BSW 152

152

“Where are you going to wash up? Is there even a place to wash here?”

Ho-eun looked around. But all there was were trees and snow. Was he going to wash with snow? Can you even wash with that? He was thinking.

“There is.”

Tae-muk said, staring at something unseen between the trees. Ho-eun also turned his gaze there. But as expected, he couldn’t see anything. Then, Tae-muk asked in a low voice.

“……Want to go together?”

Ho-eun looked up at him abruptly. He blinked slowly, then smiled faintly and nodded.

“Yes. I want to go with you.”

At his affirmation, the corners of Tae-muk’s lips lifted almost imperceptibly. He had expected him to agree, but he felt good when he actually did.

“Come here.Tae-muk bent down and placed his arm, bent in an N shape, behind Ho-eun’s thighs. Ho-eun tilted his head at the inexplicable action, and Tae-muk frowned, gesturing with his blood-stained hand.

“Your hands are covered in blood. How can I hold you with these hands? You sit.”

“Ah……, yes.”

Ho-eun sat on Tae-muk’s arm. The thick, solid arm felt as stable as sitting on a well-made chair.

Tae-muk effortlessly lifted Ho-eun with one arm and pulled him into his embrace. Ho-eun then leaned against Tae-muk’s chest familiarly. He wrapped his arms around his neck and pulled out the Braided Hair that was crushed between their bodies. There was no shyness or embarrassment on his face. He was now as used to getting on Tae-muk’s body as he was to riding a horse.

“……”

At the sight, Tae-muk pursed his lips for a moment. Strangely, the corners of his lips kept twitching. If he left it alone, his lips felt like they would tear all the way to his cheekbones.

Was he sick?

Tae-muk tilted his head and soon dismissed the trivial thought. Then, he lifted Ho-eun up and hugged him tightly, and began to cross the forest at a rapid pace.

Tae-muk stopped in front of a small, nameless valley. Large and small rocks, worn smooth, were scattered randomly, and clear water flowed swiftly down the mountain slope. Depending on the slope and width, some places made a trickling sound, while others made a gurgling sound.

Ice and snow were piled up between the rocks, but the water continued to flow vigorously, unconcerned. It seemed that the cold that had frozen the wide lake had not been able to freeze this small valley.

Tae-muk sat Ho-eun down on a flat rock.

“Stay here. Stay still. Don’t fidget and slip.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Tae-muk squatted down with his back to Ho-eun and washed his hands. The transparent water was clean, but also very cold. Red blood slowly spread into the water.

“Ugh……”

Ho-eun unknowingly shrank his neck as he watched. The coldness of the valley water was transmitted to him as well. It must be very cold. His hands must feel like they were freezing. But Tae-muk didn’t seem to feel the cold, and didn’t even frown.

Then, when his hands were somewhat clean.

“Also.”

Tae-muk said suddenly.

“Yes?”

Ho-eun tilted his upper body towards Tae-muk and asked back at the incomprehensible words. Then Tae-muk glanced back at him, then lowered his gaze back to his hands and said.

“You like fruit, what else do you like?”

“……”

At those words, Ho-eun’s eyelashes slowly rose. To think that he was asking that while washing his blood-stained hands after dealing with a Devouring Ghoul alone. It somehow didn’t suit Tae-muk. But strangely, he couldn’t help but smile faintly.

“Hmm……”

Ho-eun pondered for a moment. Then his eyes met the handkerchief he had been holding in his hand. More precisely, his eyes met the flower embroidered on its edge.

“Flowers.”

“……Flowers?”

“Yes.”

He gently stroked the flower embroidered on the handkerchief with his thumb and continued.

“My mother likes flowers, and as I followed her around to see them, I came to like them too.”

But Tae-muk, who had been listening silently, snorted and laughed. Ho-eun frowned at the laughter, which he couldn’t tell if it was sarcastic or mocking. He said in a voice laced with laughter.

“Fruits and flowers……. You don’t really think you’re a sparrow or a squirrel, do you?”

“……A squirrel?”

Ho-eun’s head tilted to the side. He didn’t understand sparrow, but he understood squirrel even less. Did squirrels like flowers? Or did he look like a squirrel? A small and cute, but furry animal?

Ho-eun touched his chin. The skin, which didn’t even grow a beard, was just smooth and soft. Just in case, he twisted his waist and looked behind him. He wondered if there was something like a tail attached. Not a real tail, but maybe something like a branch was caught on it.

As he was making such a fuss, Tae-muk snorted and laughed again. At that, Ho-eun belatedly realized that he was making fun of his tastes. Ho-eun, with a sulky look in his eyes, kicked the snow with his toes.

“Well, it’s not like I only like such childish things. I also like reading books, sitting on the veranda and basking in the sun, and…… Ah, I also like playing with Nurung-i.”

“Nurung-i?”

“It’s a dog I raise at home. It’s a very fast runner and a clever dog. Even if it goes out of the house alone, it always comes back for mealtime. My father clicks his tongue, saying that it loves people too much to guard the house, but it’s still cute. Its fur is also very soft.”

“……”

“Hmm……, also…… I like eating snacks with Deok-woo. Unlike me, Deok-woo eats everything well. Just watching him makes me feel good. My parents worry when I leave food, but Deok-woo sometimes secretly eats it for me.”

“……”

At those words, Tae-muk frowned as if he didn’t like something. He also muttered “Deok-woo?” as if chewing on his name.

Ho-eun, dangling his legs, wondered what else he liked……, then realized that he was being too talkative. Tae-muk had a keen ear and hated noisy things. He had unintentionally bothered him. Ho-eun, who wriggled his butt and sat deep inside the rock, asked in a small voice.

“Was I too loud?”

“Well, not really.”

“……”

“……”

Then there was silence. Ho-eun fiddled with his handkerchief again, then cautiously asked.

“Then what does General like?”

“……”

At that question, Tae-muk, who had been scrubbing the blood stained on his fingertips as if scratching it off, froze. Ho-eun couldn’t see his face and was only looking at the back of his head. He thought that his thick, straight neck was very manly, and the angular jawline that was faintly visible was very handsome.

Tae-muk thought for a long time with his hands in the water. Ho-eun waited for his answer without urging him. He wondered and anticipated what kind of answer it would be. But Tae-muk gave a disappointing answer.

“Nothing.”

“……Nothing? Not even one thing?”

“It’s not that there’s nothing at all……”

Tae-muk trailed off, unlike himself. Then he slowly turned to look at Ho-eun. Then he just looked at him without saying anything.

He kept looking.

He looked and looked again.

It was a strange gaze, but Ho-eun didn’t understand the meaning of the gaze and just accepted it with his unique clear eyes. It was a look that said, so, what is it, tell me too.

At that, Tae-muk shook his chin as if saying it was nothing and turned his head. Then he continued to wash his hands. But the blood that had seeped into the tips of his nails didn’t come out easily. Normally, he would have lived with it as it was, but he couldn’t do that now. Because he had to touch Ho-eun. No, because he had to hold him and go back.

“Really nothing?”

But Ho-eun persistently asked again. He wanted to know what Tae-muk liked.

“……”

At that, Tae-muk turned to look at Ho-eun again for a moment, then frowned and began to think about what he liked. But other than the one thing that had flashed brightly in his mind a moment ago, he couldn’t think of anything in particular. He pessimistically thought that there was no way there could be anything he liked in his dark and musty life. Just as he was doing so, something flashed through his mind.

Tae-muk said in a monotonous voice, scrubbing his hands.

“I like taking down Devouring Ghoul’s heads in one go.”

“……Yes?”

“It has a ripping feel to it.”

“……”

“Crunch, crunch.”

Then he briefly took his hands out of the valley, bent both hands like claws, crossed them, and then spread them apart, imitating the act of tearing something.

“If you tear it well, less brain fluid and blood will splatter.”

Having finished his ‘favorite thing’ like that, Tae-muk put his hands back into the valley.

Ho-eun was staring at his back with his mouth slightly open. Then he awkwardly twisted his lips and nodded his chin. It was an ambiguous expression that was neither a smile nor a cry.

“……Yes. Such, such a thing, you might like it. A very, very good, hobby……it is.”

“……”

“……”

After that, there was silence. Only the valley water poured down with a whooshing sound, creating noise.

And not long after, Tae-muk, who had washed his hands clean, got up. Ho-eun jumped off the rock as if he had been waiting. Then he approached Tae-muk and held out the handkerchief that had been warmed by constantly rubbing it.

But Tae-muk didn’t take it. Ho-eun didn’t get disappointed or intimidated by that, and instead lifted his hand and began to wipe off the moisture.