The Dragon and Her Shyness
Choi Hoon had been friends with us since middle school. More precisely, the bond started in our second year, the day he transferred into our school.
Looking back, you could call him just another friend who happened to stick around. After all, he was the only guy friend we had.
Do Ji-yeon, though, was on a completely different level.
Her house sat a little ways from Ha-yan’s, but the two of them had gone to the same school together ever since elementary. For Ha-yan, that meant she had me as her boy childhood friend and Do Ji-yeon as her girl one.
On top of that, Ji-yeon had somehow managed to land in the exact same class as the two of us for all six years of elementary, three of middle school, and now two of high school. The girl was ridiculously lucky.
Ha-yan and I? Well, everyone already knows. We had a very convenient little method. Even Mother never bothered to stop us from using that particular “trick.” In fact, she would just casually ask me, “You’re going to be in the same class as Ha-yan again next year, right?”
And so nearly ten years had passed with the three of us sharing the same class, the same circle, the same easy friendship.
Choi Hoon, who had watched Ha-yan and me since middle school, never tried to insert himself into whatever we had going on. Ha-yan would occasionally turn aggressive enough to make me jump, but for the most part I was the one on offense and she was on defense. Moments when she flipped the script were rare—really rare.
Unlike Choi Hoon, who was content to stay a bystander, Do Ji-yeon simply could not stand watching the two of us dance around each other forever.
“Come in? Me? In here? Alone? Where’s Ha-yan, and why are you by yourself?”
“Heheh. That flustered look. I love it. Don’t get to see it every day.”
I climbed to the floor Ji-yeon had texted me and walked toward the shop next to the restrooms. Waiting in front of it was Do Ji-yeon, wearing the most satisfied expression imaginable while I stood there looking completely lost.
Only now that I had arrived did every little thing click into place—Ha-yan’s awkward face and stammered words, the way Ji-yeon had been acting with both Choi Hoon and me, the grumbling Choi Hoon had directed my way earlier.
“It’s not even midsummer. The water’s still freezing this time of year and you want swimsuits?”
Ji-yeon answered without a shred of shame.
“Did you already forget we’re staying at a five-star hotel? I already checked—it has an amazing indoor pool! And I confirmed with our homeroom teacher that we can use it whenever we want!”
“Wouldn’t it be better to just go outside and have fun during free time?”
“Are you even a guy? We set the whole stage for you and all you can think about is escaping?”
“No. I am, in fact, a guy.”
I shot back at her last comment and strode confidently into the swimsuit shop.
But…
“Umm…”
Honestly, I had no idea where to put my eyes.
You’re the type who hugs Ha-yan at the drop of a hat, so why so shy all of a sudden?
Well, Ha-yan never exactly flaunted her skin in front of me, either.
And was I crazy enough to start ogling other girls? Especially girls wearing nothing but tiny bikinis?
Absolutely not. I could put my hand over the Dragon Heart in my chest and swear it with complete confidence.
So what did that leave?
It meant I was basically completely unprepared for this kind of thing.
I marched bravely into the center of the store where the bikinis hung everywhere, only to lose the fight against the atmosphere and veer toward the men’s rash-guard section instead.
Those bikinis definitely had some kind of weird magical power. There was no other explanation for why a dragon like me couldn’t walk over to a few scraps of fabric!
And right beside me, after I had fled to the corner to escape the bikinis—
Creeeak…
A door with a large mirror on it began to open.
“Huh? S-Siu? Why are you here?”
“…Guh.”
What filled my vision was Ha-yan wearing a pure black bikini.
That jet-black hair, that slender figure other girls would envy, all of it wrapped in matching black fabric. The narrow waist, the long slim legs stretching downward—every detail slammed into my eyes and started dealing massive damage.
My heart was pounding so hard I called it “damage,” but it wasn’t the painful kind.
I could feel my face heating up, which only made me think something was seriously wrong with me.
“Eh? Uh… ahh…”
Ha-yan’s heart seemed to be racing just as hard. She hastily snatched up her clothes and covered the sensitive spots, but the image had already been burned into my retinas like a photograph.
When we were little kids we used to bathe together, sure, but after secondary sexual characteristics kicked in, the most revealing thing she’d ever worn around me was that sleeveless top from the training room the other day.
I already knew her figure, of course, but pale skin against a black bikini?
The destructive power was off the charts.
And the situation was clearly hitting Ha-yan just as hard.
Creeeak…
Once she confirmed I was standing right outside the door, she hurriedly covered herself as best she could with her clothes. Reading the look on my face that said I’d already seen everything, she slowly shut the door again and vanished back into the fitting room.
I collected myself, sat down on the chair by the door, and simply waited for her.
After who knows how long—
Creak.
The fitting-room door opened once more and Ha-yan stepped out in her school uniform, face still faintly pink.
I couldn’t look her straight in the eye. Every time I tried, the image of that pale-and-black version of her flashed right back.
Ha-yan seemed just as embarrassed; she stood in front of me fidgeting, fingers twitching restlessly.
Watching this syrupy little scene from a step away were Do Ji-yeon and Choi Hoon, who had somehow finished all that food and climbed up to the swimsuit floor.
“Well… this sweet, melting feeling is nice and all. But is that it, Ji-yeon?”
“Ugh… those hopeless idiots…”
Apparently the two of them had just been sighing at our painfully awkward situation the whole time.
“It was Do Ji-yeon, right?”
“Y-yeah… I mean, yeah?”
“Figured as much.”
“Hiiing… W-was it that bad to look at?”
“No! Absolutely not! Don’t get the wrong idea!”
“Then… did you like it?”
“Huh?”
“W-was I pretty?”
“…Yeah.”
“Hehe.”
From the moment Ha-yan said she wanted to drag Choi Hoon and me to the shopping center, every single thing that happened afterward—exactly as I’d suspected—had Do Ji-yeon pulling the strings behind the scenes.
Ji-yeon looked ready to scold us again while we stood there red-faced and frozen in the swimsuit shop, but Choi Hoon, reading the room for once, forcibly dragged her out of sight.
His text said he’d handle Ji-yeon somehow and that we should just head home on our own.
Moments like this made me think Choi Hoon actually had better social radar than Ji-yeon… so why was he usually such a disaster?
Once the two of them were gone, I did my best to keep my usual calm and took Ha-yan’s hand the same way I always did as we started the walk home from school.
Ha-yan, for her part, must have liked that black bikini enough, because her other hand held the shopping bag with the swimsuit inside.
Things had gotten a little awkward between us, but it was still Ha-yan and me, so I decided to start the conversation first.
I mean… I’d already seen everything. Acting weird about it now would just be stranger, right?
“That swimsuit. Did you really want to show it to me that badly? You’ll get to wear it on the school trip anyway. Or better yet, you could just put it on in our bathroom at home.”
“Ugh. Th-that’s true, but Ji-yeon said I should use my figure at times like this.”
“I’ve told you a million times not to trust everything Ji-yeon says. Do you even remember how many times she’s gotten us into these messes?”
“I know, but… they weren’t bad memories, either.”
“True. Not bad memories. Just… not entirely good ones, either.”
This wasn’t the first time Ji-yeon had sweet-talked Ha-yan into creating a situation like this. Last time it was a swimsuit; before that she’d put Ha-yan in a thin sleeveless top and dolphin shorts under a big apron for that classic “illusion apron” look just to show me. And back in middle school there was the Everland incident—when I got chewed out hard by Ha-yan’s mom—where Ji-yeon shoved the two of us alone into the haunted house. I got to hold Ha-yan completely legally and loved every second, but Ha-yan got so scared she ended up crying.
Looking back, those were the kinds of memories we had… but this time felt different.
Back then Ha-yan had just gone along with whatever Ji-yeon said without knowing any better. This time she had actively helped set the whole thing up.
Of course, me walking in on her in that black bikini was still Ji-yeon’s evil scheme… but I wasn’t complaining.
The old memories must have come flooding back, because Ha-yan suddenly buried her blushing face against my chest to hide it.
She’d been too shy to show me the bikini, yet she had no problem clinging to me right out on the main street. A little ironic, maybe, but once again I was perfectly fine with it.
After nuzzling against me for a moment, Ha-yan peeked up with bright, sparkling eyes.
“Hehe. Still… it makes my heart race a little, knowing we’re getting to the age where we can do stuff like this. In about a year and a half I’ll be an adult too, right?”
“And what exactly is that supposed to mean?”
“Ehehehehe.”
She was the one who brought it up, yet the second the words left her mouth she got embarrassed and dropped her head again.
I wasn’t exactly a eunuch, and as a dragon I knew exactly what she was hinting at.
“Oh? Look at that—Siu’s face is turning red too! Come to think of it, you went bright red earlier when you saw me in the swimsuit! What were you thinking? Dirty thoughts? You’re thinking weird things because of what I just said, aren’t you?! Admit it!!”
“…Guh.”
“D-don’t you run away! You’re coming over for dinner tonight anyway!!”
“That’s one thing! This is another!!”
In the end I couldn’t take the teasing. I left Ha-yan standing there on the sidewalk and sprinted ahead.
I keep saying it, but I’m still only an eighteen-year-old dragon, okay? Knowing something and actually experiencing it are two totally different things!
Even so, I couldn’t bring myself to abandon her completely. I eventually trudged back, took the hand of the girl still grinning ear to ear, and walked her home.