Chapter 9 (2/2)
“I think it’d be a great idea if you cut the moon down, actually,” said Feisha, on the verge of tears.
Isefel just stared at him blankly. “You cannot see the moon from Noah’s Ark. That’s why they come to this place every month.”
Silence.
“…Why the fuck didn’t you say that earlier?” Feisha’s face immediately returned to normal. “Good night!”
Regardless of Isefel’s claim, Feisha decided to ask Antonio about it just in case. He should be an expert on this topic, right?
Antonio burst out into mocking crackles as soon as Feisha finished asking his question. “Are you retarded or something? Can’t you tell by looking at me?”
Immediately, Feisha backed away. “Don’t tell me, you…”
“Heheh, he’s actually patient zero.” The sound of Gin’s ridicule came from behind him. Seeing as there was nowhere for him to run, Feisha decided to accept his fate.
“Why do you always have to stand behind people?”
“Because you never turn around,” Gin quipped.
“…Where’s Hughes?”
Gin’s expression gained a trace of caution. “Why do you ask?”
“He’s my mentor, of course I have questions I need to ask him.” The duh went unsaid.
“Unfortunately he’s very tired right now, hehe. You’re going to have to wait till tomorrow.”
Feisha felt ashamed of his past, twisted perspective. No matter how you looked at it, Asa and Darhk would make a better couple than Gin and Hughes.
Out of nowhere, Gin leaned in, tone darkening: “Do you still remember what I said to you when we first met?”
“No. I just remember an octopus desperately wriggling on Hughes’ shoulder.”
“Good. Hughes is mine.”
Feisha rolled his eyes at Gin and turned to walk away. It’s been a while since he graduated kindergarten, there was really no need for him to repeat the experience. Gin jogged a bit to catch up.
“What do you think about Antonio?”
“Other than the fact that he’d have improper thoughts about me under the full moon? Nothing.” He still felt weird about it despite being safe inside Noah’s Ark.
“Then you should just have improper thoughts back at him.”
Feisha paused in his steps. “Have improper thoughts back at him?”
Gin nodded, smiling mockingly.
“But even if I dared to eat werewolf meat…who’s going to cook it?” Antonio’s the only chef here.
“…That’s not what I meant by improper thoughts. What I’m trying to ask is, have you thought about pushing him down, marking him…”
Wide-eyed, Feisha stared at Gin in horror, almost as if he’d grown an extra head.
“What kind of expression is that?” Gin scoffed indignantly.
“The normal expression anyone would make after hearing you speak.”
“Okay, fine- if you’re worried about him bursting into a bout of rabies…you can consider Dea.”
Seeing Feisha freeze in surprise, Gin pushed on: “Hehe, don’t think I haven’t noticed you blushing around him.”
“Are you trying to start a gay bar?” asked Feisha, resigned.
“Why do you ask?”
“Why else would you be so enthusiastically promoting membership cards? I’m very poor, you know. In fact, I’ve got quite a hefty debt on my shoulders already. You’ve come to the wrong person if you’re looking to net some membership fees.”
“Who said that I wanted to sell membership cards? I’m just looking out for you and your year at Noah’s Ark.” As well as making sure that Feisha stayed far, far away from his Hughes. Seriously, every single human that had ever set foot in this place before Hughes got put as mentor acted like deer in headlights; why did Hughes have to get saddled with this guy?
“I told you, I’m not gay.”
“Hmph, are you saying that you’ve never had improper thoughts about Dea?”
Just as the words left Gin’s mouth, Dea turned a corner into the hallway.
Silence.
Gin felt kind of awkward.
“…I’m very sure that I’ve never ever thought about grilling him,” Feisha replied after a while.
Translator’s notes
After delivering the flawless fatality, Isefel resumed swimming.
The original line here was something along the lines of “Feisha has been K.O’d!” so I threw a Mortal Kombat reference in there.
Feisha disappointedly sighed, “You made it too complicated…”
A full stop in Chinese is “。”, and the invisible people’s language uses one big circle surrounded by four smaller circles as their full stop. Here, Feisha laments at how they added too many circles in.
“Sorry, you can go take a drink if my joke was too dry for you.”
What Feisha actually said: 对不起，如果你觉得冷的话，就把翅膀伸出来捂捂吧 duì bù qǐ, rú guǒ nǐ jué dé lěng de huà, jiù bǎ chì bǎng shēn chū lái wǔ wǔ ba (lit. Sorry, if you feel cold, you can extend your wings and cover yourself)
This is because the quip Feisha made about cutting down the moon is considered in Chinese a ‘cold joke’ – a joke that funny by virtue of being not actually funny at all (credit: urban dictionary). Basically, it’s similar to a Dad joke both in the style of humour (i.e. terrible) and the reaction it garners from the audience; which is to say, looks of disgust. In Chinese culture, the general response to such a joke would be to shiver from pure revulsion because of how bad the joke was, thus Feisha’s helpful suggestion for Isefel to cover himself a little.
Tip: Remember the Chinese version this scene. It gets referenced waaaaaaayyyyy later.
“No. I just remember an octopus desperately wriggling on Hughes’ shoulder.”
Feisha’s talking about how Gin kept grabbing at Hughes when they first met, likening Gin’s fingers to tentacles on an octopus.
“…I’m very sure that I’ve never ever thought about grilling him,” Feisha replied after a while.
What Feisha says here is not grilling, but 红烧 hóng shāo (lit. to braise [meat]).