# Chapter 14
“Huh?”
“When you’re with me, you won’t be startled. If a bird flies over, hide behind me. And when we walk, you should walk on the side away from the cars. I’ll walk on the side where cars pass.”
Jaei, who had stopped walking, opened his eyes wide and gently placed both hands on his chest. His small heart was beating rapidly. When the doll-like, pretty, and handsome Doha blinked his jet-black eyes and said that, Jaei’s chest began to ache with a prickling sensation. Doha was an elementary school student who gave Jaei tremendous stimulation.
To Jaei, who was standing blankly with his mouth open, Doha conveyed the apology he had been postponing.
“I’m sorry for bullying you at the playground last time. I don’t hate you.”
“Really? You really don’t hate me?”
“Yes. What about you? Do you hate me?”
“I like you. I thought you were really cool because you eat eggplant and beans so well.”
“If you don’t hate me, hold my hand.”
“Huh? Okay.”
Jaei carefully held Doha’s hand. Doha, applying pressure to his hand, pulled Jaei from behind to his side and smiled brightly. The moment Jaei saw that angelic smile, he felt his nerves—which had been on edge 24 hours a day without a single moment’s respite since birth—relax a little.
On the way home from school that day, Jaei hid behind Doha’s back five times. Once when he encountered a pigeon, another time when a plastic bag was blown by the wind, he hid out of surprise. And the other three times, he was just so excited about Doha protecting him like a bodyguard that he pretended to be startled and hid behind him.
After returning home and washing his face, hands, and feet clean, Jaei sneaked into Doha’s room and took out the sweet-smelling moisturizer. He lingered in front of the bathroom, waiting for Doha to finish washing. Soon, a damp Doha rolled out like a round fruit washed in water. Jaei blocked his path and blinked his eyes.
He had been carefully observing from about five steps away how Doha’s mother treated Doha. Since the aunt was out shopping, he planned to imitate that behavior. He squeezed some moisturizer onto his small hands and applied it in circles on Doha’s chapped cheeks.
As he applied it, he found himself kneading and pressing Doha’s plump, soft cheeks like clay with both hands. However, Doha showed no signs of dislike and calmly accepted the touch. Feeling happy, Jaei twisted his body and laughed without realizing it.
“Hehe.”
Doha, with hand marks on his white cheeks, pointed at Jaei’s nose and asked:
“Now does this smell not make your nose prickle?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t anymore.”
A week later at night, Jaei, like a thief, invaded Doha’s room and moved all of his belongings and pillow to his own room without the owner’s consent. Doha, who was standing in the reception room drinking water, turned his head left and right, following the actions of the young thief who was blatantly coming and going in front of him, stealing his things.
Having had all his possessions stolen, Doha slowly followed behind Jaei, who was finally running away hugging his schoolbag to his chest, and said:
“Thief, thief.”
“Yes. I’m a thief. Now everything is mine.”
“Why are you stealing them? Your things are better. All of mine are hand-me-downs, so they’re old.”
“If you share a room with me, I’ll give back all the things that were yours.”
“Share a room?”
“Yes. My room has a bed, you know.”
This was what Jaei had decided after much deliberation, thinking there was a mathematical error in the room distribution. The combined volume of Doha’s mother and Ryu Doha was much larger than that of Lee Jaei and Ryu Doha combined, yet the room Jaei used was bigger. Therefore, no matter how he looked at it, it was logically correct to move Doha to his room.
However, Doha firmly refused to become Jaei’s roommate.
“Uncle told me that you can’t sleep if you share a room with someone else. Because of the sounds.”
“We can handle that by making small compromises with each other.”
Doha’s opinion didn’t matter at all, and he had no right to choose a room. Ryu Doha had already been selected as Lee Jaei’s roommate. Any troubles that might arise from Jaei’s sensitivity were issues that could be overcome through mutual effort. Not just Ryu Doha sacrificing alone, not just Lee Jaei enduring alone, but showing consideration for each other and working together. Aren’t friends capable of doing that much?
Doha finally accepted Jaei’s proposal.
“Then just for tonight. Since we don’t have school tomorrow.”
Jaei, who had crawled onto the wide bed first, patted the spot next to him repeatedly with both palms. Doha, the filial son who had briefly run out to tell his mother “I can’t go to my room tonight, so don’t worry and go to bed first,” returned, turned off the lights, and rolled onto the spot next to Jaei like a baby bear.
Unlike Doha who could sleep well even lying on a playground, Jaei wriggled under the blanket twice as strongly as usual. Just as Doha was about to fall asleep, Jaei, suddenly frightened, trembled slightly and hunched his shoulders.
“I hear a scary sound…”
Doha had been born with a healthy body where all five senses functioned properly, but regrettably, he couldn’t hear any sound. He was about to say “I didn’t hear anything,” but then remembered that Jaei was a fennec fox who could hear sounds that humans couldn’t.
After watching Jaei trembling under the blanket for a moment, Doha soon spread out his fingers and stroked Jaei’s ears. Jaei’s larger-than-average ears were confined in Doha’s hand, which was quite large for an eight-year-old. Whenever Jaei’s father saw Doha’s hands, he would say that Doha would grow very tall later. Jaei, with his slender fingers, thought Doha’s hands were cool. Although they were short and chubby compared to adults’.
Doha, slightly spreading his fingers to create a gap, whispered:
“It’s not scary at all. If a bad person comes, I’ll chase them away. I can even beat adults.”
Looking at Doha, who was a hundred times cooler than his father who lived for the fun of scaring his timid son, Jaei fluttered his eyelashes like a fan in the darkness. Thinking that perhaps his father might soon get a thrashing from Doha, he grinned.
“I’m really glad you’re here, Doha.”
“Jaei is a fennec fox. They say fennec foxes have big ears so they can hear sounds well.”
“Wow. How did you know that?”
“I saw it in a book.”
“You’re so smart. Do you want to go to the children’s library together tomorrow?”
“Yes. Let’s eat tteokbokki too.”
Doha, blinking his heavy eyelids while whispering with Jaei, soon fell asleep. His plump hand naturally dropped down. Jaei, unable to sleep, began to listen to the sound of Doha’s breathing and heartbeat. With those small but reassuring sounds, Jaei too eventually fell into a peaceful sleep.
Thus, the conflicts that had been worried about in the two’s roommate life didn’t occur at all.
* * *
While Jaei and Doha were growing their friendship, rumors spread that Ryu Doha of Class 6, Grade 1, had someone he liked. This happened in early summer, just before the summer vacation. Currently, Doha was the most popular child among the first graders at Haesung Elementary School. Jaei, who despite his child actor-like appearance had been unpopular due to his hypersensitive personality, had become more stable while living with Doha and had risen slightly in popularity since the beginning of school.
The tremendous news that Doha had someone he liked came from Class 6 to Class 5, and then from Class 5 to Class 4. Lee Jaei, who lived in the same house as Ryu Doha and shared a bed with him, also learned about Doha’s feelings for the first time through someone else’s mouth.
Who could it be? He tilted his head and thought, but he couldn’t think of who Doha might like. Doha had never once talked about the kids he played with in his class. Of course, Jaei couldn’t know how he usually lived in the classroom. Maybe Doha was building a romance, pretending to be cool in places out of his sight.
That day, Jaei held hands with Doha as usual while walking home from school and spoke boldly and shamelessly. The words came out very naturally.
“Doha, you know. I hope I’m the one you like.”
“What?”
It was just because that was how he genuinely felt. If Doha had someone he was secretly in love with, he would prefer, if possible, for it to be himself, and he expressed this feeling very honestly. He hadn’t yet thought about how Doha would react to those words.
“Like me. Even if you don’t like me now, change it to me.”
Doha’s eyes widened. Today, Doha had written the same reply to all the love confession letters he had received during the first semester: [I already like someone. Please don’t send me letters anymore~]. He had sent the same effortless reply without changing a single letter, and exactly one hour later, rumors that Ryu Doha had someone he liked spread throughout all first-grade classrooms. Jaei’s pretty face had come to mind when writing the replies, but he hadn’t seriously thought about the reason.
“Jaei, do you like me?”
“Yes! I like you so much. I like Doha the most. I wish Doha liked me the most too.”
The baby thief, demanding mutual love and trying to steal a heart, giggled “hehe.” Doha, who had unexpectedly received a confession, became serious and let go of Jaei’s hand, walking quickly without saying anything. It was because his cheeks were burning in a round shape, making him very embarrassed. Jaei followed behind Doha, who had changed direction and started walking a different path, asking:
“Doha, Doha. That’s not the way home.”
“You go home first. I want to watch dogs being walked in the park before I go home.”
“I’ll go with you too. I like dogs too, you know. I’m going to follow you wherever you go.”
While Doha was circling around Haesung-dong, exhaling “hoo-hoo” to cool his heated face, Jaei continued to follow behind him like a puppy. As they were about to cross the crosswalk, the signal changed, and the guidance sound for the visually impaired was heard.
Since it wasn’t a traffic light they usually crossed, the unexpected sound startled Jaei, and he fell down in front of the crosswalk. Doha, who was already crossing, turned back, saw Jaei who had fallen, and shouted:
“You really!”
Jaei became dejected at the sight of Doha running towards him, shouting loudly. To Doha, Lee Jaei was still “a child who needs a lot of attention,” so it seemed unlikely that he would ever like him more than just a friend living in the same house. Jaei, who realized the reality a little late but very quickly, said with a forced smile:
“Hmph. You don’t have to change who you like to me. I’m stupid and annoying. I’m not very popular either. I want to go home.”
He stuck out his lower lip and turned around. His knee was bleeding under his shorts. As Jaei walked unsteadily, he suddenly became tearful as an aftershock of sadness swept over him. Just before he burst into tears, Doha, who had quickly run up from behind, wore his backpack in front and crouched down with his back facing Jaei.
“Let me give you a piggyback ride.”
“Huh?”
“I want to give Jaei a piggyback ride. I can carry you all the way home.”
Ryu Doha, whose words were faster than his actions, was a romantic child who had learned a lot from watching various things. He had learned about love from the miniseries his mom and aunt watched.
