Lair was pretty cold during the dawn, despite Haytling’s protective walls stopping the chilly air of the stratosphere. Today, the sky appeared taller than usual.
That morning, Yu Jitae walked outside alone in order to create an identity for Gyeoul. Adding one more child to the virtual Yu household that had already been formed wasn’t a difficult task. However, the processing speed of the underground wasn’t as fast as himself and by the time he was returning home, it was already midday.
On the way back, a strange yet hazy wave could be felt by his senses. Sensing that, Yu Jitae stood still and looked up at the sky. There was a fissure being created in the sky, as something crawled out through the gap.
Are they coming already? It’s a lot faster than other rounds.
With such thoughts in mind, Yu Jitae carried his feet.
He visited a toy store on the way home and bought a small doll. It was a blue, ugly teddy bear. It’s name was apparently a ‘blue bear’ and he chose it because Gyeoul’s hair colour was also blue.
Taking care of everything, Yu Jitae returned to the dormitory. Leaning on the guardrail of the window, Yeorum was having a smoke.
“…”
When their eyes met, she let out a gush of smoke.
“What is that?”
Staring at the teddy bear, she asked.
“A gift.”
“What about mine?”
“There’s none.”
“Give me mine.”
“Is there something you want?”
“Un.”
“Use your own money.”
“…”
Smoke gushed out of her two nostrils.
That looked a bit like a red dragon.
Yeorum spitted on the ground and it landed right in front of his feet. When he raised his head back up, she was already long gone.
“Welcome back.”
When he walked into the dorm, he found the baby chicken welcoming him while wearing a wide smile on her face with half her body still inside her room. Meanwhile, Yeorum was on the sofa watching TV without even sparing him a glance.
Four days ago, he had applied for Haytling’s public speech academy with Kaeul and they would head there everyday around this time.
“Are you ready?”
“Ah, yes. I mean no. Wait. I don’t like these clothes so let me change into something different!”
Her room door was then shut. He pondered whether he should wait outside, but decided to walk into the dorm.
He felt a gaze from the other side of the corridor. Turning around, he found Gyeoul carefully walking up with a nervous expression.
For some reason, it seemed like she was trying to read his countenance. With tightly sealed lips, she stared at Yu Jitae’s face and would stealthily turn her eyes away whenever their eyes met.
When Yu Jitae turned his head away, she would stare at him once again, before carefully treading one step after another, as she hesitantly approached him.
That was when Yeorum, lying down on the sofa, opened her mouth.
“Was waiting for you.”
“Huh?”
“That kid was waiting for you. Ever since I woke up in the morning, she was sitting in front of the door watching it.”
Chewing on the remote, she added a few more words.
“Like a dog looking for its owner.”
He didn’t think much of it. Walking up to Gyeoul, he rested his hand on her head and shared a simple greeting by saying, “Did you sleep well?” Gyeoul did not say anything in response, and merely closed her eyes tight.
The moment he retrieved his hand, Gyeoul raised both her hands and carefully caressed her own head, with widely opened circular eyes.
“It’s a gift.”
Yu Jitae handed the teddy bear in his hand to Gyeoul and turned around.
“How’s Bom.”
“Still sleeping.”
Yu Jitae headed to Bom’s room and found Bom curling her body in like a prawn in a deep sleep. Placing a hand on her forehead, he felt it almost reaching boiling temperature.
Her fever was extremely intense but when he asked Yeorum, she replied by saying that it wasn’t that big of an issue in dragons’ standards.
“You’ve been watching that drama for a few days now.”
“Yeah, this is interesting. It’s an American drama where they fight with swords and spears but there are like seven seasons to it. I was bored to death.”
He couldn’t understand whether it was interesting or boring.
But that expression on Yeorum’s face was that of a red race before running out of their home and making trouble so Yu Jitae left some words telling her to not cause trouble. Her response, “Am I a kid?” pierced through his ears.
“Ahjussi! I’m ready!”
“Okay.”
Before long, Kaeul left her room along with a ‘tada’.
The children received three types of clothing as they entered Lair, with them being a school uniform, a ceremonial dressing and clothes to wear during battles. Currently, Kaeul was wearing a ceremonial dress that was worn during festivals and events. With a blouse on the top and a h-line skirt beneath, there was also a laurel tree brooch – the symbol of Lair – attached on her chest.
“How do I look?”
“Pretty.”
“Good!”
Yu Jitae was about to take Kaeul outside when a miserable gaze entered his sight. It was Gyeoul, hugging the teddy bear with both her arms.
“Do you want to go together?”
A flower bloomed on her hesitant expression and with a tightly sealed mouth, she slowly gave a nod. When Yu Jitae reached forth with his hand, she slowly started walking which gradually got faster, until she toddled her way into Yu Jitae’s arms. Raising Gyeoul up into his arms, he took Kaeul outside.
During the way, Kaeul continued fidgeting with the script that had been worn out in the mere span of a few days. Even without doing that, it would remain in her memories, and yet she examined the script endlessly regardless.
***
After finishing the declaration, Kaeul slowly closed her mouth.
“Hmm…”
Inside a lesson room of the public speech academy, the owner, Ahn Kimoon made a frown as wrinkles filled his forehead that had been revealed in an M shape.
“…”
Touching his chin, he thought back on the current situation.
Four days ago.
A guardian suddenly showed up and wanted to make their cadet pass the audition that would be happening in around one week. On the outside, he was so young that he barely looked like someone reaching thirties but there was still an atmosphere around him that made it difficult to reject.
Even then, what was impossible was impossible and Ahn Kimoon downright rejected it.
“I’ll give you ten times the normal lesson fee,” the man said.
…At least Ahn Kimoon was planning to reject it but the amount was too large for that.
“In return, please give her as many lessons as possible.”
Thus, Ahn Kimoon decided to accept the offer first. He said a successful pass couldn’t be guaranteed but the guardian replied by saying that didn’t matter.
That was how Ahn Kimoon started teaching the student.
And after just one day, he became dejected. Compared to those that learned how to orate from childhood and those that focused on preparing for the declaration for a few months, she was horrible. The cadet didn’t know anything including how to use tone properly, nor the way to express emotions.
“Cadet Kaeul. Today is the fifth day since we started having lessons together. And there are four days left till the audition. Right?”
A heavy voice resonated and Kaeul opened her mouth in tension.
“Yes.”
“You will receive a fat zero as a lesson student.”
“…Ah.”
Kaeul lowered her head, but Ahn Kimoon waved his hand and added more words.
“If every student was like you, how would I earn money?”
“…Sorry?”
Her melancholic expression immediately turned brighter.
“Ah, thank you.”
“You’re getting better extremely fast. Do you even sleep? Haha.”
Watching that from behind with Gyeoul in his arms, Yu Jitae knew that those words had coincidentally hit the mark. During the five days after registering for the public speech academy, Kaeul did not sleep a second. She watched every video of the previous declarations that had been given by the owner and repeated the declaration thousands of times.
It was possible because she was a dragon.
In that moment, the owner’s smile suddenly vanished and he heaved out a sigh in seriousness.
“But you see. You’re following better than I thought but you can’t be all too happy yet.”
“Yes?”
“Vocalisation, breath, rhythm. Everything’s perfect. It’s all good but there aren’t proper emotions embedded inside yet. So what if the skills are all perfect when it doesn’t ring the hearts of the listeners? Do you want me to be more frank? You are like a machine reading a declaration right now.”
“Ah…”
“You need emotions. The sorrow of a lamenting one and the desire to fight and win. Right now, you’re merely imitating it.”
The owner’s nitpicking continued for a long time. Sensing the atmosphere, Gyeoul glared at him but a baby’s gaze wasn’t that threatening.
“You’ve done well until now. But you need to practise more and do better than others because you started off later than others. That’s what you yourself wished for, okay?”
“Yes…”
After the lesson ended, the three remained in the practice room and Yu Jitae observed Kaeul. He thought she would be feeling depressed, but she was reading the declaration script with an unexpectedly calm expression.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes?”
“Are you fine.”
“Ah, yes. I’m okay.”
A short silence filled the room.
“…Umm.”
“Yeah.”
“This, I don’t understand very well.”
“Which?”
“I understand how the script should be expressed but I don’t really understand how the feelings should be. Especially from this part.”
She handed him the script.
+++
Moonlight to daylight; herbivores to carnivores; labourers to the rich; macroscopically speaking the entire universe and at a microscopic level, the microorganisms crawling between fingers. The weak have always been hunted by the strong leaving no traces behind, and had to depend on acquiring skills to keep their lives going.
+++
It was a segment that shared the sorrows of humans for their defeat against monsters.
“I have never felt a sense of danger like this you see…”
That was understandable. Even though she appeared like this, she was a dragon.
Dragons, the short-tempered beings, have always been the predators and were mostly selfish so would definitely be unable to understand the emotions of the prey.
What should be done, then…
As a soldier, as a superhuman, and as a commander, he remembered how meagre humans were in front of countless hazards. Originally, he had been planning to share a bit of his memories and emotions with Kaeul from the get go.
But Bom said, “If Kaeul directly felt those emotions, it would be a great shock to her,” so he wasn’t planning to do it but,
With only three days remaining, there was no other way around it.
After some contemplation, Yu Jitae placed Gyeoul down on top of the table. With the doll in one hand, she tried to grab Yu Jitae with the other hand but when the distance became too large, she regretfully closed her fingers.
“How close do you need to be for dragons to receive emotions?”
“Hmm… touching the clothes is fine.”
“Grab it.”
“Ah, yes.”
Kaeul carefully held Yu Jitae’s wrist. Closing his mouth, he contemplated for a short period of time before slowly opening his mouth.
“This is a story of my acquaintance.”
That was the story of a man, that worked as a centurion of Korea’s superhuman soldiers, who lost half of his subordinates, plus an arm and an eye, before ultimately being held captive by the organisation of demons.
“It was a cold day. Their toes would freeze every morning.”
He started the story of his second round of regression.