The moment he first met Rose was like a different world made entirely of unfamiliar emotions for Elijah.
“Hello.”
Why did he feel like hiding so much?
Even though the other person greeted him first, Elijah could hardly get any words out. It felt like meeting a princess from a fairy tale, like he should kneel like a splendid knight, but he wasn’t splendid and he wasn’t a knight either.
The child took one step toward him. The breath that had been scattering from Elijah’s lips stopped.
“Cute.”
This time too, it was the other person who spoke. The round eyes were just like sparkling beads.
“Like a chestnut burr.”
Elijah didn’t know what he was saying, so he didn’t know what kind of reaction he should have either. The child pointed at his own head with an index finger. Following him, Elijah belatedly touched his own head and only then opened his mouth with an “Ah.”
“Can I touch it?”
The child approached him with a bright smile.
“Uh…… yeah.”
Elijah couldn’t move a single step and nodded reflexively. A small hand gently rested on top of his head. Wow…… The lips that opened in a circle let out a small exclamation.
“It’s pointy.”
“……”
This was the first time he felt such a strange feeling from someone else touching his head. Elijah looked at the brown eyes directed slightly upward. The moment he realized the child’s gaze was on his crown, his head grew hot.
Suddenly, their eyes met. Elijah immediately lowered his eyes. He felt an impulse to hide anywhere. He didn’t know why even the natural act of exhaling and inhaling breath became so cautious.
“Elijah.”
At that moment, Master’s voice came from behind. Elijah, startled, took a step back from the child. Only then did white breath leak from his mouth. It felt like he’d been caught doing something bad for no reason.
“It seems you’ve already made a new friend.”
Jade with a kind face looked at Elijah and asked.
“Where are the other children?”
“……They’re still washing.”
“Still?”
His gaze went past Elijah’s shoulder. From here, he could hear the sound of children laughing playfully in the water that hadn’t yet cooled down.
“Hm……”
Jade, who narrowed his eyes, hummed. Elijah could tell his mood had soured slightly.
“Elijah, you take Rose and guide him to his room. The empty room across from yours will be Rose’s room from now on.”
“Yes, Master.”
So the child’s name was Rose. As soon as he heard the name, he thought of bright red roses in full bloom in May. A fresh and fragrant flower, beautiful enough to make your eyes sting.
……It’s a really fitting name.
Even though he’d heard countless other children’s names until now, he’d never had such a thought.
Elijah couldn’t even make eye contact with Rose and walked ahead first without much to say. Fortunately, Rose also followed behind him without complaint.
The monastery stairs had become an all too familiar space for Elijah by now. Unlike Elijah who climbed the stairs with large strides without difficulty, Rose seemed to have a bit of trouble keeping up with him.
The sound of footsteps following from a few steps below bothered him so much. It was half a step slower than Elijah’s.
“Wait, you’re too fast.”
Those half steps accumulated and accumulated, eventually creating a large gap. Elijah, who stopped walking, looked back at Rose who was panting far below him.
“Just how far do we have to climb? It’s too high.”
“……We haven’t even climbed half yet.”
“What?”
Eyes that widened in surprise sparkled even in the dim interior. Rose, who had leaned his body halfway out over the railing and looked up, this time looked down and was horrified.
“Hiiik……”
Elijah, who jumped down the stairs two or three at a time with large strides, approached him.
“Don’t look down. It gets scary.”
Rose grabbed Elijah’s arm as if clutching a lifeline. At that light contact, Elijah felt a dizzying sensation of his heart sinking.
“Aren’t you scared?”
“……I climb every day so I’m fine.”
“Wow, that’s cool.”
Brown eyes hidden in darkness curved into half-moon shapes. Suddenly warmth touched his hand.
“You know…… can’t you give me a piggyback ride?”
“……What?”
“Give me a piggyback.”
Rose held Elijah’s hand and shook it gently. Elijah couldn’t take his eyes off the brightly smiling face. It felt like his heart, which had already sunk once, was rolling all the way down the stairs.
“I’m too tired.”
Rose sat down on the stairs stubbornly. The skirt that reached his calves puffed up like a flower bud then deflated with a plop. Elijah was flustered, not knowing what to do. Suddenly asking for a piggyback ride? For him who had never given anyone a piggyback or held anyone in his life, it was a burdensome proposal.
The gaze that lifted looked at Elijah.
“Can’t you?”
“……”
At this rate, it might take all day just to climb the stairs. In the end, Elijah sat in front of him with a reluctant face, showing his back. Soon, the small body climbed right onto Elijah’s back.
The body temperature covering his back was too hot. Rose embraced Elijah’s neck tightly as if he’d made up his mind. The nape of his neck, which had been coldly cooled by the winter chill, was completely wrapped in his arms.
A clear voice was heard by his ear.
“I’m light, right?”
“……Yeah.”
Even if he wanted to deny it, he couldn’t refute it otherwise. His body was truly light as a feather. Even so, it naturally had to be slower than going up alone, so it took twice as long as usual.
Elijah, who arrived at the top floor, lowered him to the floor. Even though he’d climbed for a while carrying a child his own height, it wasn’t difficult at all. Rather, his back felt empty after he left.
Rose, who had been looking down the narrow corridor with curious eyes, followed along holding Elijah’s sleeve and asked.
“We sleep in such a high place? What if it collapses while we’re sleeping?”
“It won’t collapse.”
“The blacksmith ahjussi said there are lots of ghosts in high places.”
“……I’ve never seen a ghost though.”
“You’re a good kid, aren’t you?”
At the sudden words, Elijah looked back at Rose. His breath caught for no reason in those clear eyes staring directly at him.
“Good people can’t see ghosts.”
I’m not good though…… Elijah wanted to say that. But somehow he felt like he shouldn’t say that. Because he wanted Rose to continue thinking of him as a good kid.
“This is your room.”
“Then your room must be here?”
Rose didn’t even look into his own room and immediately hopped into Elijah’s room across the hall. Before he could stop him, he flopped right down on the bed.
Elijah was once again flustered. He’d guided several children until now, but he’d never seen a kid like this.
“Th, that’s my room though……”
“I know.”
Rose, who turned his body and buried his cheek in the pillow, looked at Elijah and smiled sweetly.
“I can smell you here.”
* * *
‘I can smell you here.’
It was a day when studying didn’t go well because those words lingered in his head all day.
Elijah took advantage of when no one was looking to lift his sleeve and sniff his own smell. No matter how many times he sniffed, he couldn’t quite tell what smell it was.
Kyaak! Suddenly a scream erupted from one side.
“I don’t want to!”
Elijah, who turned his head, looked at Rose who was at the center of the commotion. He was confronting Master, and at first Elijah couldn’t guess the reason even after seeing the scissors in Master’s hand.
“I won’t cut it!”
Rose held his hair with both hands and made a tearful face. His eyes suddenly turned to Elijah.
“Elijah, Elijah!”
He hopped and called Elijah loudly. The gazes of the children surrounding him all focused on Elijah at once.
“Elijah, help me! I don’t want to cut my hair!”
As if believing without doubt that Elijah would solve everything, Rose cried out desperately.
Even if you plead like that, there’s nothing I can do…… Elijah was truly flustered. Until now, there had been no child who made a fuss saying they didn’t want to cut their hair. He looked back and forth between Master and Rose and moved his lips. But there was no way a clever solution would come out.
Fortunately, generous Master sighed and came to a conclusion.
“Alright, fine. I’ll give you a few days to think about it.”
“Not just a few days, I won’t cut it even if years pass!”
Rose, who shouted out loud, rushed to Elijah’s side and hid behind him. Only Elijah, who suddenly received everyone’s attention, was in an awkward predicament.
“Elijah, I don’t want to cut my hair…… Make it so I don’t have to cut my hair.”
Rose, who tightly embraced Elijah’s waist, whispered tearfully. He’d lived alongside his peers for several years, yet the touch of his body temperature felt strangely unfamiliar.
And that unfamiliarity continued even when night came.
“Elijah, I’m scared. I don’t want to sleep alone.”
Elijah, who had just laid his head on the pillow while hearing the bedtime bell ringing from below, looked in shock at Rose who suddenly entered his room.
“……”
Before he could say anything in response, Rose flopped down next to Elijah along with the pillow he’d been holding.
“Th, this is my room though.”
Foolishly, those were the only words he could say. For Elijah, who had never thought about sleeping with someone or lying in someone else’s bed, Rose’s actions were truly strange and bewildering.
“Can’t we sleep together?”
Was that even possible? Isn’t sleeping originally something you do alone? Why on earth is he doing this? What? Why is he doing this in someone else’s room?
……Really, what?
His small head became confused in an instant. Even the most difficult magical formulas had never made his head this complicated.
