Jihoon tilted the man’s head to the side. There, on a bed full of fluffy pillows and soft
blankets, laid a man. His eyes were opened, but there was not a sliver of light in it. The skin
was marred with stitches; at the wrist, on the arm, in the middle of the neck, across the
forehead.
A corpse.
“Oh, look! Seungcheol-hyung is smiling at you!” Jihoon exclaimed, chuckling heartily. “He
must be very grateful that you’re willing to help me preparing this gift!” He readjusted the
man’s face back towards him, plucking two incisors in one move. “It takes years for me to
complete it, you know. The Fairies are so greedy, they wouldn’t give me the last thing I want,
even after I offered them a whole ninety-six teeth!”
“So, I thought I’ll just going to keep offering them more and more until they take it. Hm? A
brilliant idea, you said? Why, thank you, aren’t you the kindest. It was a good decision for
choosing you!”
Jihoon spread the man’s mouth with the stretch of his fingers, keeping it open so his other
hand could reach the deepest corner inside. He put more power to his hold, and with a sound
of torn flesh—he got the last tooth.
He sighed in relief, putting the tooth in the jar and closed it. His crimson-stained fingers
reached for another jar. A smaller one, with confeitos in the color of rainbows in it. He took a
blue one and brought it to the man’s lips.
“A little farewell gift for you.”
Jihoon pushed the candy into his mouth, right to his throat. The man gagged, but Jihoon kept
his fingers there until the candy was swallowed. In a few seconds, the man’s body started to
shake, the tremor made the table rattle. One last desperate gasp, and the man stopped moving.
Foam dripped from his mouth, his eyeballs rolled to opposite directions from each other.
The hearth had died. Cold and silence reigned over the room. Jihoon wiped the man’s mouth,
closing his eyes, covering his body with a white sheet. He got up from his chair, stretching his
back and arms. Water ran in the sink, washing away the blood from Jihoon’s hands. He
splashed his face, wiping a few times. As he dried his face with a towel and looked up, he saw
his brother’s reflection on the mirror. Jihoon smiled.
“I’m sorry, Hyung, did I wake you?”
He sat next to Seungcheol, turning on the bedside lamp. His brother laid still. His eyes
remained empty.
Jihoon slowly took his brother’s hand, leaning his face to it. The stitches along the knuckles
tickled his cheek, making him giggle. He gazed at his brother’s face lovingly.