. Even after his volunteer hours were over, he showed us magic for hours. Sweating profusely… Back then, I wondered why he was so dedicated, but thinking about it now, he probably felt sorry for us because we weren’t acting like kids.”

Eden’s gaze shifted to Hajin’s hands, which were fiddling with the Hwatu cards.

Community center, brother, volunteer… He never talked about his family except for his younger brother; it seemed he didn’t have parents from the beginning. He thought he had vaguely heard him mention an uncle before… Swallowing his assumptions, he changed the direction of his question.

“Was that when you first encountered magic?”

“Yes, the magician I met then is my master.”

“You decided on your dream at a pretty early age. Your master must have had a big influence.”

“Mmm…”

After a hum, Hajin began to move the cards around with his knuckles again.

“To be honest, this was the only thing I was good at. When I did interviews and such, I would often say things like I became a magician because I wanted to protect people’s romance and childhood innocence… but that was just something I made up.”

“For something like that, you seem quite sincere.”

The Bi Gwang card that had been moving on his fingers fell to the floor. Hajin chuckled at his supportive words.

“As I added meaning to it later on, at some point it became sincere.”

“The belief that you will protect romance and childhood innocence?”

Hajin, who had been picking up the fallen card, suddenly looked up with a mischievous face.

“Mr. Jung Taegeon, you’re very interested in me today, aren’t you?”

He asked playfully, but for some reason, the man just stared at Hajin without offering any particular response.

“……”

What is this? Hajin, who was instead flustered by the sudden silence, averted his eyes and continued to ramble.

“It’s not so much a belief as a promise, I guess. Think about it, what if I’m the only magician left in the world? Wouldn’t I have to survive to preserve humanity’s childhood innocence and romance?”

He seemed to find his own words amusing as he grinned continuously. But Eden didn’t laugh. It was because he had caught a glimpse of the undeniable sincerity buried within the playful words.

He watched Hajin, who was awkwardly composing his smile, and slowly tilted his head.

A sudden curiosity arose.

That voice, full of the conviction to protect humanity’s romance—would it too, one day, remain as a vivid afterimage in a corner of his memory?

Perhaps embarrassed by his persistent staring, Hajin’s gaze fell to the table. Like a 10-year-old child, he continued to play, fidgeting with the Hwatu card case.

In the middle of an overly quiet town, where the shadow of death loomed large, the two men, in their own ways, continuously observed and explored each other.