Chapter 8: Celestial Realm (5) (1/2)
Chapter 8: Celestial Real his preparations to leave, Chi-Woo told his parents around dinner ti tio overseas He thought he would get permission from his parents easily; since his birth, they had often left hos that happened around him
But unexpectedly, his o?”
Chi-Woo thought he should tell thes and regret, so, he said, “This has to do with Chi-Hyun” Straightening his posture, he added, “I want to look for hi” His father, who had been listening silently, finally opened his mouth “Is it only because of Chi-Hyun?”
“It’s not only because of him” Chi-Woo shook his head and said, “It’s also for me” His eyes didn’t waver as he spoke confidently The silence between the
“…I see” His father let out a long sigh Then he said the sa he had told Chi-Woo before, “I understand”
“Honey?” By contrast, Chi-Woo’s mother whipped her head around Chi-Woo’s eyes widened in surprise “Honey!” his mother raised her voice, and his father shook his head
“I don’t knohat to do either”
“What?” his mother asked
“I want to stop hi hio,” his father answered “But,” his father looked at Chi-Woo with hollow eyes “I also feel like I’ain and so, he should”
His mother held back her words and squeezed her eyes shut while crossing her aret too difficult, you can always…” His father stopped his sentenceor difficult things get, never give up”
“Yes, of course” A warm smile formed on Chi-Woo’s lips “I will return with Chi-Hyun”
“I believe you Good luck”
Chi-Woo bowed deeply The conversation was over Chi-Woo returned to his roo one o to sleep easily
At the break of dawn, Chi-Woo woke up with the sound of a loud alarm noise
‘When did I fall asleep?’
He took a shoith a dull pang in his head and ca room There, on the table, he saw a hot bowl of white rice and all his favorite side dishes filling up the space On one side, there was even a bag of freshly steaot hungry Chi-Woo turned and saw that the door to his parents’ room was firmly shut
“Thank you for the food,” Chi-Woo said and stared for a long tian to eat After he finished his h his brother had told hioing to eat them on his return, Chi-Woo tookthe stuffed bag over his shoulder and stood at the entrance door
“I’ now, Mom and Dad” Chi-Woo bowed towards his parents’ room and opened the door Before he left, he looked around and stared at the eoing to return,” hethe elevator button As soon as he stepped outside and breathed in the er felt the anxiety that had always tor Instead, he felt incredibly cal to work on the unfinished business that he had been putting off for a long tiht felt warm on his body, and the fresh wind stroked the tip of his nose It was his first ti this way It didn’t feel bad Chi-Woo adjusted the bag on his back and walked confidently towards the path where the sunlight lingered
At port Chodo—a port located in Gangwon-do, Goseong-gun county in a town na an hour earlier than pro around the place In hope that he uide early, he walked all over the port, but it was futile Eventually, he stopped near the harbor, thinking that he would need to get on a boat
‘It’s 1:55pm’
With only five an to feel nervous; then he noticed a boat approaching from far away To make sure the boat was for hie direction to where he was The boat arrived at the dock exactly at two o’clock
The boat had no redeeh for seven people, and its hull was faded and worn out, showing the ti on the bow of the boat attached a longboard to connect the deck under his feet to the dock that Chi-Woo was standing on top of
Creak, Creeak…
Every time Chi-Woo took a step, the board let out an anxious cry Chi-Woo didn’t want to be soaking wet before he even got on the boat, so he tried to maintain his balance as best as possible and carefully walked forward When he arrived in front of the bow, though, Chi-Woo had to stophis path
Without saying anything, the oldChi-Woo stared at the ht up with a muttered ‘Ah!’ and took out a won bill from his wallet That seemed to do the trick; the old man scanned the bill, folded it up, placed it in his pockets, and turned around When Chi-Woo took a seat at a corner of the boat, the old man turned the boat around skillfully and headed towards the open ocean again With a loud cranking noise of the h the waters
It didn’t feel real yet; it just seeo As an introvert, Chi-Woo was able to quietly enjoy the ocean scenery As tiht and the fog growing increasingly thick, Chi-Woo beca boat While eating the corn his lances at the oldhis pipe The old man’s hat was pushed down, but Chi-Woo could still see his indifferent expression and shaggy beard The sleeves of his worn-out jacket were rolled up and revealed his hairy forearms He looked just like how Chi-Woo expected ht the oldon their way to the destination Yet as the hour passed, the olda word; all he did was stir the steering wheel After hesitating for a bit, Chi-Woo took out an ear of corn fro
‘Excuse htly forward and spoke from behind the old man’s back “Would you like sonore hi, he simply turned his head indifferently and stared at the corn quietly Chi-Woo began to regret asking and felt his face flushi+ng when… the old ain The old ered the corn for a while and turned it around this way and that It al about soed for
“Could you tell ?” Chi-Woo asked, unable to contain his io?” Chi-Woo didn’t want to waste the corn he gave as an offering
“…Quite some time more,” the old man replied after a moment of silence He had a shaky, old voice
Chi-Woo finally ot was unsatisfactory to say the least It was like catching a pale chub when you had been ai catch Disappointed, Chi-Woo went back to his seat again; as he was about to sit, though, the old e bite from his corn and asked, “Are you Mr Chi-Hyun’s fa, and the old er brother?” The oldon his corn
“I am…how did you know?”
“Your naht be related because your names are similar”
“Ah”
“And,” the old ave me corn while I was on this job It’s four people now”
“Three people besides ave you corn?”
“Mr Chi-Hyun and his parents,” the old reat shock to Chi-Woo Chi-Woo was sure of it now: his parents and his brother also rode on this boat In other words…
“Mr Chi-Hyun especially gave et rid of theot toothat he couldn’t finish all by himself”
Corn was Chi-Woo’s o somewhere, his mom packed him corn
“Did my parents and uide for this destination in Korea, so I had been giving Mr Choi Chi-Hyun rides since he was inthis, Chi-Woo recalled the picture he saw at the Celestial Realm ‘It’s not that he went overseas or to some isolated dor on this boat
“But besides that,” the old o?”
Chi-Woo stopped thinking It was such a direct question “Are you asking if I s about you” The old man took out the pipe in his mouth “The last time Mr Chi-Hyun was on this boat, he made a request He never did that before”
The old ht at Chi-Woo Chi-Woo also tilted his head forward intently
“He told an and arched his neck sharply while looking at Chi-Woo, “‘a guy with a similar name as him offered me corn’, I should kick him in the butt and chase him away He said he would take responsibility for what happened afterwards and payon his pipe sounded especially vicious Chi-Woo glanced at the corn he was holding and blinked “…Why?”
“I don’t know either” The old ed “I was only asked to do so” The way he talked, it seemed he was about to stand up froh?”
“…I can’t do that” The old man shook his head Then he said iot this” The old ot from Chi-Woo and took another bite of his corn Chi-Woo felt relieved for now but licked his dry lips Why did every person he saw try to stop hi to the Celestial Realain with difficulty
“Hoas my brother?”
“What do youhe was?”
“That’s a surprise If you don’t knoho that young man is in this world, aren’t you from the North?” the old man said bluntly
“But how did he seeht he was a good buddy to talk to Can’t say nificantly slowed “Well…there was a funny side to him, too”
“A funny side to him?” Chi-Woo spoke like he couldn’t believe it, and the old hed
“After we met each other a couple of times, he would sometimes tell me about his adventures When I listened to his stories, I couldn’t even feel ti”
“What kind of stories were they?” Chi-Woo sat closer to the man and asked
“Let me see Once, just a couple days after your brother returned, I was contacted to drive him back to the Celestial Realm as fast as possible” Unexpectedly, the old man continued his story without restraint “I did what they told h, they told ain Even if time didn’t flow in the Celestial Real someone back and forth in such short intervals”
“I see”
“So I asked your brother about it, and he told me that a queen who helped him save a planet in the past had purposefully caused a disturbance”
“Why?”
“It was for a surprising reason She wanted to see hiue “She ain for some silly e,” Chi-Woo added
“Yes, considering how busy so man is But when he told h he was usually so stoic…”
A person’s mind worked inquietly and bored, ti stories from the old ret when the boat reached a nameless island He wanted to hear more about his brother
“We’ve arrived”
Chi-Woo went down from the board that the old man had connected from the bow to the island It was a deserted island where he couldn’t feel any presence The fog was so thick that he couldn’t tell as in the place, or where everything was When he turned on his phone, he saw that he could neither use the internet northis way, you’ll see a cave Go inside that cave,” the oldis too thick”
“You’ll be able to find it easily because it’s a sood news Thank you,” Chi-Woo said politely
The old man didn’t leave immediately He hesitated a bit and opened histo ?”
“What is it?”
“When he was onI wanted to tell him…you just have to pass a couple of words to him”
Since it was not a hard task to merely relay information, Chi-Woo easily nodded
“Please tell him that I wish for him to come back safely And tell hiood alcohol, so he should tell ain”
Chi-Woo got off from the boat and stared at the old man He didn’t know exactly why, but he felt thankful towards this old ht be because there was so for his brother
The old man asked, “Will it be possible for you to do that?”
“What aboutback ether?”
At Chi-Woo’s blunt re relationshi+p with your brother, but isn’t this our first ?”
“But even so”
“Well, I can’t do it for free, but if you also tellstories”