More Than Coincidence, Fate (5)
When that unfocused gaze brushed past him, Jung Hee-sung reflexively swallowed his breath.
But Do-hyun’s eyes did not capture him.
As if there was nothing there, his gaze slipped past Jung Hee-sung and headed somewhere far away.
Then, one step at a time, he slowly began to walk.
Even normally, Do-hyun’s footsteps were quiet.
But right now, something was different from usual.
His straight back, his upright neck, his slightly lowered gaze, and his left hand raised as if he were holding something….
A sense of déjà vu flashed through Hee-sung’s mind.
This is….
That was when it happened.
The gaze wandering through empty air slid downward like a snake.
Do-hyun tilted his head and slowly said,
“There are still traces left here.”
With an elegant movement, Do-hyun put down whatever he had been holding in his left hand.
Then he began rubbing both hands together.
At first, the movement was slow, but as time passed, it grew more and more intense.
His delicate white hands quickly flushed red.
Even so, the motion of rubbing his hands only grew faster.
“Disappear, accursed stain! Did I not say it? Hurry and vanish! One, two….”
Just as his breathing grew rough,
The movement of his rubbing hands suddenly stopped.
“…No. Now it is time to finish it.”
A shrill voice flowed out.
“Hell is too dark.”
Though rough with breath, it was a fragile and thin voice, like that of an injured bird.
At that, Jung Hee-sung’s eyes shook greatly.
In a voice as small as a groan, he murmured,
“Lady Macbeth….”
Lady Macbeth.
Macbeth’s wife, who appears in Macbeth.
A character whose name never once appeared in the work, and who was called only that, was standing before him.
Through Do-hyun’s “playing.”
As he stood there blankly somewhere between shock and awe, Do-hyun smiled softly.
It was a smile as light and graceful as a bird.
“Oh, my lord. Oh, my lord. You are a soldier, so what are you afraid of?”
Lady Macbeth spoke like a chirping bird.
Her voice was beautiful, almost like singing, and yet at the same time, it was chilling.
“We have power. There is no need to fear anything. And yet… Ah, my lord. My lord.”
A sound leaked out, as if she were barely holding back a sneer.
“Who would have thought it? That so much blood could be inside that old king’s body?”
Goosebumps rose all over him.
What the hell….
Jung Hee-sung could not understand what he was seeing right now.
It felt more realistic to think that the little kid had been possessed by a demon.
But Do-hyun’s acting did not stop there.
“The Lord of Fife had a wife. Where is she now?”
In an instant,
Do-hyun’s expression, which had been looking around with innocent eyes, twisted and warped strangely.
“What? Are these hands never to be clean again?”
The innocent lady’s voice changed into the groan of a king crushed by fear.
Before he could even adjust to that change, Lady Macbeth once again cried out anxiously.
“Enough, my lord! Stop! If you keep being so frightened, you will ruin everything!”
The boundaries between reality and memory, dream and hallucination, collapsed.
Jung Hee-sung realized that Lady Macbeth was not recognizing the present, but wandering like a ghost somewhere in the past.
“Ah. There is still the smell of blood on these hands. Even if all the perfumes of Arabia were poured upon them, they could never make these little hands smell sweet!”
As if Lady Macbeth’s nightmare had been brought into reality, Jung Hee-sung felt a different kind of overwhelming pressure than before.
If before it had felt as if his soul had been pierced,
Then now, it was the helpless pressure that poured out from the wonder held by a special human being.
“Aaaah!”
Do-hyun grabbed his face and fell into despair.
Jung Hee-sung flinched at that raw, unrefined scream, yet he could not tear his gaze away.
If the little kid really was a demon, then Hee-sung was certain he had been thoroughly bewitched.
Do-hyun staggered and suffered for a while, then at some point lowered both hands.
The face that appeared again was terribly peaceful and still.
Because of that, it looked even more foreign.
“My lord, hurry and wash your hands. Put on your nightclothes. Do not make such a pale face. I tell you again, Banquo is buried in the ground. He cannot come out of his grave.”
Do-hyun urged someone who did not exist in the empty air.
“My lord, come here. Let us go to the bedroom. Someone is knocking at the door. Come, come, come. Give me your hand. What has already happened cannot be undone. Now, let us go. To bed, to bed, to bed!”
Do-hyun dragged someone’s arm and walked forward.
He sank into a pale, hazy darkness.
Without realizing it, Jung Hee-sung shot up from his seat.
“Do-hyun!”
At his shout, Do-hyun’s movements stopped abruptly.
Do-hyun, who had been heading somewhere, paused for a moment, then slowly turned his head.
“Ha….”
Jung Hee-sung sank back down just like that.
The tension had left his body all at once.
“W-what’s wrong?”
Startled, Do-hyun ran over and hovered in front of him.
As if he had never been giving off the scent of death moments ago, he fidgeted helplessly before carefully sitting down in front of him.
Seeing him hesitate, his hands twitching yet unable to touch first, Jung Hee-sung simply stretched out both arms and hugged him tightly.
Suddenly caught in his arms, Do-hyun rolled his large eyes around.
Jung Hee-sung spoke like a sigh.
“You scared me.”
“I scared you? I’m sorry.”
He had driven him into a corner, suddenly performed that kind of acting, and now he was apologizing so obediently.
He really was a little kid with a talent for tossing people up and down.
On top of that.
“I understand what your ‘playing’ is now.”
He understood it so well that he would never forget it for the rest of his life.
However.
“But did it have to be Lady Macbeth? Of all the things a kid could choose, you chose that….”
Do-hyun asked in confusion,
“Isn’t it interesting?”
Interesting? My heart nearly fell out.
“It’s a book I like.”
Jung Hee-sung knew that too.
After all, when he had told him to read something more fun and exciting, this was the book he had brought.
He felt dizzy, not knowing where he should even begin pointing out the problem.
“It didn’t have to be Lady Macbeth, but when I opened a random page, that scene came out. And for playing alone in that scene, Lady Macbeth was the most suitable. The maid and the doctor talk to each other….”
So he meant it was suitable for performing a monologue.
But there was something that caught Jung Hee-sung’s ear.
“Then can you also play the maid and the doctor?”
“Mm, sometimes I play several roles. Should I try?”
“Without looking at the book?”
“Yes.”
One of Jung Hee-sung’s eyebrows rose.
“Don’t tell me you’ve memorized the whole book.”
If Do-hyun had truly opened any random page, picked a character who seemed suitable, and acted it out on the spot, that meant he had practically memorized all the characters’ lines.
Do-hyun answered as if it were nothing.
“It’s just because I read it often.”
Reading it often means you memorize the lines?
“Did you memorize it on purpose?”
“Do people memorize books on purpose?”
Do-hyun tilted his head.
At his attitude, as if he could not understand why anyone would try to memorize a book, Jung Hee-sung could not hold back and asked,
“Have you ever taken an intelligence test?”
“Mm, I have. Benjamin recommended that I try taking one once….”
“How did it come out?”
Do-hyun hesitated before answering, and Jung Hee-sung’s mouth fell open.
How was it possible that the more he peeled back this tiny little kid, the more surprise kept coming out?
“No wonder you only read strange books…. It was because you’re a genius.”
At his admiration, Do-hyun made an awkward expression.
“That… I’m not really sure.”
“Why don’t you know? You’re that smart!”
Do-hyun smiled vaguely.
Jung Hee-sung belatedly realized he had made a mistake.
Do-hyun had never once mingled with children his own age.
No matter how much someone tested him and told him the number, could a child who had never interacted with his peers truly realize how clever he was?
Even if he understood it in his head, it would probably not feel real to him.
And the child, who was far too good at reading people, changed the subject before Jung Hee-sung could fix his words.
“More importantly, how was it?”
“How was what? I thought my heart was going to fall out. I’ve never seen anyone act as well as you.”
“Really?”
His usually pale cheeks flushed red with joy, making him look full of life.
It was such a nice sight that Jung Hee-sung unconsciously imagined Do-hyun looking healthy.
He was cute even now, but he would be even cuter then.
In the meantime, Do-hyun came to his senses and shook his head.
“No, not that.”
“It was cool.”
“Hyung, that’s not what I mean!”
Jung Hee-sung let out a laugh.
When he only laughed instead of answering, Do-hyun’s large eyes gradually narrowed.
Before Do-hyun could sulk, he quickly said,
“You won.”
His eyes became round again.
Jung Hee-sung gently tapped the sparkling corner of his eye.
These eyes were the problem.
When they looked at him as if holding the entire universe inside them, how could someone who was merely human possibly refuse?
“When I had already been completely won over, and then you even performed like that, how was I supposed to hold out?”
Even if tomorrow is the last day, he said he wants to play today, didn’t he?
A strange intuition rose in him.
Do-hyun would keep those words.
That was how special Do-hyun was when he acted.
Hee-sung had seen a powerful light that could not be explained by talent alone.
Perhaps… it might even be this tiny child’s life force.
If he were a proper adult, he would try to stop the child.
He would persuade him to prioritize his life over playing.
But Jung Hee-sung was not even a proper human being, let alone a proper adult.
So instead of stopping the child, he would want to play the violin beside him.
What am I, some mayfly?
A hollow laugh came out on its own.
Even so, he thought he would gladly burn the flame of life together with Do-hyun.
The moment he thought that, his hands began to itch like mad.
His fingers trembled.
As if he were already playing.
This little kid has completely swept me away.
Jung Hee-sung admitted defeat.
“I lost.”
Do-hyun smiled brightly.
Seeing a smile that held nothing but joy, without even a single shadow, all the miscellaneous thoughts slowly faded away.
Jung Hee-sung slipped his hands under Do-hyun’s arms and lifted him up at once.
Then he placed the child, who had gone stiff like a startled cat, on the bed.
After patting the round crown of his head twice, he headed toward the closet.
When he opened the closet door wide, he saw the white case lying in the corner.
His violin.
The one he had brought all the way here in the end, even while thinking he had let it go.
After looking at it with complicated eyes for a moment, Jung Hee-sung reached out and took it out.
When he released the lock, the friend that had been with him for a very long time revealed itself.
He reached out, pretending as if it were nothing.
When the violin settled perfectly in his grip, the faint tremble died down, and a deep longing and sense of stability surged in.
Ah.
How did I live after letting this go?
His hands moved the way they had moved thousands, tens of thousands of times before.
He set the four strings so that they would hang over the upper part of the tailpiece, then let the strings pass over the bridge, the fingerboard, and the ebony nut before winding them tightly around the pegs.
He hooked the bow hair onto the frog as well, took out the rosin, and rubbed it across the bow hair.
Then, with a careful movement, he drew the bow across the A string.
Because it had not been used for a long time, the pitch was off.
He repeated the process of drawing the bow, tuning, drawing the bow, and tuning again.
When all four strings were finally tuned,
The bow crossed the strings following his unstoppable hand.
Even though he had tuned it without using a tuner, the pitch was stable.
It was only natural.
Because he had not forgotten the tone of the strings for even a single moment.
His hands, which had rested for an entire year, did not move the way he wanted them to.
Like a machine that had not been oiled, they felt awkward and stiff somewhere.
Even so, Jung Hee-sung could not stop.
A dam blocking the sea cannot withstand the water that pours out once it breaks.
Jung Hee-sung was a broken dam.
Following his hands, the performance began.
There was no title.
He was simply playing what he felt right now.
The pitch that had been unstable gradually regained its strength along with the bold movement of his bow.
That’s right. This was the sound.
Jung Hee-sung closed his eyes.
If he did not pour out what he felt right now, it felt as if his heart would burst.
Desperately, he continued playing.
Do-hyun could not come to his senses beneath the sharply piercing sound.
Do-hyun did not know much about music.
The world of a young boy was extremely narrow and limited.
But even Do-hyun could tell that a clear image was being conveyed through Jung Hee-sung’s performance.
The longing to play.
The will to pour out everything in this moment.
Jung Hee-sung understood Do-hyun.
And Do-hyun understood Jung Hee-sung.
Something beyond a simple exchange of feelings was happening between the two of them.
The corner of Jung Hee-sung’s left eye twisted as he continued playing.
At the unfamiliar sensation, Do-hyun clutched his chest and panicked, not knowing what to do.
The performance raced toward its climax.
Do-hyun’s eyes opened wide.
Something clear and sky-blue, flowing like a calm lake, came out of him.
At the same time, something like a roaring flame, the color of sunset, surged out from Jung Hee-sung.
The two energies began to tremble, about to mix together.
And at that moment,
【Found you! Strange souls!】
