'Hey, you.'

Me?

Ren tilted his head up crookedly. The rebellious look in his eyes made the man who had spoken to him falter.

“Are you picking a fight with me right now?”

The polite wording didn’t match the savage glare at all, and the man’s lips twitched.

“No, that’s not it. I’m saying you shouldn’t sit there in the road looking that scary. You seem to be from out of town.”

“...Okay.”

After staring at him blankly for a moment, Ren softened his eyes and got to his feet.

The man was right. It’s not like I’m some thug, so why the hell was I sitting like that! Ren sprang up and dusted the dirt off his backside. Right then, the wind picked up, and the dust he slapped off flew straight into the man’s face. The man naturally frowned, and his face looked way too terrifying to take head-on. Even Ren, who had plenty of nerve, flinched. Looking at him now, he really did look rough as hell. Ren stiffened awkwardly and stared at the man, feeling thrown off when—

“Ren—!”

A fierce grip seized Ren by the shoulder.

His injured shoulder, of all places!

“Ugh!”

The unexpected pain made a groan slip out before Ren could stop it, and the face of the person clutching his shoulder turned vicious.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere?”

It was Luman, his face twisted hard.

“Luman?”

Ren frowned and said his name, forcing himself to endure the pain in his shoulder.

“What exactly do you think you’re doing!”

Luman, who had never once raised his voice before, barked the words out. The second he saw tears spring into Ren’s eyes from the pain in his shoulder, something flared in his chest. He pulled Ren’s hood back over him, then stepped in front of him.

The people gathered in the center of the village started murmuring and staring this way. Two beautiful people drew eyes even when they were standing still, and with voices raised on top of that, it was only natural they’d become the center of attention. After all the effort he’d gone through to chase him down, dozens of eyes were on him again in an instant, and Ren shrank a little. While Ren was busy recoiling, Luman looked like he was one second away from grabbing the man by the collar.

“I asked you a question! What the hell were you doing!”

Luman had dropped the formal speech entirely and was growling now. One wrong move and it looked like he’d swing!

“I-I, no, I...”

The man flusteredly waved his hands, unable to even finish a sentence.

“Ha! So you shove that ugly face of yours at a boy who’s barely more than a child, but in front of other people you act all kind—”

“Luman! Wait, wait a second!”

What the hell was he even saying right now!?

Ren jumped and smacked at Luman’s arm. It didn’t hurt in the slightest, but Luman turned his head toward him out of courtesy. Then he bent way down and whispered,

“It’s okay, Ren. You don’t have to hide anything. Did this man threaten you? Make you do something you didn’t want to do? Did he intimidate you with that rough-looking face of his...?”

Luman was smiling like usual, but there was something dangerous rolling off him.

“No, that’s not it!”

“It’s okay. You can tell me slowly.”

People say human hearing lasts a long time. Even if I beat him half to death, he’ll still be able to hear me talk. Luman smiled gently.

What the hell insane shit is this man saying!?

Panicking and tripping over his words, Ren grabbed at Luman like he was trying to hold him down.

“That’s not it! He was just correcting me!”

“Correcting you? In what way, exactly?”

Huh. Why do his eyes look even more murderous now?

It felt like something was surging off him. Ren shook his head, trying to keep himself from going dizzy.

“I was sitting here like a delinquent, so he just told me not to do that!!”

“...Hm?”

Luman blinked slowly. Some reason seemed to return to those golden eyes, which had been flashing like an animal’s in the dark. Ren didn’t miss the opening and rattled off everything that had happened. A moment passed, and Luman nodded like he finally understood.

Then he just stared at Ren.

“Wh-why are you looking at me like that? Hurry up and apologize to the man!”

“...Yeah. I should.”

Luman turned and bowed politely to the man, who was still standing there dumbfounded. Then he bowed to the villagers watching from all around them too.

“I’m sorry. That was rude of me. I apologize for causing a scene.”

“Ah, yes... well. These things happen.”

The man scrubbed hard at his head.

“I naturally look kind of rough... so I understand.”

The man looked back and forth between Luman and Ren, then nodded.

Wasn’t it obvious? Standing together, that fluffy little boy and a rough-looking middle-aged man really did make it look that way. And besides... if someone was in love, what could you do?

Ren hadn’t seen it, but the man had.

That streak of light that had shot toward them from far away like an arrow.

No, seriously, how fast did a person have to run before you started seeing hallucinations like that...?

Luman wasn’t even out of breath, but the urgency in his eyes had been plain enough that the man fully understood the misunderstanding. Nobody could win against love. Right, right.

“No, really. I’m the one who should apologize.”

Luman’s expression was shameless, but his face was burning bright red. The man, now convinced he understood Luman’s feelings, arranged the most generous expression he could manage. Seriously, it’s fine, so let it go.

Ren, who had been quietly reading the room from beside him, straightened up too.

Honestly, once he was apologizing because of a misunderstanding over me, I couldn’t just stand there and watch!

“I’m sorry too.”

The man chuckled.

“Well now. This is making me feel like I’m the one who turned into some kind of villain here.”

Luman’s pupils widened. He looked down at Ren standing beside him. The hood he’d pulled low over his head fluttered in the wind. Despite the trouble of putting it on him, Ren’s face had been revealed again. His expression was strange, like he was annoyed and not annoyed at the same time. His brows were faintly drawn together, and his lips were sticking out a little... but judging by the way his body was all stiff and hesitant, he looked more embarrassed than anything else.

Flustered, Luman opened his mouth.

“Ren, why are you apologizing...?”

“......”

Ren stared straight at Luman, then whipped his head away. He clearly didn’t want to answer.

No, did I screw something else up this time? Was he embarrassed that I picked a fight with the man? Luman’s misunderstanding was only getting deeper.

But what Ren was actually thinking was completely different.

'He took my side immediately without even asking what happened...'

That moved him so much that it also pissed him off.

You’re going to worm your way into someone’s heart like this and then leave? Then maybe don’t do things like this before you go!

Ren stuck his lower lip out.

Meanwhile, the man was in an awkward spot.

He kind of wanted to get away from this beautiful boy and beautiful young man now. The two of them had fallen completely into their own world and forgotten he existed. But if he just walked off, there were too many people watching, and it felt like he ought to say something first... and besides, the faces were too good to leave behind just yet.

Even if he lived longer than he already had, it wouldn’t be easy to witness beauty like this again! Without meaning to, the man kept sneaking glances at Luman and Ren’s faces. If you were human, there was just no stopping your eyes from drifting toward beautiful people. The man figured that the villagers hadn’t stuck around because they wanted to watch a fight so much as because they wanted to keep watching the pretty faces.

Still, staring too much would be rude, so he was just about to leave when—

“Ren—!”

Another man stepped in front of the rough-looking stranger.

He was broad and huge as a mountain, solid as a boulder.

“Brother?”

Are all outsiders built like this...?

The man looked Temar and Luman over carefully.

The man who had come running over so fast it was hard to tell where the hell he’d even appeared from grabbed the shoulder of the boy the stranger had lectured, then glared at the man himself. That icy killing intent was so intense it nearly made him piss himself on the spot.

For an instant, those dark brown eyes looked like they flashed.

“What happened here.”

“It wasn’t really anything...”

“Brother, my shoulder hurts...”

Ren looked up at Temar with obvious relief. Luman, meanwhile, had fallen into some train of thought and was absently rubbing at his jaw with a grave expression.

***

The boy named Ren was completely focused on the man who had just run over. He had entirely forgotten the stranger existed. The way those bright green eyes lifted to his brother, full of light, was so adorable that the man found himself stealing another look without meaning to. The moment he did, Temar stepped forward and tucked Ren behind his back.

“Did my little brother do something wrong? I’m sorry.”

“What? No! It’s not that, it’s just—”

“Mr. Jenox! I told you already to stop acting like such an old busybody!”

A bright voice cut in. A girl came running over with a bunch of boys around her age, then looked up at Temar and smiled brightly.

“Hello! This man’s Mr. Jenox, and he likes correcting delinquent boys! It’s really nothing serious—just earlier, that kid—”

The girl clearly wanted to get a closer look at Ren’s face, but Temar’s overwhelming size—easily twice as large as a normal grown man—blocked even a single strand of hair from view. Realizing that craning her neck wasn’t going to help, she gave up fast and kept talking, though her gaze continued sneaking toward the space behind Temar.

“He was sitting here in kind of a delinquent pose! So all Mr. Jenox did was tell him not to!”

“Ah, I see. Thank you for letting me know.”

The tension drained from Temar’s eyes. A gentle smile touched his face, and the girl’s cheeks turned pink.

“But mister, how are you so huge?”

“What do you do?”

“Who’s that kid?!”

“Ahem. You brats! Don’t ask rude questions—get back, get back—!”

“Mr. Jenox! If I hadn’t come over, they would’ve totally mistaken you for a bad adult!”

“Delshu! Can’t you keep quiet!”

“Hmph!”

Only now did Jenox’s face start to look a little more human. Apparently even that rough, scary expression softened when he was dealing with village kids. The sharp glare in his eyes eased, and ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ once he started slipping into the way he normally talked to children, the whole mood mellowed. Even the people who had been too busy gawking to step in earlier started tossing in comments from farther off.

Jenox, it’s your face that’s the problem! If you’re that scary, you ought to draw cat whiskers on yourself or something!

“I’m truly sorry for the misunderstanding. I’ll make it up to you. Ren! Apologize properly.”

“Huh?”

Pulled forward by Temar’s hand, Ren looked startled.

No, I already apologized earlier...

Ren’s eyes turned to Jenox. Meeting that unfairly aggrieved stare, Jenox hurriedly waved both hands.

“It’s fine! The boy and I already settled everything earlier.”

“Even so, we can’t just let it go like this. Ren.”

Temar called his name sternly.

Well, now. Since the man was trying to teach his younger brother a lesson, there was only so much Jenox could do by stepping in again and again. While he stood there awkwardly, Luman—who had been blankly out of it—finally came back to himself.

“I’m sorr—”

“Wait! Ren already apologized.”