“Ahjussi, we received a newsletter from Gyeoul’s school regarding the student council training excursion.
“Ahjussi. Who do you think will be the best opponent for Yeorum’s next fight?
“Ahjussi. Kaeul…”
That day, she looked for Yu Jitae more often than usual.
He was the same as always – with a hazy look on his face, he gave dull replies and made appropriate judgments. Even though none of the other baby dragons found anything strange about him…
Bom vacantly stared at Yu Jitae.
*
In the evening, she and Kaeul had something to ask him for.
“Ahjussi.”
“Yeah.”
“I’ll go outside for a bit with Kaeul.”
“Go where.”
“There was a place Kaeul had been wanting to go to for a while. It’s a cherry blossom festival and it looks like there will be a lot of spirit beasts.coming to the festival.”
“How about you go three days after instead of the next few days.”
“The cherry blossoms have started withering already, and it’ll be hard to see them after 3 days.”
“Hmm. No. Stay at home for a few days.”
“Why?”
“Just stay home.”
Kaeul turned to Bom with blinking eyes, while Bom nonchalantly gave a nod.
“Okay.”
Bom took Kaeul and was on the way out of Yu Jitae’s room, but she suddenly stopped and opened her mouth.
“By the way, ahjussi.”
“Yeah.”
“You’re looking at your watch a lot today.”
The two of them looked into each other’s eyes.
“You’re overthinking things.”
After returning to her room, Bom bit her finger nails.
Chomp, chomp… she had been skeptical all morning but that just then made her certain.
That, is not Yu Jitae.
Every moment and time she had spent with Yu Jitae was arranged in her mind in chronological, locational and behavioural orders. It was a habit she had picked up ever since she planned on making him back into a human, and she became ever so sensitive after he started holding affection for her. Bom was assured based on all those reasons, that Yu Jitae would never touch his watch as often as today.
In fact, he was even fidgeting with the watch right when she left the room, and he appeared to be contacting someone.
Is it a big deal to touch a watch for communication? Others might think that and gloss over it and in truth, Clone 1 found nothing wrong with his own actions despite having the memories of Yu Jitae.
However, Bom certainly felt something was off. In certain areas, she knew more about Yu Jitae than Yu Jitae himself.
Yu Jitae was a transcendent. Even though he might be temperamental at times and act based on his mood, his actions at times that are not affected by his emotions are precise and equal like the cogs of a machine. His breath, stride, pulse and so on.
So connecting straight to his watch every time he ended a conversation with the kids despite there being no outside factors like emotions in this normal daily life – how isn’t that bizarre?
Bom thought to herself.
Then who is that person who looks like a spitting image of oppa? He was probably his substitute, who used to occasionally appear at Unit 301 in the past. Oppa’s substitute who had been eating the tasteless food in his stead…
The reason Yu Jitae left the substitute here without saying anything, must be because he had to leave for a bit, and there is most certainly a reason why he had to leave.
Whether he was alone or with someone else,
There also has to be a reason why he kept it a secret.
After finishing her line of thought, Bom pulled open the curtains which she had left closed for a long time and gazed off into the distance.
She could see a full moon. The sky was clearer than usual and was especially brighter than normal with countless stars embroidered on the sky. There would usually be clouds covering parts of the sky but there was not a single obstacle hiding the moon tonight.
In her eyes, it looked quite romantic,
So much so that it would be a waste to stare at it alone…
In that instant, Bom stood up from her seat.
***
Hotel room – 10 pm.
Yu Jitae was checking the messages from Clone 1 when Myu murmured with her eyes staring outside the window.
“The moon is beautiful.”
She was sitting on the chair, staring into the bright moonlight. He had never considered the moon pretty but if the kids were to see the moon tonight, they probably would have called it beautiful.
“Are you really going to spend the night here?”
He didn’t reply.
“I am sure I told you to get two rooms.
“Are you going to sit there the whole time?
“It is so unpleasant to my eyes that I cannot fall asleep.”
He was in the same room to supervise Myu. Although it wasn’t impossible to supervise her even if he was in a different room, it was small elements like these that connected directly to one’s attitude.
“Go to sleep already. It is night time.”
“Do not tell me what to do. I will do so when I feel like it.”
It was an irritating day for him.
If the one in front of him wasn’t the black dragon with a cracked Will of the Ancient One, Yu Jitae would have smashed Myu to death multiple times.
Yu Jitae glared back at Myu who scoffed in response.
“My Nemesis, you sure do consistently hate me.”
“Stop speaking and go to sleep.”
But Myu wasn’t happy about Yu Jitae’s consistent attitude throughout the whole day either. Tucking her black hair behind her ear, she continued on.
“Truly strange is it not…?”
“…”
“Your hatred when we first saw each other was over the top, and despite harassing me already, you look keen to hate me even more.”
He didn’t reply back.
“You said you hated our entire race. Right, some world got destroyed by a black dragon, was it? That’s the nature of a black dragon and that’s why you hate any dragon of the black race – was that what you said?”
“Shut your mouth and sleep.”
“No, I will not sleep. Think about it. Is that enough of a reason to hate me?”
Yu Jitae, who had been quietly looking at his watch, frowned. His eyes filled with irritation looked up and reached Myu.
“The way you treat me is beyond cruel. I am too frustrated to fall asleep and am discontent with this situation. Thus my question.”
“Sleep.”
“If you tell me, I will. So speak. Even if you hate our race, is that a reason for me to be detested by you?”
Myu closed her mouth tightly after stopping her words. Yu Jitae’s expression as he glared at her suddenly made him look like a mass murderer.
He didn’t reply as the room turned oddly silent and Myu could not guess what was going through Yu Jitae’s mind.
“Myu. I will say this one last time. Lie down, put your blanket on and close your eyes.”
Her eyes widened as her heart began to beat faster. But even then, she retaliated without falling back.
“Is overbearingly forcing me the only thing you can do? Are you just a poor talker or do you have nothing to say to rebut my logic.”
“…”
“You cannot even reply, and I will just be harassed by you because of your petty, narrow-minded and stereotypical way of thinking. Am I wrong?”
“…”
“Ahh… how many poor existences there must be that got their lives ruined by you.”
It was then. Yu Jitae dashed forward and grabbed Myu by the hair as she groaned, “Ugh!”
“What is this for! Let go!”
“Come here.”
Yu Jitae pulled her hair and walked forward. She helplessly got pulled over with her bum dragging across the floor.
He fully opened the curtains and pushed her head towards the glass window of the hotel room.
They were on the 24th floor and a forest of buildings was revealed in front of the superhuman and the dragon.
“Let go! You detestable human!”
“Do you see it?”
“See what!”
“Look.”
Myu had an increasingly bigger fit so Yu Jitae dropped her hair. Crumbling down onto the floor, she finally turned her gaze outside the window.
4th District – Hôtel de Ville. The large road connecting from the rivers of Seine were filled with starlight – they were people that were each raising a torch.
Seeing that, Myu frowned.
“What is…”
The galaxy on the ground connected all the way to Hôtel de Ville, the city hall of Paris, and hanging on the city hall alongside the French flag was the flag of Australia.
[Forever Australia]
The incident that had shocked the entire world a few months ago.
The Catastrophe of Australia.
“Did you say putting you on the same level as other black dragons and harassing you is a wrong thing to do? I’m ‘narrow-minded’, was it?”
Hundreds of thousands of casualties, billions of dollars in human and material damage. Paris wasn’t the only city with this assembly. People gathered once every month ever since the incident all around the globe to cherish the memories of the victims of the Australian disaster.
Yu Jitae replied with an apathetic voice.
“You’re not wrong.”
Myu glared at him with a venomous look on her face but Yu Jitae merely looked down at her with the same hazy expression.
“875,000 deaths and 170,000 destroyed households. Those are the people you have wretchedly killed.”
“And what about it?”
“You killed them, but it has nothing to do with you in your mind, does it? That’s what every other black dragon was like. So then what is the difference between you and them.”
“…”
“From my experience, all the black dragons were the same as you. They kill people, devastate the land and pretend like it’s the most natural thing for their race. However, I wished that wasn’t the case for you when I first saw you.”
“…What?”
“Did you think making you like this had been my initial goal?”
Bewitching people with brainwash?
Shooting the Downfall to attack the Association as Q?
Destroying the Tower of Mages?
Those were fine. He was only interested in the survival of the entire humanity and had no interest in the deaths of individuals.
“I was going to overlook it.”
Was it because she had purple eyes?
Maybe.
Was it because of the daily life he learned while living with the baby dragons?
Perhaps that was the case.
“It was on a whim.”
Myu was given a chance to be treated as a person from Yu Jitae.
“But wasn’t it you who ruined it with your own hands?”
However, Myu didn’t seem convinced.
“Then how are you any different from us, black dragons, huh? This land was supposed to be my nest. You ruined my plan, and all I did was damage my nest a little in a fit. What is the issue there?”
Words alone wouldn’t be enough.
Yu Jitae once again grabbed Myu. Her sloppy gown was about to be undone but neither of them were interested in something like that.
Raising Myu, he jumped out the window. Feeling the descent, Myu groaned.
“Open your eyes.”
In a flash, Yu Jitae and Myu were standing in the middle of the assembly. Although Myu was wearing a gown and standing bare-foot on the road, none of them spared a glance at her.
Even though only the torchlight had been visible in a distance, there were also signboards in this place and written on them were messages such as ‘We loathe monsters’, ‘We will not forget the war’ and ‘We will grieve with Australia’.
Some of them were even carrying portraits of the deceased. It had the names, faces and ages of the unfortunate victims that were announced by the Australian federal government, and there were also short descriptions about them next to their pictures.
Pushing her face in front of the portraits, Yu Jitae whispered into her ears.
[Polchesky, who was concerned day and night about making the best clothes: Hope the angels of the sky cover you with their garment.]
“You guys are always the same. Every one of your actions lead to destruction.”
[Smith of the blueberry farm who had worked diligently on the farm: The seeds you have sowed this summer will bloom next year without fail.]
“Like a virus planted by nature. You pollute everything you touch and kill it.”
[Our little angel Hariban who just started to walk: It was too early for those wings but wish you can fly freely over there.]
“And yet when I rip their limbs and half break their necks and ask them, this is what they always say,
“Have a look at my memories.”
[Devoted daughter, Flera, who quit the college of her dream to help her sick mother.]
‘The dwarves of the land attacked me first.’
[Mother Alisha who had always felt sorry for her daughter.]
‘Those elves made me angry first!’
[May your family live happily in the painless heaven.]
‘It was to protect myself.’
Seeing those memories;
And in the face of the tragedy she had caused.
The voices of the black dragons she knew nothing of that she could see inside Yu Jitae’s memory, were awfully similar to her own.
“Do you still think you are different from other black dragons?”
‘I attacked Earth because I was in a bad mood,’ was not a valid excuse.
Revealing her fangs, Myu turned her face away with a face resembling a devil. However, Yu Jitae grabbed her chin and cheeks with a tough grip.
“Don’t turn your face away.”
“Let go…”
“Look closely, at what you have done yourself.”
Even at this moment, this black dragon had no sense of guilt. She was just annoyed by the fact that she had to look at the consequences of her actions.
Why?
There was no reason.
It was simply because Myu was a black dragon.
“Don’t forget your position, Myu.”
“…”
“You were long supposed to die and yet I’ve kept you alive. You were discontent with the isolation so I moved the room for you, and I let you leave every time you want to. I give you an inch and now you whinge for a mile?”
The reason he was treating her this nicely was because of the daily life he learned by living with the baby dragons.
However, this was not Yu Jitae’s original method.
“You, you…”
“Try babbling nonsense one more time. I will chase you out of your nest, skew your hands and feet on a stick and leave your flesh inside out for an experiment anyday.”
“…”
“You will wish to regain these privileges when that happens, but won’t ever be able to retrieve them.”
But it was then. Yu Jitae suddenly looked off in the street after sensing something – from a place not so distant from where he was at, he could sense Bom’s aura.
Yu Bom?
Why is she…
He frowned in thought but that created a tiny gap.
“Don’t make me laugh–!”
A ‘dragon fear’ powerful enough to shred one’s ears resonated across. The people forming the assembly turned towards her in surprise and found Myu kicking a nearby incense after escaping from his grip. The portraits of the deceased, the heartfelt gifts and letters written in tears all scattered and fell.