Episode 94: Umbrella (2)
However, Kaeul did not cry. She wiped a drop of tear with her hand and smiled awkwardly after separating from Yu Jitae.
“Ah, ummm, I’m fine.”
With a myriad of emotions in her mind, she opened her mouth.
“Ahjussi told me before, right. To prepare for a good farewell…”
Kaeul asked back then, on how there could possibly be a thing called a good farewell.
“I did. Do you get it now?”
“Noo… I still don’t really get it. But, I’ve prepared a lot for it.”
She spent time with the baby chicken by investing a lot of time from her life. Meeting friends was her only source of entertainment but she recently applied for a leave at the school. On top of that she rejected the chance to live a steady and successful life as a superhuman.
Kaeul had tried her best.
“Yeah. I know.”
“Then, this, should be a good farewell right?”
In fact, he didn’t know what exactly a good farewell was either, and had no idea how to make a farewell good. However, he had seen Kaeul try as hard as she could throughout their time together so he replied without a sliver of hesitation.
“Of course. Let’s continue preparing in the remaining time we have.”
Kaeul nodded as her voice became a little brighter.
“I should…! Actually one time, I went to a spirit beast cafe and you know what~? Every puppy there had a dog tag on their necks. Every one of them!”
“Really? What about it though.”
“Like you see~ Chirpy is a piggy so it’s hard to make a necklace for him. He’s also too fluffy; it looks weird.”
“That’s not good. And yes, I guess it would strangle him if you put it around his neck.”
“Right! That’s why, I’m making an anklet right now! To use as an identification tag…! Ah, I should hurry up and finish making it…!”
“Yeah yeah. Hurry.”
“Uun uun!”
Kaeul hurriedly turned towards the door but her feet suddenly came to a stop. Turning around and facing him, she asked.
“…He, should be here for a few days at least, right?”
She still needed more time.
*
The baby chicken actually had to leave way earlier, and from time to time, it did try to leave.
The spirit beast, ‘Chirpy’, had his home, a house to return to and a family. But because Kaeul wanted to prepare for a good farewell and spent more time playing with the baby chicken, it in fact ended up discouraging the baby chicken from leaving.
All the spirit beasts that were waiting for him had already left. The dimensional gap wavered at times and yet he had to leave Lair during the newborn superhuman competition. Despite those situations where the path of return could have disappeared, the baby chicken did not leave.
And yet he was trying to leave now and there was a reason behind that.
‘When do you think Chirpy is going to leave?’
‘Ah, I just thought ahjussi might know it…’
After telling her that he would immediately look into it, he connected his mind with Clone 2.
– Yes, my lord.
The clone had arranged the residence for Ha Saetbyul a while back. Yu Jitae had severed their mental connection for an experiment and got the results back from it.
After that, Clone 2 had been protecting the dimensional gap the whole time. The reason such a precious military might was being a mere watchman was because the fissure connecting Earth to the other dimension [Anum] was that important.
‘How are things?’
– It is starting to close. It has been gradually closing ever since I came here.
Ever since the end of the ranking competition, the baby chicken had been heading to the fissure every day to check its shape. There were two reasons why the baby chicken was trying to leave now.
– It is gradually collapsing in its closure and the 4/7th barrier is also starting to snap. Even from the outside, it is evident that it is about to close soon.
One of the two reasons was that the fissure was changing to a ‘closing shape’.
‘How long do you think it will take for it to completely close.’
– At best, it will last 7 hours.
‘…I see.’
*
Reality was cruel to people at times.
No matter how much they yearned for each other, they were sometimes put in situations where they could not even miraculously come across each other or coincidentally walk by one another.
That was the state they were in right now.
Kaeul was shopping with Bom and Gyeoul, in order to calm herself down before decorating their final moments together. But she immediately returned home after hearing the sudden news.
‘Sorry? A few hours…?’
The baby chicken would be leaving very soon.
The chicken was actually still fast asleep. He would probably be confused about the turn of events as well because he would have to hurry back home after seeing the rapid changes to the fissure’s shape.
‘I, I haven’t even prepared myself yet…’
She didn’t have time to sit still and accept the reality and her hands moved despite the shocking situation. She completed the identification anklet that she had almost finished and hurriedly left the residential area to go to somewhere far away.
When she returned, she was carrying a small gold-coloured scale in her hands.
[Reverse Scale]
The one and only reversed scale that appeared around the chin of a dragon. Its nerves were directly linked to the dragon heart and it encompassed a lot of refined mana that flowed in from the heart. Dragons tended to immensely treasure it.
Receiving Bom’s help, she punched a hole in her reverse scale and connected it to the anklet.
At that point, there was less than an hour left.
Soon, the baby chicken woke up, and it was time to bid farewell.
‘…’
Together the three of them headed to the restricted area, went through the underground passage and arrived at the warehouse.
In front of the unstably fluctuating dimensional tunnel, Kaeul hung the anklet around the baby chicken’s ankle, said goodbye to the baby chicken and gave it one last hug. Worried that delaying things too much would be vexing, she couldn’t even give a proper hug.
Without even enough time to properly dwell on their emotions came the cruel separation.
The baby chicken left them.
***
Is it because it was a sudden farewell? Or because she had been preparing it for a long time? Regardless, Kaeul did not cry. Even when she was sleeping alone in her room which used to be inhabited by two; even when she was cleaning up the leftover belongings of Chirpy, Kaeul did not mourn.
After all that she blankly stayed lying down. Despite loving sweet stuff so badly, she did not touch a single sweet snack and stayed holed up in her room for several days without having any food.
The people around her were curious. One of them asked her.
“…Unni, are you okay?”
Whenever she was asked such questions, Kaeul replied.
– Uun. I’m fine.
Kaeul left the room after a few days.
The baby chicken was no longer here. So there was no longer any reason to stay in her room.
“I, am going to go out, and try to continue with what I was doing.”
So after a few days, Kaeul returned to Team Lair.
“Welcome back. We were waiting for you.”
“I thought you were never coming bacck…”
A lot of people were shocked when she announced that she would stop her career as a superhuman. They ranged from the ones that supported Team Lair from the outside as well as the members of Team Lair.
“I’ll try my best.”
*
Without coming back to Unit 301, Kaeul focused on her work. Until the cold winds stopped blowing; until the midday sun started to feel warm.
Kaeul did not contact Unit 301. She only picked up the call when Yu Jitae or other kids occasionally contacted her.
One of the kids was disappointed.
“Like fuck, how come you’re not giving us a single call? Do I have to watch the news to hear stories about you?”
– Sorry. Hehe.
Kaeul apologised.
But even then, she never gave them a call first.
*
It happened one day. Blankly, Kaeul gazed down at the knife in her hand and wondered.
Why am I carrying this?
Her hand holding the knife appeared strange, and so did her military outfit. Vacantly standing on the spot, Kaeul looked around. Within the remaining rubbles of a city, in the midst of collapsed buildings, she was standing by herself.
Suddenly, she found everything to be empty and meaningless.
Why am I empty?
It was strange.
She had a home that she could return to any day, and had a job that she could wholeheartedly focus on.
There were people that wanted her. And the people she wanted were also there.
Everything was still there.
Despite that, Kaeul had a very strong feeling, which she had never felt before, that everything was in vain.
“…”
Is it because Chirpy left?
No…
Although the final moments went by rapidly, she didn’t have any regrets. She did her best to Chirpy and Chirpy also peacefully went back home. She was able to send him off with a smile.
Even then, Kaeul felt empty.
No matter how much she contemplated it, she couldn’t tell why.
“Kaeul. Can you come and heal this child here!?”
“Uh, uh…?”
“There are a lot of them hurt over there so I have to go! Hurry up!”
Yong Taeha said with a shout.
Kaeul quickly ran up to the injured kid and crouched in front of them. She was in a dangerous battlefield where unauthorised personnel weren’t allowed to come in and in a place like that, Kaeul had to heal someone.
She couldn’t use healing magic, because that would kill the child.
With awkward hands, she opened the first-aid kit. Even though she learned and still remembered it, she wasn’t good at it. She disinfected the wound with trembling hands, applied a paste over it and pressed it down with a bandage.
Kaeul tried her best and yet it was still sloppily done. She was terribly ungifted at using her hands.
That day, after raiding the fissure that suddenly appeared, the superhumans went to an expensive restaurant and consoled each other while barbequing meat and drinking wine. However, Kaeul found that place to be like a bed of pins and needles.
She did not know how to drink wine. She could not empathise with the laughing and chattering voices, and things weren’t interesting because of that.
Kaeul, who had been blankly gazing at her glass, was about to raise the scabbard that was on her waist that oddly annoyed her when sitting down to place it on the table.
That was when her eyes caught sight of a variety show that was being shown on the restaurant’s TV.
[The song ‘Garbage’ by the new singer Jung Yuran! Please welcome her with a round of applause!]
She was vacantly gazing at the screen when a familiar girl appeared on it.
“Huh? I know that girl from somewhere.”
“Isn’t she from Lairr…?”
Yong Taeha and Ling Ling said.
Right. She was indeed from Lair. Once, they used to be friends at the same travelling society and later she was the girl that Kaeul had a strife with during the audition of Lair’s masked singing contest.
A bad girl, who felt inferior to her and tried to pull her down behind her back.
[“Hello. I’m Jung Yuran!”]
Kaeul blankly stared at the screen.
She, became a singer huh…
When the beautifully-clothed girl turned around and faced the camera, people clapped out loud in admiration.
In alignment with the instruments playing at the back, the child began to sing. She naturally danced in between and her high notes clearly resonated across.
It’s a good song, and she’s good at singing. She must have practised a lot…
The audience let out a thunderous applause as Kaeul vacantly gazed at the screen. After the performance, Jung Yuran gave out a bright smile. She looked very happy.
In her hand was a microphone.
Kaeul looked down at her own hands.
She saw a scabbard of a knife.
*
At last, it happened.
It was when they were hunting the remaining monsters in the ruined city and saving people. There was a large flame in one of the tall buildings. An evil fire spirit that looked like a human was rampaging about, shooting flames everywhere and Team Lair’s job was to defeat it.
Thinking that it would be an unavoidable strike, Kaeul shot a spell at it.
“Wait, Kaeul–! Don’t shoot it that way—!”
It was a mistake.
A building that could have had people inside was behind the fire spirit. She knew there was a building there, and the problem was her lack of focus.
“Ah—”
They managed to kill the monster but Kaeul was shocked. They belatedly arrived at the building and checked it and fortunately, there was no deceased human inside the building.
However, there was a small puppy there. It was unable to tell whether it was caught up in the aftermath of her spell or not but the puppy was lying flat on the ground with its leg pincered by debris that fell from the ceiling.
The puppy wasn’t dead and it was sent to a vet.
“It’s okay.”
“No-one’s hurtt.”
“It’s not you that did it.:”
Her kind friends consoled Kaeul, but she did not return to the dormitory after the end of the raid.
Kaeul walked forward.
She endlessly walked forth following the path. Without a destination, she went wherever her feet pointed her towards.
That was when heavy rain started to fall. All the flames that had picked up in nearby places were extinguished and she could hear voices that joyfully shouted how it was a miracle and a godsend.
Walking down the road, Kaeul was gradually drenched in rain.
Her drenched clothes felt suffocatingly heavy. Taking off her military coat, Kaeul placed it on the ground. Her soggy shoes were unpleasant so she also took off her military boots.
In light clothing and on bare foot, Kaeul walked down the deserted ruin.
Kaeul slowly raised her head and looked up at the black sky covered in dark clouds.
That day was a similar day – the first day she met the baby chicken. After hearing from Yu Jitae that she should give up on being loved by people as early as possible, she was put in a similar mood and that was when she found the baby chicken for the first time in the streets. Under the rainy weather, the baby chicken was soaked in mud, trembling in fright inside the bush.
The scenery back then intactly remained in her head. Closing her eyes, she reminisced on the emotions and memories of the time.
Only then did Kaeul realise what the emptiness she had been feeling was.
Kaeul closed her eyes again.
Swoaaaah…
It was raining.
*
Towards the end of the cold winter,
While one’s breath still spread into white mist,
With the scarf personally woven by Bom around her neck, with the hairpin she received as a gift from Yu Jitae on her head,
Kaeul returned to Unit 301.
It was after 2 months of leaving home.