Goblin: The Lonely and the Great God - Chapter 28

The Chairman

  

    ‘I have never erased your memory; you were the one who decided to erase them.’ 

    The grim reaper sat on the bench thinking about what the gods had said to him. Duk Hwa, who had been the one the gods had lived through, was just a good person living in between strange people. There was no way to understand the god’s thoughts, even when he had been with the god all this time. 

A junior grim reaper came and sat down next to him. The junior was anxious about another thing that had happened. One of the grim reapers they had been working with had met their wife from their previous life and had run off together. A message from the gods had come to them because of that. 

“What was the message?”

“Do not forget that you are sinners.”

The junior handed over the grim reaper’s pile of death cards to him with a pale and worried face. They were all sinners and they were all civil-officials for the gods; he knew that, but why couldn’t he accept that? The gods had given an answer in the form of a question, but there was not a thing wrong about their words. The grim reaper looked through the death cards and saw a familiar name. 

 

[Shin Woo Yoo. Age 81. The year 2017. February 22nd. 17:10. Heart-Attack]

 

Today was the 22nd of February; three hours later, today, the Chairman was going to die. The grim reaper sighed; this job was a punishment alright. How was he supposed to tell the Goblin that his servant, who had served him for… 81 years, was going to die that day? Seeing the future didn’t lessen any sadness at times like these. But at least, Eun Tak was there with him this time. 

 

The winter sun was short. The Goblin sat at his table; a gloomy and dark atmosphere covered the room. With a brush in his hand, he slowly wrote down the paper, with fine strokes. 

 [Shin Woo Yoo. A man, whose every moment was good, falls asleep here.]

 

Tears dropped onto the piece of paper. Shin Woo Yoo’s grave stone would be buried with his ancestors in Canada, Quebec. 

And still, after all those deaths, the Goblin was alive. Unlike all the other people, the Goblin was still alive. Death was something you could never get used to. 

 

Rain dropped onto the window panes. The pitter-patter of the rain filled the large mansion; a quiet cry filled the room. Eun Tak, who had been walking around the door to the Goblin’s room, stopped walking. His tears hurt her.

The raindrops kept falling for 3 days. It was night, and Eun Tak walked slowly into the Goblin’s room. Sadness filled the room, and it leaved a trace as it rolled down his cheek.

“So this is what immortality is…”

She had cried a lot when her mother had died. One death had already caused enough damage for a lifetime, but the Goblin had sent away so many, she couldn’t imagine his sadness. 

“The Chairman won’t be able to leave peacefully because of you, Shin. The people who are still alive need to live; you can cry sometimes, but you need to smile more. You need to be brave. When someone has loved you to that extent, the best thing you could do for them is live.”

The Goblin’s sobs started to lessen and he looked up at the girl. His big eyes were full of tears, but he smiled. 

“Should I get you something to eat? Something warm?”

“Thank you… Duk Hwa… I’ll bring him over. He probably hasn’t eaten either. We should eat together.”

Eun Tak hugged the Goblin who had finally opened his mouth again. It was times like these, when she felt the most glad. Like the Goblin comforted her, it was nice that she could comfort him too. 

 

Duk Hwa was in quite a state after the funeral. He had always been the brightest out of them, but now there was no strength in his footsteps. The Goblin had been helping him into the house when he remembered another memory, and was crying again. Death was always full of regrets, whether you were ready or not. 

After crying for a while, Duk Hwa brought out the silverware from the cupboard and started wiping them with a cloth. Now that the Chairman wasn’t here, he had to serve the Goblin alone now. The Goblin sat down on the table, next to Duk Hwa. 

“I just don’t want him to worry. You know how he always does.”

“... I do.”

“Secretary Kim is the new CEO. Grandpa had gotten everything ready. It’s better that way. I’m not even ready…”

“Alright.”

“I’ll start learning from the basics. That’s probably what he’ll want too.”

The immature Duk Hwa was growing; sadness filled his eyes. Why was growing up always so painful? 

“I’ll learn Baduk too, so that I can play with you. I’ll be a good nephew, brother, father, grandfather to you.”

“Okay.”

 

The Goblin decided that he needed to be a better uncle too. The grim reaper watched the Goblin cooking all sorts of foods; Duk Hwa was coming over that day.

“I envy Duk Hwa. He has an uncle and everything.”

The Goblin looked at the grim reaper with a raised eyebrow, but the grim reaper waved him off.

“Don’t mind me. I just envy a lot of things these days.”

“Tell me precisely. Is it the uncle you envy, or is it the very handsome uncle you envy, or is it the…”

He stopped talking mid-way. It had only been for a split-second, but he had seen Yeo’s face overlapped with the grim reapers. His face creased as the Goblin looked at the grim reaper again.

“... When did you become a grim reaper again?”

“It’s been over three hundred years, but why are you looking at me like that? Is there something on my face?”

“It’s nothing. There was a face on you  I hadn’t seen before.”

The Goblin shook his head. It could not be,

“Whose? Whose face?”

“A face that shouldn’t have appeared before my eyes.”

The grim reaper looked at the Goblin in confusion, but the Goblin had no answer for him. Duk Hwa came into the kitchen, when he saw the weird tense between the two. The Goblin’s hands clenched into fists. But it couldn’t be. He tried to ignore that horrifying feeling, but he had to. After all, it wasn’t Yeo. It was the grim reaper.

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