#yhhmb

it’s the final night of the spring equinox festival. the last of sira’s energy has been spent managing the usual influx of activity and customers at yeyun inn and volunteering to clean up the area once the festival officially came to a close. she’s looking forward to retiring back to her room, maybe grabbing a hot cup of tea if inna was still around and unwinding with one of the books she bought from bimikil the other week.

the lobby is blissfully quiet as she makes her usual nightly rounds: straightening furniture, sweeping the floors, and replenishing the brochure stand. it’s wonderfully routine, her mind settling as second nature kicks in. she makes her way over to the hot springs, intending to just lock up the entrance when she sees a figure in the water. she squints and walks closer to see who it is and finds that it’s hamin. but it’s not just hamin, it’s hamin with his eyes closed. a small spike of worry pushes her out further towards the pool of water. is he just resting his eyes? or is he asleep? or worse... is he passed out?

“hey, hamin, i was just gonna lock up, but—”

she doesn’t get to finish her sentence as she sees him nodding off, sliding slowly down until his head is completely submerged in the water. before she knows it, she’s rushing over with barely enough time to throw off her shoes as she runs into the springs. it’s not particularly deep, but heaving the young man up into a sitting position when he’s basically dead weight is still a struggle—how is he still knocked out?—and the process has her drenched in water as she fumbles around. he keeps flopping over, so she eventually drags him over to the edge pulling his upper half up onto dry land, his legs still in the water.

at least he’s not drowning now. she leaves him there for a moment to grab some towels from the entrance. she wraps one around herself, another she drops onto hamin’s chest, and the other she tucks underneath his head.