Mudoo - Chapter 43

In her dream, Seula was called Yeo-ok. She introduced herself as Yeo-ok, and everyone else called her that too.

A dream where she became Yeo-ok.

It wasn’t a new dream. It had been visiting her for as long as she could remember, stretching so far back that she couldn’t even recall when it first started.

“If it’s going to be a dream, couldn’t it at least make me the daughter of a rich family? Or give me a bunch of siblings and a house filled with laughter?”

She’d resented it plenty of times before.

But what could she do? Born an orphan, never knowing any other life—maybe even in her dreams, she was stuck living that way.

In those dreams, Yeo-ok had no parents either. From a young age, she worked as a servant, drifting from one noble household to another.

Somewhere along the way, Yeo-ok started saying strange things.

She’d tell a young noblewoman ready for marriage to go down to the stream, claiming she’d meet her match there. She’d advise the heir of a noble house on how to pass the state exams. She even warned a nobleman about someone he should be wary of.

When her predictions came true, people paid her handsomely. Slowly, word of mouth spread, and more people began to seek her out.

Until Seula moved into Tae-shin’s house, that was the extent of the dream.

***

Seula had holed up in her room, writing her resume for the first time in forever. She finally stood up, thinking she could use a cup of cocoa and headed to the kitchen.

As she passed the main hall— “If Seula is Yeo-ok… if she is Yeo-ok…”

It was Dong-gil’s voice. He was clearly saying Yeo-ok.

“It’s not impossible for her to have dreams like that.”

He was talking to Tae-shin, who just quietly shook his head.

“Yeo-ok?”

That was the name she went by in her dreams.

“You know Yeo-ok?”

Something felt off. Like maybe she hadn’t fully woken up yet. Why on earth would Dong-gil and Tae-shin know about Yeo-ok?

The look on their faces as they turned to her was just as strange. Not just surprise—they were clearly shocked. An intense, speechless tension filled the air. No one dared to speak first.

Finally, after what felt like forever, Tae-shin reluctantly opened his mouth.

“Seula… how do you know Yeo-ok?”

Good question.

How should she explain it?

Seula ran both hands down her face. Maybe the Yeo-ok in her dreams wasn’t the same Yeo-ok they were talking about. Maybe it was all a coincidence.

But her gut said otherwise—and her gut never lied.

***

Seula, Tae-shin, and Dong-gil sat in a small circle on the wooden floor of the main hall.

“I can’t be the only one having these dreams, right? Right…?”

That’s how she began, then slowly started to tell them about all her dreams as Yeo-ok.

How she worked as a servant in different households. How she read fortunes with eerie accuracy. How one day, she met an old blind shaman named Park, and after receiving a formal spirit-calling ritual, she moved into his home.

And how in her most recent dream, the one she had last night, she met both Dong-gil and Tae-shin in that house.

Seula spoke at length, not leaving anything out.

Tae-shin was holding his head in his hands, unable to look up. Dong-gil stared at her with trembling eyes.

“Other people don’t have dreams like this? You never had any, Dong-gil?”

“I… I dream of running through wide-open fields… that’s it…”

His lower jaw quivered slightly as he spoke. His eyes, which had always been warm and easygoing, now looked at her like she was someone he didn’t quite recognize.

That stung more than she expected.

Sure, maybe her dreams were a bit unusual, but she always figured they were still within the realm of normal. People have recurring dreams all the time, right?

Maybe she’d just become deeply attached to that character, so much that she kept dreaming about her. That seemed reasonable… didn’t it?

She hadn’t exactly gone around asking others what they dream about all the time. Seula reached out and lightly shook Tae-shin’s arm.

“This is seriously something weird, right?”

“Yeah… seriously messed up…” he muttered, trailing off with a heavy sigh as he rubbed his face.

“Who is Yeo-ok? You both know, don’t you?”

Tae-shin and Dong-gil exchanged glances. A silent conversation passed between them—each waiting for the other to speak first.

Watching them silently hesitate was driving Seula crazy. She couldn’t take it anymore and snapped.

“Wow. You guys are so frustrating. Is it really that hard to just tell me who Yeo-ok is?”

“……”

“……”

“I mean, come on. First you act all weird, then you listen to my whole dream story like it’s some big deal, and now you won’t even tell me what’s going on?”

Still, silence.

She was clearly upset now, her disappointment heavy in her voice—but they didn’t say a word.

***

Fed up and furious, Seula stormed out of Tae-shin’s house.

She wound through the narrow alleys and eventually stopped in front of Hobun’s place.

Not long after she rang the doorbell, the gate opened. As usual, Hobun appeared in nothing but a silk nightgown, beaming like the cold weather didn’t exist.

“Welcome, Seula.”

Hobun’s house was the only place she could run to without thinking. It was nearby, cozy, and somewhere she could crash for a few days without feeling like a burden.

She followed him into the main room.

The warm lighting, the sturdy wooden desk, the neatly arranged chairs—it looked like a small, independent bookstore. Or maybe a therapist’s office, built to make people feel safe.

“So, how’s it feel to visit the fox’s den again?” Hobun asked as he poured her a cup of tea from a steaming pot.

“Looks way more put together than last time. Maybe good lighting is the key to good interior design.”

“Or maybe it’s the owner. A beautiful home needs a beautiful host like me.”

“…Right.”

Hobun had a habit of saying things that didn’t quite fit his vibe. Like now. Fortunately, he was the kind of person who didn’t get hurt even when you brushed off his weird jokes. Probably built up a lot of tolerance from experience.

Seula blew gently on her tea. The fragrant steam tickled her nose.

“What were you up to just now?”

“Cooking, cleaning—running a household takes up the whole day, believe it or not. I was just hanging up some freshly washed blankets when you arrived. And you, Seula? What brings you here?”

She couldn’t exactly say, “I had nowhere else to go.” Nor could she say, “I left because Tae-shin and Dong-gil wouldn’t tell me who Yeo-ok is.”

“You said I was always welcome, remember?”

“Sure, but your face looks like you’re carrying the weight of the world.”

“Maybe because I was writing my resume?”

Hobun looked puzzled.

“It’s something you need when job hunting.”

“Ah… so you’re going back to the human world now.”

“I mean, I was born there, raised there… kind of feels like that’s where I belong.”

“Well, then Tae-shin must be heartbroken.”

Would he, though?

Sure, once she got a job, she wouldn’t be able to hang around Tae-shin all day anymore. But it’s not like they’d be on opposite ends of the world—still in Seoul, maybe just an hour apart. If people can do long-distance across countries, this wasn’t much.

So no, she didn’t really understand why Tae-shin would be heartbroken over that.

Reading her thoughts, Hobun smiled softly.

“For people like us, the human world is a hard and distant place. We can’t always blend in. Sometimes we hurt others without meaning to. Sometimes we get hurt instead. I think Tae-shin fears that, because of scars he already carries.”

The “people like us” part didn’t include Seula. He meant people like Tae-shin—or Dong-gil, the talking dog.

Suddenly, the distance between them and her felt huge. She wondered what Tae-shin had thought when she said she wanted to live an ordinary life.

Did he think it was a silly wish?

Or maybe, just maybe, he wanted the same thing—an ordinary life. Or… maybe he didn’t even know what a normal life looked like. And that gap between them, that disconnect—that’s what hurt the most.

There was still a long way to go.

She thought they were close. That they understood each other. But when it came down to it, she still couldn’t see into his heart.

Just like they saw the human world as a difficult and distant place.

To Seula, the path to Tae-shin felt just as far, just as hard.