"But there's really nothing to it."
The pine board fell apart with an incredibly loud noise. The owner stared at the powdery remnants of the former board, mouth agape. The board had been layered above multiple boards, and it hadn't just broken–it had also damaged the boards beneath it.
I turned my head to look towards the prizes. I broke more than ten boards just now, so I could get a super large gift. When the owner just continued to stand there in shock, I headed towards the prize display.
When I saw an extra large orange fox plush that looked like Yves, I grabbed it and shook it to show the owner. The owner just nodded, mouth still open. That was an okay, right?
I threw the plushie towards Yves, who looked slightly surprised with a smirk on his face.
"It's a present."
Yves had been holding the recording device, but shifted his arms to catch the flying plush.
Yves, who almost never laughed out loud, burst into a short audible laugh. When I pulled my sleeves up higher and stretched my neck, Yves complimented me and told me I was cool.
When I asked to go to another game, Yves nodded and told me to do whatever I wanted. Yves held the plush between his side and his arm as he followed.
This time, we were playing darts.
I didn't just hit the mark every time–I ended up throwing a dart through the board. Of course, there was a bit of magic in my play, but the only ones who actually knew were Yves and me. Moreover, the magic was a part of my skill set.
I had won three prizes, so I headed over to the prize display to choose.
"This is Semi's."
There was a snail plush so I grabbed it.
"And this one is Yehwan's."
I got a fruit knife for Yehwan, who liked practical things.
"And for Han Seyoo…."
I briefly looked through the prize display and found a necklace string. The place where a bead should've been in was empty. I frowned for a moment before grabbing the necklace.
When Yves asked whose gifts these were, I was flustered and said that it was for the babies. Yves tilted his head and scrunched his eyebrows as if he didn't understand, but he just nodded. It seemed like he wasn't going to think too much of it.
Yves was finding me incredibly amusing as I actively moved from here and there. He said something typical about how he was enjoying himself because I was enjoying myself. Yves walked towards me and put his arm around my shoulders.
"Is there anything you want?"
Yves always gave and gave to me, so I wanted to give him a lot, too. When Yves didn't put his arm way and asked, he seemed to think deeply about my question as he looked forward.
Then, he soon looked down at my face with a sly smile.
"There's something I'd rather do instead of getting anything."
He pointed at a game for lovers that involved a lot of touching. I don't really want to get into details.
"Denied."
When I immediately refused it, Yves narrowed his eyes.
I was having a blast and I was yelling loudly as I played, but I felt like I was growing quieter the more I yelled.
When my body began to tire after the back-to-back gaming, we headed over to the food stands to charge up on some calories. I wanted to be a bit more expensive today, though, and decided to head over to the actual stores.
Oh, right. My past self wanted an entire chicken to myself, right? I dragged Yves over to a chicken store with me. When I tried to order one whole chicken for each of us, Yves contemplated before rejecting it. I decided to order some fruit and a salad for Yves.
Before the chicken came out, I relaxed and slumped onto the seat. I played a bit too hard just now. I felt a bit uneasy after all of it.
On the other side of the street, there was a simple rectangular mirror. My reflection was currently on the mirror. Black hair and black eyes. I felt like I had returned to my past life. And next to me were other relationships I had built instead of my siblings.
I slumped over the desk and caught my breath before I looked up and stared at Yves who was sitting directly across from me. Yves was staring down at the orange fox plush that I had gotten for him earlier. There was short fur on the fox's head. Yves was cleaning up the fur with his fingers.
"Did you get this fox plush for me because it looked like me?"
"I don't know/"
I shrugged my shoulders at his question.
Before the food arrived, I stared briefly at Yves.
Next to my slumped over form was a water cup with precipitation drops on it. Yves looked hazy through the cup.
"You're ugly. All hazy."
"And your eyes are three times its normal size so it's super pretty. You look like a demon."
Yves smirked, one corner of his lips hitched up higher than the other.
When I imagined how I looked from Yves' perspective, I felt like I looked pretty funny.
I stayed still to where my eyes would be three times its size because of the curve of the cup. I stared into Yves' eyes with the cup still between us. When I blinked wide a few times, Yves asked me what I was doing.
"Wink."
When I shot a wink towards him with my eyes still three times its size, he quietly and carefully placed his water cup back down onto the table.
Seeing how he put his water down before he drank it, he must've almost spurt out his water. Haha. My comedy skills. Isn't it incredible? Yeah, it's incredible. It's so great that even Yves almost spurt out his water! Everyone stand up and clap! Shhhhhhh. A waterfall suddenly began to spray atop of my head, and a bald headed man was meditating under the water with just a towel to cover his bottom half. Dun dun.....
"Shushu, are you okay?"
Yves stretched his hand towards me and pushed the cup between us away with a calm smile.
My forehead was resting on the desk as I blankly stared, mouth open. It felt like drool would come out of my mouth at any second. The only things in my mind were flower fields, morning dramas, and the cafeteria lady and her gold tooth. Wink.
"Euaugh...….. Eughhhhhhhhhh...."
Semantic satiation. My mind felt uneasy now that I was in Han Ye-an's form. There was a deer running around in my head. This was what happened after I had a day of fun. A hunter aimed towards the deer and then, tang1! Egg tang2! Spicy tang!
I rolled my eyes upwards and stared at the glass cup that Yves had put aside. I looked stupid in the reflection on the glass cup. My mental state felt like it was shattering into pieces, but I looked calm and collected on the outside.
Yves poked my cheek with the fox plush's hand. Are you alive? No. I'm dead. Blegh.
Until the food arrived, I stayed as I was, quietly flopped on the table. I had a bit too much fun earlier and now I was out of strength. I felt like a striped t-shirt just flopping under the sun.
"Yves, have you ever had a time when you wanted to really really see someone?"
I stayed blank and confused for a while before I caught onto my train of thought and began speaking.
The food wasn't arriving, so I miserably tapped the table with my finger. I was staring at the necklace that I wanted to give Se-yoo and just burst out with a question.
Honestly, it wasn't just a question that came out of nowhere. I really was curious about it.
"Yeah. When you went to Eric."
You didn't even appear in front of me. Yves stabbed the salad that had arrived first with his fork as he glared at me.
"That was too much."
Yves said as he pushed a bit of his salad in front of me. I was planning on feasting on my chicken, so I pushed the salad back to him.
Yves stared down at his rejected plate of food and, dejectedly, put a small tomato in his mouth.
"Oh, there is one person."
Yves said, swallowing his salad as if he remembered someone.
Right then, my chicken arrived and my eyes wandered over there, but I told him to keep talking.
"Hadis Lunaasha."
Huggies? Like the diapers? I tried my best to calm down my raging brain. I wanted to slap my face to get it together, but it sounded like it would hurt. Instead, I tried to imagine myself slapping my face instead. Slap.
"Lunaasha?"
I calmed my thoughts and spoke. I was a bit surprised to hear that his last name was the same as Yves'.
"He was kind of a close friend and my brother."
When I tried to listen to him instead of eating my food, Yves told me to eat as he placed the fork in my hand. I stabbed the white meat from the chicken.
"Do you remember how I disguised myself when we went into the guild leader's estate that time? You took on this form and I had red hair."
At Yves' words, I frowned as I tried to remember the past.
It was a few years ago. It was before we headed over to the estate, and we had changed our forms and had promised to meet near the city.
When you use a disguising spell, if you don't have a specific image in mind, your appearance shifts to the person who had the most impact on you.
That was when I had constant dreams of my past, and I had thoughtlessly activated the spell and had ended up with the appearance of my past self. Yves, who didn't have magic, just said that some random person in his memories had popped up.
Yves had been a bit taken aback at his changed form at the time. I remembered.
When I told him I remembered as I nodded, Yves continued to speak.
"That form was Hadis Lunaasha."
Hadis Lunaasha was the person that Yves had turned into?
When I blinked in surprise, Yves raised one corner of his mouth.
"He was a loud hyung who was filled with laughter. Even though he's basically dead now."
I frowned at his confusing words. I waited for a moment before carefully asking what he meant.
"He's just stupid enough and smart enough. That's why."
Yves stabbed a small apple slice covered in dressing before growing quiet, as if he was remembering him.
"Even though I hate how he betrayed me because he wanted to live, I do miss the relationship I had with him before it all."
When he spoke of betrayal, Yves' expression was dark.
"When I thought about that person, all I could think about was how much I hated him. Now that I have a bit more time to think in my life, I feel like I can understand Hadis. I have a lot of regrets, too. Maybe if I trusted him more, the situation could've changed."
Yves muttered, as if speaking to himself. He rested his chin on his hand and touched the orange fox plush on his knee.
At Yves' extremely personal story, I became a lot calmer and solemn.
I didn't know the memories Yves had with this person named Hadis, so I didn't completely understand what he was saying. He looked miserable as he recounted his memories with this person, so I couldn't ask for more stories, either.
I didn't feel like eating now so I just stabbed at the chicken with my fork when I suddenly became curious about something.
"But if you turned into Hadis back then, doesn't that mean that it was really dangerous for you to have appeared in front of the guild leader back then?"
At my question, Yves pulled his arm back from under his chin and turned his gaze towards me. Then, he slowly nodded.
"Yeah. So I was honestly kind of taken aback. As you know, I don't have magic so I couldn't just change my form so easily."
When he tapped the surface of the glass cup with his finger, a half-melted piece of ice swirled in a half-circle.
"Honestly, I already took care of Hadis even before the guild leader could see his face. I planned ahead just in case he would notice, though, so I sprayed some mind confusion spray on me just so he wouldn't be able to remember, though."
Yves said, shrugging his shoulders. He took a sip of water. When I asked if Swanhaden was the one to provide him with the spray, Yves nodded his head. His face was annoyed as he nodded. He really didn't like Swan, did he?
"So, Shushu, who's the person that you want to see?"
Yves narrowed his eyes as he changed the subject. Yves said that this was something that had been bothering him for a while as he stared down at the necklace in my hand.