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Chapter 22
“Fweee…”
“If you’re healthy, tie a purple ribbon around your ankle. If you’re sick, tie a red one.”
“Fweee…”
“Got it? I have to go check on you later, okay?”
At that moment, the bird let out an irritated-sounding fweee and pecked the ground—tap.
Then it took off into the open sky.
What’s wrong with that thing?
Like someone—no, like a bird—who had just heard something utterly ridiculous.
At the same time, Aldehyde lay sprawled out on his bed.
He was talking to the teddy bear beside him.
“Gomdori, Bbu-bbu is sooo tired…”
“……”
“I’m confused…”
Even at his cutesy whining, the teddy bear naturally said nothing. Aldehyde sighed and muttered,
“Why… why do I keep thinking about that woman coughing up blood?”
Just thinking that she might be sick made him furious, as if he had sudden anger-management issues, and his heart kept throbbing painfully.
“Logically, she’s definitely not my sister. Then why does she bother me this much?”
Even now, during the sacred time when he should be lying in bed and praying for his sister, the mere fact that he was thinking about Liliere was a problem.
Aldehyde sat up and walked toward the window, thinking he should at least get some fresh air.
“Get a grip. Keep your discipline.”
He needed to observe that woman, sure—but until midnight was time reserved for thinking about his sister.
How dare he fail to keep that rule?
For a moment, he almost clenched his fist in anger at himself.
And then—
There was a light tapping sound at the window.
“Ki!”
Aldehyde’s eyes widened, his mouth hanging open stupidly.
“…Huh? Is this a dream?”
The white bird that delivered Nyunya’s letters was there. He flung open the half-open window and asked the bird,
“You… today isn’t a letter day, though?”
It felt like receiving an unexpected gift, as if he’d suddenly returned to his childhood.
Aldehyde hurriedly clutched at his chest.
“Did you bring a letter from my sister?”
As if annoyed by his gentle voice, the bird sharply turned its beak away.
His sister strictly kept her promise to send only one letter per season, but on very rare occasions, she would contact him like a surprise gift.
Though he was an atheist, he sincerely searched for God in his heart and offered a solemn prayer.
“Please, please, please…”
But no matter how thoroughly he searched—even inside the white fluff of the bird’s belly—there was no letter to be found.
“God is dead.”
With a dejected expression, Aldehyde rubbed his dry face.
“Then tell me. Why did you come? Did my sister say she misses me?”
“Ki?”
As if asking how it was supposed to talk, the bird pecked at the back of his hand with its beak.
Aldehyde hurriedly asked again,
“Then… is she worried about me?”
His tone was now close to begging.
The bird shook its beak as if it found him pathetic. But Aldehyde was a master at interpreting the bird’s nonverbal cues.
“Then why are you trembling like that? You agree with me, right?”
The bird turned its gaze aside, looking exasperated.
Aldehyde ran his fingers roughly through his hair and continued his deductions.
‘Could something have happened to my beloved sister?’
All kinds of horrific scenarios flashed through his mind.
‘The worst of them all… is my sister getting sick and dying somewhere without me.’
The movie playing in Aldehyde’s head ended with his sister dying while calling “Bbu-bbu,” resenting him for never coming.
Nyunya had told him not to contact her unless something special happened. But still…
“Hey, bird. This is a special case, right?”
The white bird had never come without a reason—so if this wasn’t a special case, what was?
So he hurriedly, yet carefully, wrote a letter.
“Nyunyaaa… are you doing well?
A bird suddenly flew in!
So I’m sending you a letter!!
You’re healthy, right?
★T____T★”
After using the cute “yong-yong style” writing and the new star-shaped emoticons he’d learned in Lady Dahlia Blair’s Full Marks in Aegyo Class,
Aldehyde recalled a promise he had once made to his sister long ago.
“Then when we meet later…”
“Mm.”
“When I become an adult… just once. Just one time.
Could you grant me one wish then…?”
He thought for a while, then finally gathered his courage.
“But you know…
since I’ve come of age…
you said you’d grant my wish!
You remember, right~?
If you grant me one wish, I’ll grant you a hundred!
No, a thousand—no, even ten thousand!”
He glanced at the square mirror on his desk.
‘Hmm… I am… cute.’
After brainwashing himself while deliberately ignoring the sturdy adult man reflected in the mirror,
Aldehyde—no, Bbu-bbu—sent the bird off with a pounding heart,
hoping that a reply from his sister would come tomorrow.
Liliere’s—or rather, Siena’s—companion bird, the “white bird,” vigorously shook its bright yellow beak.
“Kiik. (Idiots. They’re like people who ate a hundred sweet potatoes. Just meet already, meet!)”
But they definitely wouldn’t meet, right?
“Kiik. (From the look of it, that big guy would just say, ‘If our Nyunya doesn’t like what I’m looking for, then I won’t look for it…’ and leave it at that.)”
Their relationship needed a spark of flint.
And that flint would be this clever companion bird, Hayangi.
My poor master is going to die soon. Before that, I want her to at least see the face of the child she dotes on as much as possible.
‘But first, I need to put that Bbu-bbu brat into a situation where he’ll really start worrying.’
Only then would that idiot Bbu-bbu truly panic and properly express himself when he finally met his master.
Of course, Hayangi knew that Bbu-bbu was known publicly as the strongest. But to Hayangi, he was still just the weak kid it had watched since his snot-nosed days.
After all, his eyes still sparkled the same way whenever he saw it.
“Kiiiii… (Let the boy enter his trial…)”
Awaken properly.
It felt like it might take a little—no, quite a lot—of time before that day came.
Still, with that thought, Hayangi ominously soared into the sky,
until the leg carrying Bbu-bbu’s letter spun round and round in midair.
The next morning, Aldehyde woke up feeling extremely happy, waiting for his sister’s reply.
He arrived at the largest bustling district, a street packed with shops selling all kinds of odds and ends.
Seeing his sharp features, people wondered if he had come to buy blade-like weapons.
But the place Aldehyde ultimately stopped at was a famous knickknack shop—specifically, a cute little store selling party supplies.
With an indifferent expression, he stared at the display as seriously as if he were the most solemn man in the world.
He looked like someone who had sworn to eradicate every wicked party item in existence…
“Which is better—dog ears or cat ears?”
…But in reality, he was carefully asking the clerk beside him.
Yes. What Aldehyde was fiddling with were a white puppy-ear headband and a yellow cat-ear headband.
Since his heartfelt letter might soon lead him to meet his sister, he intended to prepare his cuteness in advance.
Seeing his serious expression, the clerk spoke kindly.
“Ah… yes! Is it a gift?”
“No.”
“Ah, okay… then who is it for…?”
“I’m going to wear it.”
When he frowned, the clerk smoothly moved on. They were a true professional, skilled at letting incomprehensible remarks slide.
“They’re usually used during festivals, so I suppose something good is happening. Haha! Anyway, um… you’d like a recommendation?”
“What would suit me? I’m probably more of a dog, right?”
Most people in the world liked cute dogs—Pomeranians, Maltese, countryside mutts, that sort of thing.
But he couldn’t completely rule out the slim possibility that his sister might like cats.
