“What do you mean by that?”
“I n-normally only eat a l-little. I’m not hun-hungry.”
Trying so hard not to stutter seemed to make his voice tremble even worse. The moment he started speaking, all eyes converged on him and there was nothing he could do about it. Not just the two men — even the staff who had prepared the meal were watching Yeonwoo without exception.
The most intense gaze among them was Kang Sihyeon’s, from across the table. If that stare had taken physical form, Yeonwoo would have already been reduced to dust.
“There he goes talking nonsense again. I saw you about to topple over onto the table just now, you know?”
“I r-really, I’m r-really not hungry.”
“Ha — where does something so tiny get off lying through its teeth. Lying shows in your eyes, so stop talking nonsense and eat nicely, yeah?”
Hup — Yeonwoo bit his lip and reflexively covered his eyes. It was the first he’d heard that lying showed in your eyes. It wasn’t something you could tell by touching, but Yeonwoo felt around at his own eyelids anyway.
Startled by this new information for just a moment — then he started worrying about whether the men had seen through the lie about being small because of a fever. He’d had his head down at the time, so they wouldn’t have known, right?
Phew. Yeonwoo let out a visible sigh of relief and slowly lowered the hand covering his eyes, blinking them open.
From his side came the sound of someone drawing a sharp, sudden breath — hah. His ears perked up; Yeonwoo was sensitive to small sounds and turned his head toward it. There was a woman with a flushed face, pressing her palm over her mouth in what looked like shock. When her eyes met Yeonwoo’s, she swallowed again.
It was unavoidable that the woman couldn’t hide her reaction. It was the first time she’d seen a creature this endearing in the Cluster in a long while. Small and pale — like little snowballs packed together into a snowman. In a Cluster full of predators, the only beings this small were newborn beastman cubs. And even those hadn’t been seen for ten years now.
But Yeonwoo, who knew none of that, defaulted to the kind of misunderstanding he was used to. He bowed his head low and exhaled as quietly as he could manage — and from ahead of him came a sharp voice.
“Hey — who said you could mess around while eating. Aren’t you going to pick up your spoon?”
“I, I r-really mean it. I r-really only eat a l-little. It’s n-not a lie.”
Unable to lift his head, Yeonwoo shook it back and forth and gave the man a quick, sideways glance — as if to prove he was telling the truth — then immediately looked away. He could hold his ground because he’d told only the truth, leaving out the lie about not being hungry.
It was obviously precious food, even at a glance. He hadn’t been of any use yet, and he couldn’t afford to waste it. Someone as useless as him was more than satisfied just eating whatever was leftover. The two men were large, so there might not even be anything left — but even so, that was simply the way it was, he thought.
Yeonwoo had always eaten once every three days or so as a matter of course. Most of the time even that was food on the verge of going bad, and when luck wasn’t on his side he had to go without for even longer — so going hungry was something he was long accustomed to. On top of that, right before setting off for Cluster 1, Yeonwoo had been lucky enough to eat food that hadn’t spoiled. He could hold out for a few more days yet.
I need to make a good impression.
If he ate through their provisions and got sent back to Cluster 9, that would be catastrophic. What Yeonwoo had to offer amounted to two things: having two wombs, and being able to get by on very little food.
Yeonwoo was in the middle of forcing his gaze away from the table again — when Muksirok, who had been watching in silence, spoke.
“If that’s truly how it is, then there’s nothing to be done. Once the meal is over I’ll show you to your room, so will you wait a moment?”
“Y-yes! I’ll wa-wait qu-quietly.”
Yeonwoo nodded in relief — and that was the moment.
“This psychopathic bastard has really lost it.”
Kang Sihyeon cut in immediately. The warmth the food had breathed into the air froze over in an instant.
“You said you didn’t want it, so I gave you what you wanted. Or would you prefer to force-feed him?”
“Force-feed, my ass — can’t you see the drool practically dripping from his mouth? What kind of scheme is this. You think I don’t know your godawful plan?”
The vein on Kang Sihyeon’s forehead — which hadn’t smoothed out once all day — refused to recede. This time, he had absolutely no intention of backing down, whether the rabbit trembled or not.
Kang Sihyeon shot Muksirok a warning look, then shifted his gaze to Yeonwoo, who was patting at the corner of his own mouth.
“Hey. Come here.”
Kang Sihyeon jerked his chin toward the empty seat beside him — and Yeonwoo instinctively glanced at Muksirok without thinking. Seeing that, Kang Sihyeon’s voice climbed another notch.
“You’re not coming?!”
“Y-yes. I’ll, I’ll go.”
Yeonwoo scrambled down from his chair at the sharp voice. Watching those pale, fluttering strands of hair, the crease between Kang Sihyeon’s brows — which had softened just barely — immediately returned.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“I’m, I’m staying s-still and wa-waiting.”
“No! Ha…… What are you doing crawling under there?”
“You, you told me to c-come over h-here, so……”
Yeonwoo had crawled under the dining table and sat there, hunched into himself, doing nothing but reading the room. His face said he had no idea what he’d done wrong.
“Ha.”
Kang Sihyeon looked down at the sight, ran a hand through his hair, and let out what was by now a countless number of sighs.
Even as Kang Sihyeon swallowed down his exasperation, Yeonwoo was trembling and sneaking glances at his feet. He looked like he was bracing for a kick at any moment.
Anyone who didn’t know better would have thought he was someone who’d been kicked by Kang Sihyeon more than once before.
“What on earth do you think I am——”
“M-master.”
Yeonwoo had been about to say master — and swallowed the end of the word in a rush.
“Oh, um…… I mean, that is to say——”
“Are you going to crawl out of there or not?!”
Muksirok would have simply lifted him up himself — but Kang Sihyeon was different. Yeonwoo, startled, scrambled out from under the table in a hurry.
“I said sit on the chair — on the chair!”
“Y-yes.”
Yeonwoo, who had been about to naturally settle himself on the floor, lurched onto the chair in a rush, like a horse whipped into motion. The bowl of carrot porridge and a small spoon were set back in front of him again. Kang Sihyeon, who had moved them there himself, gave a short command.
“Hold the spoon.”
Flustered, Yeonwoo had completely forgotten that up until a moment ago he’d been insisting he wouldn’t eat — and obediently wrapped his fingers around the spoon as told. Kang Sihyeon’s gaze was sharp on him. Yeonwoo sneaked a glance and, unable to withstand the wordless pressure, dipped the spoon into the carrot porridge.
“It’s still hot, so eat slowly.”
Muksirok spoke, sipping his aperitif as though merely observing.
The sight of Muksirok playing at propriety now was grating beyond measure — but Kang Sihyeon didn’t bother adding anything. For the moment, the priority was seeing something actually enter Yeonwoo’s mouth.
With all eyes upon him, Yeonwoo finally lifted his first spoonful. The moment the spoon disappeared into the small parting of his lips. Yeonwoo’s eyes flew wide open as though he couldn’t believe it.
The porridge that had entered his mouth melted away, dissolving as it went — and was gone in an instant. There was no foul smell, and no sharp taste that stung the tongue. A sensation he had never once experienced in his life — Yeonwoo felt as though he’d been struck by lightning.
So thoroughly that he forgot there were multiple pairs of eyes watching him, Yeonwoo focused on nothing but eating.
“Hah——”
Yeonwoo swallowed another mouthful and let slip an involuntary sound of wonder. Small as that breath was, every single bite felt precious. He was already sad that the food was slipping down his throat before he’d even chewed it properly — and without realizing it, he began to fidget in his seat.
“Good grief.”
Kang Sihyeon had been watching those pale cheeks work busily, and clicked his tongue as he popped a vividly crimson piece of meat into his mouth whole. While Kang Sihyeon ate through several thick-cut slabs of meat, Yeonwoo sat clinging to a single bowl of carrot porridge.
Watching Yeonwoo divide the small amount into multiple portions over several bites, Kang Sihyeon’s eyes narrowed. He wondered for a moment if he was eating slowly on purpose. But he quickly concluded that wasn’t it. The pressed-together lips kept moving without rest.
His mouth was simply small. Even opening it as wide as he presumably could, the gap between open and closed was barely enough to receive one spoonful at a time. With such a narrow mouth, his tongue probably had to be just as tiny.
Kang Sihyeon had been watching the mouth close and part without any particular thought — and then flinched, looking away. The tongue that flashed briefly between his lips was a deeper red than the lips that were busy moving around it.
Without warning, a scorching thirst rose in his throat. Kang Sihyeon drained his glass of water in one go. The moment he set the cup down, he found himself looking directly across at Muksirok.
So what.
Kang Sihyeon, already feeling guilty before anything was said, mouthed a challenge at him. He hadn’t even realized that he’d been keeping his voice down — watching his words — so as not to disturb the rabbit eating his meal.
In the meantime, Yeonwoo, who had been eating diligently, finally scraped the carrot porridge clean.
Seeing that, Kang Sihyeon spooned some romaine and small cuts of meat onto the empty dish. He snatched the spoon from the small white hand and replaced it with a fork — that was on top of everything else. It was a rough set of movements, but for someone serving food at a table for the very first time in their life, it was clean enough in execution.
Only — the amount he’d piled on was far too much.
“Hah——”
“What? So what.”
“I’m, I’m f-full now……”
“Are you joking? You were clinging to a bowl of porridge that barely counts as one bite just now.”
