Bom wanted Yu Jitae to become a human and among the conditions of becoming a human were being able to express emotions. To make Yu Jitae into a human that could express his romantic feelings, she was in the middle of teaching him such emotions through the âact of teasingâ. Her own enjoyment was a byproduct.
And although Gyeoul was a mature child in the standards of humans, she sometimes acted like a child especially when facing her food preferences. In times like that, Bom had to act the role of a mother, but she couldnât exactly scold her so she was teaching her in a mischievous way. After doing it for a long time, she started enjoying this as well.
ââŠâ
Todayâs victim / criminal. Yu Gyeoul.
Crime: Eating toothpaste.
ââŠâ
Gyeoul, who maintained the cleanliness of her body with a cleansing spell, had never brushed her teeth before because simply using a spell would cleanse her teeth.
Therefore, she didnât think much of it even though there was a squeezable food of some sort inside the bathroom. She saw Bom brushing her teeth with it sometimes but as all dragons were, she had limited interest in what other dragon races were doing.
It all changed when she received an ice cream that looked similar to it at her school. An extremely delicious ice cream that had to be squeezedâŠ
After coming back home, Gyeoul carefully opened the lid of the toothpaste and squeezed it into her mouth. Surprisingly, it tasted good. It was sweet and tasted like fairy floss.
She would be caught if she ate too much of it, so she decided to eat only a little bit.
However, Bom was extremely quick at reading between the lines and Gyeoul was caught that very night.
Gyeoul was scolded by her.
She said that wasnât meant to be eaten.
However, Gyeoul couldnât accept her words.
Isnât it fine as long as it was tasty? Itâs not like she would get a stomachache from eating it so there appeared to be no reason why she wasnât supposed to eat it. Therefore, Gyeoul decided to be stubborn one last time.
The next day, the colour of the toothpaste changed.
Into something that had the same colour as Bom-unniâs hair colour.
ââŠâ
Since she couldnât get caught, she hurriedly squeezed it into her mouth and that was the problem.
She was startled. Her nose started ringing as she continued sneezing non-stop. With tears flowing out of her eyes, she quickly escaped the bathroom in a fright.
It was wasabi.
On the way out, her eyes met with Bomâs who was sitting on the living room sofa, and saw her floating a teasing smile. In the end, her plans worked out and Gyeoul never ate toothpaste ever since.
But meanwhile Gyeoul, whose jar of gummies as well as toothpaste had been stolen away from her, realised that she couldnât continue suffering a loss like this.
âWhat. Me?â
ââŠYes.â
âYou want me to help with your revenge?â
ââŠYes.â
Since a successful revenge against Bom by herself would never be possible, Gyeoul came looking for Yu Jitae.
ââŠYou canâtt?â
âWell. Not that I canât, but what are the plans for your revenge.â
Gyeoul put her hands together in a cone shape and whispered into his ears.
ââŠUnni, is doing homework, right now.â
Homework? She probably meant assignments.
âSo thatâs why you came to me now.â
Gyeoul nodded in response with a bright smile.
ââŠPlease, distract her with me.â
As if they were plotting a secret conspiracy, Gyeoul appeared excited. Yu Jitae wasnât sure if it would work out or not but the child was enjoying it, so he gave a nod back.
âAlright.â
***
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Bom was doing six assignments at once. Books alongside a laptop were on the table, on her lap or floating in mid-air.
It was because she lost all the remaining interest she had in studies after ruining the writing contest. Now she was just procrastinating at the last second so that she wouldnât have to repeat the grade.
In the middle of her diligent work on the assignments, she felt a gaze from her sides. Turning around, she saw Yu Jitae and Gyeoul looking at a gaming console. Thinking that it must have been her imagination, she was about to concentrate back on the assignments but felt gazes again after a while. She immediately flicked her head to the side and found Gyeoul staring at her for a split second.
ââŠLu, lulu âȘâ
Gyeoul suddenly started singing with an awkward voice. Bom stared at her for a long time before turning her gaze back to the assignments but soon started feeling the gazes again.
Just like that, Gyeoul was planning on doing revenge with her gaze. By glaring daggers at her and pretending otherwise whenever Bom looked her way.
Therefore, what happened next immediately made her flinch.
Bom raised her head. Thinking that she was about to look at her, Gyeoul turned nervous but Bomâs gaze headed to the laptop floating in mid-air making her feel relieved.
But that was when Gyeoulâs face suddenly appeared on the laptop.
The surprised look on Gyeoulâs face as well as the dull look on Yu Jitaeâs face was being reflected on the laptop.
âWhat are you doing? Both of you.â
ââŠâ
âAre you here to interfere with my assignments?â
How did she find out? It was way too quick.
In a fluster, Gyeoul turned towards Yu Jitae and asked with her eyes.
What do we do now?
Who knows.
But Yu Jitae didnât have a decent plan either.
âYou shouldnât waste your own time. Just go. Iâm busy.â
Seeing that Yu Jitae and Gyeoul were still persistent, Bom grinned murmuring, âCuteâŠâ before focusing her mind back on the assignments.
There was no more turning back. Yu Jitae went and sat next to Bom on the sofa and Gyeoul, having realised his intention, occupied the opposite side of the sofa.
âLike I said, itâs almost due and Iâm busyâŠâ
Bom softly mumbled that and concentrated on the assignments without even sparing them a glance. Their objective wasnât to stop her from doing assignments and was to distract her a little. After some contemplation, Gyeoul repeatedly opened and closed her fist next to Bom in an attempt to make her look at it but it failed.
Gyeoul slowly brought her fist closer towards her. She opened and closed her fist right next to Bomâs shoulder but Bom did not move a single inch. Thus, Gyeoul softly nudged her on the shoulder. She repeated that several times but soon realised that she was being ignored.
âNnn, do that as much as you want~â
ââŠâ
It was instead Gyeoul herself who was being teased now.
Gyeoul gestured with her eyes at Yu Jitae who was sitting on the opposite side of the sofa, with her eyes asking, why arenât you doing anything?
In response, Yu Jitae faintly shook his head, meaning what would I even do. Gyeoul shook her head even faster, telling him to do something at the very least.
Harassing other people⊠Thinking about it, he remembered how Yeorum was harassing Kaeul.
âŠNo, that wonât do. That wasnât harassing and was closer to simply inflicting pain.
He thought a bit more and remembered Bomâs pranks â how she harassed him from the side when he was driving the car. Carefully raising his hand, he touched her by the cheek.
ââŠâ
Bom ignored him. Regardless, he continued tapping or caressing it and soon, her eyes widened into circles.
âNn?â
Gyeoul shot her eyes wide open. Wasit working? Copying him, Gyeoul carefully tapped Bom on her cheek when she suddenly mumbled with a sigh.
âAh⊠it was a group assessmentâŠâ
It wasnât very effectiveâŠ
âSo annoyingâŠâ
Gyeoul was the one that flinched in the endâŠ
That was when Yu Jitae remembered something else.
There were two types of Bom.
#1. Depending on the location.
Bom when sheâs at home / Bom when sheâs outside.
#2. Depending on her mood.
Bom when sheâs pulling a prank / Bom when sheâs serious.
When sheâs at home, Bom didnât show that much of a reaction no matter what prank Yu Jitae pulled on her. Even now was the same. Although he was touching her earlobes and slightly pulling her cheeks out, she ignored him.
Unable to hold back her frustration, Gyeoul tickled her on the sides and on her neck but Bom was still fully focused on her assignments.
If this was done to her outside the house, the result would have been different.
But Bom when sheâs at home⊠The so-called âHome Bomâ was like an impregnable fortress.
ââŠâ
Yu Jitae suddenly noticed that her attitude was the same as himself. When he was living a daily life and living a non-daily life, he had to live as a different person due to the different objectives he had in mind. Was he overthinking it to think that Bom was the same as him in that regard?
In any case, no matter how much they poked her on her cheeks and her sides, Bom looked as if no-one was even touching her so Gyeoul turned towards him with a crestfallen expression.
Did we fail? She seemed to be asking.
After some thought, Yu Jitae pointed somewhere. Gyeoul turned around and found her pencil case.
ââŠâ
Wouldnât this work for sure? With a bright look on her face, Gyeoul brought the pencil case and took out a brush and a permanent marker.
Gyeoul grabbed the marker while Yu Jitae took the brush.
Gyeoul gave an extremely innocent smile as she started drawing a picture on Bomâs cheek. She drew two dots and a line underneath. :> And thus a smiley face was born.
Next, she decided to draw an animal.
Meanwhile, Yu Jitae also started using the brush to carefully scrape at Bomâs ears, nose and her neck, like an archaeologist excavating the bones of a dinosaur. Although there was a funny tattoo on her face and her neck and a long tickling sessionâŠ
âAigo. Whatâs gotten into you guysâŠâ
That was the only reaction Bom showed.
Yu Jitae stared deeply at her face. Then, he brought the tip of the brush, placing it near her nose. He slightly poked it into her nostrils but she remained still regardless.
Taking it outside, he poked her lips with it, like a child touching a mysterious bug with a piece of stick.
It was then. Her tongue poked out, looking like the tongue of a cat. She rotated it in a circle and slowly licked the tip of the brush, all the while focusing on her assignments as if nothing was happening.
Yu Jitae was the one that was feeling troubled now. There was still an expressionless look on his face, but he slowly pulled the brush out.
It all failed but there was still one thing he hadnât done. Yesterday when they were inside the car, Bom put her lips next to his ears and made weird noises at the end.
But he just couldnât make himself do the same thing.
ââŠâ
So in the end, it was a fail.
The two of them werenât able to distract the âHome Bomâ.
âPlease go somewhere else if youâre done. You too.â
Swish swish. Bom only said that to the two of them a long time after the two of them were done with their pranks. It was an astounding level of concentration.
Gyeoul was disheartened.
She remembered how painful it was after eating the wasabi, but Bom-unni didnât care even though a picture was being drawn on herâŠ
But she had been quite zealously indulged in her drawing. There was the likes of a crooked rabbit with sparkling eyes on Bomâs cheek and her neck.
Since she looked visibly disappointed, Yu Jitae decided to console the child.
âBy the way, your drawing is really nice. Itâs cute.â
ââŠNn? Really?â
âYeah. Very pretty.â
That was when Bomâs hand paused for a split second. It had stopped from time to time even when she was focused on her assignments so Yu Jitae didnât think much of it.
ââŠI, tried my best.â
âSeems like it.â
ââŠWhich parts, are pretty?â
What?
Her words made him speechless.
ââŠNn?â
ââŠâ
ââŠNothing?â
Gyeoul was about to be depressed again.
He couldnât think of anything to say. The crooked drawing was only pretty because Gyeoul was the one that drew it.
Deeply he contemplated. And looking at Bomâs cheeks, he thought a bit more. He suddenly realised that the sparkling eyes of the rabbit were probably what Gyeoul had spent the most time on.
âThe eyes are pretty.â
Bomâs hand stopped once again.
ââŠAndd?â
âHmm, the slant of the eyes is cute.â
ââŠYes. Ah, thereâs also hair on the head.â
She seemed to be in a good mood after hearing compliments.
The child was happy, so he started adding unmatching compliments to the crooked drawing of the child.
There were three strands of hair resembling a weed.
âRight. I would love to caress it.â
ââŠNn nn. The entire body, is covered in fur.â
âMust be warm to hug.â
ââŠWhat if, hungry?â
âYou mean the rabbit? Or me.â
ââŠUumm, both.â
âGive it a carrot. Or eat it.â
Gyeoul chuckled out loud while Bomâs fingers twitched.
ââŠIs it delicious?â
âHuh?â
ââŠRabbit meat. Is it delicious?â
ââŠâ
But she didnât take it as a joke. It was times like this that reminded him that Gyeoul was also a dragon.
âWho knows. But you worked hard on drawing it so donât think about eating it. You need to treasure it.â
ââŠBut, it will be gone anyway.â
âThatâs a shame. Even though itâs so cute.â
ââŠNn.â
Gyeoul nodded her head in sorrow, before asking again for the confirmation.
ââŠIs it, really cute?â
âVery cute.â
ââŠWould you treasure it?â
âOf course.â
That was when she threw a slightly philosophical question.
ââŠIf itâs gone, itâll be forgotten rightâŠ?â
Yu Jitae contemplated, before giving a response.
âIt will remain in your memories though.â
ââŠAh.â
âYou especially wonât be able to even forget it.â
ââŠYes. Then ahjussi, will you remember it as well?â
âOf course I canât forget it. Itâs so pretty.â
It was then.
Suddenly, Bom hurriedly took her books and the laptop and stealthily stood up from her seat. ââŠAht,â exclaimed Gyeoul as she belatedly tried to catch her but Bom quickened her steps with an anxious look on her face. At a speed close to running away, she escaped.
Kung. The door closed behind her.
Standing in front of Bomâs room, Gyeoul turned towards him.
There was a question mark floating above her head.
***
There was a point Yu Jitae and Gyeoul hadnât even considered.
It was that they just happened to be constantly looking at Bomâs cheek during their conversation.
Until one point in time, Bom was completely focused on her assignments that she couldnât hear a single thing. It was as if the whole world was put on mute.
But her ears suddenly started picking up sound.
Since when was it?
â Very pretty.
It was after he called her cheeks pretty.
Something extremely strange started happening after that. It was that Bomâs ears had started picking up only the sound of Yu Jitaeâs voice.
â The eyes are pretty.
â Hmm, the slant of the eyes is cute.
â Right. I would love to caress it.
A crack appeared in her expression. Assignment and concentration or whatever, she just couldnât continue any longer, so Bom glared at the two villains that were disturbing her.
â Must be warm to hug.
â Of course.
But Yu Jitae, who was paying all his attention into pleasing Gyeoul, seemed unable to notice it. And that was when her malfunctioning ears picked up the final words
â Of course I canât forget it. Itâs so pretty.
Lying face-down on the bed, she buried her face into the pillow.
I must be crazyâŠ
She knew he wasnât talking about her. She knew he was talking about the rabbit drawn on her cheeks and yet hearing such words made her heart race and jumbled up her brain.
Bom heaved out a deep sigh.
She needed to keep herself in check.
At this point, it was an illness and a severe one at that.
*
[1418. But I still loved itâŠ]
[Ahjussi Observation Diary â„â„]
*
After that, Yu Jitae bought a squeezable ice cream for Gyeoul.
She had fun with Yu Jitae, got complimented for her drawing, and was able to have ice cream⊠All those elements seemed to have bettered her mood by severalfold.
For him, it was a great turn of events. He had been lost for words when he was suddenly made to compliment the rabbit butâŠ
All the things he had thought of when looking at Bom came in handy.