Ch.209209 – The Raccoon Dog and the Winding Little Devil’s Nayuta 1

# 209 – The Raccoon Dog and the Winding Little Devil’s Nayuta # 1

Kang Bada married Yu Inna, who was famous for Korean traditional dance.

Even in a timeline where many things were written romantically, their marriage wasn’t smooth sailing.

This was because Kang Bada was just an ordinary man with nothing to his name until his student days, while Yu Inna came from a family famous for Korean traditional dance and had to continue the family business.

“After Inna’s father died, I raised that child like my own daughter. I cannot give my daughter to a man like you who has neither background nor prospects. Not until dirt fills my eyes!”

My paternal grandfather and former chairman of the Yeongji Foundation, old man Cheon Daegon, strongly opposed the marriage between Kang Bada and Yu Inna, but there’s no parent who can win against their child.

Kang Bada married Yu Inna on the condition that he would become a son-in-law who joins the wife’s family, and they had two daughters.

The eldest was Yu Dahui.

Dahui was a young lady who turned twenty-five this year and was currently writing “I Became a Legendary Raccoon Dog.”

The second and youngest daughter, Yu Nayu, was about 12 years younger than Dahui.

Incidentally, her name is still Yu Nayu when read backward.

Her personality was a bit more energetic and innocent than Dahui’s. Unlike Dahui who enjoyed reading books in the shade, she was more of a tomboy who liked running around.

“Yeongwon oppa! Let’s play raccoon dog games!”

Young Nayu loved raccoon dog games the most.

What’s a raccoon dog game…? Actually, I still don’t really know even after all this time.

“Mhehe, this Nayu participated in the Pompoko raccoon dog struggle! We must fight against the evil foxes and win!”

Sometimes it was hard to understand what Nayu was talking about, but it was nice just seeing her running around healthily. Suddenly, I remembered the raccoon dog that Dahui had caught and made a house for in the garden.

I wonder how that raccoon dog is doing?

Let’s go see.

Dahui’s house was located slightly on the outskirts of Gaeryong City.

There were rice fields nearby, so the scenery was nice. According to Dahui, it was a good atmosphere for creative activities.

A spacious yard. A doghouse in the yard. A large persimmon tree.

As I drove to such a place, a girl who had grown tall enough to reach my chest came running—padatat!

“Yeongwon oppa! Did you bring chicken today too?”

She looked somewhat similar to Dahui but different. What if you made a miniature version of Dahui, then made her hair messy, slightly tanned her skin, and put a straw hat on her? Would she look like this?

I took out the chicken from the back seat of the car and handed it to the girl, saying:

“Are you happier to see the chicken than me? I’m hurt.”

“Look at this! Doesn’t my school uniform look good on me! Hurry up and compliment me!”

I clapped—pak pak—for Nayu who proudly raised both arms.

“It suits you really well. You really look like a middle school student.”

“I am a real middle school student!”

Nayu seemed to like middle school so much that she wore her uniform even on weekends. I can’t believe she’s already in middle school. It feels like it wasn’t long ago when I went to watch her elementary school sports day. Time really flies.

Watching a child grow up makes you feel the passage of time more clearly than becoming an adult yourself.

“Kengkeng! Let’s eat!”

Nayu, who had just become a middle school student this year, approached the doghouse in the garden. Inside the doghouse, instead of a regular dog that most homes would have, there was a spotted raccoon dog curled up.

—Keng keng!

It was the raccoon dog Kengkeng.

According to Dahui, “Nayu caught it in the orchard when she was in third grade!” Apparently, Nayu pounced on a raccoon dog that was digging around tree roots in the orchard, hugged it, and brought it home.

Nayu said:

“Oppa! I’ll show you something fun! Kengkeng! Sit!”

Kengkeng was lying down, perhaps feeling sleepy.

Nayu’s expression became slightly awkward.

“Sit! Grrrr!”

She seemed embarrassed that Kengkeng wasn’t following her commands well when she wanted to show off how well she had trained it in front of me. Nayu, seemingly determined, said to Kengkeng:

“Kengkeng! Roll over! If you don’t roll over, you can’t eat this chicken leg! If you don’t eat the chicken leg, you’ll become a loser raccoon dog!”

Despite offering the chicken leg as a reward, Kengkeng was still just lying down. It seemed to prefer taking a nap in the house, away from the scorching summer sun.

“Grrrr…! At this rate, you’ll be called a stupid raccoon dog! Kengkeng! Lie down!”

Kengkeng was already lying down.

But Nayu was delighted as if Kengkeng had lain down at her command, and she shouted one more command:

“Kengkeng! Take a nap!”

Kengkeng, who had been yawning as if sleepy, finally curled up into a ball and started taking a nap. Nayu, looking very proud, placed the chicken leg in Kengkeng’s special food bowl.

“That’s right! Good job! See! Kengkeng is well-trained, right?”

“You’ve trained it very well.”

“I’m going to keep training it so it can work and earn money for me! Then I can play and eat without working for the rest of my life!”

Training a raccoon dog to earn money. It was as ambitious a goal as breaking through to the fourth floor of the Nightmare Corridor. It’s better for people to have high and distant dreams.

Nayu is only in the first year of middle school, but she already has life plans.

“So where’s your sister?”

“She’s taking a nap! Like a raccoon dog! While scratching her belly! She was even talking in her sleep!”

Dahui taking a nap while scratching her belly and even sleep-talking?

Just as I was thinking that all sorts of things happen, the glass door connecting to the yard slid open—drrrk—and Dahui appeared wearing a cool summer dress.

“Yeongwon, what brings you here without calling first?”

“Dahui, were you sleeping? Did I wake you up?”

“No? I was writing my novel.”

“Really?”

I decided to let it slide. Even the elegant Dahui would probably relax and take naps when no one was watching. Soon, Nayu said:

“That’s a lie! Until just 10 minutes ago, she was scratching her belly and sleep-talking—mmmphhh!”

“Nayu, you gave chicken to Kengkeng again, didn’t you? I told you not to carelessly give human food to it!”

“Mmmphhh!”

Dahui covered Nayu’s mouth firmly.

Dahui said to Nayu:

“And did you bother Yeongwon oppa or not? I told you not to ask him to play with you because Yeongwon oppa is a busy person, didn’t I? Oppa is already busy playing with me.”

“Mmmphhh!”

“You shouldn’t take what belongs to your sister.”

“……”

Shiver—

Nayu seemed to feel some kind of pressure from Dahui. Like a raccoon dog thrown onto a white snow field in the middle of winter, Nayu trembled, nodded her head, and only then did Dahui release her.

Nayu, whose whites of the eyes seemed unusually large, carefully looked at us before saying theatrically:

“Ah, this Nayu just remembered that she has middle school math homework…! These equations are so difficult that I can’t understand them at all. How does X become a number…!”

Pitter-patter!

Watching Nayu run into the room, I shrugged my shoulders.

# # #

“I don’t see anything particularly strange?”

There was a large parasol installed in Dahui’s yard. Sitting on a mat under that large shade, watching Nayu playing with the raccoon dog Kengkeng, I expressed my honest opinion.

“Nayu has always been like that. Isn’t eating twice as much food just because she’s growing, like Sua said? First year of middle school is when kids grow a lot.”

“I thought so too. But I think the Winding One is near Nayu.”

“The Winding One.”

It was the name of some kind of yokai or demonic entity. It was a being we could meet at the shop on the third floor of the Nightmare Corridor when we were high school students.

Just looking at that being was said to have the effect of making people’s thoughts and thinking all winding and twisted.

“It’s probably like the Japanese yokai Kune-kune?”

Kune-kune was a being said to be mainly spotted in Japanese rice fields, mountains, and fields. There were two brothers, and the younger one asked his older brother about something very winding that they spotted.

—What is that! Brother! Do you know what it is? It’s winding so much!

—I-I don’t know.

The older brother said he didn’t know, but he had already “understood” what that being was.

The younger brother kept asking his older brother what that being was, but the older brother answered like this:

—It’s better not to know…

Shortly after, the older brother went insane—that was the Kune-kune ghost story. What exactly did the older brother see? What happens when you “understand” it?

And it was also questionable whether the Winding One who ran the shop in the Nightmare Corridor and the Japanese Kune-kune were exactly the same kind.

“What if that Winding One has attached itself to Nayu and is harming her?”

Dahui seemed very worried.

After all, her much younger sister is precious and adorable to her.

If I had a sister like Nayu, I would probably buy her chicken every day too.

“We’ve just regained our normal lives. I can’t let nightmare entities threaten our families.”

Dahui seemed to like her current days. It was a peaceful everyday life where she could leisurely take naps and sleep-talk on weekends.

Suddenly, I remembered the story of swans. Swans gliding on a lake look elegant, but beneath the water, they’re paddling furiously—that’s the story.

I knew well how much paddling Dahui had done beneath her elegant and graceful demeanor to protect this peaceful everyday life.

“Puhehe, Yeongwon. Swans don’t paddle like that. They just float elegantly as they are. It’s innate. The idea that swans paddle to float on water is slander from ducks.”

What? So swans are just naturally elegant creatures. More importantly, I was puzzled that Dahui had read my mind. Did I accidentally speak my thoughts out loud?

“When you spend a long time together, you can tell what the other person is thinking. Not everything, just what can be known.”

I see. Dahui reading my thoughts. It seemed that Dahui’s trait “Whisper” not only allowed her to send telepathic messages but also to read other people’s thoughts.

Human potential is truly infinite.

Still, just to be sure, I tried imagining something really nice in my head. Then Dahui blushed and lightly hit my shoulder.

“It’s still daytime! And Nayu is here too!”

“So it’s okay if it’s nighttime and Nayu isn’t around?”

“…I don’t know! Yeongwon, you’re so mischievous!”

I can’t always be the one teased by girls, right?

Anyway. We calmly waited for dinner. For dinner, we had Nayu’s favorite jjapaguri (ram-don) cooked by Dahui herself using delicious beef.

Dahui used to be so bad at cooking that it shocked Yang Juhui, but these days she was very good at it.

“Ahem, Nayu will eat the rest in her room! Then unni and oppa can spend time together! I’ll eat slowly while doing my homework. There’s so much…”

Suk—

Nayu took her portion of food and quickly went into her room.

Watching her go up to the second floor where her room was, Dahui said with narrowed eyes:

“See. She took two servings by herself. She must be hiding something in her room.”

“Isn’t she just giving us time to date?”

“She’s my sister, but Nayu isn’t that thoughtful.”

“I see.”

“She’s definitely hiding something. Something. So after about 5 minutes, we’ll burst open her door!”

So, 5 minutes later.

Dahui led the way and raided Nayu’s room.

“Uwaaah! You can’t just come in like that! This is a violation of portrait rights!”

Nayu hurriedly closed her closet door and got angry. She probably meant to say “violation of privacy.”

Dahui frowned at Nayu’s suspicious behavior.

“You, you hid something in the closet, didn’t you? Tell your sister honestly!”

“Y-you’d be better off not knowing!”