Preparing for Proper Cohabitation
A soft trickle of water brushed against my ears.
"I-Is this how you do it?"
"Yeah. You're doing fine. Just think of it as practice for now — take it slow."
Matching the rhythm of those words, a quiet scrubbing sound tapped lightly at my hearing. In one of Cecilia's hands was a spoon; in the other, a scrubbing pad.
"Y-Yeah…"
What we were doing right now was dishwashing practice. More accurately, what Cecilia was doing. True to her wish to repay even a little of the kindness she'd received, I was starting her off with practice.
"Mm…"
After days of nothing but instant food, the sink held no dishes to speak of — just a few utensils. There wasn't much to wash, but that made it better for practice, if anything.
"…Is that it?"
"Yeah. That's it. Good work."
The dishwashing finished, and the last spoon dropped into the utensil holder with a soft clink. As a faint look of relief crossed Cecilia's face, I brought her a towel.
"Here."
"Ah — okay. Thanks."
She took the towel with hesitant little movements and dried her hands. Her manner was still timid, still carrying a touch of wariness. But it wasn't the blatant wariness toward me that it used to be. What remained was mainly caution toward her surroundings.
As for the two of us, you could say we'd reached a point where we could at least hold a conversation. If I spoke to her, she responded. If I tried to talk, she carefully met me halfway. Meeting eyes was still hard for her — but at least she no longer went deathly pale and hid in a corner, or trembled so hard that talking was impossible. That alone was huge progress.
"What do I do next?"
"Hmm. Even if I wanted to teach you something, we've pretty much covered everything already…"
At her question, I briefly rested a hand on my chin.
The dishes had just been finished, of course. Cleaning had been taken care of only a few days ago with a big autumn tidy-up. Laundry, too — I'd run a load right after getting soaked yesterday. And last night, after Cecilia had fallen asleep first from the alcohol, I'd hung up the few pieces that were left to dry… and they were still hanging out on the veranda over there—
"Ah."
"?"
"Nothing. Just remembered something I'd forgotten."
As I spoke, I headed toward the veranda. Well — it was a studio apartment, so that only meant a few steps.
A large glass door, and beyond it a tiny little balcony. Before crossing through, I found the item sitting on the small side table I'd placed by the door as a space-filler.
"Is this yours, Cecilia?"
A small cloth pouch. Whatever it was made of, it was fairly thick and waterproofed. It looked a little worn, as if she'd been carrying it around for a long time.
I'd already checked — the only thing inside was a single brown pill. What it did, I naturally had no idea. But it had looked easy to crush, so the moment I found it before putting her clothes in the washer, I'd set it aside.
"Ah… yeah. It's mine."
"Here."
"Thank you…"
With careful movements, Cecilia took the pouch from me. She peeked inside, then shot a quick glance my way.
"…Did you look?"
"Hm?"
"At what was inside."
"Ah — yeah. It just looked like some kind of pill… Was I not supposed to see it?"
At the pure curiosity in my question, Cecilia blinked her eyes narrow and asked back.
"You… don't know what it is?"
"? Of course not."
"I see…"
An odd reaction. Was it actually some famous medicine that only I didn't recognize? It had just looked like a small brown pill to me, though…
"Anyway, thanks for looking after it, Eunhyuk. It's my… uh, emergency medicine."
"If it's emergency medicine, want me to keep it with the rest of our medicine at home?"
"Th-That would be…"
A conflicted look crossed her face. Still, figuring it was better to store everything in one place, I tried again to persuade her.
"It'll stay dry, and you won't lose it. Whatever it is, if it's important, I think it's better kept somewhere safe. I won't touch it."
"…Please do."
"Okay."
Convincing her hadn't been that hard.
I took the pouch back from Cecilia and carefully set it with the rest of the medicine inside the table.
Honestly, saying I wasn't curious about what kind of medicine it was would have been a lie, but—
"…Ugh."
—she was fidgeting with such an embarrassed air that I decided not to ask. I'd find out someday.
"So now… hmm, what else do we need? Daily necessities…?"
With the immediate tasks more or less done, I started thinking about what came next.
However we'd gotten here, Cecilia was going to live in my place. Cohabitation, in other words. For her own reasons she wanted that, and I had no intention of refusing, so the arrangement itself wasn't a problem.
But practically speaking, living together came with a few issues. Chief among them: daily necessities.
Food. Things to wash with. Clothes to change into. …Especially underwear, and so on. Food was easy enough to solve, but the rest…
"…"
"Hm? …Why are you looking at me like that, Eunhyuk?"
"No, just…"
…Obviously, she didn't have any. If I didn't want to test the limits of my self-restraint, I needed to get some as soon as possible.
"Female acquaintances I could ask about this… yeah, I don't have any. Should I ask Kang Min? He's a guy, but he's popular enough with women that he might know a little. Still, hmm."
"Is something wrong…?"
"No, I was just thinking we should stock up on some daily necessities…"
Looking down at Cecilia looking up at me, an idea suddenly crossed my mind.
"…Cecilia. This is important, so I'm going to ask you seriously."
"Ah — u-uh-huh."
"…You don't have any underwear, do you?"
"?!"
At the seriousness in my voice, Cecilia went rigid for a moment — then her face exploded red. The pure, flustered way she stammered made even me start to feel embarrassed.
"I'm not saying this for any weird reason."
"U-Uh-huh."
"If you're going to stay here, you'll need a few pairs, and I can't exactly buy them on my own. I was thinking we could go together…"
I forced down the embarrassment and kept my tone serious, and Cecilia, for her part, put on a somewhat serious expression and listened. The redness, of course, wasn't going anywhere.
"Together… outside?"
"Yeah. To a store that sells underwear."
Once she'd heard the rest, Cecilia dipped her head slightly, looking thoughtful.
I'd said it lightly enough, but I was just as conflicted. She was a beastkin, after all — no getting around that.
I hadn't checked, but the internet was probably still buzzing with related news. If we got spotted in a situation like that, there was no telling what might happen.
Even if a hood could hide her ears and tail, there was still risk. Whether to take that risk… or take a risk of a different kind. It sounded strange put into words, but I was serious.
"…I have one condition."
Having finished thinking it over, Cecilia looked up at me again. Her clear sky-blue eyes shone with complicated emotion as she spoke.
"Could you… maybe let me wear a hood or something? So I can hide my ears and tail…"
Whether by coincidence or not, it was almost exactly what I'd just been thinking myself.
And so we ended up outside, on a reasonably busy main street — heading for an underwear shop with Cecilia buried deep inside an oversized hood.
For the record, the hood she was wearing was originally mine. It hung a little loose on her, but not enough to draw attention.
"Th-There are so many people…"
"You okay?"
"Is it always like this here? Th-Those tall buildings, so many of them…? I-I've never seen anything like…"
Walking along in that hood, Cecilia murmured in a small, frightened voice. The crowds seemed to have overwhelmed her. Thinking about it, she was from another world… so of course she would react that way.
"Don't look around too much. Keep your eyes down and just follow me. That should help a little."
When I spoke almost in a whisper, Cecilia nodded once. Then she obediently lowered her head and began trailing after me in small steps.
"That's it."
I kept walking, leading her along. Right, then left. Across crosswalks, choosing the less crowded directions whenever I could. It had looked like a short distance when I checked on my phone — I had no idea why it felt so far.
"Um, Eunhyuk…"
"Yeah?"
As we walked, Cecilia suddenly spoke up in a small voice. When I glanced back, she was still hunched in on herself, tense.
"Do only Normal Humans live here? No elves, or demonkin, or… anything like that…?"
"…I'm not sure what 'Normal Humans' means, but basically, this world is only people of the same species as me."
"Really?"
I nodded. Cecilia dipped her head a little lower and murmured in a strangely complicated voice.
"I see…"
What she meant by that, I couldn't tell.
Elves and demonkin, though. Hearing words I'd only ever run into in comics spoken out loud felt strangely different.
From the news, it seemed other races like that had appeared all over the place the same way Cecilia had… I wondered if I'd ever run into any of them.
"Light's green. Let's go."
"Ah — okay."
Setting that brief thought aside, I started walking again.
Just beyond the crossing we were about to take, a specialty underwear shop glowed with an elegant light.