Bom was lying down on the sofa.
She was wearing a long-sleeved shirt, a tie and a brown checkered skirt beneath. Her grass-coloured hair was scattered about while her hands were neatly placed on top of her stomach with her fingers interlocked.
Since she was blankly staring at the ceiling, he asked.
“Aren’t you going to class?”
She raised her head.
“Yes.”
“Why.”
“Why?”
“There’s class today. You should go.”
Blankly, Bom thought about something before giving a response.
“…Why?”
That day, he didn’t follow any of the kids.
“I’ll go by myself today.”
Yeorum left by herself,
“Me too, me too! I’m going to do a group task with my friends!”
And Kaeul also left.
“…Eating, well.”
Gyeoul smiled in satisfaction as the protector lifted the bag of feed once more.
“Let me feed it a little bit more.”
“…More, than this?”
“Yes, young lady. We have to do that so that this guy turns juicy… I mean, grow bigger, right?”
Gyeoul and the protector stayed behind in the kitchen, feeding the baby chicken. The chicken chirped out loud, ‘Art thou trying to test my limit?’ with a voice filled with joy.
Thus, the living room was quiet for the first time in a long time, but…
“I thought deeply about it.”
Sitting down while hugging her knees, Bom opened her mouth.
“But I can’t find the reason to go to class.”
“The reason?”
“Like… Yeorum and Kaeul enjoy attending lectures and meeting friends, right.”
They indeed did.
“But I’m not really interested in that.”
“…Is that so?”
“Going there and listening to the professor speak, studying, sitting tests and meeting new people. They’re all fine. It’s good, but I thought to myself that there was no need for all that.”
“Your grades were quite good though.”
Last semester, Bom received A for all her subjects. Considering that Kaeul had an average of B+ and Yeorum B-, it was a fairly decent score.
However, Bom shook her head with a dull pout.
“I got a few of the questions wrong on purpose.”
“Why.”
“Because there was no reason to get good grades.”
Thinking about it, the fact that Bom only received A despite studying from time to time was strange considering that Kaeul, whom he never saw study and Yeorum, who slept throughout the class, had such results. They were dragons who remembered whatever they saw for eternity.
Looking back, he hadn’t been very interested in Bom’s school life. It was because he thought she would be doing a great job at school, like how she always did elsewhere.
When he remained standing in silence, Bom carefully pulled on the sleeves of his cardigan and gestured for him to sit down.
The Regressor sat next to her.
“Can I ask a question?”
“Yeah.”
“Why do humans go to school?”
“To be educated.”
“Then why do they try to get good grades?”
“Because a better future awaits them once they win the competition.”
“What is a better future?”
“Who knows. Wealth, good connections and a happy household. Something like that.”
“Did you compete with others for those things too, ahjussi?”
The Regressor couldn’t respond for quite some time. As the regressions stacked on top of another, he rarely ever thought about anything in the standards of a normal human. Thus, he needed to think for a bit.
“No.”
Looking back, the only opponent he competed with was himself.
“Hmm…” Bom fidgeted with her bangs. They were now slightly longer than her eyebrows and were at an awkward spot.
“Because I’m a dragon, I don’t need money. I can earn whenever I want.”
“…”
“I don’t really need connections either. I don’t get lonely so I don’t need relationships.”
“…”
“And I can’t really imagine what a happy household would be like. Because my family wasn’t like that.”
It was his first time hearing the story of the green race. Regardless, her values and standards were different from humans as a dragon.
“Why do you live, then.”
“Hmm, to be happy…?”
“What makes you happy?”
“I’m already happy though.”
“Why are you happy.”
“It’s just… Unit 301 is just enjoyable. Even without anything else in particular, staying with Yeorum and Kaeul and watching Gyeoul grow are fun. Ahjussi is funny as well.”
“…And that’s why there’s no reason to go to class?”
“Yes.”
He reflected on the ‘Green Dragons’ of the previous iterations.
The first time he discovered its existence was in the third iteration where the Green Dragon had been a painter, staying holed up in its room.
In the 4th iteration, it became a sculptor.
In the 5th iteration, it was drawing somewhere in Europe.
In the 6th iteration, it was writing a novel, likewise in Europe.
The dragon had to give up mid-way in the fifth and the sixth iterations because it was caught by Yu Jitae, but Green Dragon did not achieve much in the third and the fourth iterations in the first place.
It was very different from the current Bom. She looked like she could do anything perfectly but had not succeeded a single time in the past.
How could this be?
“By the way, I don’t think this is my problem alone.”
That was when Bom slightly changed the topic.
“What?”
“Ahjussi is the same right. Apart from taking care of us and catching demons, you don’t do anything.”
“…”
“Just a NEET.”
“…”
“Or a kidnapper.”
She giggled “Hihi”. Her gentle chuckle reached his ears.
“Why do you live, ahjussi?”
Because of the atmosphere, the Regressor was slightly caught off guard from her sudden question that delved deeper into his circumstances
It was a troubling question.
There was a time in the past when he had assigned meanings to life; that he would do something, and that he would become something. However, due to the repetitive failures, his life lost a lot of its purposes. The only remaining purpose was an abstract and distant goal that persisted throughout his lives.
And that wasn’t a suitable conversation topic with the baby dragons. When she didn’t receive any replies, she turned her body and stared directly into his eyes. Although her expression was still hard to read, her gaze was evidently requesting for a response.
“You don’t need to know.”
“Look. Look. Becoming all serious again.”
Bom smiled.
“Same as last time…”
“Is it?”
“Nn. I’m used to it now.”
He decided to change the topic.
“Then should we do something together.”
“Hn?”
“If you try something new, wouldn’t there be something interesting that catches your attention.”
“Will something like that exist?”
“It’ll be better than lying down and doing nothing.”
Bom nodded before going into her room. Soon, she walked out of her room wearing a sweatshirt on the top and a pair of shorts on the bottom.
“Since you’re a green dragon, how about you try making something.”
“I’ll try. What should we do?”
He knew of three things that had failed for sure. It was drawing, writing a novel and sculpting.
The Regressor’s intention was to now look into the reasons behind those failures.
“Let’s try drawing.”
*
Inside Bom’s room, on a table.
Bom turned the lights off and used the magic [Light (D)] as a lamp. A white canvas shone brightly beneath the light source.
Next to it was watercolour paint, coloured pencils and crayons. Those were gifts for Gyeoul that Bom had bought in the past.
While biting on her hair tie, Bom gathered her hair to one place before using the band to tie her hair up. Her white neck was revealed by the light within the darkness.
“What do you want to draw.”
“One second.”
Bom held onto Yu Jitae’s wrist. When he tried to slightly pull his hand away, she held onto it with a tighter grip.
“Stay there.”
She then folded his sleeves up until it reached his elbow.
“So what do you want to try drawing.”
“No idea. A person? Or still life?”
“What about something like a flower or a scenery. It’s spring now.”
“I’m okay with that, but you can’t draw flowers or sceneries, can you ahjussi?”
“But aren’t you the one drawing?”
“We have to do it together. So we can’t do flowers or landscapes.”
She sounded as if it was the most natural thing in the world.
“I can draw.”
“Reallyy?”
“A flower isn’t that difficult.”
“Try drawing it then.”
Yu Jitae placed his hand on top of the crayons.
A flower…
The last flower he saw was the flower that bloomed in the crumbling world inside Noah’s dream. Thus, he picked up a gray crayon. He could sense Bom grinning on the side.
“…”
The finished version of the flower had its gray head lowered.
“Like, what is this.”
Bom laughed under her breath. It didn’t really look like a flower even in his eyes.
“…”
Reaching his hand forward, he grabbed onto a new canvas. When he tried to push the original drawing away, Bom stopped him.
“What are you doing. That’s a waste.”
“It’s not a flower.”
“Noo, it’s still a flower. It’s gray, has its head lowered and dark but it still is.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to draw again from the start. I think it’s a fail.”
“Hmm…”
She pondered slightly before shaking her head.
“I feel bad for the flower.”
“…”
“At least give it a name please.”
“To the flower?”
“No? Every drawing usually has a name right.”
Yu Jitae thought for a bit before opening his mouth. The flower had bloomed whilst Noah’s world was crumbling down so its name would be…
“Apocalypse.”
Bom shook her head with a sour look.
“Is it weird?”
“Yes.”
“…”
“I’ll try to make it better. Let’s name it after that.”
“Alright.”
Bom wetted her brush with watercolour paint and began drawing a new flower behind the gray flower. Her fingers began creating a stem, leaves and flower petals. She was so absorbed into the task that she didn’t even realise that her tongue was sticking out.
Before long, a new flower was drawn behind the gray flower. The petals were coloured pink.
“How is it?”
As he had expected, Bom wasn’t that good at drawing but it was nonetheless a lot better than his.
“Looks good.”
“Nn.”
“Name?”
“Umm, astral projection?”
She giggled.
When he looked at the painting again after hearing that, it did look like the pink flower had a gray soul sticking out from it.
“Sounds good.”
“It was a joke.”
“…Then what’s its name?”
“Should we think while we draw the background?”
“Alright.”
Yu Jitae began filling the canvas up with Bom. He didn’t know how to draw grass, but copied Bom and created sharp, jagged lines with a green paint that resembled grass.
While drawing, Bom blankly opened her mouth with a mutter.
“I’m a green dragon right.”
“Yeah.”
“So I tried growing a lot of flowers.”
“…”
“You know, flowers look very small and fragile but are actually very strong. They tend to grow anywhere, from barren wastelands to piles of ruin.”
“I see.”
“Even for a short period of time, they prove their existence. That they were alive at that place.”
He gave a random nod back and drew a yellow sun in the corner. When he did, Bom went “Ohh” and nodded with satisfaction.
“It’s spring, ahjussi.”
“It is.”
“Do you like spring?”
“Who knows.”
“You don’t?”
“I haven’t thought about it.”
“Nn. I see.”
The first draft version of the flower was soon finished.
“What’s its name?”
“Flower.”
“Too insincere.”
“…”
“Please do it earnestly like when you were giving us our names.”
He didn’t tell her how that was also cursorily done. While applying another layer of gray over Yu Jitae’s strange flower, she asked.
“Let’s try again. What’s its name?”
“…Flower.”
Her eyes twitched.
“I don’t like that. It’s way too insincere.”
“Astral projection.”
“C’mon, seriously.”
“…Flower’s astral projection?”
Discontent, Bom flicked her body towards him but the gray paint on her brush splashed onto Yu Jitae’s face.
“Aht.”
“…”
“Sorry. It was an accident.”
He nonchalantly shook his head and wiped it. If he so desired, he could’ve blocked or dodged it anyway.
However, he sensed playfulness rising up in her expression. Come to think of it, all the conditions were already fulfilled – they were close enough to have their legs touch and the atmosphere was suitable for a prank.
Right when he was thinking that it might be coming any time, Bom flicked her wrist and splattered the paint.
“Oi, oi.”
Bom did not stop splashing the paint while chuckling out loud.
Yu Jitae covered his face with his hand and took the brush away from her hand. Then, Bom closed her mouth and stopped giggling but looked into his eyes with an undisguisable trace of enjoyment in her eyes.
“Knock it off.”
“So scary.”
“…”
Without a word they remained still. The air became heavy as the atmosphere turned tense. That was when he began shaking the brush he stole.
“Kyaaa–!”
Gray watercolour paint scattered without mercy as Bom escaped to the living room in surprise. Left alone inside the room, Yu Jitae slowly raised his body and wiped the paint drops that had gotten on his face and the floor.
***
Gyeoul, who had been taking a nap inside the living room, opened her eyes from the sudden commotion.
“…?”
She saw Bom-unni. There was something gray like a mole on her cheek.
What is that? In curiosity, she stood up from the sofa and carefully followed after Bom. Then, she gazed at her unni from behind the door as she entered the toilet.
Bom was standing blankly, staring at her own reflection on the mirror. She tilted her head a few times, before moving her fingers to spread the paint stain on her cheek into five paths.
Something appeared when she did that.
It resembled, and looked just like a gray flower.
Only then did Bom give a gentle smile and wipe the paint off.