Seol-hee, Ryu-yeong, Listen Carefully
After a night spent at Ryu-yeong's villa, I returned home. Seol-hee unnie and Seol-hwa still had about a week left there, so I came back alone in Dad's car.
I told my parents about the growth I'd witnessed in Seol-hee unnie and Seol-hwa, and mentioned the rather unusual side effects Seol-hee and Ryu-yeong had been experiencing. Mom only offered a bitter smile and said she didn't know much about that sort of thing either.
When my expression grew even more worried at her answer, she gently stroked my head and told me not to fret, adding that she would take Seol-hee unnie to the Erosion Control Center later for a proper examination.
With roughly a month of summer vacation still remaining, Mom said she would look into it after Seol-hee unnie came home. Her easy composure, so at odds with my own anxiety, made me realize there was something I didn't know. I simply nodded and kept my mouth shut.
A peaceful week passed, and Seol-hee unnie and Seol-hwa returned. I had expected Ryu-yeong to come along to our house as well, but the woman standing behind her—Ryu-yeong's mother—caught me completely off guard.
While I stood there flustered by her sudden appearance, Mom seemed to have already been informed. She stroked my head once, then took Seol-hee unnie and followed Ryu-yeong and her mother out to the car.
"Dad, it'll be okay, right...?"
"Don't worry, Harang. You know how much Mom loves all of you. If it were anything serious, she would have moved last week already."
"That's right! Oppa, play with me! The unnies said they'll be back late today! Let's play until then!"
I stroked Seol-hwa's head as she barreled into me, bouncing up and down, and gave a faint smile before nodding. Yeah—if something truly serious had been wrong with Seol-hee unnie, Mom never would have stayed that calm.
Seol-hwa bounced around, dragging me toward my room. Despite all her talk of playing, she flung herself onto my bed and, moments later, was sound asleep.
Thinking that this summer vacation might have been a bit much for an eight-year-old, I slowly stroked her sleeping head. Even unconscious, Seol-hwa let out tiny little "heehee"s every time my hand moved.
The only slightly disappointing part was that the drool trickling from her open, giggling mouth was dripping straight onto my bed.
"This is... well. From what we can determine right now, it appears they've been strongly exposed to erosion particles at some point."
"The children have never been near a gate, though...?"
"We don't know the exact circumstances either. We can only go by the numbers, so that's the conclusion we're forced to draw."
The Erosion Control Center staff member gave a bitter smile and handed me the documents. Graphs of Seol-hee and Ryu-yeong's superpower density and body density were plotted there, the superpower density rising almost level with—or even slightly above—the body density.
Normally, no matter how hard a child trained, body density still came out far higher for anyone who hadn't yet reached adulthood. That was the typical graph, and this was clearly different.
Even if I had pushed Seol-hee a little too hard in training, her superpower density should never have overtaken her body density. Thinking of the children waiting outside the room, I glanced at the door, then looked back at the staff member.
"So what about the kids? Are there things we need to be careful of?"
"The top priority would be not sparring with other children. In Seol-hee and Ryu-yeong's case, the body density they already possessed is keeping pace with the elevated superpower density, so they themselves won't suffer major injuries in a spar. Other kids, however, could be seriously hurt."
That much I had more or less expected. Having helped with their training a few times, I already knew they had long since surpassed the level of children their own age.
I clutched my forehead, leaned back in the chair, and stared at the ceiling. I couldn't even begin to guess when it had started. After the incident in which Harang was kidnapped, I had taken charge of Seol-hee's training myself, and the intensity had gone well beyond anything ordinary. Ryu-yeong had almost certainly endured the same kind of grueling regimen. That was why I hadn't found it particularly strange that the two of them had grown so much stronger than their peers. Only after Harang told me did I begin to form a vague suspicion.
There was no immediate crisis. The only real problem was that they had acquired far too much power at such a young age. Put simply, if Seol-hee threw the lightning spear she routinely hurled at Ryu-yeong at a classmate instead, that classmate could end up with severe burns.
It wasn't something we could brush aside just because the two of them only sparred with each other. Neither of them had full control over their abilities yet, and there had already been episodes—within the past year—when intense emotion sent their powers into a rampage.
Enduring the throb in my temples, I lowered my gaze to the staff member, who was watching me with an expression that said they already knew exactly what I was fretting over. This was probably not the first time they had seen a situation like ours.
"Haa... Would it be better to tell the children?"
"I'd recommend that. Fortunately, both Seol-hee and Ryu-yeong seem mature for their age. They'll understand quickly."
As the staff member said, neither Seol-hee nor Ryu-yeong was the type to go wild just because they had gotten stronger. If I explained, they would grasp the situation. But both of them were ambitious about growing stronger, so I was still fretting over how much to reveal when a good idea suddenly struck me.
I gathered the additional documents the staff member handed over, bowed lightly in farewell, and stepped out of the room. Seol-hee, Ryu-yeong, and Ryu-yeong's mother were waiting.
"As expected... is it that?"
"...Yes. Seol-hee, Ryu-yeong, listen carefully."
I began explaining their current strength, the growth of their abilities through erosion particles, the altered side effects, and everything else. I still had no idea where they had been exposed to the particles, but I figured it was something they would need to know eventually, so I told them.
The children's expressions gradually hardened. They seemed a little frightened by the realization that they could so easily injure other kids.
I reassured them that we would submit the documents to the school and inform the teachers as well, so they didn't need to worry too much about that part, then told them we would be changing the direction of their training from now on.
Whether it was simply because they were still children, I could see expectation for their newfound strength blooming beneath those stiff faces. At that sight, I pulled out the line I had prepared earlier.
"And since Harang is a boy without superpowers, if either of you uses your abilities even by accident right now, he'll get badly hurt. So for a while, we're going to focus on training to control your powers."
At my words, both children's expressions turned serious in a completely different way. I had counted on how much they both cared for Harang, and just as I expected, the expectation vanished in an instant. Only worry and earnestness remained.
Ryu-yeong's mother looked at the two of them with faintly surprised eyes. She clearly hadn't imagined that simply mentioning Harang would change them this much.
I stroked their heads and prepared to head home. What was done was done; I decided to stop wondering where they had been exposed to the erosion particles.
They were smart kids. There wouldn't be any major problems.
Evening arrived, and Seol-hee unnie, Mom, Ryu-yeong, and Ryu-yeong's mother returned home. I hadn't expected Ryu-yeong's mother to come all the way to our house, so I briefly wondered whether I needed to scramble and prepare more dinner. She said she was busy with work, however, and left almost at once.
I asked Mom about Seol-hee unnie and Ryu-yeong's condition. She stroked my head and told me it was a natural phenomenon, so I shouldn't worry.
Her answer still refused to explain anything clearly, leaving me with a frustrating knot of questions, but I sighed softly and decided not to push any further. If she was hiding it from me this thoroughly, she probably wouldn't tell me even if I kept asking.
The only thing that really bothered me was that whenever I approached the returned Seol-hee unnie and Ryu-yeong, their bodies froze solid. Unlike the earlier days when Seol-hee unnie had simply avoided looking at me, they literally locked up.
Even when I poked their sides playfully, only the corners of their mouths twitched; they didn't move an inch. Watching that, Seol-hwa came over with a mischievous grin and jabbed Seol-hee unnie's side—only to go rolling down the hallway like a bowling ball.
"Mom, are Seol-hee unnie and Ryu-yeong really okay?"
"Ahahaha!! Don't worry, Harang. They're both doing that for your sake."
For my sake Seol-hwa had turned into a bowling ball...? Seol-hwa came running back, poked Seol-hee unnie and Ryu-yeong a few more times, rolled about three more times, then finally gave up and started poking my side instead.
Even when I laughed and told her to stop, she insisted it was fun and kept right on jabbing. She ended up clinging to me and poking my side all the way until dinner.
Seol-hee unnie and Ryu-yeong watched her with openly envious eyes. Normally they would have come over and squished my cheeks without mercy, but today, for some reason, they only watched from a distance.
When they used to manhandle me all the time, I had wished they would ease up a little. Now that they weren't doing it at all, a strange sense of loneliness settled in, so I relieved it by squishing Seol-hwa's cheeks instead.
Like that, Seol-hee unnie and Ryu-yeong's bodies froze every time I drew near—right up until Ryu-yeong finally went home after sleeping over. The two of them only reached out for me again after two full months had passed, when October arrived.
On the last Saturday of October, Seol-hee unnie and Ryu-yeong approached with solemn expressions. From morning onward my cheeks were thoroughly squished, and only that night, looking thoroughly satisfied, did the two of them finally leave. I could only watch them go.
"Heehee. Oppa's side poke."
Of course, through every single one of those hours, Seol-hwa had been quietly sitting right beside me, poking my side.