DKFTI 91

Light pours down from the sky.

On the ground, lava boils and metal shards fly through the air.

All around, people are dying. Over and over, again and again…

“Ah!”

Sibel jolted awake, startled. It had been a terrifying dream. Lately, he’d been plagued by these strange dreams every time he fell asleep. The moment he awoke, he felt warmth on his forehead and the tips of his ears. It seemed every vulnerable spot on his body had grown hot.

Was his body weakening? Maybe he should try samgyetang or eel tomorrow.

As he rubbed his sticky, crusty eyes while thinking such trivial thoughts, Aizen appeared in his hazy vision.

“What are you doing?”

Sibel stared at Aizen, who was leisurely reading, with a puzzled look.

This is my room, right? Why is he over there doing that?

“I don’t want that look from someone who fell asleep at the dinner table.”

Only then did Sibel remember he had eaten a lot of bread and fallen asleep. But he was in his own bedroom now.

“How did I get here?”

“What? Did you think you flew here?”

So that bastard brought me. Why not just say he brought me? Why twist it like that?

“What about Ruru?”

“He always sleeps sprawled out on any floor, doesn’t he?”

Was that really Ruru…?

“Beasts are all like that.”

“But Ruru isn’t a beast…”

Strictly speaking, he’s a demon.

“But why are you here, Hero? If you brought someone back, why didn’t you go to your own room?”

“I heard you whimpering, so I came to take a look.”

“Whimpering?”

Isn’t it normal to wake someone having a nightmare and help them settle down? Then again, expecting ordinary behavior from that Hero is laughable.

“What about Shanti?”

He must have come looking since him skipped dinner.

“He said you were sleeping peacefully and just left.”

Lack of loyalty. Utter lack of loyalty. Leaving his natural enemy in the same room? The Demon King’s castle discipline had clearly hit rock bottom.

As he worried about the Demon King’s castle, Sibel suddenly noticed the book Aizen was holding. He’d been wondering why he’d been trying to set the mood and pretend to be a bookworm…

<The Secret Hobby of the Brother Next Door>?

“Wait a minute. That’s…”

The red-sticker book he’d secretly snatched from the library’s depths…

“It was by your pillow. So that’s your taste.”

“Taste?! And I still don’t even know what the brother’s secret hobby is!”

“Curious?”

“Did you read it? About that brother’s hobby?”

Aizen nodded at Sibel’s question.

“When will he be back? I’m halfway through this and he hasn’t shown any signs of coming out.”

“You should’ve tried a little harder. He’ll be out soon enough.”

Aizen twirled the book in his hand as he spoke. Curious. The secret of the guy next door…

“If you’re curious, I’ll tell you.”

“Forget it. Just give me the book.”

“What’s the rush?”

Aizen flung the book onto the table. That jerk! He just finished reading it and now he’s handling it like trash! Sibel ran over and scooped the book into his arms.

“You really shouldn’t just touch other people’s stuff like that!”

“Hmm… I guess you’re right.”

Aizen uncrossed his legs from the chair and stretched his arms, straightening his stiff body.

Had he grown taller in three years? Why was his body so long? Sibel glanced at Aizen’s frame, comparing it to his own.

“Look all you want. What’s the big deal now?”

Aizen remarked, catching Sibel’s gaze. He rubbed the back of his neck with his fingers and cracked his jaw.

“Tired?”

“Standing guard isn’t exactly a walk in the garden.”

“Standing guard in a safe room? Come on… You were just reading books.”

While Sibel grumbled, Aizen rose from his seat. He approached right up to Sibel. Reaching out, he placed his hand on his forehead.

“What are you doing?”

“You seemed to have a fever earlier.”

How did he know?

He felt the cool touch of his hand on his forehead. Today, his hand felt unusually cool, making him want to rest his forehead against it.

Why am I like this… My temperature’s rising, and my head feels foggy.

“You’re hot.”

Aizen’s hand moved from his forehead to the back of his neck. Everywhere his hand touched, the heat radiated.

“Must be the rainy season.”

The rains always brought fever. Was it a precursor to madness? His mind felt foggy, his body sluggish. But what terrified his more was the fear that the strange personality inside him might erupt at any moment.

“Your lips are parched.”

Aizen’s thumb pressed against Sibel’s lips. Suddenly, a moment flashed through his mind.

The sound of rain, the scent of earth, droplets clinging to his eyes, a hot hand pressing against his lips…

When was this memory from?

As Sibel drifted into a daze of recollection, Aizen’s hand began to withdraw. Sibel stared silently at his hand, then suddenly grabbed his wrist.

Why did I grab his arm?

He couldn’t understand his own actions. But one thing was certain, he wanted to feel that cool sensation more. Or rather, an impulse surged within him to ran into the rain itself, to cool his body down.

‘Ah…. This doesn’t feel right.’

Before, he’d welcomed it without a second thought, so he hadn’t noticed, but the signs of the rainy season were unmistakable. This strangely exhilarated feeling now was definitely….

‘Excitement.’

He swallowed dryly with his parched lips.

While Sibel felt this strange sensation, Aizen was no different. He looked at Sibel’s hand wrapped around his wrist, then lifted his gaze to meet his.

His eyes trembled with unease, like a herbivore nervously grazing on grass.

Like a starving animal tense with the need to avoid its predator, yet unable to suppress the primal urge of hunger.

“What are you doing?”

He didn’t want to break the silence. Any words seemed likely to shatter this delicate moment. But his insides churned, and he couldn’t hold back.

Sure enough, Sibel’s head turned around. The hand that had been wrapped around his wrist fell away.

Hesitantly, Sibel took a step back. His face slowly flushed crimson.

“The rainy season makes demons act strangely.”

Sibel stammered, he was flustered. Nothing had happened between them, so why was his face flushing? Why was his voice trembling?

Aizen found this unfamiliar side of Sibel strange, yet it piqued his curiosity. He took a step forward. Sibel jumped back in alarm, stumbling back again.

“It’s just… I feel hot, and … flustered all of a sudden…?”

“All of a sudden? How?”

“I mean, ah.. don’t come any closer…”

The closer Aizen approached, the further Sibel retreated. It mirrored the very dynamics of their relationship over the past period.

“I mean, all of a sudden… my body…”

Thud.

Sibel, retreating back, was finally blocked by his own bed and collapsed onto it with a thump. Having just woken up, he was disheveled, and in his arms was a book with a distinctly red sticker, looking adorably out of place. Moreover, his breath was heated and faintly erotic.

At that moment, a switch clicked on inside Aizen.

‘Fucked…’

Sibel sensed immense danger in that instant. By any measure, this was a situation where the phrase “fucked” fit perfectly.

It wasn’t just that things were bad. Sibel was a man and knew the feeling of sexual arousal.

The heat rising through his body was gathering in the wrong places. Plus, the spots where Aizen’s hands had touched kept throbbing.

The effects of the Rainy Season seemed undeniable…

Suddenly, Shanti’s words came back to him: ‘When the Rainy Season comes, some smash up the village, some sleep straight through, and some indulge in physical pleasures day and night.’

So desire, it seemed, didn’t always manifest as destruction.

The rainy season was a period when desires normally dormant within, appetite, lust, cravings for recognition, erupted like a volcano. It was a time when only instinct remained.

‘Wait, fuck… My instincts are perverted? And now? In front of that human?’

Though Sibel had never particularly upheld the solemnity expected of a demon king, today he refused to abandon even the bare minimum dignity of a living being.

“The rain sounds rather loud, doesn’t it? Haha…”

Sibel crossed his legs, his awkward smile betraying an obvious attempt to conceal something, a gesture that only drew Aizen’s attention.

His awkward attempt to change the subject was equally transparent. The acting was terrible.

Aizen showed no hesitation. As he approached right before Sibel, he hunched his body and leaned his shoulders against the bedpost.

“Ahem.”

The book resting on Sibel’s chest slid slowly down. It was an effort to conceal his physical state.

Following that movement, Aizen’s gaze drifted down as well.

A moment of silence passed. To Sibel, that silence felt like an eternity. Cold sweat trickled down his forehead.

Aizen propped himself up with an arm on the bedpost, staring intently at Sibel, whose ears and cheeks were flushed crimson like apples.

Just as Sibel swallowed dryly, Aizen’s tightly pressed lips parted.

“Has this happened before?”

He didn’t understand what he meant.

“Huh?”

While Sibel was flustered, Aizen swiftly snatched the book from his hand, his last bastion, his sturdy shield.

“Did you do this in front of the others whenever you got stubborn?”

Aizen’s gaze, somehow icy, was fixed down. Following his line of sight, Sibel’s head dropped too.