The Fog Horn (Angae Godong) - Chapter 9

Even when Nuri regained his childhood memories, there was no ending like in dramas where evil was punished and good was rewarded. He wasn’t even surprised.

No one was going to bring up something that happened 15 years ago just because he had his memories back, especially if it was Ko Cheol-woong.

Ko Cheol-woong didn’t come around Nuri, and that wasn’t the only thing. Fewer people were willing to pay Nuri to work.

It was as if Nuri had discovered a secret that everyone else in the village was openly keeping.

Nuri had expected it, but the fact that it was true enraged him. No one seemed to be on his side.

Whenever he felt that way, he rubbed his forehead. Thinking about the brief kiss, Ason left him, which made him feel less alone.

He unintentionally had more free time. However, Nuri didn’t know how to have fun even though he had spare time because he had never played.

He woke up at the same time he always did, and ate.While there was some spare time, he repaired various broken parts of the house and swept and cleaned around the lighthouse.

Even though he cleaned everyday, everyday there was more bird poop. It was enough to make him wonder if the black bird was using this place as a private restroom, and defecating here everyday.

“These damn shitbirds…….”

As he scrubbed, Nuri looked angrily at the sky. Which, as usual, was devoid of feathers. Nuri poured the seawater into a small basin and splashed it around to cool off.

The splashing sounded like the water Ason had splashed on him when he came to meet him, so Nuri looked out to sea.

The sea was calm and uneventful. Even the waves seemed to move slowly.

“It’s not like I am alone…….”

Nuri grumbled to himself while glaring at the sea. He hadn’t seen Ason again since that day.

In fact, the only reason he came to the lighthouse every day to clean and pass the time was because he wanted to see him.

Nuri pouted his lips and grabbed a rock. Then he flicked it out to sea. He watched as the rock sank with a loud splash.

However, there was no sign of it. The sea was calm, as if nothing had happened. Nuri picked up another pebble and hurled it into the sea once more.

The sea made a thudding sound and the spot where the rock hit sank for a moment, but within seconds it was back to normal, as if nothing had happened.

“How annoying.”

Nuri couldn’t explain exactly what he was annoyed about, but he was annoyed. He had thrown enough rocks by now for Ason to show up, but he was nowhere to be seen, just like the calm sea.

It was annoying. Annoyed. Annoyed. Nuri threw stones like a child throwing a temper tantrum.

But he soon grew tired and turned away feeling exhausted. His arms ached, and he felt no better.

He hated the birds, he hated the guests. Why did they just leave traces and not stay? He returned home thinking that it was okay to swear at them all.

But when he got home, Nuri’s anger eased a bit. It was because there was still fish in the kitchen that the bird spit out.

It was a gift from Ason. Even after cutting it up and putting it in the freezer, there was still one colander [1] left.

Nuri boiled half of the fish in clear water and grilled half of it. It smelled savory when grilled over the fire until the edges were blackened.

Scooping two or three spoonfuls of soy sauce from the small cabinet, putting it in a small bowl, and eating it with rice made a complete meal without any other side dishes.

In the morning, Nuri boiled the fish soup that he had eaten for breakfast again. He scooped a ladleful into the soup bowl and rolled up the cold rice.

Sometimes the electric rice cooker would go bad, and he would reheat the rice with soup like this.

The scraping of the steel spoon against the dented bowl made him feel lonely, but he was used to it.

Living on an island, it was always with him, like a thin layer of salt on his skin, only sometimes it was painful to be reminded of its presence.

Nuri washed the dishes and placed them in the sun, a spoon, ladle, and a rice bowl next to each other. Without his mother, he had become more efficient at cleaning.

Nuri squatted in front of it and watched the sunlight glint off it. He couldn’t bend his left leg properly, so his left side was stretched out awkwardly, but it was good to be sitting there, because it was a nice day.

The sky had been clear for several days now. It was so bright that he could say the sunlight was shining.

The light reflected off the soup bowl making it sparkle like a star. For some reason, Nuri felt less shabby when he saw it sparkle like that.

But he couldn’t stop looking because he felt like if he turned his head, everything would be shabby. Even if it was real, he still felt like he was dreaming.

Nuri stayed there for a while. He hated Ason, the birds, his mother, Ko Cheol-woong, and the villagers, without really hating anyone.

* * *

“Ason.”

The aged sound of the Dragon king echoed across the sea. Ason looked up from the golden and black corals in his care.

The dragon king’s voice waves could reach anywhere in the ocean, which meant he could command them without seeing them.

“Why is the Capricornus [2] in the Sea of Okhotsk [3] moving?”

“Because mermaids cannot harm humans.”

“Although we can’t forgive humans, that doesn’t mean we can resort to ruthless slaughter. You’re upsetting the balance of nature.”

“I’m just trying to find a way to redress the balance.”

“You must not kill any more humans.”

The dragon king drew a line in the sand. Ason stood numb, feeling the Dragon king’s voice carrying through the water.

Mermaids were inherently unable to harm anyone. They were meant to protect and regenerate.

However, Ason couldn’t wash away the question of why. He could not understand why they had to protect the sea and its inhabitants even though their own tribe was destroyed and the sea was so damaged.

When he said nothing, the dragon king spoke.

“Even if it means killing that child, would you make that decision?”

The child. The dragon king knew that Ason had met Nuri. Ason could offer no protest.

The place where Ason took Nuri to see the stars of the sea was not supposed to be open to humans, and if he started making trouble about it, it would never end.

But Ason had no regrets. There was no other way to soothe his sorrow-filled face. Nuri was someone that Ason cherished.

He was Nuri, not a human. And therefore, Nuri could not be killed. He was someone that had to be protected. He was special. At least that was how Ason felt.

“Ason.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t want you to get hurt, either.”

Using deep-sea monsters was a double-edged sword [4] . They sometimes listened to the dragon king and the mermaids, but sometimes they also went on rampage.

Ason recently fought a battle to stop a sea monster that went on a rampage in front of the dragon king. As a result, he had a long scar on his arm.

It was an octopus-like creature with legs that were hot as lava, even underwater. The other mermaids were unharmed, and the monster was safely imprisoned in a deep-sea prison.

In the midst of the chaos, it was impossible to tell how much time had passed. All he knew was that days had already passed, and Nuri would have been alone.

Ason remembered his lonely face more than anything else. But he was brought back to reality by the voice of the Dragon King.

The dragon king was torn between increasingly out-of-control monsters, a merman with a hatred of humans, and his own weakening body.

The dragon king spoke as a warning.

“You must not kill any more. I have no time.”

“Yes, I will not kill.”

Ason did not open his mouth, merely sending sound vibrations along the waves.

Ason could not forgive humans, could not love them. He would not kill, but he could inflict a terror worse than death.

Ason knew how to do that well. After all, they were the things that humans had taught him.

* * *

1. A metal or plastic bowl with a lot of small holes in it that is used for removing water from food that has been boiled or washed.)
2. A monster with the head of a goat and the lower body of a fish. Arose during the transition from Mesopotamian astronomy to Greek mythology. Capricornus is a constellation and, as such, appears to move across the sky as the Earth rotates. It does not physically move in the Okhotsk Sea or any other body of water.
3. Okhotsk Sea: also known as the Ohotsk Sea, is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, located between Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula, the Kuril Islands, and the island of Hokkaido in Japan.
4. Something that has or can have both favorable and unfavorable consequences. This much freedom of expression and opinion can be a double-edged sword.