Dirty Sweet Baby Chapter 15

After looking around for a while, his gaze finally settled on an apron hanging on a wall hook. Heeheon, who was silently observing the black apron, reached out and lightly grasped the edge of the fabric. It was a stiff material.

‘Does Cha Moogyul wear this when he cooks.’

A useless thought popped into his head, but it was unstoppable. By the time he came to his senses, Heeheon was holding the apron in his hand. He had woken up early anyway. And he could not just leave the cooking duties to Cha Moogyul forever. And the coffee he had brewed for the first time, although a little bitter, was still drinkable. Heeheon put the apron on over his pajamas.

‘Maybe I should try making something simple.’

Preferably a Korean dish. The meals Cha Moogyul makes are too Western-style. His palate is probably different because he has eaten things like that since he was young, but while he could handle salads or omelets, he was starting to get tired of the strange pastas he had never seen before and the sticky, rich steaks. Baek Heeheon had no way of knowing that the food he had eaten was pappardelle pasta with salami and chateaubriand steak braised in red wine.

He searched the pantry and found rice. He washed it well, put it on to cook, and decided to make a simple stew. If he just puts in soybean paste and boils it vigorously, it should turn out alright, right? He put a pot of water on the stove and took out a cutting board. As he was clumsily chopping tofu and green onions, he suddenly heard a low voice, deep as if scraping the ground, from a distance.

“You should wash that first.”

Cha Moogyul, his voice hoarse, was standing crookedly in the kitchen doorway. He had his arms crossed, so it seemed he had been standing there watching him for quite some time. Flustered, Heeheon’s expression hardened. At that, he yawned languidly and came closer, dragging his slippers with a shuff shuff. Today as well, Cha Moogyul was wearing a single gown.

“The green onion. I said you have to wash it.”

“Ah. Oh.”

“What are you making.”

“Just… soybean paste stew.”

“And what’s with this tofu? You’ve completely mashed it. Don’t you know how to chop?”

“Huh?”

“Forget it… move.”

Cha Moogyul pushed Heeheon and took the kitchen knife away. Baek Heeheon had no intention of being pushed aside.

“I’ll do it. Leave it.”

“Be quiet. What kind of cooking are you going to do with those hands.”

Cha Moogyul skillfully washed the green onions and chopped them into uniform sizes. He also took out a new block of tofu from the refrigerator and sliced it neatly. He was like a machine. That was not all. He glanced at the tofu Heeheon had mashed, then took out some ground meat, mixed it, added soy sauce and other seasonings, and even formed it into round patties. He thought it might be grilled short-rib patties.

“If you wanted to eat Korean food, you should have just said so. You’re in the way, so stop loitering and go wait outside.”

“……”

“And take that off.”

Cha Moogyul gestured at the apron with his chin. Instead of taking off the apron around his neck, Heeheon mumbled blankly.

“…Why are you so good at cooking?”

The question he had been holding back all this time inadvertently slipped out. He had no desire to know more about Cha Moogyul, he wanted to remain ignorant until the end, but it could not be helped. Cha Moogyul’s eyes lowered. His long eyelashes and the alluring lines of his profile, as if drawn, created a perfect harmony. It was frighteningly perfect.

“Because I don’t really like food touched by other people’s hands?”

“You used to eat it just fine before…. Didn’t you have someone who cooked for you at home?”

“It’s been a while since I left the main house.”

Cha Moogyul took out a pan, oiled it, and heated it up. He placed the patties he had formed on it and covered it with a lid. A savory smell spread throughout the kitchen, and the hood attached to the ceiling automatically began to operate.

“Not long after you went to the special district, Baek Heeheon, I left right away too.”

“Ah… so that’s what happened. Why?”

“Why do you think. Even if it’s a remarriage, do you want to be a third wheel in a newlywed’s home?”

“No, you’re right. I understand.”

“Your hand.”

Cha Moogyul sliced zucchini and onion into the soybean paste stew, then added the green onion and tofu. As it bubbled and boiled, he asked in a low voice.

“Is it bad?”

Was he worried about it because he had been the one to bite him…? No way. He definitely does not have that kind of caring personality. Heeheon frowned and retorted.

“Do you think I’d make a fuss over something like this. It’s no big deal.”

“Hmph.”

Cha Moogyul let out a light breath. His face, which was like a work of art, seemed to crumple a little. A fleeting image of him frowning, his eyes sharpening, passed by. Soon, he regained his usual relaxed expression and let out a scoff.

“I couldn’t do it like a gentleman. I can’t control myself.”

“I know. You lost your reason.”

“Fuck… really.”

“Guiding is just like that sometimes. All Espers suffer because of it. Even though they’ve all been training since they were young.”

“……”

“There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this world. The greater the power, the greater the recoil…. It might be that it’s especially severe for you because your potential is immense.”

Cha Moogyul washed the cutting board and knife in the sink and put them away. He was silent while washing his hands with hand wash, and as he turned off the faucet, he asked as if tossing the question out.

“Then, what about you, hyung.”

“Huh?”

“Have you been living like this for five years?”

“……”

“Dealing with Espers who pounce on you impulsively. Touching skin, mixing mucous membranes?”

Heeheon slowly closed his lips. He pressed his upper and lower lips together and calmly affirmed. He untied the ribbon of the black apron tied around his waist, took it off, and handed it to him.

“I have no reason to hear that from you.”

It was not as if Baek Heeheon could accept it from the very beginning either. Although his thoughts have changed now.

“It’s a guide’s mission and responsibility. Don’t look down on it.”

“I’ve never looked down on it.”

“You were talking so glibly at the official announcement…. You, me, and all the residents of the general district have lived our whole lives being protected and guarded by the awakened like that. Now that I’m on the side that protects, I just did what I had to do.”

“……”

“Anyway… um, then I’ll ask you to make some Korean food from now on too.”

Heeheon turned and left the kitchen, which was vibrating with a delicious smell. Cha Moogyul watched his retreating back with an unreadable gaze.

His dark, sunken black eyes followed Baek Heeheon’s footsteps until the very end.

*

Two weeks passed since then. It was enough time for the wound on Baek Heeheon’s finger to heal. In the meantime, three more guiding sessions took place. Sticking Heeheon’s hand into Cha Moogyul’s mouth had become difficult due to the finger wound, so it was a mutually agreed upon mucous membrane contact guiding where Cha Moogyul would put his hand in Baek Heeheon’s mouth instead.

‘It can’t be helped.’

Heeheon, who had let go of his stubbornness, decided to think on the bright side. In a way, mucous membrane contact guiding might be better. It is simpler to offer one’s mouth for a moment and finish the guiding quickly and efficiently, rather than holding hands with Cha Moogyul and being stuck together for a long time.

In any case, the situation now was that he had to guide him, and there was no proper reason to just refuse it stubbornly. Above all, mucous membrane contact guiding was not a bad act. It was just guiding.

It was a… so to speak, a medical activity to resolve the imbalance of the Esper, Cha Moogyul.

‘A doctor can’t let personal feelings get in the way of treating a patient.’

Even though his whole body shivered every time Cha Moogyul touched Baek Heeheon, and his heart pounded enough to make him dizzy when his fingers dug into his lips. Still, it was unavoidable. There was no choice but to clench his fists tightly in both hands and endure it with his back stiff and tense.

‘It can’t be helped. Yes… it can’t be helped.’

Heeheon steeled himself like that. After hardening his heart, he spent long and dry days. Then one day. Supplies sent from the Center arrived.

It seemed Cha Moogyul’s awakened registration code had been issued. A combat uniform, an identification tag engraved with the awakened code, and a few other items were delivered to the house.

1 identification tag with a military dog tag chain. 2 sets of HMD (Head Mounted Display) military special goggles. 5 sets of combat uniforms. 3 sets of combat dress uniforms. 4 pairs of combat boots. 4 pairs of combat gloves. 1 face mask. 2 combat caps. An army insignia. Brigadier General rank insignia.

More than anything else, an Army Brigadier General.

He did not know how on earth Cha Moogyul had already become a general officer, but he knew enough not to need to question the reason deeply. The entire process, from the moment Cha Moogyul awakened to the moment he became affiliated with the Center, might have been a well-written script.

Baek Heeheon, unknowingly letting out a heavy sigh, explained how to use the supplies to Cha Moogyul in the living room. There was no need to teach him how to wear the combat uniform, but the instructions for using the goggles and the precautions regarding the identification tag were a bit tricky.

“As you probably know, normal communication doesn’t work inside a gate. The awakened communicate through a personal line using a unique code.”

Cha Moogyul sat leaning his long body against the sofa and listened to Heeheon’s explanation. His expression looked quite serious. Was it because of that? Heeheon felt as if he was acting as Cha Moogyul’s hyung for the first time.

Heeheon turned on the goggles to demonstrate how to operate them. It was a special military item to which HMD (Head Mounted Display) technology, which tracks and recognizes a person’s gaze, was applied. It was a culmination of cutting-edge technology that used an artificial intelligence system to view various information, could communicate closely with the Center, and even had a transmitter and receiver attached.

Heeheon now used it skillfully, but it was an unfamiliar device to civilians, so at first, practice and trial and error were needed to get used to it.

“And this identification tag is no different from an ID card that proves an awakened person’s identity. Make sure to wear it around your neck at all times without taking it off.”

Heeheon pulled aside the collar of his white shirt and showed him his own identification tag.