Chapter 005
In his half-sleep, Ivan moved quickly to confirm the woman’s presence beside him, only to find she had disappeared. He thought to himself in disapproval. She had said she wouldn’t go, and she said she would prepare something delicious.
“What the…!”
She had said he must sleep early because he would bathe tomorrow.
“Why lie?!”
He shouldn’t have believed the words of that madwoman.
Even if his mother, while drunk, brought a foolish man into the house and kicked Ivan out, and even if she shouted at him, calling him the son of a barmaid with no known father, he should not associate with her child.
Even when trouble occurred in the village, and he was falsely accused and beaten, he had never felt this much anger.
But now, he felt as if insects were crawling in his stomach, boiling and twisting.
I should have terrified her from the start so she couldn’t escape!
He had acted laxly, and in the end, he was suffering the consequences.
“Why leave without a word?! I haven’t told you to go yet!”
Ivan jumped to his feet suddenly when he noticed the sky beginning to shimmer with the first threads of dawn.
Dawn had not yet fully broken, and horse carriages did not pass at this hour.
The woman couldn’t have gone far; she didn’t know the roads of this village. If he took the shortcut, he could catch her.
With an impulse, Ivan opened the door and rushed out of the house.
If I catch her again, she won’t be able to escape this time…
“Ivan?”
A surprised cry halted his steps as he ran toward the stairs.
“Ivan.”
The woman stood holding a large basin, looking surprised as she glanced around.
“Where are you going at this hour?”
Her eyes rose slowly toward the house he had just exited.
“Why did you wake up so early… have you been crying?”
She ran toward him quickly; the basin she carried was filled with dishes.
“Why? What happened?”
Her hands wiped his eyes; they had turned red and were cold as ice.
“Are you sick?”
“I thought you had left.”
I thought you had promised me so much and then left me behind.
“…What are you saying?”
That sympathy appeared on her face again.
Pity and mercy… she always looked at him as if he were pathetic.
“Where would your mother go?”
“…Really?”
“Of course. But first, let’s go back inside. Why did you come out without a coat?”
Ivan followed the woman as she pushed his back up the stairs again.
At least, it seems her words about going weren’t a lie. So, she hasn’t thought about leaving this place yet.
Despite the strangeness of it, I felt a temporary relief along with a wave of slight annoyance beginning to creep inside me.
“Look, Mom washed the dishes. We couldn’t do them last night before bed. Now I can make you something delicious for breakfast.”
Ivan closed the door tightly, looking at the woman with a smile, as if she were watching him as he drew attention to her with a small movement.
“You were sleeping so well, so I went out quietly. You must have been scared when you didn’t find me. I’m sorry.”
Ivan suppressed his anger, which was about to explode.
That was because her cautious appearance reminded him of that woman with the green roof whom the children feared.
Instead, Ivan grabbed the woman’s hand tightly and whispered lowly to her.
“Don’t go out alone. This place is dangerous.”
He feared she would fall into the hands of drunks, or that those people would follow him again.
“Once the sun sets, do not leave this house.”
“Once the sun sets?”
“Yes. Drunks will hurt you. If you go out, they will hit you. A few days ago, it was said a woman was strangled to death here.”
The woman’s eyes trembled slightly, then she dropped her gaze.
“…Someone died near here?”
She replied in a faint voice, as if shocked.
“Don’t you hate pain?”
Ivan grabbed her hand again and kept his gaze fixed on her eyes.
“If you are going to go, tell me before leaving.”
Her green eyes were trembling with fear.
It seemed the woman was not used to violence.
“But here, you will be safe.”
“Ah…”
“I am here.”
“Alright, I’ll tell you if I go. I’m sorry, Ivan.”
Ivan gave a small smile in her arms, as he seemed truly afraid.
“And if anyone asks you to go with them, don’t. And if someone grabs you, scream for help. Everyone is bad, except me.”
“Alright, I will.”
“I’ll come to save you if necessary. But you must scream loudly so I can hear you. Understand?”
She patted his back slowly, as she had done yesterday, protecting him from the cold outdoor air.
“…Ivan, shall we move to another house?”
“What?”
He raised his head in surprise.
“Let’s move to a safer neighborhood, where there are no drunks.”
“….”
“This place… it seems dangerous for you. You are small, and it’s better to live in a place with friends.”
If we move… will we stay together?
If we go to a place where no one knows us…
A place where no one can uncover my lie…
Can we stay together?
And what if my real mother returns…?
“I’m sleepy.”
Ivan lowered his gaze and took a deep breath.
“Ah, maybe you woke up too early. Go back to sleep.”
“…Alright.”
“I’ll wake you when I finish breakfast.”
The woman quickly forgot her question and changed the subject.
Ivan returned to his bed, touched his pillow quietly, and opened his mouth to whisper.
“Mom.”
“Yes?”
“Finish the story you started yesterday, about the tiger, the dragon, and the rabbit.”
The woman smiled suddenly, looked at him, then approached to adjust his blanket and whispered the story from where she had stopped yesterday.
* * *
“And then what?”
Ivan sat quietly at the table as she wanted, watching the woman stir the spoon in the pot gently, and she brought him back to his eagerness.
“And when she was returning home, the tiger suddenly appeared! And said: If you give me bread, I won’t eat you!”
When the woman’s face came so close it nearly touched his, a sharp scream followed by laughter broke from Ivan’s mouth.
“Then he appeared again. So the woman let out a deep sigh over the little bread she had left, and offered it with a trembling hand.”
“After that, did he leave?”
“Yes, but the way home was still long. She feared the tiger would appear again, so she started running.”
“That pig rascal, he’ll come back again anyway. How many loaves does he eat, anyway?”
The woman’s voice was hurried, as if she were truly being chased, so Ivan shrugged his shoulders and grumbled.
“…Ivan, calling someone a pig rascal is a bad word. You shouldn’t use such language.”
The woman had blinked in surprise, then after a moment knit her brows to warn him.
Knock! Knock! Knock!
The thin wooden door shook violently, as if it were about to break under the weight of the knocking.
“Ivan! Are you home?”
Knock, knock, knock.
As soon as he heard the familiar voice, Ivan’s face, which had been frozen from tension, twisted.
“Who is this?”
The woman moved her eyes in confusion, as if she were about to head to the door to check who was outside.
Ivan quickly jumped from the table and grabbed the hem of her dress.
“The jam will burn. I’ll go. They are my friends.”
“Your friends?”
“Yes, my friends.”
“There’s no need, they’re going to the forest today. They’re busy.”
Ivan, pulling the hem of her dress again, was muttering bad curses to himself that would have terrified the woman had she heard them, directing his words toward those who continued to knock on the door.
“It’s the apple jam we made together, what if it burns? If you go out, I’ll stay here and watch it.”
“No, didn’t I say the fire is dangerous? Are you really not going to invite your friends?”
Knock, knock, knock.
“Ivan!”
The sound of the violent knocking was distracting, causing the woman’s gaze to shift toward the door repeatedly.
“I told you it’s fine. They don’t need food. I’ll go and come back, don’t burn the jam!”
Ivan caught her gaze again, then opened the door slightly and slipped out of the house quickly.
•♡━━━━━━•♡•━━━━━━♡•
I created a Telegram channel to make it easier for us to communicate and post updates [https://t.me/OpheliasUpdates] 🌷
