Starting Story
Simply watching my children running around in the yard seemed to wash away all my mundane fatigue. My daughter, Minae, was an adorable, pretty kid. Her name came from the word mirinae, the original Korean word for the Milky Way. As her father, I was more than a little thankful that she took more after my wife than me.
“Hey! I told you not to get your clothes dirty, didn’t I?! Listen to your mother once in a while!”
Though I wasn’t sure if she inherited her mother’s temper. I was a little concerned that she would end up treating me the same way when Minae grew up. To stop that from happening, I should probably act more like an authoritative father.
“S-sis. Put that down and, and let’s talk about it. Okay? That happened after we played with the others. Okay? So it’s not my fault~!”
That was my second child, my son, Miru, who was currently terrified by his sister who was threateningly wielding a broom in her hands. His name came from the original Korean word for dragon, mi-reu. With a name like that, you’d expect him to be confident, but, unfortunately, he took after me completely and lacked any of his mother’s traits. Even his personality was like mine, so he was almost always being pushed around by Minae. Well, this was a normal way for kids to grow up. I hoped he would realize and accept, when he got older, that he was different from his sister on a fundamental level.
“What’re you doing?”
“Hm?”
I turned around and saw my beloved Narae patting her hands dry on her apron. Except for her slight growth in height and her now waist-length hair, she didn’t look any different from ten years ago—a fact that inspired the jealousy of our neighbors. Of course, some of them were envious of me for marrying Narae. Those people likely couldn’t even imagine the struggles I went through to change our relationship from childhood friends to lovers and finally to a married couple. Not that those struggles meant anything in the face of the happiness I had been reward with. Though I did wish she would fix her habit of speaking to me informally. We weren’t kids anymore, after all.
“Weird….”
Narae put her hand to my chin as she spoke.
“What is?”
“You were thinking something weird just now, weren’t you.”
I wouldn’t call it weird.
“Are you sure you weren’t thinking that I’d gotten old?”
My wife scared me. More specifically, the way she was tap, tap, tapping on the TV that was sitting on the floor scared me. I was scared because, with just one little push, a good portion of my salary would end up going into a new TV.
“We still have some monthly payments left,” I said piteously.
“We can buy a new one with my money.”
…Darn bourgeoisie.
“Why care about that, anyway? As time passes, we all age.”
After I offered my reasonable question, Narae bit her lip and tossed her head to the side with a hmph. Ah, she was sulking.
“Of course I care. Compared to Unni and her kids, I’m going to age.” (tn: Unni is a word for older sister. Can refer to one’s elder.)
Unni? Her kids? What was she talking about? Narae was an only child. While I was preoccupied by a strange feeling, I heard the screeching sound of the front gate swinging open.
Walking across the gate’s threshold was that adorable little girl with her silvery-white hair in a pretty braid. And on both her sides were two smaller kids who looked almost identical to Rangii. I had never seen them before, but they resembled Rangii so much that they almost looked like slightly younger versions of Rangii.
“Dear husband! I have arrived!”
…What did Rangii just call me? Did she call me her husband? Whom, exactly? The only person here with the crucial XY chromosomes was me. Actually, I was the only person who could possibly be her husband, so that issue was settled; something else, however, weighed on my mind. Exactly, the two kids standing on either side of Rangii. When I fully comprehended their existence, my mouth fell open and refused to close. Wait, wait! Even if she called me her husband or whatever, there was no way I could have married her while she looked like that. Never mind morals or common sense or anything like that, it was just not possible! Narae looked confusedly at me before giving a brief bow to Rangii.
“Welcome, Unni.”
“Yeah! Our kids wanted to play a little more, and that’s why we were late.”
Kids? Our kids?! Yep. Of course they were our kids. And with Rangii, that would make three kids. But why? Why was sweat beginning to crawl down my back?
“Daddy~.”
“Daddy, play with us, too~.”
Those two kids ran towards me. Which meant that I was those two kids’ father, and that would mean that, even when Rangii looked like a child, I had….
“Uwaaaaaaagh!!”
I clutched my chest with one hand as I gasped for air. My back was already covered in a cold sweat, and my racing heart gave no indication of calming down. I wiped the sweat off my brow and checked the date on my phone that I had set next to my head. Only a single day had passed. Thank goodness. It was just a dream. A nightmare. A horrible, terrifying nightmare.
“Phew….”
I breathed a sigh of relief. The heck. What kind of dream was that? It stared out like something out of paradise, but the moment Rangii appeared it became a nightmare. Wait, that wasn’t quite accurate. It was the fact that Rangii showed still looking like a child while holding hands with our children. Come on! At the very least, couldn’t she have shown up as an adult or something?! It was a dream! Was I incapable of even dreaming of Rangii as an adult?
I had a feeling that my dream was related to yesterday, when I admitted to being human garbage.
Just a day ago. I confessed my feelings to Narae, the girl I’d liked for as long as I could remember, and Rangii, someone I came to like just a few days ago. I said that I liked both of them too much to give up either of them, and, though this is an inappropriate way to put it, I gave a retarded confession. If you considered my dream connected to yesterday’s confession, then everything made sense.
…What did I dream about, again? I remembered it involved Narae and Rangii, but I couldn’t remember why I felt like it was such a terrible dream. But then, dreams were always like that.
Eh, it was no big deal. All’s well that ends well. I should just forget it. Forgetting a bad dream was a good thing; what was there to think about?
I shook my head and looked down in order to regain my composure. I saw the girl I love and the kid I like sleeping. After our long conversation last night, they needed more sleep. If it hadn’t been for my nightmare, I would have been doing the same. They looked just like a pair of siblings as they hugged each other. Narae had one arm wrapped around Rangii, and Rangii had her face in Narae’s chest as she suckled on Narae’s…!?
“Umnya, umnya….”
“Mm…mm.”
Wait, wait, wait!! This isn’t right! Hey, you little brat! How can you be doing that at your age?! Narae, with Rangii forcing her to play the role of a nursing mother, was blushing as she struggled lightly in her sleep.
…I decided to pretend I didn’t see that. I quickly but quietly slid out of the room. I’ll just forget what happened. Yeah. Rangii was just acting like a baby in her sleep. I decided to wash my face before my head filled with fantasies of what I saw. I needed the cold water running through Jirisan to rid me of these thoughts.
I walked across the courtyard—avoiding the master bedroom, where Saehee might have been sleeping—and, as if mocking my consideration for her sleep, that ghost was in the kitchen. Dressed in a black hanbok with a white apron, Saehee was tasting the soup that she had made when she turned her head to look at me.
“You awoke earlier than I expected, Young Master.”
“This is later than normal, though.”
“After the Young Master’s continuous nightly intimacy, I expected you to awaken in the afternoon.”
Hitting me where it hurts, huh? That damn ghost wasn’t holding off on the nonsense even first thing in the morning.
“Shall this human forcibly have you attain enlightenment, you ghost?”
“Trying to do so would be as fruitless as a level 1 slime attacking a level maxed hero.”
I thought I should be at least level 5.
“I shall inform you now that my level is a prime number, so the Level 4 Death spell will have no effect on me.” (tn: A reference to Final Fantasy’s Level 5 Death.)
“Don’t make references that you know I won’t know.”
“Oh my. You do not know even this? This is why children these days … goodness.”
Saehee looked down at me after insulting me, but I refused to let that insult slide.
“This is why hags these days are so….”
“Young Master.”
She bent the ladle in half. I wondered if the thing Saehee was holding had its own name. Maybe the thing that used to be a ladle? A newly destroyed ladle?
“What reason do you have for coming to the kitchen?”
“Ah, um, I, just for a quick wash.”
“I was just thinking of adding the meat, so what wonderful timing. Would you not jump in? I would accept the Young Master’s assistance in making the broth.”
“I’ll decline.”
“Then please end your small talk and wash yourself.”
“Okay.”
I meekly obeyed Saehee. She really didn’t like that topic. But still. If you thought about it, then she must have been about Rangii’s….
“I’ll leave now.”
I ran from the kitchen just as Saehee started throwing her knives.
When I came back from splashing cold water on my face, the kitchen was empty. I wanted to ask Saehee to give me a change of clothes, though. There would probably be some new clothes in my room, but with Narae and Rangii sleeping in there, I didn’t want to go there. For no reason other than to not wake them up. What I saw when I was leaving the room had nothing to do with it.
I ruthlessly forced those memories into the recesses of my mind, then looked for Saehee. She would probably pop up the moment I said something, but I had a familiar thought: I didn’t want to get used to an unnatural phenomenon like that. It was probably too little, too late at this point, but fighting for normalcy was always a worthwhile endeavor. My nonchalance had gotten to the point where, if I were watching a video on my computer and Saehee suddenly floated into the room like a ghost out of a horror movie, I might just continue what I was doing. This was a chilling thought, but I couldn’t think of any way not to get used to that. If I continued to live like this, it would almost certainly happen. In my search for Saehee and my mentally healthy future, I entered the master bedroom.
“…You sure got up early.”
I thought that Narae would have still been asleep, but instead she was in the master bedroom and greeted me. I was about to respond in kind, but I took a step back and covered my mouth to hold in my surprise. Narae, still half-asleep, blinked and tilted her head to the side. I estimated that I had about 30 seconds of life remaining. So, before I die, I’ll explain what I saw.
Narae’s hair was disheveled as if she had just gotten up, and she rubbed her still blurry eyes. If that was all, then I would have simply marveled at how adorable Narae looked and ended it there. However, in her drowsy stupor, Narae walked into the master bedroom while still dressed in her pajamas.
“…?”
I was talking about the dress shirt Saehee gave to Rangii for Narae to wear, meaning she was dress in the classic naked dress shirt. She actually had on a pair of panties, so it wasn’t naked dress shirt, but her visible panties only made my heart beat faster. And that wasn’t all. The top four or so buttons were undone, likely due to Rangii, exposing a tantalizing view of Narae’s breasts….
“!!”
When Narae realized the state she was in, my state took a marked turn for the worse.
I woke up with a throbbing pain in my face.
“Have you awoken?”
I opened my eyes, and the first thing I saw was Saehee’s face as she looked down at me. Just how many sins had I committed in my life to deserve this? Just kidding. I was pretty sure that Narae hit me with her I’m super embarrassed, so I’m erasing this from your head punch, then I lost consciousness, and this all culminated in Saehee watching over me. This was my second time receiving a lap pillow from Saehee, but, for whatever reason, I wasn’t happy in the slightest. I would have been happier if Narae or Rangii had been the ones doing this. I got up.
“I lent the Young Master my thighs while you were knocked unconscious by Narae-nim’s punch.”
I answered honestly.
“Thanks.”
“The rental fee will be ₩3,000,000.” (tn: About $3,000.)
No thanks.
“Could you pass along the bill to Rangii?”
“Do you wish to die?”
“I’m kidding.”
The scary look in Saehee’s eyes threatened to bring back bad memories from long ago, and I sincerely wished she would stop. After Saehee’s anger simmered down, I cautiously asked:
“So where’s Narae?”
“She dragged the Master against her will to wash herself.”
It must have looked like Narae was dragging her disobedient pet to the bath. Still, I wondered why Rangii would have to be forced to take a bath when she was always happy to take one with me.
“The reason is that the Master wished to remain enveloped in the Young Master’s scent.”
“Thanks for the kindly explanation.”
“And so.”
Saehee spoke seriously.
“When will I be able to see the Master’s child?”
I answered seriously.
“On the day my humanity, my sense of ethics, and my damn dignity disappear.”
“Today, then?”
“I’m starting to wonder if you would still say crap like that if I hit you with the bone club.”
“Do you think that I am some lowly fledgeling phantom like Ara … oh, pardon me. This is an improper topic for the sow bug-like Young Master who had difficulty dispatching a phantom that could not even rival Baduk’s yawn in power.”
“You just lowered my status from being a reptile!!”
I realized that that wasn’t what I should have complained about. I should have told her off for correcting herself then saying the exact same thing she was going to say originally! Saehee watched as I regretted my choice of words, and the corners of her lips curled upwards.
“Welcome to our world.”
“I have no idea what world you’re talking about, and I don’t want to know.”
“I am referring to a world in which, with the night sky lit only by a blood-red moon, an ojou-sama in a black dress and sipping black tea says, ‘Fufu, what a lovely shade of evil on you.'”
“I don’t want to go there until after I die.”
“That is understandable. Because you currently live in a world where people say, while looking at little girls, ‘Fufu, how fast you’re growing.'”
“No one says that.”
“I am truly intrigued. The effects of the spell have yet to dissipate, yet you have not committed even a single indecent act.”
“…What?”
What was with that sudden topic shift?
“Why are you so surprised? Did I not say in volume 3—oh dear, pardon me, those words, should they be published, would destroy any immersion—regardless, I am sure I told you that I cast a spell on you.”
Having realized that there was a veritable mountain of things that I could respond to, I concentrated on the most important issue.
“You didn’t dispel it?”
“It will disappear on its own. If it has yet to do so, then, alas, my hands are tied.”
How freaking irresponsible can you get?
“Hey, dammit.”
“Seeing as how you have not acted differently, it will pose no issue to your daily life. The only effect it will have is making you a bit more honest in important moments as it did before. After all, you are not about to hula dance naked in front of the Master and Narae-nim, no?”
“That wouldn’t be me becoming more honest—that’d be a mental disease.”
“I await that day with baited breath.”
“Am I seriously your master or not?”
“As a show of my fealty, I am prepared to lick the Young Master’s toes, top to bottom. Of course, the Young Master would have to take responsibility for the consequences.”
“Don’t.”
While I was having a typical conversation with Saehee, the door leading to the kitchen opened. Rangii walked into the room.
“Ah, Sunghoon! You’re awake!”
Something about her appearance surprised me, leaving me unable to enjoy how sparkly and clean Rangii looked after her wash.
“Wait, but … why’re you dressed like that?”
Previously, Rangii would always wear a remodeled hanbok shirt with short shorts—so often that I actually questioned that ghost’s mental health. For the past two weeks, Saehee gave Rangii practically no clothes except that specific outfit. The only time she wore anything different was when she had to deal with a dangerous situation. But today, she was wearing something I had never seen before. I’m not well-versed in clothing, but I knew that what she was wearing was called a China dress. However, the design was slightly different from a normal China dress. The first thing I noticed was that the outfit was divided into a shirt and pants. The shirt had short sleeves and barely went down enough to cover her midriff. The pants’ waistline was designed to match up with her shirt. Everything was white. On the front of the shirt was a floral design meant to make Rangii’s chest appear more festive, but the design couldn’t do anything to make Rangii’s flat-as-board breasts—I mean, I should stop talking about this disappointing topic. The final thing I noticed was that, unlike a normal China dress, there were slits running down the sides of the shirt starting from below her chest. I couldn’t decide whether the design stemmed from Rangii’s dislike for stifling clothes or from Saehee’s personal taste.
“Both are correct,” Saehee said.
So it was both. That aside, seeing her in that new outfit gave me a refreshing feeling, and I fell for her cuteness all over again. …Actually, just forget I said that.
I was rendered speechless by her transformation. Rangii looked nervously at me and spoke in a quavering voice.
“D-do I look weird?”
Shoot. Saehee’s stare was burning a hole into my head. That was why my heart was beating so hard. Not because I was playing with Rangii’s ears as she looked at me anxiously. I told Rangii exactly how I felt.
“Of course not. Can’t you tell just by looking? You just blew him away.”
Narae spoke in my place. Ah, that was right. Narae went with Rangii, didn’t she?
…Wait.
Was Narae also wearing a China dress? Oh, Lord in heaven. Narae in a China dress. Seeing Narae’s curvaceous body in a China dress would be two—no, even more attractive than Rangii with her slim frame! Brimming with excitement, I shifted my gaze to look behind Rangii. I realized once again that the world was an unforgiving place. Narae was dressed in her usual tank top and hot pants. I was fully aware that I was disappointed by expectations that I myself had set. But still. But still!
I want to see Narae in a China dress!!!!!!
“…I can tell what you’re thinking.”
Narae bit her lip, walked up to me, and pulled my ear towards the floor.
“Oooowwwwww!!”
“Explain to me why I should ever wear something like that for you.”
“I never said that!”
“You were thinking it.”
“…I was only thinking that I wished you would wear one.”
“And?”
“Please spare me.”
Narae’s face told me she wanted to only half kill me.
“Narae! Narae! Sunghoon’s in a lot of pain! Let him go!”
Rangii frantically ran towards us, her arms flailing. Indeed, Narae-nim. You feel bad at how worried Rangii is, do you not? So please let me go! It feels like my ear is about to be torn off!
However, Narae smiled and said:
“It’s okay, Rangii. Sunghoon likes things like this.”
That was a lie!
“Right?”
I realized that, after learning magic, Narae could cause her hair to undulate in angry waves if she got upset, and I was struck by a curse: I could only respond in an affirmative.
“Yes, that’s right.”
“You would make a fine friend for Baduk.”
I was going to respond to Saehee’s rubbernecking when Rangii’s eyes suddenly lit up.
“Is that true?”
I got a bad feeling from her question.
“Then I’ll make Sunghoon happy!”
Before Narae or I could say anything, Rangii climbed up my body like a squirrel and opened her mouth wide. I’m repeating myself, but Rangii only opens her mouth like this when she’s about to eat something.
“Nyam.”
Rangii clamped her mouth to my ear, engulfing it entirely. But that wasn’t all.
“Heeek?!”
She started licking it.
“Ha—haaah?!”
“Y-you creep!”
Slap!!