#92
“Wow, that was almost a disaster.”
Do-hyeok, who had been staring at the man’s back, blinked slowly. Everything he was seeing before his eyes felt completely unreal. He had clearly wanted to die, so what was this? Had he died? Was he already dead and seeing illusions?
“Hey, kid.”
“…M-me?”
“Then who else is here besides you, kid?”
The man turned around slightly, but his face wasn’t clearly visible as he was backlit by sunlight filtering through the forest.
“Step back for a moment. Otherwise, it’ll be a bit uncomfortable for hyung to move.”
While Do-hyeok was still in a daze, unable to grasp reality, the monster whose attack had been blocked by the man’s shield roared loudly. Startled by that sound, Do-hyeok immediately sat down on the ground. Seeing the young child covering his ears with his hands and trembling, the man didn’t say anything more about stepping back.
“Then count exactly 100 seconds from there. Close your eyes tight, don’t move, and stay still.”
Even though he had covered his ears with his hands, that person’s voice came through clearly. It felt like sweet hypnosis. Although he still didn’t know what was happening or who that person was – everything was unknown – Do-hyeok wanted to follow that person’s words, that voice.
Even if that person was a grim reaper who had come to take him away.
One, two, three… Do-hyeok counted the numbers faithfully. He didn’t open his eyes or move, just sat there quietly. And just as the number passed 100.
Startled by the sensation of someone tapping his shoulder, Do-hyeok held his breath and tumbled backward.
“Ah, sorry.”
Do-hyeok barely managed to shield the incoming sunlight with his hand and lifted his head. Then the man’s face, which hadn’t been visible before, came into view. A beautiful boy with light brown hair. Do-hyeok stared at him silently.
“How many seconds?”
“…Huh?”
“How many seconds did it take me to kill that bastard?”
He pointed to the other side with his hand. The sight of the monster that had threatened Do-hyeok with a scythe lying shattered on the ground came into view. Making his earlier determination to die at the hands of that bastard seem meaningless, the monster was already dead.
Do-hyeok swallowed nervously as he looked back and forth between the monster and the man. Then he was calmly pointing at himself with his hand, going “Hm?” and urging for an answer.
“…102 seconds.”
“Tsk.”
Then the sound of tongue-clicking came from the man’s mouth. Do-hyeok flinched slightly and watched his expression.
“Sorry for not keeping my promise.”
I thought I could do it within 100 seconds, the man muttered while rolling his shoulders.
“But how long are you planning to sit there like that? Your clothes are getting dirty.”
For a moment, Do-hyeok didn’t even realize he was sitting on the ground. Only when he felt the sensation of his bottom getting damp from touching the dirt at the man’s words did Do-hyeok finally understand.
That he was alive. That he had survived safely this time too. And that this time it wasn’t due to some stroke of luck, but thanks to this person.
“Come on, get up.”
The man slowly extended his hand. That hand, shining brightly in the sunlight, felt like the hand of God to Do-hyeok. That person wasn’t some grim reaper who had come to take Do-hyeok to his death. He was a human like himself, a person with a warm voice.
Do-hyeok burst into tears in front of the hand extended to him.
“Huh? Hey, why are you crying?”
Then the man restlessly circled around Do-hyeok.
“…Were you very scared?”
The man’s expression became somewhat pitiful as he watched Do-hyeok, who was clearly young but crying alone without making a sound.
“Of c-course. How could I not be scared in a place like this?”
Do-hyeok continued to answer faithfully even while sniffling. At that sight, the man let out a small laugh.
“What’s your name?”
“…I don’t tell my personal information to strangers.”
He used to occasionally steal glances at the news that the teachers watched at the orphanage, and this came up a lot. Personal information fraud, criminal misuse, and such.
So Do-hyeok had the perception that it was better to hide information about himself from strangers as much as possible. He had said this to teachers who asked about him whenever he moved between orphanages, and had been scolded for having poor manners.
“Smart kid. Yeah. If you don’t want to tell me, don’t. I don’t have to tell you either.”
But the man didn’t say such things. Instead of saying things like “you shouldn’t talk to adults like that” or “that’s rude,” he just smiled. It even felt somewhat playful.
“Anyway, kid, good job. You endured well getting here. You’re okay now. Because I’m here.”
At the man’s words, Do-hyeok froze again. “You endured well” – those words stuck deeply in the young child’s heart. The environment in which this child of just over ten years had lived was truly barren, soil where not a single sprout would grow. Do-hyeok had no parents to water and care for him with love, no adults to plant seeds and guide him with devotion.
The parched earth just continued to dry up like that. There, Do-hyeok had endured. He had barely continued his life alone, without even the awareness that he had endured and survived on his own. But hearing those words, for the first time he felt as if a ray of light had descended upon the earth.
Words he was hearing for the first time, praise and encouragement he was hearing for the first time. Do-hyeok looked up intently at the person who had said those words to him for the first time.
“So now get up slowly. If we stay here, those ugly bastards will come in droves. Let’s move first.”
The man said while looking around. While doing so, he could be heard muttering that he didn’t see any red dots, but it was incomprehensible to Do-hyeok. When Do-hyeok pressed his hand against the ground to get up, massive pain suddenly shot up from his palm. The child who let out a small scream sat back down on the ground.
“You…”
Ha-seong narrowed his eyes and watched Do-hyeok’s movements, then quickly grabbed and lifted his right hand.
“Ugh…”
Do-hyeok bit his lips tightly at the overwhelming pain. The man looked back and forth between Do-hyeok, who was trying not to make a sound to somehow endure the pain, and the swollen wound.
“Kid, when did this happen to you?”
“I d-don’t know.”
Even his sense of time had felt scrambled since entering this place. He had no idea how much time had passed.
“Wait a moment.”
Then the man suddenly placed his hand on Do-hyeok’s forehead. At the touch of an unfamiliar stranger, Do-hyeok stiffened and looked up at him. He wasn’t unaware of what this action meant. He knew it was something people commonly did to check for fever, to see if someone had a temperature, but Do-hyeok had never received such a touch before.
Even when he occasionally had fevers and felt sick at the orphanage, the teachers would just take his temperature with a thermometer instead of worried touches, give him medicine, and tell him to go sleep.
“It seems like you have a fever.”
“Fever?”
Hearing that, his body did seem a bit hot. It felt like burning heat was spreading throughout his body starting from around the wound on his hand.
“Kid, stay here for a moment.”
“N-no.”
When the man tried to get up, Do-hyeok unconsciously grabbed his hand. His whole body felt hot and his breathing felt rapid because of it, but Do-hyeok somehow didn’t want to let go of the hand that had given him warmth for the first time.
“Don’t… leave me alone.”
With those words, Do-hyeok’s body slowly tilted. The man seemed to be shouting something that appeared faintly in his fading vision, but he couldn’t hear clearly. He just hoped that person would be there when he opened his eyes.
* * *
‘You’re sick? Where and how does it hurt? Just take some of that general painkiller over there and sleep.’
‘What on earth were you doing to get hurt? Did you fight with the kids again… Never mind. Here, put on some ointment and stick on a bandage roughly.’
‘What hospital? For something like that, just give medicine and let them sleep and they’ll be fine. Hospital bills for kids these days are expensive too.’
The words he had heard when sick crumbled and scattered in his ears. After that, Do-hyeok rarely showed that he was in pain unless it was a serious situation. Because he didn’t want to see the annoyed expressions of the teachers who found him bothersome. Instead, he would skip events or group activities by making excuses about being sick. Then their secretly pleased expressions were so uncomfortable.
“…”
Do-hyeok slowly opened his eyes while recalling such memories. The clear sky and the forest full of green – so entering this place really wasn’t a dream. Do-hyeok was feeling devastated when.
“Oh, you’re awake?”
Startled by the voice from beside him, Do-hyeok quickly sat up and pressed his body against the tree behind him.
“Don’t use your hand. The wound will open.”
Wound? Come to think of it, his hand had been injured. Do-hyeok’s gaze naturally went to his right hand. The hand neatly wrapped in bandages didn’t feel the same severe pain as before. The swelling had also subsided somewhat.
“You put your hand in some kind of water puddle before entering this forest, didn’t you?”
Do-hyeok nodded. How did that person know? Was he a fortune teller or something?
“As I thought, it was a wound from Water Rip. You were lucky. If you put your hand in there, you could have lost a finger or two if you weren’t careful.”
At the frightening words, Do-hyeok touched his fingers for no reason. Fortunately, all five were still attached. Seeing that, the man chuckled.
“It seems you had a fever because of inflammation. If I hadn’t treated it quickly, it would have been serious. It doesn’t hurt much now, right?”
When Do-hyeok nodded once more, the man told him that since he had applied medicine and wrapped it with bandages, there should be no problem with recovery.
“Why…”
“Hm?”
Do-hyeok looked around. It didn’t seem to be far from the spot where he had first met the man earlier. Then had that person treated his injured hand and watched over him until he woke up?
“Why… are you helping me?”
When Do-hyeok carefully chose his words and spoke, the man burst into laughter again. He unconsciously thought that laugh sounded pleasant.
“I’m that kind of person. At least inside dungeons, I’m someone who has to save people. And…”
The man slowly stood up and approached Do-hyeok, who was leaning against the tree, and crouched down in front of him. At the shadow cast forward, Do-hyeok unconsciously pressed his body further back. When he raised his hand, Do-hyeok shrank even more.
Pat-
He had squeezed his eyes shut, but he felt a touch on top of his head. Do-hyeok slowly opened his eyes.
“You told me not to leave you alone.”
The moment he saw that gentle smile, those brown eyes looking straight at him, Do-hyeok felt his heart greatly stirred.
“I was scared you wouldn’t wake up. I’ve never taken care of a kid before. Making me worry like that.”
The man playfully pinched Do-hyeok’s cheek. The word “worry” reached Do-hyeok’s ears. It wasn’t an unfamiliar word, but like someone discovering writing for the first time, that word sounded incredibly foreign to him.
“You… worried about me?”
“Of course. From what I can see, you got caught up in this unluckily. Of course I’d worry, wouldn’t I?”
A stranger, and in an unfamiliar environment at that, was saying he worried about him. He was looking at him with eyes full of relief and stroking him with his hand.
“You’re brave. It must have hurt terribly, but you didn’t even cry.”
At the calm but resonant comfort, Do-hyeok bit his lips tightly.
“It hurt…”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“It hurt. A lot.”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know where this place is either… there are lots of scary monsters and my hand hurts and also…”
Before he knew it, pearl-like teardrops were falling from Do-hyeok’s eyes. Seeing Do-hyeok dropping tears sadly while not making a single sound, the man silently embraced him.
“Of course. I know best.”
At those words that looked into his heart and empathized with his hidden emotions, Do-hyeok finally burst into loud sobs.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
