'ιт тσσк σиℓу α мσмєит σf мємσяу вєfσяє ѕнє ∂яσωиє∂ ιи тнє тι∂є σf вℓυє σи¢є мσяє.'
She's over him. Right?
...
Not everyone can be an S-rank.
E-ranked Dae jong-in is the failure of her family. The younger sister of the 'ultimate soldier', she serves...
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(BLACK)
☆★☆★
The moment Kaisel touched down in the Royal Park, Dae was awake and sprinting into the dark, her eyes glinting bright with excitement. Jin-woo watched her and tugged the upward-tilted corners of his mouth downwards with one finger. She couldn't know, or she'd die, he reminded himself. He had to keep her hating him.
With a sigh, he followed her into the trees.
☆★☆★
Mother was making biscuits- one of the few things she cooked that Jong-in actually felt safe consuming. Everything else, well... to be honest, he enjoyed eating it just about as much as he enjoyed this hour every Saturday he spent with her. The food tasted like ash. His mother was terrifying, and dangerous, and she had a noose around his neck that she could tighten any time she wished.
The scent of roses that followed her everywhere did little to mas that of the blood he knew stained her hands and her heart. Jong-in picked at the wood of the table nervously and waited.
She sat at the table. Pushed her red hair over one shoulder. "Jong-in.How has your work been?"
"Fine."
"You haven't spoken to Dae?"
"No, mother."
"Good."
They filtered through the routine questioning; The jobs he'd taken, the monsters he'd seen- The types of monsters he'd killed and their actions, the monsters' movements, whether they followed a leader, whether they were sentient... She'd even asked him to bring her one home, for fucksakes - (He'd obviously refused. It was probably illegal.) Why his mother was so interested in monsters he'd never asked. He didn't want to know.
When the questions ended, he watched her wrap the biscuits in identical paper. She handed him one as she did so with a small smile. "Jong-in- I want you to know that I love you and that staying away from Dae is the best for you, yeah? You're doing a wonderful job."
He felt warm despite himself. A smile bubbled up inside him, but inside he was furious that he still sought her approval.
"Yes, ma. See you."
Jong-in scowled and walked out the door and into the noise of Seoul's afternoon traffic.
He was a coward.
He knew it, yet he just didn't seem to be able to stop being scared.
☆★☆★
Chin-hae lifted one wing wordlessly when Dae and Jin-woo approached, seemingly unfazed by Jin-woo's presence. There was something off in her movement- it lacked the grace and ease she usually saw in the dragons, and fear flickered in her great emerald eyes.
"Look, Dae."
Dae cast an orb of flame to see by, her eyes narrowing when she saw it; the patch of scorched scales that had been burnt into the area beneath the dragon's wing. It wasn't a wound- no, it was a brand. In the flickering, she could just make out three intertwined rings; each spiked like the thorns of some tangled vine, their shape surrounded by some miniature text of a long-forgotten tongue.
How she knew that the thing was dangerous, she didn't know- Jin-woo physically recoiled from it,his eyes widening. There was a wrongness about it that curled in her gut, snuffing out the flames that nestled in her in her stomach.
She had seen this symbol before. She remembered without remembering-she had seen this before, but she just couldn't remember.
Chin-hae nodded coldly. "I don't recall how I received it. The little ones don't have them, thank the Monarchs. Not yet."
Dae flinched. "Do you know what it means, Chin-hae?"
"No. It is of something that is far beyond me. It has the similar look of the binding symbols my people used to use before they were wiped out," Chin-hae observed, craning her neck to see the design, "But it does not restrict my movement, and it is nothing like anything I have seen before."
The dragon cocked her head to one side. "I fear, Dae, that this danger we now face is going something that I cannot protect you from, little ant."
Jinwoo took a step forwards. "Has Dae spoken to you about her idea to keep you safe?"
A nod. "It is, regrettably, the best option we have come up with.I-I wish Dae would come with us but, as she said, she cannot leave her world and the people she loves behind once more."
Chin-hae smiled, but narrowed her eyes at Jin-woo. "This one can wait for you, but we have very little more time left here, Dae. Stay with us for the time we have before we must leave."
