191 – The Story of How I First Met That Man -6-
30 minutes ago.
Mikhail was dragging his fallen teddy bear on the floor, sniffling.
“Sob… I’m an idiot.”
He was not feeling well.
He had said something too harsh. Mikhail hated his mouth for spewing out words that should not have been said, even as a joke.
-You don’t even know your mother’s face!
It was something that came out of his excessive agitation.
He had thrown a tantrum because he felt resentful and angry for being left alone when everyone else’s parents had come to visit. It was an unintentional slip of the tongue that he had uttered without considering the other person’s feelings.
If only he had been a little more mature.
If he had considered the other person’s feelings,
He wouldn’t have made such a mistake.
Mikhail had easily touched and torn his wound.
He clearly knew that the other person had not told him that secret, which he had kept hidden deep inside his heart, so that Mikhail could hurl such harsh words at him. Perhaps, he had wanted to be comforted and had revealed his inner pain so that Mikhail could comfort him. Foolishly, Mikhail had prioritized his stubbornness over empathy at that time, and he had been nothing but a selfish child who only wanted his feelings to be considered.
That was why he had picked at the secret that the other person had revealed, as if he had found a weakness.
Mikhail regretted it.
He writhed in guilt, thinking that if only he could turn back time, he would rewind it to before the other person had told him that story. Mikhail kept walking, without a destination in mind.
Without realizing it.
When he came to his senses, he was standing in a familiar place. As if he had been drawn to a magnet, funny enough. He had vehemently declared that he would not go there, but funnily enough, he was standing under the bridge.
“He’s not here…”
Mikhail muttered softly to the invisible boy, clutching the teddy bear tightly. His heart ached for the boy who should have been there first, but was nowhere to be seen.
Did he get too angry?
No, it was natural to be angry.
If it were me, I would have hated the sight of my own face after hearing those words.
Mikhail squatted down, leaning against a pillar, feeling depressed. His clothes were getting wet from the pouring rain, and he felt cold, but there was nothing he could do about it.
Without the boy, he was nothing but a useless idiot.
The weather was gloomy.
His heart was in turmoil over the separation.
The guilt of uttering harsh words made his depressed mood linger.
The longer he was alone, the deeper Mikhail’s mood sank into darkness.
Mikhail practiced how to apologize.
Because he wanted to apologize as soon as the other person returned.
“My words were too harsh… I just, Lee Guminhyuk… No, Lee Gumin… Idiot…”
The boy with a name so difficult that he couldn’t even curse him properly. Mikhail grumbled to himself, wondering why he had given him such a difficult name.
‘Idiot.’
Mikhail had relied on the boy a lot.
Mentally.
Physically.
He had been very dependent on him.
He had no choice but to depend on him, because he was his savior and his first ever friend.
A hero who appears like a prince in a fairy tale. A friend who comes to your side when times are tough and listens to your story. Was it because I was too comfortable? I think I was too drunk on minor happiness.
He always listened to my story without getting angry.
I thought he would listen to my story this time too. Minhyuk always listened to my story, no matter what I said. I thought it would be the same this time.
He’s just a little kid like me.
I wonder how long I spent sighing like that.
The sound of unfamiliar footsteps began to reach Mikhail’s ears as he crouched down.
Mikhail jumped up from his seat.
“He’s here…!”
I thought I should apologize.
I thought I should apologize before it was too late. I wanted to apologize for saying such harsh words, for making a stupid mistake again.
I shouldn’t have done that.
Your heart must have ached even more while you were waiting for nothing, and I didn’t know anything… I wanted to apologize for making such a big mistake when I had only received help from you.
Mikhail didn’t even raise his head as he ran towards the direction of the footsteps and shouted.
“I’m sorry…!”
“…”
“I… I’m sorry. I said such harsh words, and I’m sorry for yelling at you and saying such mean things without knowing how you felt.”
“…”
“I was just so upset earlier…. You must have felt the same way, you must have been more hurt than I was…”
“…”
“I’m sorry for being such an idiot. I won’t do it again in the future, I really won’t, so please forgive me…!?”
Silence fell.
A silence with no answer brushed past Mikhail’s skin.
“Heh heh…”
Mikhail felt a chill run through his body.
“Heh heh heh…”
A middle-aged man’s voice sounded as if he had found an interesting toy. Mikhail slowly raised his head at the sinister laughter, like that of an old man listening to neighborhood gossip.
Curious about who the uninvited guest was who had come to our space.
“Who…”
The uninvited guest’s face slowly came into view.
Dark skin.
A face with many blemishes.
And Mikhail’s eyes began to take in the grotesque expression of the man who was covering his mouth with his hand and shaking his shoulders.
“Are you…?”
The man replied with a bloody smile.
“Me?”
The man spoke to Mikhail, who nodded with difficulty.
“A purveyor of happiness.”
It was bizarre. The words the man uttered, the stench that faintly emanated from his body, everything was bizarre.
Mikhail gulped and asked,
“Are you a good person…?”
“Well…?”
“Then are you a bad person?”
“Hmm…”
The man answered with a small smile.
“I guess you’ll find out once you experience it yourself.”
The man slowly began to reach out to Mikhail. The moment his huge palm was about to touch Mikhail’s shoulder. Mikhail instinctively took a step back.
Because it smelled strange.
Mikhail’s shoulders flinched, and he frowned because a horrible stench of blood, terrible enough to make his nose wrinkle, was coming from the man’s hand.
He knew it was rude to do so, but he felt like he would throw up if he didn’t avoid it.
“Gulp… Ugh…”
Mikhail looked up at the man with trembling eyes. Wondering if his actions had hurt the man’s feelings.
However.
“Kid. You’re really sharp.”
The man clapped his hands with a bright smile, as if Mikhail’s reaction amused him.
“Ah… Mister…?”
“Why? Kid.”
“Mister smells strange.”
Mikhail, who was hugging his teddy bear tightly and moving farther and farther away from the man, was getting prickly.
One step.
-Thud.
Two steps.
-Thud.
The farther he tried to get away, the man approached without waiting for Mikhail.
“Why? Mister is not a bad person.”
“Min-hyuk told me not to follow strangers.”
“Who’s that?”
Mikhail shook his head.
“I won’t tell you.”
“Why?”
The man began to fumble through his pockets.
A jingling sound, and countless gold coins spread out on his palm. The man said to Mikhail with a gentle smile.
“Mister is someone who gives things like this.”
Mikhail shook his head.
He couldn’t tell what it was, because he saw red marks on the gold coins the man had taken out, but his gut instinct was screaming at him that it wasn’t ordinary, so Mikhail’s pupils began to tremble greatly.
‘Blood…’
It was scary.
The situation unfolding before his eyes was too frightening for the young Mikhail. His heart pounded even harder and he was more scared than when he had met the delinquents.
Mikhail said with a trembling voice.
“I don’t need it…”
“Oh? Don’t you guys like things like this?”
“I like it…but I don’t need it.”
“With this, you can buy everything you want and eat everything you want.”
“I have plenty of those.”
“Really?”
The man said with a sly smile.
“Does that friend of yours get them for you?”
“Yes…?”
“That Minhyuk you mentioned. Does he bring them to you?”
“Ah…no?”
“Liar…”
Mikhail tried to suppress his pounding heart and escape this place somehow.
He held the bear doll tightly and looked for an opportunity to get away from the man. However, the man did not let him go easily and asked Mikhail a strange question as he moved away.
“Is he the most important person to you?”
“…Yes?”
“Tell me. Is he the most important person to you?…A precious object, a bond with precious memories.”
The man said with a sly smile.
“Then I’ll exchange it for something you cherish the most.”
The man shook his jingling money bag and beckoned Mikhail. He felt a chill from the man’s cold appearance, like the laughter of a demon.
Mikhail kept his mouth shut, feeling a sense of foreboding that he shouldn’t answer what the man was saying.
“I don’t need money…”
“Who said anything about money? It might not be money.”
The man’s eerie smile gradually faded away.
“Kid, I said what you cherish the most. It could be today, or it could be a happy memory.”
“I have to go…My mom is calling me.”
“Kid. I’m the one who gives happiness.”
“I’m going home.”
“Really?”
In a split second, the man’s hand snatched Mikhail’s doll. Looking at Mikhail’s doll, which was full of sewn marks, the man chuckled and reached behind his waist.
“Then I’ll take this instead.”
“Ah… No…!”
From Noble mtl dot com
“There’s nothing you can’t give to an uncle.”
With those words, the man pulled out a dagger from his waist. With a speed that the eye could not follow, the man stabbed the bear doll in the stomach and clicked his tongue in admiration, as if savoring a delicious dish.
Mikhail looked at the man with his eyes closed and thought.
Now is my chance to escape.
Mikhail’s instincts told him that this moment, while his eyes were closed, was his only chance to escape. However, Mikhail’s feet would not move.
Because he couldn’t let go of the bear doll his mother had bought him.
Mikhail couldn’t abandon the bear doll that his friend had sewn for him, the bear doll that his mother had told him to always keep close. He hesitated, unable to move either way.
Mikhail’s hesitation must have lasted about 3 minutes.
The man said with a sly smile.
“Kid. Run away.”
“…”
“I saw you looking at it so intently.”
“…”
“If you don’t run away now, I feel like I might do something I’ll regret.”
“…”
Mikhail ran.
He quickly snatched the teddy bear from the man and desperately ran behind the man’s back.
“Huff…huff…”
He couldn’t get caught.
If he did, he felt like something terrible would happen to him.
Mikhail ran desperately.
However.
“Boy, you’re too greedy.”
-BAM!
Mikhail’s collar was viciously grabbed by the man’s hand that was quickly approaching, and Mikhail, who couldn’t regain his senses from the intense shock, struggled as he reached out for the teddy bear that had fallen to the floor.
“Let go…!”
“No.”
“Let me go…!”
“I said no.”
The man said with a smile.
“I think it’ll be fun.”
Mikhail’s pupils began to fill with fear like a rabbit’s as his hand tightened.
And then.
“I was wrong…!”
He began to beg in fear that he couldn’t overcome.
It was terrible.
As the man’s hand reached his neck, the smell became even more pungent. The stench, which made him feel like he was going to vomit at any moment, was about to turn his stomach.
The man said to Mikhail, who was struggling.
“Where is that boy named Lee Min-hyuk?”
“…”
“Ah…”
And then he smiled slightly as he looked at the boy running from afar.
“Is that him?”
The man smiled as he looked at the boy in front of him.
And the boy.
“Let him go.”
He was glaring with murderous intent, his eyes glinting fiercely.
It was the first time he had seen him.
Looking so angry.
And then.
“Let go.”
This was the first time Mikhail had seen her so terrified.