The next morning. Ruslan, who had gone down to the dining hall, fell into the dilemma of a lifetime.
After serious and profound contemplation that made him wonder if he’d ever worried this seriously before, Ruslan finally made a tragic expression like a general heading to the battlefield.
Having quickly finished his meal, Ruslan carefully packed food onto a plate.
Ignoring his trembling hands like someone crawling into a tiger’s den of their own volition, Ruslan calmly held the plate and climbed the stairs.
Standing in front of the door, Ruslan fussed over the food for no reason to arrange it more neatly, then took a long deep breath as if calming his heart.
When Ruslan carefully opened the door, Sarka, who had been fiddling with a book sitting in the living room as always, paused and looked back at Ruslan.
Ruslan awkwardly walked to the table while turning his head halfway for no reason, avoiding Sarka.
He could feel Sarka’s gaze moving along with his trajectory.
Without making eye contact with Sarka, Ruslan subtly pushed the plate in front of Sarka.
Sarka glanced down at the plate, then raised his gaze again to look straight up at Ruslan.
Pressing down hard on his wildly pounding heart, Ruslan tried to slip past Sarka toward the terrace as if knowing nothing about it.
“Are you my servant?”
A fierce voice suddenly popped out.
Ruslan froze, then stiffly turned his head to look back at Sarka.
Sarka was frowning and glaring at Ruslan with a rough gaze.
Ruslan, frozen at the sharp tone almost like picking a fight, opened his mouth, then mumbled while watching for cues.
“……I thought……you didn’t eat breakfast because you didn’t want to go where there are many people……”
Even at the shabby excuse mumbled out, Sarka’s furrowed brow showed no sign of smoothing.
Ruslan rolled his eyes to slyly avoid his gaze and continued mumbling.
“You don’t……sleep that much in the morning anyway……”
“……”
Sarka closed his mouth for a moment and looked at Ruslan with a sign that was unclear whether he was displeased or angry.
Though cold sweat poured down Ruslan’s back, he endured by deliberately pretending not to notice and letting that gaze flow past.
After a few breaths that felt like chunks of his lifespan were being shaved off.
Sarka looked down at the plate with an unpleasant gaze, then stood up from his seat.
Sarka, who swept past Ruslan with his nightgown fluttering, entered the bedroom and closed the door.
Ruslan looked at the closed bedroom door and swallowed.
……How……should I interpret this?
During class time, Ruslan furrowed his brow and stared intently at Sarka’s back.
Sarka, who had left the room, had returned as the kind noble boy again. Looking at that gentle and kind face listening with interest to his friends’ chatter, Ruslan felt like his head would split from too many thoughts.
If the relationship Sarka wanted wasn’t ‘servant’ or ‘attendant’, then……
Unknown anticipation and anxiety over not being able to judge how far to expect were tangled together.
Ruslan was half out of his mind, blankly staring only at the back of Sarka’s head.
The day flowed by without knowing how it passed.
When class ended and it was time to return to the room, Ruslan was on the verge of wanting to vomit up the dinner he’d eaten from too much tension.
He felt a brief temptation to just hole up in the old book storage room like this, but Ruslan squeezed his eyes shut.
Kanya said that even if you enter a tiger’s den, you can survive if you just keep your wits about you.
She said to bravely push through without being intimidated no matter what happens, and that’s why she named me ‘Ruslan’.
She said the baby with disheveled hair like a lion’s mane crying out determinedly to survive had such extraordinary spirit, she gave him a name meaning ‘brave lion’.
Ruslan, who touched his disheveled dirty blond for no reason, soon walked up to the dormitory with brave spirit, thump thump.
Ruslan, who had been stealthily opening the door, flinched and stopped at the sound of something cutting through the air.
Sarka was half-lying on the sofa throwing darts.
Sarka, who had languidly turned his head at the sound of the door opening, looked at Ruslan.
At that expressionless gaze, Ruslan felt the courage he’d struggled to muster come crashing and tumbling down.
The face of the languid boy who used to lie on the sofa folding paper airplanes overlapped.
Ruslan unconsciously barely managed to tear away his gaze that was about to fall to the sharp blades of the darts scattered on the living room table. His heart began pounding wildly again.
Ruslan slyly avoided the pouring gaze of Sarka, then circled around the living room and crept in beside the terrace. Sarka was staring and following that trajectory.
Ruslan sat crouched with his back to the terrace and began doing his homework, pretending to be busy for no reason.
After a moment, a small thwack! sound rang out from behind him.
Ruslan’s shoulders jumped up.
Ruslan, who glanced back, saw Sarka throwing darts at the target above the fireplace again.
The dart, launched by telekinesis without even moving a hand, was embedded in the exact center of the target without wavering.
In the living room submerged in silence, only the sound of Ruslan turning pages of books and the sound of Sarka’s thrown darts sticking into the target occasionally rang out.
Ruslan glanced at the scene of darts on the table flying into the air each time Sarka’s eyes, leaning languidly against the backrest like when folding paper airplanes, turned red.
Unlike back then when he tried to sharply angle the paper corners, today’s Sarka didn’t seem very interested in accurately hitting the darts on the target.
The darts sometimes hit the center, sometimes deviated slightly, and sometimes missed completely and stuck in the wall around the target.
Looking at the target set up on the opposite side from where Ruslan sat, Ruslan thought Sarka just wanted to turn his attention away from Ruslan.
Sometimes, darts that missed completely hit and knocked over the table clock, picture frames, and decorations above the fireplace.
Ruslan flinched and glanced that way each time decorations clattered and fell over or rolled down, but Sarka didn’t seem to care.
Sarka, lying askew with furrowed brow, didn’t seem to check well where the darts were sticking.
Ruslan swallowed for no reason as he watched Sarka’s surroundings gradually become a mess with objects hit by darts.
As if reflecting that boy who was always neat and tidy becoming uncomfortable in mood, Sarka’s surroundings were gradually becoming messily disheveled.
Memo papers on the table scattered in the air grazed by missed darts, and objects that fell on the floor rolled near Sarka’s feet, but Sarka didn’t budge.
At Sarka’s appearance looking extremely uncomfortable, Ruslan firmly resolved not to move carelessly today no matter what.
If he touched Sarka wrong now, there was no predicting where things might go.
Ruslan, holding his breath, was trying to continue his homework while deliberately ignoring the sounds heard from behind.
When the half-tilted table clock finally rolled off the fireplace and made a crashing sound, Ruslan’s shoulders jumped up in shock.
The fountain pen he’d inadvertently let go bounced several times on the floor, then rolled toward Sarka’s feet. Ruslan gasped and swallowed.
Sarka’s movements stopped.
Sarka’s gaze, which turned slowly, stared down at the rolling fountain pen.
Ruslan, frozen and unable to breathe while looking at Sarka’s back, inadvertently blurted out.
“Sorry.”
“……”
Sarka continued looking down at the fountain pen without even replying.
Ruslan, not knowing what to do, watched for cues and stealthily crawled that way.
Ruslan, who bent his waist and lifted his heels to tiptoe like a delinquent believer late to mass, hurriedly passed by Sarka.
Sarka moved his gaze following Ruslan’s moving trajectory, staring intently at the top of Ruslan’s head.
Ruslan barely picked up the fountain pen that had rolled almost to the front of the fireplace, between the target and Sarka.
Like someone who’d committed a crime for no reason, watching Sarka’s reaction, Ruslan tried to apologize clumsily once more.
“So, sorry for disturb……”
Whoosh!
Before the words could even end, a dart made a sharp sound and grazed past Ruslan’s ear.
Ruslan, frozen, couldn’t even straighten his waist and only raised his eyes to look at Sarka’s face.
Sarka was still leaning languidly against the sofa, looking straight at Ruslan’s face.
Before Ruslan could open his mouth, a red light flickered in Sarka’s eyes and this time whoosh, a dart passed by the opposite ear.
Thwack!
From behind Ruslan, came the eerie sound of a dart deeply embedding in the wall.
“……”
Ruslan couldn’t breathe and froze just like that, stiffly meeting Sarka’s eyes.
The green eyes, as if Ruslan had become the target, remained fixed on the dark blue eyes without moving.
Ruslan swallowed dry saliva.
A red glow flashed in Sarka’s eyes, and the dart that bounced up again this time barely passed by the side of Ruslan’s nape.
Thwack! The sound of it sticking in the wall was sharp.
Ruslan felt his spine go cold.
The moment Ruslan, who had barely straightened his waist, was about to open his mouth to say something, the dart that quickly grazed again this time barely brushed right under Ruslan’s chin.
Goosebumps began rising on Ruslan’s body.
Ruslan froze for a moment and looked at the trajectory of the darts grazing past his body.
The angle of the darts was getting increasingly dangerous.
Sometimes the darts didn’t graze past Ruslan but flew straight as if aiming for Ruslan’s face or body, then curved sharply just before touching Ruslan. It was a dangerously changing speed possible because of controlling with telekinesis.
Cold sweat seeped from Ruslan’s body, and his eyes trembling with anxiety fixed on the darts on the table. The moment fear tried to seize his entire body.
Ruslan, who suddenly raised his gaze in strange suspicion, made eye contact with Sarka.
Sarka’s gaze was concentrated straight on Ruslan’s eyes.
When Ruslan’s gaze moved, it followed minutely, and when Ruslan stopped, it stopped along with him.
Sarka, who was looking straight only at Ruslan’s face without even looking at the darts or target, seemed to be observing something.
Ruslan’s eyes blinked.
After a moment, Ruslan slowly straightened his waist.
His hunched shoulders lowered, and his chin was pulled straight. Ruslan closed his mouth and looked straight into Sarka’s eyes.
Sarka’s eyes narrowed.
