Chapter 32
‘Don’t, don’t, I don’t like it- It stings-! Dad, I don’t like it-!’
Waaah-!
When Eunseong couldn’t bear it anymore and burst into tears with his face turning bright red, Dad finally pulled away. Mom’s eyebrows shot up sharply as she rushed into the room at the sound of crying.
‘You! Eunseong’s cheek is red again! I told you to kiss him in moderation.’
‘But he’s so cute, what can I do.’
‘Then shave properly!’
Dad made a sulky expression and fiddled with Eunseong’s feet. When he looked ready to bite his toes, Eunseong flailed his short legs. Dad just laughed heartily even after getting hit hard on the chin.
Eunseong scrunched up his round eyes and made the fiercest expression he could manage.
‘I’ll only kiss with Mom!’
Originally, kisses were only supposed to be with Mom. Eunseong loved the kisses Mom gave on his cheek with her soft lips the most. He didn’t like Dad because he was hairy, but he was forced to endure it most of the time. When that happened, his white cheek would turn red and sometimes even break out in hives, so Dad would get smacked on the back by Mom.
On a gentle spring day with soft sunlight touching his forehead, Mujin was unusually sitting quietly crouched by the flower bed. Since Eunseong was used to seeing him always running around bickering with Jaeseong, he worried whenever Mujin was quiet.
‘What- doing?’
When he asked timidly and those black eyes suddenly turned toward him, Eunseong was startled and plopped down in the dirt. Perhaps finding this pathetic, Mujin didn’t answer and turned his gaze away again.
‘Ah, that. That’s rosemary.’
Eunseong pointed to the plant Mujin was looking at and told him.
‘Really. The teacher from the sprout class taught me. That teacher knows all the flower names.’
Even though Mujin didn’t respond at all, Eunseong made excuses first.
‘Look look. If you stroke it with your hand like this, it smells good.’
Frustrated, Eunseong suddenly thrust his hand, covered with herb scent, right in front of Mujin’s nose. Right? It really smells good, right? While urging for an answer, Mujin just stared at Eunseong.
Just as Eunseong was about to get dejected because he wouldn’t say anything, Mujin carefully pulled Eunseong’s hand closer and smelled it again.
‘……I can’t touch it.’
‘Why? Because the rosemary won’t like it?’
‘Because I’m still immature.’
What does immature mean? When he tilted his head, Mujin smiled slightly.
‘Plants die when I touch them.’
As soon as Mujin finished speaking, Jaeseong among the nearby children burst into loud laughter.
‘Stupid monster Baek Mujin-!’
‘Teacher! Jaeseong said bad words!’
‘Sun Ayeong likes Baek Mujin!’
‘Teacher! Jaeseong hit me!’
The children followed with noisy sounds to catch the fleeing Jaeseong. After the commotion passed and only Mujin and Eunseong remained, Eunseong awkwardly glanced around. He rolled his round eyes and examined Mujin’s face.
‘……’
Though Mujin’s black eyes showed an indifferent expression, Eunseong felt hurt inside.
Squeak- Grabbing Mujin’s shoulder and standing up, Eunseong carefully kissed his cheek. His soft lips briefly touched Mujin’s cheek and pulled away.
‘It’s okay.’
It was the moment he offered his own comfort. Mujin’s eyes widened and he pushed Eunseong away with all his might. Eunseong, who fell hard on his bottom, didn’t even have time to feel pain. His friend’s eyes looking down at him were glowing bright yellow like a tiger’s.
That day, all the trees and grass at the kindergarten withered, and Mujin glared at Eunseong with frightening eyes the whole time. Since it was the first time his friend’s eyes were so scary, Eunseong cried all day until his eyes were swollen.
‘Baby, it’s a secret. You understand?’
Mom whispered.
‘From now on, you must never tell anyone. You can’t give kisses either. You understand?’
Eunseong nodded even as he was falling asleep. He was so tired from crying all the way home from kindergarten. Just as he was falling into deep sleep from Mom’s gentle touch wiping his eyes, Dad’s very angry voice could be heard from above his head.
‘Do you think that will control it? It’s better to just put restrictions on Eunseong’s ability.’
‘What if something goes wrong with Eunseong? You don’t know where the side effects might appear.’
‘I’ll fully consider all possibilities. Since Jaeseong is here too……’
‘Be quiet.’
At Mom’s anxious voice, Eunseong became scared too. The two people who lowered their voices didn’t seem like his usual parents.
‘You tend to trust items too much. I know it’s because you’re from Yuseong, but items aren’t omnipotent. At least that’s how I learned and grew up.’
‘But it’s for Eunseong’s sake, honey.’
‘Oh, our baby…… our pretty baby.’
What should we do. Mom held the sleeping Eunseong and murmured for a long time.
* * *
When he opened his eyes at the end of a long sleep, his head felt heavy. Eunseong turned over to stretch his stiff body. Then Baek Mujin’s face came into his view. Every time he blinked, his black eyes were hidden and revealed repeatedly.
That little kid grew up like this…….
He seemed to have had quite a long dream, but only the sensation of the cheek that touched his lips was vivid. Mujin’s soft hair and firm lips were as clear as a photograph, and the warmth when touching his soft cheek seemed to still linger on the tip of his lips.
“Mujin……”
When he called out with difficulty in a completely hoarse voice, Mujin’s eyes widened. He immediately straightened up from the chair he was sitting in and moved closer.
“Eunseong, are you okay?”
“Eunseong-ssi! Are you conscious? Does anything hurt?”
At the same time, Lee Haesu’s flustered voice burst out from the foot of the bed. As he regained consciousness, the dream gradually scattered. Eunseong slowly blinked and looked at both their faces alternately. One bed in a relatively narrow and cozy space, catching the faint smell of disinfectant, he grasped the situation.
It’s a hospital room.
When he tried to force his heavy body up, Mujin put his hand behind his back to support him. When he sat leaning against the headboard, an opened water bottle was thrust right in front of his nose. Eunseong paused for a moment at the déjà vu he felt while receiving and holding the bottle.
‘Oh right. Your arm was injured too, Yoo Eunseong.’
‘I’m barely holding back from beating you until you cry, so shut that mouth.’
As he stared intently at the water bottle opening, Mujin couldn’t stand it anymore and urged him.
“What are you doing? Not drinking. Does your throat hurt? Can’t you even swallow water?”
At the overlapping voices, Eunseong gulped down dry saliva.
“Ah, no…… no.”
Eunseong drank the water under both their intense gazes. With each gulp of his adam’s apple, his parched body became moistened. Because he drank hastily, the area around his mouth became all wet.
“Hanyeong is safe, so don’t worry. Eunseong-ssi!”
Lee Haesu shouted impatiently toward Eunseong who was wiping his lips with the back of his hand. Seeming to understand what his restless eyes were worried about, Eunseong nodded.
“Yes, thank you. I remember you running over to tell me then.”
“Eunseong-ssi, your arm? Is your hand okay?”
“Huh? Ah…… it seems fine.”
When he clenched and unclenched his right hand while looking at Lee Haesu, his expression finally relaxed completely and he smiled with relief. Then Mujin, who had been occupying one side of his vision, suddenly reached out and grabbed Eunseong’s hand.
“How about when you turn it to the opposite side like this.”
“Oh, it really doesn’t hurt at all.”
Mujin rubbed his wrist with his fingertips then applied pressure and smoothly traced up to his elbow. Shiver, it felt like the hair on the back of his neck stood up. While Mujin’s gaze was nothing but serious, Eunseong couldn’t control his nape turning red hot.
“Your bones from here to here were all shattered. Into pieces.”
“Ah……”
Only then did it come back to him. Himself who had lost his reason and attacked Baek Sangyeon. When he had defensively struck with bare fists at the monster’s body covered entirely in hard scales, the sensation that had dominated his entire mind then, the desire to protect Mujin, came back to him one by one, vividly.
I tried to protect him. Baek Mujin. I did.
Eunseong tried to say something but kept his mouth tightly shut.
It was because Mujin’s cheek kept catching his eye. He was flustered by himself suddenly becoming conscious of it. This was definitely because of fragments of his memory. The kiss in his dream, the voice circling in his head, his expression, his back view…….
For some reason his chest tightened and he felt sad. Mujin’s back view seemed pitiful. Why? The person in front of him now wasn’t someone he could call pitiful even as an empty compliment. First of all, he was outmatched in build to step forward and protect him…….
As Eunseong continued his thoughts, he looked up at the shadow cast over his face. Before he knew it, Mujin had gotten up and approached quite close.
He suddenly thrust the thermometer in his hand forward.
“What, what are you doing?”
As he shrank his neck like a turtle, his ear was caught. At the sensation of the thermometer tip suddenly entering his ear hole, Eunseong shuddered from the ticklish feeling, so Mujin gripped his shoulder telling him to stay still.
“38 degrees. You still have a fever.”
His startled heart beat excessively fast. As he pushed him away as if to shake him off, the blanket was pulled away. His completely naked body without a thread of clothing was fully exposed. Eunseong’s blue eyes opened wide as lanterns.
“Wah!”
“Eunseong.”
Mujin leaned his face over Eunseong who was gathering up the blanket and lying down. With both arms set up like pillars, he covered Eunseong completely with his large body as if he were a roof. Mujin pulled down the blanket that Eunseong had pulled over his head in panic.
“Are you dizzy?”
Eunseong pulled the blanket up again and covered his face with it. From their tug of war, only the innocent blanket was about to be torn.
“I’m not dizzy. I’m fine, I’m fine.”
Hidden under the blanket, Eunseong panted. When a name for his panic came to mind, it felt like his head was heated up to the tips in an instant.
It felt like being hit hard on the back of the head by sudden conviction.
Could it be that I liked Baek Mujin?
The sporadic events of the past few days that came to mind. He carefully recalled Mujin’s heavy emotions that he had thought were strange. Only then did the broken puzzle pieces fit together one by one.
We weren’t friends……?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
