Rules

Rules

“Can’t eat because you have no money…? What do you mean by that?”

Han A-rin’s pupils visibly shook as she expressed her confusion to us.

As I was wondering how to clear up the misunderstanding while looking at Han A-rin,

Chae-a smiled brightly and continued speaking.

“If you have no money… even if your tummy hurts, you can’t eat and cry and… can’t buy clothes!”

It seems things got mixed up because she had ‘partially’ heard the conversation between me and Seo-rin.

I shook my head and made a gesture indicating it wasn’t true, trying to clear up the misunderstanding, but

“… Is that so?”

I couldn’t help but flinch momentarily as Han A-rin’s expression became seriously rigid.

I felt that if left like this, some serious problem might occur.

‘So before anything happens.’

Deciding to quickly resolve the situation, I waved my hands at Han A-rin, whose expression was gradually sinking, and said,

“Th-that’s not it…!”

I shouted as loudly as I could, but my voice didn’t seem to reach Han A-rin as her expression continued to harden.

At that moment, seeing this, a sentence I had read before suddenly bloomed in my mind.

[There were two reasons why Han A-rin came to be called a monster.

Overwhelming mana quantity and superhuman concentration that no one could break through.

It was her unique ability that others couldn’t even follow a fragment of her talent.]

In short, it meant that when she gets into something, she wouldn’t notice even if someone came and carried her away.

As I was wondering what to do, Chae-a beside me smiled brightly and said to me,

“This looks delicious…! Does the contractor think so too?”

“Mm-hmm!”

“Then Chae-a will earn lots and lots of money and buy it for the contractor! Chae-a can give water diligently!”

Although I’m very grateful, it doesn’t seem like it will help wake Han A-rin up.

I silently patted Chae-a’s head and then got down from the chair.

‘… My legs are short.’

Due to my body being too short, I struggled for a while, but I succeeded, so it’s fine.

Thinking that, I nodded and walked forward to tightly grasp Han A-rin’s legs.

“Hunter…! Please come to your senses!”

I tried hard to call Han A-rin, but there was no response.

I considered biting her calf as a last resort, but I couldn’t do such a thing to my benefactor, so as my conflict was growing,

Suddenly, I remembered Seo-rin’s request for me to call her ‘unnie’.

As that thought came to mind,

I wondered if Han A-rin would like to be called unnie too, so I tried to call her Han A-rin unnie, but

‘… This is too embarrassing no matter how I think about it!’

My face turned bright red and I couldn’t settle down, so I couldn’t bring myself to open my mouth.

I felt my cheeks and ears getting hot and hesitated for a moment, but

Thinking it would be better to resolve this before a big problem occurs, I called Han A-rin unnie in a small voice, as if squeezing it out.

“… U-unnie.”

At that one word, Han A-rin’s body flinched.

I’m not sure why it was effective, but I’m glad it worked, so

I tried calling Han A-rin once more.

“Unnie…? Please come to your senses…”

I’m too embarrassed to raise my face.

As I was lying on the floor considering whether to hide in a mouse hole,

“… Ji-a?”

Han A-rin’s voice was heard.

At that very sad voice, I unconsciously looked up and

Saw Han A-rin’s teary expression.

As our eyes met like that,

Han A-rin seemed to come to her senses then, making a bitter yet calm expression, but

She quickly changed her expression and hugged me.

“I’m sorry, baby. I had… something to think about for a moment.”

“Yes…”

“So, did you choose what you want to eat? Of course, you don’t need to worry about money. There’s a rule in this world that adults should buy tasty things for children for free.”

Thinking that if I say it’s okay, more misunderstandings might pile up,

I had no choice but to point at the strawberry smoothie, which seemed the most ordinary.

Chae-a, who was watching my actions from the side,

Chose the same thing as me with sparkling eyes and started giggling.

“The same one!”

It seems that for Chae-a, doing something fun with me is better than just eating tasty things.

Finding Chae-a cute, I tried to return to my original seat to pat her head, but

Hug.

Han A-rin hugged me, so this failed.

“… Hu-hunter…”

I was so flustered that my words got terribly tangled.

Thinking it’s fortunate that the pronunciation didn’t have an extra ‘ㅣ’ added to ‘님’, I was fidgeting when

Han A-rin smiled gently and said to me,

“You should say unnie. Come on, repeat after me, A-rin unnie.”

“……”

I’m still too embarrassed to speak.

As I lowered my head deeply and showed a reaction that it wasn’t possible,

Han A-rin, perhaps not wanting to force it excessively, spoke to me jokingly.

“Hmm, what should we do? If you don’t call me unnie, I’ll have to keep hugging you like this.”

Hearing those words, I looked at the people around us who were smiling watching us.

As my embarrassment grew even more from their fondly smiling faces,

I went limp as if giving up and called that extremely embarrassing title again.

“… Unnie.”

“Hm? Who’s calling? I can’t hear well.”

“A-Awin unnie.”

My tongue got tied from embarrassment.

Thinking this would probably be a shameful memory that would remain for a long time, I covered my eyes with my palms when

Han A-rin, seemingly very pleased with my way of addressing her, rubbed my cheeks vigorously and then placed me back next to Chae-a.

“Then shall we order dessert? Owner, strawberry smoothie here and…”

Han A-rin started ordering quite skillfully.

As this wasn’t particularly special, I hugged my tail and nibbled on it to calm my mind, when

Suddenly, Han A-rin pointed to one side of the menu with about 10 items written and made a sudden move.

“Please give us everything from here to here, all of it.”

“Yes, understood!”

Perhaps there had already been quite a few such instances,

The owner accepted the order with a big smile, not surprised at all.

I stopped nibbling, a bit surprised, and was blinking my eyes when Chae-a clung to me and started biting my tail.

Nom nom nom.

A ticklish feeling was felt from my tail.

I gave up my tail for Chae-a and

Was calming my mind while rubbing my hot cheeks in circles when

“Here are three strawberry smoothies.”

The drinks came out faster than I imagined.

As I was looking at the large and delicious-looking smoothie, wondering if I could drink it all,

The owner thoughtfully placed children’s cups and straws separately beside us and smiled kindly.

“Then enjoy your meal.”

The owner, looking more excited than anyone, hummed a tune and went into the kitchen.

As I was bowing repeatedly with gratitude watching the owner’s back,

Chae-a suddenly stood up from her seat and

“Wooooow!”

Making a very excited voice, she plunged her face right into the cup and started sticking out her tongue repeatedly.

Startled by Chae-a’s behavior, I calmed her down and pulled her back, then

Chae-a tilted her head and looked at me,

Then smiled brightly, pointed at the cup, and spread her arms wide.

“This… is this much delicious! Contractor eat too! Okay!?”

Perhaps because she ate something delicious, Chae-a’s originally lively personality seemed to brighten even more.

I wiped Chae-a’s face, which was sparkling with eyes, with a tissue and calmly said,

“You shouldn’t eat like that.”

“Huh?”

Chae-a, looking at me as if she didn’t understand,

Waved her hands expressing something and showed her puzzlement.

“I ate like this with my doggy friend…! Ah! Squirrel friend too!”

“Umm, that’s…”

Because she asked so innocently, I became flustered, unable to bring up words like ‘it’s social norms, manners, virtues that humans should keep’.

As I was wondering what to do,

Chae-a seemed to realize something and said to me with sparkling eyes,

“… I got it! You eat like this because it’s more delicious, right? As expected, contractor is smart!”

“Huh? Mm-hmm.”

With those words, Chae-a carefully watched what other people were doing and

Stuck a straw in the drink and sucked on it.

Thinking she looked cute like a hamster, Chae-a took one sip with the straw and said to me with sparkling eyes,

“Wooow. Drinking like this made it this much more delicious…!”

Thinking it’s good that Chae-a liked it, I was giggling when

The owner came with the snacks Hunter Han A-rin had ordered at just the right timing.

It was an amount that looked impossible to eat at once, clearly too much, but Hunter Han A-rin smiled as if pleased and said to us,

“Children, eat as much as you want. If it’s not enough, just tell unnie anytime.”

At those words, I was embarrassed but, thinking I should do what I should as an adult, I bowed deeply.

“Thank you.”

Seeing my greeting, Chae-a seemed to want to imitate me,

She bumped her head on the table and said ‘Thank you’.

“Yes, eat a lot.”

I’m glad Han A-rin’s mood seems to have improved a lot.

As I was looking at the cake placed in front of me and trying to pick up the fork,

My fingers were short and weak, so I couldn’t lift it well.

‘It’s heavier than I thought.’

I had no choice but to switch to a children’s fork, then gripped it tightly and tried to pick up the cake, but

Before that, Chae-a picked up the cake with her hand and held it out to me, smiling brightly.

“Eat a lot…!”

As I chewed the cake that entered my mouth, I vowed to teach Chae-a various things.

‘There’s plenty of time.’

There’s no need to rush.

Knowing well that pushing too hard would have the opposite effect, I smiled, deciding to proceed one by one step by step.

Perhaps because my stomach was still small, we ended up leaving 90% of the snacks untouched.

So we decided to pack it all up and take it to the training ground.

As I was carefully moving the dessert box in my arms so it wouldn’t fall,

Han A-rin beside me spoke worriedly,

“Are you sure you don’t need unnie’s help?”

“Yes.”

“Really…?”

It seems my posture looks unstable to others.

I straightened my back even more to show I was fine and approached the entrance of the training ground.

This time, the security guard didn’t stop us and opened the door wide.

“It’s a secret room…!”

Chae-a, happy that she could enter the room she couldn’t before, jumped up and down and spoke to me.

I smiled brightly at Chae-a like that and then

As I was walking forward to see Seo-rin training,

“It’s Ha-eun!”

“Kyaaaa what is this, it’s real?”

“Wow, she really looks cute. I want to have a daughter.”

The moment we entered the training ground, unintentionally, we drew the attention of everyone in the training ground.