Just Keeping My Word as an Adult
Day twenty-two at the resort, and I was watching Ryu-yeong and Cheon Sa go at each other. Unlike Mother, who had simply smiled and blocked everything Ryu-yeong threw at her, Cheon Sa was trading blows with her for real — punch for punch, hit for hit.
At first I wondered if Cheon Sa was simply weaker, but Mother, standing beside me, explained that she herself was just too strong, and that Cheon Sa simply knew how to control her power. If someone managed to overpower and kidnap Cheon Sa, they could manufacture countless lenses and surveillance systems. Because of that, Cheon Sa had spent her life fighting off the endless stream of people who came after her — and beyond simply growing stronger, she had become expert at holding back just enough so her opponents didn't die.
I wanted to shout all kinds of advice at Ryu-yeong as I watched her fight, but I held my tongue. I wasn't standing above the sparring ground this time — I was watching from the side — and this was Ryu-yeong's will, not anyone else's.
Two days earlier, Cheon Sa had told me about the directions Physical Type and Mutation Type superpowers could grow and evolve. When I passed that on to Ryu-yeong, she thought it over for a bit, then said she wanted to fight for a while without my help — following only her senses and instincts — so she could figure out the traits of her Imugi on her own.
She'd chosen Cheon Sa as her sparring partner because she'd already fought Seol-hee so many times, and most of those fights had come with my advice attached. She was worried she'd end up moving according to my tips instead of her own instincts. Or maybe she was just curious about another Mutation Type. Either way, Ryu-yeong was throwing everything she had at a Cheon Sa who was clearly holding back — rolling across the floor, biting with her teeth, fighting like a genuine beast, just as she'd said she would: by sense and instinct alone.
"Little Dragon!!! You've got this!!!"
Following Mother's earlier advice, I cheered for Kang Ryu-yeong at regular intervals, putting my whole heart into it. Every time I did, she flashed me a grin.
Of course, just as Mother had said, there was no dramatic, visible leap in strength. After a long thirty-minute spar, Kang Ryu-yeong's stamina finally gave out — she threw one last punch and collapsed unconscious right there, and that was the end of it.
Day twenty-five at the resort. Ryu-yeong and I had discovered one of the Imugi's traits. Remembering that Imugi were said to live in rivers fed by lakes and waterfalls, we tried laying water across the sparring ground floor and splashing it on Ryu-yeong during practice. The result was clear: her movements became faster and stronger than before.
When I asked her when she'd first learned to swim, she said she'd just been able to do it since she was little. I was glad we'd tried it.
"Ahaha!!! Harang!! With this, I'll have the advantage next time I run into that Kang Se-ah, right? Why didn't I notice this back in first year?"
"Maybe because now you know it can help, so you can feel it and use it directly. Actually, if you got Se-ah's help, you could get stronger anywhere."
"Ugh… I don't particularly want to get friendly with Kang Se-ah… You just haven't seen the look on her face when she fights."
Still, Ryu-yeong couldn't produce water on her own yet, so we went to one of the resort staff who handled laundry and asked them to flood the sparring ground. Superpower-generated water, tap water, bottled water — all of them produced roughly the same result.
That was the moment water bottles got added to both of our packing lists.
Day twenty-seven at the resort. Now that we'd confirmed she got stronger in water, the next step was finding a dragon's jewel — but there was nothing about it anywhere we looked.
Cheon Sa had thrown her head back with a kyahahaha and joked that maybe you had to pluck out the eyes of someone with a dragon superpower. Kang Ryu-yeong's eyes had lit up and she'd started raving about how that actually sounded great, and I'd had a hell of a time calming her down.
Figuring out what a dragon's jewel actually was still mattered, of course — but remembering that even superpower-made water, tap water, and bottled water worked just as well as river or lake water, I went to the resort souvenir shop and bought her a necklace with a droplet-shaped opal pendant as a gift.
It was expensive for a nine-year-old to buy, but Father — who'd been moved by the Imugi legends we'd been talking about — had gotten a look of pure wonder on his face and offered to cover the cost. He seemed to genuinely enjoy the idea of myths and legends playing out in real life.
"I don't know what kind of power a dragon's jewel has, or even what one looks like. But if tap water can stand in for river water, then from now on, this jewel can be your dragon's jewel."
"Ugh… The first necklace I've ever gotten in my life, and it's from a girl…"
"You wanted one from a guy?"
"Obviously! Hah, whatever. Getting stronger comes first. Once I'm strong enough, I can just wear a guy I like instead of a necklace."
Kang Ryu-yeong snatched the necklace from my hand like she was seizing it, and fastened it around her own neck. Against her wild, dark-brown hair, the beautiful gemstone pendant looked almost out of place — and yet somehow it suited her perfectly.
And the way she kept fidgeting with the jewel and sneaking glances at it told me that, for all her grumbling, she liked it. That was a relief. Later, once Kang Ryu-yeong grew and her body got bigger, she might have to wear it as a bracelet instead of a necklace — but we could always buy a new one when the time came.
"But why an opal? Wouldn't a diamond be prettier? The price should be about the same."
"There was a diamond one, but it was way too expensive. I mean, I already borrowed money from Dad for this one…"
"Ah — uh… w-wow! The opal's pretty! All sparkly and stuff, ahahaha!"
I was once again reminded of the financial gap between a chaebol family and a regular household.
Day twenty-nine at the resort. Our long stay was finally winding down. Cheon Sa had gone back to her company, and that morning Ryu-yeong's mother returned. I watched the two of them talk in that awkward, careful way of theirs.
Ryu-yeong's mother still wanted nothing more than for her daughter to never suffer the same pain she had. But I carefully approached and explained Cheon Sa's case — that Physical Types and Mutation Types could grow stronger too. She didn't look entirely convinced, but she gave a small nod all the same. It felt less like full trust in me and more like a firm resolve not to go back on something she'd already agreed to. Still, that was enough for me. I smiled faintly and bowed my head in thanks. Ryu-yeong, for her part, seemed startled that her mother would nod along with anything I said — she looked back and forth between the two of us with wide eyes.
"Um… Mom. Thanks."
"…It's nothing. I'm just keeping my word as an adult. So you, Ryu — Ryu-yeong — keep the words you've spoken as well."
Ryu-yeong's mother called her by name instead of as her child, brushing her hair back in a way that almost looked like she was touching her faintly reddened ears. At those words, Ryu-yeong's eyes grew a little wet, and she nodded hard without saying a thing.
It would take a long time for this mother and daughter to grow as close as my own family — but even so, I felt a real hope that someday, they would.
The last day at the resort. My family and Kang Ryu-yeong were riding home from Busan in the car Mother was driving.
Ryu-yeong had insisted she'd go back alone in a limousine, but Mother had just laughed, pulled her into a hug, and loaded her into our family car instead. Ryu-yeong kept saying she was fine, but she sat quietly until someone buckled her seatbelt for her — and once it clicked, she let out a tiny little giggle.
Seol-hwa had clearly had enough of a full month at the resort; she climbed in without a second thought, swinging her feet and humming under her breath. Seol-hee, on the other hand, seemed more sorry to leave the all-you-can-eat restaurant than the resort itself — she kept twisting around in her seat to look back at the place even after she'd gotten in.
We'd gained a lot over those thirty days. Not so much in material things — it had been thirty days of learning, of knowledge and growth of the spirit.
Seol-hwa's ability was so cute and beautiful that even I could have called her a magical girl without irony — though she still needed some education and persuasion on more humane methods of attack.
Seol-hee had moved past simply swinging on wires and hurling lightning spears. She could now control a lightning serpent — a thunder snake — and had gotten comfortable with ambushing from blind spots, lunging in with a lightning spear already in hand. And if you charged her recklessly, she'd spread her wires into a net and even form a barrier. Against an opponent of similar superpower density, she could win easily.
Ryu-yeong had improved far beyond simple combat sense. Against Seol-hee, she no longer needed my advice at all — her movement and her ability to read presence had gotten that sharp. On top of that, nearly daily spars had raised the density of her superpower considerably. She'd clearly learned a great deal from her matches with Cheon Sa. After that day, it wasn't just that water made her body stronger — it was as if she'd grasped something deeper. Out of her last ten spars, she'd beaten Seol-hee twice.
The first time Seol-hee lost to Ryu-yeong, she couldn't accept it — she ate a meal and immediately demanded a rematch, which she won. But then she spent a stretch of time refusing to come back to her room, saying she was going to train with her wires in the sparring ground. According to Mother, that first loss had been Seol-hee's very first defeat — and then she'd lost a second time after that. Watching the always-languid, easygoing Seol-hee look at Kang Ryu-yeong with a flash of competitive fire in her eyes, I couldn't help a small note of admiration.
As for me — I'd decided that rather than simply drawing on my experiences in this world to guide my own actions and choices, I would use what I knew as a tool that went beyond the limits of superpowers, to help the people around me. Not just technique and tactics. As the only one who knew both the other world and this original one, I would shatter the concepts and common sense of the superpowers they held.
Just like magic.