Dojin’s hand moved at once.
“Not there!”
Koong!
Snatched up by the middle without warning, the slime let out a startled little koong-koong. Dojin hurried to explain.
“Not there. That spot’s sensitive.”
Kooong...
“That’s... yeah. Only me and my girlfriend are allowed down there.”
At the word girlfriend, the slime peered up at Dojin, puzzled. Then something sprouted from the bottom of its round body. Something tiny and long...
A bootleg dick.
Thrilled to have something just like Dojin’s hanging off it, the slime wiggled, and the thing dangled right along with it. Ugh... hideous... Dojin screwed his face up and issued a warning.
“Hey, that’s disgusting! Get rid of it. Now.”
Mooong...
“Now.”
The slime had folded itself in the middle and was gazing glumly down at its own dick. One more firm order, and its body gave in, flattening back out to the way it had been. Relieved, Dojin set the slime down on the stone ledge and told it again.
“Don’t ever make that thing again. Understood?”
「...」
Boing boing, boing boing! The slime hopped about, grumbling something sullen, but Dojin didn’t look back, and this time he washed himself alone.
Never dreaming that the whole time he washed, the slime stayed folded in half, staring down at its own underside.
“Hey.”
「...」
“What. You’re still sulking?”
「...」
“You’re sulking because I wouldn’t let you touch it?”
Swish.
The slime turned around and gave him its back. Huh... Dojin’s mouth fell open in disbelief. So now it won’t even talk to me? ...Also, that really is its back, right?
This is a problem. First time I’ve ever seen a monster sulk. How am I supposed to soothe it? Still frowning, Dojin mulled it over, then edged closer to the slime.
“Humans all have private parts, all right? That area’s hideous, so we don’t go showing it to other people. You saw it, didn’t you? The shape, back there.”
...Boing.
The slime agreed, grudgingly. Dojin got a strange feeling. It just agreed that it’s hideous, didn’t it?
“But the reason I showed you anyway is...”
Dojin picked his words carefully. What phrasing would work best to un-sulk it?
“You’re the one who saved my life. You’re a precious friend. Of course I’d show you.”
A flinch.
The turned back trembled faintly. Somewhere along the way the body had angled slightly toward him, too. It definitely just stole a look at me. Dojin seized the opening and kept talking.
“Sorry for hurting your feelings.”
Pshhhoooo...
With a sound like a water balloon letting out its air, the slime sagged limp and turned back around to face Dojin. Its round belly caved in and puffed out again, violently, over and over. There were no eyes or nose or mouth to read, but somehow it looked utterly overcome.
Dojin reached out, settled the slime on his knee, and thought, Soothing one baby monster. Easier than a piece of cake.
Perched on Dojin’s thigh, the slime couldn’t hold back its curiosity and folded its belly over again to peer down at that part of him. Dojin chided it in a low voice.
“Tsk. No. I told you, touching it makes me feel weird.”
Kooong...?
“You don’t have one, so you wouldn’t get it even if I explained.”
The slime’s shoulders drooped. Was that too harsh? Dojin clicked his tongue and patted its thin little back fondly.
“Your body doesn’t need one right now.”
Then, without thinking, he added,
“If you were human, sure, but.”
「...!」
“What’s with you?”
Sensing something off about the slime’s state, Dojin laid a hand on the round head. His broad palm covered more than half of the blue body.
No fever, though.
“Something hurt?”
Shake, shake.
The slime wagged its body, but Dojin’s worried gaze didn’t let up. That pool water was seriously cold. Don’t tell me it caught a chill?
There was no one here but the slime and himself, so they both had to be careful not to fall ill. In this place, they had nothing to lean on but each other.
After watching the slime for a while, something came to Dojin and he rummaged through his item bag. Soon his fingertips snagged a small bundle of cloth.
The elastic bandage, the kind you fall back on when your potions run dry, had a function that let it fit itself to the wearer’s body. He’d meant to use it on his arm, but with only one arm left he’d never managed to get it on properly.
Dojin pulled it out and held it up against the slime’s body. The slime tipped itself to one side as if asking what this was. Dojin explained.
“Figured I’d make you some clothes.”
「...!」
“Try it on, and if it’s uncomfortable just take it off.”
Boing boing!
Worked up, the slime bounced up and down on the spot. Using his mouth and his one hand, Dojin produced two small squares of cloth. He wound one of them around the slime’s head and, mouth doing the work again, knotted the ends at the back.
A flinch. The slime’s body gave a little jump. Dojin straightened as if nothing had happened and looked over the result.
...That’s a cooking bandana.
While the slime sat there baffled by Dojin’s ambiguous expression, he scooped it up in his one arm and carried it to the pool. He bent down and let the slime see itself reflected on the surface.
“Well?”
The slime stared blankly at the figure on the water. It didn’t stir at all, and Dojin’s brow pinched together.
“...If you don’t like it, you can take it off. It does look like something out of a kitchen.”
...Shake, shake.
But a moment later the slime snapped out of it and shook its body hard.
Guess it likes it. Laughing softly at the reaction, Dojin picked up the leftover cloth and wrapped it around the lower part of the slime’s body like a skirt.
Bandana and apron. It had turned into a tiny chef cooking away in a kitchen. Dojin cracked up.
“Hats really suit you, you know that? The sheep head looked good on you too.”
Koong?
“I’m saying you’re cute.”
A flush bloomed across the slime’s body. Then it looked down at the apron it was wearing. Apparently it didn’t mind having white cloth draped over it, because it shifted around a bit to test the feel and then jumped in place. Anyone could see it was delighted, and Dojin smiled.
“I’ll take it off you for now, so put it on whenever you need it.”
Myung!
Thinking the unfamiliar texture might bother it, he slipped the bandana and apron off and set them down beside him. The slime promptly folded its body around them, hugging them tight, and went pattering off toward a corner.
That corner held a treasure hoard the slime had put together itself. It was a space where it piled up everything it held precious, with no particular order to it: the first fruit it had harvested together with Dojin, the empty wrapper from the gummies Dojin had shared, plus oddly shaped pebbles, twigs, and more.
The slime carefully laid the clothes Dojin had made for it down beside all that, then came bouncing back to him with little popping sounds. And rubbed itself against the waist of his pants.
It’s nothing special. The slime was overjoyed, far out of proportion. Over nothing more than scraps of cloth torn from a bandage.
It had been quite a while since Dojin had been faced with emotion that pure, and it left him feeling not half bad himself. His heart felt calm, settled. To think I can feel something like this while I’m stranded. It was all thanks to the slime in front of him.
Dojin glanced at his custom-built watch, the kind that could still track the passage of time inside a dungeon, then picked up the food basket from the floor.
“I should go pick some fruit today. There’s barely any left.”
Bbojak, bbojak.
The slime fell in behind him as naturally as breathing, and Dojin blocked it.
“I’m going alone today, so you tidy up in here for me.”
Dojin jerked his chin at the cluttered inside of their nest. They hadn’t cleaned it even once, so the place had gotten filthy. Dojin shoved some leaves off to the side as he explained.
“You just gather the trash over on one side like this. It’s nicer to sleep somewhere clean, right?”
He pushed the fallen fruit and leaves on the floor into a pile as he spoke, but the slime only pressed closer to him, as though it couldn’t bear to be apart.
The way it stuck itself fast to his foot, it clearly wanted to come along on the food run. But not this time.
Dojin bent down, laid a hand on the slime, and said in a low voice,
“Right now it’s time to divide the labor. We each take a job and get it done.”
Koong, koong.
“That way the work finishes faster, so we get more free time, and we can play together.”
「...!」
The slime snapped its head up. Its blue body was glowing, faintly. Dojin stroked its head to soothe it.
“I’ll bring back plenty of food, so watch the house. You can do that, right?”
The slime hesitated a moment, then went koo and gave a shallow little hop.
“Good.”
He shook the last of the food out onto a leaf and slung the empty basket over his shoulder. Glancing back as he walked, he found, as expected, the slime staring straight at him. Dojin let his eyes rest on it for a second, then stepped out of the nest.
It was the first time he’d gone out alone instead of with the slime.
Without the thing that had always been at his side, the air seemed darker, more sinister. This was probably always how it felt. I just couldn’t notice it, because the slime was too cute.
Someone was waiting for him, which meant he had to hurry. Dojin’s stride quickened on its own.
Meoeong...
The slime stared at Dojin’s back as he left the nest. It couldn’t pull its eyes away from that broad back, from the walk of those long legs. And when it looked at his face, it was even worse.
All by itself, the slime flushed and shook its head. It missed Dojin already. But it mustn’t follow him. If it had its way, it would have stayed right there doing nothing at all until Dojin came back, but it couldn’t. It had to finish the first job Dojin had ever given it.
With a resolute air, it turned around with a chap.
The inside of the nest really was a bit of a disaster. Before cleaning it, the slime went over to its treasure hoard, got itself properly dressed in top and bottom, and toddled over to the pool.
Ttong — it sprang up onto the rim of the pool, folded its body slightly, and looked at its own reflection. The splendid bandana and apron Dojin had made for it were wrapped around its body. And then, out of nowhere, it heard that low voice again.
‘I’m saying you’re cute.’
Is this cute? Am I cute? ...Yeah, I think I’m cute!
