There was a large hill behind Dorm Building 107. It was one of the really few mountains of Haytling.
Cadets were prohibited from entering it but recently, this place was gaining many visitors.
“Chirp.”
One of them was the baby chicken. About once a week, the baby chicken, Chirpy, would leave the dormitory in secret and head to the mountain. He, who was now slightly bigger than a basketball, knew how to use mana and could easily move up and down the mountain.
The baby chicken chose this area as its own territory and fought against the cat spirit beast group. Back in the days, it would be reduced to a pulp every time but due to its current size, the cat spirit beasts were unable to fight Chirpy back.
“Meeeoow…”
A cat growled in anger after being stepped on the head by the baby chicken.
“Chirp. (If you want to intrude yet again, so be it).”
“Chip. (But do tell your children your last words).”
Once the chicken lifted its feet up, the cats immediately ran away.
The baby chicken was always doubtful. Despite running away, they didn’t go far. Their hideout seemed to be nearby but it had no idea what they were doing there or why.
“You went outside again, didn’t you.”
On unlucky days, the chicken tended to be caught by Bom.
“Chirp? (Chirp?)”
“Acting cute doesn’t work on me. Are you going to keep on going outside like that?”
“Chirp.”
“You’re not just going outside for a walk, are you. You always fight someone and get hurt.”
Bom scolded the baby chicken with a quiet voice. She didn’t know if the baby chicken understood her words or not, but she still had to say it to relieve herself of frustration.
“Seriously, what are you going to do if Kaeul sees you hurt?”
Kaeul loved Chirpy.
She always hugged it to sleep, and the chicken was the first thing she looked for in the morning. Kaeul brushed its yellow fur everyday and on non-school days, she was always the one giving it food and taking it outside on a walk.
“This won’t work.”
Even Bom herself felt sad looking at the injured baby chicken. Then how would Kaeul feel, being the one that took the chicken in?
Heaving a sigh, Bom called the protector.
“Yes, my lady. Have you called me.”
“Watch after this kid from now on please.”
The protector’s crimson eyes flickered. Ever since that day, the baby chicken was locked up in the storage when Kaeul wasn’t home.
– Chirp chirp!
*
Meanwhile, there was another one leaving the house in secret. It was Gyeoul.
Usually the lessons at Lair didn’t overlap and there was always someone staying behind at the house. But whenever no-one was home, Gyeoul would take a nap, read a book, or play with the protector and the baby chicken.
And now she had a secret which no-one knew about apart from Yu Jitae.
After she became good at walking on her own feet – and after she mastered how to fly in the air with magic, Gyeoul occasionally left through the window of Bom’s room and wandered around the residential area.
She was a dragon despite being young, and because she had received magic theories from Bom, she was able to somewhat use the alternate dimension of dragons, [Laws of Nature (S)]. Thus, she knew how to avoid others.
Recently, Gyeoul had a new hobby – it was feeding some cat spirit beasts.
Even today, she sneaked outside, cuddling a bunch of baby chicken feed with her two hands. Hiding her presence, she flew and headed to the mountain behind Dorm 107.
After she fed them several times at the same place, the cat spirit beasts always gathered here. They were always injured for some reason. She opened the large bag of feed in front of them.
Nom nom…
Nom nom…
Hearing the cat spirit beasts eat, Gyeoul made a bright smile.
They ate so zealously that it made her feel good just by watching them. Some of those cats walked up and tried to lick her but Gyeoul refused them by shaking her head. It was because they looked dirty.
“…Is it, delicious?”
Nyaa.
Meoww!
But today, one of the spirit beasts placed something down in front of Gyeoul.
It was a dead mouse.
“…”
Wearing an uncomfortable expression, she shook her head.
“…I don’t, need.”
Nyao…
Meow…
The cat spirit beasts were disheartened after understanding her words.
In any case, she was feeding them like any other day when something clinked behind her. Startled, the cat spirit beasts immediately ran into the forest.
Suddenly left alone in front of the remaining pile of food, Gyeoul discovered a big shadow towering over her from behind and turned her head.
“Young lady. What are you doing here.”
Wearing a thick padded jacket despite being spring, the figure was wearing a flower-patterned apron, brand new rubber gloves, a black mask and a pair of sunglasses hiding the crimson dots beneath.
It was the protector.
In response to the question, Gyeoul glanced behind before pushing the food forward with her two hands. She was gesturing that she had been giving food.
“Huu. Young lady. You can’t give food to the cats.”
“…Why?”
“The chicken is coming outside and fighting them because the cats keep coming to this place.”
Gyeoul tilted her head.
“…They’ll be, hungry.”
“You still can’t. Even if you don’t feed them, young lady, they’ll hunt or do something to take care of themselves. Please do not feed them from now on. I’ll be keeping the feed myself at a different place.”
Gyeoul crossed her arms, seemingly discontent. However, the protector who was always nice to her remained headstrong.
“Let’s go, young lady.”
She was acting bold but when that didn’t work, she soon became depressed.
“…I, hate you.”
***
“I’m thinking I should start publishing.”
“Publish?”
Bom nodded, wearing a pair of circular-framed glasses.
“There’s way too much time left until the writing contest and writing by myself is difficult. I think getting feedback from people will help.”
“I’m doing it right now.”
“But it’s not scary, right?”
Well, she was right. Her novel wasn’t scary at all.
“I thought about it, but is there a novel ahjussi would find scary?”
“Who knows.”
“See? Your qualification as a horror novel reader is questionable.”
“…”
He touched the back of his neck.
The Regressor was trying to study the horror genre himself, by looking through other novels. Extremely disgusting descriptions, plot twists, fear of the unknown and the disappearance of the most confident ones were cliches that happened in many horror novels. However, Bom’s novel did not have any of them.
“Maybe the genre doesn’t suit you.”
“Why?”
“I think it’ll be better to write something you’re good at. Since you’re good with magic, how about something related to that.”
“I’m a scary woman you know.”
“…”
Her expression remained utterly shameless.
“I’m, still a dragon you know…”
“Right. I see.”
Bom blankly stared back at Yu Jitae, before turning to the screen.
“Anyway, it must’ve been because ahjussi doesn’t get scared. Normal people will be scared plenty.”
And after a week.
“…”
Bom’s fist shivered looking at the screen. She uploaded quite a lot of chapters but the reactions seemed to have been less than satisfactory.
“What’s wrong.”
“…”
She slowly took the glasses off and placed them on the table.
“Apparently my novel’s not scary.”
What did I say.
Bom suddenly flicked her head towards him and said, “Did you just think to yourself that it was a natural result?”
She guessed it right.
It was rare to see a frown on her face. She was taking in deep breaths while her hands were temperamentally forming fists. Ever since she had been insulted by Yeorum in Africa, this was the first time Bom was getting this angry.
“Like, how is this not scary? It’s scary to me.”
“What do the comments say.”
“Look. See this.”
She showed him the comments.
– Ehnng? So a mysterious man comes up and just grabs you by the collar and that’s it?? Lololololol
– Ukk kekek. I thought it was the chin lololol. It was collar huh lolol
“Like, why are they laughing…!”
It seemed that watching people laugh at a novel that was made to make them scared, was upsetting her.
– My wifey grabbing me by the collar will be a lot scarier than that haha~~
– Aye. It’s not a street fight right lol. Collar is a bit weird lmao.
“…Apparently so.”
With a sigh, she covered her eyes with her hands.
Looking at the text, there indeed was a scene with the collar but even in Yu Jitae’s eyes, it didn’t seem scary at all. To be exact, it didn’t feel like something a mysterious and dangerous stranger would do.
“Do you also think it’s not scary, ahjussi?”
“Yeah.”
“Why? Isn’t it scary? Think about it. It’s not broad daylight.”
He quietly nodded his head, because it really wasn’t scary. Then, Bom suddenly clicked her fingers. With a click!, her spell turned the lights off and the curtains immediately closed themselves.
Inside the shroud of darkness, Bom grabbed Yu Jitae who was sitting next to her, by the collar. She then slowly came closer.
“Look. Still? Still not scary?”
“…”
“He wasn’t just grabbing the collar. He was glaring at you from above like this, you know? A stranger?”
She then gave an angry expression.
Nonetheless, it still wasn’t scary no matter how close or far her face was. When Yu Jitae shook his head, Bom released her hand with a dispirited expression. She wobbled her way to the chair and collapsed on it with a deep sigh that could extinguish embers.
“I feel dejected. Maybe I’m not talented at writing.”
“I think you’re good at writing.”
“…”
“The collar is the problem. Why the collar.”
“It’s scary if they suddenly cross the line, right. Because you’re not mentally prepared yet…?”
“Is that the case?”
“Nn. You can’t run away when you’re grabbed either.”
She had her reasons for writing it that way.
Bom was depressed.
Yu Jitae stood up and killing his presence, he melted into the darkness. Right when Bom started looking around in surprise, a rigid arm shot out of the darkness and caught her chin.
Startled, Bom took a few steps back before crashing into the wall. “Uht…!” she gasped. Slowly, Yu Jitae’s face was revealed from the veil of darkness.
Suddenly,
It was an expected turn of events,
When she wasn’t mentally prepared.
She couldn’t even look away even if she wanted to, so a sincerely flustered look appeared on her face.
“…!”
Immediately, Bom pushed Yu Jitae’s shoulders away with her hands. She tried her hardest to push him away so he pulled his body back.
“How was it. Was it okay?”
“Uuh…”
“The collar is a bit weird so wouldn’t it be scarier to grab the chin and force them into a situation where they can’t look away.”
He was expecting Bom to agree. Despite killing almost all his senses now to respect the privacies of the dragons, he could still hear her dragon heart fluttering resonantly. It must’ve been quite scary.
“It wasn’t that scary you know?”
“You flinched quite hard.”
“I was just surprised. Nothing else.”
“…”
“It’s true… and before you do something like that, can you at least give me a sign?”
“Why.”
Despite what she was saying, it seemed to have been scary. As if to prove that, Bom had her head slanted down as she softly whispered with a warm sigh.
“…It’s troubling.”
*
She looked very troubled.
Suddenly, for a split second, Yu Jitae felt something strange. For some reason, he wanted to make her feel more troubled.
What should he call this, he pondered quietly. Thinking back, he could remember Bom laughing as she made him feel perplexed. Was this how she felt? Back then, Bom expressed that as ‘interesting’.
In other words, does that mean he found it interesting to have the Green Dragon feel perplexed?
Since it was a refreshing feeling for the Regressor, he decided to make her troubled one more time.
“Bom.”
The grass-coloured gaze turned towards him.