Slowly Bom walked back to her seat and sat down. Even without having to look at her, Yeorum was now certain.
She could definitely feel her gaze.
Yeorum tried evaluating Bom’s situation. When their eyes met just then, she was wearing the same expressionless look on her face.
She didn’t look particularly mad. Although it was a rare sight in the first place, her eyes weren’t trembling like the time when she tried to smash the laptop.
It was the same for other elements. The heartbeat and breathing pace of a human body tended to speed up when stimulated but Bom was breathing peacefully while the beating sound of her heart couldn’t be heard.
‘What is it? Is she trying to bear with it? Or does she really not care?’
Yeorum still couldn’t say anything with certainty. In fact, asking whether she loved Yu Jitae or not in the first place might have been a mistake. If she truly loved him, that would mean that she was trying to bear it right now.
But if that really was the case, it would intrigue her a little bit because acting the role of a villainess was slightly fun.
Meanwhile, Yu Jitae’s hands slowly climbed over her knees and reached her thighs. Since she crushed every muscle in her body, her thighs were also full of reddish-black bruises. Yu Jitae carefully eased the tense muscles around her thigh.
Should I bait her a little bit more?
“You know,” said Yu Yeorum.
“Yeah.”
“Do a little bit harder please. I can’t feel anything.”
The hands that had been careful as if he was caressing a kitten felt now as if he was caressing a grown-up cat.
“Hmm, that’s good.
“A little bit more inside for the thighs.
“Yes, right there. Nnn… Ah, that’s good.”
His hands were careful as if he was trying to heal a wounded animal. Since the two of them had never thought of each other as anything above a teacher-student relationship, even a massage like this was extremely natural and wholesome.
How could a male be this boring? She thought, but it didn’t matter. As long as the situation appeared strange, it would be enough of a bait.
That was when she realised something strange.
Bom was breathing peacefully while the beating sound of her heart couldn’t be heard… was it?
…Why can’t I hear her heartbeat?
“Nn?”
“Why.” Yu Jitae asked.
“N, no. Go on.”
“…”
Yeorum couldn’t hear her heart beating. Usually she could, so the fact that she couldn’t hear it meant that Bom was intentionally hiding the beating sound of her heart.
She glanced at Bom once again. Is hiding the heartbeat a part of jealousy?
Even after reaching this point, she wasn’t sure.
Hatchlings were young and they couldn’t ignore stimulus. Depending on the perspective, the physical contact between herself and Yu Jitae might appear risque. Even if one wasn’t interested, their heart might beat faster and it was possible for them to hide it. Didn’t Yeorum herself find her heart beat fast whenever she was staring at erotic or gory things even if she wasn’t particularly excited?
Thus, the focus had to shift away from erotic things.
Yeorum had to focus more on ‘love’.
Love?
The reason this young child of the red race was reading a shoujo manga was because she enjoyed the process leading to the exhilarating result of a male and female mating. That was why the likes of ghosts annoyed her.
Therefore, she was naturally ignorant of love and nor was she interested in it.
Love…
It was difficult. The more so if it was the love of a dragon and not the love of a human. But after pondering for some time, there was something that brought itself up in her memories.
It was a part of Bom’s novel that she read.
Since it was a horror novel, she skimmed through it but in the orientation of [Out of Sin of Daybreak], there was a short articulation about ‘love’ when the female lead was expressing her love to the boyfriend she brought to the mountain shed.
What was it again?
Closing her eyes, Yeorum reflected on the words.
[…That was but a fleshly love.
Bodily love tends to occur from sensation. The eyes spot a beauty. The nose smells sweetness. Being protected to rest at a nearby pond and the feeling of elongating my existence is brought forth from a bodily relationship. But that stops once filled. It dries rapidly and something sweeter can always replace it and ache the heart.
But psychological love permeates through the stomach and levitates the entire body. It occurs not from sensation but from the time spent together. It pervades and is not filled and thus cannot be replaced with anything else. It forever establishes its position in between the soul and warmly embraces my body and mind.
This is fundamentally different from the short throbbing or aching of the heart. Thinking about it, the warmth spreading from the lower stomach to all over the body through the veins, is like ‘that’ filling the empty outer space called ‘me’, brightening it with warm light.
Though I have yet to hear such stories about love…]
At the time, she wondered what kind of nonsense this was and stopped but now that she was thinking about it, wouldn’t that novel probably convey what Bom, the author, was thinking? The meaning behind the text was still hard to decipher but she could still understand some of the key words.
So when his hands travelled past her thighs and went across the pelvis to reach her stomach, Yeorum asked something unusual.
“You know.”
“…”
“Nn? Hello.”
“Say it.” Yu Jitae said.
“My stomach hurts.”
“Why.”
“I don’t know. Pat it please.”
When he touched her abdomen, Yeorum grabbed him by the hand.
“Not there.” She said.
Then, she casually moved his hand to the lower region of her stomach. Yu Jitae retrieved his hand.
“Why would this part hurt.”
“I don’t know. But it hurts.” Yeorum replied.
“That’s strange. It shouldn’t hurt.”
“It does though?”
“…Whatever. Let’s stop the massage for today.”
“Ehng? Why?”
“It’s not like you have to use your body in the upcoming training either. This is enough so go to your room and recover. Don’t do things you weren’t even told from tomorrow onwards.”
“Ah whyy! Are you really not going to do it for me?”
Although she whined, Yu Jitae stood up without saying a word. Thus, Yeorum continued whining to at least clutch at the straws.
“Ah, ahhh! How can you stop in the middle like that? It really, really hurts though…”
It hurts – Yeorum did not know that those words were touching on the past existing only in his memories. There was obviously no way for her to know of the other red dragon similar to herself who was in so much pain unlike her joking self, who couldn’t express it till the end.
But it worked out for her.
Standing still, Yu Jitae looked into her eyes for a bit before having no other choice but to lower his hands. He was about to slowly caress her again on the stomach.
“Yeorum.”
That was when Bom, who had been watching from the side, opened her mouth with a slightly thorny voice.
“Huh?”
Acting ignorant, Yeorum turned towards her. The muscles around Bom’s eyes were shivering faintly.
“How about you stop now?” asked Bom.
“What?”
“I’ve been watching you but you’re a little bit weird today.”
“How am I weird?”
“I knew you were strange from the morning but now it’s even worse. You’re deliberately trying to trouble and corner ahjussi.”
A red light went off inside Yeorum’s head.
It was a bite. It wasn’t just a normal bite like before. She was definitely on it!
She now had to pull her out a little bit further.
“When did I do that? Do you have proof?”
“Proof? Why do you moan when you’re getting a massage?”
“I did it because it hurt though?”
“You didn’t. Do you think I’m a fool?”
Despite the situation, her voice was calm. However, she couldn’t hide the shivering of her grass-coloured eyes and the eyelashes.
“Don’t you know I was always next to you whenever you were getting a massage? You never had to go inside your thighs did you? Same as you moaning. You didn’t have to let it out? Did you?”
“Do you even freaking hear yourself. So, what if I do moan?” Yeorum asked.
“What?”
“Whether I moan from the massage or from feeling horny, what does that got to do with you?”
“What are you saying right now…?”
“To be frank, what does it got to do with you whether I spread my legs here or not? Do you have something with ahjussi?”
Yu Jitae was about to open his mouth to intervene.
“Stay still Dick Jitae, you shit!”
Yeorum shouted as if in a seizure. It was the first time he was seeing her being sincerely angry at him like this. Yu Jitae squinted his eyes.
These guys. Did they do drugs? What’s wrong with them?
They had been doing fine till now and a conflict like this had never occurred before. He contemplated whether he should give her a [Knifehand Strike (D)] to the back of her head but since the two of them looked grave, he decided to watch for the time being.
“Yu Bom. Tell me straight up. What I asked you before. You do right?”
“No.”
“You’re the only one that doesn’t see your eyes trembling like crazy. It’s the same as when you threw the laptop, so how am I wrong?”
“Yeorum. Because you were acting viciously for no reason, ahjussi was feeling troubled. That’s why I–,”
“Ahh, so you’re saying ahjussi was the one that was feeling troubled just then ey?”
“…”
“Cut the crap. Right, now I get it. I really thought there was no way but damn. You sure nothing happened to you?”
“No. It’s nothing so stop. Please.”
Bom lowered her gaze. Anxiously, she fidgeted with her small hands.
“Don’t look away from me! Look straight into my eyes and speak! Don’t you know that I’m saying all this because I’m worried? What’s wrong. What happened to your heart?”
“Yeorum. It’s really okay. No matter what strange things you requested of ahjussi, I wouldn’t have done this if you weren’t troubling ahjussi.”
With her head facing down, Bom desperately chose word by word and said with difficulty but Yeorum sneered in response.
“Ahh. So spreading legs is okay but pulling my clothes up to have my stomach touched is no good? You crazy bitch, how far are you…”
“Oi.”
Lifting her gaze that had been on the ground, she stared directly into her eyes.
Yeorum’s voice came to a stop.
The grass-coloured gaze accentuating itself from the indifferent expression and the muscles around it were shivering intensely as if in an epileptic seizure. When their eyes met, Yeorum felt her breath being suppressed.
That was when Yu Jitae growled.
“What do you think you are doing.”
Although his voice was low, it resonated clearly and froze the situation completely. Surprised, Yeorum widened her eyes into circles and turned towards Yu Jitae.
Yu Jitae was staring at Bom.
“Yu Bom. Are you out of your mind? Get rid of that right now.”
Similarly shocked, Bom widened her eyes and looked back at Yu Jitae.
Get rid of what? Yeorum couldn’t understand what Yu Jitae was talking about.
Soon, Bom clenched her lips. Blood oozed out of her lower lips and travelled down her white chin.
“Go to your room.”
“…”
Yeorum realised what Bom had been trying to do half a second after that.
She didn’t see anything nor did she feel anything. And yet the fact that Yu Jitae was warning her like that meant that Bom was manipulating ‘something’. She had pointed that extremely dangerous something at herself.
Yeorum was saying and acting out of worry and yet what was coming back in response was an extreme reaction. The moment she had a faint idea of that ‘something’ which exceeded the realms of normal animosity,
Yeorum couldn’t control her emotions.
“Oi. Where do you think you’re going.”
Bom turned back. Yeorum lifted the cup of coffee that was next to her. It was the coffee Bom had been drinking.
Before anyone could discourage her, she poured it above Bom’s head.
The hot coffee was poured over her face. With her hair and clothes turned wet, Bom frowned and glared back at Yeorum.
“Come here you fu*k.”
Yeorum suddenly moved her body. Grabbing a fist, she pushed the table and jumped towards Bom, all in the blink of an eye.
In that precarious situation, right before the two collided,
Yeorum lost her consciousness and collapsed on the floor. Yu Jitae had struck her on the back of her neck.
“…”
He turned towards Bom. With coffee covering her body, her body was trembling and her head similarly shivered left and right.
“Go to your room.”
Standing still, Bom slowly lifted her hands. Then, she wiped the coffee that was on her cheeks. After repeatedly wiping them, something besides coffee also began being wiped away. Endlessly no matter how much she wiped them.
Tears.
Bom was sobbing.
“Sorry…”
When he looked at her, she avoided looking his eyes and replied with a crawling voice.
“I knew it would turn out like this today.”
Tears could be heard interfering with her voice as she gulped and sniffed.
After crying for a long time like that, she heaved out a deep sigh. Then, she lifted her head slightly before closing her eyes. Tears dropped yet again.
“I knew it but…”
Swallowing her last words, Bom turned around and walked into her room. Only then did Unit 301 turn quiet.
“…”
Looking at Yeorum who was collapsed on the floor, Yu Jitae heaved a sigh.
***
It was dark all around.
Opening her eyes, she could only see white tiles on the ground as far as her eyes could see.
In a room like that, Bom opened her eyes.
Her head was in a daze and her brain wasn’t working straight. Her eyes were hazy.
The next thing she felt was the cold and stiff texture of the tile touching her legs. Lowering her hazy eyes, she gazed at her own legs.
Why was it? She wondered.
She wasn’t wearing anything. The only thing she could see right above the legs was the large business shirt. A business shirt with an extremely familiar smell. It was so big that she couldn’t wear it properly and her fingers were buried in the sleeves.
Since she had worn it once before, Bom immediately realised what it was.
This was Yu Jitae’s business shirt.
Why am I here like this? Right when Bom was blankly looking into the sleeves of the large business shirt, something pulled her by the neck.
“Uht…!”
She ended up falling flat on the floor. She then realised that something was tied around her neck and soon noticed that it looked similar to a dog leash.
Raising her eyes, she noticed the chains that were connected to the leash connecting far off into the darkness.
In other words, it meant that someone had pulled her just then.
Surprised, Bom twisted the leash and tried to snap it as hard as she could. However, the chains were so tenacious that she couldn’t rid herself of them.
That was when someone began walking out of the darkness.
It was definitely that ‘someone’ who was grabbing the other end of the leash.
With anxious eyes Bom gazed up at the person.
“…!”
In an instant, Bom raised her body. Her entire body was drenched in sweat.
Where was she? She was on the bed.
What was that just then? Was it a dream?
However, she felt strange. Her heart suddenly began beating fast and the suppressed emotions started rising up from deep inside.
The world shook. The blanket, the bed, the chair and even the lights on the ceiling.
No. It wasn’t the world that was shaking but her own eyes.
Awful thoughts covered her brain like a fog; a red fog. Her uneasily trembling gaze scanned through the room. Her eyes stopped at pen tips, scissors, and box cutters. Each and every one of them were sharp.
“Yu Bom.”
It was then. Someone called her by her name.
The moment her eyes met with the eyes of the person staring at her from the bedside, the fog engulfing her head dissipated rapidly. The tension weighing on her body loosened like a spell and the crazily rapid heart calmed down.
Heaving a sigh as if she was crumbling down, she leaned on the wall.
“Ahjussi…”
Yu Jitae was there.