Shine brightly on me forever. Light up my room filled with darkness with you. Be a single star that shines in the dark night sky. You are my universe, my everything. I will protect you even if it means giving everything I have. ······I love you. More than anyone in this world.
BLACK PEARL
Manager
The mermaid breeding grounds, so dirty that anyone would pinch their nose, were filled with the sound of wheels turning. It was the sound of moving the fish tanks containing newly captured mermaids. Geon-hee had no idea something like this would happen to him. He had thought he would just live comfortably at the bottom of the sea and die a few hundred years later, but if things continued this way, he could die right now. Geon-hee blinked, his eyes unshed with tears. If only he had been born just a little sooner. Just a few hundred years earlier. Geon-hee's sigh caused a bubble of air to form and slowly rise to the surface.
Yes, this thirty-seventh mermaid. Isn't she pretty? She looks like something a noble lady would like. I'll take eighty thousand bronzes first. As soon as Geon-hee opened his eyes, the bright lights hurt his eyes. Geon-hee frowned. It's finally being sold. Geon-hee wasn't happy about being treated like an object, but it wasn't all that bad either. It was just so-so. One hundred thousand bronzes, one hundred and twenty thousand bronzes. Geon-hee found it amusing that the price was so high. Fools. Do you think I'd cry so easily? Geon-hee had been told since he was little that pearls were precious. That must have been why he was so obsessed with them. Two hundred thousand bronzes! The announcer's eyes widened at the boy's shout. Two hundred thousand bronzes, two hundred thousand bronzes. Are there any more? Two hundred thousand bronzes. You've won the auction. The announcer's voice was cheerful. The boy stared at Geon-hee with a forced smile.
*
-Yeah, right.
-huh.
-Why did you buy me? Because you wanted to make a lot of money with pearls?
No. Because I felt sorry for you. Because even if I were drowning in debt, I wanted to make sure you got back there. The boy smiled at Geon-hee. "Then how did you know about that place?" the boy answered Geon-hee's question.
-I was passing by and it was noisy. I wanted to take a quick look. Then I saw you.
I see. I'm Geon-hee. Geon-hee said. I'm Yeo Hwan-woong. Geon-hee smiled brightly upon hearing the boy's introduction. Whatever it was, it was better than being bullied. It didn't seem so bad to live and die like this.
But how did you know pearls were expensive? My grandmother told me before. She said that round pearls were truly beloved by humans because they didn't require tears, and their shape quickly disappeared when mixed with seawater. Geon-hui stared at Hwan-woong. He was still in the same fishbowl he'd been caught in, but as long as Hwan-woong was there, anything was fine. As long as Hwan-woong was happy, he was fine. Geon-hui wanted to live comfortably with Hwan-woong, free from being chased by anything or threatened by anyone. Even the nearly ramshackle house seemed like a scene from a fairy tale to Geon-hui.
*
"Hey, open it quickly. Why don't you open it quickly?" a rough voice rang out. "Geonhee, I think we... should probably run away." Hwanung smiled calmly.
"Geonhee, don't worry. It's okay. Those people want to play tag with me. But it's no fun if we just get caught here, so we have to run away. To the sea. It'll only take a little bit of suffering. Just a little bit."
"I'm sorry." Hwanung swallowed the words that were swirling in his mouth. "You, innocent, deserve to live. I will save you. Even if I have to be cornered and die." Hwanung forced a smile to lift. Tears flowed from his eyes. Hwanung looked like a rat that had fallen into a trap of its own accord.
-Geonhee.
-huh?
-···No. I just called.
Because he felt like he couldn't call anymore. Seeing Hwanwoong with a bitter smile, Geonhee tightly grabbed both of Hwanwoong's hands. What if we can't see each other anymore? No. It's okay. We can meet again anytime. I promise. Geonhee smiled at those words. Woong-ah. You know. Even though we're apart for a little while, even if we're apart for a very short while... I hope you'll be happy even then. Geonhee's eyes closed and water droplets fell. I don't know if this will help. Geonhee looked at Hwanwoong and smiled. Be sure to come see me later. With those words, Geonhee sank beneath the surface of the water. Yes. I'll definitely be happy. Hwanwoong answered the empty air.
With the few pearls Geonhui gave him, Hwanung became wealthy enough to envy others. He had enough money to buy several more mansions, but Hwanung wasn't happy. Even when Hwanung barely managed to smile, he felt a hollowness. It felt like a hole had been ripped from his chest. From then on, he became certain. He wouldn't mind dying without Geonhui. Even after paying off all his debts and enjoying all the wealth he could, Hwanung always lived in poverty. What he chose was a last resort.
Hwanung loaded a bullet into his pistol. He'd bought it with the money he'd earned from selling the pearl Geonhui had given him. He'd decided to be happy, but Hwanung's smile was filled with emptiness. The thought of going to meet Geonhui, whose whereabouts he didn't even know, felt so vague. The pistol touched Hwanung's left chest. Hwanung knew better than anyone that Geonhui didn't want to die like this. But Hwanung decided to give up on Geonhui. Unlike him, Geonhui would live a few hundred years longer, so he could meet someone better than him. Hwanung pulled the trigger.
-Yeah. Do you know why the sea is blue?
-why?
The ocean is so vast that it can embrace the loneliness of all things. It's because it quietly embraces all sadness and loneliness that it becomes so blue.
"Don't blindly embrace my sorrow. Sometimes, lean on me. I don't know if I can be of any help." The promises he'd made in jest flashed through Hwanung's mind. He smiled bitterly.
Gunhee, Gunhee. My only friend Gunhee. Gunhee, the Gunhee I love. Shine brightly on me forever. Even though I'm far away from you, we will definitely meet again. I'll be your bubble of air. I'll be your blue ocean. Because you were my universe, my everything. Because you were the first and last person to teach me love. Gunhee. I love you. I really love you. I love you more than anything in this world, more than anyone else. Now, I'll be your universe, your everything.
When police arrived at the scene after hearing of a death in a cabin across the hill, they found a boy lying peacefully on the floor, covered in dried blood. In his right hand, he held several blackened pearls in his hand. People called the incident the "Black Pearl Incident." And even today, hundreds of years later, the Black Pearl Incident remains a legend.