OMH Chapter 33
by Volare33. The S-Grades I Ended Up Raising (14)
Gang Hana gritted his teeth as he recalled the Esper with the flamboyant hair who had offered to help him gather escape information by turning him into a cat without even being asked.
Cha Woojin never wanted to experience the terrifying experience of his body shrinking and its structure changing against his will ever again.
Moreover, even after returning to being human today, the hardships hadn’t ended.
Just a few hours ago, hadn’t he been threatened and treated like a counter-revolutionary by the Director of Guides?
He was so frustrated that he was being treated like this just because he skipped a few classes because he had something to believe in.
Was it really necessary to go this far just because he had a few thoughts that couldn’t even be called a plan?
Cha Woojin, caught up in his frustration, was hit in the foot by a crayon thrown by his younger sister and returned to reality.
“……”
In the all-white room with no decorations, only his young sister’s toys were scattered around.
The young child in the disharmonious interior space sat alone, absorbed in drawing in a sketchbook.
Cha Woojin stared blankly at his sister, who was so engrossed in her drawing that she seemed to be burying her nose in the sketchbook.
Her hands were stained with crayons and were smudged, but other than that, she was clean and untainted.
‘Was Wooreen’s skin this color?’
Cha Woojin stared dumbly at his six-year-old sister, who looked as white and soft as silken tofu.
The fitted woolen dress she had never worn before and her neatly tied hair suddenly brought a sense of incongruity.
This place was like a world from the past.
Not the lonely world where only the ruins of collapsed buildings and cement dust flew, not the world where he had to struggle among monsters whose identities he couldn’t even properly know, but the world where he could live comfortably among people.
Seeing his sister’s fingernails, which were always dirty and black, revealed in their original pink color, Cha Woojin instinctively realized.
This was the only place where he and his sister could live like humans.
In this place, there was no need to risk danger to find even one can of expired canned food.
There was no need to collect rainwater in plastic bottles that were crumpled and stained like garbage, or in dented pots with all the internal coating peeled off, and drink it sparingly. There was no need to wear rags that had rotted away.
Above all, in this place, there was no need to worry every moment about being discovered by monsters.
‘But is that all I should be satisfied with? Is the anxiety, the fear that I feel, at a level that can be ignored?’
Cha Woojin, who had been lost in thought for a while, was startled by a loud noise from the window.
Gang Hana was crumpling his body through the window with an eco-bag in his mouth. The eco-bag in his mouth was full of canned beer.
Gang Hana, who had entered the house, took out a can of beer and said.
“Welcome to your new home, Cha Woojin. There’s not much, but let’s have a small welcome party.”
He smiled brightly as always and took out crackers from the cupboard.
Judging by the animal-shaped children’s crackers, it seemed to be a snack prepared for Cha Wooreen.
However, it wouldn’t be surprising even if it was Gang Hana’s taste. He had such a youthful face.
The man with a childlike innocent face placed the plate of crackers on the table and took out a bunch of cans of alcohol from his bag and lined them up. Then, he took out a neat glass and poured a full glass of juice.
He was grateful for preparing it to include Cha Wooreen, but he had already fed her two glasses of juice, so he wasn’t very happy. But he couldn’t leave the child out, so he couldn’t say anything.
Cha Wooreen soon ran to Gang Hana and helped pour crackers onto the plate.
The three people sat side by side at the prepared table.
Cha Woojin was exhausted from being swept away by the chaos since yesterday and felt like he was about to collapse, but he gladly expressed his gratitude and forced himself to sit down.
The children prepared the place with excited eyes, and he didn’t want to refuse.
The man, who was a head shorter than him and had a childlike face, looked up at him with expectant eyes. He didn’t want to let down the expectations in his round eyes.
Cha Woojin immediately opened a can of beer.
With a refreshing sound, a small amount of foam rose up and scattered with the cheerful clinking of glasses of the three people.
*
When Cha Woojin had just reached the age where drinking was allowed, he had to fight monsters with guns stolen from the shooting range.
As a result, on the year he turned twenty, the first drinking experience he wanted to have with his friends as soon as the Bosingak bell rang was replaced by drinking lukewarm canned beer he found in the corner of a collapsing mart building along with cement dust.
He didn’t have any friends, but he wasn’t disappointed because he was with his father.
That was because alcohol was already a precious item at that time, so there wasn’t much of it.
The four cans of beer covered in cement dust that he found that day were shared with the people who came out to explore with him, so Cha Woojin shared one can of beer with his father.
The first and last alcohol he ever drank was bland and didn’t evoke any special emotions.
So Cha Woojin didn’t have any sense of alarm about the alcohol he was about to drink now.
He didn’t think much of the bitter drink that smelled of barley and alcohol.
He gladly passed the drink down his throat.
Gang Hana, who saw him drinking it in one shot, even applauded and liked it.
Cha Woojin felt strangely proud and quickly emptied one can and opened a new can.
The cute-faced man sitting across from him was talkative today, too.
He didn’t pay attention to him because his usual conversations were mostly useless rather than important.
Today, he couldn’t hear what he was saying even more.
Instead of listening to his story, he looked at his face.
Cha Woojin looked at Gang Hana and thought about him.
He was a man who always smiled innocently like this, regardless of his rude behavior.
He liked the man who chased after him and defended him like an imprinted duckling.
Who would dislike it after spending seven years in a place where he was just trying to stay alive and then coming to a materially prosperous place?
Of course, he had to exclude the fear of meeting so many Espers, but.
But this man always tried his best to make him live comfortably.
He couldn’t let go of this man. Cha Woojin suddenly grabbed his arm, seized by impatience.
As he met Gang Hana’s curious eyes, many questions flashed through his mind as to whether this feeling was gratitude for his kindness, affection for him, or greed for comfort.
At the same time, in a corner of his mind, the realization that he was drunk flickered and disappeared like a light bulb that was about to burn out.
However, the numerous thoughts that flashed by in an instant did not help him control his actions in any way.
Cha Woojin grabbed Gang Hana’s face and kissed him on the cheek.
*
Cha Woojin opened his eyes to Gang Hana’s touch.
The man who woke him up had already washed up and finished preparing to go out and was waiting for him.
The pale sunlight of the winter morning came in through the window, illuminating the vermilion training suit that the man was wearing.
Cha Woojin frowned as he looked at the sight.
Part of the reason was simply because he was dazzled, but he also didn’t like the clothes.
He knew that not all Espers and Guides wore them, but basically, all Association members were provided with clothing that was either everyday wear or a uniform.
Cha Woojin also received a training suit that was a mix of dark green and black, and the Guide trainees were wearing the same clothes as Cha Woojin.
And he could vaguely tell that not all Association members received the same clothes.
He heard that the training suit he received was called a trainee guide uniform when he received the clothes, and when he stayed in the Guide facility for a short time, there were many Guides wearing white and black clothes.
He had never asked outright, but he was sure that those clothes were exclusively for Guides. He had never seen an Esper wearing those clothes.
The Esper-only clothing was clearly the training suit that Gang Hana wore like his own skin.
Many Espers wore similar designs, so.
However, considering that not all Espers wore the same clothes, it seemed that the types of clothes were divided for some reason, but that was not information that Cha Woojin could know.
And for Cha Woojin, the most important fact right now was that he didn’t like the clothes that Gang Hana wore every day.
He felt like he had known Gang Hana for about a month, but why did that person always wear only those clothes?
He even picked out other clothes for him to wear, and he liked them at the time, but he never wore them, so he thought that person was amazing.
Cha Woojin got up from his seat with Gang Hana’s support.
He could get up on his own and he was going to, but Gang Hana was one step faster than Cha Woojin realized.
Gang Hana handed him a glass of water before he even felt thirsty, and checked his condition, such as touching his forehead while Cha Woojin was drinking water.
“Did you sleep too much? Your complexion doesn’t look bad. Does your head hurt or anything? Did you sleep well? Would you like more water?”
The talkative man today asked a barrage of questions with a bright smile.
Cha Woojin responded appropriately, handed over the glass of water, and looked around.
He was on the only bed in the room, and Cha Wooreen was still sleeping next to him.
Cha Woojin couldn’t remember when he had become such a rude person who took up other people’s beds.
He clearly remembered sitting at the table together and having a celebration party, but after that, everything was a blur.
Cha Woojin, who was in a slightly dazed state, went to the bathroom and washed his face, following Gang Hana’s touch.
Washing his face with the flowing clear water seemed to clear his mind.
As he leaned over and washed his face almost burying his face in the sink, which was slightly lower than his waist, he raised his head slightly and saw his reflection in the mirror with water dripping from his face.
Shouldn’t he be satisfied with the situation where he could use sanitary facilities that he hadn’t even dreamed of for seven years as before?
The worry that had been rising in Cha Woojin’s head since yesterday resurfaced.
Until now, he had only been afraid of the imprisoned future that would unfold as a Guide, but the standard of living here was not as bad as Cha Woojin thought.
Above all, being able to enjoy the level of hygiene before the world collapsed was a great advantage.
At least he didn’t have to worry about food poisoning or starving to death.
Cha Woojin continued to think about the advantages of his current life, and his thoughts reached the man who had brought him here, Gang Hana.
Come to think of it, he had reached the same conclusion yesterday.
His safety depended entirely on that man.
But surprisingly, that fact wasn’t unpleasant.
Gang Hana was devoted to him.
And he had definitely thought this yesterday, too.
‘When was that?’
He went back in his memory and recalled that time.
Yesterday, he had gone from being a four-legged beast to a human, had been investigated, and had moved.
He came here in such an exhausted state and drank beer with Gang Hana.
He remembered the situation when he had the same thoughts as now.
And because he had such thoughts, he grabbed Gang Hana at that time and
To him,
To that… person…
He kissed him.
“……!!”
Cha Woojin, who finally remembered the memories of yesterday, turned pale and screamed.
※ The rights to this work are held by the copyright holder. Copying, reproducing, modifying, or distributing the work may result in criminal penalties and civil liability.