While Kang posed several questions, San remained silent throughout. Though he didn’t utter a word, he mostly nodded in agreement with her.
However, when it came to the last question, he found himself without an answer, resorting to silence.
“You didn’t want me to be unhappy, right? Because then my dreams would taste better.”
Right.
I wished for you to be unhappy, but not to the point of death.
“Why? Were you afraid I might not handle too much misery and give up, ending my life? Is that why?”
Yes. That’s why I’m beside you. I’m afraid that if you can’t handle the misery, you might let go of life.
“Or is it part of your grand plan to make me taste deeper despair after hope?”
It’s not my way, but it’s the method most monsters prefer.
“Or could it be…”
“…….”
“You hope for my happiness?”
She asked.
Do you wish for my happiness?
What a funny thought.
Suddenly, he felt as if his mouth was sealed, unable to reply.
He couldn’t come up with an answer to the question.
After the prolonged silence, Kang decided to abandon hope of a response and retire.
“I’m going to sleep.”
She closed her eyes, not forgetting to wish him a good meal.
But it took Kang quite a while to fall asleep.
Then, with closed eyes, she spoke as if to provide the answer he hadn’t given.
“I know.”
“What do you know?”
“To you, I am merely… a lovable chicken.”
A breeze-like laughter escaped at her words.
The comparison to a chicken was amusing, but more so, it seemed she was already well-aware of being adorable.
And yet, it wasn’t irritating.
But after a short while, Kang emphasized.
“But don’t forget.”
“…….”
“To me, you’re also a lovable chicken.”
It was an amusing reality.
San found himself reflecting on their relationship.
Without a doubt, Kang’s words were true.
Their relationship was both dominant and submissive.
Or like the symbiosis between a crocodile and a bird.
In the end, protecting you is equivalent to protecting myself.
Nothing more, nothing less.
Kang, who had been going on about the chicken, gradually softened her voice.
“I’m really going to sleep now…”
She genuinely seemed sleepy.
“Goodnight, chicken.”
At San’s soft farewell, Kang, who was chuckling lightly, soon drifted into a deep sleep.
The gentle smile that had spread across her face vanished without a trace.
A purple haze, similar to smoke, began to emerge from her body, signaling the onset of a nightmare.
San clenched his jaw and raised his other hand.
As he brought it close to her body, the smoke pouring out from her seemed to be sucked in, absorbed.
The expression on San’s face as he consumed the nightmare looked incredibly serene.
Although he struggled daily with the arduous task of consuming dreams, his consistent efforts had borne fruit.
He held Kang’s arm with his palm, and even more smoke was absorbed even faster.
“…….”
His eyebrows shot up and then lowered.
The speed and quantity of absorption showed no strain.
Thanks to that, he could consume all of Kang’s dreams without leaving a fragment, not to mention shortening the time it took to absorb the dream.
And all these impossible feats were achieved in such a short span, significantly enhancing San’s vitality and strength.
Though it was a phenomenon unheard and unseen before, experiencing a “first” wasn’t unfamiliar or surprising to him.
Feeling the exhilaration of consuming a high-quality nightmare, San eventually lay beside her.
Then, he pulled the sleeping Kang into his embrace.
As the contact increased, the explosive dream energy began to be sucked into him like a black hole.
With a quiet smile, San whispered to her, resting his chin on her forehead.
“You, who make me this happy.”
“…….”
“How could I not love you?”
The energy and pleasure from the nightmares were incomparable to anything in the world.
For various reasons, if it weren’t for Kang, he would still be living in hiding.
Perhaps he might’ve already been killed by another monster.
How could one not cherish this small and lovely human being who lets them live?
If only the intensity of nightmares doesn’t wane, I sometimes wish I could create a thousand things to make you happy.
Perhaps all the monsters in the world that know of your existence would love you.
San concluded that he was just one among them.
It felt like there was a bit of clarity on things he couldn’t respond to before.
Then.
Kang, held in his arms, started to moan.
“……uh.”
He propped himself up and looked at her face with his hand under his chin.
Even now, the backdrop of the orphanage frequently appears in her nightmares.
Chased by an unrecognizable black figure, Kang’s face was distorted in pain. But moments later, when that figure became Gam Young-hee, she cried listlessly.
Her eyes, which had narrowed in reality, moistened.
She looked like someone who had given up on everything.
Beyond the immense fear, she seemed to feel a sense of loss.
“Is it about 485 again?”
It’s truly bothersome, whether alive or dead.
San, who had sighed lightly, immediately drew a line on her forehead with his thumb.
My Step-brother Is Obsessed With Me (Female-dominant)
A gentle female protagonist vs pitiful in the early stage, and a sick male protagonist in the later stage
Cheng Songer transmigrated into the body of a vicious cannon fodder female supporting character with the same name as her in a female-dominant novel.
In the original story, the cannon fodder female supporting character was inhumane, committing domestic violence, gambling excessively, being lustful, and even wanting to sell her stepbrother to a brothel for money.
As luck would have it, she just happened to transmigrate at this time.
Seeing Cheng Qingzhi biting his lip, enduring the tears in his eyes, looking pitiful, her heart softened.
She stuffed the money back into the Madam’s hand and reached out to him.
“Brother, come home with me.”
