Let's Be Friends
A horse backlit by the setting sun invariably cuts an impressive figure.
Whew... This place is vast.
At the western end of the wide, shallow stream we had been following, there was nothing left but endless mounds of stone. The surprisingly vibrant mix of colors—reds, ambers, chalky whites, and charcoal blacks—was somewhat striking, but what truly caught my eye was something else entirely.
"So you're telling me all that water seeped right through the gaps in those rocks?"
It seemed hard to believe, considering the sheer volume of water flowing down.
Setting down some smoked boar meat instead of the fish that had just begun to dry, Gawol answered casually.
"Well, behind that field of stones lies the forest trail we'll be taking, and the water funnels down into the ravine running through those woods. That's simply where it goes."
"Mmh... so you're saying that rock field basically acts like a giant strainer?"
"Yes. Emphasis on basically."
"Aha..."
Let's see here.
Whoosh—
I scooped up a white pebble and hurled it toward the rock bed. Following a sharp clack, it vanished completely from sight.
"Huh. Drop a needle in there and literally nobody would ever find it."
"Because it would slip between the stones, yes."
"Hey."
You know that wasn't what I meant.
"At any rate, just eat your dinner. I went through the trouble of hauling it down here, after all..."
Two bowls of rice and the smoked meat were arranged neatly over the blanket spread across the ground.
"Did I say I wasn't going to eat? I'm just fascinated by the outside world, that's all."
"You certainly find wonder in the most ordinary things."
Of course I do. I spent years cooped up in the very same neighborhood.
"Didn't I tell you before? I bolted the moment my coming-of-age ceremony ended."
"This is the first I'm hearing of it."
Guess I hadn't.
In that case, I suppose it was only natural he couldn't grasp my perspective. Where should I even begin explaining...?
"Well, for starters, my ceremony was around the last winter solstice."
It had been around that very same season over a decade ago when my adoptive parents took me in and began raising me.
Gawol rested his chin in thought.
"Isn't it right around the spring equinox now?"
"Probably?"
Going by a twelve-month calendar, that meant from late December to mid-March. In other words, I had been wandering on my own for barely three months.
Gawol paused, staring at me.
"...Wait. If it was last winter solstice, that means you had your ceremony this very year. Which would make your age..."
"Uh... w-well, about that."
Since years were counted from the winter solstice around here, you could say I had only just crossed the threshold into adulthood.
Gawol's eyes narrowed into slits.
"Why are you suddenly so flustered?"
"N-No, it's just... after all the time we've spent together, isn't it a bit late to start nitpicking over age?"
Besides, in situations like this, the one who lays their cards on the table first almost always ends up at a disadvantage.
"L-Let's just be friends, okay? Come on."
Unable to wipe away the smirk twitching at the corner of his lips, Gawol remarked,
"I had my coming-of-age ceremony during Cold Dew last autumn, right around the end of the harvest. Doesn't that make me a full year older than you?"
"Cold Dew was barely a couple of months before the solstice!"
Even if the cardinal rule of winning an argument is 'be older first,' it wasn't like he was looking to pick a fight with me.
"Right?"
Gawol muttered under his breath in response.
"Well, while it's true the difference isn't that vast..."
"See? You're not the type to get all hung up on technicalities, right?"
"Ha."
A sly, teasing grin spread across his face.
"I've tolerated an employee half my size addressing me with a casual 'hey you,' but to find out you're actually younger than me on top of that...? Do you really think I'll let that slide?"
"......"
My tail gave an involuntary twitch.
His expression was downright terrifying—eerie, even. Wait, huh...?
Now that things had come to this, putting on a bold front was my best defense. Squeezing my eyes shut, I stabbed an accusatory finger in his direction.
"S-So what if you can't let it slide?! What're you gonna do, starve me again?!"
Go on! Just try it!
As if accepting the challenge, Gawol took a slow, measured step toward me and reached out with his hand.
"No... Just hold still, would you?"
Even then, he maintained that peculiar tone hovering awkwardly between polite honorifics and informal banter as he brought that broad palm down toward me.
Stroke, stroke—
"...Huh?"
Cowering with my eyes tightly shut, I felt a faint pressure settle over the crown of my head.
Mmh... this pleasant warmth and gentle downward press is... Terrifying bastard, disarming me like this!
Opening my eyes by a sliver, I found Gawol crouched down at eye level, his reddish-brown irises meeting mine.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing?"
"Well... how should I put it? Realizing you're younger, even by a single year, makes you feel like a little brother. It makes me feel like I can overlook just about anything."
"Out of nowhere...?"
Ah.
Taking a closer look, the look in Gawol's eyes was strikingly similar to how my adoptive family used to look at me. Warm, faintly exasperated, yet instinctively inclined to fuss over and pamper me.
It wasn't something I despised, nor something I particularly loved, but it certainly wasn't what I had expected from him.
In fact...
"...Hey."
"Yes?"
"Don't do that."
It rubbed me the wrong way.
"Don't do... what, exactly?"
"That. Don't look at me like that."
Why would you look at me that way?
"What are we to each other, anyway?"
Mmh, phrased like that, it sounded a bit awkward. But regardless.
"......"
Gawol pulled his hand away and clamped his mouth shut.
Oh? Giving me the silent treatment now?
"And besides, how did we end up traveling together in the first place?"
"Well, that's—"
"Say it."
"...Because you smashed my cargo to pieces. And because I hired you as my bodyguard to work off the debt."
"Right? So don't treat me like that."
There were three main reasons I had run away from home.
First, I wanted to put my sword skills to good use. Second, I was sick to death of my older sisters pestering me to get married. And third...
"...Please."
I simply wanted a friend to fool around and chat with on equal terms.
We weren't friends, nor were we bound by blood, but I had grown quite fond of this peculiar dynamic over the past few days.
After a brief silence,
"Understood."
Peeking up at him, I noticed the patronizing softness in Gawol's eyes had vanished, replaced once more by pure exasperation.
"In that case, your meals will remain capped at two a day as agreed, yes?"
...What?
"Wait, were you planning on giving me three meals?!"
"Yes. Looking after the younger ones is an elder's duty, after all. But well, age hardly matters in a debtor-creditor relationship, does it?"
"......"
Hah... dammit. Should I take it back right now? I'm already regretting this.
"Which brings me to my point."
"Ah, y-yeah?"
Gawol closed his eyes and gave a solitary, decisive nod.
"Let's be friends, then."
...What did he just say?
Did he just ask to be friends first?
"...Really?"
"Yes. Well... they say some people consider themselves friends even across a five-year gap so long as their minds meet. What's a single year matter?"
It's not even a full year!
"Ah, not that I mean we should completely throw out all propriety, but since we'll be stuck together for months anyway, there's no harm in being on good terms."
Well, that's true enough...
"So, are you against it?"
"Mmh..."
Friends. A friend. I had brought it up unilaterally a few times myself, but I never expected the offer to come from him.
Come to think of it, had anyone ever asked to be my friend first in my entire life...?
Nope, not once. At least not across both this life and my previous one combined. Unless it happened in some existence even before that, which I couldn't remember.
Gawol extended an open palm toward me.
"Well... considering what we've been up to these past few days, I think our dynamic resembles something else entirely rather than a debtor and her financier."
"Urgh..."
I had a condition of my own.
"In exchange, drop that half-baked formal speech."
It had been grating on my nerves since day one.
"Excuse me...? That's a bit much... And are you really in any position to make demands?"
"Then at least call me by my name! What's with all this 'you, you' nonsense? I told you my name already."
"Haah..."
Don't tell me you forgot? Because I'll be seriously disappointed.
"Fine, then. In that case... Siun-ssi."
"Y-Yeah."
Siun. I couldn't remember how many years it had been since I last heard someone call me by that name.
Sure, I'd heard this punk blurt it out a few days ago too... but I'd just pretend that hadn't happened.
"Very well. And one more thing."
"And...?"
Gawol beamed with the most refreshingly bright smile I had ever seen on his face.
"Doing this doesn't make your debt disappear."
"...Tch."
He could've at least indulged the mood a little longer.
Gawol let out a sharp whistle to summon Daeseong.
"We should get moving soon. We need to reach the edge of the woods before the sun sets completely."
Even so, framed behind him as he spoke was the fading glory of the sinking sun,
"Yeah. Let's do that."
and the view was surprisingly romantic.
After riding for quite a while, we arrived at the forest's edge, where patches of fresh mugwort and wild mock strawberries—commonly known as snake berries—spread thick across the ground.
Inhale—exhale...
The fragrant, bitter scent of mugwort filled the air.
"What a shame... If it were autumn, we could've picked and eaten them."
Still sitting up on the wagon bench, Gawol countered,
"Snake berries? I recall those having virtually no taste at all."
"Oh? What, you've tried them too?"
"Well... perhaps not to your extreme, but I told you before that I've lived through all sorts of odd experiences."
True enough. Watching him butcher game the other day had been terrifyingly proficient.
"Honestly, if bright red berries are just sitting out in a patch of green grass, you'd be weird not to pluck one and take a bite."
"Right?! See, I wasn't the weird one after all."
Mmh... yep, definitely worthy of being my first friend.
"To be precise, it means both of us are weird."
Except for the fact that he constantly ruins the mood like this.
"A-Anyway, I'm heading down first, okay?"
"Go ahead. Though the ground is quite damp, so I wonder if we'll even manage to light a fire."
Whining already...?
"Gawol, my friend, all you need for that is sheer willpower."
Hopping down from the wagon, I gathered a suitable strip of dry bark and a blunt branch.
"Watch closely, got it?"
"Oho...?"
I took up my stance in full view of Gawol, who stood looking down with his arms crossed.
Pinning the bark down with both feet, pressing the stick against the wood, and rubbing it vigorously between my palms...
"......"
"Ah, hold on just a second."
Rubbing it...
Before long, a thin wisp of smoke began to curl upward, followed by a faint spark of flame.
"Hey, hey! Scrap cloth, quick! And dry leaves!"
"Ah, right!"
Startled out of his daze, Gawol quickly piled on tinder and kindling, and before long, the flame grew into a respectable, crackling campfire.
Gawol shook his head in disbelief.
"No, seriously... how is rubbing sticks together faster than striking flint and steel...?"
I told you already.
"Guts."
To be fair, my palms felt like they were on fire right now, but it was bearable enough.
"A true man ought to be able to accomplish anything with his bare hands alone."
"Didn't you just use tools to start that fire, though?"
"Those were... like basic provisions."
Even video games give you a wooden stick as starting equipment, you know?
"Ah, is that so? ...Siun-ssi, eat this."
Gawol was holding out a sprig of mugwort he had apparently just plucked from the ground.
"Huh? Why?"
"Just eat it and you'll see."
See what?
"Fine."
I'm only doing this because we're friends.
Taking the herb from his fingers, I popped it into my mouth and chewed. A subtly nutty, fragrant taste spread over my tongue. Ah, the crisp flavor of wild, untainted mugwort...
Still grinding the greens between my left molars, I asked,
"So why'd you give me this?"
Gawol averted his eyes slightly before answering.
"Tsk. I was originally going to tell you to stop barking nonsense—or rather, stop chewing grass like a dog—but you were eating it with such relish that I decided to hold my tongue."
"A... ha?"
So you set the bait just to make a dumb dog joke, and then backed out when it fell flat?
Phew—
When someone blatantly confronts you with malicious slander and baseless fabrications like this, proper decorum demands feeding them a heavy, unadulterated dose of cold, hard facts.
"Dogs eat grass naturally when their stomach is upset. Didn't you even know that?"
"Of course I know that."
Wait, what?
"How would you know? Have you ever even seen one do it?"
Was it that hunting hound next door he mentioned before...?
"Yes."
Saying so, Gawol pointed straight at me.
Hey, don't you dare...
"I'm looking at one right now, right in front of me."
"...You punk."
Does he ever get tired of this bit...?
"Well, considering how fast you picked up on it, aren't you the one who secretly thinks of yourself that way?"
"As if! Why in the world would I think that?!"
"If you say so."
"Gah— *whew*... Whatever. Just give me my dinner."
Being subjected to his shameless insolence day in and day out, I was starting to feel like I was genuinely being brainwashed.