Side Story 3
Geonho was running around in all directions without even wearing an overcoat. After searching everywhere Siwoo might have gone, he ended up at the park again.
“Han Siwoo! I was wrong! I won’t do it again!”
He apologized first without even knowing what he had done wrong. Preparing to kneel immediately if Siwoo appeared, he searched under trees, benches, and between bushes.
Everything was covered in white snow, making it even harder to find him. Of all days, he had to go out on this cold one.
“I really was wrong, Han Siwoo! Please come out!”
Geonho’s face grew increasingly pale as he shouted. As the terrible thought that he might not find Siwoo added to his worry, his heartbeat quickened. Heat started to gather around his eyes.
“Fuck…”
He tried to calm his emotions by covering his eyes with his hands, cold from the weather. The stable wavelength that had been improving with Siwoo’s guiding was starting to rise again.
Han Siwoo would hate that. Holding onto that thought alone, he suppressed the surging anxiety. As his emotions cooled, his mind began to work properly again.
“You stupid bastard.”
Geonho quickly took out his phone, muttering curses as he contacted the secretary. The curse was directed at himself. The secretary kept track of the real-time locations of all guild members, including Siwoo. Like an idiot, he had only just remembered that.
“What?”
Geonho’s mouth fell open wide when the secretary told him Siwoo’s current location. He laughed roughly like someone who had gotten the wind knocked out of him.
— Why? Is something wrong?
Han Siwoo was currently at the dormitory. In Yoo Jihan’s room, to be precise.
“Oh, today is the day Yoo Jihan dies.”
— Excuse me?!
Geonho abruptly ended the call and stuffed his phone into his pocket, exhaling a heavy sigh. Yoo Jihan, you’re really going to die today.
Now that he had confirmed Siwoo was at the dormitory, he decided not to rush. He collected his emotions and smoothed out his expression that had been crumpled like an abandoned dog’s. He also slowly considered which part of Yoo Jihan to break first.
Right, let’s start with his neck.
Just as Geonho nodded and was about to turn around, a familiar shape entered his field of vision.
“Han Siwoo…?”
A small, snow-white ball of fur was attached to the base of a tree. For a moment, he thought it was Siwoo seeing the white fur. But Siwoo was at the dormitory now. And he wasn’t that small either.
“What is that…”
Frowning, Geonho stepped toward the tree. At his approach, the wriggling cotton ball suddenly lifted its head.
As he suspected, it was a kitten. Small, round eyes like beans fixed on Geonho. Unlike Siwoo, its muzzle and ears were pitch black. And it was really tiny. If it hadn’t moved, he would have mistaken it for snow and passed by.
The sharpness in Geonho’s eyes softened. Instead of approaching the cat, he bent down to observe it more closely.
It was a baby cat with a unique pattern. Like Siwoo, it was mostly white, but it had black fur like spots in various places. The fur color was uneven, as if someone had deliberately splattered ink on it.
He had given Churu to many cats, but he had never seen one with such unusual fur coloring.
Looks like it came from between a black one and a white one. Geonho examined the distinctive kitten that looked as if black paint had splashed on it, and casually asked.
“Where’s your mom? Why are you alone?”
The kitten, slightly intimidated by Geonho’s large frame, soon opened its small mouth.
Meow.
The cat, which had been staring intently at Geonho, suddenly stood up. He thought it might try to run away, but instead, it charged at Geonho like a predator.
Meow! Confused by the increasingly loud crying, Geonho reflexively opened his arms. With the kitten running toward him so desperately, he had no choice but to hug it. It was instinct toward a baby.
* * *
Seojun, who had finished work early, came to the dormitory with light steps. He no longer stopped by the guiding room. After Siwoo’s health recovered, the guiding machine became a piece of dusty furniture.
Since it was late at night, he walked quietly, thinking everyone would be asleep. In the poorly soundproofed dormitory, even the smallest sounds seemed louder at dawn.
Sure enough, just as Seojun was heading toward the stairs, a faint sound drifted down from upstairs.
Damn it. Someone was receiving guiding.
“What the hell, in the middle of the night…”
Seojun’s mouth turned downward at the familiar moaning sounds. While he absolutely loved it when Siwoo cried in his arms, he hated when Siwoo made lewd sounds with his hyungs.
What he hated most was that he couldn’t ignore those sounds and ended up listening to them until the end. He listened intently until everything was over, even though he could have easily blocked the sounds with earphones.
Always ready to barge in if his hyungs became forceful or hurt Guide-nim.
He did this every time, though he knew that wouldn’t happen. It was better to face reality than to let his imagination run wild if he didn’t hear the sounds at all.
Leaning against the stair railing, Seojun turned his gaze toward the entrance hallway at the sound of the door lock opening. Heavy footsteps echoed along with the sound of the front door opening and closing. Only Geonho hyung walked with such loud thuds.
“…What is that?”
Seojun’s eyes widened as he greeted Geonho with an indifferent face. More than Geonho, who had gone out and returned in short sleeves in this weather, he was surprised by the small creature in his arms.
“Is that a cat?”
“What else would it be, a dog?”
“Why is it so small? I thought it was a doll.”
Seojun approached Geonho with admiration. Geonho immediately handed him the cat. He had something urgent to do.
“Is that bastard Yoo Jihan inside?”
Meow! Meeeoow!
The cat, which had been quiet, started thrashing violently the moment it was separated from Geonho’s arms. It clung desperately to Geonho’s hand and cried as if its throat would tear.
“Hyung should hold it.”
Eventually, Geonho took it back. The kitten climbed up Geonho’s body like it was rock climbing and settled at his nape, breathing heavily.
“It’s been doing this the whole time.”
Whenever Geonho held it loosely or tried to put it in his pants pocket, it would cry as if having a seizure and climb up to his neck.
“It must like you, hyung.”
Seojun chuckled as he observed Geonho and the kitten sitting on his neck. Geonho, who needed to punish Jihan, just frowned and scratched the kitten’s chin. He couldn’t push it away roughly because it was too young.
Meow~
The kitten, attached tightly to Geonho, meowed affectionately as if it hadn’t been screaming earlier.
“What’s that noise?”
Siwoo, who had come out of his room hearing the commotion, looked down at the lower floor. His eyes rounded like Seojun’s as he leaned against the upstairs railing to check the situation in the living room.
“What is that?”
Just as he was about to go down to the floor below, Jihan caught his hand.
“Guide, you need to wear pants too.”
Jihan caught Siwoo, who had only hastily put on a shirt, and helped him put on pants. Seeing that scene, murderous intent flashed again in Geonho’s eyes.
Meow!
The kitten started crying loudly again, as if afraid Geonho might leave it behind. Hearing that thin, sharp crying, Siwoo hurried down.
“Did you pick it up? Did you properly check if there was no mother around?”
Geonho explained that it had been abandoned alone in the park and glared at Jihan like he wanted to kill him. Jihan, smiling with his eyes, went to the kitchen to get water for Siwoo.
“It’s really young. Probably not even a month old.”
Siwoo observed the kitten clinging to Geonho’s neck carefully. Its face, as small as a fist with distinct features, was quite unique. Though its unusual fur color might not be popular with people, its face was pretty.
“Is it male or female?”
“Don’t know.”
“Ah, it’s too young to tell even if we look.”
It was difficult to determine a cat’s gender until it was 2 months old. An accurate distinction would only be possible when it grew a bit more.
“What did that bastard Yoo Jihan do?”
Geonho focused more on Siwoo than on the cat. The kitten’s gender wasn’t important.
“Did he extract guiding from you?”
“What do you mean extract? I gave it to him.”
“Why did you give it when you’re tired?”
Geonho gritted his teeth and exhaled through his nose as he sensed Jihan’s wavelength on Siwoo’s body. His own wavelength that had been left on Siwoo was already faint.
“Geonho, are you planning to keep it?”
Jihan asked, creating a barrier to avoid Geonho’s telekinesis that was trying to strangle him. Geonho glared at him as if he would pounce on Jihan any moment, but he couldn’t move because of the cat crying next to his ear. Above all, he couldn’t shed blood in front of Siwoo. If he did, Siwoo wouldn’t stay still.
“Are you going to keep it?”
Siwoo turned Geonho’s chin away from glaring at Jihan as he asked. The kitten clinging to Geonho already seemed to consider him its parent.
“I just brought it in because I was worried it would freeze to death if I left it.”
Geonho gathered Siwoo’s open shirt and buttoned it up. Each time he moved his arms, the kitten sitting on his neck wobbled. It tensed its entire body and maintained balance to avoid falling. It was a creature with a very strong will to live. There was a reason it had survived alone in this cold winter.
Its tiny body, like a small rice cake, was just the size of Siwoo’s palm. Siwoo found it amazing that such a small body could breathe and cry. Though he himself had been born even smaller.
“Should I let the leader know first?”
Seojun waved his phone, waiting for his hyungs’ answers. After rolling his eyes briefly, Geonho told him to go ahead. There was no need to hide it.
“Want to hold it?”
Geonho leaned toward Siwoo, who couldn’t take his eyes off the kitten. Siwoo, awkwardly clenching and unclenching his hands, first extended his nose to smell the kitten.
Sniff, sniff, just as his nose twitched slightly.
Hiss!
The kitten suddenly hissed while leaning against Geonho. It even fluffed up its fur while swinging its front paws at Siwoo.
Startled, Siwoo stepped back, and Geonho immediately held the kitten with one hand and trapped it in his arms.
“Guide, are you okay?”
“Did it scratch you?”
Jihan and Seojun immediately rushed to Siwoo to check on him. While preventing the kitten from hissing again by covering its mouth, Geonho’s eyes followed only Siwoo.
Surrounded by Jihan and Seojun, Siwoo just blinked for a moment. He seemed even more surprised because he had been caught off guard.
Watching him, Geonho carefully opened his mouth.
“…I’ll take it outside.”
The kitten whimpered and burrowed into Geonho’s arms with a frightened look. It even dug its claws into his clothes. It behaved as if it anticipated being abandoned.
Siwoo frowned at this and abruptly turned around.
“Let it sleep in your room.”
He coldly tossed the words and headed to his own room. However, behind the coolly walking Siwoo, his tail, which had slipped out from his clothes, was all puffed up.
Siwoo didn’t even realize his tail was showing. He hadn’t let it out intentionally. Startled by the kitten’s hiss, his tail had popped out involuntarily.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
