Guru wiped her sweaty palms on her clothes. Her big, round eyes rolled around as she looked for Jurim.
The mont she spotted him, her tension seed to ease just a little, and she stumbled through the final sentence.
“So I wanna be a coow Hunter wike da Guildmastuh too!”
As soon as Guru finished her presentation, thunderous applause erupted.
Maybe because she’d been nervous, she took a deep breath, then turned back toward Jurim.
Good job, he praised her silently while clapping, and Guru flashed a wide, cheeky grin.
Suddenly, his chest tightened with emotion.
Maybe surviving the Tower had been for this mont.
Climbing it ready to die, sealing the master of the 99th floor at the cost of his life, sending his brother alone to the 100th—all those choices led to today.
Even if nothing else mattered, protecting the world you would live in had been aningful.
****
After the presentations ended, joint activities for parents and children began.
As the teachers bustled around moving desks and setting things up, the woman bowed her head like a sinner.
“Hello, Guildmastuh On. I’m Harry’s mom, Guru’s classmate. My na is Park Mirim.”
Jurim tilted his head slightly in greeting, a little confused by how excessively deferential Harry’s mom seed.
“On Jurim.”
“Y-yes... I should’ve introduced myself sooner, I’m so sorry it’s this late. About the, uh, earlier issue with the kids—I really have no excuse.”
“They’re kids. It’s been resolved, so there’s no need to worry about it.”
He genuinely sounded like he didn’t care. The way he brushed it off, with no hint of lingering bitterness, struck Park Mirim as oddly refreshing.
“He’s... more llow than I expected.”
To be honest, the Jurim she’d seen through dia looked like pure shock and destruction from head to toe.
Flamboyant looks, a bored, indifferent attitude, and words sharpened like blades.
He gave off the image of a demon who’d send ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) you straight to the afterlife if you got on his bad side—whether with words or fists. But in person, none of that ca through. He seed calm. Even easygoing.
“I felt so bad, I brought a gift.”
“It’s fine.”
His flat reply practically oozed with annoyance.
But when Park Mirim kept speaking, Jurim fell silent.
“It’s a fairy tale book that’s really popular with kids these days. There are dinosaurs in it, and they love that stuff.”
Dinosaurs? Guru’s eyes sparkled.
“Dinosaurs in dere?”
“Yup. I bought it ‘cause I thought you’d like it. Harry said you really like reading books.”
“Yeeeesh.”
Adorable. Smiling warmly at Guru, Mirim checked Jurim’s reaction.
Jurim glanced down at Guru, then took the shopping bag.
“Thank you.”
The look of irritation had vanished without a trace.
He gave Guru a solid pat on the back.
“Say thank you.”
“Fank you, Hawwy’s ahjummuh!”
“No, sweetie. Please keep being friends with Harry, okay?”
“Okaaaaay!”
When she looked back at Jurim, he dipped his head slightly again to show his appreciation.
Looks like this guy could buy a whole library without blinking, but if the kid likes sothing, he accepts it right away.
Even in such small monts, Mirim could feel his affection for the child, and it caught her off guard in the best way.
“We’ll now group up for the craft activity.”
At that mont, Ms. Jung Yoon seated the parents and kids around circular desks.
Maybe the groups were based on who the kids were close with, because Guru’s and Harry’s families were assigned to the sa table.
In the center of the table were so sheets of paper and colorful modeling clay.
“This next activity is craft ti. Our Chick Class friends will work together with their moms and dads to make sothing creative. Anything is fine!”
Following the teacher’s instructions, the kids began sketching their designs on the paper.
Guru eagerly began drawing sothing with a twelve-color pencil set.
“Guildmastuh, we’re makin’ dis.”
“What is it.”
“Thwee baby Spinosauwuses hatchin’ fwom eggs.”
“...?”
That’s this? Jurim narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.
It looked like sothing straight out of an Inferno illustration from Dante’s Divine Cody.
When Guru huffed and waited for judgnt, Jurim gave his verdict.
“It’s avant-garde.”
“Avan-wha?”
“It ans it’s very innovative—so ahead of its ti it’s practically revolutionary.”
Guru giggled, and Mirim smiled as well.
That has to be love. No way around it.
Then, as Harry was still drawing, she suddenly lifted her head.
“But hey. Why do you call him Guildmastuh, Guru?”
Guru and Jurim both turned to her at the exact sa ti, wearing identical looks of confusion at the unexpected question.
“Hmm?”
“You’re ‘dopted, wight?”
“Wuh-huh. Dats wight.”
“Then why don’t you call him Daddy? Isn’t he your dad?”
“...Huh?”
Mirim’s eyes snapped shut.
No, Harry. My precious Harry—why?!
The daughter she adored so much she could stuff her in her eyes without pain... had absolutely zero sense of timing. She should’ve been gagged with a snack or sothing.
Thanks to Harry’s pointed question, an awkward silence suddenly descended over the table.
It was obvious now that the café argunt with Jurim had stemd from this—his relationship with Guru, a child he adopted.
Not a mom. Not a dad. A guardian.
That’s how Jurim had defined himself.
At the ti, she thought it was so weird pseudo-parenting ideology, or maybe a way of keeping distance from the child...
But now? Not so much.
Even in this brief interaction, his love for Guru had been plain as day.
“Mmmmmm...”
Guru let the sound hang in the air.
Park Mirim felt her throat go dry.
As she fidgeted with the red modeling clay, Guru thought for a mont.
Yes, the Guildmastuh had adopted her.
But...
It didn’t really feel like they were tied by sothing like the word “family.” Jurim had never told her to call him “Dad” or said anything like “we’re a family now.”
Guru was more of a daughter in na only—sothing that ca from circumstance and necessity.
And that’s a good thing.
She knew from experience how easily relationships based on adoption could fall apart. And she didn’t want that.
“Uhhh, da Guildmastuh’s not my daddy.”
Gasp.
Is that so kind of parenting policy?! Park Mirim instinctively turned to look at Jurim.
Jurim blinked in a daze. The clay model he’d been sculpting had been smashed and was now oozing grotesquely between his fingers.
Definitely not, huh?
“Harry, wanna color this yellow?”
Park Mirim handed her daughter a colored pencil, sweat running down her back.
Despite her desperate efforts to steer things back to normal, a strangely heavy silence lingered around Jurim.
****
There had been a floor in the Tower where he had to face the Master of the Abyss.
This feeling was exactly like drifting in that abyss.
Unpleasant, numb, frustrating, unreal...
That night, after returning ho from the successful recital, Jurim scowled, recalling how he’d thrashed around like a fool back then.
Leaning against the bed’s headboard with Guru in his arms, Jurim took the fairy tale book she handed him.
The one Harry’s mom had bought.
The one with the dinosaurs.
Fucking dinosaurs.
No wonder the shopping bag had felt thick—it turned out to be the first book in a 15-volu set. The story began with a herbivorous baby dinosaur hatching from its egg.
Guru’s eyes sparkled with focus, like she was thinking of the egg she always carried from the fridge.
The baby herbivore wandered around alone... until it t a carnivorous dinosaur.
“Wooks tasty.”
Said the carnivore. And then the baby dinosaur clung to him and shouted—
“Daddy!”
That part made Jurim’s stomach twist a little, and he muttered, annoyed,
“Isn’t it kind of a lazy plot device to have a herbivore call a carnivore ‘Daddy’? Dinosaurs have instincts, too. A prey species instinctively recognizing a predator as a parent is just...”
When Guru gave him a puzzled look, he adjusted his words into sothing a kid could understand.
“It’s just dumb.”
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