Chapter 32

Now he didn’t know anymore.

Who was the monster, and who was human.

Hong Yeom-rang’s hand settled atop Hisa’s head.

He turned her small head in his palm so she faced the other way.

Then he set the clothes he’d brought on a rock and untied the loose knot at his waist.

Thud.

He kicked off the soiled pants and dove straight into the water.

A small splash rose.

The water came below Hong Yeom-rang’s chest, deep enough to cover Hisa’s head.

He dipped himself under the warm water up to the crown of his head, then emerged.

Hisa was still looking the other way exactly as he had turned her.

He flicked water with his fingers.

Warm droplets landed on her pale cheek.

Hisa startled and stepped back.

“Hey!”

But the one more startled than Hisa was Hong Yeom-rang.

As she stepped back, she lost balance like a dry branch swaying and tipped sideways.

He reached out on instinct.

Catching Hisa as she fell from the rock, he pulled her into his arms, her body sinking halfway into the water.

“Haah, haah.”

The one panting was Hong Yeom-rang.

Not Hisa.

He had meant only to startle her with water.

Then she suddenly dropped from the sky and he was the one frightened.

“Why are you the one startled?”

After thinking for a moment about what had happened, Hisa burst into a bright smile.

She looked utterly innocent.

As if the whole thing was amusing.

The world had flipped in an instant.

Now she was in the water.

And seeing Hong Yeom-rang’s shocked face only made her laugh.

Hisa’s red fingertips flicked water into his face.

Ping.

“If you ate properly, you wouldn’t collapse so weakly!”

Only after getting splashed did he shout, narrowing his brow.

“I slipped.”

“Yes. You seem to trip even while walking.”

Hong Yeom-rang mocked the unbothered Hisa, even after she’d nearly scared him half to death.

And yet the corners of his mouth didn’t rise.

They trembled.

Hisa’s hand toyed with the damp hair behind his ear.

“Were you scared?”

He was.

And the way she asked so softly, like a snowflake melting on his tongue.

That startled him too.

She acted as if it were nothing.

After something worth getting angry over, she was instead touching his hair.

No matter how he looked at it, she wasn’t normal.

Strength slipped from Hong Yeom-rang’s hands.

Hisa’s body sank down into the water.

Soon only her head peeked out.

Her smiling eyes were still crescent-shaped.

She wasn’t mocking him.

“…Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Yeom-rang, I’m fine. It was fun. It’s the first time someone caught me.”

Her cheeks pink from the medicinal spring, Hisa spoke excitedly.

Like a fluffy well-cooked potato.

He kept thinking only of things that melted in his mouth.

The taut nerves always lined with thorns loosened despite himself.

There had to be some hidden intent.

People always hid their true nature when they approached.

Then showed what they wanted.

Everyone had desires.

To Hong Yeom-rang, people fell into two kinds.

Those kind to him.

And those who despised him.

In the end they were the same.

He had long given up expecting anything from people.

He was sick of them.

Descendant of traitors who betrayed their lord.

People who hid deep contempt in their chests while looking down on him.

People lured in by his face, then turning away the moment his thorny words cut them.

The capital was full of such people.

He hated it.

Then he came back home thinking he might make it in time for his mother’s death day.

And heard there was a monster wearing human skin.

Humans were monstrous enough.

How much worse would a real monster be.

So Hong Yeom-rang expected nothing.

Not from humans.

Not from things that weren’t human.

“There’s always moss on that rock over there. I slip there all the time.”

Hisa explained earnestly that she often fell, so she hadn’t been that surprised.

She had no idea what thoughts were running through him.

Her face was still as bright as the Village Fool’s.

Hong Yeom-rang bit the inside of his cheek hard.

If even a father shunned his son, who could truly be kind to him.

When he thought of it that way, all the mockery behind his back, all the laughter calling him traitor, made sense.

Since others never watched their tongues, neither did he.

And he wanted to watch his father’s hopes wither.

Those hopes that his fate had been set at birth.

To place hope in a son you shunned.

How absurd.

“Hehe.”

Hisa smiled foolishly.

A deep dimple formed in her right cheek.

“Is this fun?”

Hong Yeom-rang asked suddenly.

“Yes.”

Hisa nodded sweetly.

Seeing that, he lost even the energy to be angry.

When all your thorns are melted soft, even the one attacking loses strength.

Hong Yeom-rang lowered his head toward Hisa, who stood on tiptoe.

Their foreheads touched.

The long bridge of his nose bumped softly against hers.

“Go up again, then. I’ll catch you.”

Her round gentle eyes blinked.

Her head tilted slightly, confused.

Even then her melting smile remained.

Hong Yeom-rang pulled his forehead away and jerked his chin toward the rock she’d fallen from.

“I’ll catch you.”

Only then did Hisa understand.

And she laughed bigger than he had ever seen.

Delighted, she turned her back and crawled up the rock.

While climbing, her yellow robe seemed too heavy soaked through, so she casually untied it and tossed it off.

The yellow robe floated over the misty green water.

“Can’t you fly up like a monster?”

Surely she had some trick.

Watching her struggle up, Hong Yeom-rang clicked his tongue.

She’d scrape her knees.

Inside the discarded robe, the shirt she wore, his shirt, was so large it hung to her thighs.

Her pale thighs showed plainly.

“I can’t do things like that.”

Hisa answered gently while climbing.

“Watch where you’re going. Stop fooling around.”

He said it coldly.

Yet he was the one unable to properly look ahead.

Hisa crawled up and stood on the rock.

It wasn’t high.

That’s why he told her to go up.

He could’ve leapt it in one move.

But Hisa, being shorter, took three or four tries.

She probably scraped her knees.

He shouldn’t have told her to climb.

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, he saw her stand atop the rock.

But before the eager look on her face, something else struck his beast-like eyes first.

At her chest.

“You…”

F*ck.

He didn’t even know if he’d said it aloud or swallowed it.

Because Hisa simply jumped.

He hadn’t even raised his hands out of the water to catch her.

She just leapt.

His heart dropped too.

Thankfully, just like before, he hurried and caught her.

“I-I, crazy… you did that on purpose, you crazy…”

Crazy.

Crazy woman.

His head felt ready to burst.

The thought of judging Hisa by human standards vanished cleanly.

And what remained was only a naked Hong Yeom-rang and a madwoman who jumped off rocks.

He hadn’t realized the shirt he gave her was this thin.

Soaked through, it clung to her body.

And her hard nipples stood clearly visible.

Her full breasts were out.

And not knowing any of it, she had jumped defenseless into a man’s arms smiling.

I just saw your tits.

Those round nipples stood plainly.

Hong Yeom-rang couldn’t tear his eyes away.

While Hisa, knowing nothing, laughed in his arms.

“You caught me again.”

She stretched out a hand.

Then lightly patted the top of Hong Yeom-rang’s head while his face burned red with fury.

Her slender wrist was too fragile to slap away.

Too delicate to grip hard.

What if it broke.

So Hong Yeom-rang had no choice but to let her pat his head.

Breath burst from his gritted mouth.

The hand supporting under one of her armpits was a tiny movement away from touching her breast.

This wild naked fool.

She lived alone in this harsh forest?

With those half-crazy goblin bastards?

This defenseless?

“Yeom-rang?”

“My lady should think herself lucky you got caught by me.”

Grinding his teeth, Hong Yeom-rang said it.

He had no idea how she’d secretly stolen men’s hair all this time without getting caught by men with cocks.

Only because it was him had she gotten this much patience.

“No. You got caught by me.”

Hisa shook her head firmly.

“What?”

“Sacrifice. I chose you.”

Her finger came down from his hair.

Poke.

It jabbed his cheek.

As if there were some puffed-up resentment there, all the steam went out of him.