Chapter 16: Let’s Kiss

The Jade Rabbit of Chiaksan had always enjoyed making things from ingredients found in nature.

He made pills that could bring people together in love, and he also made pills to soothe the body and mind of children who suffered from sleep paralysis and saw ghosts.

But what he actually enjoyed making most were pills that encouraged intimacy between men and women.

Nothing excited the Jade Rabbit quite as much as those.

For some reason, the Jade Rabbit had little interest in transforming into human form, nor did he have any desire to become an immortal.

Instead, he was perfectly content to take an interest in other people’s love stories.

The problem was that, unlike yokai, getting humans to actually take the pills he made was no easy matter.

For one thing, encountering humans in the first place was difficult.

So, in simple terms…

“The human came all the way to me of her own accord! Naturally, I had to satisfy my academic curiosity!”

“You’re full of shit.”

“How dare you open your mouth at me like that! I am the Jade Rabbit—”

“Oh, yeah? Today’s the day you die.”

Sa Hae, no longer wearing his human appearance but instead revealing his true form as a Bulgasal, opened his enormous jaws wide and stared down at the Jade Rabbit.

He had absolutely no intention of letting the rabbit live.

“Because of you, you bastard…”

Sa Hae didn’t bother finishing the sentence.

He simply opened his mouth as wide as he could and lunged as though he intended to swallow the Jade Rabbit whole.

Considering the rabbit’s size, he hardly needed to open his mouth that wide.

But opening it wide enough to swallow ten Jade Rabbits at once was a deliberate performance.

One meant to frighten the rabbit.

“I—I’m sorry!”

“Thanks to you, our kid still hasn’t recovered, huh?”

Sa Hae stared at him as though none of the Jade Rabbit’s excuses were reaching his ears.

He honestly wanted to swallow the rabbit whole right then and there.

‘You gave that stuff to a kid who’d never even had her first kiss? You bastard. Even a dog would have better sense than you.’

“Aaaah! Save me!”

The Jade Rabbit hopped frantically, trying to escape into the cassia tree, but there was no way he could outrun a gigantic Bulgasal.

Sa Hae lunged at him with murderous intent, and in that instant, the Jade Rabbit blurted out the first thing that came to mind in an attempt to save his life.

“I’ll give you an antidote! I have an antidote!”

“You’re saying what you gave our kid was poison?”

“It’s not poison! It’s an aphrodisiac!”

“Hey.”

“I—I’ll give you the antidote! And I’ll give you health pills too! Anything else you want! I’ll give you whatever you want!”

The Jade Rabbit truly believed Sa Hae was about to swallow him, so he desperately promised to give him anything he wanted.

At that moment, what he possessed didn’t matter.

His life did.

Of course, being swallowed by a Bulgasal probably wouldn’t actually kill him…

But considering Sa Hae’s persistent nature, he was certain he would be tormented until he wished he were dead.

****

‘Open your mouth a little more, okay?’

Why was that the first thought that came to mind the moment she opened her eyes?

Lee Young wondered and immediately buried her face back into her pillow.

“…Damn Master Rabbit…”

Master Jade Rabbit had officially become Master Rabbit.

What annoyed her even more was that the rabbit’s claim that the pill would flush out all the waste from her body didn’t seem to have been a lie.

Her body genuinely felt incredibly light.

And somehow, that made her even more irritated.

“Tori…”

At the whining sound beside her, Lee Young turned her head and looked at Tori sitting next to her.

“You brought that, didn’t you? I don’t want to see you either, you know?”

Remembering that Tori had brought her the silk pouch containing the pill, Lee Young glared at her as though she were angry with the dog too.

Of course, contrary to her expression, her hand was gently stroking Tori.

Her memories after taking the pill were fragmented.

But the memories that mattered most were astonishingly vivid.

For example…

The memory of kissing Sa Hae in a bathtub filled with cold water.

Could she even call it simply a kiss?

Overcome by the effects of the pill, she had clung desperately to Sa Hae, seeking relief from the unbearable heat coursing through her body.

The way she had begged him for another kiss was mortifying to even remember.

She hadn’t wanted to use such a word, but it really had been a plea.

Her insides had felt as though they were burning, as though she had swallowed a ball of fire.

And whenever Sa Hae kissed her, that terrible sensation eased.

So Lee Young had clung to him because she desperately wanted to live through it.

She had felt as though Sa Hae could somehow extinguish the fire burning inside her.

That was why she had been so desperate.

“How am I supposed to face Mister from now on…?”

He wasn’t just some man.

He was her grandmother’s friend.

Ah.

Thinking about it that way made the situation even more hopeless.

Her grandmother’s friend.

Of course, he was a yokai, so human standards of age didn’t really apply to him…

But still.

Sa Hae really was her grandmother’s friend.

Not her mother’s friend.

Her grandmother’s friend.

And she had just had her first real kiss with him…

First, the songaksi had stolen her first kiss.

And now the next kiss she had experienced had been with a yokai.

Her grandmother’s friend, no less.

“This is crazy. Absolutely crazy!”

But what drove Lee Young even more insane than the ridiculous situation itself was the strange sweetness that seemed to linger on the tip of her tongue whenever she remembered it.

In other words…

She didn’t hate the memory.

That was what truly drove her crazy.

‘Good girl. Pretty.’

When she had clung to him feverishly, that handsome face had called her pretty.

His face had seemed almost as flushed as hers, his heated eyes looking down at her as he called her good and pretty.

‘Good girl. Pretty.’

Sa Hae’s face as he said those words was painfully vivid.

So was the frantic pounding of her own heart when she heard them.

His face, looking down at her through slightly unfocused eyes, became clearer and clearer in her mind.

Nothing faded.

If anything, the memory only grew more vivid.

The closeness.

Their mingled breaths.

The overwhelming sensation of their kiss.

The memory was far too vivid.

“Are you awake?”

“Eek!”

At the voice she had been thinking about the entire time, Lee Young jumped up in bed as though she had been startled by a ghost.

‘This is so embarrassing…’

She covered her face.

“You’re only covering it now?”

“…”

“Come out. Eat some porridge and take your medicine.”

‘Porridge? Medicine?’

Thanks to that damn Master Rabbit’s pill, her fever hadn’t merely gone down.

She felt practically bursting with energy.

That was what she thought, but all she did was nod.

Still hiding her face, Lee Young followed Sa Hae into the kitchen.

“Feeling a little better?”

Sa Hae took a container of porridge from a shopping bag decorated with a picture of the brand and set it down in front of her.

Lee Young stared at the container and simply nodded.

“Good. Still, just in case, eat.”

Nod, nod.

Lee Young kept nodding as she accepted the spoon Sa Hae held out.

Or tried to.

The instant their fingertips brushed as she took it, Lee Young dropped the spoon like an idiot.

Clang.

The sound of the spoon hitting the marble table rang loudly through the room.

“What’s wrong? Did your hands lose their strength too? Want me to feed you?”

“…F-feed me?”

“Yeah.”

“W-what…?”

If she had to explain herself, this had to be a side effect.

Or perhaps some lingering influence of the pill that cursed Jade Rabbit had given her.

Otherwise, there was no way she would be acting like this.

The moment Sa Hae asked whether she wanted him to feed her, the image that immediately came to mind was herself kissing him.

That had to be the lingering effect of the medicine.

“What are you imagining?”

Lee Young’s face grew redder and redder as she imagined Sa Hae feeding her.

Then Sa Hae reached over and placed a hand against her forehead to check her temperature.

Her eyes widened.

“Ah.”

‘He’s too close. Way too close.’

Sa Hae’s face was right in front of hers.

Far too close.

His handsome features.

His red, full lips.

Everything was far too close.

She should have pushed him away immediately.

But she didn’t want to.

Whether that feeling was truly hers or simply the lingering effect of the pill, she couldn’t tell.

But right now, she didn’t want to push him away.

She wanted to look at him from even closer.

“What are you thinking about so seriously?”

“Do you really want me to feed you?”

“…With your mouth?”

‘Oh no. Could that pill Jade Rabbit gave me actually be some kind of medicine designed to embarrass people to death? It must be some grand revenge against humans, the people who turned an entire mountain inhabited by yokai into a golf course.’

Otherwise…

“You’re imagining kissing me right now, aren’t you?”

“…”

“Want to?”

“I do.”

She didn’t know.

She didn’t know whether the voice agreeing to Sa Hae’s suggestion was hers because of the lingering effects of the medicine, because his lips looked unusually red to her, or because last night’s memories were simply too vivid.

She couldn’t tell what was causing it.

But one thing was certain.

She wanted to.

“Let’s kiss.”

Lee Young closed her eyes as she said it.

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