The Dragon and Friends (?)
A villa. A villa, huh.
It wasn't as if I'd never thought about owning a villa myself, not with all this money. If anything, I'd been actively planning for it.
And not just any villa—I'd been dead set on buying an uninhabited island off the West or South Sea and building a massive estate there, completely out of sight of ordinary people. The whole thing had progressed so far that it was on the verge of going through.
I'd even signed a provisional contract with the island's owner and settled on the architecture firm that would design the place.
Then Ha-yan's mother had chewed me out with a single roar—Don't go wasting money on nonsense—and I'd tucked my tail between my legs so fast I never once considered a villa again.
Still, because I'd come that close to actually buying one, I had a pretty solid idea of how much wealth it took to run and maintain a proper villa without going under.
People called them "villas," but they weren't the kind of thing you saw on TV dramas that any rich family could casually keep. Maintaining one was a whole different beast from buying an officetel or a provincial apartment and labeling it a "vacation home."
From what Rhea had dug up for me, Do Ji-yeon's family was completely ordinary—salaryman father, housewife mother, and a younger brother with a bit of an age gap. So how the hell were they suddenly rich? Out of nowhere, like this?
Of course, I'd never paid much attention to those two in the first place.
Friends or not, I didn't need to know every last detail about their families. As long as no one gave Ha-yan any grief, I couldn't have cared less.
With that thought, I turned to Do Ji-yeon, who was still diligently spearing french fries, and asked,
"So just how loaded do you have to be to own a villa? And a whole house at that? Those things are ridiculously expensive. Maintenance costs alone…"
Naturally, I phrased it as if the idea of owning one had never so much as crossed my mind.
If Rhea had been standing next to me, she would've deadpanned, What the hell are you talking about?
"Really? Expensive enough that even you think so? Well, I guess a company that size would have looked into it at least once. My grandpa and grandma… hmm. People just call them nouveau riche, but I don't really know the details myself. And it's not just a regular house, you know? It's a traditional hanok."
"Whoa…"
Do Ji-yeon took a long pull from her cola, looking thoughtful. Ha-yan, sitting beside her, piled on.
"Right? The grandpa and grandma I heard on the phone that one time seemed completely ordinary. Families that own villas are the kind of people who only show up on TV dramas, aren't they? Wait a second. Hold on. So you've had this super-rich grandpa and grandma this whole time, and you've just been freeloading off me all these years?"
PFFFFFFFT!!!
"N-no… th-that's not…"
At least ninety-nine percent of what Ha-yan said was pure teasing, but Do Ji-yeon took it as deadly serious. She sprayed cola sideways, face flooding with panic, and started blurting out a frantic stream of not-quite-apologies.
Quick on the uptake as always, Ha-yan moved to calm her before things got completely out of hand.
"Whoa, whoa. Settle down. It was a joke. A joke. Why are you taking it so seriously? Is that really all our friendship is worth?"
Do Ji-yeon pressed a hand to her chest and seemed to relax—until Ha-yan kept going.
"Still, it does sting a little. We've been friends for almost ten years and I had no idea your family was that impressive. Meanwhile you knew Siu and I came from pretty well-off homes. When I think about it that way, it's kind of…"
"Uwaaaaah…"
Do Ji-yeon sank straight back into despair.
"Hey, Cha Siu. Ha-yan's making that face, isn't she?" Choi Hoon whispered from beside me.
"…She's having the time of her life right now, so just sit there and shut up. Unless you want to get roasted too."
And just like that, Choi Hoon and I became invisible men.
Ha-yan's little bit of mischief aside, the situation boiled down to this:
I hadn't bothered looking into it, but Do Ji-yeon's grandparents were apparently rather well-known people of means out in the provinces.
By nailing her summer-break homework perfectly, Do Ji-yeon had earned the right—instead of the usual allowance—to take her friends to the villa and hang out.
And while ninety-nine-plus percent of it had been a joke, Ha-yan had let slip a tiny bit of actual disappointment toward Do Ji-yeon.
Finally, Do Ji-yeon had caught that microscopic flicker of disappointment with supernatural precision and was now hitting me up with an SOS.
"Shut up. Why do I keep having to help you with stuff? I've got to go meet Ha-yan, so hang up already."
"Aaaaaaahhhhhh!!!!"
"Aaa? Aaaaaa?? What the hell kind of garbage are you trying to—"
"If you keep this up, I'll have no choice but to use my ultimate technique!!! I'm telling Ha-yan about that time a few years ago when you tried to bankrupt every single family of those school thugs without her knowing—"
"AAAAAAAHHH!!! Fine!! Fine, okay?! That's so cheap!!"
We each held the other's leash in this weird, twisted little relationship of ours, so I had no choice but to listen to whatever Do Ji-yeon wanted to say.
I stopped mid-step on my way out the door and dropped onto the edge of my bed with a sigh.
"Hey. Even so. You're really gonna drag out the one thing you swore you'd never tell Ha-yan? Do you have any idea how much hell I went through keeping that from her?"
"You already know how this works, so why are you acting like this? I'm only asking for help this one time. Is that so hard? I'll even give you two your own private room at the villa."
"You little— You just said the villa has five rooms for four people and you're trying to negotiate with that? If anyone's being cheap here, it's you!!!"
After that complete circus of a conversation, what Do Ji-yeon actually wanted was crystal clear.
She wanted to give Ha-yan—the same Ha-yan who was supposedly disappointed in her—the absolute best villa experience imaginable. Or something like that.
She's a girl too, so why is she this obsessed with Ha-yan? Don't tell me she's…
"Stop thinking weird thoughts. How can you be having those kinds of ideas when we're talking on the phone?"
"Ahem…"
And just like that, she saw right through me.
"Anyway. What exactly do you need help with? You know everything about Ha-yan just as well as I do."
Honestly, she was clueless about the magical side of things, so she couldn't claim to know more than me—but even I had to admit she was just as hopelessly devoted to Ha-yan as I was.
Do Ji-yeon laughed and said,
"Ha-yan's going to start teaching three foreign exchange students, right? They're transferring into our school as first-years next semester."
"Ah. So she told you. What about them?"
"Those kids are coming too…"
One week later, on the weekend.
Ha-yan and I each wheeled our suitcases out to Seoul Station, just as Do Ji-yeon had instructed, and met up with the other two.
The second we arrived, Do Ji-yeon practically teleported to our side, grabbed Ha-yan, and—eyes sparkling—dragged her back in the direction we'd just come from.
Left alone with me, Choi Hoon started grumbling.
"Feels like everything's just… happening all of a sudden. Shouldn't we be prepping a bunch of stuff like we did for the school trip?"
"It's not like a whole army of people is moving this time. Do Ji-yeon said she'd handle everything, so what is there for us to prepare? You, me, Ha-yan—we just each pack our own clothes."
"Yeah, I get that, but… who the hell are those kids over there? Why am I the only one who doesn't know? You know, Ha-yan knows, Do Ji-yeon knows—why am I left out? Are you guys freezing me out? Is that it?"
Choi Hoon shot me a faintly resentful look. I just stared at him for a long moment before opening my mouth.
"I can see you ogling Lily and Silvi from here, you know. If you pull that usual crap of yours, you're dead. This time I'll actually bury you socially."
"Hey! You're supposed to support your one and only male friend's romantic prospects, not threaten him!!"
Choi Hoon looked like I'd hit him right in the soft underbelly and shouted in a panic, but his words bounced right off me.
"They're from pretty well-off families, and they're here in Korea to study. Honestly, if they somehow fell for you and whatever chaos followed, I wouldn't care. But if your chronic goldfish-memory crush habit ends up hurting those kids' feelings… hmm. It won't be me coming after you—it'll be Ha-yan. They're under her charge, not mine. And you already know how terrifying she gets when she's mad, right?"
"…Oh."
The idea that Ha-yan might actually kill him seemed to snap Choi Hoon back to reality.
Well. I wouldn't deny that the two girls behind me were objectively gorgeous, but I doubted this idiot would even register on their radar.
I clapped him on the shoulder and said,
"Do what you want. Just remember—if Ha-yan really marks you, there's nothing I can do after that. Keep it reasonable. Moderate."
"…Yeah."
From the look of him, instinct and reason were currently locked in mortal combat inside his skull.
Whether he got himself killed by Ha-yan later or not was none of my business. I just really hoped he'd stick to quietly enjoying the things that were safe to enjoy.
Not like I could magically rewrite his hopeless crush-on-sight personality anyway.
If I'd already known every scrap of information about him the way I did with Rhea, I could have steered things as smoothly as I had on Jeju Island.
That guy had followed Rhea around the entire Jeju field trip, then the second we got back to school he cut off all interest like it had never happened.
Even Rhea, who'd known exactly what kind of person he was, had asked me, What is that guy's problem?
And right now the two girls this idiot was currently fixated on—Lily with her perfect blonde hair and Silvi with her silver locks so brilliant they almost didn't look natural—were being led toward me by the hand by Do Ji-yeon.
Teave trailed after them with an awkward smile, sticking close to Ha-yan.
"Alright~!! Let's go!! Time for a fun summer break with our adorable first-year underclassmen~!!!"
"W-woooaaah??!"
"I-iyaaaaah??!"
Lily and Silvi let out sounds that were somewhere between cheers and shrieks in perfect sync with Do Ji-yeon's booming energy, but they didn't seem to mind her one bit.
Well, of course not. How many people in their lives had ever treated them so naturally, with that kind of casual skinship, like they were just little sisters?