29: A Child Similar to Sangsang
When Neoul looked at him with slightly wary eyes, Baek Namoo relented first.
[It's okay. You can tell me. I'll tell you too. Yes, the Grim Reaper.]
Then Neoul, who had quickly let his guard down, answered.
"I'm Neoul, the second son of the Dragon King."
Baek Namoo's eyes widened.
[Ah! You're the one the seniors were talking about? Mermaid Prince! Nice to meet you!]
"Do you know me?"
[I know from what I've heard. They say that when you go to the Dragon Palace to rescue a water ghost, a black-haired mermaid prince will look around with curious eyes. Every time you see him, he grows taller, so you realize that other people's children really do grow up quickly.]
Baek Namoo rested his chin on his hand and nodded.
[But how did you get here?]
Neoul told him what had happened. Baek Namoo burst into laughter at the story of Neoul mistaking Baek Yuri for a rabbit.
[Hahahaha! No, I heard a lot that he and I resemble our mother, so we look like rabbits! Hahaha! Are you completely stupid?]
Baek Namoo laughed for a long time, hitting the ground, and then wiped away tears and calmed down.
[A rabbit is a small animal. I can't show you a picture because I don't have my phone, but this. Ask Baek Yuri to show it to you later.]
He shook his head again with a smile and quietly looked in the direction Baek Yuri had disappeared.
Neoul wondered why he didn't let Baek Yuri know about his existence.
"Why can't you tell him?"
[Huh?]
"Why do you let Baek Yuri think that Baek Namoo is a hallucination?"
[Ah.]
Baek Namu brushed his bangs back with a bitter expression and rested his chin on his hand again.
[Keep my visit a secret.]
"...."
[Baek Yuri has a rich imagination and a sensitive personality.]
What does that matter?
When Neoul didn't understand the context and tilted his head, Baek Namoo added an explanation.
[To someone who believes that I was born on another planet and am living a new life... I can't tell him that I'm actually a grim reaper and still on this earth, and that I come here to see his face sometimes.]
"...."
[If Baek Yuri could see me like you, what would happen? If I say that I'm by your side even though you can't see me, he'll always have a harder time wondering if I'm by his side or not.]
Baek Namoo approached the mirror. Then he stared at himself, who was not reflected in the mirror, and the clear reflection of the sky.
[Even if the wind swayed the leaves, he would go around looking for the mirror, saying, 'Baek Namoo, are you there?']
The moment Baek Namoo reached out his hand toward the reflection of the sky in the mirror, he was sucked into the mirror.
Then the reflection of the sky in the mirror changed slightly.
The clothes, hairstyle, height, and size were all the same, but only the face seemed to have changed to Baek Namoo.
[My death must have been a great wound to Baek Yuri, who had been trying to persuade me not to give up on treatment. The accident happened right in front of Baek Yuri. I died in the ambulance while being transported to the hospital.]
Baek Namoo sighed deeply and then quickly got out of the mirror. The reflection of the sky in the mirror also returned to its original face.
[I guess he hates me a lot. If I don't appear in the mirror, he'll be sad and miserable. So it's better to just let him think it's an illusion.]
"....."
[I wish Baek Yuri and Mom would forget me as soon as possible. I wish they'd regain their smiles. So they shouldn't know that I'm here.]
Neoul thought Baek Namoo's words were contradictory.
"Then why did you go into the mirror and talk to him?"
If you wanted them to forget, shouldn't you have never shown your face or made a sound from the beginning?
No, shouldn't you just stop now?
From Baek Yuri's perspective, whenever he sees Baek Namoo pretending to be a hallucination, he will think of his dead brother more often.
[At first... I was so worried, but later it became a habit without me knowing.]
Baek Namoo scratched his head with a dejected expression.
[It's not just Mom and Baek Yuri who want to see me. I want to see my family too...]
Just like Baek Yuri, his platinum-dyed hair, which was as calm as Baek Yuri's, was all messed up and became a magpie's nest.
[I want to see Baek Gi-yeom, my relatives, and my friends, but what can I do? I want to laugh and chat like before, and I want to joke around. But I only talked to Baek Yuri when I went into the mirror. I also did my best to hold it in.]
Oh, I don't know. It's annoying. It's frustrating.
Baek Namoo fell to the floor and sobbed. Neoul circled around him and asked.
"Do you regret saving the child and dying earlier than planned?"
[No!]
Baek Namoo suddenly raised his head and glared.
[I have no regrets in my dictionary. What happened that day was the best thing I ever did in my life. If I could go back to that time, I would make the same choice.]
He said that the only thing he regretted since he was born was when he was in elementary school and was taken to the emergency room for eating dried seaweed like a snack.
Neoul nodded, saying that he also liked seaweed. Although he had never gotten sick from eating seaweed.
[I haven't eaten seaweed since that day. Just looking at it makes me sick.]
The disgusted Baek Namoo stared blankly at the sky outside the window and then stood up from his seat.
[Ah! It's time to go to work! I'll come back later, Mermaid Prince. See you next time.]
Then he disappeared through the wall. The sound of his earrings clinking against each other grew distant.
Neoul thought Baek Namoo was amazing. How could he live without any regrets except for seaweed? It was a boldness that he wanted to emulate.
***
On his way back to his dorm, Neoul encountered someone whose personality was the complete opposite of the bold Baek Namoo.
Wasn't he Yeo Dobin, who resembled Sangsang, quietly crying on the stairs?
When Neoul made a sound, Yeo Dobin suddenly raised his head in surprise and then made eye contact with Neoul. The sharp, slit eyes without double eyelids created a cold atmosphere. However, the tears that were welling up were more noticeable in Neoul's gaze.
Yeo Dobin hurriedly wiped away his tears, put on the round glasses he was holding, and bowed his head.
"Oh, hello... I'm sorry for blocking the way..."
Then he slowly moved to the corner of the stairs and pressed against the wall to make way for him.
Neoul looked at him, a little bewildered.
Although Neoul was taller and bigger than the humans here, it wasn't so big that he couldn't pass by even if Yeo Dobin didn't step aside. The stairs were wide.
Yeo Dobin was wearing a long-sleeved hoodie that didn't suit the hot summer weather, and he had already pulled his hat down on his head and was curled up.
As if he wanted to erase his existence from the world and hide.
Neoul asked, feeling concerned that someone who resembled Sangsang was doing that.
"Is that because of what happened earlier?"
"....."
When Neoul passed by and spoke to him, Yeo Dobin, who seemed flustered for a moment, nodded. Hair stuck out from under his hat.
Neoul didn't know what the disadvantages were of having fewer parts, or why it mattered how many seconds you appear on the broadcast... but he vaguely realized that it was very important because Yeo Dobin's teammate had been crying and making a fuss earlier.
However, Neoul thought that those teammates should be grateful to Yeo Dobin.
'It may be a bit cruel, but weren't they the ones who were thrown away?'
Neoul saw it clearly.
Baek Yuri and Ha Onha naturally let them go by pretending it was a mistake while flipping the cards, and several other leaders who were smarter also cleverly ignored them.
Yeo Dobin gladly accepted all the participants they didn't choose as his teammates.
Of course, if Yeo Dobin had acted like the other leaders, the remaining participants would have been divided up and taken by each team in the end...
If that had happened, someone would have thought this.
The ones left would have been the ones with the worst skills, the ones with bad personalities, and the ones with no friends.
There must have been a reason why they kept not picking them and putting them off.
However, thanks to Yeo Dobin gathering them all up in advance, they avoided that kind of disaster.
Neoul wondered if Yeo Dobin had deliberately taken care of them, not to embarrass them or make them prejudiced.
He asked why he had picked those team members and why he had picked fourteen of them.
His round glasses and sharp eyes were slightly visible under his hood.
"It's just fun to play games together... I got carried away by the atmosphere and that's it...…."
You didn't think about anything.
You were enjoying the game alone and cheerfully in that fierce scene of selecting team members.
Even the Neoul from the sea could vaguely read that meticulous battle of wits.
Yeo Do-bin looked like a pitiful great white shark that was playing in a beautiful coral flower field when it was bitten in the side by a lurking blacktip shark and bled.
It means that you have a hard time because your head is in a flower field.
"It's getting late. Are you planning on staying here instead of going in?"
"Because there are team members in the room...."
Yeo Dobin covered his face again, pulling down his large hood like a small conch hiding inside a shell.
It seemed as if his sorrow was welling up.
However, Neoul could not understand why the atmosphere was so serious.
"If there are no parts, can't we just make more?"
"...Huh?"
"If the song is short, then you can extend the length of the song and divide it evenly."
Yeo Dobin raised his head blankly. As if he had never thought of that before.
There were water droplets on his glasses and his eyes were wet.
He was wearing round glasses and had a blank expression, so his fierce eyes looked innocent.
Yeo Dobin opened his mouth and asked carefully.
"Is that okay?"
"I think you should ask someone else."
"Ah...! Yes, yes! That's right. I'll ask the writer...! Thank you!"
As Yeo Dobin nodded repeatedly and greeted him, his hat slid back. All of his messy hair was revealed.
His dark eyes, resembling a great white shark, stared blankly up at him.
"I... I'm Yeo Dobin...! Twenty years old... the same age..."
He started introducing himself confidently, but his voice gradually became quieter as he continued to speak.
"Yes. I know. I'm Gal Neoul."
"Ah... yes. I know that too... I used to live in Australia, so I don't have any friends here..."
Where is Australia?
Neoul tilted his head. Like Daiki, who came from the neighboring country of Japan, Yeo Dobin seemed to be non-Korean. However, unlike Daiki, his Korean was very natural and fluent.
"Can I say hello when I come and go...?"
"...? Yes, okay."
When Neoul nodded, Yeo Dobin's expression brightened.
"Then... can I talk comfortably?"
"Yes."
"Thank you! You too...! Talk comfortably...!"
"Yes."
"...."
Yeo Dobin made a puzzled expression for a moment, but seemed happy to have made a friend in a strange place where he didn't know anyone.
"You... You could have just passed by, but thank you for helping me. Everyone is a competitor and doesn't seem to like me that much... I didn't know there would be someone who would help me like this. You seem like a really warm person...!"
"?"
Neoul was puzzled because he didn't remember helping Yeo Dobin.
'What did I do?'
Besides, since his body temperature was usually 26 degrees, he wasn't warm and he wasn't human in the first place.
However, Yeo Dobin got up from his seat with a face that was much brighter than before, as his worries were resolved.
"I think I can go back to the team now. I'm glad I made a friend. Then I'll gather my courage and go in...! I hope you have a comfortable night too!"
"Okay."
"Thanks heaps! I'm really, really grateful!"
Yeo Dobin quietly walked up the stairs and disappeared.
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