[BotB] Chapter 14

It wasn't the tiger's clutches but her own comfortable room.

Sohwa immediately rushed outside in her socks. The creaking sound of the hinge opening was loud in the quiet dawn.

She needed to pee. The urge was so strong that her lower belly was swollen as if she was about to urinate at any moment.

As she hurriedly crossed the yard, it happened.

"Haa...."

A groaning sound came from the next room. Sohwa, who was as sensitive as a fox with ears pricked, couldn't miss it.

'Could it be that Dohwi is also having that nightmare?'

Then, it was only right to wake him. Holding back her urge to pee, Sohwa quickly changed direction. She tilted her head when she saw that the light in the main room was brightly lit.

'Does he sleep with all the lights on?'

As Sohwa approached the door, she stopped in her tracks at the sight of the shadow reflected on the paper door. Dohwi was half lying down, leaning on one arm.

"Hoo... Sohwa...."

His voice calling her name was desperate. But the intermittent moaning was far from normal.

'Is he in pain?'

Should she go in and check on him? Should she not? As Sohwa was indecisive, Dohwi's voice gradually grew louder.

Sohwa, come here."

Is he seeing a ghost? He was not talking to her.

"Hmm."

His low voice moaned as if speaking in a cave, and his tone became coloured. Sohwa, whose face was getting red for no reason, hesitated.

'I probably shouldn't be listening to this.'

She was about to turn around when Dohwi started hastily fumbling with his waistband. Then, something like a washboard stick sprang out from within.

"...!"

Its size was quite substantial, perhaps because it was only visible in the shadow. The thing, as big as her arm when she clenched her fist, moving sluggishly as if it were attached to the belly, was a monstrosity that should have been on a horse, not a human.

Dohwi's breathing was rough, and his body swelled and deflated repeatedly.

'What on earth is that?'

Dohwi held that strange thing and moved his hand slowly up and down.

"Ah...."

As Dohwi tilted his head back, his side face, from his forehead to his nose, lips, chin, and swollen Adam's apple, was revealed as if it had been drawn with a single stroke of black ink. Even though the shadowy figure seemed calm, like an ink painting, his moan sounded like he was in pain.

"Sohwa, come here.... Sit on my face."

While Dohwi held and shook it for quite a while, Sohwa couldn't move a muscle. As if she were caught in a trap, her legs simply wouldn't move.

'Why is Dohwi doing that?'

Why is he doing that in front of the door with the lights on to show me? He knows I've been going back and forth to the outhouse in the early morning like I have a urinary infection. It's embarrassing to see what he's doing outside!

Sohwa slowly backed away. Carefully not to make a sound. One step, one step. As she was stepping back, Dohwi suddenly writhed. And then, by mistake or not, he tore the paper door.

"Huh."

Sohwa quickly covered her mouth. The red washboard stick was visible through the torn paper door.

She shouldn't look. She should have turned her eyes away, but Sohwa was so startled that she stared at it.

A monstrous pillar with bulging veins. On top of it, a large mushroom cap was perched, flaring up red like a ripe plum. The small hole in the middle, dripping a drop of liquid at a time, looked as if it were alive.

"Sohwa...."

Startled by the monstrous washboard stick, she was seeing for the first time and startled again by Dohwi calling her name, she hiccupped.

"Are you there?"

At his languid voice directed outside, as if he had noticed her presence at some point, Sohwa was astounded as if she were about to faint. To make matters worse, Dohwi reached for the hinge as if he were about to open the door.

"Since you won't come in..."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Sohwa bolted away without looking back.

That night, the howling of foxes in heat echoed in reverberation at the foot of Mount Ihwang.

***

"Today it's a pheasant, huh?"

Facing Dohwi, who had generously laid out breakfast, was embarrassing, so Sohwa deliberately focused only on the food. It was a pheasant hot pot with refreshing broth made with radish, accompanied by eight kinds of vegetables and mushrooms. It was a grand breakfast table that would make even the emperor's royal meal envious.

Dohwi, who was placing the food in front of Sohwa, asked without looking at her.

"You came to my room yesterday, didn't you?"