CH 21

That day was very strange because all my classmates who followed along in bullying me sat around me and chatted. Even now, I have no idea how this came to happen. In any case, for some reason, those kids were nicer and kinder than usual. I shuddered at their out-of-place kindness. I wondered nervously about what they were planning on doing to me.

However, the moment I saw that kid’s black eyes, I understood this situation.

I knew then that the black-eyed being was the one who created this incomprehensible situation. With bated breath, I avoided that kid at all costs. But that was all for naught.

Not long after the day that I saw his eyes, that kid jumped off the school rooftop and died.

People said that it was because of stress from school, but I knew very well that he was never one to commit suicide. If he were so sensitive to choose death over his grades, would he have fed me filthy wastewater and shoved a ballpoint pen up my an*s? He always used to shove my head in the toilet while snickering that I had no parents.

His friends also stated that he had started acting like a completely different person not long before he died. He stopped bullying me. He also tried to stay focused in class and was never late. The adults who heard my classmates’ stories figured that a big incident happened around that time, and due to that, he had a change of heart.

A change of heart, my *ss. If one could turn a new leaf in life and become a new person just from the weather getting hotter, why would there be a need for the countless churches and prisons in this world?

After he called me to the rooftop, he jumped, as if telling me to watch, all while smiling.

I remembered the last piece of bullsh*t he said. “Will you become happy if I disappear?”

Goddamn it.

To state the obvious, the grown-ups couldn’t find any incidents that would cause a change of heart. Because nothing happened at all. It was the same as back then, with my mom. I once was told that the devil came silently, stealthily, through the window while everyone was asleep.

After that, the black-eyed being came and disappeared a few more times.

Have you ever heard the urban legend about the “black dots”? Or the “black line”? Both have similar stories. If a black dot suddenly appeared on one’s face, or a black line on one’s neck, those people were bound to die. It was similar to that. The people who would have black eyes would die soon after.

My grandmother’s talisman was useless. The goblin with black eyes seemed to be hanging around me.

* * *

I heard that Korea has the fifth most islands in the world, and today, I felt there was truth to that.

Aside from the well-known islands such as Jeju-do, Geoje-do, Jin-do, Kanghwa-do, Ulleung-do, and Mara-do, there were islands famous for sightseeing like Baek-do, Yeonhwa-do, Suwu-do, and Somaemul-do. I thought that I knew quite a few islands, but I was wrong. The destination island could only be reached after 80 hours by boat from Tongyeong, and it had a name that I had never heard of before.

I wasn’t very surprised that there were islands that I didn’t know the name of. Out of the 3,300 islands of Korea, around 2,700 were uninhabited. According to the boat’s captain, the island we were headed to was small with a lot of camellias and hydrangeas. He said it was about half the size of Hong-do.

Since I didn’t know how big Hong-do was, I could only reply with, “Oh, I see.” I asked Hyehyun later, and he told me that there were only 16 residents in Hong-do. Even so, I still couldn’t imagine the size.

We left the port on a chartered cruise ship, but near the island, we had to transfer to a smaller boat. It was safer to travel that way because the waves around smaller islands were stronger and there were a lot more rocks.

Thankfully, the filming crew’s equipment was transported a few days in advance, so there was no reason to travel back and forth too many times. Within five to six trips, the small boat transported all the people and their baggage to the uninhabited island.

It was sunny and clear, without a cloud in sight, completely different from moments ago, when it was pouring rain and gusting wind. I heard that if the storm lasted longer, the filming would have become delayed.

The weather on land was one thing, but the weather at sea was even more unpredictable. How could someone think to build a house on an island that couldn’t be reached when the wind was slightly stronger than normal? Whoever it was, I had no way of knowing what they were thinking, but I was sure it was some rich person with more than enough money to spend.

I wondered how many times the imaginary rich person used their vacation house before selling it. I figured that they must have thought about how difficult it was to travel here and never visited this island once, simply opting to lend their home to others. They must have known it was too much of a hassle.

Lucky them, since they could afford it. If I had that kind of money, I would also just set up a coffee shop on a cliff.