After briefly savoring the grace of flour and awakening my faith,
The activities for the middle and high school divisions wrapped up, and the three of us boarded the same bus to head home.
We only sung a couple of praises and had a small chat, but already it was 12:43 PM.
Checking the time and realizing half the day was already gone, my faith, once inflated with flour and cheese, began to deflate slowly.
Honestly, it wasn’t an activity that I found particularly repulsive compared to what I had heard, but…
I still didn’t understand why I had to wake up on a Sunday morning to participate in it.
Nevertheless, since I had managed to get through the week, I planned to make up some excuses to skip next time.
In front of the apartment, the three middle schoolers took the bus back home.
“Are you coming next week?”
“I’m good…”
That was my way of saying I didn’t plan to go to church next week.
In the elevator, when this question popped up unexpectedly, I shook my head and muttered my reply.
Taehyun, not particularly a devout believer, voiced his feelings honestly.
Then, as if passing the baton, I turned my head towards Siyeon and tossed her the question.
“How about you, Siyeon?”
“Um, not really…”
Since I was saying I wouldn’t go, Siyeon, nodding her head in agreement, echoed the same.
Yeah, Siyeon doesn’t seem to have much interest in religion either.
“Ahh.”
Seeing us respond flatly, Taehyun let out a short sigh.
As mentioned earlier, he doesn’t come across as a particularly devout believer.
Yet, why does he still wake up every Sunday morning, take the bus to church, and only return home around lunchtime?
Well, why, if you’re a diligent student, you have to listen to your mom.
He was bound by the four letters “born into faith,” losing the option to choose quite some time ago.
It must be a struggle for him to keep attending church without a strong belief.
Moreover, on Saturdays and Sundays, late sleeping is permitted for students.
Having one of those precious two days taken away from him every week must stir some envy within us.
But since he knows a bit about our family’s struggles, he can’t exactly admit to being envious.
And that sigh is a result of it.
The elevator reached the fourth floor right after the conversation, and as the doors clanked open, I stretched my legs forward and turned back for a short farewell.
“Take care.”
“Yeah, bye.”
As soon as I stepped out of the elevator, my feet moved forward indifferently toward my destination.
Beep, beep, beep, I casually input the password to my place as Siyeon and I returned home.
Worried about it possibly raining, I had closed the windows tightly before leaving.
That action, paired with the sweltering humidity of a Korean summer, turned our house into a small sauna.
The moment I entered, a heavy, suffocating air covered my face.
…Quite unpleasant.
“Where did I put the remote?”
The indoor temperature felt hotter than outside, so without hesitation, I searched for the air conditioning remote.
I looked around the living room, my head and eyes spinning fast in search of it.
Spotting the remote just sitting on the couch, I quickly picked it up, aimed it at the air conditioner, and pressed the red power button.
A low hum of the air conditioner filled the air.
Ding ding ding, I relentlessly pressed the down arrow button on the remote to set it to the lowest temperature of 18 degrees, then tossed it carelessly back onto the couch.
Thud… The remote bounced once off the soft cushion and landed nearby without straying from the couch.
Until the cool air spread sufficiently, being right in front of the air conditioner was the best spot.
I sprawled casually on the mat, cooling my flushed face with the chilly breeze.
Just then, Siyeon approached quietly.
“Woah-!”
“Eek.”
Seemingly triggered by some playful impulse, Siyeon suddenly pounced on me, pressing her whole body against mine.
Under the unexpected weight, a faint and bizarre sound escaped my lips.
Our bodies were nearly stacked up vertically.
I reached out my left arm to hold her down.
Then, with my right hand, I extended my fingers and mercilessly tickled her sides.
“Eek?!”
“You know I workout.”
Siyeon’s body twisted as she emitted a unique, hard-to-describe scream, especially when tickled.
“Ah, ahh! No, no!”
“Are you gonna do it or not?”
Whether twisting her body or not, my fingers dove into her soft sides, stirring up her sensitivity.
She struggled to articulate her words, but I already knew she was trying to hold on.
As soon as I brought up her two options, she quickly selected the correct one and yelled.
“I won’t, I won’t!”
Merely a playful act of oppression lasting no longer than five seconds,
And in that brief time, I got her absolute surrender.
With her desperate capitulation, my fingers finally ceased their invasion.
“Phew.”
A short gasp of relief blended with Siyeon’s words lingered in my ears.
Having eaten a hearty lunch and enjoying the cool air from the air conditioner, she must’ve been bored after all.
Perhaps because it was an odd day, there was no worry about monster appearances, making the day feel relaxed enough to elicit a yawn.
Time steadily flowing into Monday was bad news, but it seemed the end of the holiday was passing so peacefully.
…Or so I thought, until suddenly, my eyelids opened in the dead of night.
‘…?’
Blinking my eyes for a moment to assess the situation.
I was on my familiar bed, with my smartphone nearby.
It was certainly before my alarm would go off.
Yet, I wasn’t completely clear-headed as if I had slept enough.
Why did I wake up at this hour?
That question was quickly answered by a sound skimming through my ear.
Bzzz.
It was the sound of that summer demon, the one I wished would go extinct.
Now that I’ve heard it once, there’s no paradise left.
Going back to sleep? Not a chance.
Who knows how long that ‘thing’ will buzz in my ears, keeping me on edge.
When I finally drop all worries and fall asleep, that sound would surely ring again.
Driven out of slumber, I instantly switched on the light, brushed my hand over my ear,
Then, after grabbing mosquito repellent, closed every window and door without hesitation.
Anxiously scanning the room with my eyes.
Even the dust quietly clinging to the curtain looked like mosquito legs, my gaze fixated on the smallest details.
Swish, swish, the sound of shaking spray echoed in the quiet room.
A silent moment, a small black something fluttering through the air.
Pssshh.
One barrel aiming for the life of a mosquito just emitted the deathly white smoke.
Instantly filling the room was the irritating scent of acacia spray.
Got it, definitely hit it. That was an unavoidable blow.
Confident it struck, I scanned the floor with my eyes.
There it was, twisting in agony on the floor, that tiny, wicked little demon.
Now that I pinpointed its location, it was time to take care of it.
I yanked a piece of tissue from the rectangular trash can on my desk and delivered the final blow to the squirming pest on the floor.
The sensation felt like absolutely nothing—an empty weight.
In the center of the white tissue lay a dark red stain.
Thus, I swiftly dispatched the summer demon.
A thrilling sense of accomplishment surged over me.
And, with the relief that I could now return to peaceful slumber…
“Ugh, how many bites did I get?”
Scratching at the swollen spots took precedence over the annoyance of the itching.
“Yawn…”
Still, more than the itch, the fact that I wouldn’t be waking up again felt comforting.
I reopened the firmly shut door of the room, where tension and anxiety had recently clung.
Turning off the light I had left on, saying I would catch mosquitoes.
After fiercely battling them and concluding that session,
I laid back on my bed, hoping to grab a few more minutes of sleep before my alarm rang.
Straightening my disheveled blanket, which had been kicked aside when I nearly got up,
I placed my phone, fully charged, conveniently by my head.
As I closed my eyes to fall asleep, focusing solely on the existence of sleep without any thoughts…
…Bzzz, that filthy high-pitched buzzing sounded again in my ear.
‘…!?’
In the abyss of darkness, again came that sound.
With a snap, my eyes opened.
A warning sound jolted my once-relaxed thoughts and foggy mind back into awareness.
Already, my consciousness was clearer than when I had heard any alarm.
That little pest seemed to have been a mere trailer as it vanished the moment I turned on the light.
I indeed heard the sound, but that demon was nowhere to be seen.
Was it an auditory hallucination due to my anxiety?
But it ruptured that doubt with a bold buzz directly in my ear.
Swish, I swiftly spun around, darting away from that spot, and sprayed the mosquito repellent in every direction I had previously stood.
‘There was… one more?’
Thinking back, the number of bites on me couldn’t possibly have come from just one mosquito.
The second buzz re-confirmed my suspicions.
With all the fuss, even Gomteng, who had been lounging on the cushion, chimed in.
“Is it a mosquito?”
“Yeah, if you see it, say something right away.”
4:52 AM.
Wielding the unstoppable powers of Magical Girl Sun, capable of taking down any monster at ease.
What she was earnestly confronting, more seriously than the monsters she had faced before, were just two mosquitoes—something only she and her mascot knew.
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