HRB 25

However, Eddie wasn’t particularly startled by someone quietly entering his room.

He quickly recognized who the large silhouette was, as he could sense that distinctive scent that had become so familiar to him, even in the darkness.

“Ket?”

Eddie called his name, but Ketron didn’t respond.

Who knows when he had entered, but he had been quietly watching Eddie from the darkness without waking him as he slept deeply.

Eddie turned on the magic lamp by his bedside. Though not as bright as modern lighting, the room quickly brightened enough to clearly reveal Ketron standing quietly watching him.

Ketron was sitting quietly at the foot of Eddie’s bed.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“…”

Ketron silently shook his head. But Eddie couldn’t miss the expression on Ketron’s face.

Though it was a fleeting emotion, Ketron seemed relieved by Eddie’s reaction.

Suddenly remembering something, Eddie asked,

“Ket, did you have a nightmare?”

Silence is affirmation. Eddie, who had been watching the stoic man just staring at him, seemed to realize something and opened his blanket.

The inside of the blanket was quite warm. Though the bed would be far too cramped with someone of his size, what wouldn’t Eddie do to comfort his protagonist?

“Do you want to sleep together?”

Wasn’t it common for a child who had a nightmare to run to the person they relied on, asking them to soothe them or sleep with them? Eddie faithfully fulfilled what he thought Ketron wanted.

But Ketron frowned as if he couldn’t have imagined such an offer. He even pulled back slightly.

Ah, not this?

“…No.”

Ketron shook his head in denial. It was the first time Eddie had heard his voice since the incident at lunchtime. Though slightly subdued, it was the normal Ketron.

Having his offer rejected, Eddie awkwardly pulled the blanket back over himself. It seemed both ridiculous and cute how Ketron, who had been so desperate to embrace and be held earlier in the day, was now suddenly being shy.

His inner embarrassment was so obvious.

They fell silent for a moment, having nothing more to say. But the silence didn’t last long.

“Ah, right.”

Eddie remembered the round chocolate he had set aside for Ketron before today’s incident. Rummaging through the pocket of the clothes he had worn during the day, he found what he had forgotten amid all the commotion.

“Ket, come here.”

As he unwrapped the packaging, a round chocolate studded with nuts quickly revealed itself.

Ketron approached like an obedient child, and Eddie held out the chocolate to him.

“Say ‘ah.'”

“…Ah.”

Perhaps because he had grown accustomed to Eddie putting things in his mouth, Ketron naturally opened his mouth despite the abrupt command in the early dawn.

Eddie popped the unwrapped Ferrero Rocher into the obedient guy’s mouth. Eddie smiled as he watched Ketron reflexively melt and eat what had entered his mouth.

Sweets help when you’re feeling down. Any slight guilt about feeding a child snacks in bed quickly disappeared at the sight of Ketron’s cheeks bulging with chocolate.

Eddie reached out and patted Ketron’s rounded cheek.

“Make sure to brush your teeth, then sleep well.”

“…”

“See you tomorrow.”

Though Ketron seemed to hesitate for a moment as if there was something he wanted to say, he eventually got up without speaking.

With his cheeks still puffed out like a squirrel storing acorns, Ketron left the room.

His retreating figure didn’t look as unstable as before.

“…”

Though he had told Ketron to go to sleep quickly…

Eddie was now wide awake, as if he had never been tired. He brushed his bangs up.

While it was problematic that the boy had suddenly picked the lock and entered, Eddie couldn’t bring himself to scold him after seeing Ketron’s troubling expression in the darkness before Eddie spoke to him.

Ketron’s face, which had remained tense even after Eddie opened his eyes, only relaxed after Eddie called his name and acknowledged him.

“Phew.”

…Having a good idea of what Ketron’s nightmare might have been about, Eddie buried his face in his pillow with a long sigh.

* * *

The next day.

“…”

Eddie, who usually had decent sleep quality and followed a healthy lifestyle of going to bed and getting up early, felt half-asleep for quite some time that day.

Having woken up in the middle of the night and been unable to fall back asleep for some time, he felt less rested than usual.

“Yaaaawn.”

After washing up and getting dressed while stretching out a long yawn, Eddie stepped out of his room and his gaze immediately turned to Ketron’s room next door.

That door was firmly closed.

It felt as if they had returned to when they first met.

After briefly contemplating the closed door, Eddie headed down to the convenience store in the basement. Inside the always clean and pleasant convenience store, Eddie looked around the snack section and found what he wanted.

“Hmm.”

Regular, nude, almond, Oreo.

Eddie tapped his cheek with his finger. While his personal favorite was probably almond, wasn’t the classic still the best?

After deliberating, Eddie realized there was no need to choose and grabbed the regular Pepero, almond Pepero, and nude Pepero all at once.

Rushing back to the first floor, Eddie placed a nude Pepero in front of Gerold, who had woken up earlier than Eddie and was quietly working.

“Gerold! Eat this later.”

Having taken care of his employee, Eddie hurried upstairs with the other two packages.

Eddie placed the Pepero in front of Ketron’s room, just as he had previously left medicine and banana milk. Both of the ones he had.

And to prevent anyone else from taking them, he even wrote a note with a marker and Post-it from the convenience store.

“Ket’s”

After diligently writing two notes and attaching them to both packages, Eddie briefly considered whether he should knock on the door.

But he decided against it. The situation was a bit different now from before. Eddie didn’t need to force the door open and drag Ketron out; he would open the door and come out on his own.

That’s what Eddie believed.

When Eddie went downstairs to the first floor, he caught Gerold opening the packaging of the nude Pepero.

At some point, Gerold had stopped questioning whatever Eddie brought up from the basement. It seemed suspicious to anyone looking, but Eddie’s previous puzzlement over Gerold’s acceptance had now become a thing of the past.

Gerold wouldn’t question anything Eddie did. Because Eddie was his master.

Honestly, nothing was still clear, and if anything, Eddie was the one with mounting questions… but at least Gerold’s loyalty was real, so Eddie decided to trust him for now.

After all, in this world where Eddie had landed alone, Gerold was his only true ally.

“What are you planning to do?”

When Eddie brought up a whiteboard that convenience store workers typically used to list emergency numbers and precautions, Gerold asked while munching on the nude Pepero.

“I’m going to write up a menu to hang on the wall.”

There was a popping sound as Eddie removed the marker cap with his mouth.

Eventually, he would need to make a proper menu board, but for the current modest menu, a whiteboard would be sufficient.

Eddie began writing the menu without hesitation. The language patch was so perfect that he wrote the characters of the Reneva Empire as fluently as if writing in Korean, resulting in quite neat handwriting.

He even drew pictures of the menu items beside the text. Thanks to Lee Jeong-hoon’s various minor talents, including decent drawing skills, the illustrations looked fairly convincing.

“Ta-da!”

When Eddie turned to Gerold with a smile and said this, Gerold clapped expressionlessly.

…It feels like I’ve become a superior forcing applause from a subordinate through power.

Perhaps it wasn’t so different after all.

Eddie didn’t refuse when Gerold shared the rest of his Pepero and accepted the nude Pepero. Sharing Pepero amicably made him feel like he was becoming a bit closer with this stoic employee.

After diligently eating the Pepero, Eddie placed the menu board in a visible position near the entrance. Then, with a satisfied expression, he headed toward his room on the second floor when he realized that the Pepero he had left in front of Ketron’s room was gone.

“…”

Eddie’s face, momentarily blank, suddenly brightened.

He couldn’t help but imagine a black cat peeking out of the door and sneaking in with the Pepero with only its front paws.

Of course, that cat was a bit big…

Eddie looked at the closed door with a pleased smile before heading to his own room. His steps were notably lighter.

* * *

[Ket’s]

Ketron lay on the bed, staring at the two small boxes of unknown contents that Eddie had left for him.

Given that person’s personality, it was probably food. Sweet-tasting food at that.

The paper Eddie had attached was strangely not too sticky, easy to remove, yet it adhered well when applied—an odd kind of paper.

And on it, neatly written:

[Ket’s]

“…”

He vaguely understood what people meant when they said that one’s handwriting revealed their personality. Ketron quietly removed just the paper from the box.

After carefully folding the sticky part to keep it neat, it became an ordinary piece of paper with “Ket’s” written on it.

Staring at the paper quietly, Ketron slowly opened the bottom drawer of the bedside table. He carefully placed the paper in the empty drawer and closed it.

With a thud, Ketron lay back on the bed and quietly closed his eyes in the dimly lit room with the curtains drawn.