The Dokkaebi Waiting for the Moon

Chapter 16

At first, he couldn’t see it and thought he had mistakenly grabbed the wrong thing. Remembering his habit of trying to touch something whenever he had the chance, Eun-hwi forgot the fear creeping up on his skin and jumped up.

“W-why are you touching my butt!”

“I was checking if you’re really the Kim Eun-hwi I know. You could be a shape-shifting fox pretending to wear a dokkaebi hat.”

“And that’s why you touch my butt?”

“I was checking if you had a tail. To distinguish between a human and a monster, you need to check the tailbone.”

His narrow eyes curved gently into a warm expression. Realizing the sudden change in atmosphere, Eun-hwi finally understood that it wasn’t him who had been teased, but himself.

“Tch…”

“That’s revenge for tickling me.”

“You weren’t even ticklish. And you got so angry.”

“I wasn’t angry at Eun-hwi, but at the shape-shifting fox. And I was ticklish.”

“You’re lying.”

“It’s true. It was hard to control my expression, you know?”

“…Really?”

Wondering if it was true, Eun-hwi looked up blankly. Yeo Moon-beom patted his butt once more as if to finish, then reached into the air to remove the dokkaebi hat.

“Let’s stop playing now and go back. To home.”

His black eyes, which had been struggling to focus properly, now fixed exactly on the point that was Eun-hwi. A deep shadow fell over his eyes, which held a different temperature from that of a ghost.

Eun-hwi, who had been staring blankly as if being drawn into his own reflection on the water’s surface, asked with a dazed face.

“We’re going home?”

“Yes, we need to treat your wounds.”

“…Okay.”

Suddenly, his heart began to pound at the many meanings implied in the word ‘home’ and the fact that it was none other than Yeo Moon-beom who had uttered that word.

This feeling of his throat tickling as if he had taken a bite of a fruit full of sweet juice, and his chest fluttering as if he had entered deep water where his feet couldn’t touch the bottom – what could it be?

Feeling awkward about the small stirring in his heart, Eun-hwi wrinkled his nose for no reason. Then, while maintaining eye contact with the being who was confusing him, he grumbled deliberately.

“…I’ll get angry if you don’t give me chocolate milk.”

“What if I say I don’t want to give it to you because I want to see you angry?”

At those clearly teasing words, Eun-hwi narrowed his eyes into triangles.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Just kidding. I’ll give it to you.”

Yeo Moon-beom laughed heartily. Though he didn’t say it, he seemed extremely pleased to be able to eat the hericium mushroom.

Although he couldn’t get the oyster mushrooms, he could finally repay him. His resentment towards the nasty crows and annoying squirrels melted away.

Yeo Moon-beom’s bright smile, filled with condensed language. Looking at that smile, unlike any he had seen on any human, Eun-hwi’s lips spread involuntarily.

“Hehe.”

The half-dokkaebi, his shoulders raised again, thought that was enough. It had been worth running around the mountain since noon.

The sunset light tinged his happily raised cheeks.

The sun was already setting.

Yeo Moon-beom sat Eun-hwi on the wooden platform and turned on the camping lantern that Park Jeongbae had brought the day before.

In the brightened view, he took out the chocolate milk from the icebox and opened the tightly sealed opening. The chocolate scent that seemed to swallow the entire breath wafted out strongly.

“Drink it.”

“Ga-ya, cho-co-late, milk. Co-co-a, pow-der, con-tained?”

Eun-hwi, who had been reading aloud the letters on the milk carton, brought his eyes close to the diamond-shaped opening and peered inside. His expression was quite serious, like a scientist observing microscopic cells through a microscope.

“Come on, drink it. It’ll be delicious.”

“Yeo Moon-beom.”

“What?”

“Is this really… the mysterious elixir?”

Contrary to the expectation that he would gulp it down full of anticipation, Eun-hwi asked cautiously with a darkened expression.

“Yes, it’s the mysterious elixir. See, it says ‘chocolate milk’ right here.”

“But…”

“Is there a problem?”

“…Well. Father said not to eat anything that smells sweet and has a brown color because it’s poison.”

“Poison?”

Ha.

Yeo Moon-beom let out a laugh at the word that sounded like it belonged in a historical drama. To think of poison when looking at chocolate milk, of all things.

For him, chocolate milk was clearly an unidentifiable liquid composed of language he had never heard before, so it wasn’t incomprehensible.

Nevertheless, it was perplexing to know where to begin explaining to the half-dokkaebi who had lived a life detached from modern civilization.

As Yeo Moon-beom was contemplating the processing method of cocoa beans and the production process of milk secreted from cow’s mammary glands, he ended all explanations with one concise statement.

“It’s not like that, so don’t worry and drink it.”

“…But still.”

“Don’t you trust me?”

He had even threatened to get angry if not given it, but now that he received the unfamiliar drink he had never tasted before, he seemed scared. The small, white fingers wrapping around the milk carton fidgeted nervously.

‘Something terrible happens if you carelessly eat what others give you.’

There was no need to be cautious now, though.

Until just a moment ago, Eun-hwi had been smiling loosely with a relaxed face. Knowing full well why his expression had changed, Yeo Moon-beom felt inexplicably displeased and snatched the milk carton away, opening his lips demonstratively.

“…Gasp.”

He deliberately didn’t put his mouth on the opening and received the milk. The opaque dark brown liquid flowed into his open mouth in a parabola.

Gulp.

He swallowed it down his throat, feeling the unpleasant sweetness he knew without even having to roll his tongue. A complex gaze mixed with curiosity about the mysterious elixir and worried disbelief stuck to his face.

“Do you believe me now?”

Yeo Moon-beom wiped his mouth with the back of his hand without showing any expression.

Feeling guilty for harboring vague suspicions, the sulfur-colored eyes that couldn’t hide their anxiety were now overlaid with remorse. His flustered appearance, not knowing what to do, was also visible. Observing Eun-hwi’s reactions closely, Yeo Moon-beom handed the milk carton back to him and said,

“Make a promise with me.”

“A promise? What kind of promise?”

“From now on, believe everything I say.”

“…”

“You’re not answering.”

As he stretched out his arm as if to take it back, Eun-hwi slightly twisted his body to protect the chocolate milk. Despite everything, he was still a half-dokkaebi who couldn’t give up his curiosity about the unknown world.

“Okay, I promise. Because Yeo Moon-beom doesn’t lie.”

At the following words, the line of his furrowed brow smoothed out as if ironed flat. For him, a born con artist, those words were more pleasing to hear than anything else.

Oddly enough, the inexplicable unpleasantness that had been grating on his nerves disappeared. A sense of satisfaction spread through him, like pulling off a small hangnail around his nails that he couldn’t bite off with his lower teeth.

“Good boy. Our Eun-hwi.”

Yeo Moon-beom gently stroked the back of his head, which was rounded like a small rice cake. His hair, which seemed to hold the Milky Way and shone brighter as the darkness deepened, slipped smoothly between his thick fingers.

“All dokkaebi are naturally good.”

“I didn’t say you’re good because you’re a dokkaebi, I said you’re good because you’re Eun-hwi.”

“What does that mean?”

Eun-hwi asked, blinking slowly, not understanding the meaning.

“It means you’re more special. Than other dokkaebi.”

His already large eyes widened like a surprised rabbit’s. As he quietly gazed at the almond-shaped eyes that curved, he smiled as if to confirm, and Eun-hwi replied in a small voice, his face slightly flushed.

“…Yeo Moon-beom is also more special than other humans.”

“Is that why you brought me the hericium mushroom?”

“Yes. You cook for me every day. I should repay you.”

Eun-hwi smiled brightly, holding the chocolate milk tightly in his hand.

Repayment, huh.

There was no such thing as kindness without reason in this world. People often try to wrap their actions in the pretty words of good deeds, but underneath lies the implicit rule of give and take.

Even if the beneficiary doesn’t want it, there’s an unspoken rule that they must follow the intentions of the one providing help.

From the moment he was born as the child of an unmarried mother until now, when he became the heir to a corporate criminal organization, Yeo Moon-beom had learned this painfully.

It was ridiculous, even pathetic, that he didn’t even doubt there was a reason for feeding him well in such a harsh world.

Don’t trust me too much.

There’s nothing good that will come of it.

Contrary to the sincere inner monologue, he felt no guilt for deceiving the naive dokkaebi. After all, he was an object obtained as a prize from a bet.

An object that seemed to have value for use in revenge.

That’s all there was to it.

“Go ahead and drink it. It’s a taste you’ll like, Eun-hwi.”

However, Yeo Moon-beom kindly encouraged him to drink without revealing any emotion.

“Okay. I will.”

The white hand, now free of hesitation, moved following the invitation. The 500ml milk carton, as big as his palm, soon covered most of his harmless-looking face.

Gulp, gulp.

The sound of him continuously swallowing the milk was incessant, making his earlier concerns about poison seem ridiculous. To anyone watching, it looked like he hadn’t had a drop of water for days.

“How is it? Tasty?”

For all his pretense of being a man, the baby dokkaebi with his fluffy down had an Adam’s apple protruding prominently. Yeo Moon-beom stared intently at the bobbing Adam’s apple, waiting for his impression of tasting chocolate milk for the first time.