Chapter 47
That again? Did you buy a new bow?
“What…? Ah… I thought Coach had sent it again.”
Si-woo had been summoned to the school archery range by his coach for the first time in a while.
He had thought the mysterious package delivered to his house was a rehabilitation gift from his coach.
“I didn’t send it.”
“Then why did you call me ou—!”
Smack!
“Ow…!”
The coach lightly brought the attendance book down on Si-woo’s head.
"You little punk. You never answer my calls, then only contact me when you need something. Hey, you punk. Are you planning to keep skipping school?"
"No, it's not that…."
"It's not like you're hospitalized, punk."
The coach jabbed him repeatedly in the side with the attendance book.
"Even if you're taking time off with a medical certificate, there's a limit. You have to meet the minimum attendance requirement, don't you? Huh, huh?"
"…I'll start coming in next week."
"If you don't come, you won't graduate."
“Yes….”
The coach let out a deep sigh.
"…You. Are you going to quit sports now?"
“Haha…. I-I’m not really sure either….”
“For now, come out. Come out and do something, anything. How long are you going to stay at home?“
His coach’s nagging continued.
He went on about Si-woo wasting his youth.
And how he would surely recover if he kept up with rehabilitation.
He had heard it dozens of times already.
Because the coach called him every day to say the same things.
'…It's not like I didn't answer on purpose.'
"……."
Si-woo furtively turned his head toward the field.
His juniors were drawing their bows.
Beep—beep.
In time with the signal, their arrows all struck the targets at once.
…He had always stood there.
The coach, about to say something to him for pretending not to notice, closed his mouth.
“Phew….”
He didn’t even get angry anymore. He just looked at Si-woo sadly.
“Anyway. Since you’re here, do some shooting before you go.”
“Haha… today’s a little….”
…The truth was, he didn’t want to stand beside the other kids.
He didn’t want them approaching him while pretending to worry.
He didn’t want them glancing at him.
He simply hated showing other people how much his skills had declined.
“Since you’re here, at least go say hello to the kids before you leave. Punk.”
“….I’ll get going.”
“Wait, wait. Come over here.”
*
Vroom―
The bus dropped him off at the old district office, about ten minutes from the school.
An old building tucked against the foot of the mountain.
It was a place he rarely had reason to visit after the new district office was built.
Since their school had been famous for archery from way back, this old district office also had a run-down archery range attached to it.
What the coach had him do was nothing special.
Just a chore to take a few things to the physical education storage room.
‘…Why make me do something like this? It’s so heavy I could die.’
He was grumbling as he set the things down when.
Ding―
A text message came in.
[I heard you bought a new bow. Since you’re there, get some practice in before you come back. You can loosen up while you’re at it.]
[Then we’ll talk again on Monday.]
"……."
Apparently, the coach had noticed that he was uncomfortable around the other kids.
'…The man really is quick on the uptake.'
So this errand had ultimately been an excuse.
Phew.
Rattle. Clack.
After putting down the rest of the things, he headed toward the archery range.
Si-woo was familiar with the old district office’s archery range too.
He used to sneak in whenever he wanted to practice quietly by himself before a competition.
Swish.
He felt around beneath the flowerpot.
‘Here it is.’
He took out the key to the archery range that Coach had hidden there.
Srrr―
He opened the door and went inside.
*
The empty archery range.
In the corner stood the old practice bow Si-woo used to use.
…Since he was here anyway.
Si-woo picked up the bow.
Whoosh.
He hooked his fingers on the bowstring and slowly drew it back.
The most important thing in archery is consistency.
Heartbeat, breathing, the slightest tremor in the muscles.
Even the smallest wobble in the bow sends the arrow far off course.
Drawing with the same posture and the same strength every time, then releasing at the same moment.
Repeating that like a machine was archery.
That was why bows were fitted with something called a clicker.
A small device that made a click when drawn to a set length.
The instant it clicked, you had to release your fingers reflexively.
If you thought about releasing it, you were already too late.
…The problem was that moment.
He drew the bow to its full extent.
The moment all that taut tension settled onto his shoulder.
Click.
The clicker sounded.
He had to release now.
But then.
Thwack―
The arrow lodged in the edge of the target.
He was late.
When it was time to release, his shoulder shrank back involuntarily.
Was it because of the memory of his injury?
"……."
Even though the injury itself had healed long ago, this always happened at the critical moment.
He tried several more times, but the result was the same.
"…Let's just go."
He set the bow down, picked up his bag, and was about to leave when.
A black leather case standing to one side caught his eye.
So who had really sent that?
‘It definitely didn’t look like an archery bow….’
At first, he had thought Coach had sent him some kind of rehabilitation bow.
'…Is it for collecting?'
Without thinking much of it, Si-woo opened the case and picked up the bow.
At that moment.
'Oh, the grip is insane.'
The bow fit snugly into his palm.
As if it had been custom-made for him from the start.
And then.
'…Huh?'
He had felt it when he picked it up.
Why was this thing so light?
'Can it really take proper force like this?'
Come to think of it, it looked incredibly high-end too.
There was even something like a yellow jewel set in the middle of the grip.
…Well, no one was around anyway.
Si-woo nocked an arrow onto the string.
Swish―
"……."
His shoulder didn’t hurt.
It took almost no strength to draw.
Creak―
As the string stretched, it smoothly wrapped around his fingers with a satisfying pull.
Even when he drew it all the way, there was barely any weight catching at his fingertips.
'……Huh?'
Before he knew it, he released the string.
Twang―
Fwoooosh―!
The arrow shot forward too fast for the eye to follow.
To the very center of the target at the far end of the archery range.
Thud―!
It buried itself there.
"……."
Si-woo stood blankly for a long while.
What was this?
Usually, people chose an appropriate draw weight based on the strength of their shoulders.
If it was too heavy, they couldn’t draw it.
If it was too light, the arrow wouldn’t have enough force behind it and couldn’t travel far.
But this bow required almost no drawing force, yet the arrows flew faster and more powerfully than any bow he had ever shot.
‘This makes no sense….’
Unable to believe it, he nocked another arrow.
Twang―
Fwoooosh…. Thud!
Another bull’s-eye.
Again. And again.
Every arrow he shot was sucked straight into the exact center of the target.
"……Wow."
He laughed.
"Wow, this thing is fucking incredible…."
It was a feeling he hadn’t experienced in a long time.
The sensation of every arrow sticking squarely into the center.
For a moment, it felt like he had returned to his prime.
“This is fucking amazing, seriously…. Wow…”
And so Si-woo kept shooting for a long while.
.
.
After shooting for quite some time, Si-woo suddenly stopped.
Caw. Caw.
“…….”
What am I doing right now?
It wasn’t like he was going to enter a competition with this.
The sun was already setting.
The excitement he’d felt just moments ago suddenly seemed pathetic.
"……Let's stop."
He lowered the bow.
His career as an athlete was already over.
And here he was getting worked up all by himself over something like this.
He gathered his things and was leaving the archery range when.
“Tsk, this is bad.”
It had grown pitch-black all around him before he knew it.
Since the old district office had been built on the mountain, he could barely see a hand in front of his face.
He took out his phone and checked it.
"……Ah."
Come to think of it, the last bus had already stopped running.
He had forgotten that the village bus running this far up stopped early.
‘I got carried away for nothing.’
"…Damn. It’ll take about forty minutes to walk down."
He had no choice.
Taxis wouldn’t come up here either.
Relying on the light from his phone, Si-woo began walking down the dark mountain path.
His steps were slow because it was so dark beneath his feet.
‘This is my first time walking down this late.’
He began to feel afraid for no reason.
…Come to think of it, people had been saying for years that ghosts appeared in the woods behind the school.
‘Ugh, why did I have to think of that?’
He quickened his pace.
Scritch.
Somewhere behind him.
He heard something step on leaves.
Si-woo stopped dead.
‘What was that? Is someone there?’
He turned around.
There was no one.
……Had he heard wrong?
He started down again.
Scritch-scritch.
Again.
But the footsteps sounded strange this time.
He turned around again.
Something slowly emerged from behind that tree.
‘What is that…?’
“…!”
It wasn’t… human.
Two hollow, empty eyes. A sagging body.
…A ghost, like the ones he’d only heard about?
"Hic…!"
It was real? The rumors about ghosts were true?
His legs trembled.
It was slowly approaching from far away.
He had to run, but his feet wouldn’t move.
It was drawing closer and closer.
For an instant, his body moved before his mind did.
Si-woo pulled the bow from the case on his back and nocked an arrow with trembling hands.
“D-don’t come any closer…!”
Ping―
The arrow pierced it squarely through the chest.
……No.
Or so he thought.
Tap.
The arrow passed straight through and lodged in the tree behind it.
"……Huh?"
It didn’t stop.
"Eek…!"
Ping― Ping―
Si-woo fired arrows frantically.
But even after firing several more, the result was the same.
The arrows repeatedly passed straight through its body.
They had no effect whatsoever.
In the meantime.
Swish.
His hand suddenly felt empty.
He had run out of arrows.
“…….”
Now all he had in his hand was a bow with no arrow.
It had already come right up to him.
His mind went blank.
In a flash, Si-woo unconsciously drew the empty string with all his strength.
―If you draw a bow without an arrow, the bow breaks.
Anyone who had ever shot a bow knew that.
If you released the string without an arrow, there was nothing to absorb the force, so the bow would be damaged.
But then.
He felt something forming on the drawn string.
His hand gradually began to feel warm.
Cracklecrackle―
"…Huh?"
Vivid blue flames crackled and flared up.
They gradually coalesced into the shape of an arrow.
Flash―
Before he knew it, Si-woo released the string.
Shraaaak―
A vivid blue bolt of lightning split the darkness.
And then.
[Kuaaaaaaa―]
It pierced straight through its body.
The mysterious monstrosity vanished without a trace, screaming as it disappeared.
Gasp.
Gasp.
"……."
Si-woo stood there blankly, holding the empty bow.
What had just happened?
The ghost had died?
His fingertips trembled.
‘What on earth happened?’
***
Bzzzt― Bzzzt―
Just then, the phone in his pocket rang.
[Hyung]
"……H-Hello."
―Hey, Han Si-woo. You’re home right now, aren’t you?
His brother asked him abruptly the moment he answered.
"……Huh? No, well……."
―Did anything get delivered to the house? A long black box.
No way.
"…Th-that thing. It was yours? Why didn't you send it to your own house…"
―Yeah. I sent it to the wrong address by mistake.
“…….”
―Don’t tell me you opened it?! Why would you open it without asking!
"No, there was nothing written on the outside, so I thought Coach had sent it!"
―Ah, it’s normally like that. When they send something expensive, they leave everything blank for security reasons. Anyway. Send it over by quick delivery right now.
"……Where?"
―Jirisan. It’s urgent, so hurry. I’ll give you a nice allowance.
Jirisan?
"Huh? Hyung, why Jirisan all of a sudden!"
―Ah, never mind that. Hey.
―……You didn’t try it out, did you?
Si-woo stared at the blackened ground of the forest.
"……Uh, wh-what? No. I didn't. I didn't use it."
―……Good. Anyway, send it right now. I’m hanging up!
Click.
The call ended.
His brother had done archery when he was young too.
But perhaps because he had no talent, he gave it up early and went around the country doing work.
He never told Si-woo exactly what kind of work he did, but once, when Si-woo had asked casually, the answer had definitely been this:
[I travel around the country doing tile work. Laying floors, tiling bathrooms, things like that.]
'……Why on earth would someone who does tile work carry something like this around?'
What on earth was my brother doing out there……?
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