Chapter 19

“Uwaahhh!”

“Wha, seriously, this is insane…!”

“This isn’t a fire show or fireworks, what is this, a nuke? Whoa, this is crazy, for real…”

“Sh-t, this is wild…”

“I thought it would be just a little flameshow, but wow.”

At the surreal scene, my classmates looked as if they’d lost their minds, and the juniors appeared the same.

Even Lee Si-hyun, who had been tipsy, sobered up in an instant.

Si-hyun stared at me with wide eyes.

Actually, it wasn’t just Si-hyun. My younger sibling was looking at me with a similar expression, as if they couldn’t believe that the person they’d constantly argued with could create such a spectacle.

“…Guess I shouldn’t mess with sister.”

I heard everything, brat. You’ll end up messing with me anyway.

Still, I was quite surprised myself.

I had intended to experiment with the range of my firepower, but I hadn’t expected it to pierce through the clouds so high up in the sky.

The citizens strolling around nearby were also taken aback and staring at me.

Isn’t it obvious I’ve caused quite an incident?

Though I had carefully checked my surroundings and ensured there was nothing passing overhead at that height, I hadn’t anticipated drawing so much attention.

Initially, I knew I’d attract notice, so that wasn’t really an issue.

My only concern was whether this might instill undue fear in anyone.

At that moment, someone approached me.

“Wow! This sister has horns on her head! She’s breathing fire!”

A little girl, who looked about five or six, suddenly came up to me. Her family must have been out for an evening stroll.

While her parents, realizing too late, panicked and tried to stop her, the girl had already clung to me.

The girl seemed to have grown up loved, as her actions showed no hesitation.

But I wasn’t particularly bothered. I bent down on my knees and looked at her.

“Are you amazed?”

“Uh-huh!”

“Do you want to touch?”

“Is that okay?”

“Yeah.”

“Hehe!”

The girl stretched out her hand and stroked my horns.

Of course, I couldn’t really feel much, but what she probably felt was quite different from me—solid and unfamiliar, something that only mutants possess. For her, I must seem extraordinary, as she doesn’t yet know about mutants.

At her age, she wouldn’t understand notions of rudeness or propriety, and I could sense no malice in her actions. So I simply smiled and observed her.

“Hard! Amazing!”

“Right?”

“Why do you have horns, sister?”

“Because I’m a dragon?”

“A dragon!?”

The girl’s eyes sparkled. At that moment, her parents, who had been worrying I might harm her child, swiftly approached and held her hand.

“Sorry! The child doesn’t know any better…”

Lifting my gaze slightly, I noticed their eyes filled with an unmistakable fear.

It seemed the fear of mutants was unavoidable.

However, I couldn’t blame them. They had just witnessed flames shooting from my mouth and piercing through the sky. Naturally, they were frightened.

Considering the trouble mutants have caused in various incidents, the parents’ reaction wasn’t really impolite, just the natural concern of protectiveness.

“It’s fine. Kids will be kids.”

“Sister, sister, can dragons fly?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow! But you don’t have wings—how do you fly?”

“Wings?”

“Uh-huh!”

“…Do you want to see?”

“Yeah!”

“That’s it… Sorry, we’ll leave now. Yoon-seo, come here.”

“No! I want to play with Sister Dragon!”

As if six years old, the girl started throwing a tantrum.

Her mother, it seemed, was growing increasingly awkward.

People nearby, classmates, juniors, even my sibling were watching the scene with great interest.

They already knew I could be kind to others, so no real fear arose from what had just happened. Instead, curiosity seemed to fill their gaze—curiosity if I’d really pull out wings.

The girl was particularly intrigued when I mentioned wings. How could she not, when she couldn’t see any?

…Although it might tear my clothes a bit, it couldn’t be helped, I guess. I turned to my sister, Seo-ah.

“Seo-ah.”

“What?”

Knowing it was my atypically gentle tone because of the girl present, my sister’s expression slightly crinkled but she didn’t show it overtly.

“Do you happen to have any clothes that fit?”

“What, like they’d just be lying around?”

“Can you buy me some? I’ll pay you back…”

“Are you really going to use them?”

“Seems like I need to.”

“…Alright. But I want to see them too.”

“Sure, I’ll show you later, at home.”

“They won’t work at home, you know that?”

“I know, I know.”

Saying this, I handed her my card.

As Seo-ah ran off hurriedly, the girl’s parents were clearly restless. They seemed to realize that bothering me anymore wouldn’t be a good idea.

“Yoon-seo, will you really behave like this?”

“I don’t want to go!”

“What’s wrong with her today? Honey, say something.”

“Yoon-seo. Don’t make things difficult for sister, let’s go home, okay? You’re such a good girl, Yoon-seo, right?”

“Usually she’s so well-behaved and doesn’t cause trouble… What is it with her today?”

“Nope, I’m not going!”

Even with her father trying to reason, Yoon-seo didn’t seem ready to budge.

The child’s voice rang loud and clear.

“Yoon-seo, sister will show you the wings?”

“Yeah!”

“In that case, let’s make a promise.”

“What kind of promise?”

“I’ll show you the wings, and even give you a little flight. In return, you’ll listen to your parents afterwards, okay?”

“Really!?”

“Sure. I don’t lie. Come on, pinky promise… stamp it with a thumb! Is that a promise?”

“Yeah!”

“Sorry again, really.”

“Don’t worry about it. Kids will be kids. If I were Yoon-seo, I’d be amazed too. Ah, could you give me a moment alone? The wings are quite large, so you might get hurt. Yoon-seo, would you stay with mom for a bit?”

“Yeah!”

“Na-yeon, could the juniors also step back a little? The wings are big, so you might get hit when they open.”

“Ah, sure!”

As the people around moved away, I took a deep breath and pulled out my wings.

Crack.

A spine-chilling sound accompanied the emergence of the wings, each roughly two meters, making the total span about four meters. The dragon wings erupted suddenly, and everyone’s eyes widened in astonishment. The reaction was greater than it had been when I sent flames into the sky.

“Wow…! So huge!”

“My goodness…”

“How’s it going? Pretty big, right?”

“Can you really fly?”

“Yeah.”

I moved the wings. With the flapping sound, a wind surged around me.

Whoosh!

At the same time, my body lifted slightly.

“How’s it going, isn’t it amazing?”

“Yeah!”

“Come on over. I’ll show you a little view of the sky.”

Hearing my words, Yoon-seo silently hugged me.

Carrying Yoon-seo, I rose to a moderate height, about ten meters above the ground—not too high, considering her parents might worry.

“Wowww!”

“Uh…”

Yoon-seo seemed excited, repeatedly exclaiming in awe. And it was the same for me too, since this was my first time flying on my own with the wings spread out.

The wind blew.

The pleasant autumn breeze indeed felt refreshing just to be in it.

“Is it fun?”

“Wowww…”

Yoon-seo nodded at my question and kept exclaiming in amazement.

Certainly, it was an experience no one else could have.

After circling the park once, I noticed some people taking photos of me.

I didn’t pay much attention, though.

It was something I had accepted when I first decided to reveal myself as a mutant in university.

As long as it didn’t harm the people around me, I decided to be lenient about such matters.

But if someone were to dig into my personal information and trouble the people around me, I wouldn’t let them off easily.

I need to talk to Agent Choi Jung-ho and see if there’s a way to deal with it.

After circling the park and returning to the original spot, Yoon-seo skipped happily back to her mother, her eyes shining as if she’d just ridden an amusement ride.

“Thank you so much. Yoon-seo isn’t usually this demanding…”

“Ahahaha… Kids are full of curiosity at this age, aren’t they? You don’t have to worry so much. Yoon-seo, remember the promise to listen to your parents?”

“Uhmm… Okay…”

Yoon-seo seemed reluctant to say goodbye to me. But, having made the pinky promise, she didn’t throw another tantrum and quietly hugged her mother.

“Sister! Bye bye!”

I silently waved to the child. Still, I couldn’t fold my wings back yet, as my back clearly felt exposed.

Since my clothes were a little askew, I gently wrapped myself in my wings.

At that moment, my classmates and juniors approached.

They couldn’t stop their exclamations of awe, and some juniors asked if their wings always end up like this when they spread them.

“Yeah. I told you before, right? If the clothes aren’t specifically designed for back exposure, it happens like this. Anyway, when’s Yoon-seo coming back?”

Just as I said that, my sister, out of breath, appeared.

“Here, here’s the clothes.”

“Ah, thanks. Hey, cover me up for a second; I need to change…”

“I’ll help too.”

At that moment, Si-hyun and Na-yeon, who had sobered up, stood by me to shield me. It was a little inconvenient, but… are there no stores that cater specifically to mutants’ clothing?

I might want to try stretching out my tail someday, but for now, that seems to be quite impossible.

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