Echoes of Hollow

"Hey, Hilary, come on, wake up. It's almost time for you to go to school."

"Hmm..."

Turning on the bed, Hilary wrapped herself in the blanket and, covering her head, pretended not to have heard Hye’s words.

"And you said you’d stay up all night..."

Sighing, he picked up the girl and walked to the bathroom, stopping in front of the mirror on the wall and setting her down on the sink below.

"Come on, show your teeth."

With her head uncovered but her eyes still closed, Hilary smiled so her teeth could be brushed while her body swayed each time Hye let her go for a moment.

"Don’t swallow that, you can spit it out now."

After cleaning her mouth with his wet hand and drying it with a towel, Hye took her back to the bed and set her down while walking over to the wardrobe to get her uniform. With her body leaning to one side and her head, Hilary flopped onto the bed after swaying a few times.

"Red or blue? ...Or do you prefer to wear pants today?"

"Hmmm..."

"..."

"I'll take that as a yes for pants."

Changing her clothes was the easy part; the real challenge was having to fully unroll her from the blanket she was in.

So, with her dress shirt already on and the dark blue blouse of the uniform waiting beside it, all that was left was to fix her hair. Hye sat her on his lap and, with the brush on the bed, first applied cream to her curly hair with his fingers and then brushed it slowly, finishing with a careful squeeze of the curls with his hands.

"It looks like Auntie left some money, so buy something at the cafeteria, okay?"

"Hmm..."

As if a small laziness were clinging to her neck, Hye left the house with Hilary's backpack in hand and walked through the streets bathed in sunlight that created a pleasant atmosphere despite the cold shadows.

His hair swayed and the cool breeze surrounded him along with the many glances directed his way, but unlike the wind that hit him directly, as always, Hye didn’t even notice how many people were actually watching him.

But not limited to just glances, after passing by him repeatedly in a short time, with heavy breathing and clothes sticking to her body from sweat, a woman with long hair tied back finally gathered her courage and, with an embarrassed smile, approached. At that moment, Hilary’s eyes snapped open.

"Hi, how are you..? I..."

"Hmm... Daddy, let’s hurry, Mommy must be getting nervous from waiting..."

'Daddy?! He looks so young, but...'

Narrowing her eyes and smiling as best she could, the woman stepped aside, allowing Hye to pass.

"Sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you, I just... I... sorry..."

"Huh? It’s all... okay...?"

Hye turned only to see the woman running away seemingly in a panic on the sidewalk. But, as he continued on his way, his eyes briefly fell downward, allowing him to see Hilary’s cheeks puffed out like she was holding air.

"Hmm... What a sight..."

"??"

With her arms crossed, the girl shook her head in denial.

"You need to be more careful, Hye. What will you do if Alyia breaks up with you because of this?"

Before settling back against his chest, Hilary rubbed her eyes and placed her hand over her mouth, letting out a small contained yawn as she stretched.

Hearing those words, Hye couldn’t help but smile slightly.

"And what do you, an eight-year-old, know about that?"

"I researched a lot about it last night."

"Last night...? So you weren’t sleeping?"

"And how could I sleep knowing you’re dating now? I needed to prepare."

'Prepare...?'

Hilary surveyed the surroundings, observing all the women who had been staring at Hye so blatantly all this time.

"Look at those... bich-bitis... they aren’t even trying to hide it..."

"You... Where did you learn that kind of word?"

"I watched some videos last night... but that doesn’t matter. You need to be more careful from now on, Hye. Stop being so wesiptive and notice the adwanshes."

"..."

After giving him a kiss on the cheek, Hilary jumped to the ground and waited for Hye to hand her the backpack.

"You need to learn to notice people’s intenshuns."

With the backpack on her back, she approached Hye and, glancing at the women scattered on the sidewalks, murmured.

"Look at them... they’re all so egsci... exicsited..."

"What...?! You..."

Hye turned just in time to see Hilary smiling from the other side of the street near the other children, waving her arms.

"This girl..."

Smiling, he raised his hand and waved back.

As Hilary walked away, his eyes quickly swept the area and, indeed, Hye realized that it was quite strange. So many persistent women watching him even as their children said goodbye.

'This is definitely strange, but... is it worth ending things?'

'No, but killing someone is.'

'...'

Recalling Samael’s words, memories of the previous afternoon with Hilary and Alyia flooded his mind. His fists clenched, teeth gritted, and heart racing rapidly, with veins momentarily appearing on his body, the persistence of the men who kept watching her enraged him so much that, at times, he even considered the possibility of giving in to his thoughts and killing them just as his mind incited him to do.

"Yeah... maybe she has a point..."