Episode 18
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In the midst of a dense forest of coniferous trees covered in white snow, Kyle, who had walked along the frozen sea all night, was sitting in the snow, chewing on coniferous leaves, dazed.
Only the appearance was different, but he had the same stupid, thoughtless expression that Brody made every time she ate.
Maybe they started to resemble each other while they were together?
Of course, he was not aware of this at all.
Kyle was chewing a leaf that smelled of phytoncide, when he suddenly turned his head to his side.
Brody was still sleeping. It seemed to be an instinct for her to forget hunger by sleeping.
But now it was time to wake up. Kyle went to a nearby tree, broke a branch full of leaves, bit it, and walked towards the rabbit.
When he brought the branch to her mouth, the thin, stiff leaves pricked the rabbit’s light pink nose and mouth.
“Ack.”
Brody was rubbing her mouth with both front paws in her sleep as if it was itching. But when he pushed it again, this time she flailed her front paws wildly.
However, her short front paws could not reach the tree branch, and it only waved in the air before falling down. Kyle let out a frustrated sound at her behaviour.
Brody growled and kept scratching the neck of the one who kept poking her in a threatening manner, but the moment she opened her mouth, a leaf entered it and she stopped kicking.
“Ugh…?”
She chewed the leaf in her mouth.
It seemed like she thought it was a dream because she started eating without opening his eyes.
A dream in which fresh leaves came down from the sky and entered her mouth endlessly.
“Hehe.”
Brody kept smiling while she was half asleep, catching the leaves that fell into her mouth and eating them.
Of course, it was Kyle who fed her the leaves.
He broke a small branch and held it to Brody’s mouth until her stomach plumped.
When he put in the last leaf and turned around, there was a mountain of tree branches with all the leaves gone next to him.
Kyle was perplexed when he saw this. He had no idea how so many leaves fit into such a small stomach.
Meanwhile, he went to cut another tree branche to give to the rabbit.
From afar, Kyle saw the rabbit that had finally woken up, raise her butt high in the sky, stir, and sit up with a grunt.
She rubbed her eyes with her two front paws, then yawned and stretched.
She wasn’t a baby, but every time she wakes up, she stretches out her two short front paws and yawn. It really seemed like a habit.
Unlike how she usually lay down lethargic even after waking up, today he saw that she woke up quickly and guessed that what she ate in her sleep quickly added to her energy.
She looked around and noticed a pile of tree branches next to her, so she ran over to them and started tearing them apart.
At first he wondered what she was doing, but soon he realized why.
Kyle opened his mouth in shock.
The rabbit was now rummaging through the branches to eat more leaves, even though she had eaten so much while she was sleeping.
The rabbit, who had been searching the tree branches for a while without realizing that she had already eaten all the leaves, shouted, ‘Aaack!’ and turned around.
“Uh, Kyle!”
The rabbit saw him and came running, jumping up and down with a happy face. Of course, he had no way of knowing whether it was because she was happy to see Kyle or the tree branch in his mouth.1I bet it’s the branch 😂
Kyle threw the branch at the rabbit in front of him. The rabbit took the branch in her arms. And then she came over and asked him.
“What happened? Could it be that you walked all the way here in the middle of the night without sleeping?”
It was the first annoying chatter he heard in a long time. The rabbit held the branch tightly in her arms, stuffed the leaves into her mouth, and looked at Kyle with round eyes.
Did he really not sleep at all?
Kyle looked down at the rabbit, and answered in a cold voice because he didn’t want to show off.
“Can’t you tell just by looking?”
“Really? No, you could have taken your time, why did you have to be so hard on yourself?”
When the rabbit asked as if she was genuinely curious, Kyle had nothing to say and just got annoyed.
“So you don’t like it or what?”
“No. It’s not that I don’t like it…”
The rabbit could no longer speak. Like a squirrel, her swollen cheeks were filled with leaves, so she had to chew on them.
When Kyle saw that, he smiled without even realizing it. The lethargic rabbit had finally returned to her original form. For some reason, he felt satisfied.
He was now forced to eat nothing but grass for several days again, and thinking about it made him feel low…
At this moment, all he wanted to do was to sit back and mindlessly watch the rabbit eating until her stomach exploded.
The tree branche was soon finished. Kyle smiled and asked as he looked at Brody, who had eaten all the leaves in an instant.
“Is it that delicious?”
One day, while he was eating, he remembered the face of the rabbit that had asked him the same question and smiled.
Now he understood a little how she felt when she asked such a question.
“It’s absolutely delicious!”
The rabbit nodded vigorously and ran towards a tree.
No, instead of running, she suddenly turned around and crawled towards Kyle.
Then, as she sat on her stomach on the floor, she put her head in his arms and whispered.
“Thank you, Kyle.”
It was her way of showing gratitude for coming to the forest thinking of her.
Kyle decided to tolerate the rabbit rubbing her face in his arms with special generosity just for today.
Just 3 seconds.
Three seconds later, without hesitation, he bit the rabbit’s neck and threw her out of his arms.
The rabbit’s body rolled on the floor. However, it did not cause any harm to her, who was in a good mood after eating a lot of food.
The rabbit got up and jumped into the air, twisting her body.
It was a sight that made the person, who had not been able to sleep all night to bring her here, feel rewarded.
She shouted, jumping around Kyle.
“Hehehe, I feel so good!”
The resurrection of Brody, the distracted rabbit, was done.
After Brody ate her fill, Kyle started today’s journey even though he was tired because he couldn’t sleep.
Compared to the strong windy sea, the forest was calm. They walked through the snow in the quiet forest.
Recently, Brody was always riding on Kyle’s back, but today she walked next to him for the first time in a long time.
Brody was walking behind Kyle, carrying her backpack, and clinging to his leg like a baby monkey, as she usually did whenever she had something to say.
“But you know, Kyle.”
“What?”
“Aren’t you tired?”
“I’m tired, so don’t stick around and move away.”
But even after hearing those words, the rabbit hugged his leg tightly and said,
“Hehe. Actually, I’m so touched because it’s the first time you’ve thought of me. I love you, Kyle.”
At the word ‘love’, Kyle gritted his teeth. The feelings that had filled him with an unknown heat while walking along the seaside the night before became tangled and confused again, and he shook her off his legs.
“It’s okay. Don’t do things like that alone behind my back from now on.”
The rabbit that fell to the ground quickly caught up with him and walked next to him again. However, even though it was clear that she had heard what he said, she made no reply.
Kyle raised his eyebrows.
“Why is there no answer?”
“……Okay, I’ll be careful.”
“Be careful, and just don’t do it, don’t do anything.”
The words that came out were colder than intended. But the rabbit didn’t care, and spoke in a light voice as if she was joking around like she always did.
“Kyle, you know. Basically, when someone love another, they all act like me. At that time, the other person’s happiness becomes more important than their own.”
Kyle snorted when he heard that. It sounded like a story from a fairy tale that only children read.
When someone love another, their happiness becomes more important than their own. Those words were unimaginable to him, a selfish person.
To Kyle, love was just desire. The desire to get what he wanted, to have it at all costs.
That desire equally applied to power, honor, and people.
The other person’s happiness and other things were not considered at all in his love.
Therefore, the sacrifice-like love that the rabbit spoke of was something that Kyle could not understand.
Because he didn’t understand, he couldn’t love like the rabbit. Also, he couldn’t return the love he received from the rabbit.
In that case, it would be the rabbit who would end up getting hurt later. Kyle was strangely concerned about that.
So, after much thought, he warned her in advance with the goal of alleviating the guilt he would feel later.
“I don’t need that kind of love, so don’t waste your time, then blame me for no reason later.”
The rabbit chuckled.
“I won’t hold any grudges.”
“Then don’t do anything like love.”
Hearing that, the rabbit raised her head.
“Why? Do you have someone you love now?”
Kyle paused for a moment at the unexpected question and looked back at the rabbit. The rabbit also looked up at him with her usual bright eyes.
He didn’t answer.
That silence was the answer.
However, the rabbit did not seem particularly hurt by that reaction. He guessed it was because she already knew it.
she asked, chasing after Kyle who resumed walking again.
“I want to ask you something, what kind of person is the one you say you love?”
“Why do you ask that?”
“Just curious.”
Her voice was unusually serious, as if she was asking out of curiosity for no other reason.
It was annoying for Kyle to say it, but he thought it would be good if she heard this and quickly gave up on her feelings for him, so he opened his mouth despite the inconvenience.
“She is the strongest of all the females in the pack. She knows how to lead a pack to a certain degree, and she makes quick and rational decisions during battle.”
“Uhm… .”
“A leader’s partner is like another leader. And she is the perfect match for me who wants to become a leader.”
He deliberately talked to her in more detail than she expected, trying to get her to fall out of love with him.
However, while talking about other women, it was Kyle who unknowingly observed the rabbit.
Rather, the rabbit just nodded her head quietly while listening to what he said, without saying a word.
When Kyle saw the rabbit like that, he felt uncomfortable.
Meanwhile, after listening to Kyle’s explanation of Zelda, only question marks appeared in Brody’s mind.
‘He seems a little strange……?’2Not just a little, it’s like he found the perfect candidate for the job description 🤣
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TL:
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