STABLE BOY ; Trash of the Count's Family

38. CROSS MY HEART

It's not as if no one was injured. A knight lost his arm and several people were injured by that final blast. But because Cale saved them from it and he was the most injured, everyone wrapped the incident up with the nice Young Master Silver Shield bow and dismissed it.

That's why, any witness accounts of South getting injured were also just promptly swept under the rug.

South will admit, the bomb scared him a little. Now he didn't have a hairpin again— Cale said he'd get it replaced— but his fingers were blown off. He actually never regenerated whole appendages with his power before, so it was kind of scary. Did this finger belong to him? He wasn't sure.

But telling the Young Master and Choi Han about that much was a load off his shoulders he didn't know he was bearing.

So, it was a good thing.

He looked in the mirror when he washed up today in the servant's quarters.

Right over his heart, where the koi fish are, there was now a winged shield in the center. The fish circled around it in a ying-yang formation, as if they were cradling it with fascination.

("It's a representation of what you're willing to give.")

He'd gotten so used to seeing those fish in his entire past life. It had been there, from as far back as he could remember having awareness, up until the moment he died in that earthquake. He always had it over his heart.

But now, just like that, without even a warning— something else had decorated the perfect bond that was once there.

He didn't hate it. Of course, he didn't. He liked this one very much, and he expected it to show up— but right over his heart? Did that mean South chose the Silver Shield over the koi fish? Did that mean the shield was as important as it?

Or maybe it was silly to rank them like that.

Nothing had ever come so close to his heart other than the koi fish.

At least the fish was still there, it wasn't overwritten, but this looked so wrong. Nothing was supposed to come between the two fish. This was supposed to be their little puddle of warmth, a space just for them, a little pond where the two of them could be together forever—

—but South knew he could never chase away the shield. He loved the shield, too.

It was a perfect spot for it— it was as if that space had been left empty his entire lifetime just waiting for that shield to appear; how could he deny something so perfect?

South splashed water all over his face and took a deep breath. Then he wiped his face dry with a towel and looked in the mirror again.

It was a useless tattoo, there was no possible situation he could ever restrain whoever was on the other side of the bond. All this shield represented as it took up so much space around his heart was simply I would die before I betrayed you.

South couldn't deny it.

"I'm sorry your Hyung is so lame," he told the mirror. He cradled the shield around his heart and laughed, "he said some pretty words and now I'm completely smitten."

-

"South-oppa's not crying anymore?"

Today On and Hong were in their human forms as they walked with South out into the city. South was forced into a day off after what happened, so he had the kids as his bodyguards today.

They each held one hand.

"Please forget you saw that," South groused, still a little sleepy.

He fell asleep while walking on the way here and the two decided to just drag him across the ground until he woke up. Very fair, but they're so rude.