The Dance Challenge (3)
I had reincarnated into a romance fantasy world. A world rife with intrigue and conspiracy. Surviving as the powerless daughter of a minor noble family was never easy. And on top of that… my body carried the blood of a fairy from my mother.
In that world, fairy was a symbol of ruin and bewitchment. The few people who knew I had inherited fairy blood tried to kidnap me and exploit my power. They wanted to drain my abilities for their own gain. In that horrifying situation, the only thing I could do was… secure powerful backers so those bastards wouldn’t dare treat me carelessly.
The process came with quite a bit of suffering, but… I don’t regret the choice I made back then. If I hadn’t thrown away my pride, I would have been kidnapped long ago by those who sought to use my power and lived the rest of my life as nothing more than a trophy.
“…Something like that happened.”
“Hic… sniff.”
Dohee, who had been glued to my side listening to the story, pursed her lips and burst into heavy tears.
“It must have been… so, so hard for you…”
“It’s all in the past now. Don’t worry about it.”
I chuckled softly and stroked her hair.
“Ready to sleep?”
“Y-yes…”
I stood up, about to head to the bedroom.
“U-Unni!”
But Dohee suddenly grabbed my arm.
“C-can we sleep together tonight?”
“Together?”
“…Is that not okay?”
Dohee rubbed her face against my arm like a puppy.
“Well…”
It was obvious she would keep insisting until I gave in.
It’s just sleeping anyway.
I nodded easily.
“Then shall we sleep together in the living room?”
“Yes!”
Since my room still wasn’t cleaned up, we decided to bring out the blankets and sleep together in the living room.
“Good night.”
“You too, Unni…”
“Haa…”
Jinah let out a deep sigh as she finished clearing the gate and lifted her head. Dawn had already broken.
“I’ll leave the cleanup to you.”
Jinah staggered forward on weary legs.
“I’m so tired…”
Her mind had already been in turmoil from what happened with Dohee yesterday. On top of that, she received an urgent gate-clearing call. It was literally the worst possible timing.
“I wonder if Dohee is still asleep…”
Even while clearing the gate, her thoughts had been constantly filled with worry for her daughter. Maybe she should have told her the truth yesterday after all. Waves of regret crashed over her for postponing it, making it nearly impossible to focus on the battle.
Of course, that didn’t mean her performance in clearing the gate had suffered. Yoo Jinah was undeniably one of the strongest hunters in South Korea. Her skills weren’t so shallow that a few stray thoughts could hinder her.
“Sigh.”
But even Yoo Jinah became nothing more than an ordinary human when it came to family matters. Nothing went the way she wanted. Whenever she stood in front of her daughter, she kept saying things she didn’t mean. She had no idea why it was so difficult. At times she even thought it would be easier to risk her life fighting monsters inside a gate.
No matter how many times she told herself not to get angry, the moment she came to her senses she would already be yelling at her daughter.
How on earth did Mom raise me…
She must have been even worse than Dohee was now. She couldn’t imagine being any easier to raise than this. She found herself respecting her mother all over again.
I miss Mom…
Jinah lowered her gaze and gently stroked the ring her mother had left behind several times.
“Sigh.”
She shook her head and continued walking.
Ring ring ring.
She opened the door and stepped inside the house.
They must still be asleep…
The moment Jinah took off her shoes and headed toward the living room, her eyes landed on the two women lying there.
“Mmm… Unni…”
Her daughter was lying on the floor, rubbing her cheek against Sihyun’s chest. She looked incredibly happy.
“……”
“I-it’s a misunderstanding, okay?”
I had barely woken up before I was forced to explain what happened last night.
“We just slept together, that’s all. You don’t think I’d be crazy enough to lay a hand on your daughter, do you?”
“Then why exactly were you sleeping together with Dohee?”
“Well…”
It wasn’t that I didn’t understand my sister’s feelings. From her perspective, her much younger sibling—who was already over forty in her previous life—had been sleeping in the same bed as her precious daughter. And that wasn’t something that could be easily explained away by simply saying they had grown close.
No uncle in the world would sleep while embracing a niece who was more than twenty years younger than him.
“Dohee said… she felt lonely sleeping alone.”
“So why did she ask you…”
“I was the one who suggested we sleep together.”
Dohee, who was sitting beside me, hugged my arm and spoke up.
“Don’t scold Unni… She didn’t do anything wrong.”
My sister stared at the two of us for a moment before letting out a deep sigh and nodding.
“…Alright. I understand.”
Her face looked utterly exhausted.
“I’m going to my room to sleep…”
Her gaze turned toward me.
“Take care of Dohee for me.”
“Y-yeah… Leave it to me.”
With that, my sister disappeared into her room.
“……”
“……”
An awkward silence settled between Dohee and me for a while.
“Are you hungry? Want me to make something?”
“I’m still… okay for now.”
“Really? Then…”
I smiled awkwardly and asked.
“Shall we go film that challenge video we talked about yesterday?”
Dohee gave a small nod.
“Okay… I’m starting!”
At Dohee’s signal, we began dancing. Once I got the feel for it, it was much easier than yesterday. We managed to complete the challenge in just two takes.
“Just one more time! One more!”
However, Dohee wasn’t satisfied with her expression and asked to film a few more times.
“How about something like this?”
I wasn’t sure about dancing, but I had confidence in my acting. It was something I had done constantly in my previous life.
“So cute…”
Dohee muttered while watching the video I had recorded, then nodded firmly.
“It’s perfect. I don’t think we need to film anymore.”
“Really?”
I had secretly expected it to take as long as yesterday. But the filming ended in less than thirty minutes, making all my worries pointless.
“Let’s go eat breakfast now!”
Dohee said that moving around had made her hungry and suggested we go out to eat together.
“Is there anything in particular you want to eat?”
“I’m fine with anything. Just pick whatever you like.”
“No way!”
Dohee strongly insisted on eating whatever I wanted, saying I had returned to Korea after twenty years.
“If you’re going to be like that…”
I pointed at a nearby restaurant.
“How about there?”
It was jeyuk—a man’s soul food.
After finishing their meal, the two headed to a nearby department store. It was to buy clothes for Sihyun. The clothes she had brought from the other world were not suitable for modern life. Most of them were dresses, after all.
“Um… Dohee?”
Sihyun stepped out of the fitting room wearing the outfit Dohee had recommended, smiling awkwardly.
“H-how does it look?”
Her face was flushed red like a tomato.
Young people these days are really bold.
Dohee had recommended a crop top paired with jeans. Isn’t this showing too much of my stomach…? Having mostly worn dresses in the other world, this fashion was beyond anything Sihyun could have imagined. If she had walked around in such an outfit over there, she would have been criticized for having no sense of shame.
“You’re… you’re so beautiful…”
Of course, that was only a story from the other world. Dohee gazed at her with an ecstatic expression like a believer who had witnessed a goddess. It was a feeling that couldn’t be explained with mere words like “beautiful.” It was as if they belonged to entirely different races.
“R-really?”
Thump.
At the gentle gaze of the beautiful woman looking at her, Dohee blushed and shook her head.
倾国之色. The kind of beauty that could topple a nation—this phrase must have been made for people like her.
So that’s why the male leads in romance fantasy novels always fell for the villainess…
Dohee finally felt like she understood. Even she, as a fellow woman, felt her heart racing like this. How much worse must it be for men?
“Dohee?”
“Y-yes?!”
At the seductive voice calling her name, Dohee’s whole body trembled as she answered.
“You don’t look well… Are you okay?”
“I-I’m fine! Really!”
She couldn’t miss this chance to see Sihyun in so many different outfits. Dohee desperately tried to calm her wildly pounding heart and handed her the next coordination. Baek Dohee had become completely captive to the villainess.
After shopping with Sihyun and returning home, Dohee began seriously editing the video they had filmed that morning.
“Is editing really that important?”
“It’s extremely important.”
Dohee spoke with a surprisingly serious face.
“Just adjusting the color tone and atmosphere can make a huge difference in quality.”
Sihyun watched the screen with fascination. With just a few finger movements, the entire mood changed dramatically. She didn’t understand the details, but… it definitely looked much more pleasant than before.
“Then… I’ll upload it?”
Once she finished editing, Dohee uploaded the challenge video to the platform.
Uploading...
A loading screen appeared for a moment. Soon after, the video was successfully posted.
“It’s up…”
Dohee immediately closed the platform. She didn’t have the courage to check the reactions right away. She planned to look at them all at once tomorrow morning.
“Kids, come eat dinner.”
Just then, Jinah’s voice called them, and the two left the room.
Tomorrow was already Monday. Since Dohee had to go to school, she went to bed earlier than usual. Even while she slept…
Ding!
Ding!
Ding ding!
The platform where Dohee had uploaded the video was flooded with comments and reactions in real time. And among those countless comments, one in particular caught everyone’s attention.