Magician City Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Chapter 7. Blue Thread (2)

 

The very next day,

Yu-ye started to formulate new questions about the blue thread.

 

Why was it more attached to objects than freely roaming the air?

Why was it more attached to the animate than the inanimate?

Why was it more attached to humans than animals like dogs and cats?

 

Yu-ye thought of every possible explanation he could imagine, taking all sorts of elements into consideration. The subject’s size or shape, the temperatures, the numbers of the blue strings, where the subject stood, the state of health…etc.

There were surprisingly many things to consider.

Yu-ye started to visit the library again.

Maybe a few days have pa.s.sed.

When every librarian and staff working inside the library knew of Yu-ye, he was finally able to get close to the answer. It was age.

The more something or someone was aged, the more the threads appeared around them. Lastly, the strings became blue dots and coagulated together, changing its shape.

Yu-ye thought again, age as its reason. It was easy because the library was always filled with people of all different ages.

Yu-ye’s thoughts were almost exact. Rather than children his age, middle or high schoolers and more. Rather than them, the workers at the library had more strings around them.

Sometimes, he could find some with unusually little strings despite their age, however, most of those people seemed gravely ill, unable to hold up their own bodies.

It seemed when one became weak and ill, the blue strings around them decreased.

 

Another peculiar fact was that aging didn’t always bring more strings. It seemed to increase until one’s 50s, then started to decrease soon afterwards.

Yu-ye’s new hypothesis that the change of the amount in blue thread is tied strongly with one’s age made his heart jump as he waited for a change once more.

He started seeing the blue string outside because he changed his ‘perception.’ Did that mean knowing a new hypothesis now, would bring about a new change?

 

“Aw…… Maybe this isn’t it…”

One, two, then three days pa.s.sed with nothing changed.

Maybe the hypothesis was wrong, or the change was made by ‘luck’ disguised as ‘perception.’ There was no way to confirm, but the fact nothing happened did not change.

Puzzled Yu-ye changed his focus to observe those other than humans.

 

What he picked was trees. It seemed to be the most populated thing next to humans. He rummaged through the library to find how to measure a tree’s age. The simplest way is to check its annual rings, but cutting down trees in different sizes and shapes with a saw seemed impractical. Therefore, Yu-ye guessed each tree’s age by looking at the pictures inside the book.

His verdict was that trees worked similarly to humans.

It was as if he spent another month verifying the same idea he had already checked a month ago. It was disappointing to say in the least.

Although, he found one questionable aspect.

That is, the difference between the animate and the inanimate. Almost no strings were seen next to rocks and soil that were older than any living subject in the town. If Yu-ye’s hypothesis was correct, the pile of rocks in the mountain behind his house had to be covered in blue.

‘What was the difference? That one could move?’

Trees also move when they grow, therefore, the thought seemed to fit.

He also remembered seeing it on the news. A story about a man and his long-forgotten bike. When he remembered, and came back years after to check, the bike was abs

orbed into the tree.

This was proof, but not enough.

No significant change appeared just yet.

 

Yu-ye was watching the blue strings that day too.

He had already stopped going to the library a couple days ago.

From the books he saw inside the library, many talked about the differences of the animate and the inanimate, but none of it was related to ‘perception’. It was useless unless its change was made by a change in perception.

When he thought he could no longer find the truth behind the blue thread, Yu-ye’s tight grip on his incredible focus and drive for research loosened.

To think of it, this was the first time Yu-ye had really dug into one subject deeply for weeks, obsessing over his questions for an answer. The ongoing lethargic mood seemed to be its side effect.

He also lost his appet.i.te, leaving more than half of the lunch grandmother had prepared for him.

He felt betrayed by the blue threads swimming freely in the air.

It soon became the time for Yunyoung to come back, but Yu-ye didn’t want to get off the floor. The sun felt warm for a mid-January weather, and he enjoyed laying down with his worn out, but relaxed body. It almost felt as if he were to get up before Yunyoung got there, he was going to lose to the blue strings. A sort of childish rivalry sparked inside of him.

 

He swung his feet, to and fro, having a staring contest with the air for a couple more minutes. Then the front gate opened, making a rusty sound like one’s nails on a chalkboard. A big dog, as tall as Yu-ye’s waist slowly wandered into his front yard. Unlike its intimidating size, the dog was friendly, with a snow-white fur and an innocent face. The dog wagged its tail softly as it came to Yu-ye.

“You came today too?”

‘Whimper’.

Yu-ye brought out the bowl of rice he had left over. He had been having leftovers every 3 or so days, therefore he gave the rice to a stray dog that came by once in a while. Now, the dog had memorized the time he brings out food and came accordingly to eat.

The dog had finished the bowl in the blink of an eye and wagged its tail harder wanting more food, but that was all Yu-ye had. He was too busy staring blankly into s.p.a.ce full of unanswerable questions to care anyway.

‘Pant pant pant……’

The dog circled Yu-ye for a while before it finally decided to head out. The dog’s foot got caught in the ramp of the front door, once again making a metal screech. Yu-ye finally turned his head, alarmed. The dog looked back too, in hopes that he had something else to feed, but Yu-ye just stared back. The panting dog then left the house and then, out of his sight.

“Ah…… Breathing!”

Yu-ye came to a sudden realization while looking at the dog’s tail.  According to the book he had read from the library, one’s age also had to do with one’s breathing.

Anything with short, fast breaths live for a shorter amount of time than those that breathe slow which tend to live for a much longer time. Thus, whales and turtles breathe slowly and deeply. When a human’s heartbeat amounts to 70 or 80 a minute, the world’s longest living animal, the Galapagos Turtle’s heart only beats 6 times in one minute.

“Breath, is breath the answer?”

Yu-ye thought of the all the knowledge he had acquired about breathing. Then, one thought had struck him like a lightning. What about the breathing technique Handcart Grandpa had taught him long ago? He used to practice it while playing alone before Yunyoung came to teach him.  Thankfully, he still remembered every step.

Yu-ye started practicing Handcart Grandpa’s breathing technique.

He breathed lightly at first, then quickly, then finally deeply and slowly.

When he focused his mind to it, the blue strings attached to the green weeds below all shot up towards the sky as the surrounding blue thread all rushed towards Yu-ye. Yu-ye gasped and broke the breathing technique in surprise, but it was too late. The blue strings that surrounded Yu-ye had already been sucked into his mouth.

Yu-ye felt like a monstrous villain, eating the innocent blue civilians to fill his own stomach. He almost felt bad as he scratched his head in confusion. But, at last he showed an innocently sunny smile.

He felt full even without eating.

 

After that day, Yu-ye stopped going to the library completely.

Instead, he roamed around town looking for the blue strings.

He had nothing to do until Yunyoung came back around 2PM anyway. If he was going to have to wait, he might as well spend time looking for the fascinating blue thread. It made him happily full, and less bored.

Yu-ye’s day started after he saw his grandmother off, and finished eating all the blue thread in his house.

When the house was clean of the blue strings, he headed out to the town.

He always had morning walks to digest his full stomach from eating a big breakfast and as a form of exercise. Now, he was exercising to eat again. How weird.

 

Sometimes on TV, a panel of a talk show would cleverly joke how people had ‘a different stomach for dessert.’ That was exactly how eating the blue strings felt.

 

There was another advantage of the blue strings other than feeling full. No matter how much he consumed, there were always more to go around.  Usually, Yu-ye left half of the blue strings in each tree. If he were to eat all of it, he felt as though the tree would wilt, and die the next day.

 

Leaving halves of the strings were no easy task on its own.

Once he started to absorb, it was hard to stop. Many times, he became too captivated, then when he came back to his senses, the blue strings were all gone.

At first, when he ate up all the blue thread surrounding one tree, he felt horrible as if he killed it. Unlike the usual emotionless, calm child he was, he even showed tears in sorrow.

After worrying the rest of that day, he returned the next day, carefully inspecting the tree.

Thankfully, the blue strings appeared again.

Yu-ye sighed in relief. Then thought of a cup of c.o.ke.

There was a day when Yunyoung brought Yu-ye a cup of c.o.ke. She said, to Yu-ye’s surprise, that the hamburger shop gave one more cup when the customers finished the first cup. It was called a re-fill.

Yunyoung’s cla.s.s president had bought the entire cla.s.s a hamburger set as a snack, and Yunyoung had saved the cup after she drank the c.o.ke to re-fill it later. Yu-ye thanked Yunyoung for the first c.o.ke he had in a while, but also felt thankful of her sweet, caring heart.

From the school to the Moon Village was 40 minutes by bus alone. Furthermore, to walk into a fast-food restaurant with an empty cup, asking for a re-fill must have been embarra.s.sing as a middle school girl.

Yu-ye was glad the blue strings were like Yunyoung’s c.o.ke.

 

Setting all thoughts aside, Yu-ye felt his body change after he found that the blue thread is re-fillable. His stick-thin figure from his poor appet.i.te began to grow bigger, and soon he became the average weight he was supposed to be.

What was changed was not just his physique.

It is said that one’s eyes are the windows to one’s heart, and his were deep, calm, and silent like a pure, innocent spring of water hidden deep in the beauty of a mountain. It was an impossible depth to reach as an 8-year-old child.

Yunyoung was the only one to even notice ever so slightly as Yu-ye grew in silence.