오작교는 싫습니다

96

“Cory, I’ve always been curious, but why do you have so many blankets? You have a bunch of different types, too.”

Cory’s eyes blinked open as he stared at the blanket on him as he listened.

“Oh.”

Cory quietly muttered, seemingly understanding my question.

Until now, I had seen dozens of different blankets that Cory owned. Starting from the strawberry blanket, there was also the grape blanket, the pineapple blanket, the apple one, and a ton of other fruit ones. I thought he only had fruit blankets, but he also had vegetable ones too. Who owned a cabbage blanket? Oh, he also had a carrot one, didn’t he?

“You know how I’m a picky eater. And I like eating snacks.”

Cory explained, half asleep. He spoke slowly, probably because he was about to fall back asleep.

“My parents wanted me to get a friendly outlook on healthy foods even if I chose not to eat them, so they gifted me fruit or veggie blankets. And I just ended up having a bunch of them.”

I didn’t know until now, but it was quite a cute reason. It seemed like Cory’s parents’ efforts payed off in the end. Cory did eat a tiny but consistent amount of fruits and vegetables.

He did pinch his nose as he ate vegetable though. No, never mind, he did that when he was younger. Recently, he created a spell that would make vegetables tasteless and scentless. He was eating properly thanks to that.

I asked Cory why he was receiving blankets as gifts instead of any other kind of product in the world. He explained that it was probably because of his tendency to fall asleep in fandom places. It seemed like Cory’s kindness stemmed from his parents.

But it was strange. His parents left him alone to the point of it almost being neglectful, from what I knew. He was always alone during birthdays so I hung out with him, and whenever I called Cory’s home, they never responded.

“Cory, there’s apparently a new delivery place open. Let’s get some food from there once.”

“Oh, I don’t eat that kind of….. frog…… but it was cool……”

“Huh?”

“…..huh? Sorry, what did you say?”

“You’re really sleepy, huh.”

Cory slowly nodded.

“Go back to sleep.”

“…..thanks.”

The room was quiet. I could hear Cory’s quiet breaths as he slept.

Hearing that made me feel relaxed, so I closed my eyes too. I fell asleep almost instantly. It must’ve been a mix of everything that had happened recently, but the nap I had just taken was absolutely perfect.

Cory woke me up before our next class started. He wiped the drool on my cheek and popped a candy in my mouth as he got me ready to head back to class. I was very reluctant about the whole thing.

I was so sleepy and relaxed that I felt like I was floating.

_______________________

I met up three times a week with Yves. He complained that he never got to see me naturally, so he made it a point to meet with me at least three times a week.