Chapter 27 - There Was So Much I Wanted to Do with You, Oppa

...

...

Judging by the gap in my memory, I must have lost consciousness.

I was sure Sia and I had been making love, just as we always did. Things had gotten more intense than usual because of the mood, but no matter how intense it was, how did someone pass out while doing that with their girlfriend?

'What on earth happened?'

My head felt shrouded in fog. The rest of my body felt numb, too. I couldn't feel a thing.

How much time passed after that?

"... Oppa, Oppa!"

The first thing I heard was Sia's voice, thick with worry. Gradually, my other senses began to return.

"Oppa, are you awake?"

"Ugh..."

Clutching my forehead with one hand, I looked around. Sia was watching me anxiously, and beside her was...

... Rokan?

Why was Rokan here? Come to think of it, this wasn't Sia's lair. It was his.

"You're awake. How do you feel?"

"I'm all right. But what exactly...?"

What had happened?

"As you can see, you lost consciousness. Shasha brought you here as soon as it happened."

His words raised an obvious question. Why would I have passed out?

Sia and I were allowed three hours together each week. But by the time we'd made and eaten tteokbokki and things had heated up between us, it couldn't have been anywhere near three hours. An hour at most, probably.

Rokan rubbed his chin, then sighed. "Two opposing energies were forced to mingle. The resistance between them must have caused this."

"I'm afraid I don't understand."

"It's still only a hypothesis, but I think it happened because the two of you tried to become more deeply entwined than you would through merely meeting."

He had put it as figuratively as he could, but his meaning was clear.

Heat rushed to my face, and Sia's turned red at the same instant.

It was nothing unusual for a couple. Having her grandfather find out about it, though, was another matter entirely.

... How was I supposed to carry on this conversation?

"Then, Grandpa, are you saying that if Minjun and I do... th-that..."

"What happened today will happen again, regardless of the time you're allowed together."

"... I see."

"It is only a hypothesis, but what else could it be?"

Maybe it was my imagination, but Rokan seemed to be keeping a straight face for our sake.

"This is something we can fix once I can fully control a dragon's power too, right?"

"That much is certain. It's the root of the problem, after all."

I suppressed a sigh and nodded.

"Oppa's back to normal now, so we'll head back!"

"Go on. Your time together is precious. I mustn't get in your way."

After a brief goodbye to Rokan, we returned to Sia's lair.

"Still... I'm glad you aren't sick, Oppa." As soon as we returned, Sia put a hand to her chest, saying she'd thought something truly terrible had happened this time.

"At this point, I'm starting to think I'm as fragile as a sunfish." The mood felt too tense, so I tossed out the joke to lighten it.

"I'm laughing, but it's not funny, Oppa." Even so, Sia gave me a rueful smile.

"Then, for a while, we can't—"

"We can't."

We'd held back our feelings in front of Rokan, but now neither of us hid our disappointment that we couldn't have sex for a while.

"I waited twenty-five hundred years, and we finally, finally did it that once in Gangneung..." Sia's eyes filled with longing.

"If we hadn't done it then, I think I'd have regretted it forever."

"I know. The heavens are so cruel..."

Things had been getting so heated. I couldn't believe they'd ended so abruptly.

"I know I'm only saying this now, but I'd really been looking forward to it."

Of course she had. How could she not have?

"There were lots of things I wanted to try with you, Oppa."

"...?"

That was the first I'd heard of it.

"I'd bought rope just in case, and handcuffs, and all sorts of costumes..."

"... Ah."

At her belated confession, all I could do was swallow a groan.

'Dear God.'

* * *

It was already the sixth day since that housewarming date—unforgettable in more ways than one.

Toward the end of it, Sia had pressed several gifts into my hands to repay me for mine: matching T-shirts, accessories, and hats she'd picked out for us.

... And clothes she'd worn.

["Sia, why are you giving me these all of a sudden?"]

["Because I thought you might want to feel the same way I do, Oppa?"]

She meant she wanted me to feel as though we shared a newlywed home, just as she did. On top of that, she'd said:

["I don't want other people thinking it's a place where a man lives alone."]

... Though I wasn't sure what she'd meant by that. Was it like leaving men's dress shoes in the entryway of an apartment where a woman lived alone?

I gazed at Sia's clothes hanging on the rack in the corner of my balcony, then turned away. That wasn't what mattered right now.

'It's taking longer than I expected.'

It had been nearly ten days since I'd manifested that mysterious sword energy. With the suppressor still unfinished, I couldn't enter gates. Because of that aurora-colored sword energy, I was barred from them until Rokan completed it.

I'd expected it to take a week at most, but I still hadn't heard anything.

"... Should I call him?"

I felt bad even asking, but surely it would be all right to ask when he thought it might be done.

Just then, Rokan called me.

"Hello?"

["Come to my lair. The suppressor is finished."]

Holy shit. That gave me chills. Speak of the devil.

"Yes, sir! I'll be right there!"

As soon as I hung up, I started changing.

I'd been bored out of my mind, doing nothing like a layabout. At last, I could go back into gates.

I used to drag my feet whenever I had to go make money in one. And for a year after that accident, I'd been afraid to go into a gate at all. Now I could feel how much my attitude had changed.

It was all thanks to Sia.

Once I was ready to go, I used an artifact to travel straight to Rokan's lair.

"Rokan, sir, I'm here!"

"... Welcome."

I hadn't noticed it over the phone, but in person he looked unmistakably exhausted. His eyes were sunken, and his usually neat hair was a mess. I could only imagine how grueling the research had been. And those dark circles under his eyes!

'You could skip rope with them.'

How difficult was this suppressor to make, if it had taken even an ancient dragon like Rokan nearly ten days and left him so drained?

"Um, Rokan, sir. Are you... sure you're all right?"

"Better than I expected. Better than I expected."

Despite what he said, his eyes were terribly sunken. I'd have to bring him a box of red ginseng sometime, if only to be polite.

"Thank you."

"No need. I rather enjoyed the challenge."

He looked far too worn out for that to be true.

"Follow me."

I followed him deeper into the lair. It was much larger than it looked from outside, with plenty of rooms I had yet to visit.

We arrived in a room filled with artifacts, the sort of tools you'd find in a smithy, a miniature furnace, and unfamiliar instruments whose purposes I couldn't guess. It seemed to be Rokan's workshop.

After a quick look around, he took something from a drawer. "The suppressor. Try it on."

"Oh... this is it?"

The suppressor looked much plainer than I'd expected. Judging by appearances alone, it was an ordinary silver bracelet you might find in an accessory shop downtown.

"Wear this, and you should be able to keep that power under control. Aside from being unable to use that sword energy, you should be as you normally are."

"But what if I have no choice but to use it?"

That sword energy was a dangerous power that could swallow me whole. At the same time, it was a potent weapon against beings far beyond my own level. If I was driven into a corner, I might have no choice but to use it.

Rokan answered, "Then you'll have to. I'll explain that in detail shortly. For now, put it on."

He held out the suppressor. I fastened it around my wrist and moved my arm a little. I'd expected to feel a shift in my mana flow or some physical change the moment I put it on, but nothing happened.

"Now we should make sure it's working."

We moved to the training area to test the suppressor. Sia was going to watch my training remotely again today.

["Good morning, Oppa!"]

As usual, Sia appeared on the large screen and waved cheerfully at me. She looked the same as always, except for one noticeable thing.

"Sia, those clothes..."

["They're yours, Oppa! I tried them on because I was curious, and they're great as pajamas. They're so comfortable."]

She was wearing some of the old clothes I'd given her as pajamas. They were among the better ones in the pile, but they were still fairly pilled, and the sleeves slipped down her arms. They didn't look comfortable to sleep in at all.

["So, Oppa, if you have any more old clothes at home, could you give them to me?"]

"I could, but..."

Personally, I'd rather she used them as rags or disposable work clothes than pajamas. It looked like I'd have to buy her some new sleepwear.

["Really? Thank you!"]

I hadn't even finished answering, but Sia was already smiling shyly and thanking me. Who knew she'd be so happy at the mere offer of old clothes? They weren't even a proper gift.

Then she tugged at the fabric with her fingers and began sniffing it. Did the clothes smell bad because they were old?

"Do they smell?"

["No. It's nothing. I just thought they smelled like you, Oppa."]

What was that supposed to mean? Before I knew it, her cuteness had melted my defenses, and I was gazing at her fondly. I'd even forgotten for a moment that Rokan was watching us.

"You're making me feel like an invisible dragon."

"Oh! I'm sorry."

I felt awkward, thinking we might have been too affectionate in front of him.

"It's fine. All perfectly natural for lovers, isn't it?"

Still, an invisible dragon, not an invisible person. He really was a dragon rather than a human, so he wasn't wrong, but...

... For some reason, I felt as though one roar from him could defeat gods and demons alike.