Time passed.
Gyeoul was living fine. She was no longer reluctant to go to school and appeared to be enjoying her school life a fair bit. Sometimes, she talked about how one of her friends had blonde hair like Kaeul-unni and how her other friend had black hair like Yu Jitae.
It seemed that the other kids at school were a little bit cautious about being too close to Gyeoul, probably due to an instinctive fear. Gyeoul was still unable to fully control her own presence which would probably give off the feeling of a ferocious beast to children.
Even then, she appeared to have become fond of some of her friends, who were slowly able to become friends with her despite her being like a large tiger.
These days, Gyeoul was greatly interested in money.
She was interested in cash, instead of cards. Gyeoul appeared to be thinking of money as ‘something mysterious that could be changed with anything’.
“…Please, buy me a wallet.”
“A wallet?”
“…Yes.”
He wanted to give her something good. Thus, he bought a $12,000-worth branded wallet artifact, which set off an alarm while simultaneously sending its location over to a personal watch when stolen.
Not knowing the price of her wallet, Gyeoul seemed satisfied after putting a 50c coin into it.
“…Hehe.”
She was probably slowly starting to understand more about currency, judging from how she was disappointed after hearing how 50 cents weren’t enough to buy gummies, which she wanted to try after a long time.
Like that, she was slowly understanding more about the world.
“Phew. It’s finally done.”
On the other hand, Bom wrote her novel up to the epilogue.
The title of her horror novel was [Out of Sin of Daybreak]; a fairly lyrical title. Since the results of the writing contest will only be out after a few months, all they could do now was wait.
“Good work. You tried a lot over the past few months. Hope it goes well.”
“I know right…”
Her response was a little bit unexpected.
“What. I guess you do want it to go well.”
“Sorry? Ah… hmm…”
After tapping her lips several times with her finger, she widened her eyes and opened her mouth.
“Uh? You’re right. Maybe I became attached to it while writing it. Before, I wasn’t that interested in the results.”
“It would be good if it goes well after all the effort you put in.”
“Yes yes.”
However, there was a problem. It was right before they applied for the writing contest, but while Bom was away from her seat for a little, Yeorum arbitrarily typed something on the keyboard.
“Uh? Nn? Nnn?”
After coming back to her seat, Bom checked the registered manuscript several times. Then, she called Yeorum while biting her lips.
“Oi. Yu Yeorum–”
There was irritation mixed into her voice – something which Yu Jitae almost never ever heard before.
“Huh? Wassup?” Yeorum replied.
“You. What’s this? What have you done?”
“You said you haven’t chosen your pen name yet right? So I made it for you.”
“I, I, already had one in mind.”
“Should have said that earlier then.”
“You, you…”
“So what was it?”
“‘Bomi’.”
“How’s that a pen name? When did you come up with it?”
“Just then!” shouted Bom.
Yu Jitae only found out today that Bom could let out a voice this loud. A little startled, Yeorum frowned before giving an awkward smile.
“Really? Then just register again.”
“I can’t do it again. Don’t carelessly touch my stuff ever again. Okay?”
“Nnn. Sorry~”
“You. Seriously, you…”
Irritatedly, Bom breathed out from her nose. She appeared to be about to say something harsh, as she repeatedly opened her mouth and bit her lips. She was so mad that her white skin had reddened all the way from her neck to her cheeks.
Meanwhile, he checked the pen name registered by Yeorum in secret.
[Out of Sin of Daybreak]
– Author: Hair Colour Broccoli
Oh no.
Khm. A snort left on its own, and Bom immediately turned towards him with a flick. Her grass-coloured eyes appeared sorrowful and sad.
“Why?” she asked.
“Huh?”
“Why did you laugh? Was it funny?”
“I didn’t.”
“If I get an award, they will call Miss Hair Colour Broccoli up to the stage, yes? And because my hair is actually broccoli-coloured, I’ll become a laughing stock, won’t I…? Is this, funny…?”
“No. It’s not…”
Yeorum smirked behind when the hot potato was suddenly thrown at Yu Jitae.
It seemed that Bom was more serious about her novel than he thought. He was slightly confused though, since he couldn’t understand why she was more mad at him than Yeorum.
In any case, Bom looked as if she was about to cry even from a joke, so he had to pretend like it wasn’t funny as hard as he could.
That day, it felt like he was sitting on pins and needles.
“Hmm. Time to go to training~”
Awkwardly mumbling that, Yeorum walked away and as always, she changed into her training clothes and headed towards the door carrying a bag.
She was still training on how to control her own anger, but there was no improvement. Even just then, she had to endure her instinctive rage that had threatened to crawl up when Bom gave a shout.
This might be partially due to the personality she was born with, as well as the competitiveness of a red dragon. However, it was more correct to say that it was a mental illness than a problem with her personality.
There was not an issue with her personality.
It was an illness that had to be treated.
The best Yeorum could do was find out how angry she would get in certain situations and avoid that situation altogether. In other words, she had no actual control over her anger.
If being unable to control her own anger came to her as a great issue, he would have to put a ‘safety pin’ on Yeorum. He knew how to put it on – it was something he coincidentally discovered towards the end of the 5th iteration.
But if he were to put on the safety pin,
He might have to push this red hatchling into extreme limits. It was an extremely violent and merciless method. Yeorum would be in pain and he would have to force through it no matter how much of a pain she was in.
Back then, he didn’t think much about it, but now that he was looking back at it, it was a method that left a bitter feeling on his tongue.
He hoped that he would never have to do it ever again.
“What. What you looking at?”
While tying her slightly longer hair into a ponytail, Yeorum asked.
He shook his head, while hoping that a good result would repay her for her hard work.
“See you later,” he said.
“Yeah.”
And Yu Kaeul.
These days, she started consciously creating more distance between herself and the baby chicken. She left the house alone more often than before.
This was similar to intentionally throwing herself out into an environment without the baby chicken. It might be because she had received a portion of BY’s memories and emotions, but it was an extremely rational decision on her part.
And later when Bom was looking for Kaeul, she returned after buying a baguette by herself and waved her hand with a bright smile.
“Nn? Why are you filming me?!”
“It’s for the video to send to the underground labyrinth.”
“Ohh! It’s already today!”
“Make a V with your hand.”
“V~~~~.”
It was an intriguing thing in Yu Jitae’s opinion, that even farewells could be practised. While it was left alone in the dormitory, the baby chicken chirped around looking for its owner before being carried by the protector into a large newly-bought pot.
“This is your new house.”
The protector’s red eyes turned into a (^^) shape, and cluelessly the baby chicken dozed off inside the comfortable pot.
That was their daily life.
The Regressor wished for it to stay stable as is.
And in order to do so, he had to now head off to a place that deviated from daily lives.
It was late at night, about time for the kids to stay holed up in their rooms. He was about to leave the house without alarming anyone when Bom slowly opened the door of her room.
Their eyes met, and she carefully walked up to him.
“Are you going?”
“Yeah.”
“Will you be back soon?”
“Yeah. I should be back before noon.”
“…”
She then slowly walked into his room. He waited for her and she soon returned with a necktie in hand.
“What are you doing.”
“…Appearance is power.”
“What power.”
“If you look a bit cleaner, people will open up their hearts with a little bit more ease.”
It was unclear what she had foreseen, but she indifferently opened her mouth.
Reaching her arms forward towards his neck, she wrapped the necktie around his neck and began tying it for him slowly. Added on top of the usual business shirt and slacks was an unfamiliar necktie.
Bom carefully opened her mouth.
“Sorry for getting angry in the morning.”
“It’s fine. You had the right to be angry.”
“…”
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Okay…”
They were extremely close.
Although he felt perplexed, he didn’t look away and because he didn’t look away, her face was very close. And because he was close, he could slightly understand why Bom always called herself pretty.
Grass-coloured eyes, eyelashes, lower eyelashes and double eyelids. When she lowered her gaze that was on his hair, their eyes met so he stealthily looked away.
“Hmm. How about we do more. Can you sit down?”
After finishing the necktie, Bom said that before taking something out of her pocket. It was either a wax or a pomade meant to be used on hair, but why was that coming out of her pocket?
In any case, Bom carefully touched his hair and neatly organised his usually unkempt hair. Her fingers caressed past his hair and touched his ears.
When she was finally done, she stared at his face with vacant eyes. The distance between them was one for teasing so he mentally prepared himself.
However, she didn’t tease him. Instead, she looked as if she was half out of her mind, so he asked.
“Is it done?”
“Ah, ah, yes…”
“Thanks. See you later. Stay home.”
“Yes, yes…”
For a mysterious reason, she didn’t tease him until the end.
How strange, he thought while walking out of the dormitory.
***
Bom’s blank eyes regained focus in an instant.
Heaving a sigh, she shook her head and realised that she was way too nervous just then. To the point that she was too late at realising that a red pair of eyes was staring at her through the gap behind the door.
Yeorum was looking at her.
“Why?” asked Bom.
“What were you doing, just then?”
“I was doing ahjussi’s hair.”
“Hnn.”
Yeorum nonchalantly gave a nod, and Bom also nonchalantly returned to her room.
But when Bom went into her room, Yeorum sneaked out to the living room. She looked at the chair Yu Jitae was sitting on, before reflecting on Bom’s expression.
Surprise and intrigue appeared in her mind.
‘Wah, f*ck. What was that…’
She had found it strange several times, since Bom sometimes leaned her head on Yu Jitae’s shoulder or folded her arm around his.
When she saw Bom wearing his clothes, she simply thought to herself, ‘Ah, is this cucumber into that sort of thing?’ but stopped there.
She wasn’t particularly worried about it.
Because in the end, a dragon out on an Amusement was unable to have romantic feelings for someone else.
[During the Amusement period, a dragon cannot fall in love with another.]
It was one of the basic spells casted on the Fragment of the Ancient One, that was attached to the dragon heart so that dragons wouldn’t be overly immersed in their Amusement. Naturally, Bom was also a dragon with a dragon heart, and also had a Fragment of the Ancient One herself. This was something that was personally confirmed by the Dragon Lord before she left on her Amusement.
‘So what…?’
Then what did Bom’s eyes just then mean? Her eyes were extremely similar to the drawings Yeorum often saw in shoujo mangas.
If she were to express this in an extremely embarrassing manner…
Those were the eyes of a woman in love.
She couldn’t simply ignore this paradox. Yeorum knocked on the door of Bom’s room.
“Hey, Yu Bom. Open the door.”
– Why?
“I have something to ask.”