This Is Running Away From Home!

This Is Running Away From Home!

 

Perseus looked very flustered at the statement that one must hit to survive.

Then he quickly shook his head and told Chae-a.

“There’s no need to hit.”

“Okay!”

“But… I asked for a kiss, why are you trying to hit?”

“I don’t know!”

Perseus blinked at Chae-a’s confident answer, then chuckled and picked her up to put her down.

“Next.”

At those words, Yuna hesitantly came forward and reached out.

Seeing this, Perseus patted Yuna’s head, then slowly lowered her and spoke.

“Are you doing well?”

Yuna seemed awkward and shy about talking to Perseus, so she nodded and then.

Hugging Perseus, she said in a mumbling voice.

“Thank you…”

Perseus seemed pleased to receive Yuna’s thanks, smiled slightly, and put her down.

As it was now my turn, while I was wondering what to do.

Perseus picked me up without asking for my opinion and said:

“Ha-eun, you need to eat more.”

“…?”

I blinked in surprise as he said the same thing as the elders.

Perseus carefully put me down and patted my head, saying:

“If you need help, just let me know. I’ll come running whenever you call, Ha-eun.”

“… Yes.”

Feeling a bit embarrassed by his offer of unconditional help, I smiled awkwardly.

Then, unable to overcome my shyness, I quickly ran to Chae-a.

I kept fidgeting with my fingers, thinking how embarrassing it was that Perseus was still looking at me fondly.

* * *

After the rescue incident(?),

I went upstairs to check the remaining gifts, while the other kids left to build (play) an underground city.

Looking at the gifts that made me feel the elders’ love even more deeply, I made one decision… to express my gratitude for the gifts.

‘It’s only natural to say thank you when you receive a gift…!’

Thinking it was my duty as a person, I pondered how to express my gratitude.

‘I’d like to visit each one personally to say thank you, but…’

It might be inconvenient, and it would be physically impossible to visit all the elders, so I decided to choose another method.

‘That’s it – letters!’

I thought they might like it if I sent handwritten letters expressing my gratitude, so I took out a pen.

‘The problem is the stationery. For this… I’ll have to ask Seo-rin.’

Since I had saved up quite a bit of pocket money, I had enough to buy stationery.

I clenched the pen tightly in one hand, feeling somewhat proud as I steeled my resolve.

And so, the letter writing began.

In fact, it was ambiguous to even call it a letter, as it only contained greetings like “Thank you” and “Thank you for the gift.”

It was closer to a written expression of gratitude than a letter, so it was truly ambiguous to call it a letter…

But since this was an inevitable result, I continued to write the letter while crumpling up.

It’s crooked and so misaligned that it’s hard to recognize what it is.

Seeing this, I sighed, lamenting the result despite ‘trying my best’ to write it.

‘Writing is so difficult.’

With poor control over my strength and weak finger muscles,

I couldn’t hold the pen normally, so I had to grip it clumsily like holding an umbrella upside down, resulting in handwriting that was bad beyond compare.

I let out a long sigh as I watched this, but soon gave up and continued writing.

‘I don’t know!’

Just as I had decided to do my best and was writing each word with care,

Seo-rin, who was next to me, playfully poked my cheek with her finger and said,

“You’ll write one for me too, right?”

“…?”

Of course, I could write one for Seo-rin if she asked, since I’m always grateful to her.

But wouldn’t it be better to hear a verbal “thank you” rather than a letter?

Thinking I wasn’t sure, I nodded, deciding to do as she wanted for now.

*

Since writing letters took longer than expected, Chae-a, Yuna, and Seo-a came to help partway through. (More accurately, they came to play and joined in because it looked fun.)

Anyway, for these reasons, we dove into letter writing.

Chae-a’s letter was quite meaningful, so it kept lingering in my mind.

[Hyamummu is so cuuute twuuukugu! I wuv it so much!]

I’m not lying, it was really written like that, which made me seriously consider whether it was okay to send it as is.

But Seo-rin, who was next to me, said something incomprehensible like “Huh? That makes it even better,” so I decided to leave it alone for now.

With everyone’s efforts combined like that.

All the letters to be sent to the elders were completed.

Perseus, who was watching this, seemed very proud and.

He patted our heads vigorously and praised us for our work.

“I think the elders will be very pleased.”

As I was nodding, thinking that would be good.

Perseus looked at me and added one more thing.

“Oh, and the central government said they’ll give you, Ha-eun, an award for saving the World Tree.”

Since I had already heard about this before, I was just nodding when.

Perseus congratulated me and carefully picked up the letters we had written.

“Anyway, it’s not that important, so if it’s bothersome, you can say you won’t go.”

Huh? If the government is giving an award, isn’t it really important?

Tilting my head in confusion, Perseus smiled again and then suddenly left for somewhere.

* * *

The next day.

We were able to complete the underground city faster than expected.

The reason for this was none other than the fact that many hunters said it would be fun and helped with the construction of the city.

Ha-eun said it was “a big event that won’t come again in this boring job… I mean hunter life,” according to Han A-rin.

But since I didn’t really understand what that meant, I just smiled and hugged my tail.

Anyway, since the underground city was completed, we ended up abandoning it.

The reason for that was…

“Chae-a, you’re going to live here.”

“I’m tired.”

“Sleepy.”

The three babies, except for me, declared they wouldn’t go because they were sick of the underground city…!

As a result, we had the unfortunate situation of abandoning it right after completion.

Deciding not to worry too much about such minor issues, I looked at the sprawled-out babies.

‘Should I cover them with a blanket?’

The weather was getting a bit chilly as autumn approached.

Just as I was about to go to the bedroom to get a blanket, worried they might catch a cold if left like this, my phone started ringing.

I picked up the phone, much larger than my hand, pressed the answer button, and greeted:

“Hello?”

In response to my greeting, I heard a squealing sound nearby, followed by Seo-rin’s voice.

[Ha-eun, it’s Seo-rin. Can you do me a favor?]

“Yes.”

[Can you bring me the documents in the bedroom? They’re in a brown envelope!]

After hearing that, I looked around the bedroom and spotted a brown envelope in the distance.

I’ll let her know that it’s not too difficult to do.

I managed to obtain the brown envelope with Somteol.

[Then come to the front of the training ground!]

Running errands is a familiar task, so there’s nothing strange about it.

I said I understood and hung up the phone, and just as I was about to leave with it.

“Kkom?”

I ended up making eye contact with Seo-a.

“Piyagi… daejji!”

Chick? Pig?

I couldn’t understand what she was saying, but if I had to guess, I think ‘piyagi’ might be because Han A-rin told Seo-a she looked like a chick.

And ‘pig’ might be referring to the three little pigs building their houses.

‘So, putting it all together, does Seo-a want to come along too?’

Of course, this was a 100% pure guess without any real basis.

When I held out my hand, Seo-a grabbed it eagerly, which seemed to confirm that my guess wasn’t too far off. Probably.

“Myamya!”

Seo-a seemed very happy to be holding my hand, giggling and hopping up and down.

Seeing Seo-a like this, I smiled warmly and decided to make it a quick trip.

‘It’s close by, so I’ll just sneak out for a bit.’

Thinking I didn’t want to wake up the others who were resting, Seo-a and I headed towards the training ground where Seo-rin was.

* * * * *

[Sings the “Ribbit Ribbit Frog” song.]

Yuna stared blankly at the ceiling while listening to the music coming from nearby.

There was no particular reason for it, she was just lying down because Chae-a unnie was lying down.

She was just lying there because she wanted to imitate her.

 

As she lay there for a while, memories of the past came flooding back.

Days trapped alone in the ice, cold, dark, damp, and with no one coming.

It was a very sad and painful memory, unlike now when warm sunlight and lights enveloped her, so it was scary to recall.

But it was okay as long as Ha-eun, Chae-a unnie, Seo-a, A-rin unnie, and Seo-rin unnie were there…!

Thinking that just remembering them brought a sense of relief, she looked around to hold Ha-eun’s hand.

“Not here.”

No matter how much she looked, Ha-eun was nowhere to be seen.

Wondering why she wasn’t there, she lowered her tail dejectedly and looked around.

The amazing and smart Chae-a unnie spoke to her with a serious expression.

“She ran away…!”

“Huh.”

At this shocking fact, she unconsciously covered her mouth with her palm and opened her eyes wide.