I was about to head back to the bed when a soft knock echoed through the room. Turning my head, I saw a familiar face through the long window in the art room’s front door.
Sitting on the edge of the bed, I closed my eyes in a direction where he could see me. After a brief silence, I heard the door slowly open and then close, the sound brushing past my ears.
“Hayoung-ah.”
Sensing his approach, I slowly lifted my eyelids. Cha Woodan, whose eyes met mine, curved the corners of his eyes as he spoke.
“When did you wake up? Have you been waiting long?”
“Not really….”
“Are you hungry?”
I stared up at Cha Woodan, who had approached right in front of me, then tilted my head slightly to look behind him. The silhouette that had been peeking through the window of the door Cha Woodan had just closed and entered through froze in shock. Then, as if belatedly trying to hide, it quickly disappeared downward.
A faint hint of absurdity flickered through my previously emotionless eyes.
“Why isn’t he coming in?”
“Who knows. Jeoh must have some sense of shame, so maybe he doesn’t want to be next to you.”
Cha Woodan replied nonchalantly and naturally took the spot next to me. As if to redirect my attention away from the door, he stuck right next to me and settled in.
“Are you feeling okay? Nothing hurts?”
“No.”
“You have to tell me if even the slightest thing hurts. Your wound was really severe.”
I unnecessarily raised my hand to fiddle with the back of my neck.
“Was it really bad?”
“Yeah, really bad. With a bit of exaggeration, I thought chunks of flesh had been torn off.”
I silently moved my lips for a moment, then closed them. Since the person in question wasn’t here, it would be useless to give a lengthy explanation that Cha Jeoh wasn’t at fault, that he had simply been manipulated by the Student Council President’s schemes. Cha Woodan wasn’t the type to blame Cha Jeoh blindly without understanding the full story.
I withdrew my hand that had been lingering near the back of my neck.
“What time is it? How long have I been out?”
“A little over a day.”
While I was mumbling, Cha Woodan deliberately leaned his body toward me. His head nestled against my shoulder.
“Hayoung-ah.”
As his low voice resonated, the skin where we touched vibrated along with it. Consciously trying not to tense my body, I slowly rolled my eyes to look at Cha Woodan.
“You seem so unbothered that I thought you really were fine, but I was really scared. Very scared.”
“……”
“When the monsters rushing to the field after smelling blood suddenly changed direction, I wondered where they were going… It’s a good thing I noticed then.”
Cha Woodan slowly extended his hand and grasped my defenseless hand resting on my knee. His thumb persistently rubbed the back of my hand.
“What would have happened if I’d been even a little later.”
“Cha Jeoh wouldn’t kill me.”
“You don’t know that. He’s someone who tried to devour you.”
“…Devour?”
I slightly furrowed my brow at the sudden appearance of this word.
“Me?”
“Who else would he devour besides you, Hayoung? No taste, no nutritional value, no proper reason….”
It was a parade of incomprehensible reasoning. Before Cha Woodan could say something even more disturbing, I interrupted and spoke up.
“No, I mean. Why would he devour me.”
“I just told you. Other people besides you….”
“He shouldn’t devour me either.”
Cha Woodan stared at me intently.
“Why?”
Why, he asks.
“Well….”
I couldn’t immediately continue the sentence. As I ambiguously trailed off and subtly rolled my eyes, Cha Woodan added as if he’d been waiting for this.
“See.”
“…I suppose so.”
‘Well, I guess there’s no particular reason he shouldn’t.’
I wasn’t sure if this was right, but somehow it seemed I’d been persuaded by Cha Woodan. Blinking blankly, I slowly opened my mouth.
“But I don’t want to die.”
“Yeah. That’s why I told Lee Gojun to save you no matter what.”
“……”
Cha Woodan, who had been fully leaning on my shoulder, slightly raised his head. As soon as our gazes met, he bloomed into a soft smile. Staring blankly at that shameless expression, I shifted my gaze back to empty air.
“The windows were locked. With Lee Geonwoo’s ability.”
“Ah… Well, that was by mutual agreement.”
“When did I agree to that.”
“We followed the principle of majority rule. We got majority consent to lock just the windows for now, but if you give permission, Hayoung, we’re planning to lock all the doors too.”
Will you give permission? As if asking that, Cha Woodan’s persistent gaze was poking at my cheek. Without bothering to react to it, I asked back.
“Why? I’m not a criminal, and there’s no reason to lock the windows and doors.”
“Because we don’t know when or where you might disappear to.”
“…Ah.”
So that was the reason. I hadn’t thought of that.
‘These guys are especially sensitive about me losing consciousness and trying to go somewhere.’
Of course, since they knew I wouldn’t be harmed by monsters, it wouldn’t be worry related to that, and if I had to deduce from other possible dangers, it would only be threats from other survivors or from the terrain. However, the anxiety the twins harbored seemed to be something else, unrelated to such universal concerns about physical safety or survival.
The hands and expressions that desperately grabbed me when I unconsciously tried to disappear, the voices that trembled finely until they were composed. I vaguely remembered those things. Added to that, even the creepiness of something eerie that Cha Woodan had shown me was quite deeply imprinted on me.
When did all this start?
“If you lock the windows of the space I’m in and block the doors.”
I quietly began speaking and rolled my eyes. As if he’d been watching me the whole time, our gazes locked without a moment’s gap.
“Then do you think I won’t leave this place?”
A vast meadow. A sky where day and night coexisted, and a cat-shaped monster acting cute with its massive body. I didn’t know why that scenery I’d seen in my dream was passing through my mind at this moment, at this particular timing.
Cha Woodan’s black pupils reflecting me rippled strangely. As if trying to trap me inside them, or rather, as if trying to vomit out everything inside himself, those deeply sunken pupils disappeared beneath his eyelids. Soon, when Cha Woodan opened his eyes again, he regained his usual look and smiled brightly.
“Are we provoking me right now?”
“…No.”
“If you really want it, Hayoung, should we play hide-and-seek? If I catch you, you’ll grant my wish, right?”
“I said no.”
I pushed against Cha Woodan’s chest with a weak touch. Feeling him retreat obediently from me without resistance, I muttered as if in passing.
“I don’t even know myself where I want to go, so what hide-and-seek.”
“Where you want to go?”
Cha Woodan, who had been backing away nicely, came to a creaking halt. I, who had been moving my lips with displeasure, changed my words.
“…Where I have to go.”
“Where you have to go?”
“Where I will go.”
“Where you will go?”
Then what am I supposed to call that place I don’t even know? I chose to remain silent without expressing my complaint out loud. Instead, I pushed Cha Woodan away with slightly more force and stood up.
“Hayoung-ah? Where are you going.”
“To your twin.”
Cha Woodan’s hand, which had been reaching out as if to stop me, obediently retreated. Soon he got up and quickly approached my side, matching my pace.
“Then just call him, why are you getting up.”
“I don’t think he’ll come obediently if I call.”
Cha Woodan also seemed to share my thoughts, as he didn’t argue and kept his mouth shut. Still, perhaps because he was his other half and brother, his considerate attitude in various ways was somewhat unfamiliar and also striking.
Soon, when we reached the art room’s front door, the silhouette that had been pressing its face against the long window at the top disappeared in shock. Sensing the presence that had been holding its breath beyond the door faintly dispersing, I turned to Cha Woodan.
“Did he just run away?”
“Yeah. That way.”
Cha Woodan jerked his chin to the right. It seemed to mean he was running away down the right corridor.
It looked like I would have to be the seeker in hide-and-seek, not the twins. The one running and hiding to avoid being caught by the seeker would, of course, be Cha Jeoh.
I turned my body after staring at an innocent wall through which Cha Jeoh’s movements couldn’t possibly be seen. Then I strode toward Cha Woodan and raised my hand to lightly tap his shoulder.
My gaze remained fixed on the wall facing the corridor. When the perceptive Cha Woodan unusually didn’t act right away, I moved my body again, thinking he might not have caught my meaning. As I stood even closer to Cha Woodan and raised my head, I saw a face trembling with its lips pulled up. Not only that, but I could clearly see his cheeks with a light blush and the corners of his eyes crinkling prettily as he faced me.
“…What.”
“Nothing. Just.”
The laughter Cha Woodan had been holding back mixed with his voice and leaked out. Now that I looked, it wasn’t that he’d stayed still because he didn’t catch my intention, but that he couldn’t move right away because he was trying not to burst out laughing.
After taking a breath to compose himself, Cha Woodan supported my back and the crook of my knees with his arms and lifted me up. Settling into a stable position in his embrace, I familiarly closed my eyes.
“What about the blindfold? I have a new one made, should I get it?”
“It’s fine. We’re just finding Cha Jeoh and coming back, it won’t take long.”
This wasn’t an urgent situation where we had to go into battle right away, and since the number of survivors remaining at Hanul High after the last brawl would have decreased significantly, there wouldn’t be anyone rushing to pick a fight needlessly. The Student Council President had also clearly not remained, as I’d directly witnessed him abandoning this place and fleeing. There would be zero possibility that he’d returned with a thick face during the day I’d been unconscious.
I tapped Cha Woodan’s shoulder. It didn’t take him long to understand my intention. Being careful not to shake my body unnecessarily, he moved his steps and opened the art room door.
Unlike the art room, the open air of the corridor brushed past us.
