By Zephyria 
97
“I’m…… sleepy.”
Ho-eun said, as if mumbling. He mustn’t fall asleep. This was a battlefield. There would be Devouring Ghouls outside. It would be a disaster if they invaded while he was asleep. Thinking that, he tried to keep his eyes open somehow.
But Tae-muk replied nonchalantly.
“Sleep.”
“Is that okay?”
“What wouldn’t be?”
Ho-eun felt rather relieved at the dry answer. Now that Tae-muk was by his side, what did he care about Devouring Ghouls or anything else? Falling asleep in his arms would probably be like falling asleep in the safest place in the world.
“Then just for a little bit…….”
Just for a little bit. Ho-eun closed his eyes before he could finish the rest of his words. He felt Tae-muk’s hand wrap around his back. The weight pressing down on him was just right.
Ho-eun woke up to the smell of tobacco brushing against his nose. He saw an unfamiliar ceiling. Judging by the rafters supporting the ceiling, it seemed to be a house, not a tent or a military camp. Someone’s house. Also, since he couldn’t hear the sound of the heavy rain, it seemed the rain had stopped overnight.
“……”
Ho-eun blinked slowly. His eyelids felt heavy with the sleepiness that had taken over his entire body. Just then, the smell of tobacco smoke brushed against his nose again. Ho-eun followed it and turned his head.
One of the window doors was wide open, and beyond it, he saw a familiar figure from behind. He wasn’t wearing his military uniform but only a white Yui, but it was definitely him, Tae-muk. Tobacco smoke billowed over his head as he sat on the veranda.
Most of the smoke dissipated outside, but a few wisps mixed with the cool breeze unique to late autumn and entered the room.
Ho-eun inhaled it deeply. The air was quite cold, but he wasn’t cold. That was because the floor was boiling hot. It was a familiar temperature. When winter approached, his mother always heated the floor like this, worried that he might catch a cold.
“……”
Ho-eun was staring blankly at Tae-muk’s back. The floor was warm, the cold wind was coming in through the open door, and Tae-muk’s tobacco smoke was billowing in on the breeze. It felt strange.
Was it peaceful, or was it languid? He couldn’t say exactly what it was, but it wasn’t a bad feeling.
After watching Tae-muk for a while, Ho-eun belatedly remembered what had happened last night. His last memory was of the tub, so why was he lying in a heated room now? Had Tae-muk moved him? But he hadn’t known? He wasn’t a light sleeper, so he was surprised that he hadn’t woken up once. Was it because he hadn’t just fallen asleep but had fainted?
Ho-eun wriggled and raised his body. His Hair Tie was gone, and his loosened hair fell forward with a rustle, and the blanket that had covered him up to his neck fell down. At the same time, he felt a chilly sensation. It was because he was naked.
“Ah…….”
Ho-eun sighed softly. Right, his clothes had been soaked in the rain. He had to put something on quickly. He didn’t have a hobby of being naked in broad daylight. It wasn’t polite to be in such a disheveled state in front of his superior, either.
Growing impatient, he quickly reached out to the floor to get up.
Squish.
A strange sound came. The source of the sound was none other than his palm. The slimy and sticky feeling was extremely unpleasant. Ho-eun frowned and checked his hand. Something transparent and gooey was all over his palm.
“……”
What is this?
Ho-eun sniffed his palm. He could smell something slightly musty, but he couldn’t identify it. So he just rolled his eyes around, and then he saw a container placed near the bed.
It was ointment.
Ointment? Why was there ointment here……, Ho-eun thought, and then he remembered that he had hurt his palm. Of course, he didn’t remember applying the ointment. Tae-muk must have done it.
He slowly looked at Tae-muk’s back.
While he was sleeping, he had moved him from the tub to the room, taken off his clothes, heated the room, and even applied ointment.
“……”
It was surprising, unexpected, and also puzzling…….
He had been feeling lately that Tae-muk was a little different from how he had been at first. Had he become kinder, or had he become more gentle? Anyway, he was glad that Tae-muk seemed to have started accepting him as one of his own.
Ho-eun fiddled with the palm of his hand, which was smeared with ointment. He smiled faintly at the thought that he would apply ointment to this hand every morning and evening.
Ho-eun looked down at his hand for a while, then belatedly remembered that he was still naked.
He looked around the room, which was neither too small nor too big. Then he found some clothes placed in one corner. It was a Hanbok made of jade-colored silk. It wasn’t Ho-eun’s, but he didn’t know if it belonged to anyone, but he thought he should wear it for now, since it was an emergency.
Ho-eun struggled to get up without touching the floor with his hands. Then he barely managed to stand up awkwardly, but somehow his feet were also sticky. He lifted one foot slightly and saw that the soles of his feet were also covered in ointment.
Ah, he had also hurt his feet.
He didn’t know how he could walk like this, but he couldn’t just stay naked.
Ho-eun bit his lip and tiptoed toward the clothes. Every time he walked, ointment footprints were left on the floor. He felt sorry to Tae-muk, who had applied the ointment by hand, and to the owner of the house, but there was no other way.
He quickly put on the clothes. The jade-colored Hanbok wasn’t made of very expensive silk, but it was soft enough and the color was beautiful. However, it was a little big. He had always had his clothes tailored, so the loose fit felt very unfamiliar. But he had no complaints.
But there was no Hair Tie. He lifted the clothes and looked around again, but he couldn’t see it. He had to tie his hair.
Ho-eun pondered for a moment, then ran his fingers through his long hair and approached Tae-muk. He had good hearing, so he probably already knew that he was awake, but he cleared his throat to make his presence known, as a matter of courtesy.
Then he carefully sat down next to him. Tae-muk must have known that Ho-eun had come, but he didn’t say anything and just blew out tobacco smoke.
“Did you sleep well?”
“So-so.”
“Did you even sleep?”
Ho-eun tilted his head and looked up at Tae-muk. He was worried because he had hardly ever seen him sleep.
“Yeah.”
Tae-muk replied, as if annoyed.
“……”
Ho-eun pouted. He tried to be friendly, but Tae-muk didn’t accept it, so he was always stuck in the same place. But Ho-eun didn’t give up and continued to talk.
“The room was very warm, so it was very nice. It was very cold all day yesterday, but thanks to you, I don’t think I’ll catch a cold. My body feels light.”
Ho-eun shrugged his shoulders to express his light body. He thought he would suffer from the aftereffects of yesterday’s excessive punishment for several days, but after soaking in a hot tub and sleeping stuck to the boiling floor, his body felt very good. His feet and calves were a little sore, but that level of pain didn’t even count as suffering.
“It’s all thanks to you, General.”
Ho-eun said with a bright smile. At that, Tae-muk, who had a cigarette in his mouth, glanced at Ho-eun. Then he snorted. He didn’t know what was so funny. Ho-eun, who didn’t care about his sneers anymore, continued to chatter.
“You left these clothes for me to wear, right?”
Ho-eun shook the Dopo hem.
“Then should I wear them?”
Tae-muk replied, taking a drag of his cigarette and then releasing it. He imagined himself wearing such pale clothes, and goosebumps rose all over his neck. As if trying to tear off the goosebumps, Tae-muk scratched his neck roughly, and Ho-eun asked in amazement.
“Where did you get these clothes?”
“There’s a town here, too.”
“Ah…….”
Ho-eun sighed softly. It wouldn’t be that difficult to find clothes in a town big enough to have hospitals, schools, and churches. It wasn’t like the Devouring Ghouls were stealing clothes. Ho-eun hadn’t realized that this was a town because he had only thought of it as a battlefield.
“I was momentarily ignorant.”
Ho-eun lowered his head as if embarrassed. Then his hair fell forward with a rustle. Ho-eun brushed his long hair behind his shoulders and asked.
“But by any chance…… have you seen my Hair Tie?”
He couldn’t go around looking like this. People would make fun of him. Besides, he was Tae-muk’s Bondmate. He didn’t want rumors to spread that his Bondmate was a ghost. Tae-muk was already carrying around ominous rumors.
But Tae-muk’s breath stopped abruptly.
“……”
The tobacco smoke that had been flowing out between his teeth also stopped. Ho-eun, sensing that, also stopped breathing. His heart sank, thinking that he had made too unreasonable a request. Right, it was indeed excessive to change to a new Hair Tie in this situation.
“It’s, it’s okay to wear the one I wore yesterday.”
Ho-eun was about to get up to find his clothes somewhere.
“Does it have to be done?”
Tae-muk asked a question that made no sense.
“Pardon?”
Ho-eun’s eyes widened. If he didn’t do it? Was he supposed to go around with his hair flying in the wind? Or perhaps, was he telling him to cut it? These days, young people didn’t follow the principle of receiving one’s body, hair, and skin from one’s parents as much as before, but even though Tae-muk also had short hair, Ho-eun couldn’t do that. His parents had given him this precious body, so how could he damage it?
“……”
Ho-eun looked up at Tae-muk with an expression as if he had just been beheaded, and Tae-muk clicked his tongue.
“Never mind.”
Then he rummaged through his pants pocket. From there came a jade-colored Hair Tie, that is, a Hair Tie made of the same silk as the Hanbok Ho-eun was wearing.