Let's Eat Snacks Together
Clatter, clatter.
I was in our living room. There was no sofa, only a cheap floor cushion set before a shabby little table, and I sat there face to face with her.
Right beside us, Mom was rattling around the kitchen with this and that.
"......"
"......"
"Do you like juice?"
"......"
"Ah, just bring anything...!!"
"Then you two keep each other company for a bit."
We hadn't exchanged a single word the entire hour on the bus. So this suffocating silence... there was nothing to be done about it.
It was the same for her.
...Someone else's house. Amazing...
...Cozy. Smells like a long time ago...
Her inner voice felt brighter than before. As if the soggy staleness of a snack left half-eaten two days ago had turned into the tiny star candy tucked inside a plain cracker. ...Anyway. Her eyes had grown a little brighter.
Like someone stepping into a stranger's house for the very first time.
...Awkward...
She shot me a glance, and the word slipped out inside her. I was no different.
It was my own house, and yet I felt as if I were sitting in someone else's living room... Ugh. I wished she would say something, anything at all.
...Not that I had the courage to speak first.
"......"
"......"
"......"
"......"
We smoothed our collars, wiped the cold sweat from our palms, stroked meaningless lines under the table, rolled our eyes around as if lost in thought, fidgeted with the cushion beside us... That was the whole of the conversation between us.
Until Mom came over and spoke.
"It's nothing much, but eat plenty."
"Uh, um... yeah..."
"......"
She gave a small nod, but she didn't pick up a snack, and she didn't lift the cup of juice.
Neither did I. I wasn't sure why... only that my whole body refused to move the way I told it to.
I was like a scrap-metal toy that had never been oiled, creaking at every joint. I kept stalling.
...A snack I've never seen...
...Is it okay. If I eat it...?
She quietly turned her head toward Mom, who was smiling and smiling. Then her gaze flicked to me, to the snacks, to the juice, and back to Mom again. She ran through that little circuit a few times.
Even so, Mom only watched us in silence, steady and unblinking. ...It was suffocating.
"Oh my, you don't have to mind me at all. Think of me as air. Just air."
"......"
"......"
Saying so didn't make the person sitting beside us disappear. But at this rate, the girl in front of me looked ready to burst first.
She was pretending nothing was wrong, but a red aura was spinning around her like a crooked little spiral.
...The grown-up. Should go first...
...Why won't he. Eat...?
If we stayed like this, I was sure the moment would never end. So I seized the snacks on the table in both hands, tore the wrappers open in a frantic rush, and crammed them into my mouth.
Crumbs showered the table, my clothes, even the floor.
Naturally, I braced for Mom to deliver a world-class smack across my back... She didn't. She only gave it a light little pat.
...Not like her at all.
"You'll make yourself sick. Eat slowly."
"Mmph?! Uh... uhhh..."
"......"
Once I started eating as if it were nothing, she carefully picked up a single snack in both hands. She peeled the wrapper back, slow... and everything inside was crushed.
...Ah, what do I do...
...Opened it. Wrong...
No—honestly, it wasn't her fault. Some snacks crumble if you so much as look at them wrong, and sometimes they come already broken.
I did that sometimes too. Get the pressure even slightly off and the whole thing falls apart. It was only natural.
"Hmm, maybe I should have opened them for you?"
"......!"
The moment Mom leaned toward her, she startled and the snack tumbled from her hands.
She stared for a moment at the floor dusted white with powder, then quickly reached for the notebook on the table and wrote.
I'm sorry... I'll clean it up right away...
"Hm? No, no. I can't make a guest do the cleaning."
But...
"Just stay right there."
"......"
I knew Mom had a way with people, but anyone could see the girl was overwhelmed. Leave her like that and she might go soggy again, the way she had before, or that anxious red aura might burst with a pop.
So I dropped a snack on the floor on purpose, pretending it was an accident. ...It stung a little.
"Ah......"
"......?"
"Oh my, Hyunwoo?"
"My... my hand slipped..."
I scrambled up, snatched the lint roller and the wet wipes from one side of the living room, and held them out to Mom.
Doing it myself felt somehow... like too much.
"Mmm... here. Wipe your hands with this for a moment. I'll have it cleaned up in no time."
"Th-this... opening them one by one is such a pain... I can just unwrap them all, right...?"
"......"
I made a show of asking her permission, but my hands were already tearing every wrapper open. The ones still whole, I nudged toward her. The broken ones, I turned so their open mouths faced me.
Quickly, in the moment her eyes were caught on Mom rolling the lint roller.
I did my best to avoid her gaze. It wasn't exactly consideration. I wasn't trying to say anything, and I certainly wasn't showing off.
They were just snacks whose wrappers came off by themselves if you left them long enough. That was all.
...Did he. Do this...?
She stared at me, steady and quiet. So I shoved a snack into my mouth as if nothing had happened.
Which is how my throat got stu—
"...Khek, khek!!"
"......"
"Wh-what are you looking at..."
"......"
Honestly, it was a little humiliating. I'd spilled snacks all over the floor like some little kid, choked because I ate like I was starving, and then gulped the juice so fast it dribbled down my chin... I wanted to kick my way out of that spot right then and there.
But Mom seemed to be feeling about the same.
"...Hyunwoo."
"Huh? What, what...?"
"I'll clean up. Take this and show her your room."
"Show her... my room...?"
"Yes. Your room."
"......"
Mom smiled and spoke to me gently. She was angry, but holding it in because someone else was here.
She set the lint roller, thick with snack crumbs, down on the floor and pushed the tray toward me.
The girl looked my way.
...Wasn't looking. At you...
...Was looking. At the snacks...
Fortunately, and against my worries, she didn't seem to be thinking anything in particular. Was this what people called a blessing in disguise?
...Honestly, I wasn't sure.
The door creaked.
"Th-this is my room..."
"......"
"There's... nothing much..."
"......"
I set the snack tray on the desk and stood blankly in the middle of the room.
It was too cramped to give any kind of tour, and besides... I didn't really want to.
A soft scratching.
Bed?
"...Don't have one."
Then. Where do you sleep?
"...The floor?"
"......!"
Her eyes flew wide for an instant, as if she had never once imagined such a thing. And from that, I understood, dimly. This kid... was richer than I'd thought.
Then how did she not know a snack this ordinary? You could find it anywhere.
"Th-the snacks... just eat them however you want... Mom's not here, so..."
"......"
"Ah, I— I don't mean anything by it... I just... I know... about that..."
"......"
A soft rustle.
Of the snacks on the tray, she slowly lifted the one nearest her and turned her face away from me.
And with a crunch, the red aura around her burst. Pop!
Like fireworks.
...It's yummy...
She hadn't put the whole snack in her mouth at once, so crumbs scattered across the floor, but that hardly mattered.
The look hidden in the deep shadow of her thick hoodie, the faint smile glowing inside it, was like the first colors of dawn.
She was... that beautiful.
Beautiful enough that the same color stole into my cheeks before I knew what was happening.
"Y-you can eat them all... I... I ate a lot earlier..."
"......"
"Sit... sit there and eat..."
"......Mm."
From the place where the faint smile vanished came one short, cold answer. And just behind it, faintly visible... sharp fangs.
The instant I saw them, my legs took a step back on instinct.
Because that kid... is a vampire.
"......?"
"M-my foot fell asleep..."
"......"
"E-eat up! Eat however you want... however you want..."
"......Mm."
It had definitely been fine until just now. Right up through the notes.
But the moment she ate a snack and let a word out of her mouth... I saw the sharp fangs.
The same fangs... from when she had been drinking a blood pack.
"......"
"......"
"......"
"......"
She slowly bit into the snack. The sound of it breaking apart rang enormous through the narrow room.
Maybe the room was too small. Maybe it was that no words passed between us. Either way, every sound felt huge.
Even a heartbeat, knocking against my ears.
........
Thump. Thump.
Once, when she moved her mouth. Once, when she picked up a snack. Once, when she... looked at me.
The sound only kept growing, and little by little I ran out of air.
So I closed my eyes.
That kid... that kid is a vampire...
The reason my heart was racing was nerves. The pounding I could hear now was because I was scared of her. Absolutely... absolutely. It wasn't because she was trying to find her way into my heart. It wasn't.
So I had to deny this pounding. Not yet... not yet. I couldn't trust her. That kid was a vampire. I could not let my guard down. Not for a second.
B-but when is she leaving...? Didn't they say they were only checking where I live...?
She'd had her snacks. I'd shown her the room. Whether Mom had taken a liking to her... I couldn't say, but outside, before I'd noticed, the sun had gone down and the world was sinking into dark.
I had to send her back. As fast as I could.
From what I knew, vampires were active at night.
Which meant...
"I-if you're done eating, then go! I have to— I have to study!!"
"......?"
"B-bye!!"
"......"
Just as she was about to put another snack in her mouth, I flung the door open and bolted into the living room.
Then I ran straight to the entryway and yanked the front door wide.
A thin chime rang out.
This was the best I could do. I couldn't drop hints with my eyes until she took them, and I couldn't shove her out by the shoulders. There was no other way.
She seemed to drift slowly out of my room, then stopped where she was and hesitated.
Then, for a long while, she wrote something in her notebook and erased it, over and over.
And she kept... going.
"Oh my, leaving already?"
"I-it'll be night any minute!!"
The snacks... were delicious... Thank you...
"Hehe, then come over to play again next time."
"She's not coming!! Not next time!!"
Starting today, this house was closed to outsiders. No matter how hard someone knocked, I was not opening that door.
Especially not someone with sharp fangs.
"Then walk her home."
"...Huh?"
"Hm? Hyunwoo, you're not planning to let a girl walk home alone at night, are you?"
"......"
Mom. Mom, you can't do this.
I'm your kid.
She's someone I met for the first time today.
"Come on, hurry."
"Ah... no, wait a second..."
"Come to think of it, I never heard your name. Would you tell me?"
"......"
Scratch, scratch.
She bowed her head and pressed the pen down hard, stroke by stroke, as she wrote. Her handwriting had always been awful, so I couldn't exactly call it good... but at least it wasn't a tangle of squiggles.
Roughly good enough to beat a little kid who had just learned how to write. Something like that.
It's Baek Seol...
"Oh my, what a beautiful name."
Thank you...
"Then I'll leave our Hyunwoo in your hands."
"W-wait!! M-Mom...!!"
We were shoved out by the shoulders, and the front door shut with a heavy thud. Trying to get back in... was hopeless. Mom had already thrown the latch, so I had no choice but to walk her all the way home.
Her house... was in the exact opposite direction.
It would take well over an hour at least.
And that was by car.
"......"
"......"
We couldn't quite bring ourselves to look at each other. For the briefest moment, our eyes met.
And we thought the same thing.
...What do we do...
