By Zephyria 
Tae-un, who had become a child in the dead of winter, grew—or rather, was restored—rapidly enough to reach his mid-teens by the time early summer began, but that was as far as it went. For two weeks, his height had not changed by a single millimeter, no matter how often it was measured.
Tae-un didn’t think much of it, knowing he would eventually become an adult, but it seemed Kim Si-baek felt differently.
“Did that incident happen when you were fourteen? Is that why you don’t want to grow?”
At his worried words, Tae-un recalled the version of himself after age fourteen—the part he had ignored, or tried to ignore. The years of being fourteen when Kim Si-baek did not exist.
“…….”
It seemed the past, etched into his subconscious, was holding his body back from growing. Tae-un bit his lower lip and let out a heavy sigh, covering his face with his hands.
It was okay. He would never be able to forget those times, nor would he ever erase the sensation of his own hands killing Cloud, but it was still okay. As long as there was someone by his side to worry and wander with him, even if he took a wrong turn, he was okay.
“Are you alright?”
“……I’m fine.”
After all, he had this lovely voice supporting and embracing him even now. A faint smile appeared on Tae-un’s face. Then, he added a white lie so that the other wouldn’t worry.
“My height is the same, but I think puberty is starting.”
“Really?”
Suddenly, Kim Si-baek’s voice changed. After thinking for a moment, he abruptly sat Tae-un down next to him on the sofa and grabbed his shoulders. His gaze was so grave that Tae-un unconsciously gulped. Had he already been caught in his lie?
“Un-ah, is it true that puberty has really started?”
“Uh, yes……”
Kim Si-baek’s aura grew even more serious. Holding the boy’s shoulders, he seemed to weigh his words before blurting them out with a determined expression.
“Then from today, we’re sleeping in separate rooms.”
“……What?”
It wasn’t that he didn’t know the literal meaning of the words “separate rooms.” But how on earth did the concept of separate rooms fit between him and Kim Si-baek?
While Tae-un was confused, wondering if there was some other meaning to “separate rooms” that he wasn’t aware of, Kim Si-baek remained firm.
“You said puberty started. You’ve been through it, so you know that pubescent teenagers are… dangerous in many ways. It would be even more dangerous if we slept together, right?”
“Wait, hold on. Hyung.”
“We’re using separate rooms until you become an adult.”
“Even if we use separate rooms, I’m still living in the same house as you, Hyung……”
Drenched in bewilderment, Tae-un tried to persuade him, but it didn’t work on Kim Si-baek at all. Kim Si-baek—who had proudly confessed to having wet dreams about him during his own puberty—picked up the former adult, current minor, and carried him into the bedroom.
Then, he rolled the struggling minor up in a blanket like a kimbap and pushed him into the corner of the bed. Tae-un squirmed in horror, but he couldn’t move a single centimeter.
“Sleep well. Don’t dream about me.”
“Hyung!”
Leaving behind Tae-un’s desperate plea, the bedroom door closed heartlessly.
The boy, who hadn’t grown for two weeks as if his growth had stopped, entered his voice-breaking stage just three days later.
Pi Min-hyeong was the type to find a young Tae-un creepy. Objectively, he was very cute, but on the other hand, the act of pretending to be a child felt pretentious. Because of this, he hadn’t met Tae-un very often, and he was stunned by the sight of his friend after so long. Not long ago he was a child, but now he looked like a high school student.
The growth rate was surprising, but what bothered him more were the countless empty milk cartons rolling around next to Tae-un.
“What are you doing?”
“I have to become an adult quickly.”
Tae-un, who was drinking milk with dead eyes, muttered gloomily. It certainly wasn’t for the admirable reason of lightening the load for Yang Eun-ho, who was suffering from the urge to quit his job twelve times a day while acting as the Guild Master’s proxy.
He didn’t know the exact reason why the guy who had been smiling and acting cute until recently was doing this, but the reason for him doing something so out of character was obvious. It had to be Kim Si-baek.
“So why did you call me? I don’t know any ways to turn a kid into an adult.”
“This.”
Having finished one carton of milk during the conversation and opened a new two-liter carton, Tae-un pushed forward his ID card with a face that looked like he wanted to vomit up the white milk.
“If I manipulate the photo while renewing my ID, do you think it’ll work?”
Looking at Tae-un’s youthful photo, Pi Min-hyeong marveled once again. When this photo was taken, there had been an indelible scar on the left side of his face, but the current Tae-un was completely clean. It was true that his heart felt a bit lighter now that the scar, which had made him feel guilty about his own shortcomings, was gone.
‘Now that the scar is gone, his skin looks so smooth and glowing, just like a kid’s… No, am I going crazy too?’
Having had a heinous thought that only someone like Kim Si-baek or Lee Han-gyeol would have, Pi Min-hyeong shuddered to shake it off.
“How are you going to manipulate it? Erasing the scar? You don’t need to do that, just take a new photo.”
“……Si-baek hyung already saw my ID.”
“Huh?”
“He says… he won’t even let me hold his hand until I become an adult……”
The milk carton burst in Tae-un’s grip, and white milk flowed out like a fountain; Pi Min-hyeong’s face crumpled just like the carton. He had intentionally avoided asking why Tae-un was chugging milk because he didn’t want to hear this kind of nonsense.
Regardless of how Pi Min-hyeong felt, Tae-un was desperate. Kim Si-baek, who was always generous to Tae-un, would not yield an inch on this matter. Sleeping in separate rooms was a given, and he wouldn’t even let him touch him. Of course, Kim Si-baek didn’t touch a single finger of Tae-un either. It didn’t even work when Tae-un rolled around saying he was in pain from growing pains.
Kim Si-baek didn’t stop there.
〈You’ve grown a lot, and you can’t keep living off your bank account forever. Hyung will go earn a lot of money.〉
〈I’m the one who ends up giving you your salary…〉
〈I’m leaving now.〉
With his position as an instructor and his work as a hunter for the 7777 Guild, their time together decreased further. Although it was gratifying that his status as an S-class hunter remained intact thanks to swordsmanship that no one dared to imitate, even after losing his divine power.
Anyway, Tae-un, who had the consciousness of an adult who had even had sex with him but possessed the body of a pubescent, was on the verge of losing his mind.
In a reckless attempt to look even slightly older, he spent all day in the summer sun without applying sunscreen, but his skin remained soft and white. If anything, it felt like he was becoming paler as he restored his past body.
Next, he attempted manipulation.
〈How tall were you originally?〉
〈I don’t think I was 191.〉
He lied boldly without hesitation, but Kim Si-baek waved a piece of paper. It was the health examination result notification he had received from Yang Eun-ho.
〈You were 196.4 centimeters.〉
〈…….〉
〈Not until you’re that tall.〉
〈Hyung! I kept growing even after I became an adult!〉
〈I won’t let you slide with another lie this time.〉
Though he had confessed the truth for once, perhaps due to the karma he had accumulated, Kim Si-baek did not trust him at all. The adult’s will—that he could not commit immoral acts with a minor—was steadfast.
Without even thinking about wiping up the overflowing milk, Tae-un looked at Pi Min-hyeong desperately.
“Would I look older if I made another scar on my face?”
“As if. Even if you drew a grid like a Go board instead of a scar, it wouldn’t work. Your face looks like a baby’s no matter how you look at it, you crazy bastard.”
“Dammit……”
Tae-un’s desperation to insist he was an adult, even with a weathered face, was crushed before he could even try. If it was going to be like this, wouldn’t it have been better to just stay a child forever and receive plenty of Kim Si-baek’s affection?
Watching Tae-un suffer through the pains of a stormy adolescence, Pi Min-hyeong secretly wore a sly smile. In his memory, Tae-un had grown even after becoming an adult. Since they had been similar in height until that point, Pi Min-hyeong clearly remembered the moment Tae-un overtook him.
However, he had no intention of explaining that to Kim Si-baek.
‘It’s not enough yet. This bastard needs to suffer more.’
Compared to the agony of his eyes rotting away from Tae-un’s antics back then, the hardship this guy was currently experiencing was a drop in the bucket.
✽ ✽ ✽
A sight appeared in Tae-un’s study that hadn’t been there until last winter. It was a height chart attached to the wall behind the door, with small marks next to it. They were the traces of Tae-un’s growth.
The height marks, which had started at less than one meter, had now approached two meters.
“Let’s see……”
Standing on a footstool, Kim Si-baek carefully measured the height of Tae-un, who was standing against the wall. Tae-un was so tense that his Adam’s apple bobbed significantly as he swallowed hard.
‘Even the crown of his head is pretty.’
Looking down at the crown of Tae-un’s head, which was hard to see except when measuring height, Kim Si-baek shifted his gaze to the ruler on the wall.
Soon, he stepped down from the footstool and shook his head.
“196.1 centimeters.”