Inside the screen, a pair of loving male and female looked at each other with a caring gaze.
He couldn’t sit on a chair for the movie so Yu Jitae sat next to Bom on an angle as the actors began blabbering about destiny ardently, as if they were Romeo and Juliet.
It was unclear what the trigger was.
Something tickled the back of his hand. That extremely faint touch carried with it a not-so faint implication. Turning to the side, he could see her eyes were still on the movie.
Ever since he bore romantic feelings for her, oftentimes he would feel the urge to be closer but he did not.
It was because the child felt burdened by a relationship that was too close.
[We are destined to be apart. Please, do not look for me.]
The voice of the actor put an end to their tranquil breaths.
“They really love destiny, don’t they.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you believe in fate, oppa?”
“No.”
Bom turned silent.
He likewise stayed silent as her tiny hand slowly began to wrap over his large hand. Slowly, she locked her fingers in.
“…Same.”
*
– A dragon with the blood of the green race must obey destiny, no matter what it may entail.
Those were the words of her father; the person who had been the most precious in the world.
– …Do we have to?
Asked the baby Bom.
You have to, he replied.
Leaning on his chest in his arms, Bom shook her head. Her father continued trying to persuade her, but she stubbornly refused to listen.
Because if she had to obey destiny,
Her father would definitely leave her soon.
Remembering that unforgettable scenery gave the little Bom goosebumps. It was loathsome and upsetting, but was also depressing, heart-wrenching and extremely frightening.
That was when Bom was 3 years old.
She, who would gaze at Providence a lot more frequently and in more depth than other dragons, had seen beforehand countless unfortunate events that would soon happen to her.
Bleeding while learning magic from her mother;
Drinking humans who were alive solely for her ‘education’.
The death of her precious younger sister who was concurrently snoring in her sleep next to her.
The scene of her most-precious father abandoning her most-precious mother and wrapping his arm around the waist of a different female dragon.
And herself, who would stay locked up in a small, dark, cold and lonely area all throughout those events.
Bom in her youth questioned herself. Is destiny something that really has to be obeyed?
Really…?
Thinking that, the baby Bom became very afraid of the fact that she still had to live in this world while knowing all the upcoming tragedies.
She had to retaliate.
Ever since she was born, she was kept separate and locked in a small room. It was to achieve the Grand Schema.
The only thing the infant dragon could do in that area was obediently follow her mother’s education.
Bom tried her best.
From time to time, she vomited blood. She was close to death multiple times and reached where she was right now only thanks to the sacrifice of others. Many things were taken from her and she cried a lot. It was very obvious that she was soon hated by her mother.
Despite the powerless baby dragon refusing to obey destiny, there was nothing that could be changed within the scopes of the world’s Providence.
Reality was brutal.
1 out of 100,000,000. Breaking through that low probability, Bom finally succeeded in activating a spell that reached the level of an authority and bloomed a flower on her fingertips,
But that was when her sister, who was going through the same education as her, died from a sudden mishap.
Destiny was unable to be disobeyed.
There was a risky surgery which from ancient times had been frequented by dragons who wanted to gain more strength. Her mother said she had to take that surgery for the Grand Schema but her father was against it, because none of the dragons were able to survive through that surgery.
However, Bom was alive;
And her father discarded her family.
All the future she had seen became reality.
Destiny was a rope that tightened day after day around her neck – it was like a ceiling and a wall that constantly drew closer in that forced her to twist her body to fit in.
– When I was young, I gave my younger sister all the toys whenever she wanted them.
– I didn’t feel bad even when my whole life was stolen by someone.
Of course she had greed at the start.
However, after realising that it was ‘destiny’ that decided whether something would belong to her or not regardless of her desire,
Bom let go of her greed.
– Besides, I don’t need connections. I don’t feel lonely so there is no need to build any relationship.
– Do you think precious relationships or whatever breaking apart matter to me?
She had a lot of precious things.
But regardless of whether she considered them precious or not, it was in the end ‘destiny’ that decided whether it will approach or distance away from her
So Bom gradually began to create a gap between herself and her precious things.
Both objects and relationships – everything went further away against her will.
Nothing changed no matter how much she tried. Retaliation did not work.
I can’t do anything…
Bom lost to destiny and was deprived of the ability to fight back. She wanted to escape from the life of a marionette to walk on her two feet, but her legs were crushed before she could even take a step forward.
Powerlessness squeezed her heart and took control over her emotions.
20 years wasn’t a long time but that was the entire period of the existence’s life from its birth. Leaving the tiny prison into a bright world did not result in any freedom. Crawling with her crushed legs did not lead to any paradise.
Sometimes, she even thought to herself that if the final destination of life was death, that she was dying more and more everyday.
As she was lethargically thinking of such things on the ground on a certain day.
– Hi.
Someone reached forth a hand drenched in blood.
*
Bom held his hand.
Lifting her finger nails up, she scratched the back of his hand. Was it ticklish? He sneakily tried to pull it back so she slowly wrapped her fingers around it, bidding him to stay. His hand still retreated but his thumb remained in her grip.
He could not pull that away.
“…”
The movie reached its climax.
In search of the woman who was exiled from the land, the son of the feudal lord – the main character – left the castle. His intimidating father utilised the military while the son met countless risks including bandits, before at last coming across the woman who was living by herself in the depths of the mountain.
As the lips of the two drew closer,
Yu Jitae was suddenly made unable to watch the movie – something was blocking his vision.
Bom was sitting on his lap.
The atmosphere wasn’t as usual. There was not a sliver of mischief in her expression but it was also not that serious.
She looked slightly sad, and rather lethargic.
“What’s wrong.”
He stayed still as Bom reached out and laid her hand on his chin, before caressing his coarse skin.
It was troubling – even more so than everything that had happened until now.
“Come down. You’re blocking the screen.”
Bom did not say anything in response. Instead, she brought her face closer and simply stared deeply into his eyes.
Then, she leaned on his chest and rested her head on his collarbone. He felt increasingly more perplexed and felt like he had to push her head away but that was when she opened her mouth to ask a question.
“Am I being too pushy?”
He replied, “I think so,” but what came back was a nasal sigh.
“If I’m not pushy, I would never be embraced.”
He stayed silent. Her hair right underneath his chin gave off her scent.
The movie continued. After putting their lips together, the man raised the woman into the air and laid her down on the bed as the two revealed more of their skin.
That was when Bom said, “Sorry.”
The moment he replied, “About what,” she lifted her body and brought her lips to his neck. The touch felt soft yet burning as if it was being torched.
He couldn’t understand it. She should be feeling burdened by physical contact, and yet here she was, initiating the contact.
Her lips soon departed from his neck. It then travelled up and landed on his chin with a chu. A little bit more above would be his lips.
Frozen stiff from the perplexity, he could only stare at her face. Bom couldn’t even meet his eyes and had her eyes facing down feeling even more perplexed than he was.
With a flushed face, her face came right up to his nose as her lips landed over his own. Her ticklish breath seeped out from her twitching lips.
He was about to open his mouth after she raised her head but Bom brought a finger to his lips. ‘Shh–’ After a very soft whisper, her face drew closer yet again as her lips parted mid-way. Only after sharing another deep kiss did the two separate.
With quivering hands, Bom grabbed onto his cheeks and whispered with a tiny voice.
‘……Am I pretty?’
This question was for her to verify whether he had romantic feelings for her or not.
He laid his hand on her face in response. Realising that was a ‘yes’, she felt her heart skip a beat. Bom couldn’t even look into his eyes so she lowered her gaze to his chest.
Even then, she couldn’t help but open her mouth.
‘You have to know that oppa,’ she whispered.
‘Know what.’
‘You weren’t like this at the start…’ Her face came closer yet again as they shared another deep kiss.
‘I’m the one that changed it.’
As their lips regrettably parted, the child slowly reopened her eyes. Her grass-coloured eyes appeared even larger today.
‘I’m the one that made oppa like this…’
Bom demanded for a hug before wrapping her arms around his neck. Habit was a scary thing – by the time he realised it, he was already hugging her back. Her heated breath touched the side of his neck.
She let out only a sliver of her honest thoughts which she could not fully share.
‘Why is it that it makes me feel so anxious…’
Providence which had driven her life to the gutters every single time naturally did not miss its target this time either.
‘Please don’t leave me…’
A black-haired woman would share love with him, leaving her powerless and deprived. Just like how her sister had died. Like how her father had left them.
However, Bom did not want to lose it anymore.
‘I’m the one that did it… This Yu Bom was the one and yet…’
Yu Jitae.
He was the one that she ‘wanted to obtain’ that she had at last discovered, and was ‘precious’ to her. Her desire to possess and her love was powerful enough to tremble her mind.
This was one thing that she did not want destiny to steal.
‘Please don’t find other people pretty with those feelings… If you do, I might cry myself to death…’
Bom serenely laid her emotions out.
“…”
He felt dizzy.
There was something that popped up in his mind.
In the past, when he was drawing with Bom, there was something she had said while creating a pink flower on the dark painting.
– You see, even though a flower may look small and fragile…
– Even for a tiny period of time…
He realised what Bom was trying to say and the words that left after she opened her mouth made him all the more certain.
‘If you think I’m pretty, please love only me.’
Bom wanted to be the only flower for him. She wanted to lay her roots down.
‘If you have to embrace someone, please embrace only me.’
The child needed a verification to push away the thoughts that were making her anxious.
‘Please embrace me, till I break…’
Her whispering voice quivered. A strand of tear travelled down her cheek.
‘…Before I break down.’
Yu Jitae pulled her closer into his embrace.
Overlapping their lips again, and feeling the rapid sound of her heart and the warmth behind her hand,
As Bom uncontrollably shivered and suddenly felt suffocatingly frightened of hearing his reply,
He finally opened his mouth.
‘Alright.’
Bom felt her mind being erased clean.
‘I’ll love only you.’
*
She was once again embraced by him.
There was one problem. Her nervousness became so severe that she was about to explode. The last bastion had to be protected and she could not go any further in this physical relationship, but she was about to lose her mind first at this rate.
Bom needed chocolate.
Due to both her body and heart melting from the kiss, Bom had trouble using magic and had to slightly twist her body to grab the chocolate. However, she couldn’t reach it. She tried again, but her arm still did not reach it.
She was still in his arms, and could only reach the chocolate if she were to escape from his arms but she did not want to, nor did he let her go. Bom repeated closing and opening her hand in mid-air a few times but Yu Jitae soon noticed it and reached out to grab the chocolate.
Raising a block of chocolate, he gave it to Bom. Her lips that had been craving for his lips until now slightly parted as her tongue crept out – she was asking him to feed her.
This situation was still quite troubling for Yu Jitae and he needed some mental relief so he decided to ventilate his mood by teasing the child a little. He let the chocolate touch her tongue slightly before pulling it out. Closing her mouth, Bom looked at him with her eyebrows in the shape of 八.
In another bout of deep kiss, Bom could not have the chocolate. Her mind went further and further away. Her eyes constantly landed on his collarbone; his thigh that was touching her own; his muscles that she could reach with a slight shift; his large hands and his Adam’s apple, and her sight continued giving rise to bad thoughts. Thoughts that would in the end drive her toward destruction.
That was why she had a gloomy look on her face. Give me the chocolate. Please just put it into my mouth. She glared at him with such thoughts behind her gaze.
Yu Jitae took the chocolate into his hands again with an amused look on his face. He suddenly appeared very infuriating but Bom knew she was the one on the losing side. She brought her tongue out once again but what came instead was his thumb that blocked her mouth and pressed on her tongue.
It seemed that he wasn’t intending on giving it to her. Left with no choice, she started licking the chocolate off his finger. A restless breath and a plea similar to a moan continued as bad thoughts rose all across her body. Bom was close to losing her mind.
At last right before she was about to lose control of herself, he took his finger back and placed the chocolate above her tongue. The thick and mind-numbingly sweet flavour immediately filled her mouth. After finally receiving what she wanted, Bom closed her eyes and diligently melted the chocolate.
Soon, she turned her head and looked at him;
Hoping he could feel the same flavour as her.