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“On the day of the first snowfall every year, the Goblin agrees to be summoned by me. I will be waiting for you.” -Ji Eun-tak, Goblin
***
Eijirou pulled out the lighter in his pocket as soon as the first snowflake landed on his forehead.
It was a tiny spot of cold, and it melted on impact, but it didn’t stop the growing smile on his lips as he cast his gaze up to the dark sky. Blending with the stars that have appeared so far, more flakes drifted down to the ground.
The first snowfall of the year.
This event was pretty significant in South Korea, his mom had told him once years ago, back when all of her stories, from the mundane to the fantastically false, enraptured his little eight-year-old brain and kept him hooked onto every word she said. In this case, they were of a trip she had made to the nearby country back when she was in college, a year-long exchange program. She’d witnessed the excitement of cheot-nun on a night much like this one, people around her whispering of wishes made under those first few flakes, or even blessings of a successful relationship.
People in Japan didn’t celebrate those same ideas, treasuring the snowy season as a whole instead, but Eijirou held the belief close to his heart. It made him feel more connected with his mom now that she was gone; he couldn’t even spend the day with her ghost, her soul having already moved on.
His heart twisted, his smile falling some, but he shook off the negative feelings before they could completely get him down. She was in a better place now. And he still had happy memories to remember her by.
Besides, even if Eijirou really wanted to spend another cheot-nun with her, she wasn’t the only person he had in mind for tonight.
A practiced flick of his thumb ignited a small flame onto the top of the lighter—the orange lighter. He may have bought it and all the other orange ones available when he’d been stocking up on them and matchboxes. They reminded Eijirou of him.
He blew out the flame like a birthday candle, and before the smoke completely wisped away into the cold air, he felt eyes prickling at the back of his head. The feeling only made him smile more as he turned around.
He was surprised to see the Goblin already wearing winter clothes where he leaned against a light pole a few paces away. His coat was dark green, almost black under the night sky, and it looked like it cost a fortune. His chin was tucked into a burnt orange scarf, and snowflakes disappeared into his spiky ash blond hair as soon as they landed.
The Goblin has fussed at Eijirou multiple times in the past about him interrupting his frankly absurdly early bedtime with his summoning. It was getting close to that 8:30 bedtime now, the Goblin usually in some kind of loungewear as he wound down for the evening, so if he was dressed in outdoor clothes now then he must’ve been in the middle of something. Eijirou blanched at the realization that he’d just yanked him away from whatever that was for his own selfish reasons. “Y-You can leave if you’re busy!” He hastily bent at the waist to bow. “I’m sorry for pulling you away from it, I-“
“You’ve never apologized for bothering me before, don’t fucking start now,” the Goblin cut in, although amusement tinged his voice. When Eijirou straightened, a small smirk played at the immortal man’s lips, his red eyes sparkling in the warm streetlights.
It made Eijirou’s face heat, and he busied himself with righting his own scarf—bright red, his mom’s, the same color that he started dyeing his hair a year ago as a way to try to hold on to the joy that he felt with her around—to avoid the Goblin’s gaze.
The guardian’s expressions usually ranged from anger to confusion to a carefully constructed neutral frown, one that Eijirou was slowly learning to piece apart and interpret. This amusement, this- something, there was something else there, Eijirou just couldn’t place what, was new. He wasn’t sure how to respond to it apart from blushing like a schoolboy around his crush.
Not wholly inaccurate, even if he was in college now.
Boots thunked against wet pavement as footsteps approached him. Steady hands brushed Eijirou’s fumbling ones out of the way of the red fabric, and they expertly rewound the scarf around Eijirou’s neck, securing it in place and tucking in the edges, sealing out the early-December breeze. The smirk was gone when Eijirou met his eye, back to its usual neutrality, but his eyes still sparkled with that something. Eijirou swallowed, his stomach doing a funny little dance.
“Relax.” The Goblin’s voice was soft, almost scratchy from not usually going into that register. “You’re not the worst dumbass who could’ve interrupted me.”
“Oh,” Eijirou breathed, his eyes wide as he held the other man’s gaze for another moment. Then he jolted, stumbling back a couple steps as he grinned. “I-I mean, of course not! I’m the Goblin’s groom, you should be happy to see me!”
The Goblin frowned. “We still haven’t confirmed whether or not that’s true.”
“But I have the mark! You’ve seen it! That’s more than enough proof!” If his unusually sharp teeth weren’t enough to tip off that he was significant in some way, every ghost Eijirou’s come across in his entire life seemed thoroughly convinced about the starburst mark he had on the back of his neck denoting him as the Goblin’s groom. He’d seen the Goblin create those same starburst flames in his hands before too, so that solidified the connection between them.
Yet the Goblin only rolled his eyes before turning to walk down the street in front of Eijirou’s apartment building. The multicolored lights strung along the path for Christmas illuminated his hair like a rainbow. “You need more than just some mark to be my groom.”
Eijirou hurried to fall into step next to him. “You keep saying that yet you won’t even tell me what that ‘more’ is.”
“I shouldn’t have to. If you were really my groom you’d know already.”
Eijirou pouted. His eyes scanned the Goblin’s face for any kind of hint, then drifted down to linger at his chest for a moment before turning forward again with a huff. “So mean.”
“Yeah, yeah. Why did you even summon me this time?”
Eijirou’s face brightened again, and he gestured up at the sky. “Cheot-nun!”
The Goblin glanced up at the sky, his nose scrunching slightly as a snowflake landed on it, before looking back at Eijirou with a raised eyebrow. “What about it?”
Of course he knew what it meant. The Goblin was probably fluent in Korean, might’ve even visited there. “It’s a special time! And I wanted to spend that time with you.”
“Why me?”
Eijirou’s face warmed again, and he turned back forward, tucking his nose into his scarf. “Just because. No special reason.”
Not because he believed in the magic of cheot-nun and hoped that it’d strengthen the bond between him and the Goblin. Nope.
The man next to him was silent for a long moment before he hummed. “What did you want to do?”
Eijirou smiled sheepishly as he glanced over at the Goblin. “I uh, didn’t think that far ahead. I thought you would’ve bailed by now.”
“Dumbass,” the Goblin grumbled without heat. Much of the insults he said didn’t actually sound mean, like they were a reflex, a front.
The Goblin stopped walking then, Eijirou stopping next to him, watching him stare off into the distance. It looked like he was searching, but when Eijirou looked in the direction he was staring, toward the sky, there was nothing but light gray clouds all the way to the horizon, the snow falling thicker but still gentle.
And then the Goblin spun on his heel and started walking toward Eijirou’s apartment building. “You hungry?”
Eijirou blinked at the sudden question, scrambling to catch back up as the Goblin headed for the building’s entrance. “Uh, yeah, I could eat. If you’re wanting to cook something though I haven’t had a chance to go grocery shopping lately, so I don’t have much. We could eat out though! There’s a restaurant not far from here that’s pretty good-“
“I have a better idea.” The Goblin entered the building, Eijirou trailing after him in confusion. The man confidently led them through the ground floor until they found an emergency exit, and he walked through it, a gust of air breezing past and making Eijirou squint against the blast of cold. The Goblin held the door open from the outside, jerking his head for Eijirou to walk through.
Eijirou did, perplexed, but then his eyes widened when they weren’t on the little side road on that side of his apartment building like he’d expected. It was still snowing, the sky still dark, but it and the clouds were also a little lighter, like it was earlier in the evening. The small alleyway was instead a bustling shopping area, the door swinging shut behind him attached to a holiday gift shop.
Much like the streets that he walked down on the way to school and work, this one was decked out with lights and tinsel for the upcoming holiday, complete with a large Christmas tree in a grassy spot in the center of the plaza. The scent of food filled the air and made Eijirou’s stomach grumble, and lots of people milled about. Couples eating and chatting as they walked, families going in and out of the shops to prepare for the holiday, and even a few people alone were indulging in the festivities of the season, but even with being preoccupied with whatever they were doing, everybody still admired the falling snow, little kids playing in it.
Eijirou took in the scene with amazement, before his eyes landed on a street sign nearby. It wasn’t one he recognized. If he knew correctly, he was pretty sure that was a Korean word written on it too rather than Japanese.
He spun back to face the Goblin, who was already watching him, his hands in his coat pockets nonchalantly. “Are we in South Korea?!”
The Goblin nodded, his eyes briefly roaming the street himself. “A town further south. Today’s their cheot-nun too.” He started walking, Eijirou falling to walk at his side, and he easily led them through the crowds. “There’s a good restaurant nearby.”
“You’ve been? How many times?”
“A few. I stopped by on its opening night. S’been doing pretty well ever since.”
“You probably helped them, didn’t you?” Eijirou said with a knowing grin. “Just like you’ve helped other people.”
The Goblin rolled his eyes. “I haven’t done anything to impact their success that much. It was already one of the best damn restaurants I’ve ever been to. I just left a tip.”
By the expensive clothes the Goblin always wore, Eijirou guessed that the tip had been very generous. “You really are a softie at heart, man.”
“I dunno what you’re talking about.” He resolutely kept his gaze forward. Eijirou swore his frown was edging more toward a grumpy pout.
He snorted. “Sure, Mr. Guardian.”
The restaurant the Goblin led them to wasn't super fancy. It was a family-owned place, small like the typical mom-and-pop places Eijirou was used to seeing, with just a handful of tables in the dining area; a counter and a curtain over a doorway separated the space from the kitchen. The holiday decor and warm lighting made it feel homey, combatting the evening’s chill.
An older man was serving a couple at a table near the door, but he looked up when he heard Eijirou and the Goblin enter. The man’s face immediately brightened when his eyes landed on the Goblin, like he was seeing an old friend but also a celebrity. His words were a blur as he came up to greet them, both from his speed and the Korean Eijirou didn’t understand at all. He still smiled when the man turned to address him, feeling welcomed despite the language barrier as he ushered them to a table by the large window that took up most of the front wall, the snowy street outside in perfect view.
The Goblin walked Eijirou through the items on the menu, and he ordered a plate of short ribs while the Goblin ordered a dish with so much gochujang that the red paste stained his bowl and the rice at the bottom of it. Eijirou stared at the bowl in bafflement; he could spot chunks of gochugaru peeking through the paste, and it felt like he could feel the waves of spice hit him from across the table, making him sweat. Or maybe he was nervous about seeing such a hellish dish. “What the heck even is that? That doesn’t look like anything you said was on the menu.”
“Pork bulgogi. They just touched it up to the way I like it.” He then nudged the bowl across the table closer to Eijirou. There was another sparkle in his eyes that he didn’t like. “Try it.”
Eijirou squinted suspiciously at the bowl. He’d probably die if he ate any of that. But these people probably wouldn’t serve deadly food in their restaurant, right? They seemed too nice to, at least.
He dug his spoon into the bowl, trying not to pick up too much paste or any gochugaru pieces as he gathered a decent bite of pork and rice. He hesitated, definitely feeling heat waft across his face, but he steeled himself, sucking in a deep breath and letting it out before shoving the spoonful into his mouth.
And he immediately regretted it as heat exploded on his tongue, enough to make tears well up in his eyes. He quickly swallowed, but the heat just transferred to his throat and he choked, coughing as he weakly glared at the Goblin, who was hunched over the table cackling. “You’re so mean, man,” he croaked.
“I can’t believe you actually ate it,” he giggled, and among the torture Eijirou was going through his heart flipped at the sound. The Goblin gathered up a heaping bite for himself, chunks and paste and all, and he didn’t even flinch as he ate, merely humming with a satisfied grin.
This man was crazy. Eijirou was no less enraptured.
Eijirou’s own meal was amazing and not out to kill him once his taste buds came back online, a thousand times better than anything he’d get from the dining halls at his college or the meals he’d try to scrounge up for himself when he had the time and resources to cook something. The short ribs left him feeling warm and satisfied as they stepped back out into the cold, the Goblin now leading him to a cafe near the edge of town.
The Goblin had a sweet tooth, Eijirou was surprised to learn. The latte he’d ordered had more sugar put into it than Eijirou had ever seen anybody request, and he indulged in two slices of the rich chocolate cake they still had to offer despite the late hour. It made Eijirou feel less guilty about getting a couple cookies to go on the Goblin’s dime alongside the slice of strawberry cake and hot chocolate he had there. But it was also retribution for the attempted murder, so the guilt didn’t last that long. Not that the Goblin complained about it in the first place.
The woman working the front counter was even older than the restaurant owner. She was alone, but she didn’t have any issues with serving them and the couple other patrons that were in the cafe that evening. She rang up their treats and wrapped up Eijirou’s cookies just as carefully, but as she handed them over she paused, her wrinkled face creasing even more as she squinted at Eijirou. He shifted uncomfortably, wiping at his face in case he had a whipped cream mustache.
The woman said something he didn’t understand, but the Goblin translated for him. “She says you look like somebody she’s seen before.”
“I do?” Eijirou looked between the woman and the Goblin in surprise. “But I’ve never been here before…”
“I know you haven’t been, boy,” the woman spoke in Japanese, her accent thick but understandable. “But there was a girl about your age who came about thirty years ago. I never forget a face. She had your eyes, the same hope in them.” She pointed at Eijirou’s scarf. “She had that exact same scarf too.”
Eijirou’s fingers tangled into the red fabric as he stared at the cafe owner with wide eyes. “You met my mom…?”
Her face crinkled in a warm smile. “A sweet one, that girl. She made a sweet boy too, I see. You must make her proud.”
Tears filled the bottom of Eijirou’s eyelashes in record time, but he smiled and nodded as he wiped at his eyes. “I hope so,” he sniffed.
The tears lingered in his eyes after the woman had sent him off with the cookies and they were back in the snow, their pace leisurely this time as they headed back to the town center. With the snow still drifting from the sky and collecting on the sidewalks and grass, coupled with the warm street lamps and storefronts that illuminated their path, Eijirou felt like he was walking through a winter wonderland.
He wondered if his mom had had the same thought when she’d visited all those years ago. If she’d walked the same paths, gazed into the windows of the same shops, indulged in the same cookies. It made Eijirou feel closer to her than he has in the decade since he lost her.
“Did you make a wish?”
Eijirou startled at the voice. He’d almost forgotten that the Goblin had been walking alongside him this entire time. “Huh?”
“For cheot-nun.” He gestured up at the sky as if Eijirou had forgotten. “Did you make a wish?”
A smile tugged at Eijirou’s lips. “I didn’t take you to believe in that kind of stuff.”
The Goblin shrugged, grinning wryly. “In the face of an existence like my own, wishing on snowfall doesn’t seem that crazy. What’d you wish for?”
Eijirou’s eyes shifted to look up at the sky. He honestly hadn’t thought of one yet, too absorbed in the excitement of the evening. If he could make a wish though…
To stay in this moment with you. To have more moments like this with you, to see even more places that you’ve been and more lives that you’ve touched and blessed. To be your groom, but more than that, to truly make you happy.
I wish for you.
Eijirou grinned as he looked back at the Goblin. “As your groom, I should be able to call you by your real name. ‘Goblin’ and ‘Mr. Guardian’ aren’t cutting it.”
The Goblin scoffed, turning back forward. “Like hell you’re getting my name.”
“Why not? You already know mine, and you just took me on a super awesome date-“
“This wasn’t a fucking date!” the Goblin spluttered.
“Soooo.” Eijirou skipped to stop in the Goblin’s path, making him stop too. His smile never wavered. “You should tell me your name. I won’t tell anybody else, promise!”
The Goblin huffed, giving Eijirou a look that screamed you’re so much fucking trouble, but Eijirou’s smile only grew.
The Goblin didn’t try to leave though, didn’t step around Eijirou to try and keep walking. He just regarded him with an unreadable expression, the seconds ticking to a minute, then two. Eijirou’s smile steadily dropped, his confidence in the request waning with it. Maybe he had overstepped? There was probably a good reason the Goblin didn’t give his name out.
He opened his mouth to take back his wish, but the Goblin spoke first.
“Bakugou…Katsuki.”
Fitting, Eijirou’s immediate thought was, warmth curling in his chest and his cheeks just from the sound of it. It sounded powerful, heroic, but also like the Goblin hadn’t said it in a long time. Maybe he really hadn’t.
“Katsuki,” Eijirou tried, the name wisping past his lips in a puff of steam to mix with the falling snow.
He reveled in the blush that immediately bloomed across the other’s face, his gaze quickly averting and face tucking into his scarf as if he could hide it. “You didn’t waste a fucking second, did you?”
“Nope!”
“I hate you.”
“Mhm, sure.” Eijirou ducked to catch his eye again, which he glared at. “What about you? Did you make a wish?”
Eijirou watched as the glare steadily dropped from Katsuki’s face, until he was back to something unreadable. A hint of that original sparkle was back in his eyes too, making Eijirou’s face heat all over again, but at the same time he itched to parse out what it could mean.
The open stare, the general softness to his face that was usually marred in a scowl, how he held Eijirou’s eye with the maybe foot of space between them-
Then it was broken as the Goblin straightened and started walking again. “I did.”
Eijirou waited for more, but when nothing else came he hurried to catch up. “Well, what was it?”
“M’not telling you.”
“Wha- why not?!”
“Because I don’t have to tell you anything.”
“You told me your name!”
“And you want more? Aren’t you a greedy groom.”
“Katsukiiiii please!” Eijirou whined, but it only made the guardian snort before starting to snicker.
He couldn’t be mad about not knowing what his wish was, though. Not when his own was starting to come true.