The body temperature that had started to boil hotly beyond just being warm was transmitted through the forehead as well as through both palms. When I exhaled a dry breath soundlessly, Cha Jeoh flinched. My breath seemed to have stimulated somewhere on him in close proximity.
Biting my lips, I focused only on pressing my head against Cha Jeoh’s.
Cha Jeoh’s rapid breathing had somehow calmed down. His tense body loosened, and no new tears flowed to carve paths over his damp cheeks.
Only then did I also languidly droop my shoulders that had unknowingly been tense. Naturally, he stably received the weight sinking into Cha Woodan’s embrace. Eventually, Cha Woodan’s two arms moved carefully to embrace my waist.
Cha Jeoh in front, Cha Woodan behind. Could there be another fortress of warmth so safe and more comfortable than that place in my dream?
That it was warm and cozy. I could be certain without basis that I wasn’t the only one feeling such sentiments right now.
“…Should we sleep here today?”
When Cha Woodan brought it up quietly, Cha Jeoh nodded faintly while still pressing his forehead against mine.
Without a moment’s hesitation, Cha Woodan tilted his body while still holding me in his embrace. Cha Jeoh, who had been held by me, was also obediently led along. When we lay down our bodies as if collapsing onto the pile of blankets, the blankets sank deeply.
Since it wasn’t a bed mattress, it wasn’t that soft, and since most of the blankets had been moved to the main building’s art room, the space wasn’t wide either. However, I didn’t feel that anything was lacking or insufficient.
The sight of the three of us lying huddled together would probably look unseemly to others’ eyes. But there was no way anyone would be coming and going to the annex’s fourth floor. Even if someone happened to discover us, how many people would dare ridicule fighters as skilled as the twins?
As my hands embracing Cha Jeoh’s cheeks were about to slip away smoothly, he hurriedly reached out his hands to support me. I felt drowsiness rushing in as if it had been waiting, while leaving his touch without resistance.
How long had it been since I lost consciousness and woke up that sleep came again? It’s not like I usually slept little, but seeing myself like this, it seemed this time slot had become my habitual sleeping time.
A survivor who slept at the same time every day and woke up languidly in the late morning in an apocalyptic era ruled by monsters. It really was a life blessed with fortune. All of that was thanks to none other than the twins.
‘I’m helpful in many ways. Still.’
Suddenly, the words Cha Jeoh had said to me earlier came to mind. Like advertising a displayed product, like promoting and selling a home shopping item. The voice declaring their usefulness in a tone saying this tool still has sufficient use, so don’t throw it away and keep it, lingered in my ears.
‘…I’m sleepy.’
I didn’t want to think deeply about it. I didn’t know if that was simply because of fatigue or if there was some other discomfort.
Having languidly exhaled a breath mixed with drowsiness, I surrendered my reason to the sleepiness ravaging my mind.
***
When I opened my eyes, I had already been moved to the main building’s art room. As I lay on the familiar bed feeling an unfamiliar emptiness and ruminating on last night’s warmth, a presence moving busily beside me interrupted my recollection.
I eventually sat up staggeringly. As I leaned against the headboard, Cha Jeoh approached hesitantly and held out a water bottle.
Even though I only stared blankly at the water bottle with its cap already open, he didn’t move first. He didn’t sit on the edge of the bed, didn’t cling to me, didn’t support my back and tilt the bottle as if it were natural. He just kept his hand stopped in mid-air as if waiting for me to hurry and take the water bottle.
While it was quite convenient for the twins to feed me food and water, I had never wished that they must feed me something. I had simply accepted it without saying anything because there was no reason to refuse.
But now that they were trying to keep their distance like this without any warning….
‘This feels strange.’
I raised my head with a subtle expression. Cha Jeoh, whose eyes met mine, flinched and subtly avoided my gaze. Then he muttered as if making an excuse.
“It’s just, um, I was thinking maybe I’ve been bothering you all this time.”
“……”
“Even if I don’t feed you, if you drink slowly you’d be fully capable of not spilling….”
Not a single thing he said was wrong. So there was nothing to refute.
Swallowing a sigh, I reached out my hand to receive the water bottle. However, before my fingertips crossing through the air could touch the cool PET bottle, whoosh—Cha Jeoh avoided me with a sound of cutting through the air. A few water droplets splashed from the bottle and wet Cha Jeoh’s wrist.
When I raised my head questioningly, Cha Jeoh was looking more surprised himself with his eyes wide open. Since he just kept moving his lips blankly without saying anything, I didn’t wait any longer and reached out my hand again.
Once, twice. That water bottle slipped away like a swimming loach without even my fingertip touching it. Even when I got stubborn and increased my speed, the result was the same. Only the amount of water droplets wetting Cha Jeoh’s arm and further, part of the bed mattress, increased.
I raised my head again to stare at Cha Jeoh. This time, when I looked up with my brow openly furrowed, he belatedly voiced out.
“…I’ll feed you.”
If it was going to be like this anyway, he should have said so earlier—what kind of farce had he been putting on until now?
Instead of bringing out my complaint, I swallowed it, and Cha Jeoh sat down next to me. With one hand he firmly supported my back, and with the other hand he moved the water bottle and brought it to my lips.
When I opened my mouth slightly, Cha Jeoh tilted the bottle as if he’d been waiting. I swallowed the water flowing into my mouth at the right temperature and in the right amount, quenching my thirst.
Soon Cha Jeoh withdrew the bottle. After going through the same routine as usual, even the needless awkwardness seemed to disappear, as he turned the cap to close it with much more comfortable movements.
I stared at Cha Jeoh like that and opened my mouth.
“Your eyes are swollen. Well, you cried that much.”
Cha Jeoh, who had been putting down the water bottle on a nearby desk, stiffened with a creak. Soon he urgently raised his hand to feel around his eyes.
“Really? Are they very swollen?”
“Yeah.”
“Do I, do I look ugly?”
“…Huh?”
I couldn’t grasp the connection of the question that suddenly popped out. Normally when people have eyes swollen from crying, they do look particularly unattractive, but it wasn’t a topic that should suddenly appear in the current situation, was it?
The longer the silence went on, the more I could see Cha Jeoh anxiously rolling his eyes. I stared at him and shook my head.
“No, you’re handsome. Just like that appearance when I first met you, consistently the same all along.”
Only then did Cha Jeoh seem relieved as he stroked his chest.
“That’s a relief. That you like it, Hayoung.”
“…Yeah. I do like it.”
“Cha Woodan’s efforts almost would have been in vain.”
The sentence he added in a low mutter caught my ear. Cha Woodan’s efforts—feeling puzzled by that part, I suddenly recalled yesterday’s memory.
Cha Woodan, who for some reason had brought me inside without closing the classroom door. Because of that, I hadn’t been able to open my eyes until the moment I fell asleep.
‘And yesterday, Cha Jeoh cried for a long time.’
Because Cha Woodan didn’t close the door then, I couldn’t see Cha Jeoh’s appearance until the very end.
‘…Was it so I wouldn’t see him looking ugly?’
Moreover, Cha Jeoh had properly started crying a while after facing me, but Cha Woodan hadn’t closed the door from the moment we entered the empty classroom. Probably because Cha Jeoh had already been shedding tears before that, his eyes must have been puffily swollen.
Cha Jeoh was so like Cha Jeoh, but Cha Woodan was also really like Cha Woodan. His excessive meticulousness seemed to reflect Cha Woodan’s personality exactly. Of course, the anxiety he harbored was a meaninglessly excessive act unlike his usual self.
‘With the twins’ faces, there’s no way a crying expression could look ugly.’
I was someone who had even gotten a nosebleed from seeing Cha Woodan soaked in water. It was quite a perverted thing, but that didn’t mean I would deny my sincere reaction to their beauty.
‘I’d like to see their crying faces at least once.’
Maybe there will be another opportunity next time. I opened my mouth while burying the desire that had unconsciously surfaced deep in my heart.
“Where’s Cha Woodan?”
“He said he was going to run for a bit. He’ll probably be back soon….”
Knock knock, the sound of knocking cut off Cha Jeoh’s words. When I turned my gaze from him, I saw a person’s silhouette beyond the art room door.
When Cha Jeoh gently covered my eyes, the sound of the door opening followed. Before long the door closed again, and Cha Jeoh’s touch left me.
“Hayoung-ah!”
Today Lee Gojun was alone without Lee Geonwoo. However, the part that caught my eye more than that fact was something else.
I moved my lips blankly and swept over Lee Gojun with finely trembling eyes. A white shirt over black uniform pants, and over that, a pure white cloak obtained from who knows where, making him look exactly like….
“Ah, these clothes! This is the basic outfit for our Church of Hayoung believers!”
Exactly like a pseudo-cult fanatic.
