Water Containing The Moon

Hyun smiled awkwardly and looked into Wei Jeokmyung’s eyes. He was usually dissatisfied with Hyun waking him from his sleep, saying it was dangerous. Hyun’s innocent eyes gently bent to a half-moon shape. He was under great pressure as Wei Jeokmyung stared at him wordlessly.

After a moment, Wei Jeokmyung sighed and got up. When the massive weight that had been pressing on him disappeared, Hyun quickly got up.

“Hyun, sit here and let me take a look.”

As soon as Hyun approached, Wei Jeokmyung took out the ointment and tilted his neck. A reddish mark remained on Hyun’s pure white neck. His eyes widened as he looked at it.

After Wei Jeokmyung woke up from his sleep, he would always pay close attention to Hyun’s body and treat him. He lessened his power at the crucial moment, so Hyun wasn’t seriously hurt. However, Hyun’s skin was delicate, so it looked vivid. There was no way Wei Jeokmyung, who was accustomed to wounds and injuries, could not have known that. Nevertheless, he did his best as if the things on Hyun’s body were fatal wounds.

It was the same today. Wei Jeokmyung stared seriously at the red marks left on Hyun’s body, and then began to apply the medicine with a careful hand.

Hyun’s shoulders stiffened. He bit his lips tightly as Wei Jeokmyung’s long fingers brushed his neck lightly. As the cold ointment was rubbed against his skin, he felt numb and his toes curled. Every time his warm hand brushed the nape of his neck, he shivered. It was an odd feeling.

“Your wounds are endless. From now one, I’ll tell the captain to never let you in. I can’t help it because you won’t listen every time I tell you.”

He said in a stern tone while wiping the ointment in his hand. Hyun, who had been staring at his face, was surprised and answered in a slurred tone.

“It’s okay. I want to help you, Master.”

“It’s helping me that you’re not hurt. So promise me that you won’t wake me up tomorrow.”

Hyun was perplexed by the firm remark. Even yesterday, Wei Jeokmyung didn’t speak so strongly, but today he was very determined.

“B- But…”

Hyun hesitated. The master, who had always been generous and kind to him, seemed to have set his mind for this matter.

“You wake me up with scars on your body, but what do you think of me looking at it? The reason you don’t listen to me after I asked so many times is probably because punishment isn’t scary. Will you finally listen to me when I’m angry?”

Hyun hesitated and avoided his gaze. He gets mad at something like this? That Wei Jeokmyung? He couldn’t believe it. Wei Jeokmyung sighed at that pitiful appearance.

“You’re being stubborn.”

Hyun looked at the accusations that were hanging around his lips. Others would not care if anyone else got hurt or not because their work comes first, but Wei Jeokmyung puts the safety of the servant first. Can a person be that kind? What’s the big deal with such a wound? You’ll get better if you take the medicine anyway. The threat he made was a bit scary, but it was only a fleeting moment anyway. Rather, seeing Wei Jeokmyung kept holding back made Hyun want to help more and didn’t want to give up.

So, as soon as Wei Jeokmyung finished with the treatment, Hyun got up from his seat, bowed in silence, and ran out of the room. He didn’t say he wouldn’t do it until the end, so there was no promise. If he gets scolded for waking him up from a nightmare again tomorrow morning, just say, “When did I ever promise that.” It was a bold move that Hyun could do because he knew that Wei Jeokmyung could not be angry with him in the end, even if he said it harshly this time.

Anyway, he woke him up safely today, regardless of injured or not. Hyun was so proud of it that he smiled lightly as he ran down the hallway.

***

Everyone in the Wei family knew that the head of the Wei family cared for one of his servants. No, the word “care” was not enough. Except for Wei Jeokmyung’s bedroom, the best room among the numerous rooms in the main house and most of the clothes and stationery provided by the Imperial Palace were used and occupied by Hyun. He ate like a young master of a restaurant, and when sick, a doctor who took care of the Wei family’s immediate family made and decocted medicine for Hyun. His meals were served with Wei Jeokmyung, and on days when he was busy, a maid brought Hyun’s food to his doorstep. The ingredients for Hyun’s food were all the same as those on Wei Jeokmyung’s table.

While others were sweating from hard work, Hyun sat next to Wei Jeokmyung and drank expensive tea while learning to read. On the full moon of every month, even though he was ill and locked up in his room doing nothing, his salary still came out like other servants. There are no other servants with this kind of good luck in this world. Because of this, many people complained that they did not know whether they had hired a new servant or if they were serving a new master.

Before entering the palace, Wei Jeokmyung asked Hyun to “do nothing today and go back to your place to rest.” Following his words, Hyun returned to his room and laid down on the bed, sighing deeply. He rubbed his body with a melancholy look on his face.

Hyun did not like the full moon every month. It was because of the strange symptoms that came only on that day. The strange symptoms that started all of a sudden were like hell for him. The pain that came was terrible, and he was afraid that this bizarre thing didn’t happen to anyone else in this world. The scariest thing about it was that it only came on the full moon without any warning, as if he had to remember that the day he came to Danguk was during a full moon.

A tragic secret that no one can tell. This is too strange to be called a disease, so he couldn’t go to the doctor and get the pulse checked. Even the person who is going through it finds it hard to believe, let alone other people. Thanks to this, he couldn’t even get any medicine, and had to suffer from exhaustion every time.

—I’m happy enough if they don’t point fingers at me saying I’m a monster.

Hyun mumbled in his mother tongue and smirked, then rubbed his belly with his hand. He didn’t know if it’s because of his mood, but it felt like a dull pain was spreading from the inside out.

When he first experienced this symptom, it started with abdominal pain like this. It started to throb little by little as if the muscles below were clumped up, and they soon became a great pain that weighed down the limbs, which continued until he was finally half-fainting.

The continuous pain was so long and painful that it was perfect to drive people crazy. At first, you feel a small dull pain, and after a while, you feel a throbbing sensation in your bones, but as time goes on, it becomes so violent that you can’t even come to your senses.

Hyun clenched his teeth in the sudden pouring pain and grabbed the blanket as if he was about to tear it apart. His bones throbbed and his muscles and tendons ached as if they were on fire. It felt like his body was being beaten with a huge hammer. He took a deep breath and tried to ease his pain. Every time that happened, his tightened neck and clenched chin blazed like it was about to burst. The room was filled with scorching heat.

—Heuphh… Why is it like this today…

Unable to finish speaking, Hyun swallowed a moan. The symptoms were particularly severe today.

He sobbed and struggled. It felt like someone was pulling him up and down. The muscles and flesh that had swelled up seemed like they were about to burst. The strong veins wrinkled in color. Blood-stained eyes, lips dripping with saliva from pain, and arms and legs that were twisted oddly.

There was something rattling in his body, moving little by little, very slowly. The sensation of delicately moving fine muscles and bones was terrifying. An invisible hand was framing his body like a doll. Dozens of times his shoulders twisted and re-fitted and his ankles turned and returned dozens of times. Heat rose from the skin and slipped out, stretching as if the skin was torn.

The pain passed slowly with time. Hyun continued to faint and wake up repeatedly. In fact, there was no such thing as fainting. Whenever he was about to lose his mind, the pain came and forced him to wake up.

—It, It hurts so much… Someone, please…!

Hyun cried sadly. It’s something that happens every month, but it’s a pain he never gets used to. It was sad that he had to endure and keep it alone without being able to tell anyone. It was true that he was accustomed to loneliness, so it was okay to suffer on his own, but in the face of such pain, it was futile. ‘How wonderful it would be if someone held my hand and endured it together.’

“A, Aaagh! Aaaaagh!”

In a moment, his arms suddenly grew longer with a crackling sound. Hyun could not even breathe properly due to the shock and opened her mouth wide. A faint shadow shook wildly in the whitish room where a single candle had not been lit. A scorching heat rises through his trembling body. Ba-dukk. Kwa-dukk. The sound of something clashing and hitting each other continued non-stop. A tearful scream was added in the end.

After a while, a long hand fell under the bed with a thud. At the same time, silence came.

In the end, the white hands that fell like a corpse, perhaps due to the owner fainting, were too long and graceful for a boy. The feet that stick out of the blanket were also those of an adult and are quite large. Surprisingly, the face drooping over the sweaty pillow was a rare beauty, and had the appearance of a full-fledged youth.

The young man exhaled weakly and was unconscious for a long time. A stream of tears hanging from the tip of his long eyelashes grazed to the side of his ear, and the warm, sultry air descended over his sweaty naked body.

After such a dreadful night, when dawn came, changes began to take place in his unmoving body. The sound of the body drooping without strength, the creaking, and the twisting of the bones continued again. His body jumped like a fish out of the water under the bizarre noise that seemed to tear the skin. The limbs that had been elongated were gradually shrinking. The knitted forehead, swollen lips from chewing, and round cheeks covered in sweat were pale and pitiful.

Then the morning sun rose, and on the bed was not a young man, but a boy who might be around fifteen. His small hands and feet, long and slender limbs, and his small and fragile body were all tangled in the blanket and did not even move. Only the sound of breathing exhausted from pain continues thinly. It was as if the young man who had been lying on the bed a while ago was an illusion created by the full moon.

He finally found peace.