The third week of the fourth quarter began.
It was about time for the finals to come.
Team Mochi showed a good result at a performance assignment. They had to give up on the tournament once for an assignment with a high number of points, but by getting a full mark in a large assignment that had 70 participating teams, Yeorum was able to get slightly more points than Yong Taeha.
During those times, Lyun tried looking for Yu Jitae time after time but he avoided him.
They hadn’t been sniping Erfan Guild anymore these days. They had enough of a revenge and because Erfan had a low number of points on average, the underdog system started protecting them.
It was now a loss for Yeorum to snipe them.
“If Zhou Luxun’s rank goes up, can I snipe him again?”
“Of course.”
“Gud.”
Yeorum smiled and seeing that, Yu Jitae asked her about what happened with Professor Ha Yoon even before the start of the competition. She was weak back then and came to a draw after fighting against Zhou Luxun, but something seemed to have happened during that time.
“Huh? Well, it’s nothing important.”
“What is it.”
“Nothing really, but after the end he said I was lucky. That put me in a mood back then.”
The moment he heard that, he understood why she was upset back then.
“But it’s fine now. I don’t care anymore.”
“Because you had your revenge?”
“No?”
She giggled.
“It’s good to be lucky. It’s not like I was unlucky and had bad things happen to me, right. And if I’m lucky, I can just accept things with a smile.”
“Is that so.”
“Besides, it’s my victory as a whole right?”
She was right. At least in this small quarter, Yeorum was getting closer to being the final victor.
[37 Missed Calls]
Meanwhile, Lyun tried to look for him after realising that Yu Jitae could snipe them again whenever he so desired. Since he couldn’t find Yu Jitae’s home address, he either went around with his cadets or asked others for witnesses.
Everytime that happened, Yu Jitae would foresee his visit and avoid him. It was because there was no reason to meet Lyun.
But he wasn’t that concerned about others approaching him.
When he was accompanying Yeorum, going back to the dormitory after the end of the day, a small girl walked up and stood in front of them. Her dark red hair was unique and immediately revealed her identity.
“What are you doing?”
Yeorum opened her mouth first.
The girl was Ling Ling from Erfan Guild, whom Yeorum had fought against in the past. Ling Ling carefully glanced back and forth between Yu Jitae and Yeorum before holding her fists together and giving a bow.
“Helloo…”
“I don’t think we’re close enough to greet. What are you doing.”
“Unn. Sorry… but, actually…”
The extremely small girl asked with a soft and worried voice.
“I’m really sorry to say this buut… I was wondering if you could please meet with our guardiann…”
“Stop talking crap. Can you just fuck off?”
“…”
Ling Ling couldn’t say anything back to her profanities and anxiously rolled her eyes.
However, Yu Jitae didn’t chase her away so Ling Ling carefully took a business card out and handed it over to Yu Jitae. Yeorum appeared extremely irritated but stopped her tongue after glancing at him. From here, it was the guardian’s job.
“What is it.”
“It’s a business card. Sowwy. It’s our faultt…”
“Did your guardian make you do this?”
“N, no no. That’s not itt…”
The child who was smaller than Kaeul hurriedly shook her hands in fright. The authenticity reflected on the [Eyes of Equilibrium (SS)] was ‘true’.
“Our guardian doesn’t even know I’m doing dis… it’s just, our atmosphere is not good, our guardian is very pitiful, and I’m very anxious too…”
He walked up and took Lyun’s business card from the child. When he did that, Ling Ling widened her eyes into circles and gazed up at Yu Jitae.
“Ah. I gave you my guardian’s business card because our guardian wanted to apologise in person as well…”
She was going off on a tangent. Well, he did hear in the past how she was a bad talker.
“I get it. You can go.”
Still in surprise, Ling Ling held her fists together and bowed several more times before turning around.
“What. Are you really gonna see them?”
“Don’t know.”
Yeorum looked slightly discontent but nodded regardless.
“Do what you want.”
***
It was a bright Wednesday night. Yu Jitae was sitting down on the sofa, spending a rare relaxed afternoon while Bom was reading next to him.
Before he even realised it, the Green Dragon started giving off a gentle fragrance from her body. It cleared up one’s mind and was like a refreshing breeze. It made the Regressor, who always lived with hazy senses, feel like he was alone inside a bright, thick forest.
Thinking what this smell was about, he turned his head to Bom and she, who was reading a book, lifted her eyes and stared back at him.
“??”
He shook his head.
The protector had been playing with the baby chicken all day, but it was about time for him to start doing housework. He wrapped an apron around his body and started cleaning.
“First young lady. Can I clean your room?”
“Ah, thank you. But I cleaned it already.”
“I see. It is very warm and bright even though it’s evening already.”
“It must be summer already. It’s hot…”
Bom grabbed her own t-shirt by the chest and fluttered it. The scent became slightly thicker.
“Guruk. Gururuk ♫”
The metal armour was humming when he discovered a clay doll with a broken neck in the corner of the living room. It was a pretty big piece of an ugly rock which Gyeoul had made when she was playing with Kaeul a few days ago.
Until now it was inside Bom’s room and it had been a while since the protector had seen it. Judging from the broken neck and how it was out on the living room, it appeared like rubbish.
The doll had protruding arms and legs which might make a hole on the plastic bag, so the protector broke those limbs and threw it all away into the bin.
Soon, that was proven to be a mistake.
“We’re backk!”
“…!”
Gyeoul looked for the clay doll after coming back from the supermarket. She was carrying superglue in her hand, and it seemed that she had gone to the market to buy something that could connect the broken head.
“…?”
But the broken doll wasn’t there anymore.
Gyeoul crouched down at the spot where the doll was previously at and looked around. She looked beneath the sofa before closing her eyes and revisiting her unforgetting memories. Then, she opened her eyes again and checked the place she last put it.
It wasn’t there.
“…!?”
She turned around and looked at Yu Jitae, so he pointed at the protector.
“…Excuse me.”
Red eyes appeared inside the dark helmet.
“Yes? Young lady.”
Gyeoul investigated the truth behind the clay doll’s disappearance and discovered what happened from the shocking words of the protector.
But what can they do? The protector tended to throw the entire bag away straight after cleaning the house. He headed to where the large garbage bins were located but it seemed that the garbage truck had already gone past.
“…Impossible.”
She looked up at the protector with a displeased expression. When her eyes went down to the superglue in her hand, sorrow filled her gaze.
“Uhh, young lady. I am very sorry.”
“…”
Her hand lost its grip and the superglow rolled on the floor. Her downhearted blue eyes were still on him.
She was angry and even the protector realised it. Gyeoul was clearly angry on top of being upset.
The protector started laying out excuses in a fluster.
“My lady. I really thought it was just rubbish.”
“…”
“If I knew you played around with it daily, I wouldn’t have thrown it away…”
“…”
“Sorry. The garbage truck guys also left already for some reas–”
Right before the protector started going on and on, Gyeoul raised her palm and stopped him, and soon pointed at the corner of the living room with her finger.
The protector was put on exile.
Gyeoul dejectedly ran to Yu Jitae and reached her arms out. After being hugged, she buried her head into his chest and heaved a deep sigh.
He tapped the small child on her back.
“Sorry I should have stopped him,” said Bom while patting her head. Yu Jitae also thought it was meant to be thrown away because of the broken neck.
That seemed to be the end of that small event, but Bom went to the protector after staring at the back of Gyeoul’s head.
“Cleaner ahjussi.”
“Yes, yes. First young lady.”
“Just one minute…”
She took the protector and headed into a room. Curious about what she was trying to do, he listened to them speak and heard Bom explain how to apologise to the protector.
– When you’re apologising to someone, I think it’s right to seek forgiveness solely for the other person.
– The apology you gave just then was to avoid the troublesome situation right?
– So if you apologise to her again…
It was a consulting session on how to apologise.
– Ahhh, I see…!
When would a living armour even have the opportunity to apologise.
After coming to a realisation from the consultation, the protector approached Gyeoul. Gyeoul looked back with grudge hanging in her eyes, as the protector bowed respectfully.
“I sincerely apologise to young lady for forgiveness.”
“…”
“I am fully aware that it has been broken and lost already and that we cannot bring it back.”
“…”
“But if you are willing to give me the opportunity, I would like to look for clay and try making it one more time. Would that be okay?”
Fortunately, it seemed that the protector’s apology had gone through. Gyeoul had a pout on her face but still returned a nod.
She had forgiven the protector.
Soon, she left Yu Jitae’s arms and the two of them went outside despite it being late already. They found clay from somewhere and started making a doll out in the terrace.
The Regressor didn’t look away from the two of them for a long time.
Apology and forgiveness…
A foreign thought popped up in his head while he was watching Gyeoul and the protector. That thought stemmed from the doubt, ‘Is that a part of daily life?’
Apology was a foreign word. He had never done anything regretful to someone ever since the third iteration.
Forgiveness sounded even more unfamiliar. He wasn’t a forgiving person.
Maybe that was why.
The protector had broken Gyeoul’s clay doll and was making a new doll together as a part of his apology. That situation felt extremely awkward and strange for Yu Jitae.
Turning his head, the Regressor stared at Bom’s face.
He had locked the kids up in the underground labyrinth for dozens of years. He hit them, mistreated them, left them and made them despair with violence.
The amount of time he did that for was longer than the lives of the dragons and it was too cruel for kids who had to shoulder the ‘unfamiliar experiences’ of their young days vividly for the rest of their lives. One of them went crazy and strangled another, while one of them stopped their own heart. This was a lot worse than what the protector did by breaking the clay doll.
Of course, he had his reasons and excuses – it was the dragons that brought it upon themselves. There was a time when he moved along by giving such excuses to himself.
But now that he looked back at it, it was just an unfortunate situation.
Were my words within that unfortunate situation suited for an apology? He couldn’t stop such doubts appearing in his mind.
For a killing machine who had failed to become a wise hermit despite living for a long time, it was a fairly difficult topic.
“??”
Perhaps feeling his gaze, the grass-coloured eyes once again turned towards him.
The Regressor thought to himself.
Do I have to apologise then?
If I were to ask for forgiveness for a sin that couldn’t even be compared to the destruction of a clay doll, what do I have to give this child with the apology?
Or was there even a reason to apologise for a previous, past iteration?
It seemed like a topic that he couldn’t find the answer to, so the Regressor stopped lingering on that thought.
“Why? Anything on my face?”
“No.”
“That’s boring.”
But Bom was smiling at him.
***
The next day, Yu Jitae called Lyun. After receiving his call in fright, Lyun brought him respectfully to a bar inside Haytling, saying that he will sincerely ask for his forgiveness.
Yu Jitae thought to himself.
Now that he had vowed to live a daily life, he decided to do something that really didn’t suit him – something that he had never even imagined before.
He decided to forgive him if Lyun sincerely apologised.
Even if it failed to ring his heart.
“Thank you for coming, Guardian Yu Jitae.”
But the moment he saw Lyun dressed up neatly outside Haytling, Yu Jitae started changing his mind.
He entered the bar.
Women wearing qipaos that exposed a lot of their skin with a slant that went all the way to the waist welcomed him. They were wearing thick makeup, and clothes that revealed half of their breasts.
“Hello, boss?”
“Can I call you oppa?”
Two women came to him and naturally wrapped their arms around his with coquettish greetings. Because he had recently been controlling his killing intent, he always had a hazy and blank expression on his face. That was why unfamiliar people were able to approach him this easily.
“Please sit down.”
There was no need to stay here for a long time.
Yu Jitae abruptly spoke to the two women.
“You guys go outside.”
“Sorry? Perhaps you don’t find us to your liking?”
“If you could tell us your preference…”
“Get out.”
A seemingly feeble voice resonated across the quiet room. Feeling spooky for some reason, the women threw glances at each other before carefully leaving the room.
Lyun’s eyes twitched when he saw how things went south from the get go.
Yu Jitae asked directly.
“Why do something unnecessary. Just say what you have to say.”
“…Ah, yes. It seems that it wasn’t to your tastes. I would like to apologise.”
His eyes were hollow from a lack of sleep.
“Apologise for what.”
“Being involved in the schedule and intentionally organising a duel against Cadet Yeorum. And, this as well. Whatever it was, I would like to apologise for anything that made you displeased. I sincerely apologise for what I’ve done.”
Lyun lowered his head all the way down to the table.
“Look into my eyes.”
“Sorry? Ah, yes.”
“Is the apology you’re giving right now sincerely for Yu Yeorum?”
“It is.”
“Do you sincerely feel sorry?”
“Of course.”
False.
All his words were lies.
Yu Jitae didn’t know their circumstances but it seemed that this guardian had many things on the line for this competition. In order to get them, he had no choice but to lower his head no matter how disgusted he was – that was the gist of things.
That was when Lyun took a small dagger out from his clothes. He then stabbed the table with it.
“If you want me to cut a finger here, I will do so. Please, consider this my sincerity.”
Funnily enough, this was true.
However, Yu Jitae had long lost his interest. He stood up from his seat.
“Whatever. Forget this. Don’t call me anymore.”
“Sorry?”
Lyun shot out of his seat in shock.
“Please wait for a second! Can you please tell me what wasn’t to your liking, sir?”
Yu Jitae started walking outside without saying a word.
“Sir, sir! Guardian Yu Jitae! Please wait for a second! Just tell me if there’s anything you need!”
Lyun became impatient.
“Do you really hate places like this that much? Just tell me your preference at least! If not, then please just listen to what I have to say. I am desperate and can give you a lot of things!”
“…”
“Weren’t you here for a conversation? You took the business card for us! Ah…! Ahhh! I get it now. Is it that?”
As if he suddenly understood it all, Lyun hurriedly added more words.
“Perhaps you like kids like Ling Ling? Younger, and, smaller children?”
Hearing that, Yu Jitae stopped his feet and looked back. Taking that as a positive sign, Lyun raised his voice.
“That girl is quite cute indeed. Actually, aren’t we both guardians? Staying right next to young and pretty girls, I understand everything. We’re both men after all!”
“…”
“Ling Ling, that girl is small but strong! If you would like it sir, I can get you to have a private chat with her. Okay? Sounds good right? She’s a bit stupid and she touches drugs sometimes, you know? As long as you say a few things, she’ll spread her legs for you by herself. You can just tell…”
In that moment,
A fist flew towards his face.
Along with a shattering noise, Lyun broke the table and flew towards the wall on the side. His jaws were crushed and all his teeth were shattered as blood gushed out onto the ground. The shock caused one of his eyes to explode on top of that.
The reason Yu Jitae hit him was quite simple. It was because he was still walking behind him despite him being done with the talk.
“Huk, ku… kuhuk…”
That must be the case. Thinking that, the Regressor turned around.