Goblin: The Lonely and the Great God - Chapter 8

The Afternoon Sunlight

The two found a nearby convenience store. The night was dark, but Eun Tak ate the triangular seaweed roll and cup noodles scrumptiously under the convenience store light. Sitting next to her, the Goblin opened another two cans of beer. The two cans of beer were way over his alcohol limit, and he became tipsy, annoying Eun Tak. He pointed from one side of the shop to the other, telling her that he could buy her everything. 

“How could you become like this after only two cans?”

Eun Tak muttered under her breath loudly so that the Goblin, who was walking lopsidedly could hear. A few bags of crackers were sitting in her arms. They were walking on a path beside a lake on their way back to the hotel. Eun Tak stuck a straw into her banana milk and covered her mouth with the sweet liquid.

It was late; they were the only ones on the path. Tsking, Eun Tak looked at the drunk Goblin. It had been the Goblin that had wanted to take her back. He was saying things he would never have done sober. Biting on the straw, Eun Tak called out to the Goblin nervously. He seemed quite truthful today. She was going to weasel an answer out of him. The Goblin turned around and blocked her path.

“Am I really your bride? After the ‘wait a moment,’ am I still your bride?”

Certainty was what Eun Tak needed, but the Goblin would never give her any. The Goblin loosely smiled and replied, yes. There was no thought behind his words and Eun Tak liked it. The tension in her face loosened.

“Then am I not allowed to meet other men?”

The question made the Goblin’s head hurt.

“Well, I don’t really want to recommend it.”

“Then what happens to my third wish? Part-time, aunt’s family, and boyfriend!”

“Don’t get your hopes up. That last wish won’t ever happen in this life.”

“Why?”

“‘Cause I don’t want it to.”

He said more words that wouldn't have come out if he had been sober. Eun Tak looked up at the man, who looked taller than the streetlights.

“What kind of reason is that? Do you like me?”

“No.”

“Your no’s never mean no.”

A shadow appeared on the Goblin’s face. He looked sad again. Whenever he looked sad, her heart hurt. Compared to the Goblin, she was nothing; but his sorrowful face made her worry. In his face, she saw hers. A face that was always alone wherever it went.

“... How did you live all this time? What did you do all this time?”

“I lived waiting for you.”

Her heart dropped with a thud. He had been waiting for her. She had always been waiting for someone, but that someone had also been waiting for her too. Embarrassed, Eun Tak snapped at the Goblin.

“Oh, be quiet.”

“I talked quietly.”

The corners of his mouth went up softly at the girl’s shyness.

“What bride am I? The fourth? Fifth? Higher than that?”

The girl had a lot of curious things. He could fly; when he was sad it rained; when he was happy flowers bloomed. The Goblin answered in the best way he could. He was watching the girl standing under the night sky. Her face was a fully bloomed buckwheat flower.

“The first and the last.”

“I might be the first, but how do you know if I’m the last?”

“Because I want it that way.”

Her heart dropped again and rolled on the ground. 

“...What happens if I say that I won’t be the bride?”

“I won’t be able to pull out my sword, because you’re the only one that can.”

“The sword?”

“I need to pull out this sword in order to… In order to become pretty. I’m not pretty right now.”

Eun Tak understood why the Goblin had been waiting for his bride for so long. It was a story that came out in fairytales a lot. The Frog Prince. The Beauty and the Beast. True love turned them back into their normal selves. 

Hadn’t the Goblin changed from a broomstick to a real goblin? Eun Tak sniggered and told him that she would pull out his sword when she needed a broomstick. The Goblin laughed at the mention of a broomstick. The girl he had saved had grown up as someone who could make someone feel better with their positivity. 

“You probably won't understand, but I'm a lunatic if I laugh right now. Yeah, let’s pull it out later. Not today. I’m just going to laugh with you today.”

“When the first snow comes?”

“First snow?”

“We’ll need a broomstick then.”

When the first snow comes… the Goblin muttered. He closed and opened his eyes. They were standing under the night sky together.

*

The next morning, cherry blossoms bloomed over the fence. It was June, people walking by looking at the strange flowers, confused. It was a happy confusement, flowers were always the right thing. Eun Tak had seen the flowers too and had smiled. 

The only person who could not smile at the news of cherry blossoms in June was the Goblin. It was past lunch, but the Goblin still had a headache. His memories were a bit fuddled as well. Eun Tak drinking banana milk; Eun Tak asking him questions; Eun Tak suggesting to pull it out when the first snow comes. All those memories came back to him, and every time it did, his headache became worse. 

With his headache, he drove up to Eun Tak’s school. Wearing a pair of sunglasses, leaning against his door, he was so noticeable Eun Tak noticed him straight away. His coat blew in the wind and showed off his long legs. His face was as handsome as ever, but whenever Eun Tak noticed, she was a bit annoyed at herself. She ran over to the man.

“... Did I do something wrong yesterday?”

The Goblin peered at the girl sitting in the passenger seat.

“Does your memory not work well?”

“Doesn’t this face show the pain on my face because I remember too well?”

Eun Tak giggled at the memories of the Goblin from the day before. The face he had after drinking two cans of beer.

“Have you eaten something to settle your stomach?”

“Why do you ask that whenever you see me? Can’t you eat before meeting me?”

“I wanted to eat with you.”

This girl was too truthful; the Goblin smiled.

“What do you want to eat? Beef?”

“Beef? I didn’t even think about that, but I think that’s an excellent idea.”

The Goblin parked the car on the side of the road. He climbed out of the car and then opened Eun Tak’s door for her. It was an empty street, but apparently, they had arrived. Eun Tak climbed out of the car suspiciously, when suddenly the sky turned blue. 

“Huh?”

A scream of delight came out of Eun Tak’s mouth. The place they had come to was not South Korea, but Canada. 

“I’m thanking you for the autumn leaf present.”

“I can’t believe you’re thanking me with the country of autumn leaves because I gave you an autumn leaf. Is this really a honeymoon?”

The Goblin opened the passenger seat door again and told her to get back inside if she was going to talk nonsense, but Eun Tak ignored him and walked down the road. The Goblin shook his head and started walking the other way. She was going the wrong way. EUn Tak quickly changed directions and went towards the way the Goblin had gone. The back she had always followed behind looked a little less sorrowful today. 

The elegant-looking restaurant looked very traditional. A flower was placed on each table and everyone was eating their food with happy faces. On the table the two were sitting at, a steak was served. 

“Oh look. There’s a lot of swords here!”

Eun Tak twirled the knife in her hand jokingly, and the Goblin flinched back scared. 

“Eat. You said you were hungry. And listen to me while eating. Don’t misunderstand anything. I’m just really curious.”

Eun Tak nodded with a mouthful of steak. She was curious about what he was curious about since she was the one who always had the questions. 

“You know this sword… What does the handle look like?”

This man, really. Annoyed, Eun Tak stabbed her steak with her knife. The Goblin explained to her that he had to be cautious about things like this, and so she decided to go over it. There was a white tiger on the handle. 

“I’ve studied about you a bit, but I couldn’t find any story about a sword. How did it get there in the first place? Did you stab yourself? Or did someone else?”

“... Someone I never imagined.”

“Oh, it’s a very painful story. Never mind then. How old are you?”

“939 years old.”

“Oh… It’s an even more painful story. Sorry. Still, I think it would be nice to live for a long time. You don’t grow old, you have a lot of money, you even have a bride, now.”

The Goblin felt uncomfortable at Eun Tak’s smile. 

“Would you want to live for eternity? When you’ve stopped, but everything else is still moving?”

Eun Tak put down her knife and looked at the man. That was the reason he always looked so sad. That was the reason he always looked so sorrowful.

“I have you.”

She knew how he felt; she had sent away a mother too.

“I think it would be nice to live for a long time if you were there with me.”

The Goblin’s eyes wavered and he stared at the girl for a long time.

“How are you so happy, when your history is so dark?”

The man had always looked sad, but he had always been happy too. They were walking around a park near a water fountain. The water drops made their surroundings shine brightly.

“It’s been nearly a thousand years. How could I be sad for a thousand years? I’m a brave Goblin who decided to accept his sad destiny.”

Eun Tak laughed. Brave. Brave was the word she had used to try to convince the Goblin to let her live at his house. There were so many similarities between them.

“How could there be sadness that lasts a thousand years? How could there be a love that lasts a thousand years?”

“I say that there is.”

“Which one? Sadness or love?”

“Sad love?”

Eun Tak had said it without thought, but the Goblin was surprised. When sadness and love came together, it became sad love; just adding the words together, made his heart feel pained. For 939 years, he had never loved, but for some reason adding sadness and love together made him pained. That word.

“If you can’t believe me, do you want to have a bet?”

Her provoke made the Goblin lost for words. How had she known that he loved betting? How much had she researched about him beforehand?

“You’ve been alone for a long time, so you get lonely easily; your mood changes easily; you're strange; you like dark and damp places…”

“Did you only research bad things about me?”

“You give happiness to humans; you give anger to humans… and you don’t make a family.”

A dark shadow appeared on Eun Tak’s face for a second. 

“Maybe that’s why I was castaway in a hotel.” 

“I wasn’t casting you away I was letting you breakaway. You should think about it too.”

“Think about what?”

“If you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to. The Goblin’s Bride.”

“The more I listen to you, I keep getting more certain that you don’t want me as your bride. Why are you asking me that all of a sudden? Oh, do you not want me as your bride? Oh, do you have another girl who is going to be your bride? Oh, do you not have another girl, but do you still not want me as your bride? I see the sword, I pull the sword. Was that how it worked? Come over here, I’ll show you whether I am the bride or not. Let’s see if you get pretty or not?!”

The Goblin stepped back quickly as Eun Tak stomped towards him. She felt like he was refusing her, so she felt upset again. Yesterday he had said that he had been waiting for ‘you.’ The person the Goblin had been waiting for hadn’t been her but the bride. She just happened to be the bride. Eun Tak was still anxious; she had no idea what the Goblin’s truth was. 

The two might be mixed in a horrible destiny, but Eun Tak couldn’t say that she hated it. 

“Talk from there. Don’t come closer.”

Whenever the girl walked up to him as if she was going to pull out the sword, the Goblin was scared out of his wits. That girl was someone who actually would.

“If you give me gold with your club. This much.”

She opened her arms wide and showed him how much gold she wanted.

“Why would I do that? I don’t even have a club.”

“You don’t have a club? What kind of goblin doesn’t even have a club?”

Eun Tak was looking down on him, so he made a sword out of the water from the fountain. After showing her the sword, he vanished it and splashed water on Eun Tak’s face. The girl cupped her hands and scooped water over to the Goblin. But it wasn’t an easy thing to splash water over someone who could teleport from place to place. Eun Tak fumed with anger at the Goblin. He was now standing on the other side of the fountain, sitting down relaxed. 

“You must be happy. Winning a high-schooler. Are you really using that power to win a high-schooler?”

“Why? Am I not allowed?”

“Don’t I have any powers? You can do all sorts of things, but the only thing I can do is see stupid ghosts.”

She did not know, but she had the most important weapon in her hand; the power to kill a Goblin. But on the other hand, it also meant that the only reason for her existence was to kill him. Eun Tak still did not know a lot of stuff, and the Goblin still had no intention of telling her anything. 

After playing at the fountain, Eun Tak told the Goblin she had to be somewhere. The Goblin wondered where she would go in this foreign land, but Eun Tak gave him a book to read and ran off. It was a sunny day. He flipped through the book Eun Tak had lent him and read it, page by page. 

There was a poem that came into his eyes. 

It was called [The Physics of Love]. 

‘Mass is not proportional to volume.’

From the first line, the Goblin started to read. Then from far away, a happy voice called him. The Goblin lifted his head and saw Eun Tak waving her hand from the other side of the zebra crossing. Cars passed in front of her; she vanished and came back into sight. 

The light turned green and Eun Tak walked like she was running over the road. Every time she stepped on a white line, it turned red. Her eyes widened for a moment but she kept walking. It was like a red carpet. Something that suited the Goblin’s bride. Something magical.

Mass is not proportional to volume.

That girl, as small as a violet,

That girl, who flutters like a flower petal,

Pulls me towards her with a force greater than the Earth.

He thought of the poem in his mind, but he couldn’t take his eyes off the girl. Each sentence of the poem followed that girl’s footsteps. Eun Tak was smiling widely at the man who was creating magic for her.

At that moment, 

Like Newton’s apple,

I fell towards her without stopping.

With a thump. With a thump, thump.

My heart oscillated from the sky to the ground.

It was my first love.

Because the girl running towards him was shining brightly; because the afternoon sunlight was shining brightly; he remembered the brightest time of the day 900 years ago. His face hardened. The slowly moving time stopped. The waterdrops from the fountain stopped in mid-air. This bright child was frozen too. A breath came out of the Goblin and time ticked again.

Eun Tak looked at the man’s hardened face confused. Where was the man that had created magic for her?

“What’s wrong?”

There was no reply. The Goblin just looked at her but was looking somewhere far away.

“Are you angry?”

His face was not recognisable. She had just visited the hotel for a while, but now the Goblin looked scary. His straight face always scared her. 

At the same time, the Goblin had just decided to end his life. The thing he had been wishing for all his life had reached him, and he was a brave Goblin that had accepted his fate, he was going to have to die. Before this girl became brighter; before this girl became more precious. 

He had decided. To disappear. The decision he had to make for this beautiful smiling girl. Ending this life.

    (This is a translated version of "Goblin: The Lonely and the Great God." Written by Eun Sook Kim and Soo Yeon Kim.)