TBML 73

They hadn’t even finished hanging out the laundry they’d just retrieved from the stream when the two of them had to lock the door. It was as if the warm weather of the day had been an illusion. As the sun began to set, a sudden, biting wind began to howl.

The wind was so strong it could easily blow away even the heavy, water-soaked clothes. With the laundry constantly being blown away, Yiyeon and Hyunhak had no choice but to go back inside. Even though they locked the door, the strong wind shook it, and the sound of the wind whistling through it was like the swishing of a sword.

It was a thatched-roof house in the middle of a densely forested mountain. The wind is usually less fierce in the mountains than on flat land, but if it was this bad here, the roofs on the plains might have been blown away. He had suspected that the unusually mild weather meant a cold snap was coming, but he hadn’t expected it to turn this ferocious.

Whoooosh, clack-clack.

The sound of the wind and the shaking door made Yiyeon’s heart race with anxiety. He should have secured the few household items left out in the courtyard so they wouldn’t blow away, but had he even checked the back of the house? They were deep in the mountains; what if a landslide occurred? His mind was filled with worries of all kinds.

He desperately wanted to rush outside and secure the belongings, but because Hyunhak never took his eyes off him, Yiyeon could only fidget in his seat. Just as he was staring anxiously at the creaking door, a loud noise came from outside.

– Caaaaaaaw!

It was the strangest crow’s caw he’d ever heard in his life. Hearing that huge crow cawing out there made him worry about the chickens stolen contentas well. If he’d known the weather would change so suddenly, he should’ve stopped messing around during the day and at least built a makeshift chicken coop. Because of the mess he’d made, they’d wasted the whole day cleaning it up.

Even as Yiyeon was having these thoughts, the crow’s cawing continued to echo from outside. It was just a cawing sound, but for some reason, Yiyeon felt as if he’d overheard gossip; his ears itched, so he rubbed them vigorously while looking at Hyunhak.

Even though it was so noisy outside, Hyunhak was looking at Yiyeon with a serene smile, as if he couldn’t hear a thing.

Hyunhak often stared at Yiyeon like this. Whenever Yiyeon got lost in his own thoughts for a moment and then regained his senses, he would find himself meeting Hyunhak’s gaze.

The scenery all around was breathtaking, what was there to see that made him stare at him? It wasn’t that he found it unpleasant or disliked it, but it did make him feel a little uncomfortable. Usually, when someone stares at you and your eyes meet, they’re bound to look away, but Hyunhak, far from averting his gaze, would instead smile ever so slightly.

Caaa! Caaa!

As the crows’ screeches rang out once more, Yiyeon decided this simply wouldn’t do and jumped to his feet. The moment he stood up, Hyunhak quickly grabbed his wrist and pulled him back down to sit.

“My Lord, I’ll go check on things for a moment before the wind gets any stronger. We need to at least bring the chickens into the kitchen.”

With the crow making such a racket, could Hyunhak really not hear its cries?

Wondering if it was Hyunhak, and not himself, who had damaged his ears and couldn’t hear, Yiyeon tilted his head in confusion.

When the crow cawed again from outside, Hyunhak rose from his seat instead of Yiyeon. Then he blurted out something completely out of the blue.

“I’ll go. Yeon-ah, you… you might get blown away.”

“……I’m a full-grown man. I won’t be blown away by a wind like this. That’s embarrassing, My Lord.”

Blown away? I’m not a toddler.

While light, frail women might occasionally be knocked over and injured by the wind, such a thing was unlikely to happen to a grown adult. If an adult could actually be blown away by the wind, this house wouldn’t still be standing so firmly right now.

Yiyeon’s face flushed at Hyunhak’s absurd remark. Whenever he acted like this, Yiyeon felt embarrassed and at a loss for how to respond.

“Ahem.”

Yiyeon cleared his throat.

In time with his cough, the crow’s caw and a chicken’s “cock-a-doodle-doo” alternated, followed by the whooshing sound of the wind and the clatter of something rolling.

Hyunhak, like Yiyeon before him, rubbed his ears vigorously in response to the commotion outside. Yiyeon was right, his ears did itch. It was because the crow was constantly cursing from outside the shut door.

–You uuuugly bastard, you dog… no, you damn idiot.

If he just ignored him for a while, the crow would eventually tire himself out, tidy things up, and fly away. But if he left him any longer, the loud cawing would surely drive Yiyeon outside, so Hyunhak had no choice but to step out of the house and look for Zao. No matter how much better he’d gotten, Yiyeon had nearly frozen to death after falling into cold water that afternoon. If he caught a cold from the chilly wind, he wouldn’t be able to get back on his feet anytime soon.

He dragged his feet toward the backyard as if it were a bother and found Zao perched on the fence set up to keep the chickens from straying too far.

–You bastard! Open the door! Let me in!!

“You’re so loud. Stop that and come inside.”

As Zao screamed and swayed back and forth with the fence, Hyunhak shook his head.

–Bad tiger!

He could easily have evacuated to another safe place, but he was doing this on purpose. He just couldn’t stand seeing Hyunhak enjoying himself, so he was trying to disrupt things any way he could.

Hyunhak roughly gathered the household items flying everywhere and shoved them into the kitchen. He grabbed the chickens one by one and tossed them inside; the startled birds, seeking warmth, found their own spots among themselves.

Next, Hyunhak gestured toward the wide-open kitchen door. He had no intention of letting Zao into the room.

Zao snorted loudly, “Hmph!” and flew off, as if he’d never been making a fuss in the first place.

Just look at him, he’s capable of taking care of himself.

“Hmph, so am I.”

Hyunhak hurled the words at Zao, who had already vanished, knowing they wouldn’t reach him.

Then he looked up at the sky for a moment. The wind was certainly strong. The branches of the dense trees surrounding the house were shaking. The sky was pitch black and filled with dark clouds, as if a blizzard were about to rage.

The moment Hyunhak had that thought, a cold ice crystal fell on the bridge of his nose. It was thick, so it didn’t melt from his body heat and maintained its white shape for a moment.

As if that crystal had been the start, white, fluffy flakes began swirling everywhere. Hyunhak finished tidying up the items scattered across the yard and locked the kitchen door.

When the closed door opened again and Hyunhak entered, Yiyeon quickly stood up and brushed the snow off his shoulders. Hyunhak then bent down so Yiyeon’s hands could reach the snow piled on his head as well. Yiyeon quickly brushed the snow off Hyunhak’s body and asked.

“Has it snowed this much in such a short time?”

“Yes. I put the chickens in the kitchen.”

“You did the right thing. That was something I could have done myself.”

“No. The wind is strong, and the snowflakes are big. It’s better if you don’t go out.”

Yiyeon chatted with Hyunhak as he fastened the door, which was being buffeted by the wind, tidied up the snow-covered clothes, and offered him the warmest spot in the innermost corner of the room, since he’d just returned from outside.

The scene looked so natural that they seemed just like an elderly couple who’d lived together for a long time in a remote mountain village. It was almost frightening how familiar they’d become with each other so quickly.

As Yiyeon struggled to block the draft coming through the door with a cotton quilt, Hyunhak stepped in to help.

“Will it keep snowing all night?”

“Probably.”

“That’s worrisome.”

Though he said that, it might not end in just one day. If it snowed so ​stolen content​heavily for days on end that they couldn’t move a muscle, that would be a major concern.

Yiyeon went over the rice bin and other supplies he’d checked while tidying up the kitchen in his mind, trying to estimate how many days they could last if they used everything sparingly. Unlike the busy Yiyeon, Hyunhak had no thoughts at all. To him, the heavy snowfall wasn’t a problem.

Yiyeon was lost in thought, and Hyunhak was lost in Yiyeon; for a moment, silence settled over the small room.

Hyunhak, who had been staring at Yiyeon, suddenly pulled the small table that had been in the corner of the room toward him. He remembered what Yiyeon had said earlier that day in the valley, that he didn’t read books.

While Yiyeon was lost in his own thoughts, Hyunhak tiptoed like a thief, opened a random book on the small table, sat up straight, and lit the oil lamp he had brought back a few days earlier. He had seen Zao occasionally make a big deal out of reading books this way. It was Hyunhak’s clever ploy to hide the fact that he wasn’t human and couldn’t read.

When Hyunhak sat down with the book open, perhaps because of his polished appearance, he looked like a scholar from a distinguished family. When he deliberately adopted a solemn demeanor and furrowed his brow, he looked every bit the scholar lost in thought, pondering answers and wrestling with difficult questions. Whenever Zao read these books, he would complain that they were too difficult, that they gave him a headache and brought tears to his eyes, and after reading for only a short while, he would end up face-down on the table.

In fact, this was precisely why he had deliberately kept Zao out of the room and sent him away. If Zao had seen Hyunhak imitating him right now, he would have laughed so hard he’d be rolling on the floor, clutching his stomach.

Hyunhak sat with his back straight, staring at the paper, which was mottled with black and white spots. But when Yiyeon, lost in thought, didn’t turn to look at him, Hyunhak grew anxious. Yiyeon needed to see him reading the book, but once he got lost in thought, it took calling him two or three times, and sometimes even a gentle nudge, to bring him back.

“Ahem, ahem.”

Hyunhak cleared his throat with a feigned cough. But Yiyeon remained lost in thought. As Hyunhak’s anxiety grew, he coughed loudly once more. Only then did Yiyeon startle and turn to look at him.

“My Lord, are you having a cough?”

“No.”

It was the wrong question. Hyunhak looked at him, but Yiyeon’s off-the-mark question made him feel as if his lungs were being squeezed. Feeling stifled, he straightened his shoulders and chest even more defiantly and opened the book in his hands wide.

For some reason, Yiyeon watched Hyunhak’s odd behavior with concern, wondering if he was uncomfortable, but suddenly started laughing. He tried to hold it in, but before he could cover his mouth with his hand, a “Pfft” sound escaped him.

“My Lord, do you not want to study?”

“No. I’m studying.”

In response to Yiyeon’s question, Hyunhak answered [Read on]with pride, as if he were accomplishing something truly remarkable.

“You’re holding that medical book upside down.”

But the medical book in Hyunhak’s hands was indeed upside down.