[sample translations]jung su youn, the mosquito girl eng by LTI Korea Library

Sample Translations

Su-youn Jung The Mosquito Girl E ng l i s h

Book Information

The Mosquito Girl (모기소녀) SAMTOH Publishing corp. / 2013 / 45 p. / ISBN 9788946416963 For further information, please visit: http://library.klti.or.kr/node/772

This sample translation was produced with support from LTI Korea. Please contact the LTI Korea Library for further information. library@klti.or.kr

The Mosquito Girl Written by Jung Su-youn, Illustrated by Kim Yu-jin

Chapter 1. A Summer Vacation

“Yuri.” Yuri pretended she didn’t hear. “Yuri!” She bit her lower lip. Her knees knocked together. Her eyebrows began to come together. Two thick wrinkles showed up between her eyebrows as if someone had drawn them with a black crayon. “Y-u-r-i!” As the voice calling her name began to sound edgier, Yuri’s fingers moved even faster. “Almost there, almost there….” she thought. In a few seconds, she would be able to start an adventure in a whole new world. She could not wait to see the world that would spread out before her eyes. Her palms began to sweat. At the same time, she was faced with a life-threatening danger. “I can’t die! Think what I have been through!” But, it finally hit her. Bang! The thing Yuri hated the most: someone coming into her room without knocking on her door and yelling: “Yuri! It’s time for breakfast!”

Grandmother’s yelling made her lose her pace, missing the timing to press the button. Ring. GAME OVER. “No! Grandmother!” “What?” “Now I’m dead!” “Who died?” Yuri lay back and buried her head deep in her pillow. Her curly, bushy hair became even bushier as if she was wearing a rosebush hat. Cicadas, which had been quiet all this time, started to sing loud, as if they wanted to annoy Yuri even more. “Failed again.” Yuri had been playing this game for the last three days to go to the next level. She had died and restarted numerous times but could not win the game. She was always very close to winning it… Whenever she felt like she was close to winning, she never gave up. Once she held the console, it never left her hands, as if it was glued to them. It seemed like the console stuck not only to her hands but also to her eyes, head, and even her spirit. “Hurry up! You have to eat your breakfast and go study.” “I don’t want to eat!” “Why not? How can you study without eating anything?” As she was arguing with her grandmother, she stood up, looking for something on her messy desk. “Do you even know how hard your mom and dad are working right now to earn the money for your education? But look at what you are doing here, the first thing you do in the morning is play games…..” Yuri finally found what she wanted. It was a pair of orange ear plugs. She put the earplugs in her ears, being careful not to let her grandmother notice them. Her grandmother

kept on muttering to herself as she was making Yuri’s bed, but it only sounded like the buzz of bees. Yuri left her grandmother in her room and came out to the living room. On the table, there were several dishes, soup, and a bowl of rice waiting for her, but she just picked up a banana bundle without even shooting a glance at the table. Her grandmother followed her out and buzzed again. Yuri assumed that she was asking why Yuri was eating bananas and not the food on the table. Yuri sat on a chair, peeled the banana, and took a bite. It was not because she thought it was delicious. It was a mere habit. She threw the peel on one side of the table and went to the bathroom. Although it was summer vacation, the only difference was that school had simply been replaced with a private institute. She had to go to the institute by 10:30, so it was good that she could sleep some more in the morning than she could during the semester, but at the same time, she could not see her mom and dad go to work, and woke up listening to her grandmother nag at her. Yuri took the plugs out of her ears and washed her face, thinking that on her way home, she would eat ddeokbokki with Ji-eun, her friend living in the apartment just below. Then, she remembered how Ji-eun had bragged about her trip yesterday. “My family will go on a vacation for 4 days. We are going to go to a valley and play in the water. I don’t wanna go, in fact.” Yuri knew very well that whenever Ji-eun wanted to show off, she always shrugged, pretending that it was nothing special. Ring. A text message. She took out her phone from her pocket.

“Yuri, are you up? “I’m gonna call in 10 minutes to check if you’re up.”

“Ha…” She let out a sigh and came back to her room. She wore anything that she could put her hands on, and went out to put on her shoes without looking at the breakfast on the table. Her grandmother gave her a black plastic bag. “Have this when you get hungry.” Yuri took the bag, frowning, and checked what it was. There was a rice ball in plastic wrap, a banana, and a bottle of the tomato juice that Yuri loved. “I don’t need to eat….” “No, you’ll ruin your health if you don’t eat well.” Grandmother’s kindness made Yuri uncomfortable, but she took the bag without saying anything more. Feeling awkward, she opened the door, tapping the tip of her shoe on the ground. “I’ll be back.”

Outside the house was full of cicadas singing loudly. “So noisy, does it make them feel better or something if they sing that loud?” As she was complaining, she heard people talking and someone opening a car door over in the parking lot. It was a familiar voice. “Dad, are we staying at a cottage in the woods today?” It was Ji-eun. Yuri quickly hid behind a huge tree where a cicada was crying. As she went near the tree, the cicada cried even louder. Ji-eun’s family seemed to be preparing for their trip. Her father loaded a big cooler into the car trunk, and her mother was putting Ji-

eun’s brother Ji-hoon in the car. Ji-eun was wearing what seemed to be a brand-new straw hat with a broad brim, and a flowing light-blue dress. It was pretty. Then she looked down at her own clothes. All she could see were an ivory t-shirt, which looked old and had a long stain that she had gotten yesterday while she was eating kimchi soup, and jean shorts that had gotten wrinkled because she had worn them every day recently. The black plastic bag only made her look worse. It seemed as if the world Ji-eun was living in had become completely different from hers in just a day. “Sure, do you know how beautiful the scenery in front of the cottage is? Just wait until you see it!” Ji-eun’s father laughed loudly as he closed the trunk. Yuri even wanted to sneak into that trunk. She hadn’t gone on a vacation last year, or the year before as well. As Ji-eun’s car left, Yuri came out from under the tree and stared at the black sedan. What would the cottage look like? What about the scenery? What kind of fish would there be in the valley? As she imagined these things, she could feel tears welling up in her eyes. “It’s summer vacation….. How come I’m the only one not going?” On her way to the institute alone, each step became heavier than a stone after she had actually seen Ji-eun’s family leaving. She tried hard not to cry, and looked down at the plastic bag that her grandmother had given her that morning. Although it was not the same as Ji-eun’s big cooler filled with watermelons and meat, it was enough for Yuri to have lunch. In fact, there was no reason she could not go on a vacation herself since she had enough time if she skipped class, as well as her wallet with a bus card and some money that her father had given her. “Never mind, I will go too. I will go on a summer vacation all by myself!” Yuri stuck out her belly and walked in big steps. She was actually so energetic that some sand popped up from between the sidewalk cracks. While the cicadas had seemed to be

teasing Yuri earlier, now they sang loudly as if they wanted to support her decision. She went past a small door in her apartment complex where the shuttle usually picked her up and went on to the main street. She could see people’s backs far away by the roadside. It was the bus station.

6 Chapter 2. Unexpected Change

There were not many people in the bus because it was after the morning rush hour. Yuri sat right next to the back door so that it would be easier to get off whenever she wanted. She swallowed, being nervous, but at the same time it was exciting to go on a vacation all by herself. She looked to the left to find a man with earphones in his ears looking out the window. He didn’t look dangerous, but still, she couldn’t ignore him completely. Ring, ring, ring. A phone rang. It was Yuri’s. “It’s mom!” Yuri cleared her throat and quietly answered her phone, cupping it with her left hand. “Hello?” she answered. “Yuri, it’s me. Are you off to the institute?” Yuri’s mother asked. “I’m on the bus right now.” “On the shuttle bus?” “Yes.” “What a good girl. You are not late today. Have a nice day, sweetie!” Her mother’s kind voice made Yuri feel bad, but her mother seemed to have fallen for her lie unlike how she usually was: always knowing exactly what Yuri was thinking.

As she put the phone back in her bag, she glanced over to her left side where the man was sitting. He was still looking out the window. She then decided to stop being bothered by him. She had taken the bus for a few stops before, but this was her first time to come this far. She watched the world quickly passing by outside. She had never been to this neighborhood, but it was very similar to where she lived. As she got used to the idea that she was traveling alone, she started to get sleepy. The man with the earphones had got off the bus several stops ago, and now two women were talking loudly, boasting about their children. They were so loud that Yuri even missed the earplugs that she had left at home. After the women got off the bus, a friendly old couple got on. After that, she began to doze off.

“Hey kid.” Someone shook Yuri to wake her up. Yuri was so surprised that she jumped up from her seat. As a result, the plastic bag on her lap fell down to the floor. She looked up at the tall man standing next to her. He seemed to be the driver. “You should get off. This is the final stop.” “Okay…,” she answered, picking up her bag. “Did you come here by yourself?” the driver asked. “Yes…” “You seem to have come too far while you were sleeping. Do you want me to call your mom?” This question made her come back to her senses. She hurriedly got off the bus. “That’s okay! This is where my grandmother lives!” she yelled as she was running away.

She had got better and better at lying after she came out into the world alone. After going past the bus stop, she saw a small village with small buildings and stores lining the street. Yuri walked excitedly, wearing her backpack and swinging her plastic bag. She marched as if her grandmother actually lived in the village. As she entered the village, the first thing she could see was greenhouses. Behind them was a rice paddy with water in which green rice was beginning to grow. Where the rice paddy ended, there was corn growing. She couldn’t see any people. Cars went past her from time to time, creating a strong wind behind them. She turned around each time, hoping to see Ji-eun’s car. But nobody waved at Yuri. The sun, high up in the sky, heated the paved road. She got hungry. It was actually a little lonely for a summer vacation. She tried to find a nice place to eat lunch, but there weren’t even any benches, let alone cabins or cottages. At that moment, she felt her left arm sting. She spotted a mosquito on her arm. “This mosquito is making me feel even worse! Why do mosquitoes exist anyway? They do nothing but suck people’s blood. I’m going to kill this one.” She spread her right hand wide and got ready to attack. She moved her hand with extreme caution. She pressed her hand against her stomach as she was moving it, so as not to let the mosquito fly away at the sight of her shadow, and she began to count down. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Then she struck at once. Got it! She was thrilled to imagine the mosquito lying dead on her palm. The same excitement she felt when she got rid of the final devil in a game! She proudly flipped her hand over to check. Where was it? She thought she had got it…

All of a sudden, a dog began barking, which made her jump. She looked up. The barking was coming from a two-story house by the road, where the dog was tied up in the garden. In front of the house, which didn’t even have a front gate, there was a large persimmon tree. As she went closer to the house, the dog barked loudly. She became afraid. She could be in trouble if someone came out of the house. She walked faster after she realized that her lie about her grandmother’s living here would not work this time. The dog at the persimmon-tree house barked persistently behind her back. Yuri found a small path leading up to the woods. She ran along the path without looking back so that the dog would stop barking. She felt as if a scary man would chase her down and catch her by her shoulder any time soon. She panted for breath. She wasn’t sure how far she had come. After she saw the sun shining through the thick leaves, she slowly turned around. No one was there. She was all alone on the path in the woods. “Whew…” She trudged into the woods, exhausted. It was just when she decided to end her summer vacation after having a quick lunch in the woods that something twinkled on the other side of the path. “What is that?” she wondered. Red, yellow, orange, purple. All kinds of colors mingled together and wavered in a light breeze. Attracted by the mysterious colors, she walked toward the place. Soon, all the trees disappeared and an open field appeared. “Wow!” Yuri shouted unconsciously as soon as she saw the field. She could see all kinds of flowers from wild roses to moss roses, China pinks, garden balsams, sunflowers, and also ones that Yuri didn’t know the name of. Fresh green summer grass between the richly

colored flowers tickled Yuri’s ankles as she walked. Butterflies and honeybees flew around, enjoying the moment. A sweet scent embraced her as she stepped into the flower field. She walked around lightly, charmed with a flowered field she had never seen before. Then… Thump! She bumped her knee into something. “Ouch, it hurts.” She looked down, rubbing her knee, and found a rock in the middle of the flower field. It was so big that it came up to her waist. Scarlet garden balsams lined up along both sides of the rock. In a pool in a depression on top of the rock, which showed endurance over a long period of wind and rain, red garden-balsam petals floated around. Yuri looked closely and blew the petals around without realizing how hurt she had been just before. The wave that she made on the water sparkled with sunlight, moving the petals along like small sailboats. She soon got bored with this game and walked deeper into the endless flower field. Then a small house caught her eye. It was one of those cute, small houses that appear in fairy tales. Except for the entrance, the house was covered with ivy, on which thin, white, thread-like flowers were in full bloom. It was as if white stars were shining on a green house. Taking a closer look, she saw that it was a wooden cottage. “Would Ji-eun’s cottage look like this too?” she thought. She walked up to the window and carefully pressed her ear against it. She couldn’t hear anything. This house must be the house of a kind family who loved nature. The family didn’t seem to be there yet. It was the perfect place to spend a summer vacation. “You can’t call it a true vacation if you don’t stop in a place like this and eat lunch.” She went near the front door. “…….Anybody here?”

She checked again whether there was anybody in the house, but as she had expected, nobody came out. She mustered her courage and turned the doorknob. Squeak… The door opened rather easily. A golden shaft from outside was the only light that went across the dark room. Dust danced around like little fairies above the light. Although a few steps were enough to go from one end of the house to the other, there were still a kitchen, a bathroom, and a living room. An emerald-colored couch stood in the small but cozy living room, where she found a neatly folded brown blanket. She carefully took a step inside the house. One step. Nothing happened. Another step. Still nothing happened. Yuri then became relieved. She thought she would have lunch here. This summer vacation was much more dynamic and fantastic than Ji-eun’s. Yuri sat on the couch. Nothing happened. Taking a look around, she took out a banana from her plastic bag. With extreme care, she peeled the banana slowly and took a bite. A delicious flavor soon flowed into her mouth. “Wow, this is so good!” she cried out. It was exactly the same banana she had in the morning, but it was far more delicious. She made sure that she didn’t finish up too soon, enjoying the splendid view of the flower garden through the front door. The breeze carried in the sweet scent of flowers. Everything was perfect. Excited, she took out the rice ball as well. As she was peeling off the plastic wrap, suddenly she felt a sting on her arm. “A mosquito again!” Whether it knew that Yuri was watching or not, the mosquito was busy sucking her blood, piercing Yuri’s skin with its mouth. A while later, that part of her arm would swell up and become itchy. This mosquito was the only thing that annoyed Yuri in this wonderful place. “I tried hard to earn this vacation. I can’t let you mess that up!”

She squinted at the mosquito and slowly raised her arm. She was confident she would not miss this time. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1! Slap! She felt like she had got it this time. She opened up her hand. There was a vivid trail of blood on her palm. Or, she thought she saw it. “NO!” A sharp scream came from somewhere. Or, she thought she heard it. “Who was that?” She looked up, surprised. Or, she tried to look up. “What…? I can’t move my body.” Yuri blinked. Her body became lighter. Or, it felt like it became lighter. She felt dizzy. “This is weird, this is weird…” she repeated. Something struck her body, something that she had never experienced before. It was surely weird unless this was a dream. Creak… The front door started to close, whoever did it. In the dark cottage, a dark shadow swayed. Yuri became frightened. She wanted to yell out to ask what was happening and who the shadow was, but nothing came out of her mouth. She just swirled into an enormous bottomless pit.

Yuri quietly disappeared in the small cottage in the woods.

Chapter 3. Moving Cave

When Yuri woke up, she found that she was standing in the middle of a huge square. She had never been here before. Her vision was not clear. She smelled an unfamiliar scent, sweet and stinking at the same time. Everything was new to her senses. She shook her head hard. Then she noticed something dangling from the tip of her mouth. It was like she was swinging a straw with her mouth. “Where am I? What happened to my mouth?” she asked herself. Yuri was dumbfounded. This was not the cozy cottage she had been having her lunch in. It was an enormous square. It was bigger than the square in front of City Hall, which she had visited some time before, or the baseball stadium in Jamsil. She tried to rub her eyes to look more carefully, but couldn’t do anything because her limbs were as stiff as tree branches. In fact, it was not just her limbs; her whole body did not move well. Suddenly, she smelled a strong scent. It was an extremely delicious smell. She instinctively wriggled her mouth. Then it happened. Something big and strange slowly came in Yuri’s direction. She opened her eyes wide to check what it was. Although her vision was still blurred, her view became wider than before. The moving creature was gigantic, much more so than giants or monsters in movies. It was as if an apartment or a building—no, a mountain—was moving. “Are you okay? Are you conscious?” the big creature spoke. It was a female voice. Before long, an unbelievable scene unfolded before her eyes. Two horribly big eyes were looking down at her. Blinking at Yuri, each eye resembled the Ulsan Rock, which she had seen once before, lying on its side. “Arrrrgh! M…Monster!” The Ulsan Rock eyes blinked again. “Go away, go away! You monster!”

Yuri yelled with all her might and struggled to escape from that place. Then her body lightly floated up into the air. Wings? Wings! She could feel her wings fluttering on her back. She looked down at the gray square below her feet. Her body floated up little by little. As Yuri flapped her wings recklessly to get out of this situation, she floated farther up into the air. Buzz… An enormous black cape approached her. Before she had any time to fly away, she was covered up by the cape. It became dark everywhere. Yuri threw herself against the wall and rolled around on the floor, but the cave stayed firm. The cape—or rather, the cave—was mushy but solid, and also warm. The big warm cave that was covering Yuri started to move. She fell off balance and landed on the floor of the cave. The floor was comfortable, smooth and moist. After a while, the cave stopped moving. Light filtered in through long cracks in the wall. Yuri crawled to where the light was coming in to see what was happening outside. She could still see the large square. In the middle of the square was the cave, floating. “Oh my goodness…… The cave is flying.” “Dear, it is very dangerous to fly like that,” said the voice of the female monster. She turned around to see her. Two big monstrous eyes were still looking and blinking at Yuri. “The world is very dangerous. You could get trapped in a spider web, or get eaten, so you should be very careful.” “Oh goodness, what do you mean by getting trapped in a web? What are you talking about?” “Oh…… yes, it must be very hard to admit,” the monster spoke in a calm but firm tone after letting out a deep sigh. “You became a mosquito just now.”

“No way, I am a human. I go to Jihyang Elementary School, 3rd grade, class 4, student number 17. My name is Park Yuri. I live in 112-dong in the Mona Apartments, number 1307, with my mom, dad, and grandma. I’m not lying!” “I know that you are not a liar. But unfortunately, neither am I. You were a human being seconds ago, but now you are a mosquito.” Yuri couldn’t understand. Although she had killed numerous mosquitoes up to now, she had never become one, even in her dreams. Yuri could not acknowledge the fact that she had become a mean, disgusting mosquito, sucking people’s blood. This must be a dream. A horrible…. nightmare!

Chapter 4. A Strange Couple

“No, this is not a dream. It’s reality.” As soon as the female monster finished talking, the big cave Yuri was standing in went down rapidly like an elevator. Yuri held tight onto the wet wall so as not to fall off it. Later, the cave stopped and the ceiling opened up. She looked around carefully. Then Yuri was shocked once again. Another monster, looking different from the female monster, was staring down at Yuri. “I also thought that this was all a dream at first,” said the new monster in a low and gloomy voice, blinking its eyes slowly. This time it was a male monster. Yuri looked closely at him. “U…ugh! A cockroach!” Yuri’s heart shrank like an inflatable ball without any air. She couldn’t use her wings because she had got too uptight.

“Don’t…don’t…don’t come near me!” she barely managed to scream, trembling with fear. As if he was mocking her, the cockroach came closer, staring down at her. “Hello?” he said. She had slapped a cockroach with a slipper or set toxic traps that said “complete eradication,” but this was her first time to see a cockroach saying hi to her. His eyes were scary and creepy, but they also looked gentle. Two long black eyes shined like a stainless-steel refrigerator door, and his black body, darker that his eyes, was covered with a pair of wings that looked as hard as an iron shield. The six legs seemed thick and strong like baseball bats. From the top of his head stuck out a pair of long antenna, thick and long enough to pull a wardrobe with. The teeth under his jaw looked sharp, but because his mouth was curled up, he looked like he was smiling. “Don’t worry, we won’t hurt you,” said the monster in a gentle and calm voice which was very different from his appearance. Yuri heard the female voice speak again. “Honey, what should we do now?” “Ho..ney?” Yuri thought, looking up at the cockroach, surprised. The cockroach’s eyes went up, past Yuri’s head. “This is not good.” “I think this girl got lost.” Yuri dropped down to the floor, feeling all the energy drain out of her legs. “The girl who got lost” seemed to refer to Yuri. Yuri got to her feet after thinking that she should get out of this crazy place. She quietly interrupted the conversation. “Excuse me, I’m sorry to say this, but I guess I have to go back now. My family will be waiting for me at home……”

The two monsters stopped talking. The female monster seemed to swallow hard. Yuri could not see clearly, but she was now much more sensitive to others’ movements such as swallowing, sweeping their hair back, or wiping sweat from their forehead. The cockroach replied, “It must be hard to admit, but you are a mosquito now. Nobody would welcome you even if you went home. Instead of the mosquito you killed in this house……” “You mean I became a mosquito because I killed that mosquito?” Yuri yelled out desperately, feeling her heart sink. “Yes, that’s right.” Yuri’s wings shivered. “No way! I just killed a mosquito, that’s all. Everybody does that!” The cockroach sighed and said, “Last summer, when my wife and I came to this house to get out of the rain, I killed a cockroa......” “Stop! Stop!” Yuri shouted, shaking her head furiously. The serious voice of the cockroach made her even more frightened. This outrageous situation was starting to seem real. She couldn’t figure out where to start and what she should do to fix this. If only she could turn back time! As she thought of how she had lain on the bed playing games in the morning, it was like it had happened before she was even born. “I wanna go home. I’m going home!” she cried as she sank down to the floor, swinging her antenna back and forth.

In a dark cottage, a shabby-looking woman on a couch looked down sadly, without saying anything, at a mosquito and a cockroach in her hand.

Chapter 5. Sucking Blood

“Then where am I?” asked Yuri, exhausted after crying so hard. “You are in my hand right now. We saw you heading this way when we were walking past a hill in the woods. We hurried to follow you, hoping that you would not come into this house…,” said the woman. Yuri couldn’t say anything. “They could have just yelled at me to scare me away,” she thought resentfully. She hated everyone for putting her in this situation. She wanted to blame someone. “Are you hungry?” asked the woman. Yuri didn’t answer. She didn’t want to eat anything, although she had been smelling something delicious for quite some time. “Here you go,” said the woman. Yuri didn’t know what to eat. She just wanted to die. She could just starve to death. “I’d rather die than live as a mosquito,” she thought. “You can find the blood vessel easily from where you are sitting,” said the woman. The words “blood vessel” gave Yuri goose bumps. “You want me to drink your blood?” “Sure, it’s okay with me, so drink as much as you want. You will need energy to go back to being human.” Yuri’s eyes brightened. “You mean there is a way to be human?” “Um… there are a few hurdles that we need to clear, but we’ll help you out. I also want to become human again as soon as possible. Let’s work together,” said Mr. Cockroach, who had been watching her quietly all along.

Yuri straightened her arms and legs to stand up. She wanted her body back, and she wanted out of this dirty one. Yuri had never thought of blood as delicious. However, in opposition to her thoughts, her stomach growled. She felt something burning inside as if someone was scratching. “Mosquitoes usually drink fruit juice, but when they are pregnant…,” Mr. Cockroach 19

added. “Pregnant?” Yuri shouted, frightened. She felt sick. “Honey, let’s not talk about that now. You should eat something, Yuri.” Yuri clenched her fist as she heard the woman say it. She glanced at the thick pulsing vessels down on the floor. They were the blood vessels in the woman’s hand. Yuri crawled around the yellow, carpet-like palm, surprised that a human’s hand could be so big and broad. Blood flowed vigorously under the palm’s lines, which were carved out like dried-out rivers. “I need to live. I should live to return to who I am!” she thought as she walked step by step with all her strength. After going round and round on the woman’s palm, she reached a small hill. It was the woman’s wrist. She climbed up there to spot a number of big, clear vessels. Yuri chose the closest one. By instinct, she knew that “this is it!” She raised her long mouth, which was sharp and hairy. “Let’s pretend that this is a sweet juice. Yes, it will be like putting a straw in the tomato juice bottle that I brought,” she thought. She channeled all her strength into her long mouth. Then she pierced the skin without any hesitation. But nothing came out. She tried repeating in nearby spots until she found the clearest blood vessel. “Oh!” Delicious blood came out and quickly filled Yuri’s mouth. It was a hundred, a

thousand times sweeter than tomato juice and flowed throughout her whole body. “Delicious!” she cried out. She spat. Nobody had taught her, but her body already knew that she needed to spit to prevent this delicious blood from drying. The woman’s wrist soon swelled up and turned pink. It was itchy, but the woman didn’t scratch it. She just stared at the mosquito’s feast.

At that time, an unwelcome guest who had entered the house without anyone noticing slowly climbed down the wall.

Chapter 6. An Unwelcome Guest: Dragonfly Boy

“I’m so full.” Rubbing her tummy, Yuri crawled up to the woman’s shoulder and stood up straight to digest her meal. Yuri, Mr. Cockroach, and the woman sat for a while, nobody saying a word. The cottage became quiet and peaceful as if nothing had happened. As Yuri felt much better after getting some rest, she asked the woman energetically: “What should I do to become human? Where should I go? Will there be a way back to being human if I go there?” Yuri threw questions at the woman and Mr. Cockroach as if she were blowing bubbles. “You will know everything once you meet the Queen Bee,” said Mr. Cockroach. The woman agreed, saying, “Yes, everything will turn out all right.” Yuri’s face lit up with smile.

“The Queen Bee must be cool! Let’s hurry!” said Yuri, flying around in the air and forgetting what the woman had warned her about earlier. “I want to be human. I don’t care if I don’t have a clear complexion, my hair is curly and bushy, and I don’t have a new dress. I will do anything just to become who I am!” It was at that moment... “No way! Where do you think you are going?” The sharp legs of a stranger snatched Yuri by her stomach. “Agh!” It happened when Mr. Cockroach was about to enter the glass bottle to go outside the house, and when the woman was holding the bottle so that her husband would not slip. In that split second, they failed to pay attention to Yuri. “Help me!” Yuri felt someone squeeze her heart and stomach. In the next moment, the stranger put her head in his mouth and placed it between his sharp teeth. “Agh! No! Don’t eat me! I’m a human!” she yelled out as forcefully as she could. “Don’t joke around. You are a delicious mosquito, not a human which tastes bad. I lost all my appetite just by hearing the word ‘human,’” said the stranger, being overly chatty. This stranger was, in fact, a dragonfly boy who had come through the window a while ago and overheard the conversation. “Hey you! Put her down!” shouted the woman. “Wow! I can’t believe you are speaking bug language. I really am impressed,” mocked Dragonfly Boy, smiling. Mr. Cockroach also cried out, sticking his head out from the bottle, “Come on, Dragonfly Boy. Or you can just eat me. I’m bigger than her. Please don’t eat her.” “Honey! What are you talking about!”

“We can’t let her die like that.” “Okay, look. Why are you two fighting over something I’m not even considering? I only eat fresh flying bugs. I don’t feel any energy when I eat smelly land bugs. Haha.” “Please let her go. There are other mosquitoes outside!” “Why? Is this mosquito different from the other ones? Because she is a human inside? No way. I’m going to check how tasty a mosquito with a human spirit is!” Dragonfly Boy pretended to open his mouth wide and bite. “Nooo!” shrieked Yuri, wriggling her six arms and legs strongly. Being a mosquito had already made her feel sick, but now in the mouth of a dragonfly? She was dizzy. Dragonfly Boy flew around the room, looking relaxed. He kept moving his lips as if he would soon bite off Yuri’s head. “Mr. Dragonfly, please listen. We were about to go on a journey. Wouldn’t it be too unfortunate to die even before starting the journey at all? Don’t you think so?” begged Yuri desperately. She had never dreamt of begging a dragonfly! He didn’t say anything. He slowly loosened his grip. “Actually, I was listening the whole thing,” said Dragonfly Boy slyly, flitting about the room. “It was really funny. So you guys are human? You are going to become human again?” “Yes, that’s right. So please behave yourself and let her go.” “Let me go with you then. Your journey, it seems interesting. I’ve been quite bored lately,” said Dragonfly Boy mischievously. “No, you can’t be human anyway.” As soon as the woman finished her words, Dragonfly Boy’s legs tightened around Yuri again.

“Aagh!” screamed Yuri. “Promise me that you will take me with you. Then I’ll let her go,” said Dragonfly Boy cunningly, flying around again. Yuri thought that dragonflies were intolerable creatures. “All right. Let’s go, let’s go!” the woman finally conceded, without any other options left for her. “Are you sure? Then you go first. Since this mosquito seems foolish, I’ll bring her with me.” “No, thank you! I can fly by myself! Let me go!” “Be quiet, you fool. If I hadn’t been so generous, you would already be in my stomach!”

The woman headed toward honeybees’ house deep in the woods, tightly holding the bottle with her husband in it. Dragonfly Boy followed her, clutching Yuri hard.

Chapter 7. The Necklace of Life

Dragonfly Boy’s flying technique was incredible. Up, down, left, and right. He could go every direction and was quick too. He soared up into the sky and stopped abruptly to look around. Yuri felt as if she was riding in a helicopter like in the movies. Yuri also had wings, but this kind of technique was beyond her capability even if she tried her best. Down there, the woman walked hurriedly. Although there wasn’t any path, she climbed up the hill without any difficulties, pushing her way through thick leaves and branches. The woman finally looked like a human being when Yuri was high up in the air. She

didn’t realize it when the woman had seemed gigantic, but the woman was actually quite dirty. She had shabby clothes, shaggy hair, and a dirty face as if she hadn’t washed for months. “This is actually tiring, being a driver for a mosquito, which I usually eat,” said Dragonfly Boy, frowning. “This is what you insisted on. Nobody asked you for this,” snapped Yuri, displeased with the situation. “Is that so?” Swoosh! As soon as he finished talking, Yuri’s body suddenly flew up in the sky. Then she began to fall headfirst. “Noooo!” Helplessly swayed by the wind, Yuri was so embarrassed that she couldn’t even attempt to flap her wings. This was all because Dragonfly Boy had let go of Yuri. Dragonfly Boy’s flying speed was too fast for Yuri to control the wind with her own wings. As if she was performing acrobatics, she rolled here and there in the air. Dragonfly Boy swooped in quickly and grabbed Yuri’s body again. But because he held her opposite from direction in which he was flying, Yuri had to go backwards. “Aaaagh!” She felt even more sick and dizzy as she flew backwards. “So, kid. Don’t talk like that to me ever again!” snapped Dragonfly Boy. Yuri was terribly dizzy. “All right! I think we’re there!” Dragonfly Boy, who was looking down, plummeted toward the land as if he was falling from the sky. “Aaaaaagh!”

Yuri hated roller coasters or pirate ship rides at amusement parks, everything that made her heart stop. As she was falling from a higher spot at a faster speed than those rides, she couldn’t stop screaming. On the ground, the woman was talking to a pretty honeybee lady, but Yuri couldn’t understand a word. Glancing at dizzy Yuri, the honeybee lady asked: “Is this the child?” “Yes, it just happened. Please look after her.” The bee lady looked at Yuri sadly. Yuri couldn’t figure out whether this was because Yuri had been transformed into a bug, or because she was in the grip of her natural enemy. “Please follow me.”

As they went near the beehive, one by one honeybees began to appear. When they arrived under the beehive, the sky was almost black, swarming with honeybees. Busy carrying honey, repairing the hive, and focusing on their own work, they didn’t care about Yuri’s party. The sound of countless bees beating their wings echoed noisily in the woods. The honeybee lady guiding the woman said loudly, “Please wait under this tree for a second.” The bee lady then disappeared into one of the numerous holes in the hive hanging from a tree branch. “Now, let’s get some rest,” said the woman, putting down the glass bottle with care. Dragonfly Boy placed Yuri on the woman’s shoulder and complained, “You are so heavy, you should lose some weight.” Yuri could finally get some comfort on the woman’s cozy shoulder. The woman carefully sat under the tree, making sure not to drop Yuri. Mr. Cockroach also crawled out of the bottle and did leg exercises on the woman’s knee, counting numbers. A cool breeze blew

from the forest. “Let’s make plans now,” said Mr. Cockroach, breaking the silence. Yuri’s eyes widened. “What plan?” “Now this is getting more interesting,” Dragonfly Boy cut in excitedly. “The Queen Bee won’t give us the Necklace of Life that easily.” “What necklace?” “Oh, you haven’t seen my necklace yet. Come closer. You will see something sparkling between my head and my body.” Yuri jumped from the woman’s shoulder and flew over to her knee where Mr. Cockroach was sitting. Yuri observed his neck carefully. Dragonfly Boy also came closer with curiosity. Tiny beads were tied around Mr. Cockroach’s neck, with some kind of a liquid filling each bead. “This is called the Necklace of Life. We are here to ask the Queen Bee for your Necklace of Life. To break the curse of the cottage, you need to fill 100 beads with liquid, melt the beads, and drink them.” “How do I fill the beads?” asked Yuri, perplexed. “Save lives,” answered a low but dignified female voice from inside the huge tree trunk behind the woman. Yuri turned around, surprised. The sound came from a cave-like hole at the bottom of the tree trunk. It echoed as if someone was talking through a pipe. Soon, accompanied by the wild whirring sound of bees from the tree cave, the Queen Bee appeared in the hole, sitting on a golden chair with an air of dignity. The golden chair, made of hardened honey, was placed on the heads of male guard bees. Also on each side of

the chair were bulky male bees escorting the Queen. “Good to see you again, you two,” the Queen Bee greeted the woman and Mr. Cockroach. Her voice sounded far more mysterious as it resonated in the tree cave like bell. “Yes, it has been a year since the last time we were here. How have you been, Your Majesty?” asked Mr. Cockroach, bowing with great respect. Yuri wanted to look at the Queen more carefully, but she didn’t have the courage to do so. She just gazed down at the dewdrops on the blades of grass. “You have already filled up quite a lot of beads,” remarked the Queen, looking down at Mr. Cockroach from her chair. “Yes, I have 15 more to go. This is all thanks to Your Majesty’s help.” “No, all I did was create that necklace and no more. You two have put forth the utmost efforts indeed. How have you been?” the Queen asked the woman. Because the cave was too small, it had room for the woman’s head only. The woman had to leave her body outside the tree trunk. “Good to see you, Your Majesty.” “You have come a long way, so please come in and help yourself to a cup of honey tea. You will feel better.” The bees flew in with honey tea as soon as the Queen finished her words. Four bees carried four cups of honey tea, each the perfect size for each guest. The woman’s was the biggest, next Mr. Cockroach’s, then Dragonfly Boy’s, and finally Yuri’s. A little baby honeybee placed the cup in front of Yuri with trembling hands. The cup was filled with warm honey tea. The poor baby bee looked extremely frustrated, probably because he was too nervous in front of the Queen. “Thank you,” whispered Yuri to the baby bee. The baby bee smiled and flew away. Yuri put her long mouth in the cup and drank

the tea. Sweet tea quickly filled up her mouth. “Wow, this is so delicious!” cried out Yuri, deeply moved by the sweetness of a tea that she had never had in her life. She blushed as she realized that everyone was staring at her. “It is a good thing to say that it’s delicious when it’s delicious,” said the satisfied Queen, drinking her tea from a golden teacup. “So, you were a human girl?” the Queen asked Yuri. “Yes, Your Majesty.” Yuri could finally take a good look at the Queen Bee. Beneath the Queen’s golden chair, male bees formed a tower of three layers. So Yuri had to raise her head up to see the Queen. Beside the golden chair stood the pretty bee lady who had guided Yuri’s party earlier. “Come closer.” Yuri nervously walked toward the Queen. “You have killed a living creature,” spoke the Queen out of the blue. “Pardon me?” “Is that true?” “Oh, yes…… But that mosquito tried to suck my blood first……” “Then answer this question. What is a life?” “It, it is……” Yuri turned around, not knowing what to do. The light from outside the tree cave made the woman’s head, Mr. Cockroach’s round body, and Dragonfly Boy’s long wings look like dark shadows. She felt as if she was being questioned alone before a judge. “Life…… is living?” replied Yuri in a tiny voice. “Then I will ask again. Is trying hard to live such a great sin that it deserves death?” “That… that’s because mosquitoes… they usually transmit diseases, they are dirty,

they make you itchy and tingling……” Yuri felt like bursting into tears. She was afraid she had blown her chance to become human again. Yuri folded her hands together before the Queen and said, “I just want to become who I am again.” Ignoring Yuri’s answer, the Queen continued asking with a cold face. “This is my last question.” Yuri swallowed hard. “Explain to me why I have to make a Necklace of Life for you. If the answer moves my heart, you will be given one, and if not, you will never have one.” Yuri’s head went blank. “Why do I have to become human again……?” she asked herself. Sweat trickled down. She had never given that question any thought. She believed she had to, simply because she was a human. She considered saying that she would never kill a mosquito again, or that she would never treat living creatures thoughtlessly, but those answers didn’t seem enough to move the Queen’s heart. “What are you waiting for? Just say anything you want to say. Look at you, so intimidated at nothing. I’m so bored that I’m going to fall asleep soon,” shouted Dragonfly Boy, yawning. He had his arms crossed arrogantly and rolled his eyes. The Queen’s secretary shot him a sharp look, but he pretended he hadn’t said anything. “Please, behave,” scolded the woman, who couldn’t tolerate any more. “Whew……” As she let out a sigh, Yuri’s eyes met those of one of the male bees in front of her. He was supporting the golden chair from the very bottom of the tower. With his legs shaking, he seemed awfully tired.

“Would he be happy living a life like that?” thought Yuri. The male bee reminded her of her family. Yuri’s grandmother had cooked for her, cleaned the house, and bathed her since Yuri was little. Her mother and father also worked hard from early in the morning till late at night. Like the male bees sacrificing for the Queen Bee, her family tried their best to live. Grandmother’s warm hands that often stroked Yuri’s hair, her mother’s scent that she could smell whenever her mother hugged her, and her father’s short beard that tickled Yuri’s cheeks when she kissed him. She felt unbearable sadness as she thought she might have to say goodbye to all those whom she had thought would always be with her. “I came into this forest for my own summer vacation.” The male bee looked puzzled as Yuri began to speak. “I hated everything. My nagging grandma, my busy mom and dad, my friend who goes on a trip, leaving me all alone…….” Yuri stopped to catch her breath. She just wanted to cry in grief. She had once thought that the gaming console was all that she needed, without anything or anyone bothering her. Now, the gaming console was the last thing on her mind. “But I regret it so much. I could have just waved goodbye to Ji-eun, telling her to have fun instead of hiding and being jealous. My grandmother packed my lunch, worried about my health, but I didn’t even say thank you. I only thought of how embarrassing it was to carry a black plastic bag. I lied to my mom and dad…… When I become human again, I want to say thank you and that I’m sorry, and everything else I didn’t have the chance to ……” Yuri couldn’t finish her words, feeling something surge up from her heart. She was then able to have a vague idea of why she wanted to become human again. Then she heard someone wail loudly. “Woaaaaahhh”

Yuri raised her head, surprised to see the Queen crying her eyes out. The bee lady passed her a handkerchief made out of thinly cut leaves as if she had been waiting for it. Tears dropped from the Queen’s big eyes. They didn’t stop no matter how much the Queen wiped them away. “Yes, that…… I do know very well,” said the Queen, sobbing hard. She buried herself in the chair, unable to continue talking. Her teardrops fell on the heads of the male bees. “Become human again…… and tell your parents and friends what you think……. You must say everything you want to say…… Chances don’t come easily. I…I…… I couldn’t…….” she cried again. Yuri was bewildered. She had never imagined the Queen weeping so sadly at her answer. Surprised, Yuri didn’t feel like crying anymore. The baby bee that had carried the honey tea flew over again. He held a transparent bead necklace that she could hardly see. Yuri smiled brightly at the baby bee. He whispered while putting it on her neck, “Congratulations, I knew you would get it. Save one hundred lives, fill in all the beads, melt them in the sunlight, and drink them. Then you can become human again. I wish you success.” Blushing, the baby bee soon disappeared as he had done before. The three tiers of male bees that supported the Queen’s golden chair slowly stood up and spread their wings. The Queen was still crying. “I…… I wish all of you …… good luck……” she said. The male bees all flew up at the same time. Because they beat their wings together so strongly, Yuri was rolled out of the tree cave by their wind. She opened her eyes and found Mr. Cockroach standing upside down. “Yuri. Congratulations!” said Mr. Cockroach, helping Yuri stand up with his two long,

thick antennas. “Now you have to fill up the beads,” said the woman, clapping with excitement. Dragonfly Boy was the only one still sulking. “Well, was that really something to cry about? Not as interesting as I imagined it would be.” “Yuri, well done. Now, let’s go!” shouted the woman, ignoring Dragonfly Boy’s words. Yuri could feel her words quivering with hope. Yuri suddenly became curious about what Mr. Cockroach had said to the Queen. “Do they also have a family outside?” she wondered. But she didn’t say that out loud.

Chapter 8. The Queen Bee's Past

As the Queen Bee lay down on her bed in her room, two servant bees that stood by the head of the bed began to fan her with big leaves. "I'm tired, you may go out." The servants followed her orders and left the room. Alone in her room, the Queen Bee stared at the ceiling. Whenever people transformed into insects came up to her, she felt a sudden rush of guilt and reminiscence. Knock, knock. Somebody knocked. Soon the door opened and the bee lady, the Queen's assistant, entered the room. "I brought you chrysanthemum-scented candles, Your Highness."

As if she had done it numerous times before, the bee lady placed the candle next to the Queen's bed. The delicate fragrance of chrysanthemum scented the room. "Are you thinking of your daughter?" asked the bee lady while she cleaned the Queen's body with a warm towel that she had brought with the candle. "As always. I have never forgotten her." "You said your daughter was younger?" "She had just turned three." "I do feel sorry for your daughter. I would like to apologize on behalf of other bees." "Don't be silly. I am the one who should......" The Queen closed her eyes. Giving cursed people necklaces always reminded her of the past. It broke her heart just to think about it, but there was no way she could get rid of the memories that flowed into her mind so naturally.

A couple and a young daughter. The family lived so happily, more than any other in the whole world. When she used to be a human, the Queen Bee felt that she had everything just because her husband and her daughter were there for her. Their daughter was especially precious to the couple. After deciding that they would live in nature as beekeepers, the couple built a small cottage in the woods. They also planted ivy around the wall so that it would keep the house cool during summer and warm during winter. The husband brought all kinds of flower seeds and planted them, saying that he would make the world's most beautiful field of flowers for their daughter. One day, misfortune hit the family hard. With particularly rich honey that year, the couple became extremely busy. They made sure that they didn't get stung by the bees by wearing rubber clothes, rubber gloves, and a net that covered their entire body from head to

toe. It happened when their workload reached its peak. While working, they heard a baby crying. Surprised, they turned around to find their daughter, who had woken up and come out to find her mother and father, covered with angry bees. "No!" They ran for their child, throwing aside the honey barrel. They tried to get those bees off of their daughter, but the bees hardly went away. "Mommy!!" The husband dipped the baby into a pond so that the bees would come off. Fortunately, the bees scattered, but the startled baby cried even harder. A week later, the baby passed away after suffering from bee stings. The couple’s misfortune did not end there. The husband started to become strange after their daughter died. He stayed in the cottage all day, cursing the bees like a madman. Then one day, he began to kill the bees cruelly. He tore off the wings, pulled out the bees’ stingers, cut their heads and their waists off...... He was smiling the whole time. It was the face of a devil. "Honey, please don’t!" "I'm going to kill every bee on this planet. That way, I can take revenge for my baby." The wife finally ran away from that cottage, unable to bear her husband anymore. When she came back after a while, she found the house full of dead bees. "Honey, honey." She looked for her husband in the house—a house that had become a bees' tomb. But she couldn't feel any person's presence. Buzz… She looked back, surprised by the sound, and found a queen bee as big as a person's

thumb flying right at her, sticking out its stinger. "Go away, go away!" the woman screamed, waving her arms. Buzz, buzzzz… She had only offended the queen bee more. The woman tried to find something that she could use to chase the bee away with. A thick book caught her eye. The queen bee landed on the desk in a timely way. She smashed the bee with the book. Crush… She heard the queen bee's body being crushed. Or, she thought she heard it. Then she was swirling into a deep black pit. "Arrrgh!" Her husband dimly appeared in front of her eyes. "Sweetheart, thank you for coming here to find me. And I'm sorry. I took so many lives, and that put this beautiful house under a horrible curse—the house that we built together." She wanted to say something to her husband, but nothing came out of her hoarse throat. "Make a necklace with a hundred beads of hardened honey. That will be the Necklace of Life. One bead for one life. If you fill all hundred of them, you will be human again. Remember! I'll go and wait for you with our daughter. I love you."

"Why don't you go back to being human again?" asked the bee lady with sincerity. "No, this is my home now. For me, my days as a bee are much more meaningful than going back to the human world. Probably, this is my destiny," answered the Queen Bee.

Chapter 18. Float the Boat

"Mosquito, are you okay?" asked the Little Ladybug as Yuri opened her eyes. "Wh...Where am......I?" "How stupid! Why did you jump out like that so thoughtlessly?" scolded Dragonfly Boy, clicking his tongue. "Mosquito, don't worry. We are safe here. People can't see us because of all the tall flowers in this field." "Flower field?" Yuri suddenly remembered the beautiful flower field that had led her to the cottage. "You're lucky that you are alive. We all thought you were dead." "The dragonfly was so cool. He caught you when you were hit by that huge, horrifying weapon and fell down, and he brought you here." "Huge, horrifying weapon? Oh, he means my mom's hand," she thought. Then she remembered how she had passed out after being hit by her mom's hand. It was devastating that her mom had tried to kill her without recognizing her. It was not only her heart that hurt. Her stomach hurt so much as well. It was below the area where her heart was located. At one moment she felt something small and pointy, sharper than rose thorns, severely stab the inside of her stomach, and in the next moment, her stomach seemed to explode as if it had a big balloon in it. "Somethingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s weird...... My, my stomach hurts so much." Little Ladybug came to Yuri and pressed her tummy here and there with his small, thin hands. "Here?" "No, lower than that."

"Here?" "No." "Then is it here?" "Aaaaagh!" She screamed violently as she felt an intense pain that caused the sky to darken. Shocked, Dragonfly Boy said, "Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s going to have babies!" "What?" "Oh no, one problem after another," said Dragonfly Boy, frowning. Frustrated, Little Ladybug opened and folded his wings, not knowing what to do. "Oh no, oh no. Mosquito, where and how do you lay eggs? Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve got to get ready for it." "I... I don't know." "What?" Little Ladybug became puzzled. "You should know that by instinct......" Dragonfly Boy answered calmly instead of Yuri. "Yuri is not a mosquito." "What?" Little Ladybug 's eyes became twice as big as before. "Who is she if she is not a mosquito?" "Let's talk about that later....... but first, we should float the boat!" "What do you mean?" "Even though I usually cause trouble, I know where and how my prey is born." "Why, you are so cool! You know everything!" "Come this way!" Dragonfly Boy guided Yuri. Clutching her painful stomach, Yuri barely fluttered her

wings to where Dragonfly Boy led her. She didn't have any interest in the lives of mosquitoes. Moreover, she didn't need to know how mosquitoes lay eggs at all. It was only Dragonfly Boy that she could rely on. Dragonfly Boy took her to a lake on a big rock. Red flower petals floated about like boats. "Now, sit somewhere on the water." She got into a petal boat at the center of the lake and sat down in the shadows. The water was warm with sunlight. "Yuri, listen carefully to what I'm saying. When I went out hunting one day, I saw a mosquito that I was going to eat laying eggs. In the puddle, that mosquito......" Yuri waited for his next words, hoping that what he was saying was true. "Floated a boat." "Oh, why do you keep saying that stupid thing?" "Mosquito, listen to him!" It was at that momentâ&#x20AC;Ś A long tiny mosquito egg fell into the puddle, creating a small wave. "Wow...... amazing," cried Little Ladybug. Yuri's mind began to drift away. Her stomach was about to pop. She prayed that this would end soon. "Oh......that's not the end!" said Yuri. Dragonfly Boy replied as if what she had said was so ridiculous. "Of course not. You thought mosquitoes were the same as humans? Laying one egg at a time? Now, take the eggs and make a boat with them. That way they will float on the water. If not, they will all drown and die." Yuri suddenly came to her senses. Although they were not Yuri's real babies, she

couldn't drown them. She tried to remember every boat shape that she could. A ferry on the Han River, a sailing boat in a historical drama, a luxurious passenger liner like the one she had seen in the film Titanic...... As she gathered her thoughts, she pushed hard carefully. "One, two, three, four...," counted Little Ladybug, beating his wings that couldn’t even fly well. "Eighty-one, eighty-two, eighty-three......Wow, mosquitoes do lay a lot of eggs!" "You're good." "......Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one hundred!” Yuri waited, catching her breath. “Is that all?” she wondered. The number ended at one hundred according to Little Ladybug. Yuri didn't know how much time had passed. A cool forest breeze blew. At the same time, the white egg boat began to move slightly as if someone was pushing it from behind. "It's floating," murmured Dragonfly Boy. "The boat, it is floating......" whispered Yuri to herself as she watched the floating eggs. "Wow, we've done it, we've done it!" shouted Little Ladybug with excitement. Suddenly, Dragonfly Boy's eyes lit up. The beads in Yuri's necklace had become red all of a sudden. "Yuri......" called out Dragonfly Boy, staring at the necklace blankly. "......Yes?" Yuri looked up at Dragonfly Boy, lifting her tired body. "Your necklace......" Yuri felt something heavy around her neck. Dragonfly Boy went to Yuri to observe her necklace closely. Taking a closer look, he found out that not one bead was left transparent.

All one hundred beads shined with red liquid in them. "Yuri, the beads in your necklace…I think they are all filled up." "R…really?" "Maybe it's because your eggs have created lives," said Dragonfly Boy, bewildered. Little Ladybug came over and asked curiously, "What necklace? Oh! What a pretty necklace you have on your neck!" Dragonfly Boy wanted to have that necklace. "That necklace…If I have that necklace, I might be able to become human."

Chapter 19. The Necklace Thief

Yuri’s heart pounded. “Now I can become human again!” she thought. She was proud that she had come this far. Whatever hardships she might face in the future, she was sure they couldn’t be harder, more stressful, or more dangerous than this. She wanted go back to who she was as soon as possible so that she could be in her mother’s arms again. “Come here. I’ll help you get that necklace off,” said Dragonfly Boy with a gentle smile. “If you don’t do it fast, you could get eaten by a bird or a mantis, and then this would all have been in vain,” he added. Yuri returned to herself. “All right, then, please.” “I was so shocked that you could become a human! And that Dragonfly Boy had

helped you out all along. I knew it……” Dragonfly Boy was annoyed by Little Ladybug’s words. “Be quiet! I can’t concentrate!” Yuri swallowed hard while she let Dragonfly Boy take care of the necklace. Dragonfly Boy unhooked Yuri’s necklace with his hands. Everybody waited in silence. Dragonfly Boy finally took the necklace off Yuri’s neck. “Now it’s all done…,” said Dragonfly Boy quietly. But even at that moment, his mind went into a thousand, tens of thousands, different directions. “Take it…no, I won’t…take it…no, I won’t……” Yuri felt the weight of the necklace lifted from her neck. Her heart started to beat as she imagined herself becoming human again. “Now if I just melt the necklace under the sunlight and drink it…,” she thought. At the same time, Dragonfly Boy’s eyes sharpened. He pulled the hand holding the necklace close to his chest and flew up high. Yuri was so taken aback that the only thing she could do was to stare at Dragonfly Boy. Little Ladybug couldn’t understand what Dragonfly Boy was doing. “Seriously, come down!” Yuri yelled at Dragonfly Boy, trying hard to calm down her beating heart. “Hah, why do you think I’ve been following you? It was because of this necklace.” “What do you mean! You are not even human.” “No, I’m not. But my mom was. I have been thinking about this since I was little. I want to be human too. I want to live as a human at least once in my life. Yuri, haven’t you already had that experience? So let me have this necklace!” “Dragonfly Boy! That doesn’t make sense! That…… is not like you!” shouted Little

Ladybug. “Just be quiet if you don’t know anything! This is me.” Yuri flew up to catch Dragonfly Boy, but Dragonfly Boy flew away at a much faster speed than Yuri. “No!” Yuri put all her effort into catching up with him, but failed. Yuri shouted at the back of Dragonfly Boy, who was going out of sight, “No, you are not seriously thinking of going away like that, are you?” Dragonfly Boy disappeared completely without a trace. “Come back, please!” Little Ladybug, who couldn’t put up with this anymore, flew up vigorously and said, “Mosquito, I’ll bring him back. Don’t go anywhere. Just wait for us on this petal boat!” Little Ladybug flew straight in the direction where Dragonfly Boy had disappeared. Little Ladybug kept falling down because he didn’t have strong wings or good flying skills. Even so, he managed to follow Dragonfly Boy in an arc. Yuri sank into the petal boat, listening to Little Ladybug half-heartedly. “It’s gone……” Yuri couldn’t believe that the necklace had been taken right in front of her eyes. How could Dragonfly Boy, the one whom she had depended on and believed in all along, take that away from her? Yuri looked blankly up into the sky and murmured, “No, this must be some kind of a joke……. Dragonfly Boy is doing it again. He will come back, he will come……back.”

Chapter 20. Would You Be Happy?

Dangling the red necklace, Dragonfly Boy was on an ash tree branch near a valley where he had spent his childhood. He had been waiting for this moment ever since he had heard the conversation between the mosquito and Mr. Cockroach in the ivy house. He had never forgotten his dream of becoming a human like his mother. “They say that moms and sons are alike. If my mom was a human, then I could be one too,” he said to himself, looking into each red shining bead one by one. “But why do I feel this way? What is it about this necklace…….” He suddenly felt something approaching him from behind. “Dragonfly Boy!” It was Little Ladybug. “What! You scared me! I almost dropped the necklace.” As Little Ladybug went near Dragonfly Boy, Dragonfly Boy flew up again grasping the necklace firmly. Little Ladybug called out to Dragonfly Boy to stop him from running away. “Dragonfly Boy! Don’t go! I can’t follow you anymore. I’m too tired.” Dragonfly Boy landed on another ash tree branch, feeling relieved. But still, he tried to stay keen. Nobody knew whether or not Little Ladybug would use tricks to catch him offguard. Little Ladybug could spray a terrible yellow liquid on him and take the necklace while the Dragonfly Boy was rubbing his eyes in a panic. Dragonfly Boy didn’t forget to keep enough distance between him and Little Ladybug so that he could run away easily if necessary. “How did you come all the way down here?” asked Dragonfly Boy bluntly. “Whew. Dragonfly Boy, you still have the necklace. Be grateful.”

Slowly hiding the necklace behind his back, Dragonfly Boy replied, “Stay away from this. This has nothing to do with you.” “No, I do really mean, ‘Be grateful.’” “What do you mean by ‘Be grateful’?” Dragonfly Boy couldn’t understand Little Ladybug. “Neither Mosquito nor I can beat your power.” “That’s true.” “So I thought carefully while coming here. We would have no hope if you had already drunk the necklace, but there is some hope left if you haven’t made up your mind yet. Like you are right now…… I knew that you were not a bad dragonfly. I was right.” “Hah, you think I will just give this back if you flatter me?” “Then why didn’t you drink it right after you took it? “That’s……” Dragonfly Boy didn’t know what to say. “You were heartbroken too. The fact that you stole Mosquito’s necklace……” “Hey, kid. Do you really want her to become human? She will enjoy her life without thinking of us at all when she becomes human. She won’t talk to us, or care about us.” “Dragonfly Boy!” “What?” “So you like her?” “What? What are you talking about?” “Haha, yes, you do. You miss her and don’t want to say goodbye to her because you like her.” “No, I don’t!” Although Dragonfly Boy was used to being extremely brazen, he couldn’t stop his face from turning deep red, at least this time.

“Look, you are blushing.” “If you don’t stop, I will stick you in that valley!” “Dragonfly Boy, I came here because I was worried about you more than about her,” said Little Ladybug, wiping sweat off his forehead. “Worried about me? What do you mean?” “You do know that I like you, right? I always wanted to fly like cool dragonflies whenever I looked up at them in the sky. I watched them fly without even closing my mouth.” “Hmm.” Dragonfly Boy cleared his throat out of embarrassment. “I became sure after I met you. As I watched you closely, I saw that you are a much cooler and greater dragonfly than when I had seen you from far away. I decided that even if I couldn’t fly as wonderfully as you could, I would live a cool life helping out others like you do.” Dragonfly Boy swallowed. “Live like me? Like a thief?” “If you become human after drinking that, you will be able to fulfill your dream. But you will never be happy during your whole life because of the guilt that will prick your conscience forever for what you did to Mosquito. I would also have to bear the disappointment my whole life. My role model actually being a thief who takes away other people’s things.” “……” “But Dragonfly Boy, that kind of life…… would you be happy?”