“…Nn? Why?”
“Just the two of them on the bed?”
“…Three including me.”
“Ah f*ck no wonder. So, what then.” Yeorum asked.
“…They just talked.”
“What did they say.”
“…Mhmm, I slept, so I don’t know.”
Yeorum frowned. It was still too early to jump to a conclusion. Bom sometimes acted as if Gyeoul was her daughter and Gyeoul also tended to follow Bom as if she were her mother.
That wasn’t anything strange. Bom was a green dragon and the green race was the race of Providence that tended to treat all the other races like their children.
From the perspective of the red race, they were a mother-like (?) race pretending to be slightly mysterious.
“Tell me everything you know,” said Yeorum. However, Gyeoul seemed to have been discontent with her words. Crossing her arms, Gyeoul contemplated before using the words she learned from Yu Jitae.
“…Why, should I?”
“Huhh? Oi.”
“…Hihi.”
“This is a really important matter. What do you mean why should I. Just say it.”
“…For free?”
Yeorum was speechless. Since when did this childish kid become so greedy like this?
“You kid. Just because you’re a little bit older…”
Gyeoul however was serious. What did the unlikeable red dragon do for her that she had to tell her everything she wanted to hear?
“What do you need,” asked Yeorum.
In response, Gyeoul made a circle by connecting her index finger and her thumb. It was the gesture she saw from the movie she watched together with Yeorum.
“Hah. Wow. How ridiculous…”
“…Forget it, if you don’t want to.”
“Wait.”
Yeorum went through her drawers. There was the dollar she had leftover from the 50 dollars Yu Jitae gave her after buying 49-dollars-worth of books on the day of the festival.
Hmm, this should be enough since she’s a little kid right?
Thinking that, Yeorum gave the dollar to Gyeoul but a cunning smile appeared instead on her lips.
“…1 dollar, won’t do it though?”
***
Bam!
“Ayat–”
Gyeoul opened her mouth after being smacked on her forehead.
“…Annoying.”
“Just say it!”
“…”
“I’ll give you another 5 dollars when I get it okay?”
Putting the 1 dollar note into her pocket, Gyeoul closed her eyes to revive the memories of that time.
She could have stubbornly refused to answer her but the reason Gyeoul obediently opened her mouth was because she was curious what Yeorum was referring to as an important matter.
“…Hmm.”
Bom and Yu Jitae talking on the bed after she fell asleep – it happened quite a few times.
Although she couldn’t remember everything since she fell asleep halfway most of the time, the thing that first re-entered her mind was when Yu Jitae suddenly started banging on her back when she was sleeping just fine.
What did Bom say back then again?
‘Little bit softer please. A bit gentler.’
‘A little bit more gentler.’
‘As if you’re caressing it.’
That was probably what she said while Yu Jitae was tapping her on the back.
After listening to her words, Yeorum was shocked.
“What!? Are they actually crazy or what?”
“…Nn?”
“Softer? Gentler?”
“…Nn.”
Before long, Yeorum’s expression turned dark.
“Like, did the bed shake at all?”
“…No? Why?”
“They must have been hella soft then… Wow, that’s crazy. Crazy… Look at these damn guys. Were they really playing like that behind my back in secret? Or don’t tell me you’re lying? Tell me straight up. This is really freaking important.”
“…No? I’m not, lying.”
“You’re not? Wow… Crazy. Yu Jitae and Yu Bom these damn bitc*es…”
“…Why? Why? What’s wrong?”
“Don’t you know? No, I guess you wouldn’t know. How would a little kid like you know anything.”
“…?”
Yeorum started mumbling to herself, ‘Wow fu*k, “beware of the silent man and still water”, was it…?’ ‘Like, was Yu Jitae that kind of bastard? Acting calm and refined on the outside and…’ ‘My gosh, fu*k. So they were actually doing that together huh…?’
In the middle of her mummers, she suddenly turned towards Gyeoul.
“Nn? What are you doing? Why you still there.”
“…Like I said, what’s wrong?”
“Ah whatever kid. Don’t need you anymore. Leave.”
Pushed from behind, Gyeoul was chased out of the room.
“…”
Kung!
The door closed behind her back.
‘…What was that. So annoying.’ Scratching her hair, Gyeoul unhappily glared at the door and turned around whilst thinking to herself. Thinking back, similar things happened several times even after that but she didn’t think those were strange by any means.
So what was wrong with that boar right now?
***
The mere fact that Yu Jitae and Bom were cuddling wasn’t the important part. Well, they weren’t kids and it would be fine if they both wanted to. It didn’t matter to Yeorum whether the two of them did that (?) or not.
However, there was a big paradox here.
During an Amusement, the red race tended to enjoy doing such things because it truly was an interesting deed. Even Yeorum herself – if she didn’t have a clear objective and a definite course of life, she might have been enjoying herself left and right as well.
But from what she remembered, the blue or the green race weren’t usually like that. That was simply the characteristics of those races.
Naturally, there would be the doubt that any dragon could do so considering the individual characteristics of that dragon but,
The green race was an exception.
Somehow, all the dragons of the green race had similar personalities as if they were all printed by the same machine. They were boring and uninteresting to the point it made Yeorum think that any dragon catching a glimpse of the future would inevitably be like that.
Therefore, Bom doing that with Yu Jitae without ‘love’ was difficult for Yeorum to understand based on her existing knowledge. Then, does Bom really love Yu Jitae? That too didn’t make sense.
Because as long as the [Origin Fragment] was in their bodies, hatchlings weren’t able to fall in love. This intense paradox repeatedly created doubts upon doubts.
Since the [Origin Fragment] was the most important thing for a dragon enjoying their Amusement, Yeorum realised that this wasn’t something simple that could be dismissed with ease.
At this point, whether the two of them did it or not was not important. This was an even more serious matter.
Early the next morning.
These days, Yu Jitae left the dormitory at night by himself and didn’t return till late in the morning. Because of that, Bom had to leave by herself in the morning to buy food from outside.
“Hnn hnn♪”
That was exactly what she was doing today. While humming, Bom was preparing a shopping bag before going outside. Now was the best time for a conversation of just the two of them.
“Unni.”
“Huh? Hello. You’re early today.”
Seemingly in a better mood, Bom greeted back with a gentle smile.
“You going to buy food?” Yeorum asked.
“Nn.”
“Let’s go together.”
“Okay. What happened to you?”
The two of them walked outside.
Yeorum always considered that there was something called ‘morning air’ in the early mornings. Around 2 to 3 hours after the sunrise. Despite being in the height of summer, the world would still give her a relatively cool and refreshing feeling. Thus, Yeorum tended to open the window whenever she opened her eyes in the morning to enjoy the air.
But today, she was unable to wholeheartedly enjoy the air.
By the time they were about to enter the commercial district after a long walk,
“Unni,”
Yeorum opened her mouth with a clear voice.
“Nn?”
“Do you like Yu Jitae ahjussi?”
“Nn.”
She replied all too easily so Yeorum thought her question just then was wrong.
“…No, I mean,”
“Ohh, Yeorum. Look.” Bom said.
“Huh?”
“What do you think about those?”
Yeorum turned her head to see Bom pointing at a sandwich store operating from early in the morning.
“Ah. Yeah. Looks good.”
“Really? That’s good.”
Maybe the timing was a little off. On the way back after buying sandwiches, Yeorum asked once again.
“Bom-unni.”
“Nn?”
“I have a question.”
“What is it?”
“Tell me straight without going in circles.”
“Nn.”
“Do you love Yu Jitae?”
“No?”
Again she replied all too easily – naturally as if she had never even considered such a thing. Yeorum glanced at her face and found the usual indifferent expression that hid her inner thoughts.
“Then?” Yeorum inquired deeper.
“What ‘then’? No is a no.”
“No but, like, don’t you feel clingy? Trying to have him for yourself or liking him so much that you could die?”
“Nn. I don’t.”
Her response was a little strange. If Kaeul was right, she shouldn’t be answering like that. Kaeul mentioned that she had not yet told Bom about the things she knew of, which meant that Bom probably didn’t know how Kaeul had witnessed it…
Yeorum walked in large strides before stopping in front of Bom.
“You know.”
“Nn? What are you doing?”
“Let’s talk.”
Stopping on the spot, Bom blinked her eyes.
“I’m serious. This isn’t something simple.” Yeorum added.
“Is this related to the question you asked before?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm… But why are you asking that all of a sudden?”
“It’s strange no matter how I see it. From what I’ve seen from time to time, I feel like there must be something between you two.”
“Who knows… I do cling to ahjussi quite a bit.”
“What if it’s more than that?”
The expression on Yeorum’s face was serious and even grave. After looking into her eyes, Bom let out an awkward smile while touching her hair.
“What happened to you today…”
“There’s something, isn’t there?” Yeorum asked.
“Nothing.”
“Really?”
Bom placed her hand next to her chest in response. The dragon heart – next to which was the [Origin Fragment].
“You know. I have it too.”
The fragment embedded with the power of the first dragon of the ancient era, the [Ancient One]. It was always next to the hearts of dragons that were going off on an Amusement by crossing to a nearby dimension.
It was in a way a beeper. Like a passport or a plane ticket.
At the same time, it served as a guide so that young hatchlings would not become overly immersed in their Amusements.
“We all got it confirmed by the lord on our way out right? But if I love ahjussi when I’m in the same boat as all of you, wouldn’t that be very dangerous?”
“Right. Exactly what you said. That’s also why I’m acting needlessly serious right now.”
Taking a pack of cigarettes out of her pocket, Yeorum placed one between her lips and ignited it by creating an ember from her fingertips.
“How unlucky are we on our first Amusement, right. We came out and got f*cked.”
She took a deep breath in and out along with a gush of thick smoke.
“Now we might be doing fine but when the dimensions were disjointed and we ended up being stranded here without even knowing why, what was the only thing we believed in?”
Again, Yeorum took a deep breath in.
“Nothing but the Origin Fragment, right.”
“Yeah.”
“If your Origin Fragment has a problem here, then something might go wrong for you unni while all of us get sent back. That’s why I’m asking you. Are you sure there’s nothing wrong with your Origin Fragment. Do you seriously not love ahjussi.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying.”
“They say standing guarantee for a green is at least better than going out with a blue but…” Yeorum murmured. It was a famous joke of the red race meaning that they hated blue dragons to the core while green dragons should not be trusted that easily.
Bom frowned as a joke.
“Hey. Isn’t that ridiculous? Why did you ask in the first place if you’re not even going to believe me?”
“If you do have a problem there, you need to stop playing around living normal lives and stuff. Do you have time to waste like that? You need to work on fixing it.”
“…”
“Let me ask one last time. What you said then about not having those feelings for ahjussi–”
Her gaze as she sucked in the air through the cigarette was deep. With a sharp gaze of doubt, she appeared like a hunting dog twitching its nose from the faint scent of blood.
With a deep exhale of smoke, she continued.
“Can you swear you’re telling the truth?”
The air felt heavy around them but Yeorum was asking since she was sincerely concerned.
“Nn.” Even then, Bom replied with little regard and Yeorum burned the whole cigarette on fire. Resolutely, Yeorum sharply glared into Bom’s eyes for a while as Bom returned an awkward smile saying it was okay.
Afterwards, Yeorum did not speak to her.
*
Yu Jitae looked at the pocket watch. 7 in the morning. When he was at the door of the dormitory, he happened to come across Bom and Yeorum who were returning after buying breakfast.
Bom shouted, “Ahjussi–” so he waved back in return. That was when Yeorum suddenly started running towards Yu Jitae with a bright smile on her face.
“Oh my, my darling!”
While addressing him as if she was in a good mood, Yeorum jumped up and dashed towards Yu Jitae. He was exhausted and was thus defenseless. Yeorum wrapped her legs around his waist and hung her arms around his neck.
Then, she suddenly started pushing her head forward.
Her lips were also protruding out as if she was trying to give him a kiss. Naturally he lifted his hand to stop the kid’s face before slowly pushing it away.
“What are you doing.”
“Whyyy! Do you not want my kiss?”
“Get down. I’m a bit tired today.”
Yeorum stubbornly clung to him so he raised her up high into the air before placing her down on the ground. Unable to resist the difference in strength, Yeorum was forced onto the ground like a child.
“Freaking eunuch… Come on whatever? It’s not our first time kissing ♥. Unn? Uunnnn?”
Seeing that the exhausted Yu Jitae didn’t say anything back in response, Yeorum grinned and entered the house after throwing a glance at Bom. “Ah, we bought sandwiches for breakfast,” said Bom nonchalantly while showing the bag as the two of them soon followed Yeorum into the dormitory.
For some reason, the gaze that was on Yeorum’s eyes was stuck in a corner of his mind.
What was up with these two.
However, that was just the beginning of Yeorum’s strange gimmicks.