Confinement Constitution Guide

A Perfect and Wise Life in Confinement (4)

The movie ended with the prisoner trying to escape the prison by trapping the shadow monster in a cell without a single ray of sunlight, only to encounter another shadow monster and die in vain. In the end, both the escape from prison and the escape from the monster failed.

I felt strange, as if the ending of the movie contained what Sa Hae-geon wanted to say. Could it be that his purpose was to make me completely lose the will to escape by watching a movie with a tragic ending together?

As I was looking at Sa Hae-geon with a subtle gaze, he suddenly stood up from his seat.

“Let’s wash up and go to bed now.”

“Oh, already?”

Surprised by Sa Hae-geon’s words, I checked the clock on the wall, which showed 11:56 PM. It wasn’t even midnight yet… Isn’t midnight still prime time to have fun? Ah, could Sa Hae-geon be the type who loves living a proper lifestyle?

Still, I felt reluctant to go to bed like this. Early bedtime on the first memorable day of kidnapping doesn’t make sense. When I just sat still in my seat without any response or action, Sa Hae-geon gave me a puzzled look.

“What’s wrong?”

“It’s still too early to go to bed. We could play a bit more and go to bed around 1 AM. …To be honest, I’d like to stay up until about 3 AM.”

“No. You need to live a regular life to stay healthy and live long. Don’t you want to live with me for a long time, hyung?”

“What?”

I was at a loss for words at such an absurd statement. How long does he intend to keep me confined to worry about such a distant future? I looked at Sa Hae-geon, wondering if he was joking, but he had a very serious expression.

‘Was he being serious…?’

As soon as I saw Sa Hae-geon’s excessively serious face, any thought of negotiation disappeared. Right. I shouldn’t get into an argument over something like this when I should be acting docile.

“Okay, let’s go. Where do I wash up?”

I got up and followed Sa Hae-geon. He led me to the room where I had woken up earlier.

“You can use the bathroom in your room.”

There was a door in the room that I had overlooked earlier. Sa Hae-geon opened that door and started introducing everything inside one by one.

“It’s a bathroom connected to a powder room. Underwear and pajamas are here, and sleep socks are placed down here. The hair dryer and lotions are here. Also…”

“Ah, okay. Thanks. I’ll figure out the rest on my own.”

I had to cut him off because he seemed ready to explain even the shape and use of the mirror. More importantly, I had seen something I shouldn’t have in the drawer he opened, saying it contained pajamas and underwear.

“Ah, that’s fine too. Then I’ll go wash up as well. Make yourself comfortable.”

After finishing his words, Sa Hae-geon alternately looked at the shower booth and me, then left the room with reddened ears. His behavior was like that of a nervous newlywed groom about to consummate the marriage, which made me chuckle.

“No. He wasn’t nervous, he might have been impure.”

Anyway, Espers were an incomprehensible bunch. I gave up trying to understand Sa Hae-geon and opened the drawer wide to properly check the shocking thing I had seen earlier. …As expected.

“Is he really crazy?”

The drawer was full of not only spare prisoner uniforms but also various animal pajamas and pajamas with lace and frills.

“…Is he in his right mind?”

The underwear drawer was no less surprising. For the first time in my life, I learned that men’s underwear comes in such a variety of types and shapes, and that underwear companies are quite progressive in this area. Since these were things I never wanted to know in my life, I didn’t feel even a bit grateful to Sa Hae-geon for giving me this culture shock.

To think I’d end up considering this prisoner uniform better. Pressing my temples that had started to throb, I grabbed a new prisoner uniform and the most normal-looking underwear I could find and went into the bathroom. I fervently hoped that the day would never come when I’d have to wear those ridiculous-looking pajamas and underwear.

After quickly finishing my shower and returning to the powder room to dry my hair with a hair dryer, I saw Sa Hae-geon’s reflection in the mirror. I thought I had washed up quite quickly, but Sa Hae-geon had already dried his hair completely.

“Let me do it.”

He naturally took the hair dryer from my hand and started drying my hair. His touch was quite careful as he gently tousled my hair. Sa Hae-geon’s face in the large mirror attached to the powder room vanity looked happy.

‘Does he enjoy taking care of me?’

…That can’t be. There’s no way someone in this world enjoys taking care of others. Just looking at the furniture filling this house and space, I could tell how pampered and wealthy Sa Hae-geon was. It’s really unthinkable that such a person would feel joy while taking care of someone.

As I was organizing my thoughts like this, the noise of the hair dryer ringing in my ears stopped.

After meticulously organizing the hair dryer cord, Sa Hae-geon now took out a comb and gently combed my hair. Whether he was talented in manual tasks or not, even this simple combing made me feel unnecessarily relaxed and drowsy.

“All done, hyung. You need to dry it thoroughly like this to avoid catching a cold.”

“Thanks. But I’m fine even if it’s not completely dry… I’ll just dry it myself from tomorrow. It must be troublesome for you too.”

“No. It’s not troublesome at all. I’ll do it from now on too. It would be terrible if you caught a cold.”

What is he talking about? He’s going to keep drying my hair in the future? As I stared at him blankly, Sa Hae-geon blushed and lowered his gaze.

“Hyung, it’s unfair to look at me like that. We agreed to get to know each other slowly, didn’t we?”

“W-What?”

“It’s late, we should be careful. Or are you doing this on purpose?”

What nonsense is this now?

“I think you’re just lacking sleep. We should go to bed soon, hyung.”

Sa Hae-geon, who had arbitrarily concluded my condition, grabbed the sleeve of my prisoner uniform pajamas with his thumb and index finger and dragged me to the bed. Since he had an uncharacteristically serious face, I had no choice but to follow obediently.

“Lie down carefully.”

I lay down on the bed as Sa Hae-geon wanted and looked up at him. Sa Hae-geon’s cheeks were still flushed. It was absurd how he was getting embarrassed by himself over a meaningless gaze and then drawing a firm line. Why was he restraining me when he was the one interpreting things impurely?

“Good night, hyung.”

“Yeah. Good night to you too.”

Sa Hae-geon tucked the blanket up to my chin and turned around. I expected him to leave soon since he had urged me to go to bed quickly, but surprisingly, Sa Hae-geon didn’t leave the room and stood still in his place.

“What?”

“Hyung.”

“Yeah.”

“I was thinking, the bed is wide, and if you sleep alone, you might get cold and lonely. My hands might be cold, but my body is warm.”

“…So.”

“Even though we’re getting to know each other slowly, we can still sleep in the same bed, right?”

Sa Hae-geon, still turned away, earnestly expressed his opinion with only his ears turning red.

“And I have gentle sleeping habits, so it won’t be uncomfortable. You can just think of it as sleeping next to a big teddy bear.”

“So, in conclusion, you want to sleep together in this bed?”

“Yes. That’s right.”

Sa Hae-geon, who had turned around at some point, waited for my answer with an excited expression. As I quietly observed his deep blue eyes glistening with expectation, I felt very conflicted.

‘Can I really spend a month with this person who doesn’t even understand the concept of personal space…’

I never dreamed I’d be worrying about something like this. Of course, this was something I had never encountered in my previous confinement experiences. Other kidnappers naturally slept separately while keeping an eye on me. It’s very natural for everyone to sleep in their own rooms.

I wanted to avoid friction or arguments with Sa Hae-geon as much as possible, but this wasn’t something I could just overlook. I said to Sa Hae-geon, who was waiting patiently like a well-trained dog:

“I prefer sleeping alone in a large bed.”

“Really?”

Sa Hae-geon asked back in a disappointed voice but didn’t resort to petty acts like trying to persuade or threaten me to change my mind. Instead, he just blinked his docile eyes and added an absurd remark as if it was no big deal.

“I understand for today. Good night, hyung.”

Then he turned off the lights and left the room without any lingering. Soon, I heard the sound of Sa Hae-geon entering the room across and closing the door.

“He understands for today?”

Does that mean he’ll ask again tomorrow? Or should I interpret it as him intending to sleep in the same bed tomorrow no matter what I say? Amidst feeling dumbfounded and confused, one thing I could be certain of was that either way, it would be very troublesome for me.

A deep sigh rose from my core and escaped my lips. The day had been excruciatingly long.

“…I miss my Cream.”

It was sad and hopeless that I couldn’t go see my lovely cat even though it was just next door.