# Chapter 9
“Do you remember that hyung who lived in your rooftop room when we were in middle school?”
Haeseung wondered why Mugyeong suddenly brought up the hyung who once lived in their rooftop room, just as the story behind his running away was finally about to be resolved. Haeseung asked back:
“The hyung who sold roofing materials?”
“That’s right. That hyung was involved in a multi-level marketing scheme.”
“What? Don’t tell me you also ran away from home because you got sucked into MLM following him?”
“Something like that. I went along to something like a company workshop.”
“But why?”
Even as he asked, Haeseung couldn’t begin to guess what answer Mugyeong would give.
“Because they said I could shout as much as I wanted there.”
“Shout? Even if it’s a pyramid scheme, it’s still technically a company. Why would you shout at a company workshop?”
“They were all shouting. They decided on some slogan and shouted it all day long from morning till night. Thanks to that, I got to train my voice a bit.”
There were so many things Haeseung couldn’t understand that he was confused about where to start. Was Mugyeong going through puberty back then? Since Mugyeong hadn’t shown any particularly unusual behavior apart from running away, Haeseung had no idea if he’d even gone through puberty.
“Why did you want to shout?”
“That hyung told me that if you shout until your voice gets hoarse, your voice would break earlier. But if I shouted at home, my mother would worry, you know. Seoul is really a place where there’s nowhere proper to shout.”
It was truly bizarre. The more questions Haeseung asked and the more Mugyeong answered, the more his questions multiplied rather than being resolved.
“So did your voice break?”
“No, it didn’t. Actually, I didn’t completely believe what that hyung said. I was half-skeptical. But I thought I had nothing to lose. It was during vacation anyway.”
Haeseung couldn’t hold back any longer and sat up abruptly.
“What exactly did you have nothing to lose? Do you know how much I… Kang Mugyeong, you stupid idiot. What if they’d completely stripped you of your organs? How could you dare go to such a place? Your voice would have broken in due time anyway. Damn, I’m so speechless I can’t even curse properly.”
“But it didn’t come even when it was supposed to. It came to you and all the other kids, but not to me. You only hung out with guys whose voices had broken.”
“I did that?”
“Yes, you did.”
Since Haeseung’s memory also supported Mugyeong’s claim, he couldn’t continue to deny it.
“Even so, how could you follow them there?”
“I think I was scared. Scared that my voice might never break. Then you might look down on me and never want to hang out with me.”
Haeseung could somewhat understand why Mugyeong had tried to hasten his voice breaking.
“I wasn’t looking down on you. I just kept my distance because you kept laughing like a crazy person whenever you heard my voice.”
“Are you saying you kept your distance because I acted like a crazy person?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Thinking about it, he wondered if that was the only time they had grown distant. It wasn’t. They had fought many times, sometimes for grand reasons and sometimes for trivial ones. Who was always the first to apologize? It was Mugyeong. Mugyeong’s straightforward apologies about wanting to get along always made Haeseung seem narrow-minded. Disliking that feeling, there were times when Haeseung had tried to apologize first even before his anger had fully subsided, but surprisingly, even then, Mugyeong’s apology was always faster. Eventually, an intense psychological battle unfolded where they would deliberately pick fights just to show the other person they could apologize first without holding grudges. The strange fighting rule that losing was actually winning was treated like a formula between them for a while. But Haeseung had changed. Now he firmly believed that winning was winning. Mugyeong seemed to still be the same, though.
“Then I’ll never act like a crazy person again. And don’t keep your distance from me like back then.”
“…”
Mugyeong’s voice sounded pitiful and chilling at the same time. His determination to follow an MLM scheme just to restore his relationship with Haeseung was both impressive and frightening.
“Answer me.”
As Mugyeong pulled his wrist, Haeseung lost his balance and fell forward onto Mugyeong’s chest. Haeseung tried to get up immediately, but Mugyeong wrapped an arm around Haeseung’s back.
“Hey, stop fooling around.”
Before Haeseung could finish speaking, their positions were reversed. Mugyeong swiftly laid Haeseung on the floor and climbed on top of him. Looking up at Mugyeong above him, Haeseung unconsciously burst into laughter.
“Is it funny?”
Mugyeong, who had been quietly listening to Haeseung’s laughter, asked with a serious look.
“What?”
“I asked if you think it’s funny when I do this.”
“I think it would be funny if you stop right here.”
“Really?”
Haeseung felt increasing pressure on his captured wrists. He tried to move them to break free but couldn’t budge. It seemed Mugyeong had no intention of stopping here. Haeseung slightly raised one corner of his mouth and said warningly:
“I’m telling you to get off, you crazy bastard.”
“If I were really crazy, you wouldn’t be able to laugh like that.”
“…”
Mugyeong’s face came closer. The composure and smile that had barely clung to Haeseung’s face completely vanished.
“You’d probably cry.”
“…”
Their lips almost touched but ultimately didn’t. While Haeseung swallowed hard, Mugyeong got off his body. And then he muttered in a low voice:
“I’m stopping here because I don’t like to see you cry.”
Instead of getting angry at Mugyeong for his excessive prank, Haeseung just lay flat on his back and stared blankly at the dark ceiling for a while.
Should he have gotten angry about the prank going too far? It seemed too late to get angry now. But the reason Haeseung hadn’t gotten angry at that moment wasn’t because he was suppressing his anger. He simply hadn’t felt angry in the first place, so there was no need to suppress anything. He had only breathed a sigh of relief at that moment that Mugyeong had stopped his prank.
An awkward silence enveloped the room. Haeseung considered just maintaining the silence until falling asleep, but then started a conversation as if nothing had happened.
“I watched a documentary on TV recently by chance.”
“Yeah?”
“It was about flying snakes. Snakes that fly in the sky. Their full name is Paradise Flying Snake.”
“How can snakes fly? Do they have wings?”
“No.”
“How can they fly in the sky without wings?”
“That’s what I thought. They showed video of a snake flying in the sky, but to me, it looked like it was just falling from a high tree. It wasn’t just dropping lifelessly; it was resisting to some extent, but still, if we’re being strict, it was falling. But they kept insisting it was flying, showing the same footage in slow motion over and over.”
“That’s strange.”
“It really was strange. But suddenly I thought that those flying snakes might evolve. Someday, proper wings that anyone would recognize could sprout from their armpits. So I’m watching what the flying snake looks like before evolution.”
“Do snakes have armpits?”
“They will when they evolve.”
“Go to sleep. Your voice is full of drowsiness.”
Haeseung closed his eyes. He thought about how scary ground-crawling snakes already were, and wondered how much scarier they would be if they grew wings. Haeseung hoped that flying snakes wouldn’t evolve for a long time.
“Good night.”
Lately, when Haeseung quietly watched Mugyeong, he felt like he was looking at an unfamiliar creature just before evolution. The look in his eyes when he gazed at Haeseung seemed deep and mature, with an unfathomable depth. Just before falling asleep, Haeseung wished that Mugyeong wouldn’t evolve too quickly. He hoped he would change into a form that Haeseung could still recognize.
***
With a terrifying roar that threatened to burst his eardrums, the ground shook violently. Haeseung ran out of the rooftop room in shock. The whole world was a sea of crimson flames. The fire demon swallowed the world at an alarming rate, turning everything into ruins in an instant. Haeseung trembled violently, unable to even make a sound. He tried to reassure himself. This is just a dream, he needed to wake up soon.
As the flames subsided and the world turned into gray ruins, Haeseung went down the stairs. Just like in his previous dream, none of his family remained. Although gripped by terrible sadness, Haeseung didn’t give up and continued down the stairs. If he went down, Mugyeong would be standing there waiting for him as always. Then the two of them would set out on a long journey to find food. He believed they would find a suitable store with food left, and he would wake up from the dream before the food ran out completely.
Haeseung quickened his pace. Even when he reached the alley, there was no sign of anyone. His lips became parched, and his heart began to pound with an ominous rhythm.
‘Kang Mugyeong!’
Haeseung called out loudly for Mugyeong. Black ash, drifting like snowflakes, stuck to his face. Haeseung didn’t even think to wipe it off and called Mugyeong’s name repeatedly until his throat was raw. Haeseung headed towards Mugyeong’s house. The place where the house had been was now empty. Could Mugyeong have been swept away by the flames too? His knees gave out. Haeseung slumped to the ground.
‘No… Kang Mugyeong…!’
Tears overflowed, making it hard to breathe. Haeseung desperately searched for Mugyeong through his blurred vision. Kang Mugyeong, don’t do this to me. The vain hope that Mugyeong might be hiding somewhere, watching him, got Haeseung back on his feet. His hope soon turned into belief, making him resent Mugyeong for not appearing. Mugyeong never appeared, and the resentment turned back into fear. It would be fine if Mugyeong didn’t appear before him right now. He just desperately wished that he was alive somewhere.
“Wake up. Hey, Lee Haeseung.”
Haeseung slowly lifted his heavy eyelids. An unfamiliar ceiling and Mugyeong’s face looking down at him were in front of his eyes. Fortunately, the awareness that he had fully awakened from the dream also came to him, so he didn’t let his sleep-talking escape his lips.
“What time is it?”
“It’s seven twenty. We need to leave now. Just throw on your clothes; we don’t have time.”
Haeseung put on his clothes drowsily, but half the process had to be entrusted to Mugyeong’s hands. When they opened the door and stepped outside, bitter cold and darkness descended upon them at once, as if they had been waiting just for the two of them. Whether from the cold or from a slight fear, Haeseung trembled without realizing it. Mugyeong closed the door and turned on his flashlight.
“Watch carefully where you’re going.”
Along with the unreliable flashlight beam came Mugyeong’s stern warning.
“How am I supposed to see well when there’s nothing to see well?”
“Because you can’t see well, that’s why I’m telling you to look carefully.”
“That’s what I’m saying—how can I look carefully when I can’t see well?”
Mugyeong let out a deep sigh.
“Lee Haeseung. I have a lot to say, but my mouth is so frozen I can’t bring myself to retort.”
The two trudged through the snowy path, cutting through the thick dawn fog as they made their way toward the beach. Based on their daytime visit the day before, if they didn’t get lost, it was only a 10-minute walk. Whenever the sea breeze swept in, tree branches danced and shook off accumulated snow. Mistaking it for snowfall, Haeseung worriedly exclaimed:
“I think it’s snowing!”
“No. That’s the trees.”
Mugyeong shone the flashlight on the tree branches swaying in the wind.
“It’s not snowing?”
“No.”
With the expectation of seeing a clear sunrise, Haeseung’s heart lifted. His small, rapid steps quickened even more to ward off the cold.
“Walk slowly. You’ll fall.”
“Don’t worry. There’s so much snow that it won’t hurt even if I fall. It looks fluffier than my bed.”
“Then why don’t you try lying down?”
“Didn’t you say your mouth was frozen?”
“I guess it thawed. Is the giraffe picture I drew a giraffe picture locked in a police station’s steel bars or a giraffe picture locked in a prosecutor’s office’s iron bars?”
Haeseung snorted.
When they arrived at the narrow beach, the sea breeze attacked like a knife. Haeseung quickly hid behind Mugyeong’s back. Mugyeong turned to look at him.
“Are you very cold?”
“I feel like I’m going to faint. Your clothes look so warm. Can you take them off for me?”
Mugyeong hugged Haeseung tightly. Normally, Haeseung would have pushed him away, but he was almost delirious from the cold.
“You know what?”
“What?”
“They say your body temperature rises when you kiss.”
Mugyeong’s warm breath tickled Haeseung’s ear. Shivering from the cold, Haeseung refuted:
“That wasn’t the case for me.”
“It wasn’t?”
“I’ve tried kissing when I was cold, but I didn’t particularly feel my temperature rising or anything.”
Mugyeong released his embrace and gazed down at Haeseung’s lips.
“You’ve kissed before?”
“Yes.”
“With whom?”
“Who else? My ex-girlfriend.”
“You even kissed her?”
“Did you think we just held hands?”
Haeseung had the illusion that Mugyeong’s eyes were burning, and he became a little uneasy.
“…Fuck.”
The rough curse that flowed softly over Mugyeong’s lips intensified Haeseung’s uneasiness. Haeseung moved his feet to escape from the unidentifiable anxiety, but Mugyeong’s lips approached faster. Cold lips covered Haeseung’s.
The bluish dawn was lifting, and from the far end of the horizon, the surroundings were gradually brightening with a golden light.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
