If Silk Flowers Bloom by the Water’s Edge Chapter 48

The order was set. It wasn’t about sending the ball to just anyone; they had to keep the order in which it was first sent and received. As the game started, an inexplicably desolate wind blew, freezing the gazes of the three.

Chaho, whooping as if thrilled to be the first kicker, kicked the ball. The ball flew to Yirok. Yirok received it lightly, and the ball, after bouncing off his instep, went to Shinwoo. Shinwoo’s ball returned to Chaho as if back to square one. This meant they had to maintain the order of Chaho, Yirok, Shinwoo until someone became ‘it’.

“Hey! Catch it right! This is too easy to be fun.”

With unexpected perfect rhythm, the ball was passed and received with ease. It was such a smooth pass that one might misunderstand them for three close friends who got along perfectly.

Yirok received the ball coming his way without missing. He placed it on the ground and kicked it accurately in Shinwoo’s direction. He thought he just had to avoid the situation where a bad kick sent the ball into the pond.

Thwump! Shinwoo also received the ball, which flew with a loud sound, without any trouble. What they were doing was a simple game, but looking at their eyes, it was a war. The three boys were staring intently at the glowing ball as if possessed.

After Shinwoo received the ball, Yirok quickly took off his outer coat and threw it on the ground. It had been bearable for about 10 minutes, but it was getting hotter and hotter from head to toe. The other two, wiping sweat with their sleeves, seemed to be in a similar situation as their clothing became lighter.

“Hey! Catch! Don’t miss it like you have two left feet.”

Chaho, who eased his tension with humor, never stopped talking. He became especially talkative when he was about to pass the ball. Yirok maintained his composure as much as possible, received the ball, and successfully passed it to Shinwoo’s side.

The glowing ball quickly made a full circle, passing through Chaho and returning to Yirok. They had all gotten the hang of it to some extent, putting professional players to shame. They powerfully kicked the ball that returned to them in less than 10 seconds.

Yirok moved in the direction the ball was flying and received it with his chest. It was a moment where all he had to do was let the ball flow down and kick it with his foot.

Ah, the groan that escaped him was a natural result. The weight of the ball was different from the start. It was hard and heavy like a lump of rebar, painfully pressing down on his foot. Yirok carefully got into position and sent the ball, then rubbed the top of his sneaker in the dirt.

“Alright! Here it comes!”

It was a game with no breaks, no time-outs. Shinwoo and Chaho kicked the ball leisurely, as if trying to end the match in a flash. A sound like a bat hitting a baseball was heard, and a second later, the ball came flying. It was just as Yirok stepped back to receive the ball. Something soft and long wrapped around Yirok’s waist. He reflexively twisted his body, and his posture broke.

The ball, drawing a sharp trajectory, landed next to Yirok’s foot. The moment Yirok was decided as ‘it’, Chaho shouted in triumph.

“Wow! We finally won! You held out well, outsider. We’re leaving!”

As soon as they saw the ball land in the wrong place, Shinwoo and Chaho started climbing the hill. Wondering if he had fallen for a cunning trick, he checked behind him, but there was only a dry hill with not a single tree branch in sight.

“Hey! You’re going to get caught like that!”

Yirok, now ‘it’, first checked the location of the two fleeing figures. He had memorized the way back to the Nanjubeol mansion on the way there. Thinking he just needed to chase them, Yirok was about to stride up the hill when a strange mountain wind blew.

Yirok, who had reached the middle of the hill, ended up seeing bubbles churning on the water’s surface. The bubbles, floating like oil, were moving, leaving white marks. It was instinct to pay attention to the phenomenon that was gradually approaching the shore, the land. The chaser chasing the chaser. A blue hand slithered out of the pond, groping the ground as if molesting it.

“Shit…”

The fingernails were long and sharp like a beast’s. The black hair that emerged to pick up the ball on the ground was sleek, like a wave.

Without a second glance at the full form of the Yogwi that came out of the pond, Yirok chose to run. It was better to roll down a rocky hill than to confront the Yogwi that had swum out of the pond.

“Kim Yirok! This way! Don’t get lost!”

A voice that sounded like both Chaho’s and Shinwoo’s echoed through the mountains. He ran, using the voices of the guys he’d rather die than be with as a flashlight.

“Kim Yirok!”

“Hey!”

“This way!”

He learned then and there how difficult it was to get his bearings in the mountains on a moonlit night. Chaho’s voice moved from left to right like a galloping horse. Yirok, following that haphazard voice, suddenly found himself thrown in front of a hill. Below the mound he stood on, he could see the pond where they had been playing.

Yirok bent over, hands on his knees, and gasped for breath. In place of Chaho’s mocking voice, small stones began to stir. It was the sound of something dragging itself across the ground on its belly, like a snake.

It was approaching from behind. A powerful presence was scratching at his back with a chilling edge. Pushed to the brink, Yirok quietly picked up a large rock from the ground. The Yogwi, which had been pushing through dirt and rocks, soon made a sound like a cascading waterfall. Sensing the moisture, Yirok leaned his back against a tree and slowly turned around.

[Hello.]

Crazy bastards. The moment he saw the Yogwi’s full form, a laugh escaped him. Its height, taller than the tree Yirok was leaning against, was impressive. From what he knew, it was a Yogwi called a water earthworm. Its appearance was like an earthworm, but its skin and insides were made of water. His knowledge as a trainee Haenang was limited to the fact that its speed was comparable to a cheetah’s. What was its temperament like? Not violent, violent. Hoping for the former, Yirok tightened his grip on the rock.

[Are you the one who dropped this ball?]

It carefully offered the ball, wedged between its long, blue fingernails. When Yirok didn’t take it, the water earthworm brought the ball right up to his face. Behind him was a tree, in front was the Yogwi. He had to buy time to get to an escape route, even if it was just through bravado. One, two, three. Counting the numbers and looking into the distance, Yirok threw the rock, hitting the Yogwi.

Yirok’s image filled the black eyes of the Yogwi, which flinched after being hit in the lip by the rock. In the gap while it puckered its sausage-like lips as if hurt, Yirok ran down the hill.

He had come full circle. He had returned to the pond, the Yogwi’s fortress. But before Yirok, trying to leave the heart of the enemy’s territory, could take even two steps, a water whip came flying.

“Ha…!”

Something both soft and cold grabbed his ankle and dragged him backward. Yirok, who fell forward from the force, held onto the ground and resisted. The stream of water wrapped around his ankle simply let all of his continuous kicks pass right through it.

[I’ll give you the ball back. Let’s play together.]

The words “piss off” were at the tip of his tongue when his body suddenly floated up into the air. His body, lifted by the ankle, plummeted toward the pond.

Splash!

Yirok’s consciousness was intact until he saw the surface distort. The pond he fell into was more bone-chillingly cold than the sea. Yirok quietly let out a stream of bubbles and stopped struggling.

He had always said “let death come if it will,” but he had never considered the method of dying. To think he would drown in water.

Once he relaxed his body, the rest was easy. It was a shame he wouldn’t get to see the troubled faces of the two guys who would be in a bind because of his death. In any case, it was a relief for Chaehwa, and a relief for Sarira that one pawn she could handle was gone. Thinking about it, there were many things that were fortunate because of his death.

‘A fortunate death.’ 

Just as Yirok was mocking himself and entrusting his future to the languid current, dring, dring, a vibration and notification sound that shouldn’t be audible underwater woke him from his slumber. Water was about to enter his mouth and choke him. Yirok gathered what little breath he had, took a gulp, and opened his eyes.

Lying prone on hard ground, he coughed up water. The place he had landed was not the afterlife. Abandoned in the familiar abyss, Yirok painstakingly lay on his back and touched the pocket from which the vibration was coming.

It seemed he had succeeded in materializing an object in the abyss without an incense burner. With a wet hand, Yirok tapped the text message displayed on his phone screen.

「Don’t die, Yirok」

His trembling hand slowly lowered the phone. The subsequent text bore Chaehwa’s name, but it couldn’t have actually been sent by her.

「Live, and let’s see each other again in the morning」

The hollow laugh that burst out soon covered Yirok’s entire face. After reading the fake text from the fake phone, Yirok buried his smiling face in his arm.

“The texts we exchange here don’t exist in reality. Things that happen in the abyss are just things that happen in the abyss. They’re like an illusion created by our will.”

He remembered Chaehwa’s words telling him not to get too deeply addicted to the abyss. But he was trapped in the abyss again. As if in defiance of Chaehwa’s words, he felt no desire to leave.

His desire to get his phone back had been reflected in the abyss. And as if that wasn’t enough, he had received the words he wanted to hear from Chaehwa through a text message.

There was no way she would say, ‘Please live.’

The day would come when she would naturally say, ‘Please die.’

The age of eighteen was cruel in that one’s heart could be easily stolen and deluded, like an unripe persimmon.

Yirok held the phone with the fake message and laughed for a long time.