Chapter 42: Hexennacht.

“The firewood has run out!”

Byul put her hands on her hips and said.

“So what.”

“Please go chop firewood with Lena!”

At Byul’s words, Chayeon turned her head and looked out the window.

A pure white world, a land covered with heavy snow, was spread out endlessly.

To go chop firewood, it’s not like this is a deserted island.

It is.

“There’s no spare at all?”

“No.”

“What about grandpa and grandma?”

“They’ve gone off the island right now. We can’t rely on them every time.”

“It looks cold.”

“Oh, really!”

Byul whispered to Chayeon, who was trying to avoid going out by any means.

“I’m making a good opportunity for you, you know! Don’t say anything and go.”

A good opportunity.

Chayeon glanced at the door in the corner.

Peek.

“With her, right?”

Outside the kitchen door, Arena’s silk-like black hair was slightly revealed.

With the fingers of both hands slightly hooked on the side threshold, she was slowly sticking her head out this way.

Soon, her golden eyes revealed themselves, and when she realized that Chayeon was looking at her, she was startled and went back in again.

It had been in that state ever since that day.

Ever since that day when the relationship with Arena progressed a step, no, two or three steps, the number of conversations had decreased in inverse proportion to their closer body and mind.

If Chayeon spoke to her, or even if she just ran into her, she would run away in a hurry with her face flushed.

As long as they lived under the same roof, they would eventually have no choice but to run into each other.

Whenever that happened, Arena would lower her head and only say a few words in a voice that was so quiet that even an ant couldn’t hear it.

It was frustrating for Chayeon.

Of course, she was aware that she had done something wrong that day due to the alcohol – and that Byul’s intention was mostly hidden behind that – but even so, Chayeon didn’t regret what happened that day.

Although she had become a woman, Chayeon still liked women, and among them, she liked Arena.

The relationship that had been built up little by little since she was in Jindal had developed into affection through being saved by Arena, and through the two months of living together since then.

Chayeon herself was aware of that.

It must be the same for Arena too.

From her attitude since the battle with Rubrum-Luna, it was clearly revealed that Arena had a crush on Chayeon.

Thinking about it now, maybe Arena chasing after Chayeon so desperately from the start was the expression of her inherent affection.

Because her mental age is quite young.

Therefore, that day’s events should have been a delightful event where the relationship between the two people who had a crush on each other was rapidly progressing.

For her to be so shy like that.

“Tell Lena quickly. It’s a date, a date!”

There was nothing to do on this deserted island.

If they were ajussis, they might have enjoyed winter fishing.

The three of them had also had a snowball fight once, and Chayeon was lukewarm at first, but after the snowball fight started, she was more serious than anyone else, and after it was over, she had to kick the blanket because she was overwhelmed with embarrassment.

Since then, she doesn’t do the thing of playing while shouting Kyaa Kyaa outside.

For that reason, this was a pretext that Byul had prepared.

To go out alone with Arena and ease the awkwardness even a little.

“Haa.”

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to, but she was a little shy.

But the current Chayeon was different from the Chayeon of the past.

The Sukmaek(fool) Chayeon who would lower her head and stammer even if Seohee-sensei just stuck to her has disappeared into the annals of history, and what’s here is the bier(real woman) Chayeon who skillfully led Arena.

“Arena?”

Quickly crossing the threshold, she grabbed Arena’s wrist as she tried to run away.

It was very hot.

It was so hot that it seemed like she had a fever.

“U, uh? Uh, uh……………..”

Arena, who couldn’t run away because her wrist was grabbed, couldn’t even make eye contact with Chayeon and stammered while looking down at the floor.

Good. It’s the turn of the 상여자 (real woman) Chayeon here.

Let’s invite her naturally.

“Th, the firewood…, it looks like it’s running out.”

However, in Byul’s view, the two were equally hopeless.

It wasn’t just Arena’s fault that their conversations had decreased.

“Firewood⋯has run out?”

Arena, forgetting that she was shy, tilted her head at Chayeon’s incomprehensible sound.

“Ah, no. Hmm. I mean. Uh……..”

Chayeon’s face flushed red.

Warmth was conveyed to Arena’s wrist through the palm that was also flushed.

“There’s not enough firewood. So I think we need to chop firewood. Th, together, let’s go.”

As Chayeon somehow took a breath and continued with words that made sense, Arena lowered her head again as if she had become shy again.

“Ah, ah! Yeah. That’s right. Firewood, is important. Yeah… firewood.”

As Arena answered with such unintelligible sounds, Chayeon’s hand naturally went down, riding on Arena’s wrist.

Before they knew it, they were looking at each other’s intertwined hands, and then their gazes went up and looked into each other’s eyes.

It was hot.

“Hmm, hmm!”

The two, who were looking at each other as if there was no one else in the world, came to their senses at Byul’s clearing of her throat and dropped each other in a hurry.

They hadn’t been able to face each other for several days because they were shy, but once they caught fire, they were volatile.

If they were left alone, they were about to crawl into bed as it was.

“Come on, don’t stammer and get ready and go out quickly. You need to get ready before it gets any later.”

At Byul’s urging, the two turned and fell away in opposite directions.

The scene where they, both with red ears, realized that each other’s rooms were attached next to each other and climbed the stairs side by side, looked like a third-rate romance comedy movie to Byul.

Unlike Chayeon, who came down fully armed with a muffler, a fur hat, earmuffs, and gloves, Arena was wearing her usual clothes, a cone hat, and was holding a broom, and was just wearing a long coat over that.

“Lena-ya, you won’t be cold with that?”

“Hmph, of course! I’m not so weak that I’ll succumb to this much cold!”

Arena shouted with a spirited voice.

But soon, when she saw Chayeon’s outfit,

“Aat! Ah, no! That’s not! That doesn’t mean that Chayeon is weak at all! I mean!”

She was extremely flustered.

“Yeah, yeah. Be careful and come back. You have to bring a lot! It’s okay if it takes a long time~”

Byul saw them off with a mischievous smile.

As Chayeon and Arena left behind Byul’s greeting waving her hand over her head, they headed to the forest side by side.

The outside was all white.

As they made a squeaky sound on the snow that had piled up neatly like a white canvas because no one had walked on it, four footprints left their traces side by side.

The forest inside the island was very large, but thanks to the old couple managing and coming and going, the road to the inside was well paved.

Evergreen trees were disorderly lined up on both sides of the pure white snow road, and the road harmonized with greenery and snowflakes.

The two walked silently.

They moved forward, matching each other with steps that were neither slow nor fast.

Chayeon glanced at Arena, who was walking a little apart.

Only Arena’s cheeks were uniquely flushed peach-colored on this white road.

Squeak, squeak.

In the silence, only the sound of stepping on snow spread.

“Hey, Arena.”

Chayeon, who had recovered from the previous embarrassing incident, opened her mouth to Arena first.

“U, uh……..”

“Why don’t we stick closer together. It looks like we’re too far apart.”

Chayeon, who regretted adding, “I can’t lose you, you know” – said that.

They wouldn’t lose each other with only this much distance.

“Th, that’s right.”

However, Arena didn’t say anything more and rather approached Chayeon quickly as if that was an excuse.

Every time their hands brushed against each other little by little while walking, the two flinched.

‘What’s wrong, let’s get it together. Why am I doing this.’

Until recently, Chayeon was able to treat Arena indifferently.

Even if Arena, who was in a state of madness on the day they played Steal the Old Maid together, clung to her, Chayeon was able to be indifferent – although she borrowed the power of alcohol a little.

But why would she be so shy like this now?

It felt like Arena’s attitude had been transmitted to Chayeon as well.

‘I’m older, let’s go like an older person.’

Chayeon, whose appearance looked younger no matter who looked at her, made that decision in her heart and slyly grabbed her hand.

“Oh, oh? Th, hand….”

“Because it’s cold.”

Chayeon, who had deliberately taken off her gloves, said that it was cold.

“Cold? Are your hands very cold?”

And Arena, who was sincerely worried about that.

“Yeah, it’s cold.”

Chayeon said that and put her intertwined hands into Arena’s coat pocket as it was.

The two, who had been walking naturally side by side, became more closely attached.

As she was watching Arena being shy, mischievous questions came to Chayeon’s mind.

Those wicked thoughts relieved Chayeon’s shyness little by little.

“Arena.”

“Yeah.”

“Do I still look like a man?”

At those words, Arena’s face turned red.

“Th, that’s! I mean…”

Whirl whirl.

Arena’s eyes spun.

Then she suddenly came to her senses and asked back.

“Then what was that thing back then?”

“What thing?”

“When you were with Seohee-sensei, when you said you were a man…………………”

Ah, now that I think about it, the misunderstanding started from there.

“Umm.”

Chayeon quietly chose her words.

It was a story that she could have said at any time in the past, and it was a story that she could have told……………..

Unlike then, it was difficult to bring up the story rashly now.

I should have revealed it in advance.

Chayeon was originally a man.

Her appearance was completely different from now, and maybe her personality was different as Namyeon said.

Like the Ship of Theseus, the components that made up Chayeon, such as her appearance, personality, way of speaking, and behavior, began to change one by one starting from the day she met Heukgu, and perhaps now there wasn’t even a handful of elements left that the past Jeon Chayeon had.

It wasn’t that she had philosophical worries like, ‘Am I the same me as I was in the past’, etc.

Her only worry was whether Arena would be able to accept Chayeon, even if she was a completely different person from the past.

Should I say it?

“Chayeon…?”

As Chayeon was just walking silently for a while, Arena called her as if she was puzzled.

Seeing those bright eyes looking down at Chayeon from a slightly higher eye level, Chayeon made a decision.

Arena will accept it.

“Arena, don’t be surprised and listen.”

“Huh? Uhung.”

“I was originally a man.”

At those words, Arena’s eyes widened.

“You were a man, th, that means. Su…”

“Ah, it’s not that I had surgery.”

Chayeon, realizing that Arena had misunderstood at those words, hurriedly stopped her words.

“That day I received the Shinryeong, I became a woman from a man. My appearance changed, and I became shorter. Maybe if you saw my past appearance, no one would realize that I’m the same person as I am now. Maybe my personality and way of speaking changed too.”

As she spoke, her words gradually sped up as if she had become impatient without realizing it.

“There are Ineungnyeokja who change a little in appearance when they receive a Shinryeong, right? Eye color is especially like that. It seems that my case was a little severe. Uh, I mean. Actually, I’m also a man………. I don’t know anymore. I quickly got used to the body of a woman, and……….”

The words that had sped up became increasingly blurred as they went back.

What if Arena hates me?

Arena had accepted me as a woman.

That meant that Arena’s sexual preference was, in any case, more woman than man.

In contrast, Chayeon was born as a man and had lived as a man.

After living as a man for twenty years, won’t she hate me if she hears that I adapted in just a few months after becoming a woman?

She didn’t want to think about such a possibility, but it kept growing deep inside her heart.

“Then that means the word Oppa isn’t wrong?”

And those thoughts were swept away along with Arena’s question.

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

When Chayeon asked back, Arena tilted her head and asked back in the same way.

“…Th, that’s all?”

“D, did I, did I say something weird..?”

It wasn’t weird words, but.

“…You’re not bothered that I was a man?”

“Uh…………should I be!?”

What on earth did she mean by should I be?

Arena, who had created a new Korean word, continued her words as if she was making excuses.

“Th, that’s right, but I already thought of Jeon Chayeon you as a man! Th, now I know you’re a woman, though.”

While saying the latter words, Arena blushed.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a man or a woman to me, exactly… … … …”

The voice that said that became barely audible as Arena bowed her head shyly.

I see.

Arena, is like that.

……That’s a relief.

However, Arena opened her mouth again.

“I’m glad you told me.”

Finally, she said the words that made you think that a zombie was really here.

“Ah, anyway! I don’t care! More than that, what is it after all! Are you Oppa, are you Unni!? No, tell me clearly which one you want to be!”

Looking at Arena, who was raising her voice, I let out a hollow laugh.

It was the first time in a while that I had heard Arena’s big voice.

“I don’t care which one either.”

As Chayeon said that and looked up at Arena and smiled, Arena entered shy mode again, saying ‘Uh, uh?’

A moment of silence.

Chayeon was suddenly curious.

“Arena.”

“Yeah?”

“Come to think of it, didn’t anything change for you after receiving the Shinryeong?”

Even if it wasn’t a drastic change like Chayeon, everyone said that something or other changed.

“Uhung, did my eye color change? Other than that, ga………”

“Ga?”

Arena, who had been talking while looking at the upper left, suddenly stopped talking.

“…It’s nothing!”

“Wh, what is it?”

“I said it’s nothing!”

Arena got angry for the first time in a while.

It felt quite welcome to see this appearance for the first time in a while.

Anyway, you only changed your eye color.

“You were originally cute.”

“You were, of course, always…………”

Chayeon, who was spitting out her thoughts without any filter.

And Arena, who was about to agree without thinking.

The faces of the two people, who finally realized what they had said, turned red rapidly.

For a while, the two walked on the snow silently.

<<That’s right. Is this the emotion that Baekgumiho has for me?>>

‘……Shut up.’

<<You’re so lovey-dovey.>>

‘Please just shut up.’

<<Don’t be shy. In all living things, love is natural.>>

‘Please just stop.’

All the way, Heukgu was excited like a fish that had found water and was teasing Chayeon.