Episode 2
Min Joon-wan, a professor of folklore at Yongwon University, was renowned for his research on indigenous beliefs, focusing on mountain god rituals and village festivals, as well as myths and legends. The reason he found himself trekking through the night on Toryong Mountain, like a thief in the heavy rain, was none other than the fear of losing his precious research data to the downpour.
“What should I do? If the rain continues like this, all my valuable materials will be washed away.”
As a scholar famous for unearthing forgotten myths and legends, the mountains surrounding his city were littered with abandoned shrines dedicated to nameless deities.
For instance, the remnants of a shrine and cave dedicated to a deity representing the spirit of Toryong Mountain’s earth vein, which he had recently discovered.
“I should at least go and take some pictures.”
To the untrained eye, these remnants might appear as mere rocks or debris, but to him, they were treasures more precious than gold.
But had his obsessive research driven him mad?
Late at night, with a flashlight clenched between his teeth, he was documenting his recent discovery. Suddenly, the earth trembled violently, and a colossal being surged upwards. Joon-wan thought he must be dreaming.
“This must be a dream, right? Huh?”
However, it felt far too vivid to be a dream.
He initially mistook the tremors for an earthquake. But as he pointed his flashlight towards the epicenter, the beam illuminated a long, pink, writhing entity ascending towards the sky.
Smooth, taut skin, a thick, white clitellum behind its head.
“It’s an earthworm!”
Unbelievable as it seemed, no matter how he looked at it… it was an earthworm.
“It’s an earthworm!”
And the moment he involuntarily screamed, it truly transformed into an earthworm.
Poof!
Thud.
A tiny earthworm, at that.
It shrunk so dramatically, almost vanishing from sight, before landing with a soft thud in his outstretched hands.
Joon-wan blinked repeatedly.
“…”
No matter how he examined it, all he saw was… an earthworm. He couldn’t imagine it being anything else.
Just as he began to question his sanity, it chomped down on his finger.
‘You scoundrel! You dare hold me responsible for your actions after reducing me to this state!’
Immediately after, he heard a hallucination emanating from near the earthworm’s clitellum.
“…”
As Joon-wan stared in silence, the earthworm, seemingly agitated, thrashed its head back and forth.
‘It’s blinding, you fool! Turn off that light!’
The extent of his knowledge about earthworms was that they were nocturnal creatures.
While doubting the possibility of a talking earthworm, he lowered his flashlight slightly.
‘Sob, sob!’
And then… it started to cry.
‘Waaaaah!’
Sob, sob – Sob, sob
Whoosh!
‘A thousand years of virtuous deeds, all gone in an instant!’
Do earthworms even cry?
Rainwater gradually pooled in his cupped hands.
‘Waaaaah! Waaaaah!’
The earthworm continued to sob.
‘What kind of fool climbs a mountain at this hour, in this weather! You scoundrel!’
He was the one who should be asking that question.
‘What were you doing at this hour, in this weather?’
Feeling as if possessed, Joon-wan descended the mountain, clutching the earthworm in his hands.
During the descent, it repeatedly bit him with its soft, mouth-like opening and attempted to escape several times.
‘It’s a hallucination. Just a hallucination.’
Ignoring the sounds emanating from the earthworm, Joon-wan carefully cradled it in his hands, ensuring it wouldn’t break or burst, and descended the mountain in a daze.
‘You scoundrel! You scoundrel! Let me go!’
It continued to rant and rave until they reached the bottom of the mountain, after which it fell silent.
‘What should I do with this?’
Reaching the parking lot, Joon-wan improvised. He emptied a disposable plastic cup from the cupholder in his car’s console, scooped some soil from a nearby flower bed into the cup, placed the earthworm inside, and sealed it with the lid. The straw hole in the lid seemed large enough to provide ventilation.
Every time Joon-wan glanced at it while driving, the earthworm would try to escape the disposable cup, wriggling towards the hole, only to slide back down and repeat the process.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.
No matter how he looked at it, it was just an ordinary earthworm.
He slapped his cheeks repeatedly at every red light.
He hadn’t been drinking. He was completely sober.
‘What did I just see?’
Rumble, rumble, rumble!
But he had definitely witnessed a colossal being erupting from the earth and ascending towards the sky, accompanied by tremors that seemed to shake the very foundations of the world. Joon-wan thought the earth was splitting apart.
And that being… had shrunk into this tiny earthworm?
‘This tiny little earthworm?’
Joon-wan returned to his apartment with the cup and placed it on the dining table.
He removed his raincoat and wet socks, turned on the television, and a breaking news report flashed across the screen.
[An earthquake measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale struck Yongdam City at midnight today.]
He realized it was the very incident he had experienced.
[While there have been no reported casualties, residents in the Yongdam City area, the presumed epicenter, are advised to exercise caution as reports of cracked buildings and falling objects are emerging.]
Joon-wan watched the breaking news with a stunned expression, then, still in his wet clothes, he headed to the bathroom.
‘Pull yourself together, Min Joon-wan, pull yourself together.’
He hoped a hot shower would clear his head.
However, when he returned after his shower, he found the cup still on the dining table.
“Oh.”
Or rather, it had toppled over, the lid had come off, and some of the damp soil had spilled out.
Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle…
And the earthworm he had captured on the mountain was attempting to escape. The television, still on, was now broadcasting a special report on the earthquake, which had escalated from breaking news.
“No. Get back in. Hey? Get back in.”
Joon-wan quickly pushed the escaping earthworm back into the plastic cup and secured the lid tightly.
Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle!
The earthworm inside wriggled in protest.
The following day, Yongdam City was declared a special disaster zone. Yongwon University, where Joon-wan worked, had also suffered significant damage.
He heard that a wall in the undergraduate dormitory had collapsed, and cracks had appeared in the research building, along with shattered windows. Due to safety concerns, some dormitory residents were evacuated, and the university was temporarily closed.
The damage didn’t stop there.
Access to the city’s national park trails, including Toryong Mountain, the identified epicenter, was restricted for safety inspections. News reports extensively covered the massive landslide on Toryong Mountain, which had created a deep, circular chasm.
‘An earthquake…’
With a few days of unexpected leave, Joon-wan sat at his dining table every day, anxiously watching the news reports.
‘Could it be… related to the earthworm I captured?’
He had been on Toryong Mountain, the identified epicenter, on the day of the earthquake, and he was present at the very epicenter when it struck.
‘No matter how I think about it… it wasn’t just a simple earthquake.’
In retrospect, it was a miracle he had survived. He couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t a natural disaster. He had witnessed the true cause of the earthquake that day.
‘But to think… that it was because of that.’
Joon-wan glanced at the now minuscule creature and quickly closed his eyes.
‘Does this even make sense?’
No matter how he looked at it, the creature inside the cup was… an earthworm.
Just an ordinary earthworm.