Re)
Admin:
- Classification: Spirit. For the hundredth, thousandth time, it’s not a yokai, you idiots. Even goblins don’t know they’re not yokai.
- Threat Level: Lowest
- Old names: Dotgabi or Dotabi
- How to catch: Easy. Sprinkle blood and it’ll faint and turn back into an object. Even red-colored liquids sometimes work; horse blood is most effective. To kill it, break or burn the object. But don’t catch more than one or two. The goblins’ leader, the Mangryang King, can’t be handled by just a few hunters, and there’s even a Celestial Soldier by his side. If you want a quick death, just jump off a cliff. Dying is better than earning Mangryang King’s wrath.
- Uses: None. Even if you hunt it, you only get scrap metal. If you gain a goblin’s favor, you might get gold. A living goblin is a hundred times better than a dead one.
- Food: Likes all foods elderly people enjoy. Especially obsessed with red beans. Red bean rice cakes, sorghum cakes — those are its favorites. Why do most yokai love rice cakes? (Again, goblins aren’t yokai.) Also likes dried persimmons, sweet rice drink, mountain fruits, etc.
- Habitat: Abandoned houses, often appears near Dobie Entertainment in Seonmun-dong. Hard to see elsewhere, so better to make one yourself. Method available for extra payment.
- Misc: Rumors say Jung Hae-su, Hong Ji-woo, and Ibiwon are goblins, but that’s crap. At least know this much, idiots: goblins are only active at night. Though, Hong Ji-woo is definitely not human.
Most of it was stuff Saeon already knew. He posted another message.
The next alert came about 30 minutes later as he was driving. At a red light, Saeon felt around and picked up his phone.
Re)
Admin:
Need gold? If you need gold, go catch a Jupyo or Seomyo for me. It’s urgent.
- Help a goblin in trouble
- Give it tasty food
- Play along with its pranks
- If you can sing well, sing for it — you might grow a lump, but that can be fixed with plastic surgery these days
- Show it something amazing
After thinking for a bit, Saeon replied to the post.
- [Customer: Goblins like kisses too]
- [Admin: Shut up. What, are you dating a goblin or something? This bastard lost it while hunting.]
- [Admin: Wait, did you really kiss a goblin? Ew.]
- [Admin: No seriously, did you really kiss one?]
- [Admin: Was it pretty? Or handsome? It’s rare for goblins to transform well.]
- [Admin: Or are you just a perv?]
…Romance, huh. As Saeon thought, replies flooded in. The site’s admin was usually helpful but had a bad habit of asking too many personal questions. Saeon made another post. This time the reply came immediately, like they were waiting.
- [Admin: What’s “nat-goblin”? A goblin born from a sickle?]
- [Customer: Day goblin.]
- [Admin: Day goblin, my ass.]
- [Admin: If you keep talking nonsense, I’ll block you. Don’t get high while hunting. You’ll get yourself killed.]
- [Admin: Seriously though, what’s a day goblin?]
- [Admin: What did you see that made you call it that?]
- [Customer: Candy Goblin.]
- [Admin: FFS, how is candy a goblin? You hallucinating?]
- [Admin: What’s a day goblin and a candy goblin, some new mutant yokai?]
- [Admin: This bastard’s being annoying. Just wants to know stuff for himself, huh?]
- [Admin: I’m blocking you.]
- [Admin: Seriously, I will block you.]
- [Admin: …Want some gold? Can you tell me?]
If the admin didn’t know, that meant no one else did either. Having gotten all the info he could, Saeon turned off his phone. As he entered the city, he checked the time and turned his wheel toward his target.
Soon, he arrived at a broadcasting station. According to the schedule he got, “Ibiwon” was supposed to be there. After parking, Saeon pulled several red threads from his pocket. Chrysanthemum knot, butterfly knot, triple coil, soul-knot — each with a different shape. He chose the plum blossom knot, held it in his fingers, and let it dangle loosely. Though there wasn’t even a breeze, the knot fluttered to one side like wind was blowing.
Feeling the subtle movement in the thread, Saeon entered the station. He pulled out a talisman from his pocket, folded it several times, and slipped it under his tongue. As he passed through the gate without swiping a card, no one noticed anything strange.
Once past the gate, he chewed and swallowed the talisman. The way the thread swayed suggested the one he was looking for was nearby. Just as he was tracing the direction with his fingers, someone caught his eye.
A face he’d seen before. A man with a kind and gentle aura, talking to someone. Saeon quietly muttered the name to himself.
“Kim Eun-jun.”
His fingers twitched in the air like tapping and hovered near his pocket. The look Saeon gave Kim Eun-jun was ice cold.
Aside from hunters, humans were easier to handle than yokai. Saeon didn’t enjoy killing, but if necessary, he never hesitated. Still, dealing with Kim Eun-jun wasn’t necessary.
But rarely, he felt the urge to do it. He imagined sneaking up and slitting his throat, or twisting his neck so hard it’d never move again.
Most of the time, Saeon followed his urges. But Kim Eun-jun was too well-known. Taking him out would cause too many problems. As he debated what to do, he sensed someone stealthily approaching him.
Hunters often ended up being the hunted — so Saeon was always sensitive to being tracked. His attention shifted from Kim Eun-jun to the person sneaking up behind him.
But it was a sloppy tailing job — nothing dangerous. Probably a similarly sloppy attack would follow. Saeon casually reached into his jacket, gripping a dagger. If they jumped, he’d subdue them instantly.
But the red thread tickled his hand as it fluttered. Then he heard a faint jingle. That’s when he realized — the person sneaking up was the unique goblin he’d been targeting. Confirming Kim Eun-jun’s position, Saeon nonchalantly walked the other way. He didn’t want the goblin and Kim Eun-jun to cross paths.
As he moved, he could feel Ibi anxiously quicken their pace behind him. What’s with the sneaky approach? What does he want? Saeon wondered. Then he remembered something — one way to gain favor with a goblin:
“Play along with their pranks.”
Ah, that’s it. So goblins like to play tricks…
Sure of Ibi’s intentions, Saeon slowed his pace and headed toward a quiet spot. He’d never humored a prank in his life — but now, for the first time, he felt like doing it. He remembered wildcat cubs in the mountains trying to surprise him by leaping from hiding. He recalled how their mother reacted.
Pretending not to notice Ibi following him, Saeon bought a drink from a vending machine and sat on a bench. Click, he popped the can. One sip, two sips… and just as he took a third, a presence stirred behind him.
“Boo!”
Normally, when attacked from behind, the instinct is to retaliate. But the ambush was so clumsy he didn’t feel the need. Realizing again that goblins were harmless, Saeon flinched dramatically. When he turned around, Ibi’s eyes sparkled. The goblin’s light brown eyes — mimicking human ones — shimmered faintly blue. Ibi asked proudly,
“You were surprised, right?”
“…Yeah, I was.”
Just putting his hand to his chest made Ibi beam with satisfaction. Though he looked like a man in his 20s, that mischievous smile made him seem like a boy. Then, as if he’d never played a prank, Ibi calmly sat next to Saeon. Today, for once, he was alone without his usual companions.
“Why are you alone today?”
“Everyone had stuff to do and left first. I was just about to head back too — lucky to run into you.”
His smiling eyes curved sweetly, showing his delight at seeing Saeon. Earlier, he smiled innocently like a child — now, his face glowed with a bewitching charm.
Goblins do have a certain allure for humans, but it’s mild — rated only “low-low” threat. Maybe a bad dream at worst. But if yokai deliberately tried to seduce humans, they could destroy their souls. Still, Ibi’s charm was unusually powerful — nearly on par with a yokai’s.
“Because he’s a day goblin, maybe…”
In truth, if Saeon was looking for something dangerous, Ibi’s companion Dongji might be more suitable — even at a glance, he didn’t seem human, exuding menace. Definitely not a Celestial Soldier. A type of monster Saeon had never encountered. But even so, Ibi was the one who fascinated Saeon most.
Some hunters weakened yokai and chained them up as trophies. He used to think that was pointless. Now, though, Saeon was beginning to understand.
His eyes darkened.
He really wanted to hunt this peculiar goblin. To ambush him in secret, track him until exhaustion, render him helpless, take him to his own den, and lock him in the deepest chamber—so he could watch him to his heart’s content.
But he still hadn’t found a way to do that.
Little Pink Starfish 
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