I want to play with Chae-a…

I want to play with Chae-a…

 

I wanted to argue that it wasn’t imitating adults, but being mature, but

Once again, knowing that such words would lose their effect the moment I said them myself, I sent a signal asking for help from the counselor teacher.

 

“Hm? Ha-eun, did you want some snacks?”

The counselor teacher didn’t recognize my signal and just smiled brightly.

 

As I realized that I could only rely on myself, I was becoming gloomy when

Chae-a, who was next to me, stepped in and spoke to the broadcast instead.

 

“Ha-eun is an adult…!”

 

Could she read my mind?

I wonder how she says exactly what I want to say.

As a sign of gratitude, I gently hold Chae-a’s hand, and Chae-a flutters her hand, looking extremely happy.

Anyway, I was about to say that I’m not imitating adults, but being mature.

[Found it – Looking at how she takes care of her younger sibling, Chae-a seems to be more of the older sister type?]

[SeorinSeorin – Chae-a really takes good care of Ha-eun. She speaks very clearly too.]

[SpiritsCutestEver – The spirits are definitely more mature.]

Something about the reactions seems off.

Seeing the chat saying Chae-a is more mature, I try to prove that I’m actually more mature by.

Patting Chae-a’s head, fixing the blanket, or picking up fallen trash.

[HouseholdMaster – She’s really good at tidying up the room. I wish my kids would clean their rooms too.]

[WetWipes – Ah, I want to clean up for her. The way her tail wags while cleaning is so cute.]

[RichAndSuspicious – I think there’s a chocolate wrapper under Ha-eun’s bed.]

No one is calling me mature.

I wonder why…

Thinking that I don’t understand what’s wrong, I’m tapping the floor with my tail as a sign of anger.

Chae-a, who’s next to me, looks at me with a slightly shocked expression and says.

“Ha-eun, are you angry…?”

Hearing that, I hurriedly grab my tail and shake my head.

Chae-a looks at me and sighs in relief, then smiles brightly again.

“What a relief!”

“Yeah…”

Looking at Chae-a’s smiling face.

I’m reminding myself once again to be careful with every action around the baby.

Someone knocks on the door and enters the hospital room.

“Ha-eun? Are you here?”

Wondering who it might be, I check and see Han A-rin’s face.

I tilt my head, wondering if she’s finished with the busy work she mentioned earlier.

Han A-rin calls out to me and says something.

“Ha-eun, do you remember Perseus that I told you about before?”

Although I don’t remember exactly what was said, I nod because it appeared in the original novel and I clearly remember hearing about it.

Han A-rin shows signs of contemplation for a moment before continuing her question.

“Then, would you like to meet Perseus in a little while? Of course, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to. Either way, Ha-eun’s decision is what’s important here.”

Hearing those words, I fell into thought for a moment.

I had seen something written about how dragons as a species cherish their own kind terribly, overprotecting other dragons, especially hatchlings.

‘If you rephrase overprotection, it also means they’ll do anything to protect me…’

In the worst case, under the pretext of protection, they might cut off all the relationships I’ve built up so far.

I thought they might forcibly take me to an area where dragons live together.

‘Is this going too far?’

If they were people… no, dragons who would do such a thing, they would have tried to take me away from the beginning.

I don’t think it would go that far.

Still, just in case, I thought it would be better to avoid meeting as much as possible, so I decided not to meet.

As I was thinking this and shaking my head to show my reluctance to meet,

Han A-rin looked at me and continued speaking with a bright smile.

“It seems you still don’t want to. Okay, then I’ll let them know that you don’t want to.”

Is it just my imagination that she seems excited?

As I was wondering about Han A-rin leaving while humming,

The counselor looked at me and continued speaking.

“Ha-eun, can you tell me why you don’t want to meet Perseus?”

It’s not that I dislike it, but I’m trying not to meet because I’m anxious…

If I say this directly, it would be no different from saying I’m suspicious of someone I’ve never met.

So I decided to speak indirectly to maintain politeness as much as possible.

“I want to play with Chae-a…”

At those words, the counselor tried to hold back laughter and said, “I-I see?” while turning her face away.

I was puzzled, not understanding why she turned her face away.

Suddenly, the chat window starts scrolling up quickly.

[Blurred – Ah hahahahahahaha, so adorable really. Right, playing with Chae-a is important.]

[WantToPossess – Haha, playing is understandable. Ha-eun is a baby, so she needs to play more.]

[MakeAWish – How to refuse meeting Perseus. 1. Say you’re playing with Chae-a.]

It seems my reason for refusal was a bit odd.

Here’s the English translation:

I realized this and was about to give another reason.

“Huh…”

Because the counselor was laughing so hard she could barely breathe.

It became awkward to make excuses, and as I watched the teacher, I was glumly swishing my tail.

Chae-a picked me up in her arms and exclaimed triumphantly.

“Chae-a will play with you!”

Maybe because of what I said earlier, I couldn’t bring myself to refuse.

I felt Chae-a’s hand dragging me somewhere and hugged my tail tightly.

* * * *

—-

[???: Playing with Chae-a is more important than meeting Perseus.

– Everyone is shocked.

Meanwhile, Chae-a is dancing excitedly.]

ㄴ Hahahahaha Seeing how Ha-eun boldly refuses Perseus’s request to meet, isn’t she actually the strongest in the world?

ㄴ That seems right? Ah, but she’s really cute. Sigh, I wish she would stream every day.

ㄴ By the way, Perseus approached the association faster than I expected. I thought it would take about a month.

ㄴ Seems like he approached quickly because of the Hunter exam? There could be potential dangers.

—

The hunter community is in an uproar again because of Ha-eun.

It’s because she coldly rejected the meeting request from Perseus, who is the idol of hunters and possesses overwhelming strength, for such a trivial reason.

Of course, just looking at the rejection itself, it wasn’t that special.

Personal circumstances and various issues surrounding each other sometimes create situations where rejection is inevitable.

‘Even so, the reason it became such a big issue is.’

Perseus’s proposal was rejected because the subject gave an incredibly cute reason for refusing.

That reason was none other than the trivial and almost absurdly simple reason of ‘playing with Chae-a’.

While everyone was excited about this reason that was both rational and irrational at the same time, one post rose to the top.

—

[According to Perseus, he thinks it can’t be helped.

– For hatchlings, playing is more important.

Still, he hopes to meet later.]

ㄴ Hahaha, it seems like Perseus is flustered and blurting out anything.

ㄴ Looks like he didn’t expect to be rejected.

ㄴ If it were me, I’d probably say it’s okay out of embarrassment too haha.

ㄴ Ah, I want to play with Ha-eun too.

—

A post saying it’s okay to be rejected, but please just meet later.

People started writing numerous posts about this behavior that was the complete opposite of Perseus’s usual demeanor.

Among them, one post was gaining likes at a particularly fast rate:

—

[Isn’t Perseus’s timing to meet Ha-eun a bit too perfect?

– Suddenly Ha-eun taking the hunter exam without any warning, and Perseus coming to meet Ha-eun.

It all fits together too well, so I’ve been wondering why.

So I thought about it for a few hours.

And I think this might be a power struggle between the Association and the Dragon side.]

ㄴ Yep, that’s right. The Association created an exception to the rules to make Ha-eun a hunter, giving them a justification to directly protect her.

The Dragon side got angry seeing the Association’s actions to keep protecting Ha-eun without giving them the right to protect her.

They sent Perseus to warn them to take it easy, yeah. 

I’m confused. I don’t understand what they’re saying, so let’s just get along well together.

Ha-eun is cute, isn’t she? 

—

It was a speculation about why Perseus arrived faster than expected.

Watching this, Seo-rin narrowed her eyes and started grumbling.

‘I’m the one who will protect Ha-eun.’

Ha-eun and Chae-a are adorable little sisters that she won’t give up to anyone.

So, thinking that she would protect them no matter what hardships and storms come, she was slightly biting her lip.

A small laugh is heard from the side.

“Seo-rin, no matter what, you should focus on the meeting.”

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

“No, actually, I was looking at the hunter community too.”

“……?”

While thinking about what expression to make towards Han A-rin, who she’s gotten a bit closer to but still feels awkward with,

Han A-rin offered her a candy and said,

“Don’t try to solve everything alone. The more you try to do things alone in this world, the more you’ll overexert yourself.”

“… Yes.”

“Of course, you’re so talented, Seo-rin, that you probably won’t feel like you’re overexerting yourself for a long time… But since people can make mistakes, if you stumble by accident, you might find yourself in an unmanageable situation. It’s good to practice relying on others too.”

As she nodded while listening to Han A-rin’s words,

Han A-rin looked at her, chuckled, and continued speaking.

“You might think, ‘What right do I have to say this when I’m just cooped up in the lab doing research?'”

“No, it’s not.”

“No, if it were me, I’m sure I would have thought that way.”

Honestly, since it wasn’t completely untrue even as a polite remark, I closed my mouth and smiled awkwardly.

Han A-rin looked at me and let out a small sigh.

“Still, I hope you’ll take this experience to heart.”

“Yes.”

As I was nodding, feeling like I understood the sentiment.

I felt something wriggling in my pocket.

Wondering what it was, I opened it to find not bugs… but the little black creatures rolling around in my pocket.

‘Why on earth are these guys here?’

Unable to understand the flow of events, I blinked blankly while staring at the little black creatures.

* * * * *

I was being dragged somewhere by Chae-a.

Actually, to say I was being taken somewhere is a bit of an exaggeration.

Since the only place Chae-a could take me was inside the hospital room, I was being pulled along indifferently.

Suddenly, Chae-a quickly climbed onto the desk, grabbed the phone, and started running towards me.

“This is Ha-eun’s!”

Is this a case of “the show must go on” even if you collapse?

As I decided to follow Chae-a’s professional mindset, I stared blankly at the phone screen.

A chat message from the suspicious viewer who had been helping us a lot recently popped up.

[RichAndSuspicious – Miss Ha-eun. If it’s not too much trouble, could you meet with Perseus? He’s been very much looking forward to meeting you for the past few days.]

This is the first time a suspicious viewer has made such a request, so I’m hesitant.

While I’m pondering this suspicious viewer’s request, I can’t help but notice something that catches my eye.

[RichAndSuspicious – How much must he have wanted to meet her if Perseus prepared churros for Ha-eun? It might not be bad to briefly meet face-to-face and receive a snack.]

The moment I saw that sentence, I unconsciously smiled brightly, nodded, and said.

“Yes!”

While trying to hold back my rapidly wagging tail, I started thinking about how delicious the churros would be.

Suddenly realizing this wasn’t right, I tried to put on a serious expression.

But I realized it was too late.

‘Still, the churros would be delicious.’

If Han A-rin suggested it, there probably wouldn’t be any safety issues.

And since I’m not going alone, but with Han A-rin, there shouldn’t be any major problems, I thought as I swallowed.