Goblin: The Lonely and the Great God - Chapter 25

Strange and Wonderful

    She had thought that he was joking, but he still hadn’t arrived. All around her, people were congratulating each other, but Eun Tak sat lonely on her seat. The first person that came to find her was the class leader. 

    “Congratulations. Let’s contact each other from time to time.”

“Sure. Congratulations to you too.”

Their form teacher walked in through the doors; the class went quiet, but even the teacher looked happy today.

“It’s nice seeing all of you guys in mufti. Good work for the last 3 years; I don’t want to keep you in for long, so I’m going to stop here. Congratulations.”

The students shouted in delight and the parents, waiting behind the classroom, found their children. Colours of all sorts filled the room; children laughed with glee as they hugged their flower bouquets. Eun Tak looked around the classroom; everyone seemed happy. There was no reason to feel lonely, people were all around her. But for some reason, those people made her fell lonelier. 

Everyone turned their heads as a woman walked down the room. They whispered at the red, fancy clothes and the pale beautiful face. A bunch of cotton flowers were in the woman’s hand. It was Samsin. She strided over to the lonely girl without hesitation and hugged her tightly. 

“Why… are you hugging me?”

Eun Tak looked at the familiar but unfamiliar face. 

“Because you’re pretty. I was really happy when I created you.”

The low voice; Eun Tak recognised that low voice. This woman was the same grandma that had saved her from the grim reaper when she was 9. This woman was the god that had created her; the Samsin grandmother.

Samsin shushed Eun Tak with a finger and winked. 

“Congratulations.”

After handing the bunch of cotton flowers to Eun Tak, Samsin walked over to Eun Tak’s form teacher. Her form teacher was standing behind a table, looking at Samsin. She was a bit dazed. Samsin leaned over the table and whispered into her ear; the way Samsin looked at the woman was different from when she had looked at Eun Tak. The hint of hatred in her eyes were terrifying.

“Child, couldn’t you have been a better teacher? Couldn’t you have been a good teacher?”

Without waiting for an answer, Samsin left the room. Tears were falling down the teacher's face. Guilt filled her heart and tears were streaming down her face. Apologising; she left the room quickly. 

The Goblin saw the form teacher running out of the classroom and remembered the face from some time before. Once or twice a century, a person got reincarnated with the same face as their past life. 

It was in the Joseon dynasty when the Goblin had seen this woman. He had been eating with his servant at an inn, when he foresaw the future of the woman serving their food. It was a ridiculous future he saw; the woman had short hair, and was wearing weird clothes. Now he  thought about it, the place she was at was a classroom and the people she was hugging were students.

The Goblin tried to remember the vision a bit more; there was a face he wanted to see, but it was covered by flower bouquets and people.

He walked in through the doors and searched the room; past the flower bouquet that had covered her face, Eun Tak waved and smiled at him. This was destiny. It was unbelievable; he had seen this girl all those years ago.

“So there were traces of you in my past…”

The Goblin walked towards her and covered her face with the flower bouquet and pulled it away. 

“What are you doing?”

“Being amazed. How did I see this hundreds of years ago?”

“What do you mean? What did you see?”

“Something. A strange and wonderful thing.”

“What specifically?”

“At the 12th year of Cheol Jong’s reign, in the Joseon Dynasty, I met my first love.”

Eun Tak turned around furiously at the mention of his first love. She had thought it was something to do with her, but in the end everything was about his first love. The Goblin smiled at the cute jealousy.

All she wanted to do was graduate quickly, but this place had been her school for the last 3 years. With the camera she had been gifted from Chairman Yoo, she started to take pictures of the school. The students that had bullied her, the school leader and her family; they were all a memory now. 

“Isn’t my school pretty? There were some really horrid stuff about it, but there some really good things too. Maybe good things come a bit late. Like you.”

“... I did come early. I just didn’t know what class you were in…”

Eun Tak laughed loudly at the flustered Goblin. He always made sad moments into happiness.

There was something the Goblin had to give Eun Tak since she had graduated and everything; the bank books her mother had left behind. She shook her head sadly. They had no use to her since her aunt would never give the right over to her. There was no way her aunt would give it over nicely, and Eun Tak didn’t even know where her aunt’s family was now. If she showed the bank book to her aunt, the only thing that would happen was Eun Tak being robbed from all her mother’s insurance money.

“Your auntie handed over the right. It’s yours now. Use it well.”

“Wait, really? How did you do that? Never mind about that… Thank you.”

“It’s not me who’s giving this to you. It’s your mother. Just think of me as a courier service.”

Eun Tak was happy that she had gotten back the money, but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to use it anyway. How could she use the money for her mother’s death? She was too sorry. 

The Goblin didn’t think that, her mother had begged until the very end to save her, and this was the money her mother had left behind for her. There was no reason for Eun Tak to be sorry, it had been for her in the first place. Her mother had known that her life was soon to end; her mother had left it for her.

His warm eyes comforted Eun Tak. 

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