A Dragon's Everyday Life
"S-Siuuuu. Just this once. Can't you do something about it, just this one time?"
"Uh-uh. Nope. Not happening. You trying to get me yelled at by your mom again? I already told you — no brainwashing the PE teacher. And your mother made it crystal clear: absolutely no magic on the teachers. You haven't forgotten what you pulled back in elementary school, have you?"
"Ugh. B-but still..."
By now, anyone following our story knows that Ha-yan and I are a little... out of place in this world.
That didn't mean we went around flinging our powers around without a second thought, though.
If I really put my mind to it, I could cast magic right out in the open and still make sure nobody on the planet ever realized I'd done it. There were reasons I didn't, though. Same went for Ha-yan.
Her mana had been a little unstable lately, but she was a solid mage in her own right. It wasn't that she never had opportunities to use it — her mother had simply trained her too well. Magic was fine when it needed to be used. This, however, was very much not one of those times.
I tucked a piece of meat into Ha-yan's mouth as she poked listlessly at her school lunch, then tried again.
"We already settled this with your mom, remember? School grades are off-limits. And it's not like your scores are going to matter later anyway. You're a mage."
"Uuuugh... B-but it's humiliating! Then at least let me use physical enhancement! I don't want to wipe out in front of everyone while we're practicing again!"
"Humiliating? Please. The other kids thought you were even cuter because of it."
"Huh? Hehehe... R-really?"
"Don't you dare melt just because I said you were cute!"
There she went again. One little compliment and our Lee Ha-yan was putty. She snapped back to her senses a second later and kept clinging to me, but my resolve held firm.
Before long, fifth period PE rolled around.
I'd just changed into my gym clothes with Choi Hoon and was warming up out on the field when Lee Ha-yan came into view — arms locked in the grip of the other girls in our class, being dragged along like a condemned prisoner. She looked for all the world like an animal being hauled to the slaughterhouse, while the girls around her wore expressions that said they might die of how adorable she was. They deposited her beside us.
Once the PE teacher confirmed everyone had arrived, he launched into it.
"All right, all right~ You all know what today's about, right? You've been practicing every PE period for a month."
"Yeees~!"
"Okay then... Fifty-meter dash, standing long jump, pull-ups for the guys, hang-from-the-bar for the girls. What do you want to start with?"
"The dash!"
At one student's call, the teacher nodded and started setting up the measurements.
Ha-yan shuffled over beside me as I rolled my ankles and wrists, her shoulders slumped to her ears.
"Uuuuugh... I'm doomed... Totally doomed... I'm gonna trip mid-run and become the laughingstock of the entire class..."
"L-laughingstock? Ha. As if."
I'd already heard from Choi Hoon just how eagerly the rest of the class was looking forward to Ha-yan's performance today, so my expression came out a little strained in spite of myself.
And sure enough.
"Euuwaaaah!!!!"
Ha-yan was among the first to run the fifty-meter dash. She was doing surprisingly well — right up until a few steps short of the finish line, where she wiped out in spectacular fashion.
The other girls had clearly been waiting at the finish for exactly this, and they rushed to haul her back to her feet. Their chatter floated over to me.
"Huh? She wiped out that hard and she doesn't have a single scrape?"
"No scrapes is good! Ha-yan's skin is basically a national treasure!"
"Uuuugh... S-so embarrassing..."
And then the next event.
"All right. Guys underneath, get ready to clear the mat. Ready... start!"
"Eugh! Whoa!!"
Scratch, scratch.
"Lee Ha-yan... twelve seconds..."
"Waaaaaah!!!"
After boldly declaring she'd last at least thirty seconds, Ha-yan didn't even make it halfway — fifteen seconds, and she dropped straight off the bar.
And finally.
"One~ two~ three!!!"
Thud!
Ha-yan's feet shoved sand forward and back as her mark was measured out.
"Lee Ha-yan... one hundred fifty-seven centimeters..."
"Oh. Same as her height."
"Waaaaaaaaah!!!!!"
With rock bottom on every last record, our dear Lee Ha-yan let out a wail that was practically a sob and vanished straight into the school building.
"Don't get so down about it. Everyone's going nuts over how cute you were."
"Ugh. I don't want that kind of cute. I wanted a good grade on this performance assessment..."
Ha-yan had been wilted ever since PE, and even now, walking home, she was presenting me with the full slumped-shoulder treatment. I did my best to soothe her, ruffling her hair as we went — though when it came to how adorable she'd been during gym, I was right there with the rest of the class.
And, well. I hadn't used any brainwashing magic on the teacher, but that didn't mean I'd just stood around doing nothing.
Under my hand, Ha-yan was gradually returning to her usual self — until she started replaying the PE period in her head, and something seemed to strike her as odd.
"Hey. About when I wiped out on the fifty-meter dash."
"Hm?"
I froze a little and looked at her.
"Even as I was falling, I thought about it. I went down so hard I was sure my knees would be completely shredded — but I was weirdly fine? The other girls said the same thing."
"R-really?"
Lee Ha-yan casually hooked her arm through mine and fixed me with a long, knowing look. I did my absolute best to stay composed and dodge her gaze, but it was useless against someone who already had me figured out.
"Anyone could see that was a full-blown blood-everywhere situation. And yet somehow, a certain someone wrapped my entire body in mana and left me without a single scratch? Just my impression, of course. I'm awfully curious what our Siu thinks about that."
"...Ack!!"
"Ah! Don't you run away!! We're going to see each other at dinner anyway!! We already agreed to do homework together in my room!!"
"I don't know! Just— just see you later!!"
I finally cracked, shook her off, and bolted. Once I'd confirmed there was no one around, I glanced back, waved at Ha-yan, and teleported on the spot.
"Honestly. Have you two considered just filming a full-on rom-com documentary? With looks like yours, a little SNS promo and an upload to an OTT platform or video site these days, and you could make a tidy sum."
"Shut up."
"You told me to always keep an eye on things just in case, and then you parade that lovey-dovey display right in front of me. How exactly am I supposed to react?"
"God. I said shut up."
I'd teleported straight home to get clear of Ha-yan's suspicion — and Rhea was already waiting, having watched the entire thing. Of all the moments to walk into, it had to be right after something like that. There was no escaping her.
I'd teleported into the house, but I still had company business to handle today, so I turned right around and headed back out. "Home" was the top floor of the building that housed the company I'd founded, so it wasn't much of a detour.
I walked a corridor glittering with jewels of every kind, rode the elevator down a few floors, and found every director already seated in the conference room — Rhea had clearly filled them in. Inside the elevator, I'd used magic to shift into the form of a young man a few years older and changed into a top-tier suit. I took the head seat with an easy stride. A cup of warm coffee prepared in advance sat waiting in front of me, and I addressed the executives, who looked a touch tense.
"Then let's begin the meeting."
The instant Cha Siu realized she'd caught on to what he'd done during PE, he vanished like the wind.
Lee Ha-yan — who had been thoroughly wilted ever since gym — bounced back on the spot, and by the time she reached home she was grinning like a fool.
Her mother met her at the door.
"Where's Siu?"
"He went home for a bit. I maybe... ehehe."
"Something happened again, I see. Hmm? Then why do I sense Siu's mana on my daughter?"
Just as Ha-yan had figured out from the lingering scent of Siu's mana that he'd shielded her body the moment she fell, her mother had noticed the exact same thing. She sniffed the air as if confirming it, and Ha-yan broke into a sheepish smile.
Having established that something good — or at least something of that nature — had passed between the two of them, her mother decided to simply let it go. This was hardly the first time these kids had pulled something like this.
Ha-yan, her mother, her father — when they'd first learned Cha Siu's true identity, there had been a brief upheaval of their entire worldview. But in the end, the Cha Siu they'd looked after and grown close to all these years hadn't changed, so the confusion hadn't lasted long. There had been an extra jolt midway through, when — as expected of a dragon who loved money — another version of Cha Siu turned out to sit at number one on the global rich list. Still, the way the Lee family treated him never shifted. If it had, Siu would never have stayed quiet about it.
At any rate.
Ha-yan went into her room, picked up a photo frame from her desk, and muttered to herself, a little embarrassed.
"Tch. He should've just let me take the fall with my whole body. I would've liked that better..."
She gazed at the faintly scowling image of Cha Siu with pure fondness, and the look in her eyes was dripping with honey.