10pm. It was time for Gyeoul to go to sleep.
While carrying the blue-haired child who closed her eyes, Bom patted her back. The gentle gasps during her sleep seemed to be conveying the child’s good mood.
“Can I try doing this once?”
That was when Yeorum asked a question while coming into her room. In her hand, there was a rubik’s cube, which had been left as is ever since Bom and Yu Jitae had solved it once.
“Do you know how to do it?”
“You mix it up and put them back together right?”
“Un.”
Closing her eyes, Yeorum mixed the cube and let out a groan. Then, she turned the cube left and right while trying to set it back to its original form.
However, the cube wasn’t easily solved and the mixed-up state of the rubik’s cube appeared to be teasing her. When she somehow cleared one side, other sides would be in a mess and when one of those other sides were then matched to one colour, the previous side would be mixed again.
“Ah, fuk.”
“Not easy right?”
“No. Wait a second.”
There was nothing impossible with strength – that was the belief of the red race. After having all the pieces come crumbling down with sheer power, Yeorum started assembling them back together.
Seeing that, Bom made a faint smile.
“Do it gently. Gyeoul is about to go to sleep.”
“Yeah. By the way Bom-unni.”
“Un.”
“Why do you live?”
“Hn?”
What kind of question is that? Bom tilted her head.
“No, you know. I asked that human. About the fun stuff of his life.”
“To ahjussi?”
“Yeah. And he said there was nothing. People live to feel joy and fun, and to be honest, having nothing means that there is no reason to live, right?”
Bom closed her mouth for a short time and pondered.
“The yellow monkey is happy by just reading a novel, and eating one delicious food makes her so happy that she could die.”
“Right? Kaeul is a bit like that.”
“But you see, from what I can tell, unni is a bit like that human.”
“I’m similar to ahjussi?”
“Let’s be real. Is there anything fun that makes you happy?”
“Hmm…”
After her contemplation continued for a long time, it seemed like a flash of thought popped up in Bom’s head.
Recently, there was something she found interesting.
“What. Is there one?”
“Un. There is.”
“What is it?”
Thinking back on something, Bom made a smile.
“Did you know, that our ahjussi actually gets embarrassed pretty easily?”
“What?”
Yeorum snorted.
“What are you saying. No matter how you see it, he’s a psychopath with no blood or tears.”
“Right? That’s what I thought at the start as well, but…”
Perhaps it was because their time spent together had increased – although Yu Jitae’s expression was hard to see through before, the current Bom could faintly feel his emotions changing ever so slightly.
“But like, what about that human? Is there something interesting?”
“Un. There is.”
“What is it? Don’t tell me you guys hug and kiss behind my back?”
“No?”
“Oh my. Look at this lass. Did you ask him to smack your butt as well?”
“Like I said, that’s not the case.”
“Then what is it?”
Bom shook her head with a subtle smile on her face.
“Aigo, Gyeoul is sleeping now.”
Then, she stood up from her seat while changing the topic. Thinking back, it was her first time feeling this much joy throughout her entire life.
Bom liked teasing ahjussi.
***
[Shallows of the Abyss (S)]
Yu Jitae infiltrated into the alternate dimension inside him. The world was dark all around and from somewhere, a hand reached out to hand over a notepad and a pen.
“Erase up to number seven.”
Nod.
After giving a nod with the wrist, the hand drew a line over the seventh name written on the checklist. Ever since the day of Kaeul’s declaration audition, Yu Jitae left the dormitory at night. It was to kill demons and since he always had sleepless nights, he didn’t feel exhausted.
An unfortunate thing was that he couldn’t perfectly figure out all the demons that would change with every regression. As power had an endogenous origin, it was difficult to clearly discern the power levels before they were released.
That was the same for everyone and it was more so for high-ranked demons, who knew how to deeply conceal their true nature.
Due to that, there would be days without any gains.
His mind returned to reality.
He was currently in Detroit – a city with large suppliers of weapons for the superhumans of USA’s Department of Defence.
Here, he found a demon. It was the leader of a group that carried out human experiments in order to test the performances of weapons. At the same time, he had also been secretly supplying Wei Yan with weapons.
“Kuuh…”
The demon with a hole in its chest let out forced breaths but soon, his body was enveloped in black flames and vanished.
It was now time to go back home. If he was even slightly late, Gyeoul who always woke up at the same time like an alarm, would be sitting in front of the front entrance looking for him.
By the time he returned home, it was morning. He thought it was the start of another usual day without any particular events.
But wearing cadet clothes, Bom spoke to him.
“Ahjussi.”
“Yeah.”
“Can you come with me today?”
Her expression was as always, difficult to read.
“Got it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. But why?”
“You always go with Yeorum and Kaeul right?”
Well that was true.
Because of Yeorum’s conflict with the reporters, he had been accompanying her several times and he followed Kaeul a few times because she was a famous cadet as well. Besides, he needed to keep an eye out for Kaeul because her mind was fragile by nature.
Fortunately, the two were adapting to the situation relatively well. In Kaeul’s case, she seemed to have started making one or two friends.
“Heng? That’s true. Why do you not go with Bom-unni, ahjussi? You followed Yeorum-unni a lot as well.”
“Hmm…”
“Are you favouring me and Yeorum-unni? I feel bad for Bom-unni.”
“No, that’s not the case.”
“Favouring someone over another is bad… but I can understand…! My mum also used to put extra care into one or two men while meeting hundred human males.”
He was unwillingly made to hear about a gold dragon’s personal life with males.
“Oi unlike you, your mum is pretty wild.”
“Right? Hehe.”
In fact, he wasn’t very worried about Bom. There was something like stability visible from Bom and she gave off a feeling that she would be able to accomplish everything alone perfectly. Due to that, he did leave her alone more than others.
“Hmm, in that case, I’m the 98 dumped men?”
Bom then started talking nonsense.
“Why? You kidnapped me first and now you’re not caring about me. Are you perhaps the type that doesn’t care about a fish that’s already been caught?”
No, that’s not it.
“Uaah… I feel so bad for Bom-unni. Ahjussi is a bad person!”
“Right! You trash!”
Yu Jitae touched his lower lips.
“No. That’s not the case.”
Three pairs of eyes glared at him. A baby’s gaze copied them for some reason as those four gazes asked him for his explanation.
“Like I said, that’s not it.”
It was when he was starting to feel slightly perplexed. Wearing an expression that suddenly became bright for an unknown reason, Bom chuckled under her breath.
Why was she like that.
In any case, it was thus decided that he would be accompanying Bom today.
***
The lessons that day consisted of superhuman studies, magic studies, aesthetics and people skills. Perhaps due to her quiet personality, Bom didn’t seem like she had a lot of friends.
“Ah, hello.”
“Un. Hello.”
“Bom. Hi!”
“Hi.”
Although the cadets faced Bom with faint goodwill regardless of gender, they didn’t speak to her any more than simple greetings. The unique aura of dragons would have played a part. A girl whom they would like to approach, but was somewhat difficult to – that was the kind of image she had.
“Now. That would be the end for today’s study. What should we do for the remainder of the lesson?”
People skills, the general education course which would last 2 hours had come to an end after one hour. The cadets shouted “Please finish!”, and “Please…!” at the professor.
“Should we just end the lesson here?”
A cadet responded by screaming, “Yes!” and they all laughed.
“Hahat. No way! Life isn’t that easy…!”
The professor continued.
“I am a professor that knows how to keep lesson times. The remaining time will be specially allocated to a prac lesson of a social dance! It doesn’t matter which gender; please form a pair.”
Maybe the atmosphere she gave off had become an obstacle but until the starting time of the dance session, there was no-one who asked Bom to be their partner. Of all things, the number of cadets listening to the lesson was an odd number and Bom ended up alone in the end.
“Ah, you over there. Have you not found a partner yet?”
“Yes.”
“Oh no. Then how about I be…”
That was when Bom asked a question by stopping the professor’s words.
“Ah, by the way professor.”
“Yes.”
“Will it be okay to have my guardian be my partner?”
“Ahh, of course. Why not!”
Bom slowly threw her gaze over to the seats allocated to guardians. Amongst the dozen or so guardians that had come to visit the lesson today, she could see a face which was a level duller in comparison.
Yu Jitae heaved out a sigh.
Something like a social dance session was something he had never learnt or had experienced. In the first place, he had pretty much never danced throughout the repetitive regressions.
“Ahjussi.”
“Yeah.”
“Hurry up.”
“…Right.”
The Regressor’s expression was the same as always. There weren’t any emotions visible and he appeared downhearted but in contrast, Bom seemed strangely excited.
Soon, slow dance music started flowing out.
“Now. All you’re lacking is experience and you are all well-versed in theory. You all learnt it after all! So go slowly. Hold your hands…”
In response to the professor’s words, Bom reached her hand forward. For Yu Jitae, who would usually avoid physical contact as much as possible, it was a troubling situation.
When he hesitated, Bom opened her mouth.
“Why?”
“…”
“Don’t worry. Touching hands doesn’t mean the emotions get linked up straight away.”
He awkwardly held his hand out and Bom grabbed it. It was her first time holding Yu Jitae’s hand and the first impression was that it was very cold.
“Now three two. One two. Step~”
Matching the rhythm provided by the professor, people started moving. Familiar cadets moved merrily while those with an awkward relationship started dancing clumsily.
Around that point in time, Yu Jitae was more perplexed than he had ever been. With stiff movements, he continued moving his feet.
“…”
And when their eyes met, Bom started staring deeply at him. Yu Jitae looked slightly away from her, as she began laughing under her breath.
“What.”
“What? Why?”
“Why.”
“No?”
“…”
Bom’s laughter did not stop. Her face turned red and her expression turned strange as she almost teared up from laughing. Even then, she was trying to keep her mouth shut to keep her voice down, and it was to the point that she appeared pitiful.
Wait. Now that he thought about it, Yu Jitae remembered that Bom, who had been staying quiet, had suddenly asked him to accompany her today out of all the possible days.
Maybe it was for this thing… Although he doubted that was the case, he couldn’t get rid of the faint suspicion that remained in a corner of his brain.
He had no idea why this green-haired dragon was so happy though, no matter how much he thought.
“That was fun. Ahjussi.”
After the lesson came to an end, Bom returned to her usual expression and bought a can of drink from a vending machine before handing it over to him.
He obediently drank it.
“Actually, can you spare two hours or so more from now?”
“I could, but why?”
“I was thinking of buying some gifts for the children. Please come along.”
“Gifts?”
“Yes. Did you know that Gyeoul’s teddy bear is in tatters now? That plus the gifts for Kaeul and Yeorum.”
“Got it. What will you buy for Kaeul and Yeorum.”
“Kaeul seems to have made some friends recently. But she only buys clothes and isn’t interested in other things right? I was thinking of getting her a good wallet so that she doesn’t get discouraged or something.”
“And for Yeorum?”
Hmm… Bom pondered before making an awkward smile.
“A whip and some handcuffs maybe? She doesn’t even use them, and yet she apparently has a lot of interest in those things.”