Dragon and Morning
"Morning."
"Mmmph... Hehehe. Morning, Siu. Sleep well?"
"Of course. You?"
"Ehehehe..."
Ever since I met Ha-yan. We'd been a little awkward at first, but after that incident, I made sure I was always there the moment she opened her eyes—no matter what, without fail.
She'd never actually asked me to do it. I just wanted to. I'd made a promise to myself, after all.
That said, I wasn't one of those dragons from fantasy novels who never needed sleep. On days without school I regularly slept a solid twelve hours. If I really put my mind to it, I could probably hibernate for years the way dragons in stories did. I'd never actually tried, though. I'd never met another dragon besides myself, so I had no one to compare notes with, and the idea of testing it was a little scary. If I messed up and slept for years without waking, I wouldn't be able to spend time with Ha-yan—and that would be its own kind of disaster.
Anyway.
I sat quietly at the foot of Lee Ha-yan's bed, watching her face. Sensing someone there, she stirred, then slowly opened her eyes. Confirming I was right in front of her like always, she reached out, squished my cheek, and grinned. I smiled back and said softly,
"Come on, get up. You're on duty today, so we have to leave a little early. You know that, right? Nothing huge, but you've still got to do your job."
"Uuung..."
"Yeah, yeah. I'll wait outside. Get ready and come out."
Even so, snapping fully awake right away seemed a little beyond her. I ruffled her hair one more time and stepped out into the hall.
"You packed your PE uniform, right? We've got the performance assessment today."
"I put it in my bag yesterday, duh!"
Ha-yan's parents both had to leave early that morning, so we'd decided to grab a quick breakfast at the convenience store. We left the house a little earlier than usual.
Money had never been an issue for me—and never would be until the end of the world—so Ha-yan's place already had everything I needed for daily life: toiletries, a school uniform, the works. That didn't mean I ever shared her bed, or even her room. Sometimes she'd send me signals with those pitiful little cat eyes of hers, but...
Well. How to put it.
The dragon inside me would live far longer than Ha-yan ever could, but the part of me that had spent more than ten years as an ordinary Korean guy found the idea way too much. And even if I'd outlive her someday, right now I was still only eighteen.
Honestly, if I felt like it I could brainwash every human on the planet in an instant—but for some reason I just couldn't bring myself to do that to Ha-yan or her mom.
In any case, I'd already settled thoroughly into this life.
Once we were ready, the two of us left Ha-yan's apartment and headed into the convenience store by the entrance. Inside, the owner greeted us with dark circles so deep they reached his cheeks—the telltale signs of another all-nighter.
"Yo. You're here. Grabbing breakfast here today?"
"Good morning, sir. Those dark circles are looking pretty serious again."
"Good moooorning!!"
The owner had been running this place since Ha-yan and I were little kids, so we both greeted him cheerfully. Back when he'd first opened, the circles under his eyes hadn't been nearly this bad; taking the night shifts had clearly made them worse.
After saying hello, Ha-yan and I headed straight for the fridge of ready-made meals. Fresh stock always seemed to arrive right around this time, so our breakfast options were always plentiful.
"Mmm..."
"Whoa. Look at you getting all serious only for this."
The girl who normally beamed pure sunshine at everyone suddenly wore an intensely focused expression. I stared at the sudden change, half-exasperated.
"Think you could bring that kind of focus to PE later?"
"Shh, don't talk to me right now. This is a really important moment for me."
"You're just going to eat all of it eventually anyway. Why so serious...?"
Serious or not, her choice was already decided. We'd been grabbing breakfast here often enough that it wasn't a one- or two-day thing. It was completely predictable.
"Today it's the Taiwanese sandwich and banana milk!!"
I said the exact same words the instant she opened her mouth. Ha-yan froze mid-motion, then scowled faintly and whispered,
"Did you use foresight for that?"
"You think I'd waste that on something this small? Last week, the week before, and the week before that—you said the exact same thing and grabbed the exact same stuff. Don't tell me you're underestimating my memory."
"Ugh..."
"He's right. I don't know about any foresight, but this kid always buys the same thing."
Even the owner piled on from the side. Ha-yan's face went bright red; she ducked her head in embarrassment, shoved the sandwich and banana milk into my chest like she was punching me, and bolted out of the store as if fleeing the scene.
Smiling a little, I took what she'd handed me, added a regular kimbap, a triangle kimbap, and a couple of breads for dessert, then walked up to the counter. The owner checked the ready-made foods I set down, still sporting those heavy dark circles, and gave me a little smile.
"Don't you get tired of it? You've been putting up with this for years now, haven't you?"
"There's nothing to 'put up with.' We're not fighting or anything."
"Heh heh. Fair enough. Fair enough. No need to heat these up today either, right?"
"Of course not."
"Honestly. Warm food tastes better, so I never get why you always take it cold."
"Ahahaha."
I laughed awkwardly at his last comment and left with the food. Outside, Ha-yan had been glaring at me from the corner beside the store; she cautiously came over and asked,
"Did you buy everything?"
"Obviously. We're eating right now, yeah?"
"...Yeah."
I didn't think she'd done anything wrong, but she clearly did. I gently poured a little mana into the food until everything was perfectly warm, then handed her the Taiwanese sandwich and banana milk she loved most.
She'd been acting a little subdued, but the moment the sandwich was in her hands the life flooded back into her. She stuffed half of it into her mouth in one bite and looked up at me with sparkling eyes again.
"Best ever! Perfect! I love it so much!! And I love Siu too!!!"
"Yeah, yeah. Let's go. We can eat while we walk. We're going to be late at this rate."
"Okay okay okay!"
As you can see, the little squabbles between us barely counted as fights.
And, well... if any other dragons still left in this world saw the way I acted toward "human" Lee Ha-yan, who knows what they'd say.
So what?
As long as I'm happy, that's enough.
Right?
"Still all lovey-dovey, I see."
"What, jealous?"
"Damn right I'm jealous, you bastard!!!"
For some reason Choi Hoon had shown up at school way earlier than usual. The moment he spotted Ha-yan fidgeting with my hand and me calmly letting her, he immediately swung a chop at the back of my neck.
As if a dragon would take a hit from something like that. I casually blocked his hand and pulled over a chair from behind me for the fuming idiot.
Ha-yan was completely absorbed in my hand, so it was fine for just the two of us to talk.
Choi Hoon dropped heavily into the chair I'd offered and asked,
"Why so early? You usually roll in right before the homeroom teacher starts morning assembly."
"Ha-yan's on duty starting today. We always come together anyway."
"Ugh, seriously. It's a miracle the school delinquents haven't targeted you two for all that flirting. The whole school knows you're the crazy couple, and I still don't get why those upperclassmen never mess with you."
"Hmm. 'Mess with,' huh..."
I just shrugged at Choi Hoon's words.
Mess with me? With Ha-yan?
Well, someone had tried once, back at the start of first year. Part of it was that Ha-yan stuck to me—a guy—unlike the other girls, and part of it was her looks, which were good enough that Miss Korea organizers and entertainment agencies came scout her in person. But our very promising, highly capable subordinates had already finished investigating that side of things and given those guys a thorough mental tune-up.
The details... well, there was no need to share them with anyone else.
Choi Hoon glared at my reaction with axe eyes, but he didn't push any further. I'd known this guy for about four years now, and I really appreciated how sharply he knew where to draw the line on stuff like this. That was only one of the many reasons he made a good friend, of course—which was why we still got along so well.
"Anyway. You ready for the PE performance assessment today? Ah—not you, Mr. Perfect. I mean Ha-yan."
"Eep..."
Ha-yan, who had still been fussing with my hand, froze at Choi Hoon's words and casually turned her head away. I answered him with complete confidence.
"Even if we leave me out of it—you've known Lee Ha-yan for over four years too. You still don't get it?"
Faced with that confidence, Choi Hoon looked back and forth between us in mild disbelief, then let out a long sigh as if even he had given up trying to understand.
"Yeah... I really don't get it anymore..."
Why Choi Hoon reacted that way became clear to all of us a few hours later.