episode_0041

As I was leaving the hospital, the hospital seemed to be in an uproar.

When I hear stories about miracles and the patient’s great will, I wonder if perhaps an incurable disease has been cured?

One nurse said that Santa had visited. It must have been something so extraordinary.

I wondered if people like me who had cancer or leukemia got better. I was secretly envious. I wish Santa had come to me too. I wanted to live with a healthy body.

But, well, it’s just a pity. I’m happy because people are happy. And I met Santa in this life too.

Narin is our Santa. My Santa and Hamshik who saved me from freezing to death in the snow.

So, I also want to be someone’s Santa. If I may be greedy, I feel a little greedy about that.

Well, it’s a shame that I died in my previous life, but I’ll just let it go. Now, I’ve become the cute and talented Inamin. I’m satisfied with that.

Crunch, crunch. Hamshik, who had been covering his mouth with candy, was slowly dissolving it with his saliva, and the sound of him slowly gnawing on the candy could be heard.

“Hehe, Hamshik-ah. Now, when you see candy, you have to lick it, right? You can’t just put it in your mouth in one go, right?”

“Kiddeukeddeukeddeuk.”

“Ahaha, what’s that sound? That’s weird.”

Even though it was like a gag blocking my mouth, I guess I accepted it as delicious because it tasted sweet when I licked it.

Otherwise, wouldn’t you have just spit it out when you could? Or at least split it open with your fingernails.

Narin left the hospital. The cold outside air whirled around inside Narin’s arms. But thanks to Narin and Hamshik’s body temperature, it wasn’t cold. It was just pleasantly cool.

But since you said it was cool, I remembered what I had said to Na-rin this morning. Mint. You said you wanted to try mint chocolate before Mom came home.

Ramen, chocolate. I didn’t know about them when I was a baby, but I haven’t eaten them since I was diagnosed with cancer. I suddenly started to feel excited and asked Narin.

Because new experiences are always fun.

“Narin, do you eat mint chocolate on your way to my house?”

“Oh, right. That’s right. Let’s stop by the convenience store and buy some.”

It seemed like Narin had forgotten about that because she had to come to the hospital all of a sudden. It’s all thanks to me telling her. Ahem.

Maybe it was because it was the weekend and the time was short, or maybe it was because the area didn’t have many people around, but there weren’t many people on the bus going home.

Last time when Narin was on her way home from work, at least the seats were more or less full. It’s not fun because there are no people.

I tried to stick my head out to make eye contact with the people sitting in other seats to at least say hello, but they were all busy looking at their phones.

I feel bad about calling out to people who are doing something and interrupting them to say hello. Can’t I help it? I turned my gaze to the scenery outside the window as the bus passed by.

Even that couldn’t be seen well because the windows were fogged up. It was warm inside, but the windows were cold because of the outside air, so water condensed there.

I felt a little bad about asking Narin to erase it. I slowly got out of Narin’s arms and rubbed the window with my hand.

After wiping off the fog, the window regained its original transparency. But after rubbing it with my hand once, I realized that just wiping off the fog seemed more fun than looking outside the window.

I happen to be good with my hands. So, why don’t I draw a picture here?

So, I started drawing Hamshik’s face. First, I made the head round. No, it’s a bit triangular.

Hamsters have big ears. Their cheeks get swollen when something enters them, but they are usually a bit chubby.

The color is dark brown, but… …. I guess there’s no way to express the color by just drawing while erasing the ink.

But since I couldn’t just pull out Hamshik’s hair and stick it on, I drew Hamshik’s face and wrote some words on top.

Namin is here!

“Ahaha, did Hamshik draw that? It’s so cute and well drawn.”

“Hehehe. Hamshik is originally cute, so the drawing turned out cute, right? Right, Hamshik?”

I give this honor to Hamshik. I pretended to do so and wiped the moisture on my hand on Hamshik’s back.

Hamshik didn’t seem to mind hearing that he was cute, so he just quietly munched on his candy. Okay, I guess he didn’t get caught wiping the water off.

“This will be erased as soon as it cools down. It’s such a waste.”

Narin also wrote her name above mine and took a picture with her cell phone. Hamshik was startled by the sound of the snap and quickly looked up.

If Hamshikshik is like that, how would other people be different?

I don’t know if they were looking at us to see if we had taken a picture of them, or if they just turned their heads because they heard a sound, but they were all smiling brightly at what we had drawn on the window.

Oh my, if this keeps up, I’m going to become a famous street artist. Okay, let’s become famous. Let’s leave our mark here and there and make the Min-Earcher brand a luxury brand!

… … I thought so. It seemed like everyone was not admiring my work. Looking at them all, they were just drawing pictures with their fingers on the window.

They just wanted to draw pictures after seeing this. Well, you can’t draw world-famous paintings with the fog on the window, which doesn’t express elaborate textures or colors.

I guess I’ll have to live a life of single-player mode. As soon as I get home, I have to finish Magical Girl Phantom Storm.

Oh, before that, eat the mint chocolate first.

After getting off at the bus stop in front of the house, we stopped by the nearest convenience store. There, Narin chose mint chocolate and mint chocolate ice cream.

“There are also mint chocolate buns, but this is Sapa. Mint chocolate buns are supposed to be eaten cold.”

“That’s right, you know what the customer is talking about. I really don’t know who planned this. Uh… … . Sorry, I thought you were talking to me.”

As I was putting it on the counter and mumbling, the convenience store employee who was scanning the barcode of the item belatedly noticed me and looked flustered.

I guess Narin realized too late that I was talking to her. I waved goodbye so that the convenience store employee wouldn’t feel embarrassed.

“Hehehe, it’s okay! Hello!”

“Oh, hello.”

The person receiving the greeting is a good person. So Narin will understand the misunderstanding.

“Yes, it has been calculated. Thank you.”

“Thank you, thank you for your hard work.”

Narin also paid the bill and greeted the convenience store employee with a smiling voice. Narin is a nice person!

On the way home, I don’t think much of it now, even when I see the electric pole where we were abandoned.

For a moment, I just thought that Hamshik and I had been picked up there.

Was Hamshik awake at that time? Does he remember his first meeting with Narin?

I don’t know. Hamshik understands what I’m saying, but he doesn’t give me any proper answers.

A bad guy. A guy who doesn’t even greet you. He’ll sleep next to you. Soft and fluffy.

When we got home, Narin turned on the heating first. Since all three of us had left the house, she turned off the boiler to save on electricity.

The time I was out wasn’t that long, but it was mostly because I had the window open for ventilation. The floor was filled with cold air.

As soon as Hamshik was put down on the floor, he shivered once and stared at me. He was telling me to stay close to him because he was cold.

“Hamshik is giving his sister a hint. Okay, okay. I’ll hug you.”

To be honest, I was a little cold too, so I thought about covering myself with Hamshik like a blanket. But as an older sister, I can’t use Hamshik like a blanket all the time.

This time, I became Hamshik’s blanket. I climbed on Hamshik’s back and covered him. Even so, it was okay because Hamshik’s back was warm.

While we were dealing with the cold floor, Narin, who had just washed her hands, opened some chocolate for us.

Mint chocolate was pretty from the start. It was a bright color somewhere between lime and sky blue, and had a refreshing scent.

Hamshik also seemed interested in the food he was seeing for the first time. He sniffed one of the pieces that Narin had given me and quickly put it in his mouth.

And, phew. It seemed that in Hamshik’s mouth, this was nothing more than toothpaste.

“Ugh. Hamshik doesn’t like mint chocolate!”

“Ahaha, does Nami fit your taste?”

“Yes, it’s refreshing and tastes fun!”

I took a bite of the part that had touched Hamshik’s mouth, and the mint chocolate tasted sweet and refreshing. It was a taste that made me feel quite good.

But because the refreshing taste and the stickiness unique to chocolate coexist, it feels somehow mysterious. This is why brushing your teeth must be the same.

I like it when my mouth feels fresh. It’s a bit rough but refreshing, so it’s an ambiguous feeling.

Hamshik briefly took a liking to the ice cream, but when he saw that it was mint chocolate, he quickly threw it away.

Then he went into the kitchen and stared at Narin.

Now Narin knows that she is the one who takes care of her own food. Narin also laughed and got up, and started putting a cup of rice in the microwave to give to Hamshik.

“Right, it’s time for Hamshik to get hungry. Just wait a minute.”

The microwave oven hummed along for about three minutes under Narin’s command, then made the now familiar ding sound.

Hamshik had gotten used to it by now and didn’t cry anymore. He just couldn’t wait for Narin to put it down, so he started climbing up the rappel attached to the sink.

“Ahahahaha, has Hamshik been riding this up and down all this time?”

When Narin first saw that, she burst out laughing.