# 6
Startled, Jin-ha flinched, but the man pulled Jin-ha’s body closer to himself and tilted his head.
“Spouses should stay close together.”
“W-who said such a thing…?”
“The fairy did.”
“The fairy said that?”
It was a highly suspicious statement. Fairies were a species interested only in play, with no concept of marriage.
But this man was basically like a child right now. What was the point in meticulously refuting what a child claimed? Even if the man was lying, it wasn’t out of malice but rather from a desire to play and be in charge.
“…Alright. I understand.”
Jin-ha tried to imagine the man’s head being around his waist instead of above his own head. It was the height he imagined based on the man’s mental age.
With that in mind, his heart suddenly softened.
There was no point in attributing meaning to a child’s words or actions. What was important now was safely escaping from this place.
Glancing briefly, Jin-ha’s gaze turned to his watch.
Unfortunately, the watch dial was still pristine white.
* * *
Isn’t he too naive?
The man thought as he watched Jin-ha walking ahead, having willingly offered his hand.
“Watch your step here.”
“Okay. You be careful too, honey.”
When he deliberately used the amusing term of endearment, Jin-ha rolled his eyes but soon awkwardly played along with the act.
“…Yes. Thank you.”
It was quite amusing how Jin-ha had become so lenient after assuming the man had a child-like mental state.
He quite enjoyed this ridiculous charade. Though it couldn’t last long, since he couldn’t pretend to wander in the forest forever.
He wondered how Lee Jin-ha would react when he realized the other was acting. The man looked forward to that moment. Perhaps that was why he was so willingly throwing himself into this strange play.
“Over here for a moment.”
The man pressed himself against the tree trunk as Jin-ha instructed. Jin-ha, tightly holding his hand to prevent him from making noise, cautiously peeked around the tree trunk to see what was beyond.
Beyond lay the territory of Crystal Slimes. They were temperamental and nasty creatures, so they would need to go around.
Though knowing all this, the man pretended to know nothing and moved closer to Jin-ha to peek ahead. Feeling the presence behind him, Jin-ha flinched and gripped his hand more firmly.
“What’s there?”
“Looks like slimes, a type I’ve never seen before…”
The man suddenly noticed a small mole on the nape of Jin-ha’s neck. Though it was just a simple mole, it had a strangely alluring quality.
He wanted to lick it.
Just as he unconsciously extended his index finger to touch the mole, Jin-ha whirled around and tackled him.
“Shh.”
The two of them rolled through the undergrowth tangled together. In the bushes some distance from the path, Jin-ha straddled the man beneath him and held his breath.
He seemed to be trying to hide the man beneath his body, but the man’s larger frame meant his head and feet were sticking out.
“You’re being quiet. Good.”
Jin-ha deliberately spoke in a playful manner, patting the man’s shoulder as he whispered, trying not to frighten him.
“Let’s stay like this for a moment. They’ll pass by soon…”
Before he finished speaking, the sound of bushes being parted drew closer. A cold sound, like blades brushing against grass, approached very near.
Jin-ha, pressed flat against the ground with the man between him and the earth, peered through the dense foliage.
Red, purple, blue, and green. Slimes whose colors shifted depending on the angle of light were passing right by them. Unlike ordinary slimes, they looked threatening with crystal formations like honed blades protruding from various parts of their bodies.
Jin-ha held his breath, unable to take his eyes off them.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
In a very small, secretive voice, the man asked Jin-ha:
“What should we make our wedding rings from?”
“We don’t need such…”
“We do. We’re spouses.”
The man whispered firmly, but his voice rose slightly. Though it probably wasn’t loud enough to be heard by the slimes, Jin-ha worried that the man might get more excited.
“According to the Act on the Prohibition of Improper Solicitation and Receipt of Benefits, public officials cannot receive gifts worth more than 50,000 won.”
“What does that mean?”
“That’s the law.”
“You’re lying.”
“It’s true.”
Jin-ha emphasized shamelessly. The man narrowed his eyes.
“Even if that’s true, what does it matter? We’re married.”
“Even if we’re married, we haven’t gone through the legal procedures.”
“What?”
Sensing an opportunity, Jin-ha continued seriously:
“We’re in a common-law marriage, not legally married.”
“…Ha.”
“Let’s think about wedding rings after we file for marriage registration.”
The man closed his mouth with a dissatisfied expression. It seemed he had brought up the topic to tease Jin-ha, but instead found himself being teased and felt hurt.
With a sulky face, looking elsewhere, the man asked casually:
“If I behave, will you register our marriage?”
“Alright.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Unaware that he had carelessly made a promise to a magician, Jin-ha was satisfied with the quieter situation.
The procession of slimes continued to pass by, crushing the grass with slithering sounds.
He was worried they might detect their presence, but fortunately, the concealment magic inscribed on his suit seemed to be working properly.
His suit was an artifact that reduced one’s presence. Though the function was limited to the wearer, he thought that when pressed together like this, it could act as a sound absorber, and fortunately, he was right.
Of course, it wouldn’t work against beasts with good noses and sensitivity to presence. They were able to deceive the slimes because of their nature.
After waiting a bit longer, as soon as the slimes were completely gone, the man demanded:
“Marriage registration.”
“We need to go to the district office for that, so let’s postpone it a bit.”
It was a promise that would eventually become an embarrassing memory for the man once they returned to Earth and he received rehabilitation treatment and recovered his memories. Jin-ha made empty promises without hesitation.
Perhaps it was because the tension from fear of being discovered by the strange slimes had eased, or perhaps he enjoyed the playful conversation with the large man who was no different from a child. He wasn’t usually popular with children, so this kind of playful dialogue was new to him.
Jin-ha found the sulking man, who hadn’t gotten anything he wanted, quite adorable. He must have been wearing rose-colored glasses. He smiled and awkwardly patted the man’s head before standing up.
Even after Jin-ha had brushed all the dirt and leaves from his clothes, the man remained sitting in the same spot. If that were all, he would have urged him to get up and offered a hand, but the man’s once-sparkling eyes had become hazy, unlike before.
“Are you alright? Did you get hurt when we rolled earlier?”
“No, it’s not that…”
The man placed his hand on his forehead and blinked slowly.
Looking at Jin-ha, who sat at eye level with him and asked worriedly what was wrong, he took a deep breath that made his chest swell.
“Just now, when you patted my head…”
“Ah, do you dislike having your head touched? I’m sorry.”
“No! That’s not it…”
At that moment, an overwhelming sensation drenched him.
A feeling more intense than any satisfaction he had ever experienced before washed over him, making his brain feel like it was melting like warm butter, as if he’d been given a sedative. As that intense sensation began to fade, the man raised his head to say he was fine, but gritted his teeth at the body heat that enveloped him.
Jin-ha had placed his hand on his forehead.
“You don’t seem to have a fever.”
It was strange. The man had suffered from this illness for a very long time. Since becoming an adult, so for 12 years now. He had uselessly filled countless cravings until now, but never like this.
Each time they touched, the satisfaction was different.
When he touched Jin-ha while unconscious, when he climbed on top of the wary Jin-ha, when Jin-ha embraced him for protection, and now. All felt different.
The most pleasant was now.
What could be the difference?
“I’m not sick. Just… a little dizzy.”
“Dizzy, you say?”
The secret was clearly hidden within Lee Jin-ha before him.
To solve this mystery, the man decided he needed to commit more actively to this charade.
Fortunately, Jin-ha was completely fooled and currently mistook him for “fairy food.”
“Yeah. I’m fine now. Let’s go, honey.”
He expected Jin-ha to become flustered and jump up at these words, but Jin-ha just remained deep in thought.
Jin-ha was so preoccupied thinking about the characteristics of fairy sickness patients that he didn’t properly hear what the man said.
“Hunter Jin-ha?”
Fairies were quite troublesome monsters to deal with. Their quick movements made them difficult to hit, and if one let their guard down even slightly, they would easily fall under their spell. That’s why there was a specialized fairy realm hunting team equipped with mental fortitude-enhancing artifacts.
He had heard that when the fairy realm hunting specialist team found a fairy sickness patient, they would first knock them unconscious. While part of the reason was that conscious fairy sickness patients caused various annoyances, the main reason was that the patients were already in such a weakened state that they could collapse at any moment. They took away consciousness to preserve their strength.
And the reason fairy sickness patients were so weak was because fairies were creatures that didn’t eat food. People who followed fairies around, enduring all sorts of troublesome situations while not eating anything, became extremely weak. Even when hungry, they couldn’t properly recognize their hunger, making this the most difficult aspect to fix in the early stages of rehabilitation.
This man said he had been with a fairy for four days.
That meant he hadn’t eaten for four days.
