It was late summer when he had taken in Bom, Yeorum, Kaeul and Gyeoul who was attached to the necklace. And right now it was nearing the end of Spring.
Roughly 4 years and 9 months had passed since the start of the 7th iteration, and it was the longest period of 4 years and 9 months he had spent according to his memory.
Their life at Lair had already come to an end. There was no reason to live at Lair anymore except for Gyeoul’s elementary school – Yeorum and Kaeul had early graduations whereas Bom had quit school.
Had he been fully faithful in the 7th iteration?
He wasn’t sure.
However, he could still say with certainty that he had tried his hardest, just like every other iteration.
It was rough at the start. Daily life was like a flower-bed while he was a horrendous rotten statue. As the odd one out, he stood out a lot and he thought it would be extremely difficult to mix in.
However now that 4 years and 9 months had passed by, it surprisingly formed a somewhat decent-looking picture. Stems of various colours were wrapping around the statue, rising up with budding flowers as the abundant leaves provided a cover for the sharp contours of the statue.
He wasn’t the reason why the 7th iteration was faring without a problem. It was only because the baby dragons were following him nicely.
“I’m back.”
USA. State of Oklahoma.
They were in a small hotel built in the outskirts of a town.
The reason they chose this place was because this was the place where Yu Jitae had received his military education in his early 20s – back when he still had some leisure.
Bom, who had brought him here after hearing his story, was now carrying shopping bags in both of her hands as she walked back into the hotel room.
“Shall we undo your tie before anything?”
“Why.”
“Who goes on a vacation wearing a tie?”
“I do.”
“Actually, it makes me feel stuffy as well.”
For now, he decided to follow what she said.
“While you are at it, let’s take your business shirt off and change into more comfortable clothes.”
“This is comfortable.”
“Come on…”
He obediently took his business shirt off as Bom handed over a new t-shirt she just bought. It was a white t-shirt.
Yu Jitae was thus made to wear a t-shirt on top and a pair of jeans underneath. Thanks to the [Inherent Customisation (S)], they were immediately modified into fitting his body.
Although it wasn’t uncomfortable, it still felt awkward.
“…”
Throughout the process, Bom blankly gazed at him. When he turned around and faced her, her eyes curved into crescent moons.
They had a normal burger set for breakfast. This too was something Bom bought because it was his favourite food from youth.
“By the way, what’s your hobby, oppa?”
“Why?”
“We need to know what your hobby is so that we can spend a relaxed holiday.”
He tried thinking about it but could not think of anything off the top of his head.
“Did you lose interest in your hobbies as you turned older?”
“That’s probably it.”
“Then what about when you were young? Anything you liked doing?”
When I was young?
“Take your time thinking about it.”
He looked back at his hazy memories. Like old photos, they were crumpled and kept at a corner, so he needed to take a closer look at them to remember his past.
The start of his memories was at a group funeral.
He was standing in front of his parent’s portraits but their faces on even those photos were hazy.
People were weeping all around him, but he was there blankly staring at the photos without any tears in his eyes.
After that, he remembered living as a street beggar scavenging for food everyday and the middle-aged woman who gave a burger as an encouragement to his life.
His next memory was around when he was 12. He was at an orphanage alone without any friends due to his sharp personality, feeling a blunt knife cutting into his heart without realising that was what loneliness felt like.
He thought going to a school would solve the problem but the child without any conversational talents could not fit into any group, and soon noticed how the larger crowd made him feel even lonelier.
Time spent with his eyes open equaled the time spent alone.
<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] is identifying the target…>
<Identification Complete!>
It happened on one of his sleepless nights.
<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] greets you!>
Yu Jitae made his first friend.
<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: o(⋆’▽’⋆)/☆°’>
Looking through his memories one by one, he remembered something.
Vintage Clock was a clever friend.
Whenever there was something Yu Jitae was curious about, Vintage Clock would teach him like a teacher.
Even for boring questions like, ‘How do you make friends?’ and, ‘How do you turn down people who want to borrow my stuff?’ the Vintage Clock gave sincere replies.
To Yu Jitae, who had spent 12 years of his life by locking himself up in his own inner world, Vintage Clock was a parent; a friend,
<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] alerts you that a motorbike is too dangerous!>
<[Vintage Clock (EX): ٩(๑`^´๑)۶>
And sometimes even acted like a guardian.
Of course, he wasn’t the type to listen to others.
Right,
Motorbike.
*
He rented a motorbike from a nearby store.
“Did you really ride something like this…?”
Bom looked surprised because it didn’t suit her image of Yu Jitae.
His youthful heart in the past had found it cool.
He had bought it around the time he entered high school. That was near the end of the East-Asian Great War, and Yu Jitae could travel to various places thanks to the re-stabilisation of the roads.
Right now, he didn’t think much of it and would even discourage people from riding it.
“I heard these were dangerous. Apparently you die with one mistake…”
Ever since the New Era, motorbikes were considered even more dangerous. A motorbike-driver had 3 times the likelihood to die than a sedan-driver. Although healing magic could recover broken limbs, it could not revive dead people.
“Right. I was injured as well. I kind of remember slipping on a wet road and driving into a brick wall.”
“Gosh. Were you injured a lot?”
“Probably. It was like a fairly low wall and I think my body was going over it when my leg got caught.”
“Then…?”
“Leg, knee, pelvis, intestines… I don’t remember clearly but my lower body was probably all ruined. And I think the motor exploded and my leg caught on fire.”
“…”
“It couldn’t be healed with the medical skills back then so I was deemed disabled but that’s all in the past.”
“…My word.”
Bom glanced back and forth between Yu Jitae and the motorbike in fright.
And you’re saying we will be riding that?
That appeared to be the question behind her gaze.
“It’s alright. We won’t get injured.”
“But even then… So did you stop riding it after that big injury?”
“No.”
“?”
“I went slower.”
With a stupefied gaze, she glared at him.
“But I was quite frustrated back then.”
“Why?”
“Because I was 22.”
“What about it?”
It was straight after he finished his mandatory military duties.
In any case, by the time she realised it, Bom was sitting on the rear seat of the motorbike with the helmet artifact cast over her head.
“I want to get off. I don’t feel comfortable riding this…”
“We’re starting.”
“Ahh, do it by yourself please. I’m getting—”
Vruuung. The engine explosively picked up as the motorbike bounced off the ground. Startled, Bom grabbed whatever she could.
‘Nn?’
She soon opened her eyes but…
Is this it? She thought, because it was a lot slower than she expected. It was natural since no matter how fast a two-wheeled vehicle was, there was no way it could be faster than a dragon who could soar through the skies to cross continents.
‘Wait, it’s not that fast…’ thought Bom in relief but she suddenly flinched.
Carrying the two of them, the motorbike continued racing for a long time. Going far into the distance, it went on ignoring the unpaved road beneath it.
Riding through the wind, he reflected on the time he first started living his life in this world.
As expected, he couldn’t think of much.
The only things he could remember were all linked to the Vintage Clock because the Vintage Clock had always been with him through the important moments of his life.
After coming to a stop, he asked like an old man.
“How’s the scenery?”
However, he then noticed the bitter look on Bom’s face. There was a frown on her forehead, and her eyes were slightly out of focus.
Was she surprised by the motorbike being unstable?
“What’s wrong,” he asked.
“Ah n, no? You’re right…”
“What.”
“Quite pretty, yes…”
“Pretty?”
There was one unpaved road going through a barren wasteland. He was asking whether she liked the desolate mood of the countryside or not.
Was there anything pretty here? There weren’t even clouds in the sky.
Bom vacantly looked at her hand, before following him from behind.
*
That was probably back when he was 23 years old. After finishing his mandatory military duty and returning to the superhuman school, he received military education in the USA for 1 year as an exchange student.
Back then, Yu Jitae’s eating habit was pretty much a mess. Despite turning old and having money, he did not bother getting good food. He only ate food that was cheap and accessible.
He had a rather obsessive mindset that no matter how expensive food was, it would disappear the moment it entered the mouth. Yu Jitae considered food to have the most terrible depreciation in value.
So he would always shove fast food – ones that were especially low quality even from the mix – into his own mouth and the Vintage Clock would always tell him off.
<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] notifies that everything you eat and drink forms the existence, [Yu Jitae]!>
<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] recommends having better food!>
<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] notes the food in front is no different from garbage! States you should have fresh vegetables and meat!>
<[Vintage Clock (EX): [$(•̀ω• ́)$] x 55>
He checked his pocket and found 55 dollars.
So what.
Burgers are the best.
<[Vintage Clock (EX): ( ๑•̀ ロ• ́๑) “喝!!!”>
.
.
In the middle of nowhere after getting off the bike,
The two of them found a nameless restaurant. It had a board at the front, but the letters became one with the dust and was no longer legible.
They could smell the artificial ingredients and the smell of oil from a distance – the ventilation system was trash.
“What is this place?”
“I came here a few times when I was young.”
Bom pulled his sleeves.
“But, oppa. The smell is…”
She couldn’t even continue her words.
“It’s not great. I came here because of my past memory, but you don’t have to force yourself to eat here.”
“…Did you usually have food at a place like this in the past?”
“It does have its ups, but you don’t have to eat here. Let’s go to a good restaurant together at night.”
Bom glanced across the shabby restaurant with a murky gaze. The dust-filled windows made her wonder whether they even cleaned those windows or not. In fact, some of the windows were even broken and had wooden plates covering them.
Walking inside, the rotten smell of soybean oil rushed into her nose.
She was slightly surprised to find worn-out workers of various nationalities nonchalantly smoking and having their meal. They were similarly surprised to see Bom, but they hurriedly turned their gazes away after meeting eyes with Yu Jitae.
“What brings a clean man and a young lady here.”
A worn-out female staff, who appeared a lot older than her actual age, casually tossed a dirty piece of paper at their table before walking away.
It was the menu.
Going over his faint memories of the past, he ordered a corn soup, bread and a cheap sausage pizza with fries.
The old workers sitting at the table nearby were blabbering about strip clubs and the likes.
It certainly wasn’t the best place to bring kids to. He usually would have never come to a place like this.
Before long came the food.
Bom looked at it with a rigid look on her face, and very softly whispered into his ears.
‘Did you have to eat something like this…?’
‘What’s wrong.’
‘The smell… is definitely not that of normal food…’
‘Probably better than the one you make.’
He joked but Bom frowned in response.
‘Anyway don’t eat this. Let’s just go.’
‘You want to throw this away?’
‘Nn. Let’s go…’
‘You said it was my vacation though.’
‘That’s true. It is.’
Unable to say anything else, Bom could only pout but she still looked unhappy. In any case, Yu Jitae placed the meat into his mouth.
He continued with the meal but felt rather strange.
– These 55 dollars; it’s for my hospital.’
<[Vintage Clock (EX)]: ( ́•人•̀)>
“It’s fine. You can go back to the hotel first if you don’t want to eat.”
“I’m staying here. I’ll eat it as well then…”
– ‘Didn’t I tell you I like eating by myself?’
<The Authority, [Vintage Clock (EX)] firmly stands its ground.>
“I’m curious about the taste.”
<It notifies that it is curious about the flavour.>
Strangely enough, he saw a slight overlap in the thinking process of Bom and the past Vintage Clock.
He even thought to himself that perhaps this was why he was suddenly feeling romantically attracted to Bom.
Naturally, it did not make any sense.
It was when Yu Jitae and Bom were slowly putting the junk food into their mouths. Bom let out an awkward smile while having a spoonful of the soup – the astonishingly unhealthy flavour made her lips quiver.
“Oi. You folks. What’s with all that nibbling crap.”
A man sitting two tables away suddenly raised his voice. His hollow eyes, the scar going all the way up from his neck to his forehead and the Chicano-style tattoo on his bare upper body all suggested he was a part of a gang.
“What’s up with you debonair-looking blokes coming in and glaring at food like fodder, huh?”
The man lifted his body and began walking towards the two of them. He had in fact been throwing glances at them ever since they had entered the restaurant.
“Oi, Jose. What are ya doing in the middle of a fucking meal?”
“Jose. Calm down, for fuck’s sake.”
People that looked like his acquaintances pulled him by his arms and tried to stop him. They looked like they were used to things like this already.
“Fuck, let go! Those fuckers are looking down on our food like it’s some Chinese crap.”
“No-one did. You’re just drunk, buddy!”
“Drunk my ass! I hate those rich ass bastards. It feels shit enough already to see rich idiots like them coming to a place like this to watch beggars, and yet look – they’re having food like it’s dog crap!”
The man had an unstable breath and appeared intoxicated in both alcohol and drugs. Startled, Bom drew herself closer to Yu Jitae.
“Oi. You criminal-looking fucker. Tell me.”
“…”
“Does this look like dog food to you?”