chapter_0524

524 – My Tooth is Loose

524 – My Tooth is Loose

“Why is being pretty a flaw?!”

I don’t understand what Jeong Yuna is saying.

The children seemed just as bewildered as I was.

“Have our little ones ever seen anything cute?”

At Jeong Yuna’s question, Levinas turned to look at me.

Then Gaeul, Saebyeok, and Bomi all turned to look at me, and with everyone’s gaze on me, Haneul also turned to look.

“Yes! Levinas has seen something cute!”

“Gaeul too.”

“Me too!”

Smiles bloomed on the children’s faces.

I wonder if they’re thinking of their own cuteness.

Just as I was about to ask what kind of cuteness the children held, Jeong Yuna asked another question.

“How do you feel when you see something cute?”

“Good!”

Gaeul giggled and hugged me tightly.

She seemed happy to think about something cute.

“Right? It feels so good, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it feel like you’re going to, boom, explode?”

“Gasp! That’s right! It feels so good, like I’m going to boom, explode!”

Levinas nodded, understanding.

She seemed to be talking about that feeling of being overwhelmed with joy.

“Right? So you can’t stand not seeing it for even a day, right?”

“Yes! Levinas thinks she knows what you mean!”

Levinas nodded, understanding.

Levinas, who had been smiling happily, gasped and clung to Jeong Yuna’s clothes.

“But that kind of flaw is not allowed!”

“Huh? Is this not it?”

“Yes! Not that, you have to do that to the Beastmen!”

“That? What is that?”

“That…! Discrimination!”

“Discrimination?”

Jeong Yuna and Hanyeoreum tilted their heads.

Levinas gave them an example.

“Beastmen are selfish! Beastmen are barbaric!”

Boo.

When Levinas criticized the Beastmen, Hanyeoreum and Jeong Yuna’s mouths dropped open.

As if proving they were close friends, they did the exact same thing.

“Wh-what?”

“Who said such things to the babies?”

Thinking we had heard bad things from someone, Hanyeoreum and Jeong Yuna’s energy rose.

Before they misunderstood further, I decided to tell them about the game we had been playing.

“We did it in a game.”

“A game?”

“Yes. If we patiently endure hearing bad things and help the people in the game, they apologize to us. Saying the Beastmen are good friends.”

“So that’s the kind of game…? I almost went to the game company to…”

Ahem.

Hanyeoreum cleared her throat.

What was she trying to say?

“The game company?”

“No, it’s nothing. Anyway, why did you ask us to say those things?”

“We’re playing a game. Where we act kindly even when we hear bad things.”

“Ah, a game?”

“Yes. Do you want to play with us?”

“Sure, I’ll say something really mean.”

Huh?

I just needed something moderately mean.

Really mean?

I looked up at Hanyeoreum with a little nervousness.

Then Jeong Yuna, who was next to her, narrowed her eyes and smiled.

“What are you going to say? You’re a famous wom—”

“Hey! Hey!”

Whack!

Hanyeoreum slammed her fist into the top of Jeong Yuna’s head.

Cough.

Jeong Yuna’s eyes closed completely from the shock of being hit on the head.

“Gasp! You shouldn’t hit your friends!”

“Y-yeah. Sorry, sorry.”

Hehe.

Hanyeoreum smiled awkwardly at the children, then glared at Jeong Yuna with fierce eyes.

Jeong Yuna didn’t care about Hanyeoreum’s gaze and just rubbed her head.

“Summer, you…”

“You were out of line just now?”

“…Sigh.”

After a brief commotion, Hanyeoreum turned back to us.

She was wearing a somewhat wicked smile.

“There’s no food for our Beastmen kids!”

“Yes! But Levinas will work for everyone!”

Ahem.

At Levinas’s confident attitude, Hanyeoreum’s smile became even more mischievous.

“Not even carrots?”

“What?!”

“There are no carrots for our Beastmen kids!”

Hanyeoreum knew us better than the NPCs in the game.

So she knew what words we would fear the most.

“This can’t be happening.”

Thud.

Levinas knelt down.

Gaeul giggled next to her and knelt down, and Haneul, sensing the mood, followed suit.

We didn’t usually decide on a winner and loser in our games, but this time, Hanyeoreum was the winner.

**

We went home and ate snacks together.

Hanyeoreum had said there were no carrots, but she actually gave us delicious carrot snacks.

“Yum yum.”

Crunch.

We ate carrots and dried anchovies.

But for some reason, Gaeul’s reaction to the snacks was strange.

“Master, eat.”

Gaeul didn’t eat the anchovies and gave them to me.

Gaeul likes dried anchovies as much as I do, so why?

It was common for Gaeul to give up her snacks, but today Gaeul was acting strange.

Lick.

She licked the chocolate on the plate once.

Then she stared at it for a long time before licking the chocolate again.

Gaeul likes to put chocolate in her mouth and roll it around.

Why is she only licking it little by little?

She even gave the other snacks to others and didn’t touch them.

“Gaeul, aren’t you going to eat the anchovies?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”

“…….”

After thinking for a long time, Gaeul avoided my gaze without a word.

From that, I could tell that something was wrong with Gaeul.

“Gaeul, can you open your mouth?”

“…Ehhh.”

Gaeul opened her mouth very slightly.

She didn’t want to open her mouth, but she wanted to listen to me, so she seemed to have compromised.

“Hmm…”

I gently pressed on Gaeul’s teeth one by one with my finger.

Then I discovered that Gaeul’s right canine tooth was loose.

“……!”

Gaeul, startled by the loose tooth, pulled her head back.

I knew it.

Her tooth was loose, so she couldn’t eat the snacks properly.

Now that I’ve found the problem, it’s time to solve it.

“Gaeul, your tooth is loose, so we have to pull it out.”

“No no.”

“You won’t pull it out? If you don’t pull it out, you won’t be able to eat for the rest of your life?”

“It’s okay.”

Gaeul shook her head firmly.

She was very scared of having her tooth pulled out.

“Gaeul, you have to pull it out even if you’re scared. If you don’t pull it out, the new tooth that grows in might grow in a scary way.”

“Scary?”

“Yes. Your canine tooth might stick out like a boar’s tusk all the way down to your chin?”

“……!”

Gaeul’s ears perked up.

Next to Gaeul, Bomi’s eyes sparkled.

“Cool! I’m not going to pull my tooth out later when it gets loose!”

“Your tooth might grow sideways like this?”

“Then I’ll just pull it out! I want my teeth to grow in nicely! Is it okay for Gaeul’s to grow in ugly?!”

At Bomi’s question, Gaeul shook her head urgently.

Gaeul also seemed to want pretty teeth.

In fact, Beastmen’s teeth kept growing, but she wanted the teeth that grew in to be pretty.

“Master! Do it!”

Gaeul opened her mouth firmly.

I tied a string to Gaeul’s loose canine tooth.

“I’ll pull it on three? One…”

“Ehhhhhhhhhhhh!”

The moment I counted, Gaeul sounded the emergency siren.

Startled, I let go of the string I was holding.

“Gaeul?”

I could hear Gaeul’s heart beating.

I looked at the cowering Gaeul, then turned to look at the children.

“What should we do…?”

“Master, I know how to pull out a tooth without it hurting…!”

“Haneul does?”

“Yes…! I’ve pulled out a lot of teeth…! You can just pull it out like this with your fingers…!”

“Wow, Haneul must have pulled out a lot of teeth?”

“Yes…! My teeth got loose every time I got hit in the face? But teeth grow back unlike arms, so it was okay…!”

“…….”

It’s okay because they grow back.

That’s too terrible.

Gaeul’s ears, who was the one who had to have her tooth pulled out, also drooped sadly.

“If we’re going to pull it out with our hands, should I do it?”

Saebyeok tapped her thumb and index finger together.

The loud noise made Gaeul’s ears, which had been drooping, perk up again.

“Hmm… Instead of us pulling it out, I think it would be better to go to the dentist?”

“Dentist? Master, dentist scary?”

“It’s a place with experts on teeth. They know teeth so well that they’ll pull out Gaeul’s tooth without it hurting, right?”

“……!”

Gaeul jumped up from her seat.

She was tapping her feet, wondering if we were going to the dentist right away.

We decided to go to the dentist with Gaeul.

**

We all moved to the dentist.

Saebyeok stopped for a moment in front of the dentist’s main entrance.

“Saebyeok, what’s wrong?”

“Dentists are kind of scary.”

“Yeah. I’m a little scared too. But we brush our teeth well.”

“That’s right.”

Hooah.

Saebyeok, unlike herself, showed fear, but there was no one in the world who wasn’t afraid of the dentist.

Except for our children, who didn’t know anything.

“Dentist! Dentist!”

“Are we going to the dentist because we brush our teeth?!”

Hehehe.

The inside of the dentist’s office, which we entered while joking around.

As we were about to go to the desk to register, our attention was drawn to the sound coming from the treatment room.

Weeeeee!

A person who appeared to be a dentist was pushing a machine into the mouth of a person lying on a chair.

He was rummaging around in his mouth with a small drill that was spinning around and around.

“Master?”

Gaeul turned to look at me with wide eyes.

It looked quite painful to have someone’s teeth drilled.

It was the exact opposite of the painless treatment I had talked about.

“…Isn’t that torture?”

“Master?!”

Gaeul, who was looking at me, didn’t even blink.

She was just staring at me blankly with a bewildered expression.