Beeeep!!!!

Beeeep!!!!

Ha-eun blinked at the question about being a deer.

While the antlers might be similar, anyone could see that my tail was clearly that of a dragon, and I didn’t particularly recall ever hazily seeing myself dancing with my body swaying in front.

So, I stared at Jin-a in confusion, and she tilted her head and said.

“Am I wrong? I like deer, so I tried to guess, but I guess I was mistaken.”

Jin-a admitted her mistake more easily than expected, then shrugged her shoulders.

She then looked alternately at my tail and antlers and said.

“So what are you exactly? A reptilian?”

To that question, I quickly shook my head and said.

“I’m a dragony.”

“Dragonia? That’s interesting. Is it like a dragon? Anyway, nice to meet you, let’s shake hands.”

As I was tired of explaining further, I grabbed her hand and shook it vigorously.

Yuna, who was standing next to us, shook her head and corrected Jin-a’s words.

“It’s not Dragonia, it’s Dragon. You know?”

“Oh, Dragon! I know about dragons, aren’t they the race that rules the world, accumulating immense wealth and power, and acting like the hidden mastermind of this world?”

“…?”

Objectively speaking, it wasn’t entirely wrong, but it wasn’t exactly right either to affirm such an answer.

As I blinked my eyes in great confusion,

Yuna said somewhat proudly.

“That’s right.”

“I knew it. No wonder they said you live at the association, you guys are actually amazing, aren’t you?”

“Ha-eun is even more amazing.”

“Really? I thought you were the youngest, but you’re the leader of the dark forces… Already showing your true colors?”

I blinked blankly at the phrase “showing your true colors.”

I never imagined such a negative phrase would be uttered so casually.

As I felt my mind going blank, wondering if I should discipline her as an adult…

“Oh, you don’t know what ‘showing your true colors’ means? Yellow is a good thing. Yellow is pretty, right? So it’s a good thing.”

The moment I heard Jin-a’s additional explanation, I realized her knowledge was somewhat distorted.

“That’s why I’m trying to show my true colors. A yellow sprout sounds pretty, like a ginkgo tree.”

“Whatever.”

“Enough with the compliments. I was just trying my best every day…!”

While I was holding my head, watching the crazy collaboration between Yu-na, who was staring with sparkling eyes, and Jin-a, who kept talking about things she had picked up from somewhere.

Han A-rin, who had been quietly listening, seemed to think this couldn’t go on and explained the correct meaning of ‘showing your true colors’ to Jin-a.

“Hey, kid? ‘Showing your true colors’ is actually a really bad thing to say.”

“What?”

“It means someone is rotten from a young age, so you shouldn’t use it, okay?”

Upon hearing this, Jin-a’s expression turned pale, and after looking around, she crouched down and said.

“I’m sorry…”

“No, it’s okay. These things happen. You don’t need to feel so down.”

“… Okay.”

I thought she was a mature child acting like an adult.

But watching her, it seems she was just a child pretending to be an adult.

Actually, this is normal, so I chuckled to myself, thinking it was cute.

 

After all that commotion had ended.

Han A-rin declared that she would buy snacks to welcome her new friend Jin-a.

At the mention of snacks, Jin-a’s face lit up with happiness, and she clung to Han A-rin, saying,

“I’d like strawberry ice cream, please.”

“Really? Don’t you need anything else?”

“No, that’s enough. If you have extra, I’d be really grateful if you could put some cookies on top of the ice cream.”

It seems she doesn’t usually get to eat snacks like ice cream or cookies, as she’s showing an extremely happy reaction.

While I was thinking it’s good that Jin-a is happy.

I saw Chae-a running from afar with about five balloon dogs tied to her body.

“I brought puppies…!”

It looks like she received a bunch of balloon dogs from people around, as she comes running here and there with a big smile.

As I blinked in confusion at the balloon dogs bouncing around,

Chae-a proudly introduced her new (?) puppy friends to me.

“They’re Myeong-myeong, Meong-meong, Moong-moong, Ming-ming, and Wol-wol!”

The name Wol-wol is particularly unusual.

Wondering if there’s a reason, I looked at it.

Chae-a lifted the balloon dog named Wol-wol and said,

“It howls ‘wol-wol’!”

I see, she named them based on their barking sounds.

The only issue is that since the dogs Chae-a brought are balloons, they don’t make any barking sounds…

Just as I was about to let it go since it wasn’t a big deal, the balloon dog (Wol-wol) started to wiggle and move.

“…?!”

In a way, it was an expected result.

Even looking at just Kkamang-i, we could make it appear out of nowhere on a blank sketchbook.

It meant that it was possible to make balloon dogs appear in the same way.

As I watched the balloon dogs flailing around, I wondered if their durability was okay and helped each dog stand up one by one.

While I was moving my hands as carefully as possible, thinking it might pop if I pressed too hard.

Chae-a looked at me and said.

“Wol-wol says he likes Ha-eun!”

Can Chae-a sense such things?

Thinking it was amazing, I patted the head of Wol-wol in front of me.

Wol-wol expressed affection by rubbing its balloon head against the back of my hand.

*

It’s a bit sad, but unlike the Kkamang-is, the balloon dog dolls didn’t have a very long lifespan.

As I was thinking that it might have disappeared quickly because its body was made of balloons.

Chae-a patted my back and said.

“It’s okay…! They’ll come back!”

Tilting my head at the words “come back,” I asked what she meant.

Chae-a looked at me, giggled, and said.

“They don’t disappear, they just go somewhere for a while and come back…! So it’s okay!”

Han A-rin, who was listening to this, seemed to judge that it would be good for her to intervene.

Ha-eun immediately chimed in and added an explanation of what Chae-a meant.

“Spirits usually don’t die but are recalled. So it seems to mean that as long as sufficient conditions are met, they can be summoned again anytime.”

That’s a relief then.

I let out a sigh of relief and gently stroked the balloon dog that was no longer moving.

Then, thinking it would be nice to meet again later, I placed it on the desk, and Han A-rin smiled and spoke.

“Ha-eun, how was it? Was the academy fun?”

It was closer to an experience activity at a cultural center than an academy.

Since it wasn’t a big issue, I just nodded vaguely.

Learning about balloons was fun, and since it had been a while since I attended a lecture, it felt fresh.

Seeing my reaction, Han A-rin nodded with satisfaction and said to me.

“Then shall we come again next time?”

“Yes…!”

“Alright, then next time…”

Han A-rin continued to ponder with her arms crossed, as if she had various plans.

To be considerate and not interrupt Han A-rin’s thoughts, I turned my gaze to the side and saw Jin-a with her face buried in a parfait cup.

‘She looks like Chae-a.’

No, since Chae-a is also burying her face in a parfait cup, would it be more correct to say they’re identical rather than similar?

Anyway, while I was thinking it was nice to see them eating so deliciously.

Yuna, who was next to me, held out a snack and said.

“Eat a lot and grow big. Ha-eun, eat this.”

“You eat too, Yuna.”

“It’s okay, Yuna is the older sister.”

Yuna seemed happy that I was taking care of her, her expression brightening slightly as she kept piling snacks for me.

Thinking she might run out of snacks for herself at this rate, I started piling snacks for Yuna in return.

Yuna wagged her tail gently and said to me.

“Ha-eun is kind.”

Since she usually has such an expressionless face, the slight hint of joy seems even more pronounced.

While I was smiling, thinking that as long as Yuna is happy, that’s all that matters.

Jin-a, who had finished her parfait, stood up with ice cream smeared all over her mouth and suddenly bowed to us.

“It’s time for me to go now. Thank you for buying us ice cream and snacks. And kids, listen well to your older sister. Now that I’m older (7 years old), I regret not listening to adults.”

“Okay! But Chae-a, can I eat this?”

“Yes, I don’t like lemon.”

Chae-a nodded happily, grinning as she got to eat the lemon that Jin-a left behind.

Jin-a looked at Chae-a with an amused smile, then without a moment’s hesitation, she turned around, said her goodbyes, and left abruptly.

“What an interesting child.”

Han A-rin seemed to find Jin-a’s behavior amusing, chuckling as she watched her leave before turning her gaze and saying.

“Shall we head back then?”

The three of us nodded simultaneously at her question.

* 

After leaving the place called an academy but referred to as a cultural center, we headed straight for our lair.

There wasn’t any particular reason, it was just a space where we felt at ease even when doing nothing, so we unconsciously headed there.

“Today was really fun! It would have been nice if Blackie came too…!”

Chae-a seemed to have overcome her fear of the word “academy” and now felt a great fondness for it, enthusiastically explaining how much fun the academy was.

I was clapping in agreement while watching Chae-a’s sparkling appearance.

Somteol came bouncing over here with something placed on its head.

“Beep!”

Wondering what it was, I looked closely and saw the lucky stone that the Blackies had given us long ago on top of its head.

As I was wondering why it brought this,

Somteol dropped the stone beneath us and its eyes sparkled.

“Beep beep, beep!”

A question asking if it could eat it.

To that question, I hurriedly shook my head and shouted “No!”