On the way back to the dormitory, Yu Jitae and Yeorum did not share much of a conversation.
In the season of falling leaves, the sky was blue and the cool breeze was comforting. Yeorum’s red hair fluttered in the wind.
The road was filled with street stalls, as bakeries and takoyaki stores lined up. It was a relatively famous street market district in the Academy City, and it would perhaps be a good idea to bring Kaeul here when she had time.
Soon, they entered the residential area and arrived before their dorm. Being automatic doors, the officetel’s main entrance opened by itself as the pair of male and female reached it. Without going in, Yeorum stayed still in front and because she was blocking the way, Yu Jitae had to stop as well.
She seemed to be either deep in thought, or in hesitation.
When the automatic doors were about to close, she threw her hand in between and pushed it open again. Then, she resumed carrying her feet and slowly climbed the stairs, as Yu Jitae followed from behind.
As they reached the entrance of their actual house, Yeorum once again stopped where she was and stood still without opening the door.
“On the way here, I thought a bit.”
Different from the voice that usually left her husky mouth, it contained a clear timbre. She turned her head and stared at Yu Jitae.
“I don’t have anything. Well, you probably knew already after hearing from unni, but there was a bit of a problem while leaving my home. In other words, I had to chuck everything I had before leaving.”
Yu Jitae quietly listened.
“After leaving on my Amusement, the only thing I did was to go around throwing my fists so the only thing I have is my body. If I knew things would turn out like this, I should have robbed their pockets or something.”
“And what.”
She scratched her head.
“So, there’s nothing to really give you.”
“What would you give me.”
“I can’t, okay? Because I don’t have anything.”
“Why would you.”
“That’s, well. Because there are things I received from you? Though I look like this, I’m not a shameless bitch.”
Yu Jitae shook his head.
“It’s fine. It’s not like I’m having a transaction with you.”
“No. It’s embarrassing enough for me to die that I received help. Like I said, I do have my sense of shame okay?”
She glared daggers at Yu Jitae with her red eyes.
“So tell me. Is there anything you need?”
He shook his head.
“Anything you want to have or earn? Hobbies? Anything.”
“I don’t.”
“You don’t look like you’re interested in a female body. Then what. Should I give you a massage? I’m good at labouring. Or is there anything you wish from me?”
Yeorum’s words saying that she would give him something was greatly unexpected. However, he shook his head. The only wish he had, was for her to not die.
Not receiving a response, Yeorum made a faint frown.
“Ah this is frustrating. So annoying… You, what in the world is your drive to live?”
“Who knows. Just go in already.”
“No, wait. Even for you, there should be something you enjoy in your life. It’s not like you’re living everyday because you can’t die, right? It can be anything simple. Is there anything you want?”
Yu Jitae, who closed his mouth for a while, soon heaved out a sigh.
“I have one now.”
“What is it?”
“Going inside.”
Yeorum’s beautiful eyes formed a frown.
“Don’t come in.”
Kkwang!
She entered and shut the door behind her. Left alone in the corridor, the Regressor was a bit dumbfounded. It was when he was staring at the door for a bit, before touching the door knob a second later.
With a click, the door was locked from inside.
***
Next day, Yeorum’s name spread across the internet.
An issue was that there was a freelance reporter belonging to an internet community present, and that he had approached right up close to Yeorum with the intention of streaming an interview realtime.
There were a few reasons this had gone viral. One was due to a news report of a heavy injury of a ‘Russian elf girl’, Sophia, who was quite popular in Korea, and the other reason was the girl that defeated Sophia being an eighteen year old Korean. There were news reports with a few connotations as a result.
And the otherworldly – which was in fact true – appearance of Yeorum was like oil being added to fire. Although it was a small event that would soon go back under the radar, Yeorum’s name had still entered the viral list in Korea’s largest superhuman community.
Unlike the media packaging the incident with words like [Lair Reserve Cadet Yu Yeorum blunt remark controversy] and [A sturdy girl’s advice towards reporters. Human right concerns of Lair cadets], the video uploaded on the community was the raw version of the video itself.
Even Yu Jitae, who was usually uninterested in media and news reports, thought that there was a need for him to look it up. If it were to have a negative influence on the remaining time at Lair, he deemed it necessary to have a separate conversation with Yeorum.
– Se LOL x LOL
– Lmao Succecss! zzzz
However, the reaction from the community wasn’t normal.
– I don’t really like it. My first time seeing her but she sounds very loose.
– Agreed
– Whoa but she’s hella pretty lol.
– For real;; To be honest, it’s thanks to the camera right?
– Did the reporter get paid to photoshop?
– What are you all on about. Everyone! Scream! Se1x!
– Uaah Se1x! The thing we all want to do but cannot!
– They’re doing that again. Admin please shut these guys up;;
– Like, she is pretty for sure, but it’s a bit surprising. At a glance, she doesn’t look like a gangster and yet says whatever she wants to. Like what?
– I looked up some other videos but her character is definitely an original lol. It’s like a younger version of a swearing grandma
– I hate it. Looks like a local crazy bitch. Who says something like that in front of a camera? She must have chucked her common sense away.
– The person above me is a know-it-all scholar lol. I just found it funny zzz. Didn’t you see her expression change? She was angry at the reporters blocking the road.
– That’s because you’re also a barbarian. Who are you calling a scholar? You wanna die?
– ? Why you talking shit to me??
– Retards, don’t fight and have se1x
– zzzzzzz f*cking lol zzzz
– Are you crazy? LOL
– zzzZzzZzzZzz
Depending on the nature of the communities, the element of the video they focused on was different, as well as their likes and dislikes. It was fortunate that there were positive reactions but some of the negative comments were extremely insulting. Despite all that, the Yu household – they were being referred to by that name before they realised – had a dry reaction.
“So what?” Yeorum was the type of person that didn’t care much about how others viewed herself and Bom merely patted Yeorum’s hair while saying, “Interesting. Yeorum will be famous now.”
“Uwah, Yeorum-unni you’re the best!”
And Kaeul, who was still unaccustomed to spoken and written language, didn’t understand half of the bad words and just enjoyed it. She sometimes asked what ‘barbarian’ and ‘know-it-all’ meant, and Bom gave kind explanations whenever she did.
“Then what is sex?”
“…”
But there was no response to that question and without replying, Bom just gave a small smile.
“Do you want me to tell you?”
Yeorum opened her lips with an indifferent voice.
“Nn? Do you know unni?”
“Of coursee dear Kaeul, you are curious, what sex is…… right?”
A degenerate smile hung on her lips, which Yeorum’s tongue soon licked. When she walked up with a strangely amorous expression, the baby chicken that sensed something ominous started retreating.
“Uh, uh… Can you just forget that question…?”
“Why, you’re curious right?”
“No, it’s okay. My mum told me there was no need to know too many things in life…”
“Well, this is something you need to know.”
“D, don’t want to.”
“A sex, you see, is”
“Uwaahhh–!”
The baby chicken blocked her ears and ran, while Yeorum excitedly chased after it and poured out words that shouldn’t be put into words. Those were extremely explicit and greatly distorted information.
“…Mum!”
Death throes belonging to a baby chicken echoed in the officetel.
Except for events like this, there weren’t any aftermaths causing a problem in their lives because it was before the start of the semester, with less interest in school affairs. A few reporters were curious about the situation and wanted to have an interview with Yeorum, but she who had settled most of her desires laid down on the living room sofa watching TV all day. Thanks to that, she was able to minimise her contact with the media, as reporters were prohibited from entering the residential area of Lair.
But when she did enter the town albeit rare, reporters ran in with fire burning in their eyes.
“Uh? It’s Yu Yeorum!”
“Where? Where? Ah! There!”
“Cadet Yu Yeorum! If you don’t mind, can you spare some time for an interview?”
Every time that happened, Yeorum avoided them with a frown. It appeared like she wanted to wreak havoc with profanities, but she would, for some reason, glance at Yu Jitae and read his mood before closing her mouth.
“Cadet Yu Yeorum! There are viewers curious about your childhood! What did you do most of the time when you were young?”
“Seriously annoying… these insect-like suckers.”
“What? You used to do soccer?”
Her small fist trembled like crazy and Yeorum slowly built up patience.
Lastly Yu Jitae.
As Yeorum’s guardian, there were quite a number of people he had to meet. He had to see various people from the Disciplinary department, as well as contacting RIL’s legal team. Even though it was limited to around two hours a day, that was bothersome enough for him and he couldn’t make his copy do it either, as it was working during the day. Since this was the result of telling them to take care of most of the things, he would have had more tasks if he were to handle everything himself.
However, he started feeling something unfamiliar from that process.
“You’re the guardian right?”
Hearing someone call himself, he turned his head but realised that it was targeted at another guardian. The fact that he was certain of that having been directed at himself, came to him as a faintly strange feeling.
In the past, there were words identifying himself. He had been a squad leader in the past, a centurion, a regiment commander. After that, he was called a mercenary, the wanted criminal, ranker and other names before eventually being called a hunter of demons.
He hadn’t cared too much about mere titles but the words regulating himself were always along the lines of such words.
But now, it was different.
“Sir Guardian, Yu Jitae.”
He had become a guardian. For some reason, he thought about his own title, and felt that it really didn’t match himself.
Yu Jitae didn’t like the title, guardian. Why didn’t he like it?
That might be due to an obsession he got while crawling through the depths of hell. Having something to protect, was in the end, a weakness and was an element he had to dispose of as someone that lived in the dirtiest places on earth.
But despite the bitter aftertaste it left, the world still regulated him as a guardian.
If he thought deeper about it, it wasn’t anything significant, and was even a rather boring title but he didn’t hate everything about it. With this, did I take another step closer to a daily life, he would ask himself.
Returning back home, Yu Jitae stared at the blue egg left in the living room. Even today, Bom was in the middle of carrying out a prenatal education.
As time passed, the egg grew bigger and bigger. At the start it was slightly bigger than an ostrich egg but now it was so large that it required Bom to hug it with her two arms. The flowerpot had long become too small for it and barely even held it up.
It meant that it was close to hatching.
That was when Kaeul ran out of her room with a watch in hand.
“Uwah, unni! Look at this!”
“Nn?”
Showing the screen of her watch to Bom who was squatting down in front of the blue egg, she bursted out into laughter. Seeing the screen, Bom also grinned. It was extremely rare for Bom to smile like that.
“It’s so weird right?”
“You’re right.”
What were they talking about.
Soon when Yeorum left the bathroom, the baby chicken hid the watch behind her back in shock. No matter how one saw it, it was super suspicious.
“Why are you so excited?”
“Nn? N, no I’m not?”
“What’s going on. You hid something, didn’t you.”
“No?”
“What do you mean, ‘no’. Hand it over.”
Her retaliation was meagre. The baby chicken got suppressed in an instant and buried her head on the ground and cried “Uanng!” while Yeorum stole the watch and checked the screen. When her eyes reached the screen, they twitched.
“Ehew. Do they have nothing better to do?”
Casually chucking the watch, she turned her body around and headed back to her room. The watch fell before Yu Jitae, and he saw the screen. There, he saw Yeorum wearing a soccer uniform.
A marvelous composite photograph was being shared across communities.
“Unni, unni. When did you learn soccer?”
But not knowing that it was a fake photo, the baby chicken asked with a ‘hehe’ smile. Along with the thud of a closing door, the door was shut and she was ignored.
“Hing.”