RPPL C23

Meanwhile, Bipa spent several minutes just getting a proper grip on the knife. He was so nervous he kept moistening his lips with his tongue. Even Muyun, sitting with his back to him, could sense the tension.

“Master. You can just cut it however.”

“What if I accidentally slit your throat?”

“If you hold it like this, it’ll be the back of the blade.”

Muyun made a gesture in the air of holding a knife upside down. He was right. To cut the hair, one had to put the knife inside the gathered hair in the opposite hand, which meant the part touching the neck would be the spine of the blade, not the edge.

With a visibly relieved expression, Bipa carefully inserted the knife. Muyun flinched his shoulders for a moment at the cold sensation on the nape of his neck.

“Stay still.”

Startled by the movement, Bipa spread his legs and held Muyun between them. He wrapped his legs around him and tensed his inner thighs, preventing him from moving easily.

“W-wait a moment, Master…!”

“Ahem. Stay still.”

Bipa moistened his dry lips, then chuckled at Muyun’s urgent voice. The low, laughter-tinged voice tickled the nape of Muyun’s neck.

Muyun’s eyes darted around before falling downwards. Bipa was barefoot, and the white top of his foot, revealed by his posture, glistened in the sunlight. Due to his nervousness, his big toe was lifted towards the sky. The bone rose with it, leaving a trail on the top of his foot. For some reason, Muyun couldn’t tear his eyes away from it.

“There, there. Good boy.”

Unaware that Muyun had become quiet because he was captivated by his foot, Bipa slowly began to cut Muyun’s hair.

However, since hair has neither strength nor elasticity, the blade kept slipping, and the straight line he was aiming for gradually went askew. Oblivious to this, Bipa concentrated so hard that the tip of his tongue peeked out. Whether from worry or tension, Muyun’s shoulders, which were tensed up, showed no sign of relaxing.

“I’m, I’m done.”

After what felt like an eternity to both of them, Bipa finally let out a sigh of relief and held out the hand gripping the lock of hair.

Muyun stared strangely at the hair that came into his view. Well, now that it was detached from his body, it was no longer a part of him, so it was only natural for it to feel strange.

“I’m never doing this again.”

After showing Muyun what he had cut, Bipa tied it like a skein of thread. Then, with his fingertips, he carefully brushed the remaining strands of hair from the nape of Muyun’s neck. Muyun flinched his neck at the ticklish sensation.

The meticulous finishing touch was nice, but the haircut itself was not. Moksun, who had come to the backyard to call the benefactors, happened to see it and cried out in surprise.

“Oh my goodness! What in the world happened to your hair! You look like a hooligan.”

“Haha…. It looks strange, doesn’t it?”

Bipa muttered, embarrassed. Moksun clicked her tongue and rushed over.

“Strange is an understatement. It’s been ages since I cut my son’s hair, but let me have a look. I’m sure I’ll be better than our honored guest.”

Moksun quickly fetched a pair of scissors, sat down behind Muyun, and got to work. Watching them, Bipa chuckled and carefully tucked Muyun’s hair into their bundle.

At that, Muyun frowned and asked. Unlike when Bipa was cutting, he seemed completely unbothered by the scissor blades playing behind him.

“Why are you keeping that?”

At his words, Bipa put on a mock-stern expression.

“You shouldn’t throw away parts of your body carelessly. Do you want me to take a little rat that looks just like you as my disciple instead? If so, just toss it anywhere.”

“No!”

“Aigoo. Stay still unless you want a hole in your head.”

Moksun fussed at Muyun, who had shot up to his feet to shout his refusal. Bipa pushed the bundle of Muyun’s hair into the pack and said,

“Your master will keep it as a memento and feed it to a rat when needed. If you don’t listen to me, I’ll have to get a new disciple. It’s good to have this.”

He felt good at the word ‘memento,’ but the teasing that followed made him flare up. He would rather be a useful disciple no matter what than end up as a senior to a little rat. A sense of stubborn pride welled up.

“Then I’ll keep it.”

“No. Aigoo, look at our Muyun’s hair. It’s a mess.”

“See? That’s what I…”

What more was he going to do about it? He was fine with his master keeping it, but he hated the idea of it being fed to a rat, and what was so special about that coarse hair anyway? In any case, it was complicated. Was it because Bipa kept provoking him? Muyun’s cheeks were busy turning red and blue.

Watching the two of them banter, Moksun giggled.

“Still, looks like your master treats you very well.”

Then she lowered her voice and asked what he was learning. Muyun, who didn’t know what he was learning, couldn’t answer. Bipa answered for him.

“I teach singing. But he’s terrible at it.”

“Is that so? Would you mind singing for us?”

“He has a cold right now.”

Bipa let out a deliberate cough. Moksun finally understood their relationship. If that was the case, it made sense that the disciple was so young and that the two of them were wandering from village to village. As Moksun nodded in understanding, Muyun frowned and asked.

“Singing?”

“Yup. It would be a big problem if they ask you to sing later. We can just leave before then, right?”

Bipa wrinkled his nose. It was true that he had learned from Haesol, but that was precisely why he knew all too well that his voice was not something worth possessing. It was a relief.

❀࿐

Moksun emptied her own room for Bipa and Muyun. She couldn’t leave the sleeping Deokseok alone anyway. Bipa tilted his neck from side to side and let out a weary sigh.

“It would be perfect if there was an abandoned house here. There aren’t many people, and it’s remote….”

But he wondered if there would even be an abandoned house in a village barely established within a circle of mountains. Even if there were, tigers would probably frequent it. It was so difficult to settle down somewhere.

After grumbling, Bipa turned over and curled up again. Then, when Muyun spread his bedding a little distance away and lay down, he teased him.

“What? Why don’t you sleep next to your master? Don’t cry because you’re scared.”

“Why would I cry? I’ve never once cried in front of you, Master….”

“That’s true, you are very brave. Even when we first met. Other children would have cried their eyes out….”

A mischievous thought suddenly occurred to Bipa. He put on a deliberate expression, propped himself up slightly, and asked.

“Was I just being needlessly meddlesome back then?”

“No.”

Muyun answered swiftly. How could that be?

The boy’s eyes sparkled as he looked directly at Bipa. The words that poured out, without realizing it was a joke, were endlessly sincere.

“My world changed after that day.”

“…To that extent?”

Bipa asked, feeling a little embarrassed.

“I don’t think it was that big of a deal….”

“It was exactly that big of a deal.”

“……”

“I’m starting to get embarrassed too, so please stop looking at me….”

Muyun turned his head away. The tips of his ears were faintly red. Bipa looked at the still downy ears and swallowed a laugh.

“Looking back, it was a good deed. I just saved whatever was inside without knowing what it was, and the time I thought you were a shameless brat trying to steal my bundle already feels like a distant memory.”

“I was… just, really….”

His face beet red, Muyun stammered out an excuse.

“Really….”

“Really what?”

You were just pretty….The first time I saw you in the light I thought I would never see again, you were dazzling….It felt like if I didn’t follow you, I would be trapped in darkness again, so I couldn’t help but chase after you. But Muyun knew embarrassment too, and couldn’t bring himself to say that much.

At the ensuing silence, Bipa said, “Never mind,” and turned over to lie down. His mood had already improved greatly. However, Muyun, mistaking it for Bipa being upset, hastily changed the subject.

“So where is it that you want to settle down, Master?”

His tone was placating, as if humoring him. To a stranger, it would look like Muyun was the one taking Bipa around. But neither of the two thought that way.

“Just a quiet place. Where the sunlight is good, not gloomy, with a river nearby….”

“Away from the village?”

“I’d like that. But you’ll probably need to be near people. I’m not a good cook, and when it comes to growing crops, I kill five out of ten before I even start.”

“We should live in a place you like, Master, not me.”

“Right…. Then if you find a place you like, you can live there….”

Bipa’s words trailed off. Muyun was about to ask what he had just said when he heard the sound of regular breathing and pressed his lips together.

“Master…? Are you asleep?”

“……”

Muyun held his breath and quietly leaned his head toward Bipa. A fragrance always emanated from him. It was a sweet yet bitter scent, like that of flower petals and grass crushed together. A scent that, once smelled, kept coming back to mind….

Yes…. He smelled of sweet olive.