One of those Nights
After cleaning the chicken shop, Eun Tak placed the jade ring on the table Sunny was sitting at. It was what the grim reaper had requested after he had figured out who he was in his past life.
The grim reaper had erased himself from Sunny’s memories, and he had left the happy memories. Well that was what he thought he had done. The grim reaper didn’t want to leave any excuse left for him to see the woman again.
“I’ve thought about it a lot; whether it is right for me to give this to you. I kept it on me for a bit, I’m sorry.”
Sunny looked at the ring closely. She knew why the grim reaper had given it back to her, and she knew what he had gone through to give this back to her. The grim reaper’s white face could be visibly pictured in her head. In the end, that person’s sorrow, sin, and longing all became hers.
“What have you done wrong?”
“What do you mean?”
“I heard you were my brother’s bride. Me and that person love each other because of our past life, but why are you tangled in all this mess?”
Eun Tak’s smile was softer than a spring breeze in winter.
“It’s my destiny.”
“Can you do anything weird? Can you fly?”
The tool to end the Goblin’s immortality. The tool to make him scatter into dust and wind…
“I can make it rain less, so that the citizens won’t be uncomfortable. I can also make the first snow come a bit earlier. so that the people will be excited.”
“That’s quite an important job. But why did Shin become a Goblin?”
“Your brother became a Goblin because the world needs things like miracles. Strange and wonderful miracles.”
“Who told you that?”
“Me.”
Sunny smiled; her brother was a miracle to Eun Tak.
“Then what about grim reapers? Why do they exist? Because everyone dies in the end?”
“Without death, our lives wouldn’t be as bright and beautiful.”
The part-timer’s pretty words made Sunny smile more. Eun Tak’s face fell as she looked outside the window. Joong Heon was standing outside the chicken shop. The weird feeling came back to her, and Eun Tak was starting to feel a bit afraid. Joong Heon wasn’t visible to Sunny, so Eun Tak pretended she couldn’t see him either. She tried to fix her expression. Sunny saw Eun Tak stare out the window and turned her head towards where Joong Heon was standing. There was no one outside; it was just the scene she saw everyday.
“It’s been a long time, weak warrior’s sister; poor military family’s queen.”
His laughter filled the shop as he walked in through the window. But it wasn’t a voice that could be heard by Sunny, Eun Tak quickly hid Sunny behind her back.
Sunny opened her eyes wide and looked around her shop; there was no one there, but Eun Tak’s face seemed serious and a bit scared. In Sunny’s eyes, Eun Tak was looking into midair, but she was staring into Joong Heon’s eyes.
“Get out of the way. I’ll get to you after I kill that girl.”
Joong Heon’s voice was cold and nasty.
“Don’t come closer. Sunny, can you get the lighter from my coat pocket?”
“Your lighter? Why do you need your lighter?”
Everything about her part-timer was strange at that moment. Even her expression was unfamiliar.
“Yeo was like a son to me, and that girl ruined everything. I am going to kill her!”
Joong Heon’s voice started to rise. When Sunny tried to grab the lighter out of Eun Tak’s pocket, Joong Heon screamed in fury. The ear-splitting scream made a shiver go down Eun Tak’s spine. He turned into balck smoke and tried to possess Sunny’s body, but Eun Tak hugged her manager tightly. When the black smoke hit Eun Tak’s back, the faded mark on Eun Tak’s neck flashed brightly blue. The blue fire wrapped around Eun Tak’s body as if to protect her.
As Joong Heon got pushed back by the blue light, he quickly vanished into smoke. He had escaped from the Goblin’s fire. When Joong Heon vanished, the blue fire disappeared too. Eun Tak fell to the floor.
Sunny dragged Eun Tak back in front of her home, when Eun Tak opened her eyes slightly. After sending Sunny back into the house, Eun Tak blew out a lit match. After seeing the fire go off, she looked up and saw the Goblin standing under the streetlamp.
It had been a while since they had last seen each other. The Goblin had wanted to come, but his past memories kept holding him back.
“How were you?”
The Goblin walked a step towards Eun Tak, when she quickly ran over and embraced him tightly.
“I missed you.”
She was always faster than him; the Goblin held his sweet bride in his arms.
“Me too.”
“How were you?”
“... I’m sorry. I’ll come to get you soon.”
Eun Tak leaned her head against the Goblin and nodded. She wanted to forget everything that had happened in the wide arms of the man.
The Goblin noticed that Eun Tak’s mark had faded and pushed her away a little.
“What’s wrong?”
“I can barely see the mark on your neck.”
“Really? Why’s that? But if the mark vanishes, will I not be able to see your sword anymore? That means I will never be able to pull out your sword, and you won’t be able to end your immortality…”
“That’s not what you should be worrying about right now. The fact that your mark has faded to barely nothing, means that I’ve put you in that much danger, and that means that I might not be able to feel you when you’re in danger.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll be more careful.”
Death was going to find Eun Tak again and again. Things were all tangling into a whole mess. The Goblin wanted to just protect Eun Tak again, but things were getting in the way.
“Did you meet Joong Heon again?”
“Yes, but I wasn’t what he was after; he was after Sunny.”
“Don’t worry about that either. You just worry about yourself; someone else is going to protect my sister.”
The Goblin felt the tense in his body relax a little as he saw Eun Tak smile again.
“Just two days. Give me two days. They’ve given me a question, and me and the reaper… we have to find the answer.”
It was the god’s question. Destiny was the god’s question, so they were going to find the answer. They were going to find out the answer, whatever it was. It was one of those nights where leaving was the hardest thing in the world.
(This is a translated version of "Goblin: The Lonely and the Great God." Written by Eun Sook Kim and Soo Yeon Kim.)
0 Comments