I Raised A Black Dragon

Hee-yeon was heading home. She seemed to have fallen asleep there, stopping by her sister’s tomb and sitting down for a while. The sun was already setting by the time she woke up.

The alarm for the missed calls and unanswered texts on her phone was blaring. After hastily replying back to her parents and friends she got on the bus back to Seoul.

Hee-yeon buried her body in a window seat on the right as she caught her breath.

Why did I fall asleep so suddenly? That’s where…

A strange thought came up, but it wasn’t very unconvincing, considering that she’d been sleepless the last few nights. Hee-yeon always suffered from severe insomnia when the anniversary of her sister’s death was approaching.

Not only her but her parents as well. Her mother, who normally suffered from depression, became rough around the edges this time of year, and she would randomly burst into tears while in the middle of laughter.

Her father tried his best to soothe her, but it didn’t seem to be working. Because in the end, it led to them raising their voices and arguing.

“Noah keeps appearing in my dreams. And the kid who can’t find the body… You’re the one who said let’s adopt her. You killed her!”

“What’s wrong with you? You’re the one who neglected Noah. What were you thinking, becoming a mother and not caring for your children?”

Though it’d been three years since Noah’s death, nothing had changed. Noah strangely clung to everyone’s memories and didn’t fall away for a moment.

From time to time, Hee-yeon wondered if her sister’s soul was roaming their home.

But even so, it was inevitable. Maybe she started to blame them after the death of her sister, who was like a puppet whose strings were about to break but smiling every time she saw Hee-yeon’s face.

The meaningless scenes outside the bus window passed by. A few more stops; a few more people got on and got off. It seemed to be making its way to downtown Seoul, but even that disappeared.

This was at one point when she was looking out the window at the side of the road so numbly.

She saw someone through the large window on one side, sitting in a cafe. A brown-haired woman wearing a red baseball cap.

The cap, bigger than her head, was covering half her face. The shape of her slender jawline, thin cheeks, and mouth seemed unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. The bright brown hair, which didn’t look like it’d been dyed, was scattered all over her shoulders.

The man sitting opposite her bent over to tidy her hair for her. With her plump lips, the woman was seen complaining about something. The man, resting his head on the back of his hand, laughed as he listened to the woman.

It was just one part of a normal, peaceful evening scenery. It was that of a lovely but uneventful relationship. But strangely Hee-yeon couldn’t take her eyes off them.

Don’t tell me…

She was staring at the couple for a few seconds when she shot up out of her seat.

“Sir, hold on. This is my stop!”

The bus, which was about to take off, slowly halted. Hee-yeon ignored the darting stares at her and hastily ran out of the bus. She ran straight to the cafe and got mixed in with a group of people who had just entered.

“So, ahem. What did you do with Muell for half a day?”

“I took a look around this world. And I bought some things I needed.”

“What is it that you need here? Come to think of it, what is that package? Oh, my. Am I cra…”

Their conversation didn’t go well due to a roar of noise. Because of the people going in and out of the cafe, their forms at the table repeatedly appeared and disappeared.

“You’ve been paying attention to this since you decided to follow me, right? That’s why you kept talking over and over about three meals.”

“Because it is important to eat evenly.”

“Now you don’t deny it.”

By the time Hee-yeon was barely able to grab a seat, it was already too late. They were standing to leave the cafe. The woman with the red cap still pulled down to her nose grab the man’s hand that he held out.

Hee-yeon sparsely heard the contents of their conversation.

“My eye hurts…”

“They should. Since you bawled so much. Let me take a look.”

Contrary to what he had said as natural karma, the man tilted her cap up and looked closely at her face. Perhaps she was embarrassed, she pulled it back down.

“I’ve thought about it before, too, but when I’m embarrassed, can you just leave me alone for a moment? Must you behave so cruelly?”

“Then you shouldn’t have said that your eye hurts.”

“…make me.”

“Stop whining and keep this on your eye. You have to stop the swelling so it doesn’t burn.”

No doubt it was Hee-yeon’s sister’s voice. Her lips opened in silence. It still wasn’t even nighttime and it felt like she was dreaming. Puzzled, she rubbed her eyes, but Noah’s form as she exited the cafe did not disappear.

On her right, a child was holding her hand. A child with curly black hair. She thought maybe he was about five years old.

Holding a drink with a straw in it, he turned his head.

Their eyes met with the window between them.