Episode 7
“We’re out of formula…”
I stared at the empty formula container, feeling defeated. I barely had enough for this feeding—it was the last of it. Lately, Shuu had been eating more and more, and now she drinks four bottles in one go. So we went through formula way faster than I expected.
‘I’ll have to run to the store while she’s napping.’
I also needed to restock easy meals for myself. Taking care of Shuu alone meant I had no time to cook. And every time I tried to grill meat, Shuu would stare at it so intensely that I had no choice but to stick to ready-to-eat meals and lunch boxes lately.
‘Man, parenting really isn’t easy.’
As I shook up the bottle, I looked down. Shuu was clinging to my leg, calling out, “Mommy?” with those big round eyes and her sweet voice. It was hard, yeah—but every time I looked at her, I felt recharged.
“Alright, time for food, Shuu.”
“Food! Shuu’s hungry!”
“Yeah, yeah, here you go.”
Shuu finished all four bottles again today. She drank them so cleanly—not even a drop left—squeezing every last bit out. At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if she starts downing ten bottles at once someday.
Well, if that happened, I’d just have to go to the store more often and keep making bottles.
After feeding her, I picked her up and gently patted her back so she could burp. Then we watched Ppopporo together, did some sensory play with the blocks I made, and once she started dozing off, I tucked her gently into her crib.
‘Alright. Time to make a quick run.’
Shuu’s nap time was usually my free time, but today I couldn’t relax. I had to use the time to buy more formula.
Since she was still so young, I didn’t feel right leaving her home alone while she was awake. I could bundle her up in the invisibility cloak and take her like before, but she was way too curious nowadays.
Especially recently—she wouldn’t stop saying, “What’s this?” She said it automatically, nonstop. There’s no way I’d be able to keep her quiet in a store. She’d be pointing at everything the moment we walked in.
So I strengthened my body with mana and decided to dash to the store alone. I was so worried Shuu might wake up that I didn’t even check the lunch boxes properly—I just grabbed a bunch. I told myself, whatever I picked, it couldn’t possibly be worse than the “purified orc meat” I ate while camping in La-Moon.
‘That stuff was the worst. It looked kind of like pork, so I thought it’d taste similar, but there was a reason Shumi told me not to eat it. It didn’t make me sick, but the taste was so horrible I couldn’t get it off my tongue for days.’
Compared to that, Korean food was amazing. So many flavors. I especially loved how much spicy food there was. I was thinking of maybe making spicy ramen tonight when I reached the apartment entrance—and suddenly felt someone watching me from the stairs.
‘Huh? What’s that?’
I looked up and saw a girl around my age staring straight at me. She looked like she was just about to go upstairs, but she wasn’t even trying to hide that she was staring. I didn’t want to get dragged into anything, so I ignored her and started heading up.
‘Shuu might wake up. Gotta hurry.’
Just as I sped up, the girl suddenly passed me and went ahead. I got a strange feeling, so I watched her more closely—and noticed she was using mana to strengthen her legs.
‘Oh, is she a hunter…?’
I didn’t expect to run into a hunter in the stairwell, but it wasn’t my business. I was more worried about leaving Shuu alone, so I sped up without paying her any more attention.
“Uh?”
When I quickly passed her again, she looked surprised. I wasn’t using mana—just my own strength—but she probably couldn’t tell.
‘People here really aren’t great at sensing mana or magic.’
Anyway, I climbed the stairs easily without caring about her. I could feel her trying to keep up, but the gap only grew. It kind of turned into a race, but I was just doing what I always did. I usually took the stairs since I hated waiting for the elevator.
‘Besides, I’m in a hurry. Shuu might wake up any second.’
I reached the 12th floor in no time and pulled out my key from my inventory. Just as I was about to unlock the door, the girl finally caught up and called out to me.
“Um, wait a second!”
“…?”
I hoped she wasn’t about to pick a fight just because I got there first. I looked back at her, breathing hard—but to my surprise, she smiled and said, “Wow, you’re super fast!”
“Uh, thanks…”
“You’re a pre-awakened, right?”
“Huh?”
“I saw you at the store during the last dungeon break. It was dangerous, but you ran out to fight. I followed you, but you disappeared.”
“Oh…”
Now that she mentioned it, I vaguely remembered someone trying to stop me back then. Still, I had no idea why she was bringing it up now.
“I thought you’d just gone into another building or something. You disappeared so fast I couldn’t believe it. But now it makes sense—you’re pre-awakened like me.”
So “pre-awakened” meant… what, people who awaken before entering the academy? I thought about asking but decided not to. I guess it wasn’t weird for her to think I was something like that. I’d used mana to boost my body, so she probably assumed I could control mana too.
‘Even though I just ran normally…’
“Anyway, you look about the same age as me, and if you’re not a hunter, then you must be entering the academy too, right?”
“No.”
“Huh? Then… are you already a hunter?”
“Nope. Not a hunter, and I’m not planning to go to the academy either.”
“What…?! Why not?!”
She looked truly shocked, her round eyes going even rounder. Since being a hunter was such a big deal here, I guess my lack of interest came off as strange. And it’s not like you could become a hunter just because you wanted to.
“You’re an awakened, right?”
“Yeah, technically I am.”
“Then why wouldn’t you go to the academy? If you’re awakened, obviously you should—”
“Yeon-chae? You’re back—why aren’t you coming inside?”
Just as she was about to go on a whole rant, the door across from mine opened, and the red-glasses grandma from before came out. I guess this girl was her granddaughter.
The grandma told her to come in and then turned to me with a cheerful, “Hey there, young man!”
“Hello.”
“Oh! You two were talking? This is my granddaughter, Yeon-chae. She’s here for the academy or something.”
She introduced her proudly, clearly wanting to brag that her granddaughter was going to the academy. The conversation was dragging on, and I was getting more and more worried about leaving Shuu alone. But I couldn’t be rude in front of the grandma, so I politely greeted the girl.
“Nice to meet you. I live across the hall.”
“Ah, right. About what we were talking about—”
I wasn’t in the mood to be polite to the girl though. So I quickly turned to the grandma and said, “Sorry, I left a kid alone inside. I should go check on them.”
“Oh! Of course, you go ahead.”
Perfect. That was exactly the response I wanted.
“A kid…?”
The girl tilted her head, looking confused.
“Oh right, I keep calling you ‘young man’ because you look about the same age as my granddaughter. I should call you ‘dad’ from now on. If you ever need help with the baby, just let me know.”
“Thank you. I’ll head in now.”
“Baby… dad?!”
Yeon-chae was clearly misunderstanding something, but I didn’t care. I just bowed to the grandma and quickly went inside.
The first thing I did was check on Shuu. Thankfully, she was still sleeping soundly.
“Guess she’s flying in her dreams.”
Her little wings twitched slightly, probably because she was dancing along to Ppopporo in dreamland again. I smiled and went to the living room to relax and watch some TV while she napped.
[…There are rumors that someone’s child will be entering the academy this year, and some say they might be a pre-awakened. Not much is known about pre-awakened individuals, mostly because awakening before academy entry is extremely rare. For example, pre-awakened hunters include…]
‘Ah, so pre-awakened means people who awakened before going to the academy.’
I was flipping through channels when a show started talking about pre-awakened people. I was curious, so I tried to focus, but it quickly turned into a list of people I didn’t know, and I lost interest.
‘Must be from staying up late making toys for Shuu… I’m so sleepy…’
After the picture book I made was such a hit, I’d started making toys for Shuu too. Just last night, I’d made a mobile featuring Ppopporo and friends. Shuu had absolutely loved it.
‘She gets so excited she starts dancing every time… she’s just so… cu—’
But I’d pushed myself too hard lately. I couldn’t fight off the sleepiness anymore and started dozing off.
I didn’t even realize Shuu had woken up from her nap.
***
Shuu’s tail twitched and her wings fluttered as she opened her eyes. The moment she saw the Ppopporo mobile, she giggled and reached up.
“Ppopporo! Toti! Susu! Ruby! Garung!”
Those were the friends of Ppopporo—Hyun-woo had carved and painted each one by hand. Shuu playfully batted the mobile with her paws and couldn’t take her eyes off the spinning toys.
“Mommy?”
But soon she noticed something strange—Hyun-woo wasn’t there. Normally, he’d come in right after she woke up and pick her up with a “Did you sleep well?”
But no matter how long she waited, he didn’t come. So Shuu stretched, flapped her wings, and climbed out of her crib.
“Mommy? Mommy?”
She walked out of the bedroom—and luckily, found Hyun-woo right away. He was slumped on the couch with the TV on, but weirdly, he wasn’t reacting at all.
Shuu walked closer and saw his eyes were shut. That’s when she realized… he was asleep.
“Mommy’s sleeping…”
Shuu knew what sleeping meant, but she’d rarely seen Hyun-woo sleep before. It looked strange to her.
“Mommy snoring?”
The reason she rarely saw him sleep was because lately, he always went to bed later than her and woke up earlier. But Shuu didn’t know that, so she poked his arm with her chubby paw.
“Mmmgh… don’t, Shuu…”
He mumbled, and Shuu quickly pulled her paw back. She asked again, “Mommy snoring?” but got no answer this time.
So Shuu sat right next to him and turned to the TV. But since Ppopporo wasn’t on, she lost interest quickly.
“Shuu’s hungry…”
She rubbed her round belly and looked at Hyun-woo. But he still didn’t respond. Feeling sad, she softly called out again.
“Mommy…”
Just then, from somewhere outside, a voice called, “Mommy!”
“…?”
Shuu flapped her wings and went to the window to see who else was calling for their mommy.
In the distance—too far for normal humans to see—Shuu spotted kids about her size coming out of kindergarten.
“Garung!”
Thanks to her dragon eyesight and hearing, she spotted a kid with a Garung backpack.
“Garung!”
And with that, Shuu’s body slipped right through the window and floated outside.
“Shuu is Garung too!”
Of course, she had no idea what she’d just done or what situation she was in. All she could see was Garung.
She floated down, but got stuck in a tree near the apartment entrance.
“Huh?”
She didn’t understand why she couldn’t move forward, so she flapped harder, grunting with effort.
But even though she’d passed through the window, she couldn’t squeeze through the tree branches. She flapped with all her strength but eventually slumped onto the branch, exhausted.
“Shuu’s hungry…”
Right then, her stomach growled loudly. Too hungry to flap anymore, she clung to the branch and called out sadly:
“Mommy… Mommy, Shuu’s hungry…”
To make things worse, the branch creaked under her weight. But since she didn’t know what falling meant, she didn’t react—even as her body swayed dangerously.
“Mommy?”
And then… she fell.
“Ow! Ugh… Mommy… Shuu got hurt… hurts…”
Thankfully, she landed in the flowerbed, not on the concrete. She was a dragon, so the fall didn’t hurt her much.
But it was the first time anything had happened without Hyun-woo around. The fear and sadness overwhelmed her, and her little shoulders started to shake.
Just as she was about to cry—
“Huh?”
Footsteps came closer, and suddenly a little girl, about the same size as Shuu, popped into view.
Shuu forgot all about crying and tilted her head in surprise. The girl, wide-eyed and curious, stared at Shuu and said:
“Garung?”
Shuu flinched at the word.
But instead of crying, she stood up tall—more confidently than you’d expect from a baby who was about to sob a second ago.
“Not Garung.”
She wasn’t shy at all. Even in front of a stranger, she proudly spread her wings and declared:
“I’m Shuu!”
