MB Ch 5 part 2

Startled, Bari straightened up and coughed awkwardly.

“N-Nothing. I’m not daydreaming about anything!”

“I can feel your pulse racing.”

Darn it. He was monitoring her pulse from her wrist?

“I wasn’t thinking about anything. Now, this is the character for ‘one’ (一), right? I know this one.”

Bari frantically spoke. She heard a low chuckle. No way. Was Mujang laughing?

She looked up at him in shock. He was really laughing. He wasn’t sneering at her. He was truly smiling with joy. The curve of his lips as he laughed looked quite… adorable.

“What?”

“N-Nothing.”

“Focus.”

Mujang’s smile disappeared, and he continued writing. What a shame. She wanted to see it again. His smile… But she was also a bit afraid. What was she doing right now? Why did she want to see his smile again? Get a hold of yourself, Bari!

“You can let go now. I know this one.”

Bari hurriedly escaped from his arms and frantically whispered.

“What you know isn’t important. What’s important is how you hold the brush.”

“No, what I’m saying is, I’ll hold…”

She pulled her hand out of his grasp. The ink on the brush splattered out. Specks landed across the paper where they had been writing.

“Ah! Are you okay?”

Bari looked back at him in shock. Mujang looked down at her and burst into laughter!

“Wh-What is it?”

She asked in bewilderment, but he merely continued to guffaw.

Suddenly, she reached up to her face and wiped her skin. As expected, she found something black on her fingertips. It seemed that black moles had appeared on her face. There wasn’t a mirror around, so she didn’t know for sure, but seeing Mujang doubled over in laughter made her feel cranky. Whose fault did he think this was?! How dare he laugh at her!

Bari raised the brush and drew a line on his face. A mustache appeared below his nose in an instant.

“Pfft!”

Seeing the shock on his mustachioed face made Bari burst into laughter. Even if Mujang was handsome to look at, the mustache looked strange on his face. Her quiet snickers turned into a hearty roar.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“No. That’s… pfft! Ah, sorry.”

She needed to stop, but she couldn’t.

“You punk! Come over here and see what I’ll do to you.”

He raised the brush with a furious expression on his face.

“Kyaa!”

As Bari ran away, Mujang chased after her. He managed to grab her face and moved to draw a mustache on her. Bari screamed and tried to push him away, but it didn’t matter. He drew a mustache on her face. His snickering face looked down at his work. Their laughter gradually faded away.

Bari looked up at him. Mujang looked down at her as he held her in his arms. With her hair now styled up with a hairpin like a maiden, she looked quite beautiful. Nowadays, she ate well and rested, so her cheeks were more plump, and her smiling lips were like ripe cherries.

Not a single thought formed in their minds. No one decided who would be the first one to move. His lips merely landed on hers like a beast craving the taste of a piece of fruit.

Chuu, the small sound rang in the air. His lips tangled with hers. His tongue slid inside as if it were the most natural thing in the world. It searched her mouth as if it tasted sweet.

Bari’s hands clenched around his sleeves. A strange bliss. A heart-throbbing touch. It made her even more feverish than the actual act of intercourse.

His closed eyes were in front of her own. His usually cold, gray eyes were hidden, and his eyelashes were longer than a maiden’s as they cast shadows on his skin.

I want to touch them.

Before she finished that thought, her hand went up and stroked the edge of his eye. They were shockingly soft. Whenever his body covered hers in intercourse, he was hard as stone and just as heavy, so she never imagined his face to be this soft. She followed the lines of his face and lowered her hand. She touched his cheek to confirm, and it all felt so strange.

He did not stop her from touching him. Instead, he lifted her and pulled her deeper into his embrace. What was this feeling? This wide, sturdy chest. The weight of his existence caused Bari to gasp. As their lips continued to tangle together, their hands reached out to touch each other’s skin beneath their clothes. He felt closer than ever before.

As if he belongs to me.

It felt like he was her man.

Like the sole refuge in this filthy underworld.

He shifted his face to the side. Their kiss deepened, and their mouths merged together. They could not tell where her lips ended and his began. Instead of hating it, Bari thought it tasted sweet. Their breaths mixed, and it felt like he was close. Bari wanted to pull him even closer. This all felt very strange.

What was this? What was this called?

Why didn’t she dislike this?

Why did his scent, his body, and his movements feel so good?

She could not understand.

He raised his head. He opened his eyes and gazed down at her own. His lips glistened from their kiss. She could smell herself on him. And he could probably smell himself on her as well. 

“I’ll teach you properly starting tomorrow.”

After saying those words, he let her go and burst up to his feet.

It was then that Bari realized she was lying down in the corridor. Mujang left as if nothing had happened. Bari slowly got up with a blank expression. Sorrow quickly filled her heart. He acted like nothing had happened. But she did not see how Mujang had clenched his teeth as he stood up. How he went into his room and leaned back against the wall as he muttered a soft, ‘Damn it’. 

Thunder rumbled from far away and lightning crashed.

Rain, which was rare on Mount Dongdae, began to fall.

* * *

What was it? What was that?

She laid down on the bed to go to sleep, but sleep would not come.

Her heart kept throbbing. It was suffocating, and no matter how much she pounded her chest, the feeling would not go away. She felt feverish, and her body felt sore.

What was that?

Bari laid back down and slowly touched her lips. No matter how much she rubbed them with her fingers, it was different from the way he had made her feel. What had to be done to feel that way again?

Boom. The sound rang in the air once more. It had been nine years since she’d come here, but the weather had never been like this before. She wanted it to rain. Then maybe this strange feeling would be washed away. Bari dragged the blankets back up. Suddenly, a strange chill ran down her spine.

Haa, she gasped. Goosebumps formed on her shoulders. She didn’t have to turn around to know what was going on. However, how had it come so close? How had it entered so deep into the house?

“Bari…”

The evil spirit called her name. Bari sprang out of bed and haphazardly left the room. She couldn’t hear anything. She couldn’t think. All she knew was that she did not want to see those things. Even if it killed her.

Was it really raining? The air felt humid. She could hear her bare feet running across the glossy wooden floor. Her heavy skirts wrapped around her legs. Boom! The door opened, and Bari saw Mujang leaning against the windowsill.

“What in the world…?”

Before he could ask her what was going on, Bari ran into his arms. Mujang looked down at her in shock. He could see her pitiful shoulders trembling.

“What’s wrong?”

Bari merely tightened her hold around him in silence.

“Bari?”

“…I was scared.”

“Of what?”

She did not answer him, and her entire body was cold. Nevertheless, Mujang embraced her.

“Did a spirit enter the house?”

Mujang was aware that spirits of the Magenta Forest would often play tricks, but they knew that if he caught them, they’d be exterminated. Therefore, there was no way one had entered the house.

“There is nothing to be afraid of.”

Despite his comforting words, Bari’s trembling did not stop.

“Is it because of the rain?”

Whenever it rained, the yin energy would grow stronger, so the spirits would often grow restless. Either way, he could not tell Bari to leave when she was trembling like this. Mujang let out a sigh before laying her down on his bed. Then he slowly laid down next to her.

“You’re acting more childish by the day…”

She heard his light rebuke, but Bari didn’t know what to say. She didn’t want to see those evil spirits ever again. She did not want to be hurt by them again. Not again…!

“Bari!”

Mujang realized her trembling was not quite right and gave her a light shake. Bari barely managed to open her eyes and look up at him. She was pale and cold, and her breathing was unsteady.

“Damn it.”

Mujang immediately wrapped an arm around her. His other hand entwined with hers.

“Is there somewhere you’d like to go?”

He asked on impulse.

Or it was a clever scheme to stop her bone-chilling terror.

“A place I’d like to go?”

“That’s right. A place you want to go.”

He cautiously stroked her hand as he spoke. One of the few skills that he had left was the ability to create illusions. Building this house on top of ruins, showing things that are inside people’s hearts as if they were real. This one valuable ability was still left at his disposal.

“Then are you telling me you can take me to that place?”

“No, it means that I can take you there inside your heart.”

“Inside my heart?”

As expected, Bari could not understand. Mujang held her in his arms and held her hand as he explained.

“Think of the place you miss the most.”

“Like this?”

“Yes, focus…”

With her heart still filled with terror, Bari blinked. Then she closed her eyes. The picture she drew in her heart began to come to life through Mujang’s hand. Mujang flinched. It was a place he had never seen before. It was a wide, vast…

Field.

His eyes widened. A wide field was laid out before their eyes. Green grass and white flowers undulated like waves in the wind. The gentle slopes of the field curved out into the horizon. Above it, the blue sky looked endless. The air was peaceful and refreshing.

Something moved in the tall grass. Mujang knew that it was human. An old human.

An old woman with a pale brown bandana around her head was bending down and doing something. It looked like she was pulling out the weeds in the rice paddy, but Mujang wasn’t completely sure. However, this was the first time Mujang was seeing what it was like to live in the human world.

Was it a place like this?

Mujang lifted his head. He realized that the wall they were leaning against had turned into a large, beautiful tree. The bright sunlight sparkled from between the yellowish-green leaves.

He could feel the flow of time. Buds were shooting out from the branches, and at the end of the yellowish-green leaves hung white flowers. Then the leaves turned yellow before falling. The branches were then covered in snow. This continued to happen over and over again.

The clouds were ever-changing as well. The scenery inside Bari’s heart was probably different from reality. Bari’s time continued to speed up and slow down, but one thing remained the same.

It was an indescribable sense of peace.

The old woman in the grass raised her head. She turned her gaze to Bari and looked at her with warm eyes.

“Bari, what are you doing over there?”

“Grandma…”

Bari called out to the grandmother from Mujang’s side. Tears filled her eyes and dripped down her cheeks. Mujang gazed at her tears and groaned. He didn’t want to make her cry.

“Don’t cry.”

Bari raised her eyes and looked up at him. After a moment, she realized what he had said and nodded. However, that was all. The tears continued to fill her eyes.

“If you keep crying, I’ll let go of your hand.”

When she heard that, Bari shook her head and tightened both of her hands around his.

“Wait, just wait a bit longer.”

“If you keep crying, I’m going to stop.”

“I understand. I understand.”

Bari spoke as she clenched her hands around his. Her eyes continued to look at this scenery with longing. This time, an old man appeared. He was holding a puppy with both hands. He placed it in Bari’s arms. Bari stretched out a hand and tried to hold onto it, but there was nothing to grasp. She looked up at Mujang in shock, and he explained.

“Didn’t I tell you it was an illusion?”

Bari’s eyes filled with tears once again. Mujang let out a deep breath and left her alone. Seeing the human world with Bari was strange. It was a lot more beautiful and imperfect than he’d expected.

Time flowed too quickly in the human world. The world would change in an instant, and a child would quickly turn into an adult. An adult would quickly turn into an elder before succumbing to death. Having never experienced the flow of time like this, Mujang frowned and looked at them.

So limited and weak. He had never seen something so ephemeral. However, they could feel their emotions that much more clearly. And the cycle of reincarnation would wipe their souls clean.

“Fascinating.”

Mujang whispered despite himself.

He then realized that he did not see Bari’s parents here. Bari’s sick father, the person who needed the yaksu, was not here. He could only see the old couple and the young Bari they had raised.

The illusion faded away. Mujang looked down at Bari. She had fallen asleep, and her breaths were quiet. The face trembling in fear had returned to its peaceful state.

Mujang stared at her for a long time. He lifted his hand and cautiously stroked her sleek hair.

It was at that moment. He saw it. Mujang’s hand froze. It had appeared within the hallucination, and now it had followed them to this place where Bari and Mujang lay. It filled the air with a freezing chill and terror. Startled, Mujang sat up and glared at it. It only appeared for an instant, so it was almost hard to believe it had been there at all.

Something dark and far away.

It had a strange and frightful face.

It was pale like the dead. It had dull eyes and black lips. It had definitely been looking at Bari and Mujang.

“Who are you?”

Mujang growled in a low voice. But that ‘thing’ had already disappeared.