By Zephyria 
Eventually, unable to endure it any longer, he sprang up and headed outside. Or rather, he intended to. But before leaving, he paused for a moment to look down at his attire, adjusting the ties of his jeogori and tightening his slightly loosened hair tie.
And when he was finally ready to go out—Bang! He flung the door open as if to break it. The thin paper door shrieked with a sharp, grating sound. Ho-eun used that scream as momentum to step out onto the wooden veranda.
“…….”
The courtyard was silent. No, the whole world was silent. The moon, not yet met by the sun, hung dimly in the sky, and the crisp, cold air unique to dawn enveloped Ho-eun.
“…….”
With wide eyes, Ho-eun scanned the encampment thoroughly. As expected, Tae-muk was nowhere to be seen. In frustration, Ho-eun ground his lower teeth from left to right like a plane, then took a deep breath—whoop. Then, he began to scream with all his might.
“Where are you!”
His voice rang out loudly through the dawn. The sleeping soldiers would likely bolt awake, wondering what this sudden thunder was, but he didn’t have the luxury to consider them right now.
“I! Will! Stay! Here! Until! The General! Comes!”
Ho-eun stomped his heel against the wooden floor—thump, thump, thump—at the end of every few words.
“All night long! I’ll be here! Until the sun rises! No, even after the sun rises—!”
By the end, he wasn’t just screaming; he was practically frantic. However, it didn’t last long. His throat began to hurt as if it were tearing. Even though he was simply shouting, his frail body protested with pain.
“Cough, cough! Keuk, cough, cough……”
Clutching his throat with his hand, Ho-eun coughed painfully. He tried swallowing dry saliva and patting his chest, but nothing changed.
Another surge of heat rushed through him. This time, it wasn’t a heat born of anger, but the heat of the fever sickness. His vision blurred instantly. He felt as if the blood were leaking out from his fingertips and toes, and the strength vanished from his legs as if they had disappeared. Soon, his body began to slump forward.
“Seriously……”
I hate this body.
Ho-eun crumpled his face in disgust and squeezed his eyes shut.
Thump.
Someone’s hand caught his chest. It was a large, firm, and hot hand. Ho-eun recognized the owner of that hand instantly.
“You must have plenty of energy left, screaming since the crack of dawn.”
It was Tae-muk.
“……General?”
Ho-eun looked up at him with hazy eyes. He knew it was Tae-muk, but he had to confirm it with his own eyes. However, before he could even take him in, he was hoisted up.
“Let’s go inside.”
At those words, the dazed Ho-eun began to struggle.
“I don’t want to. Let me go.”
Tae-muk ignored him and tried to enter the room. Ho-eun gripped the doorframe with his scrawny, thin hands and held on. The door shook with a creak, looking as if it might fall off at any moment. Tae-muk frowned in irritation at this pathetic stubbornness.
“Let go.”
“You let go, General.”
“Choi Ho-eun.”
“Let me go!”
Ho-eun flailed his limbs wildly. He arched his back like a fish that had just been pulled out of the water. But it was all momentary. A cough rose from deep within his abdomen.
Even as he coughed as if he were about to vomit blood, Ho-eun did not let go of the doorframe. With a deep sigh, Tae-muk had no choice but to set him down. The moment he did, Ho-eun shoved Tae-muk away. Of course, despite the effort, it was Ho-eun who ended up being pushed back.
“Uh, whoa……”
As Ho-eun began to tip backward, Tae-muk grabbed his elbow to pull him back. Ho-eun coldly brushed his hand away. Then, he glared at Tae-muk with fierce, hawk-like eyes.
“What. What is it.”
Tae-muk indifferently accepted his anger. Even so, his hand remained positioned beside Ho-eun, just in case he fell again. The way he stood askew looked far too unstable.
“…….”
Ho-eun stared at Tae-muk without answering. Tae-muk was covered in blood again. His military uniform was glossy where the blood had dried, and specks of blood were splattered across his cheek and neck. Still, his hands were clean, as if he had washed them somewhere.
“Are you hurt?”
Ho-eun asked demandingly.
“No.”
Tae-muk replied half-heartedly.
“You must be hurt.”
Ho-eun took a step closer and spoke again with a voice full of conviction. I saw it. You were hurt. I saw the tears, the bite marks, everything. Why are you lying? That was the look on his face.
“…….”
Tae-muk remained silent. It was a sign that he did not intend to continue a useless argument. Ho-eun took another step toward him and said,
“Please hug me.”
At that, Tae-muk took a step back and replied,
“I don’t want to.”
Though it was just one step, the difference in their stride was so great that Tae-muk became further distant than before. Ho-eun found this incredibly annoying and infuriating. Glaring at Tae-muk with huffing breaths, he suddenly reached out his arms.
“I’m cold. Please hug me.”
“…….”
Tae-muk’s eyes seemed drawn, as if possessed, toward Ho-eun’s white hands. However, before his gaze could fully land on them, he quickly turned his head away. He did so because he didn’t trust himself to resist after seeing Ho-eun’s hands.
“Then just go inside. Go in and cover yourself with a blanket. I’ll light the fire for you.”
“I don’t want to.”
“……Then what do you want?”
“I want the General to hug me.”
Faced with the stubborn Ho-eun, Tae-muk let out a short sigh. He rubbed his face as if scratching it. His complexion was deeply tanned by exhaustion. With no vitality, no color, and a dry, parched look, he wasn’t much different from Dong-ja’s state. It was a look that made one wonder if he had even been eating.
With his arms open, Ho-eun crept closer to Tae-muk. He wanted to hug him. No, he had to hug him.
But Tae-muk took another step back and warned him in a rather chilly voice.
“Choi Ho-eun. Listen to me before I get angry. Go inside.”
However, Ho-eun wasn’t scared of Tae-muk at all. Not one bit. He let his outstretched arms drop. Then, in a quiet yet tender voice—a voice that Tae-muk could not possibly refuse—he spoke.
“I know you want to feel pain.”
“…….”
“Even so, I’ll only hug you.”
“…….”
“Nothing more, nothing less. I’ll do only that.”
At those words, Tae-muk’s cheek twitched slightly. His pitch-black pupils wavered, and his thick Adam’s apple moved up and down. He was conflicted. Seeing this, Ho-eun smiled, his eyes curving playfully.
“I won’t untie my clothes-ties, nor will I untie yours. So you don’t have to be so afraid.”
At that, Tae-muk let out a small chuckle before he could stop himself. The innocent Ho-eun was far too powerful. He had never won against him, and he likely never would. With a face like that, a voice like that, and a smile like that, how could he possibly resist?
As the atmosphere softened, Ho-eun sat down on the veranda. Then, he patted the spot beside him.
“Sit down.”
“Alright. I get it, so let’s just go inside first. It’s cold.”
“I don’t want to. I like it here.”
“You really……”
“Hurry.”
Tae-muk pulled at his earlobe with a conflicted expression, but eventually, he sat down beside Ho-eun.
As if he had been waiting, Ho-eun promptly climbed onto Tae-muk’s lap. He habitually smoothed out the wrinkled clothes and pushed his braided hair back. Then, he leaned his entire body into Tae-muk’s embrace.
Immediately, he felt Tae-muk’s boiling body temperature. It was so hot it felt as if he had immersed himself in a ball of fire. He felt worried, but at the same time, his body relaxed as if it were melting. It was because he felt at peace. After all, he was in Tae-muk’s arms. The arms he had longed for throughout the past few days.
He hadn’t been able to sleep properly during the three days Tae-muk was gone. It was because without Tae-muk’s embrace, his warmth, and his scent, he felt as empty as if he had no pillow or blanket. If he hadn’t fallen into dead sleeps due to the fever sickness, he might have spent three days straight wide awake.
Ho-eun enjoyed the comfort for a moment, like a squirrel in its nest. He lightly closed his eyes and breathed softly.
“…….”
During this time, Tae-muk remained still without any movement. Then, after swallowing dry saliva once, he slowly hugged Ho-eun back. Once he touched him, something hot and heavy surged within him like a tide.
His entire body stiffened. He couldn’t even breathe. Then, all the tension suddenly drained away. How should he put it? It felt as if he had wandered the battlefields for a long time and had finally returned home.
He wrapped his entire body around Ho-eun. He rubbed his face against Ho-eun’s white nape, buried his nose in the soft skin, and inhaled his scent with all his might.
“…….”
“…….”
The two remained locked in an embrace for a long while. In that moment, he felt his body and heart—which had been riddled with holes like something eaten by insects—being filled. He finally became whole, as if they had been one since the beginning of time.
After some time had passed, Tae-muk, who had been gently stroking Ho-eun, belatedly realized that he was covered in blood.
“I’m stained with blood.”
He didn’t want the filthy blood of the Devouring Ghouls to seep into Ho-eun’s fair skin and fine clothes. So, as he tried to pull Ho-eun away—
“It’s okay.”
Ho-eun stubbornly hugged Tae-muk tight. Though it was a negligible amount of strength, Tae-muk did not bother to push him away. Instead, he wrapped his large hand around Ho-eun’s back. Because he hated the thought of the cold wind brushing against his back.