There was a house.
A house that was very similar to the one Yu Jitae had made before at the island called ‘Peace City’.
He turned his eyes to the foundation of the house.
The ground beneath was flat and there were long and thin pieces of timber forming the structure above. Long stems were used for the bones of the walls with clusters of mud cementing them and leaves were finely intertwined to cover the roof above.
Even though it had a different form, a different structure and a different size, this was made using the same method as the operational camp Yu Jitae made at the Peace City, and was definitely an imitation of his work.
Did they really make this?
In just those few hours?
The bizarre emotions that had been rising inside him ever since they were planning for the trip were actively wriggling inside. That was when Gyeoul grabbed his hand.
“…Do you want, to have a look?”
“Huh?”
“…We made, this house.”
Her tiny hand pulled his index finger as he followed her lead.
“…There is, a window.
“…This, is the chimney I made.
“…We also made a drain, for rainwater.
“…And this, and that…”
Gyeoul clamoured while showing off parts of the house like a salesperson. There was a phrase in there that he couldn’t understand, and that was, ‘I made’.
“You mean you made this too?”
“…Yes.”
“Gyeoul did half of it…! With magic…!”
Forcing aside the strange emotions, he showed the child a reaction suited for a daily life. ‘That’s amazing,’ he said with surprise, which did not stray too much from his actual feelings in the first place.
“…Did I do a good job?”
In response, Gyeoul opened her eyes into circles and stood in front of him as she placed both of her hands beneath her chin. Her eyes that gazed up into his eyes appeared to be expecting something.
“Yes.”
He caressed her on the head. This seemed to be the right answer judging from the bright smile on her face.
“What about me??”
“You did good too.”
“Hehe.”
The broad inside of the house was also marvellous. The house was bigger than how it appeared on the outside because of the dimensional spell cast on it, and it looked exactly like a proper field operational house perhaps because of their ability to forever remember what they saw.
So…
What is it about this?
Why is this making my fingers turn stiff?
“Ahjussi. First let’s have a meal together…!”
Kaeul pointed at the twigs she had gathered and with the click of her hand, sparks appeared above the set of sticks and created a big flame alongside a buzz. There appeared to have been oil spread over it beforehand.
That was when Bom came back carrying a bucket filled with fruits, vegetables, leaves and mushrooms that she got from the mountain.
“Wow. Did you make this just then?”
“Awesome, right?”
“It’s amazing. Even better than what I was expecting.”
Stacks of meat and mushrooms were added to the grill as Bom sliced up fruits and placed them on a plate. Yu Jitae walked towards them to help with something but Gyeoul pushed forward her chubby little hands.
“What is it.”
“…Stay there.”
“Why.”
“…Shh.”
What.
When he stopped his feet, Gyeoul pointed somewhere with a rigid expression on her face. Her finger was pointing next to the protector.
Just like that, Yu Jitae was exiled.
“Guruk, kuruk…”
“What’s funny?”
“Nothing sir…”
He had no choice but to watch the kids noisily working by themselves. Kaeul grilled the meat, Gyeoul washed the vegetables clean and Bom added marinade to them.
In this place, he was nothing but a bystander watching the set of procedures. As he quietly watched them work, the doubts that had been harassing him from the start of the trip slowly began to rise up with more clarity.
All these things were things Yu Jitae had done for the children.
Preparing food was always up to him and feeding them breakfast was his habit. Providing them with a shelter to lay in was also something that stemmed from his internal mindset of prioritising rest above anything else.
It was always the same. He made things and the baby dragons enjoyed them.
It was because he was an adult and they were children;
Because he was a guardian and they were the ward.
So then what was the thing in front of his eyes? He realised again how they had spent the past 5 years together. From the way they built the house to the way they sliced the meat and cooked it, all the way to how they ate…
All of those had begun from him and now, the kids were all copying him.
“…”
But that wasn’t all there was to it.
There appeared to be a certain ‘message’ embedded into all their actions. Although he couldn’t exactly guess what that was, it was becoming more and more evident in his mind.
“…Uuiinng!”
That was when Gyeoul started struggling against a fish with a small fruit knife in hand. She seemed to be trying to fillet it.
However, the fish was as big as her calves and was no easy prey. It splashed and jumped away even though Gyeoul tried to suppress it as hard as she could.
“…Come heree!”
Naturally, it did not come to her and the fish slipped past her fingers. She lowered her back and grabbed it’s body again but after a long test of strength, the fish’s tail ended up slapping her by the cheek. It brought with it a loud slapping noise.
Instinctively he took a step closer to her but Gyeoul turned to him in surprise.
“…Don’t come here.”
Yu Jitae stopped. The child was shocked by her own words and halted on the spot before glancing at his eyes with a myriad of emotions behind her gaze.
However, she quickly removed that expression from her face and began fighting with the fish again.
In the end, she succeeded in suppressing the fish. She asked Bom, “…What do I do?” and received the reply that she should draw the blood out.
She took the fish and toddled all the way to the creek.
There was no reason to bother following her, but by the time he came to himself, he was already sneaking after her towards the creek.
What pushed him on was a single doubt.
Maybe the thing that I was feeling was just an illusion? Am I perhaps assigning too much meaning just because this is the last trip even though it’s actually nothing much?
But when he arrived at the creek while being stirred by such doubts…
He found Gyeoul clasping her hands around the fish,
With her eyes sealed tight.
“…”
Soon, she momentarily lowered the fish to wipe her tears using the back of her hands.
“…”
Feeling like he saw something that wasn’t supposed to be seen, he turned his feet away.
And after a few minutes,
Gyeoul belatedly came back and proudly showed off the bloodless fish by shoving it towards Yu Jitae.
She asked.
“…How is it?”
With a smile on her face.
That was when he finally realised it.
The reason why these kids that were afraid of the farewell suddenly turned bright; the reason they arbitrarily decided on the location; the reason they built a house using the same method as him after coming here; the reason they refused his help with an ‘unfamiliar task’ and lastly, the reason they cried behind his back.
All of their actions were pointing at one conclusion.
“…Now, I can… do things by myself.”
We,
Will be fine, after going back.
So,
“…Don’t worry.”
At the face of the upcoming farewell,
The kids were instead worried about him.
***
A savoury smell spread across. As the bonfire continued its job, the nicely grilled pieces of meat dripped with juice and fat. The dripping meat added oil to the flame as the dishes were finished one by one.
“Try this.”
Eyes full of expectations were staring at him. Was this how he looked when waiting for Kaeul’s reply after buying her a sweet dessert?
He bit into the meat. It was seasoned nicely. The strong smell of freshly ground pepper immediately raced in as the juice of the brown meat instantaneously sent the fragrance of cooked meat down his nose.
Despite his imperfect taste buds, he could still tell how this tasted.
“It’s delicious.”
Yes! They cheered with joy as they began shoving more food at his face.
“Far out. Delicious my ass…”
Even though there was a voice trying to pour cold water over them, the other two chuckled brightly while ignoring her voice. Yeorum ate a few pieces of spare ribs before tossing the bones and walking away.
This time, he was made to eat a well-cooked mushroom which had a savoury and a clean taste to it. It was cooked as a whole and a fragrant bomb exploded the moment he bit into it.
While he was diligently eating the meat, Bom took out a jar of kimchi from her dimensional storage. Taking out kimchi and rice which they had been frequently eating due to living as a Korean in the past, she placed them into the oil that had oozed out of the meat and started frying them as a violent smell crawled into their noses.
Sprinkling small pieces of seaweed, she added sesame seeds and sesame oil to complete the fried rice. Bom shared it with everyone. The condensed flavour, the crunchy and the savoury taste…
It was quite unexpected,
But it tasted great.
.
.
.
A week went by in a similar fashion. Yu Jitae went to the places the kids prepared at the times they had chosen and enjoyed the tour of their plans.
He went to the Sky Lake and climbed a nearby mountain.
Before going to sleep, the kids would gather up and discuss what to do on the following day while asking Yu Jitae about his opinion all the time, just like how he had asked them about what they wanted to do.
During that, the kids would sometimes argue with each other about something they wanted to prepare. From time to time, he chimed in and asked what it was about but the kids did nothing but return awkward smiles.
They enjoyed a few more days together and on the 10th day of the trip, they said to him.
“Shall we have a campfire?”
.
.
.
At the Island of Sky Sea, the sun rose from the South and set at the North. Sitting at a flat piece of land on the north of a low mountain, they watched the sun set with clinking glasses.
Clink–
The rustling campfire, the fizzing soft drinks and the sound of juice travelling down Gyeoul’s small throat… Those rustic noises were enveloping the campsite when Kaeul broke the silence with a question.
“You see, we have something we really really want to ask.”
He turned towards her as Gyeoul flickered her eyes and Yeorum, who had been indifferently looking at her watch, also raised her head. They appeared to be thinking, ‘Is it finally time for that question?’.
Was this question the one they were preparing?
“What do you want to ask.”
“Uum… You know, when we go back.”
“Yeah.”
“What will you do by yourself ahjussi?”
In response, Bom, who had been resting on the bare ground with her eyes closed, opened her eyes and lifted her body.
“What?”
“Like you know. Until now, you were making food for us everyday, sending us to school, teaching Yeorum-unni and helping with Gyeoul’s homework… You were busy everyday doing all that. And we eat a lot more than others as well right?”
“…Yeah.”
“So then, after we go back, you will have a lot of time for yourself, yes? I think it will be super boring, so what do you plan on doing?”
“…”
Yu Jitae did not reply. He wasn’t expecting such a question to fly at his face.
“Uhh… who knows.”
“Do you have no real plans yet?”
“…”
This wasn’t a comfortable topic to talk about so he was about to change the topic when Yeorum interjected.
“Why aren’t you saying anything? I’m a little curious about this as well,” she asked even though she hadn’t shown interest in anything else during the past few days.
“……I’ll probably just spend time, by myself.”
“Well of course you will. What are you going to do aside from that though?”
“…”
“Nn? What are you going to do? Be a police again? Or like, a soldier because you’re good at fighting? Or are you going to kidnap more girls?”
“Ehng?”
“…Uing?”
They reacted at the same time. Both Kaeul and Gyeoul widened their eyes from shock.
“Again? Againn?”
“…?”
“Are you going to gather more people again and feed them food??”
“…?!?”
Their astonishment only grew larger.
It was when he was about to wave his hands with a denial.
“That’s right. This guy loves women so he’s gonna gather some girls again and raise them up.”
“Ahjussi, loves women…?”
“Can’t you tell from how we are all female?”
“Hukk…!”
Yeorum started using fake news and trickery while throwing him a glance. She knew he would rather be silent, and was blabbering such nonsense to force his mouth open.
“No. Did I bring you because you were female? It’s because you were dragons.”
“If you say so~”
He explained himself but the flame had already grown bigger.
Kaeul asked with eyes widened from dismay.
“Is what she said true…?”
“Of course not.”
“No…? I’m not talking about whether you love women or not. I’m asking if you will gather people again and feed them!”
He wanted to deny that as well but that was when Gyeoul held tightly onto his pants. She looked very shocked as if her soul had left her body.
“Really? Are you sure? You’re not, like, going to give bread and cookies to kids you see for the first time and tell them to come with you?”
“I won’t.”
“And when they say their mother told them not to follow strangers, will you give them the overpowered macarons?”
“No, like I said…”
“You can’t do that, ahjussi! That’s a crime…!”
“Like, seriously, I won’t.”
Kaeul continued pushing him on by saying, ‘Do you know how clever kids are these days?’ ‘I stayed because I was kind and innocent…!’ ‘You will be arrested if you do that again!’
She was telling him kidnapping was a crime.
“So, you can’t take someone and give them food…”
Gyeoul rapidly nodded her head showing her utmost agreement with the statement, and also added one more word.
“…Andd,”
After gathering the eyes of everyone, she mumbled with her tiny lips and said with all her heart.
“…Please don’t be next to them… when they hatch.”
With beads of tears hanging under her eyes.