The Rabbit's First Love
In the quiet room, countless voices of reproach echoed.
"Useless bitch?"
"A fucking parasite that only wastes food."
"If only you weren't here... It would have been better if you never existed from the beginning."
"I hate it, I hate it!!!" The girl screamed, thrashing as if in the grip of a seizure.
"Get out of my head!!! Get out... get out, please... please..."
The door creaked open—her cries must have carried outside—and the boy came rushing in.
"Eunah!! Are you okay...?"
"Hanseong..."
Seeing her tears, the boy quickly pulled her into his arms.
"It's okay, it's okay... Everything will be fine..."
"Uhuh... Yeah. As long as I have Hanseong... Only Hanseong is enough..."
The moment the boy appeared, the voices swirling around the girl vanished like magic. Nestled in his embrace, she soon seemed to regain her senses and blushed, yet she kept her body pressed trustingly against his warmth.
"Feeling a little better now? Sorry... for hugging you so suddenly..."
"No, no. I'm actually grateful..."
The boy tried to pull away, but the girl clung to him tightly.
"Uh... Eunah?"
"I like being in Hanseong's arms... Let me stay like this just a little longer..."
She nuzzled against him, rubbing her cheek back and forth in a motion that reminded him of someone else. The boy flinched lightly.
'No way... It can't be, right?'
'....Affection Window.'
The boy's head throbbed.
'Eunah sees me as a lover?'
'Why, though...? Is this the suspension bridge effect I read about in that book...?'
The suspension bridge effect. It refers to the phenomenon where attraction to the opposite sex encountered on a shaky bridge rises higher than the same encounter on a stable one. Simply put, when someone is in a state of tension, they can't distinguish between excitement and love, mistaking the tension itself for romantic feelings caused by the person they're with.
'Until now, it's been nothing but tension because of the Gates and all those disasters... Did she mistake her own emotions during that time?'
'If Eunah confesses to me... what the hell am I supposed to do?'
Even the boy's usually cool and rational mind went blank in the face of his childhood friend's one-sided crush. 'Eunah is definitely one of the most precious people in my life... but if we're talking about her as a member of the opposite sex...'
He studied the face of the girl in his arms more closely. Short, snow-white hair and eyes as red as apples. Her cute appearance, reminiscent of a rabbit, made him keep staring without realizing it.
'Was Eunah... always this pretty?'
The instant he recognized his childhood friend—who he'd always treated as just a friend—as a girl, the boy heard his own heartbeat.
Thump. Thump—
"Hanseong..."
"Eunah..."
Just as the two of them called each other's names and a strange atmosphere began to form, the door burst open with a clatter.
"Hanseong!!! Noona's back~"
Yu Sohee had returned from gathering supplies. The boy snapped back to his senses, stammered, and hurried out of the room.
"N-Noona must be back. I-I'll head out now!"
"Oh... okay... see you..."
The moment the boy left the room, the girl ground her teeth.
Crunch—
"Because of that bug-like bitch..."
Without realizing it, she was repeating the very words that had once tormented her.
After muttering curses several more times, the girl began to recall her first meeting with the boy.
The girl's earliest memory began in a damp-smelling, dusty room. In a house with only two rooms, her only family was her mother. Every night, her mother would drag a different man inside. The house had no proper soundproofing, so the girl would press her pillow over her ears to block out the lewd sounds of pleasure and try to sleep.
Her only joy was the library she visited every chance she got. Having received no basic education, she absorbed new knowledge from books each time. Then one day, out of curiosity, she asked her mother a question.
"Mom... why do we have so many dads?"
Slap—
She was struck across the cheek. Still young and quick to cry, the girl burst into tears.
"Shut up! Ugh... Raising a kid is such a pain."
"If it weren't for that man's child..."
Her mother, who had never been particularly kind but at least answered most questions, began to completely neglect her from that day on.
"Mom... I'm hungry..."
"I left some money on the table. Buy something outside. Mom's busy."
"But I like the food you make, Mom..."
More time passed, and the girl reached the age to start elementary school. Early one dawn, her mother was on the phone.
"What? What are you saying? That's that person's child. She's the child of Chairman Oh of the Yukseong Group!!!"
Unable to contain her rage, her mother hurled the phone across the room. Then, as if she'd lost her mind, she muttered.
"Hehe... What? Do whatever you want? After I took care of that annoying little bitch and raised her?"
She looked at her daughter, who was sleeping in the next room, with utter disgust.
"So it's convenient for you, huh? While Mom suffers like this... the so-called child."
Unable to hold back her anger, she began strangling the girl.
"Kuh... M-Mom... why are you..."
"Die... Die!!! Give me back my youth, my money!!!"
"Mom... I can't breathe... Stop... Stop it!!!"
The girl, unable to endure any longer, stabbed both of her mother's eyes.
Squelch—
"Aaaaaaaaagh!!!"
"You bug-like bitch... After I raised you, this is how you repay me?! Stabbing your own mother's eyes?"
Watching her mother clutch her bleeding eyes and weep tears of blood, the girl panted out her words.
"Haa... Haa... I told you to stop!!!"
After screaming, the girl bolted out of the house. A storm of emotions raged inside her—relief at having survived when she nearly died, guilt for hurting her mother, and anxiety about what would come next.
After wandering aimlessly, the girl collapsed onto a bench at a nearby playground and lost consciousness.
"Aaaaaaaaagh!!!!"
"Ma'am! Please calm down!!!"
Ever since she'd been rushed to the hospital, the girl's mother had been suffering endless seizures. A man watching intently through the glass window asked his secretary.
"What do you make of it?"
"From the circumstances, it appears the child stabbed the eyes in self-defense."
"Wow... And the eyes? With that level of damage, is she going to be okay?"
The man spoke lightly, as if the matter had nothing to do with him.
"Fortunately she hasn't gone completely blind, but... her vision has been severely impaired."
"Did you check the library?"
"Yes. An examination of the books she recently borrowed shows they were texts that would require at least a high-school education to understand."
"Couldn't she have just borrowed them without any real purpose?"
"Upon searching the house, we discovered numerous book reports written by the child."
The secretary quickly presented the book reports the girl had written.
"Huh... You're saying a child who never even received kindergarten education wrote these?"
"Yes. It seems..."
"I thought it would be like father, like son—a tiger father raising a dog of a son—but it turns out she's even more exceptional."
"Secretary Kim, if this child were to become my successor, what do you think?"
"That is..."
The secretary, unable to answer easily, agonized for a moment before finally speaking.
"I will follow the chairman's decision."
"Secretary Kim, be honest. Among my children right now, is there any who surpass or even match this one?"
"......"
Leaving the silently brooding secretary behind, the man—Kim Taesik, chairman of the Yukseong Group—spoke.
"Bring her to me."
"Yes, Chairman. ...What should we do about the child's mother? There could be noise later regarding custody rights."
"Throw her a few bucks and shut her mouth. She's the type who wouldn't recognize a jewel even if it hit her in the face. Make sure to warn her firmly not to approach the child."
"Understood."
Days had passed since the girl ran away from home, yet she still couldn't bring herself to return.
'Mom will kill me if she sees me...'
Trembling, the fear and terror toward her mother had grown far too great. She had no choice but to stay restlessly at the playground. But even that eventually reached its limit. Having eaten nothing but water from the nearby tap for days, her body grew thinner and her face turned deathly pale.
She began to despair. And then she began to blame herself.
'Why did I do that...? Is this my punishment?'
'I stabbed the eyes of my only family... Mom... I'm sorry.'
'My eyes are closing more and more... Am I going to die...?'
'If there's a next life, I hope there's someone who will love me...'
As her vision slowly faded, someone called out to her.
"Hey!"
"...Huh?"
"I'm talking to you. You!"
"...Me?"
When the girl opened her heavy eyes, she saw a boy about the same age as her.
"Why are you always alone here?" the boy asked.
"I..."
As she tried to speak, tears began falling without her permission.
Sniffle—
"Uh... Hey? Are you okay?"
"Hic... I'm fine. I'm... going to die soon anyway. So don't worry about me."
'He'll be disappointed and leave now...'
"Hey!!!"
The boy's sharp shout startled her.
"What do you mean, die? Don't die. You have to live! If you say you're going to die again, I'll...!"
"But... I don't have a home anymore. I don't have a family. There's no reason for me to keep living."
"Then I'll become your family!"
"Huh...?"
"And you look really hungry... Here, eat this at least."
The boy handed her the snacks he usually ate.
"...Is it really okay? For someone like me to..."
She wanted to devour them immediately, but she held back her instincts and asked.
"I don't know you well... but one thing is certain. Right now you're hungry, and these snacks are delicious. So just eat them. Don't overcomplicate it."
At the boy's words, the girl carefully brought the snack to her mouth.
Crunch—
"There we go. Good job eating."
Sniffle—
"Hic... Hiccup... You... it's too..."
"Uh...? Wait, why are you crying?!"
"It's too... sob... delicious."
After she finished the tear-soaked snack, the boy asked.
"What's your name?"
"I... I'm... Kim Eunah. My name is Kim Eunah."
"That's a pretty name! My name is Lee Hanseong. You can call me Hanseong."
"Okay... Hanseong. Thank you."
"It's nothing. From now on, we're friends, okay?"
"Friends...?"
"Yeah. When you get along well and can talk easily, that's when you become friends."
"But... you said you'd become my family..."
When the girl suddenly looked downcast, the boy panicked and explained.
"Ah, no... Family is a deeper relationship. I meant let's start as friends first!"
"I see... Hanseong, you won't abandon me, right?"
"Why would I abandon you? Anyway, the kids over there are calling us to play together. Let's go!"
"Okay..."
Leaving the shyly smiling girl behind, the boy smiled and called out to his friends. The girl watched his back and began to fall in love.