The Dokkaebi Waiting for the Moon

Chapter 7

He was Kim the mister who truly loved touching things with his own hands. When Eun-hwi nodded and floated the dokkaebi fire in the air, the man brought his fingertips to the flame. Blue sparks erupted from where they touched, bouncing around the surrounding area.

“…Ugh.”

As he caressed the flame, tracing its oval shape, he stroked the long tail with his palm. Though it wasn’t his own body being touched, perhaps because their energies were connected, it felt strange, like when his horns were touched. His nape felt chilly for no reason, and his body hair stood on end.

“It looks cold, but it feels burning hot.”

Although his hand wasn’t actually burning because it was a spiritual fire, it seemed to pique his interest, as the man’s lips curved into a languid smile.

“…It’s exciting.”

Exciting?

Was he saying he was thrilled by how amazing the dokkaebi fire was?

“Ahem.”

Eun-hwi deliberately cleared his throat and made the flame even larger, wanting to show off the greatness of dokkaebis. While it was difficult to transform his entire body into dokkaebi fire, this much was child’s play.

“Is this more exciting?”

He wanted to make the first human who had conversed with him and the first guest to visit the dokkaebi house as thrilled as possible.

Eun-hwi tossed the fireball between his left and right hands, then spun it around like in a fireworks display.

As he excitedly drew a dragon in the air, the man’s black eyes, reflected in the flickering light, gleamed blue as if igniting the flames themselves. It was a mysterious emotion that Eun-hwi couldn’t understand, beyond mere enjoyment.

“That’s enough playing around.”

The man grabbed Eun-hwi’s slender wrist, lowering it, and continued speaking.

“If we do more, I might ejaculate.”

“…Ejaculate? What’s that?”

“It’s something that happens.”

“What kind of thing?”

The man raised one corner of his mouth, slowly blinked, and whispered:

“Something that comes out… when you’re too aroused?”

“Aroused?”

“I mean, when you become so ecstatic from just imagining that you can’t hold back anymore.”

There was only one thing that came out when you couldn’t hold back. Eun-hwi asked innocently with a smile:

“What kind of imagination makes you that ecstatic?”

“Well. Imagining breaking taboos?”

I didn’t think he was the type, but he must be a bed-wetter with poor self-control.

Eun-hwi suddenly remembered Gabi’s warning not to play with fire, saying he’d wet the bed at night if he did.

Although there was nothing as ecstatic as playing with fire, and he had secretly played with it regardless of the warning, Eun-hwi had never had an accident in bed. It seemed the man wasn’t so fortunate.

Giggling, he brought his hand holding the fire closer to his body. Focused on reducing the size of the flame, he didn’t notice the man’s dangerous expression, like a predator eyeing its prey.

“…I get excited imagining killing my father.”

Eun-hwi didn’t hear those faint words either.

“Stay here.”

The house “Hwichukdang,” built in the late Joseon period, consisted only of a nine-room L-shaped main building and a straight outbuilding, without a separate men’s quarters.

Although he wanted to have the man stay in the outbuilding, he couldn’t treat the first guest to visit the house carelessly. Eun-hwi guided the man to the dressing room, which had a mirror stand and mother-of-pearl wardrobe. It was the room at the end of the wing farthest from the main room.

“Quite spacious.”

The man set down his bag in a corner of the room and slowly looked around, his gaze stopping on one wall. There hung a scroll with a portrait of Gabi.

“Hey. Mr. Kim.”

“Yes?”

“Do you know my father?”

“Father?”

“Kim, Ga, Bi. Kim Gabi.”

“Ah… the jangseung dokkaebi Kim Gabi. Of course. I know him very well.”

A light, cool smile played on his lips. Staring intently at Gabi, wearing a red robe embroidered with peacocks and a black hat, the man muttered to himself.

“He looks quite old to be a father… I guess that doesn’t matter for dokkaebis?”

“My father isn’t old, though?”

Yesterday, he had called Gabi the dokkaebi old man. Eun-hwi had thought it was just a respectful way of addressing him, but now it seemed that wasn’t the case.

Thick eyebrows, a straight nose bridge, full lips, perfectly symmetrical features, a tall and slender figure. The father Kim Gabi that Eun-hwi remembered was quite a handsome dokkaebi.

Completely forgetting that Gabi was skilled in shapeshifting, Eun-hwi looked at the man with suspicious eyes.

“You said you were deceived last night. Was that really about my father?”

“There was a bit of a misunderstanding yesterday. We are indeed well acquainted.”

The man sighed lightly and extended his left hand, showing a silver ring on his middle finger.

“Look at this. Your dad gave me this ring.”

The ring was embossed with the same green-glazed demon face tile pattern engraved on the front door handle. Just as Eun-hwi was bending down with widened eyes,

“Ah.”

The man noticed something in the firelight and rubbed the ring against his clothes. It was a bloodstain from when he had beaten Yang Jincheol the night before.

Acting as if nothing had happened, the man offered the ring to Eun-hwi again, his eyes crescent-shaped.

“Look closely. It’s a dokkaebi ring, right?”

The fierce expression, the two horns on the head, and the sharp fangs were clearly those of a dokkaebi. As the half-dokkaebi closely examined the pattern, the shadow of disbelief quickly disappeared from his face.

“It’s real! It’s Father’s energy!”

Confirming Gabi’s lingering thoughts in the ring, Eun-hwi couldn’t hide his joy and began jumping up and down.

It was an energy he hadn’t felt for ten years. Although time passes differently for dokkaebis and humans, he couldn’t help but miss his only family after being separated for so long.

“By the way.”

“Hmm?”

The man, who had been quietly showing the ring, looked down at the face full of joy and asked.

“How old is Eun-hwi?”

“…Huh?”

“How old are you?”

“Age? Umm…”

Having lived on a remote island and never attended a village school like ordinary humans, nor having learned mathematics separately, the half-dokkaebi was clumsy at calculating numbers.

Floating the fire from his palm into the air, Eun-hwi began folding his fingers one by one to count his age.

“One, two, three, four…”

Slowly, to avoid confusion, he used all the fingers on both hands, folding and unfolding them one by one. Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen… Finally unfolding the thumb of his right hand, which he had been keeping folded, he reached the largest number he knew.

“Twenty!”

“Twenty? You’re twenty years old?”

Eun-hwi shook his head hurriedly and counted again. He concentrated so hard on folding his fingers that his parted lips gradually protruded and his brows furrowed slightly.

“Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen… Fifteen!”

“Fifteen?”

“Twenty fifteen times. I’m an adult now!”

Because the standards of the human world and the spirit world were different, he had finally become an adult after experiencing twenty fifteen times. Although he hadn’t been able to have his coming-of-age ceremony because Gabi hadn’t returned, he had reached the age where he could be treated as a full adult.

“If it’s twenty, it’s twenty, but what’s twenty fifteen times? Are you three hundred years old?”

“That’s right. Twenty fifteen times…”

“Are you sure you’re not lying about being fifteen?”

“No, I’m not!”

Eun-hwi blushed, his cheeks flushed as he counted on his fingers again. He didn’t know numbers beyond twenty, so he couldn’t express it in exact units, but he had always counted his age accurately out of a desire to become an adult as soon as possible.

“You look like a baby no matter how I look at you. Tell the truth. Don’t lie for no reason.”

“I’m not lying. Father said the grim reaper would take me away if I lied.”

This isn’t a five-year-old kid who believes in Santa Claus.

The man, scanning the boy with a refined gaze, snorted.

If his name really went on the register every time he lied, as the boy said, he would already be a dead man.

Not only that, but there might not be any survivors left, and perhaps the world would have ended.

“You just did it earlier. Lied.”

“When did I?”

“You said you weren’t waiting for me when you were.”

“I was just checking with flower petals if you’d come or not, I wasn’t waiting… Really. It’s not a lie.”

Whether he felt wronged by the misunderstanding or was afraid the grim reaper might come for him, tears welled up in his clear, bead-like eyes.

He had seen countless con artists and liars while running gambling dens. Seeing the precarious appearance where the gathered tears seemed about to spill over at the slightest touch, the man finally realized that the boy’s words were not lies.

As a non-human being, he couldn’t believe everything at face value, but at least the claim about becoming an adult seemed to be true.

The man scanned the youthful face with its soft down once more and replied with a crooked smile.

“Alright. Twenty fifteen times. You’re a proper adult. Not a baby.”

“Yeah. I really am an adult.”

“I’m thirty. I’m an adult too.”

“Thirty? Then… uh…”

It was a number he hadn’t learned yet. Eun-hwi folded the fingers of both hands, trying to count forcibly, when he suddenly groaned.

If only he had known, he would have learned numbers properly from Gabi. He was frustrated that he couldn’t calculate it easily.

“Twenty plus half of twenty.”

Just as his eyes were rolling in confusion at the seemingly unsolvable problem, the man provided the answer like a savior. The half-dokkaebi’s face, which had been mired in complex calculations, instantly brightened.

“Ah! So it’s twenty plus half of twenty!”

Being even taller than his father, it had been difficult to guess his exact age. Eun-hwi folded and unfolded the fingers of both hands, counting half of twenty, which was ten, and finally smiled with a relieved expression.

“Twenty fifteen times, Kim Eun-hwi.”

The man’s finger, which had been pointing at the tie of the white jeogori, turned to point at himself.

“Twenty plus half of twenty, Yeo Moon-beom.”

Having revealed his name, he spoke again, as if emphasizing, in a voice as smooth as flowing water.

“I’m Yeo Moon-beom. That’s my name.”

Yeo Moon-beom, the tiger-like man with the name of a tiger, politely offered a handshake. His expression seemed to ask if Eun-hwi was going to refuse this time too, after they had even introduced themselves.