On the way back to the dormitory, Yu Jitae decided to walk back to the residential area. It was because he deemed it necessary to have a conversation with her.
The Green Dragon was a lot stabler and calmer compared to other races, but nonetheless, it was her first time facing a demon’s aura head on. He thought she might be depressed, or perhaps surprised, but despite his worries, Bom was wearing the same expression as usual and was silent.
Tap, tap tap…
All she did was type something on the watch’s hologram keyboard. Was she sending someone a message or something?
“What are you writing.”
He had somewhat felt it from a long time ago, but Bom was very efficient with conversations.
“No?”
She was therefore efficient with ending conversations as well.
“…Why, is it something I shouldn’t know of?”
“Maybe yes.”
Yu Jitae closed his mouth.
Thus, the Regressor wasn’t able to talk much with the green-haired baby dragon on the way to the residential area.
Bom decided to write a diary starting from today.
It’s title was:
[Ahjussi Observation Diary]
‘…’
She didn’t really like the name. Maybe it was because it sounded like an observation record of an animal or a bug.
[Ahjussi Observation Diary ☆]
After adding a star to it, it appeared a little bit better. Bom started writing down the things that she had seen, felt and heard today with Yu Jitae.
First and foremost:
[1. Ahjussi is strong.]
It was a very obvious point. Sometimes, he even made her think that he was stronger than dragons.
[2. He was probably alone for a long time. Due to that, he doesn’t talk much.]
Thinking back, it was rare to see Yu Jitae talking in long sentences. He seemed to lack interest in the act of talking itself.
[3. Usually, he is mild.]
The usual Yu Jitae was like a lazy beast with a full stomach. It was kind of like a lion lying down, resting in the Savannah.
[4. He sometimes becomes serious. Especially in problems related to demons.]
Her fingers typing on the keyboard came to a stop.
Bom took some time to ponder. Was it really only limited to problems related to demons?
…It was a bit difficult to say that with certainty. Even when he was seeing her for the first time, Yu Jitae was very serious despite that having nothing to do with demons.
Therefore, she edited her sentence.
[4. He sometimes becomes serious. On the outside, they appear like aspects related to demons, but there seems to be a cause originating from a bigger framework. (+) Additional observation is required.]
After that, she just jotted down anything that came to mind.
[5. Formal clothes suit him well.]
[6. He seems to find daring clothes pretty.]
[7. Just like the first time we met, he seems to have no interest in anything happening around him.]
“What is it.”
“Un?”
It was then.
Suddenly, she felt Yu Jitae’s gaze turning towards her. Bom scrolled the screen up to the first page, and nonchalantly covered the display with her fingers. However, the display screen was too big to be fully covered with merely two fingers.
“…”
[Ahjussi ☆]
Due to that, the middle words had been covered, with only the word ‘ahjussi’ and the star being shown.
“Ahjussi, and a star?”
“Yes…?”
“What is it.”
“…”
With a face that suggested that it wasn’t anything important, Bom replied.
“It’s just…”
“Just what.”
“I was thinking of adding a few more stars as we become closer.”
Yu Jitae seemed to be thinking, ‘is that so’.
The moment his head was turned back to the front, Bom inwardly heaved out a sigh. She was extremely startled, and it was a close call; too close for comfort.
“…”
In any case, it was decent for an excuse that came out on the spot. Today was a day where she was able to understand him a bit more, so Bom filled the star in.
[Ahjussi Observation Diary ★]
Suddenly, her eyes widened.
Huh…?
Didn’t Yu Jitae show interest in her diary just then?
With circular eyes, she stared at Yu Jitae’s face. Since when was ahjussi interested in such things? But now that she thought back on it, it felt like he was having a little bit more leisure these days.
Thus, Bom edited the seventh point.
[7. Unlike when we first met, he is showing faint interest in the surroundings.]
The two soon reached the dormitory. After exiting the elevator on the third floor, Yu Jitae opened his mouth while walking down the corridor.
“You’re not going to say it?”
“Sorry?”
“You should now say the reason you want to follow me.”
“…”
He turned towards her.
Bom met his gaze with an indifferent expression. Since they were too close, she had to raise her head up in order to meet his gaze.
“Can we call it off?”
“Call what off.”
She wanted to postpone this kind of conversation till later.
“Yes. In the end, I was helpful right. Ahjussi, if you hold your curiosity back, then I’ll forgive you for abusing me for being useless, and how you made a straight face at me.”
That was when Yu Jitae gave a slight frown. ‘Ah, did I make a mistake?’ thought Bom, but she did not change her expression despite feeling tense inside.
Yu Jitae’s hands came closer and pinched her cheeks.
It hurt.
“Uht…”
His fingers had power within them. It wasn’t a little prank, and it was painful. It was very painful to the point that she felt tears coming out from her eyes.
“Uuuuh… it hurrs…”
“…”
“Khuuu… ai sowwy…”
He then walked into the house.
Left alone in the corridor, Bom wiped her tears off, and rubbed her reddened cheeks. She then threw a glare at the door for no reason.
But then, something popped up in her head and she added it to her diary.
[? Doubt:]
The reason she volunteered to follow Yu Jitae.
In fact, Bom didn’t know either. At the start, she was just driven by the urge to without even knowing why. She thought she had to follow, and felt like she had to help with something.
But when she put it into words while writing the diary, a new question appeared in her mind.
[? Doubt: Maybe I’m trying to make ahjussi into something different?]
***
“Damn… what in the world happened, for there to be no traces at all?”
Hario Carlton, Kyoto.
Within that five star hotel of Kyoto, which had its top floor flown off, were local police officers and detectives of Kyoto in full dispatch.
“A total mess huh…”
“To be honest, I have no idea how we’re meant to approach this.”
“You’re right… it’s not any random building either, and it’s a building with a Level 9 defence mechanism in place.”
The officers clicked their tongues.
Breaking a building with a Level 9 defence system in a short period of time like this, was impossible for anyone outside of the top 500 ranks worldwide.
“It’s fortunate that it was the top floor at least.”
“Tch, what about the VIP room’s borrower? That, Hasegawa or something.”
“We are still unable to locate him. It looks almost certain that he was involved in the incident but…”
It was then.
“Oi. Step aside.”
A voice of an unfamiliar woman was heard.
Thinking to himself, ‘Who is this condescending person?’ the detective turned his head with a frown and found police officers wearing peculiar uniforms. He thought, ‘This is my jurisdiction, so who are these that dare…’ before noticing the silver badge hanging on their uniforms.
It was in the form of a sakura that represented Japanese royal family, and there was one single sword slashing through it.
That symbol…
“Ah…!”
The detectives saluted in fright.
Among them, the woman that appeared to be the one in charge, ignored them while looking at the site.
‘Jack had fainted inside his car.’
‘Jack’ was an agent of a special task force that she had secretly deployed, in order to find Hasegawa’s secrets.
‘There was a ‘Konnosuke’, from the members that had entered this place. In other words, someone made Jack unconscious before snatching the invitation card.’
It was a top grade secret among the special forces, but Hasegawa was almost certainly a high-ranked demon. Therefore, the signs of battle in this place could be seen as the aftermath of the battle between Hasegawa and the ‘one that replaced Jack’.
‘I must find traces. If Hasegawa is dead, there needs to be proof that he is actually dead.’
But unfortunately, she couldn’t find anything.
That night after work, she headed to the ‘hideout’. It was a social club of world rankers that had the combined goal of exterminating demons.
[Grand Natural Society]
During this time period, there would be two to three people coming here and slacking off in search for leisure from their busy lives. She wanted to ask them about the strange happenings that had occurred today.
She opened the door of the hideout. The ones that were always there were nowhere to be seen, and she could only see Myung Yongha and BM.
“…”
Myung Yongha was staring at a leaf placed on top of the table with a serious look;
“…”
Gulp.
And BM was drinking alcohol like usual, but was lying down on the sofa, while holding a small glass bottle up in front of the light.
“Yo, guys, what are you doing? You look out of it.”
No-one replied.
“Huh? Oi yous. You little grass, what are you doing here right now? Isn’t it time for you to go hospital?”
“…”
“Huhh? What’s wrong? Did some plants lay their roots down in your ears?”
“…”
“…oi.”
“…”
“…You, you. Don’t tell me, Myung Yongha–!”
Thinking of the worst possible case scenario, she unconsciously screamed out.
“Minamoto… the doctor today, said this for the first time.”
“…Uh? Hnn?”
Myung Yongha murmured with a blank, and quiet voice.
“…there has been an improvement.”
***
That day, they were all slightly weird.
“Bye bye…”
Kaeul on her way to her lesson wasn’t jumping around like usual.
“…”
And Yeorum on her way to the physical training rooms with a sword, didn’t even spare a glance at him.
“…”
Bom was the same as usual, so he didn’t really talk to her.
“…”
And finally, Gyeoul threw glances at him.
“Why.”
“…?”
She turned her head around.
With no-one talking to him, Yu Jitae searched up news reports and read them. During that, he could sense a gaze, and it was most definitely Gyeoul.
When he glanced back at Gyeoul, she pretended to be doing something else, and grabbed the teddy bear’s hand before shaking it up and down. However, it somehow felt different from how she usually threw glances at him.
What exactly was happening.
*
Their strange actions continued even during the evening. When it was mealtime for dinner, Bom asked them naturally.
“What do you want for dinner?”
Yeorum, who was drenched in sweat after just coming back from training, shook her head.
“I’m good.”
“Nnng, unni. I’m not really hungry either…”
While saying that, Kaeul threw a few glances at Yu Jitae. Yeorum poked her with her elbow, and them saying “What now!” and “You yellow monkey” could be heard.
Meanwhile, Gyeoul walked up to the two of them and sent them a gaze as if she was asking something. When Yeorum frowned, Gyeoul met her gaze with a glaring look.
“Guys, what’s going on?”
“What’s what?”
“Hmm. Then no dinner for today?”
“Nn. Unni.”
That was when Yu Jitae thought that something was weird.
They had almost never skipped a meal. Kaeul, the baby chicken, who especially loved eating, had lamented the fact that humans only ate three meals a day.
– How good would it be if we could eat five times a day?!
That was how she normally was, so thinking that it was weird, Yu Jitae called her.
“Yu Kaeul.”
“Y, yes?”
“Are you sick?”
“N, n, n, no no no no?”
The baby chicken had a hard time meeting his gaze. Therefore, Yu Jitae walked up and held her by her arms and looked into her eyes.
“Let’s see.”
“Ah, u, uah… I, I’m fine!”
[Eyes of Equilibrium (SS)]
Hanging on the authenticity scale was ‘truth’.
She wasn’t sick.
The baby chicken fluttered her arms like wings and escaped from his grasp. Then, she dashed into her room as if running away.
He had no idea what was happening, and it felt like there were four Yu Gyeouls today.
However, his doubt was cleared when it passed midnight.
Suddenly, the living room’s lights were turned off.
It wasn’t a big deal to the Regressor, who could see through the darkness. He fidgeted with the switch, before heading to the front entrance in order to check the circuit breaker.
Behind him, a different dimension was divided into two. From Bom’s alternate dimension walked out Kaeul, who had balloons hanging on her head.
Buzz-
Mana containing lightning, the attribute of a gold dragon, flowed and it was unclear when she had prepared them, but the small lights hanging on her body started flickering.
“Ahjussi.”
“…What are you doing?”
“Happy birthdayyy–!!”
Bang! Bang!
The firecrackers bursted out after that, but the baby chicken was suddenly startled and started making a fuss.
“Noo…! It was meant to be after blowing out the lights of the cake!”
It seemed that she had messed up the order.
Meanwhile, Bom and Gyeoul who had been on the sofa, also stood up and clapped.
“Happy birthday, ahjussi.”
Birthday…?
Now that they said it, it was true.
It was past midnight, and today was the 12th of December. It was indeed his birthday, which he had never thought about over several regressions. He had completely forgotten about it because it wasn’t even on his mind.
“…How did you find out.”
“I looked at ahjussi’s ID card last time.”
Before he could even ask anything else, Gyeoul toddled up with quick steps and extended her arms forward, and Yu Jitae hugged her. Although he had no idea, Gyeoul had been wanting to do this since the morning, so she repeatedly bumped her forehead on his chest with a wide smile.
That was when the door of the terrace was slid open, as a pair of red eyes walked in through the darkness.
Yeorum was carrying a cake on her hand, and started slowly walking forward after seeing Yu Jitae. However, there was a dark smile hanging on her face for some reason.
The room had a strangely tense atmosphere.
“Yeorum.”
When Bom called her name with a voice that seemed to be trying to stop her, Yeorum suddenly started running forward.
“Yu Yeorum!”
“Aht, unni! That’s different from what you said…!”
Before they could even try to stop her, Yeorum threw the cake at Yu Jitae’s face with an expression filled with mischief.