Chapter 109: In Search of the Dream (3)
Even a green dragon wasn’t omniscient – that was the conclusion Yu Jitae made. If Bom knew even a small fraction more about himself, she wouldn’t be saying that.
Right, that was the problem. Bom didn’t know precisely what type of person he was.
Never had he explained about his evil self to the kids. There just wasn’t any reason to tell them. In order to create a better daily life and happier memories for the dragons, it was better off for them to not know of the life he had led thus far.
As long as the dragons were happy, that was enough for the Regressor. He didn’t wish for them to come closer than necessary, and he had never wished to approach anyone in the first place. Naturally, he hadn’t tried to make them like him either.
It’s just that there was an iteration that had failed into oblivion because he was clueless about daily lives and they were thus living a daily life together.
“…”
Because of that, he wasn’t really fond of the current situation.
A bodyguard staying next to a celebrity – that was the level of distance and recognition he wanted. Did she think he was actually a part of her family now?
“So, no changing the subject now, okay?”
“…”
“Now, please prove yourself.”
Standing up, Bom walked up towards him. After being close enough for an arm’s reach, she gazed down into his eyes before slightly turning away. She then placed her two hands on her waist, on top of her boxy sweatshirt.
“Prove what.”
“I said it just then. Please try Doonga Doonga.”
She then pulled her own sweatshirt from behind. As the oversized shirt stuck right next to her waist, the curve from her ribs to the waist, all the way down to her pelvis was revealed in full.
When she gazed back into his eyes, there was no longer a perceivable trace of nervousness or hesitation. It was a lot different from when she became nervous from him bringing his hands closer.
Why did she look like she hated it back then, and why did she look fine now? The Regressor couldn’t understand the delicate and subtle emotions of the baby dragon.
“Nn?”
But despite still being awkward with daily lives and relationships, Yu Jitae was clearly aware of the fact that Bom wanted him to feel perplexed. And her method wasn’t wrong. He was now starting to become more and more troubled.
“Nn…?”
Bom took a step closer. Yu Jitae stared into her face and had an indifferent expression as always. However, he couldn’t think of any decent words or actions suitable for the situation and thus remained still and silent.
So Bom took another step forward.
“Hurry…”
As her stomach came right up to his nose, Yu Jitae turned his face away. And from that small action, Bom fully realised how troubled he was.
“You’re not going to do it?”
Bom barely suppressed her laughter that threatened to burst forth. She then walked even closer and tapped Yu Jitae’s head with her stomach.
He pulled his head back and gazed up at Bom.
She couldn’t withstand it anymore.
“Kyaa…!”
Letting go of her waist, Bom began laughing out loud to the point that she fell into the corner of the terrace after losing her balance. “Anng– hakk…! Kyaha!” she laughed under her breath and literally rolled on the floor. While laughing like she was in a seizure, she wriggled her legs around.
He heaved out a sigh and shook his head.
*
After laughing for a long time, she collected her breath.
He decided to ask her today.
“What’s so funny.”
Wiping the little beads of tears, she raised her head.
“It just is. Ahjussi being embarrassed.”
“I wasn’t embarrassed.”
“Hnng. I see.”
“…And so, why is that funny.”
“Of course it is. Who in the world could ever make ahjussi embarrassed?”
As the refreshing spring wind breezed onto the terrace, her grass-coloured hair fluttered across. She smiled.
“If not me.”
***
A fish and a rabbit were placed on the table.
Bom asked.
“How was it?”
“That’s what I want to ask.”
“For me, it was so-so.”
As expected, sculpting was a failure like it had been in the previous iteration.
If she was a normal human, he wouldn’t have come to a hasty conclusion like this after one try, but she was a dragon. Dragons rarely ever changed their thoughts or values.
“You did good though.”
“I just… don’t feel any affection for the sculpture I made.”
Bom reached her fingers forward and gently pushed the rabbit sculpture she made. The rabbit fell.
Drawing, sculpting, and writing. From those, the reason sculpting failed was because ‘she didn’t feel any affection for her sculptures’.
“…”
It was sort of a let-down. The reason for drawing was because ‘she didn’t want to draw it nicely’ and sculpting was because ‘she didn’t feel any affection for her sculptures’. None of them were grandiose reasons.
“What’s next?”
Somehow, it felt like the next one would be the same but even then, he decided to have a go.
“You want to try writing a novel?”
“A novel?”
After pondering for a bit, her expression turned slightly brighter.
“Sounds good.”
Since it was unexpected, he asked.
“Were you thinking of writing a novel before?”
“Yes actually. When I was very young, I sneaked out from the lair without the adults noticing it and used to see a lot of ghosts.”
“Really?”
“I thought that was very interesting so it might be okay to write a novel based on that experience.”
“Then what would be the genre.”
“Umm… horror?”
A green dragon and horror? Would there be a mismatch bigger than this?
In any case, she looked more interested than before.
If the genre was horror, the experiences she went through during her time with Yu Jitae might play a part, since there were several horror-like experiences when facing demons.
And if that had resulted in some sort of a change happening inside her heart, she might be able to write a novel which she wasn’t able to during the sixth iteration.
“Right. Have a go.”
“Yes. What about you, ahjussi?”
The Regressor shook his head. Drawing and sculpting were the same, but writing a novel was especially not for him.
“Try it just by yourself this time.”
“Yes.”
Bom obediently gave a nod.
That day, Bom walked around carrying a hologram device and typed on the keyboard in either the living room or her own room. Later, she even somehow found a pair of glasses with large, circular frames.
“This makes me look more like a novelist. Does it look okay?”
He wasn’t sure about the standards of ‘looking okay’, but what wouldn’t? He cursorily returned a nod.
Unlike when she was painting and sculpting, Bom was genuinely absorbed in it. Of course, her ‘deviation from the norm’ period still continued, and she truanted more than half the class for the several following days.
Being a military school, Lair was strict with attendance. There was a call from the education department by a professor who questioned Bom’s recent attendance rate. Yu Jitae glossed over it by saying that she was feeling sick and saw Bom smiling from the side while still typing on the keyboard.
Different from how she lost interest after a day for drawing and sculpting, the novel continued for four days. Perhaps she really did find something that matched her aptitude.
However,
After the fifth day, her expression as she continued writing the novel began changing for the worse.
“What’s wrong?”
“…”
Wearing a pout that was at least twice more sullen than usual, she looked back and forth between the device and Yu Jitae.
She then shook her head. It seemed that she was slightly displeased, but she didn’t stop typing on the keyboard.
He decided to watch on a bit more.
*
At nighttime around 2 am, someone knocked on the door of Yu Jitae’s room. “Yeah,” he replied as Bom peeked into the room through a small gap between the door and the frame.
“Were you sleeping?”
The Regressor shook his head. She heaved out a sigh while still wearing the circular glasses.
“Why.”
“It’s just a bit hard to write the novel.”
“Come sit down.”
“Nn.”
She sat down on his bed.
“What’s the problem.”
“Since it’s a horror novel, there will be lots of ghosts right.”
“I guess.”
“When the ghosts come out, the protagonist has to be afraid. But no matter how much I try, I can’t express the feeling of fear.”
“But you said you saw ghosts before.”
“Yes. Ghosts and some undead… but back then, I wasn’t that scared.”
Indeed, a dragon fearing ghosts would be slightly weird as well.
Hatchlings were similar to humans at a glance but were different in certain places. Maybe this was why she wasn’t able to get much of a positive reaction even when she wrote novels in the sixth iteration.
“Anyways, and?”
“I thought about it for a few days. And there was this one time where I became scared of someone for the first time in my life, you know…?”
She then threw glances at Yu Jitae. Even without hearing it, he could somewhat guess when that would have been.
“Is that the first day you saw me?”
“Yes. The day I was kidnapped.”
Damn.
“And then.”
“Can you try acting as the ghost please?”
“…”
It’s not like he couldn’t, but at the same time, he didn’t really feel like willingly listening to her request.
“Weren’t you also scared when you were caught up in the dimensional disjoint.”
“But that’s not being scared of a specific target.”
“How is it different.”
“Umm, so like, the disjoint is like a spooky night. That is scary in itself, but there has to be a ghost inside a horror novel.”
“…Guess that makes sense.”
Even after hearing her explanation, the Regressor wasn’t too keen.
It was fundamentally different from when Yeorum wanted to learn his gaze so that she could threaten the reporters. In the end, Bom wanted a situation where she would be scared and threatened but wouldn’t fear remain in her memory forever?
Therefore, he remained silent.
“You can’t? It’s okay if you don’t want to…”
He thought she gave up rather easily.
“You know how to reject as well, ahjussi. Well… no-one’s stopping you…”
But she kept going on.
“Drawing and sculpting were no good and… even the novel is the same, I see. I thought it was pretty fun this time though…”
Then, she took off her glasses and threw them into the bin.
“…What should we do next?”
He could feel her protesting with her entire body. Left with no other choice, Yu Jitae decided to help and Bom nodded with a brighter expression.
“In that case, I’ll be writing here so please frighten me from behind.”
“Like, surprise you?”
“A little bit more violent please. Slightly more bad.”
“Explain the situation in a bit more detail.”
“Ummm, so…”
This was how the novel went.
A female criminal discovers a cabin in the middle of a mountain while running away and peacefully lives there. She brings friends in to play and brings her loved one in as well. Actually, the woman had killed the owner of the cabin and the owner’s soul returns as a ghost to take revenge on the woman.
“Do you know about revenge, ahjussi?”
“I do.”
“You know that feel, right. Like, how something big is about to happen.”
Like something big is about to happen?
“Alright.”
The role play soon began.
Bom turned the lights off and sat down in front of Yu Jitae’s desk. She then used a pen to write something down on the notebook.
Meanwhile, the Regressor slowly raised his body.
Like something big is about to happen…
It wasn’t necessary to get serious against a child. He simply had to give her a rough feeling.
He thought to himself.
I am the owner of the cabin.
That woman killed me and stole my cabin away.
There was a distant memory of a distant iteration where he had been deprived of something by a woman and how he took revenge on her.
How did I do it back then.
Probably…
He probably walked up to her back in silent steps. Back then, the target was sitting down in front of a table, laughing as she ate. Similar to that, the green-haired girl did not sense his presence. As he embraced the woman from behind, he reached up and touched her on the neck. When she sensed the touch of a stranger on her neck, the woman that had not sensed the approach of another being, finally noticed the arms covering her body. He placed his lips next to her ears and slowly opened his mouth. “You seem to be enjoying yourself,” he whispered and used his big, thick hand to strangle the slender neck of the woman…
“…!”
In that instant, Bom turned towards him in fright. There was nervousness, never seen before, hanging in her eyes.
Was it that scary? It can’t be. He had no intention of scaring her, nor did he have even a sliver of killing intent like before. Yu Jitae was only copying the movement.
“…Bom. Are you okay.”
“Ah, ah, ah… Yes.”
Her expression definitely wasn’t okay. At least he could tell that.
After slightly looking away, Bom tightened a fist around her chest and lowered her head. Then, she began slowly heading towards the door.
“I’m sorry if that surprised you. I was trying to make it feel like something big was about to happen, but it must have been over the top.”
“N, no… I’m really fine.”
Until the end, she never looked back and closed the door as if she were running away. He was trying to hold himself back, but it seemed to have failed. Left alone, the Regressor awkwardly touched the back of his neck.
That’s why I didn’t want to do it.
*
After returning to her room, Bom leaned on the door. Only then was she able to collect her breath that threatened to explode.
She was so surprised that she had a slight fever on her forehead and cheeks. Even her heart thumped loudly as it pleased.
She thought he would just walk up and surprise her, and wasn’t expecting him to come hug her with his two arms from behind…
Once again thinking back on the situation, she closed her eyes and heaved out a deep, heated sigh.
Her shivering lips curled up faintly and she murmured with a smile.
“That was dangerous…”