Chapter 3
Chapter 3. Oppa, Which One Is Prettier?
Following our initial embrace, our conversation stretched on endlessly, driven by the profound yearning that had accumulated across all the lost years.
Eventually, as an extended period slipped by, I voiced a concern that had been quietly nagging at the back of my mind.
“Sia, do you think it might be wise for us to head elsewhere?”
“How come, oppa? There’s nobody around here anyway.”
“It isn’t about people being near. I wouldn’t mind most other places, but we’re standing in a graveyard. Hanging around here feels a bit…”
More than that, it wasn’t merely an ordinary burial ground. The physical remains Sia had left behind as a mortal rested right under the ground beside our feet, rendering our presence here distinctly eerie.
Taking that in, Sia gave an understanding nod.
“Now that you bring it up, you make a fair point. When I stop and consider that my own corpse is buried right beneath us… yuck.”
Her face twisted into a repulsed grimace, and she swiftly reached out to clasp my fingers.
“Hold on to me tightly, oppa.”
The very second those words slipped from her lips, an intense blaze of stark white radiance overwhelmed my vision, like a stun grenade going off right in front of my face.
[Teleport.]
Only an instant later, Sia was gazing at me with a proud, beaming grin.
“Well? What do you think? Isn’t this an enormous improvement over where we just were?”
Our surroundings had transformed in the fraction of a heartbeat. One second we were standing amidst solemn gravestones, and the next, our soles were digging into the warm sand of an isolated, desolate shore without another soul in sight.
“Sia… did you literally just cast Teleport?”
“Uh-huh! Don’t you recall how I told you back then that I wanted nothing more than to camp out with you on an uninhabited isle for a full day? It just sprang into my head out of nowhere.”
A faint memory of her sharing that dream flickered through my thoughts, yet that wasn’t what had left me so utterly astounded.
‘She pulled off Teleport… with that kind of effortless ease?’
Teleport was certainly never treated as an elementary charm that an ordinary sorcerer could weave without drawing out mathematical formulas or chanting lengthy incantations. Exactly how formidable and godlike had my sweet Sia grown to be?
“Sia, does that mean you could instantly shift us all the way across the globe to the opposing side of Earth? Somewhere far off like Paraguay?”
“Without a doubt! Why do you ask, oppa? Are you wanting to travel to Paraguay?”
Sia eagerly prompted me to pick whichever destination crossed my mind, assuring me she possessed the power to take me anywhere on the planet.
“No, I was only wondering. Honestly, as long as we’re side by side, any place would feel wonderful.”
“Hehe.”
Following our slightly sappy exchange, Sia opened her mouth as if to add something, only to freeze when a forgotten thought crossed her mind. She gave her forehead a brief, self-chastising tap.
“Ah, what is wrong with my head? Oppa, just stay right here for a single second.”
Without warning, Sia wove the Teleport spell yet again.
“Look what I have!”
Within a matter of mere seconds, she reappeared before me, holding the container of tteokbokki I had brought along in her grip.
“You took the care to bring this tteokbokki specifically for me, oppa. There was no way I could abandon it back there.”
Perhaps the sheer joy of tasting tteokbokki for the first time since her reincarnation had overwhelmed her senses, because Sia was smiling brightly from ear to ear.
From my perspective, however, I harbored mixed feelings about whether eating it was actually a good idea. Even though I had purchased the dish with her in mind and there was technically nothing forbidden about her eating it, the food had initially been laid out as an offering to the departed. If Sia truly wished to consume it, I wasn’t going to stop her, yet a voice inside told me it would be far cleaner to simply purchase a fresh batch.
While those thoughts tumbled through my mind, Sia caught me looking at her without speaking.
“Oppa, did something happen?”
A sudden tremor entered her voice as she asked, as if she had sensed some invisible disapproval. It wasn’t simply her tone, either. Sia’s entire frame began to shiver violently, resembling a panicked puppy cowering before its master after realizing it had misbehaved.
If I didn’t offer an immediate explanation, it seemed as if she would dissolve into tears right then and there. Panicked by her drastic reaction, I shook my hands back and forth in a frantic motion.
“No, no, it’s really nothing! I was only thinking that since the tteokbokki was initially placed down as food for a memorial rite, it might seem slightly strange to eat it now. I was simply considering whether it might be nicer if I bought us a completely new serving instead.”
“No way, absolutely not!”
Sia released a deep, trembling breath of relief at my clarification, yet she shook her head with immense stubbornness.
“You prepared this tteokbokki specifically for me, oppa. Leaving it uneaten would feel infinitely weirder! And besides, the alcohol too…”
The instant the word alcohol passed her lips, both of us were struck by the exact same realization simultaneously. We had transported everything over except the glass bottle of cheongju we had set upon the grave marker.
“…I left it behind.”
“In fantasy stories, aren’t dragons usually gifted with memories that never let anything slip? Are living dragons not like that?”
Half in humor and half out of genuine curiosity, I playfully teased Sia with the same affectionate banter we had shared in the past. Yet the second the words registered, the warmth vanished from her face, replaced by a bleak dread as though she had committed an unforgivable sin.
“How could I… leave that behind?”
The Sia of the past would have effortlessly brushed off a harmless jab like that and fired back an equally witty retort. Instead, she grew visibly frantic over a mere bottle of liquor, begged me to stay put, and vanished from the beach in an instant.
Just moments later, Sia materialized again with the forgotten bottle of cheongju clutched tightly in her hands. Her eyes appeared glazed and hollow, as if her consciousness were wandering in some distant, desolate void.
“The drink oppa carried all the way here for me… that’s right… I could never leave it behind…”
Her state of mind was visibly fractured. Muttering low, broken phrases under her breath, Sia delicately stroked the cool surface of the cheongju bottle with both of her palms.
“Sia?”
“Please forgive me, oppa. You brought this just for me, and I was so careless that I left it… I’m so sorry…”
Even a passing glance was enough to recognize that her current mental state was nowhere near normal. I couldn’t tell whether spending two millennia immersed in uninterrupted, relentless research on Dimensional Travel Magic had eroded her sanity, or if this was some terrifying backlash from completing the spell itself, but Sia appeared shockingly brittle.
If she had exhibited this fragile behavior the moment she stepped through the gate, perhaps I could have processed it more smoothly. But she had carried herself with total cheerfulness until just seconds ago, making this sudden emotional collapse infinitely more terrifying.
I reached out and locked Sia into a firm, grounding hug to pull her back to reality.
“It’s completely fine, Sia. When in my life have I ever lost my temper with you over a small thing like that? You’ve returned home to me. What does a simple bottle of alcohol matter compared to that?”
When Sia remained entirely mute in my arms, I kept whispering in the gentlest, most comforting cadence I could summon.
“I was only teasing you. That was the whole of it. I was just overwhelmed with joy to have my Sia back by my side, so I poked fun at you a bit.”
As I continued to soothe her spirit with gentle reassurance, the tension gradually seeped out of Sia’s frame.
“…I’m so sorry, oppa. I terrified you, didn’t I?”
“Not at all, I’m perfectly fine. Provided you’re alright, nothing else matters to me.”
I tenderly stroked her back once more. The panic drained from Sia’s expression bit by bit, until a timid, fragile smile curved her lips.
“In that case, oppa, let’s sit and eat the tteokbokki together!”
Wielding her magic, Sia smoothly conjured a modest table alongside two matching chairs, gently setting both the spicy rice cakes and the cheongju upon the flat surface. She finished pulling away the plastic covering from the half-opened container, extracted two pairs of disposable wooden utensils from the plastic carrier, and passed one into my hand.
“Well then, let’s dig in!”
With that bright and bubbly cheer, Sia finally began to feast with boundless delight.
“Ah, how many years has it been since I last tasted tteokbokki?”
From the initial mouthful, she savored it as though she were experiencing the greatest culinary masterpiece on the planet, proceeding to devour the dish at an astounding velocity. Naturally, she made sure to punctuate the spicy bites with steady sips of the cheongju.
Rice cakes soaked in chili sauce paired with alcohol—and traditional memorial cheongju at that—was an assortment I never would have concocted. Sia, however, showed not the slightest hesitation and relished every bit of the pairing.
“You know, oppa, back when I was just a hatchling, I craved tteokbokki so desperately that I gathered whatever ingredients I could track down and attempted to cook it myself. Yet it never managed to taste right at all. I couldn’t figure out if my own culinary talent was lacking, or if the flora and fauna over in that world were simply too distinct from the ones here on Earth.”
Within an astonishingly brief period, Sia had already polished off a solid third of the generous portion entirely on her own. She then tilted the bottle back and drained the remaining cheongju as casually as if it were pure spring water.
“Yet when I took the time to reflect on it later on, I realized that neither of those explanations was the truth. The real cause was completely different.”
“What was the real reason, then?”
“I think it failed because I wasn’t sitting across from you while eating it, oppa.”
Sia locked her eyes with mine, her expression overflowing with boundless affection, and took a small, endearing nibble from a slice of fish cake.
“The flavor of the tteokbokki itself was lovely, of course, but what truly mattered was the precious time I spent sharing it with you. That’s the reason why tteokbokki became so incredibly dear to my heart.”
Her quiet revelation struck me with the force of an unexpected blow. Sia had cherished those simple meals with me so deeply, yet back then, why had I always let out petty groans about having to eat the exact same street food once more?
A crushing tide of remorse flooded my heart, shadowed by an intense weight of guilt toward the girl before me.
“Starting today, I promise to buy you so much tteokbokki that you’ll end up completely sick of it.”
Even if we ate it until the mere thought made our stomachs turn, it wouldn’t matter. If buying it brought that pure, radiant joy to Sia’s face, that was more than enough reward for me.
While my vow was born from a place of lingering guilt, Sia took it as an overwhelming gesture of love. She squirmed with bashful delight, looking as though her body couldn’t quite contain the sheer happiness bubbling within.
We kept eating while enjoying casual chatter in that cozy, secluded haven, and within moments, the plastic takeout dish was stripped completely bare.
“Did that satisfy your craving?”
“It did! But oppa… my stomach still feels empty.”
‘Still hungry?’
I looked down at the plastic vessel, which was cleaned out so thoroughly that not a stray droplet of red sauce or scrap of dough remained. Ordinarily, that single order had served as a generous meal for the two of us with portions frequently left over, yet she hadn’t had her fill?
“You’re… still hungry after all that?”
“Mm-hmm. Ever since I became a dragon, my appetite has grown quite a bit larger than it used to be.”
Stated like that, the reasoning felt fairly sound. While I had zero firsthand familiarity with the habits of living dragons, classic fantasy epics consistently depicted their authentic forms as vast titans towering far above mortal flesh.
Taking that scale into account, it made total sense that a mortal-sized portion wouldn’t begin to satiate Sia’s draconic biology.
“Well then, shall we head out to pick up another round of tteokbokki?”
“Yes, let’s do that! We can grab some right back in our usual neighborhood, can’t we?”
“Of course.”
Prior to initiating another teleportation, the two of us tidied up every scrap of leftover garbage. As we finished clearing the spot, my gaze wandered over to the garment Sia was wearing.
If she paraded around modern streets clad in an outfit like that, every pedestrian in sight was bound to stare. Anyone with eyes could perceive that her current attire was completely disconnected from modern everyday fashion. If forced to label it, the clothes resembled an absurdly detailed, high-budget cosplay outfit.
“Sia, do you intend to run to the food stall dressed in that?”
“I planned on switching my clothes anyway. Oppa, what do you think I should wear? I’ll put on whatever style you prefer.”
In all honesty, I harbored no strong preference regarding what outfit she chose. Whether she donned a graceful evening gown, a perky tennis skirt matched with a soft pastel shirt, or relaxed oversized athletic wear, she would look entirely charming to me.
Even so, simply brushing it off by saying anything works might make me come across as indifferent or careless, so I casually proposed the first classic combination that floated through my mind.
“How about a plain white T-shirt and blue jeans?”
“Understood!”
With a simple, fluid flick of her wrist, Sia reworked her entire wardrobe in the blink of an eye. The grand garments that looked plucked straight out of medieval Europe shifted seamlessly into a crisp, fitted white T-shirt paired with clean denim jeans.
“Does this look good on me?”
“It really does. My Sia looks astonishingly gorgeous.”
I wasn’t offering empty flattery just to be polite. Even prior to her reincarnation, Sia had been an undeniably lovely woman, but the incarnation of Sia standing before my eyes radiated an allure breathtaking enough to inspire genuine reverent awe.
It wasn’t merely the bias of a doting boyfriend speaking. Looking at her through purely objective eyes, the current Sia appeared far less like an ordinary mortal woman and far more like a breathing masterpiece of divine craftsmanship—the sort of priceless sculpture an everyday person like me would feel too unworthy to even graze.
Granted, she wasn’t actually human or a crafted statue anymore. She was a dragon, yet that technicality hardly mattered.
Blessed with proportions so inherently flawless, nearly any piece of fabric would appear magnificent draped across her frame, but this understated pairing complemented her natural beauty extraordinarily well. It exuded that magnetic, effortless aura capable of commanding the head-turn of every single man who walked past.
We had devoured the tteokbokki, tidied up all the remnants, and redressed Sia in garments fitting for modern society. The only step remaining was to cast the spell and depart.
Yet right before weaving the transit, Sia suddenly reached out and halted me.
“Wait just a moment, oppa.”
“What is it?”
“Which appearance do you find more attractive—the way my face looks right now, or the original face I had before I reincarnated?”
“…Say what?”
Her sudden inquiry left my brain entirely frozen, the words catching uselessly in my throat.
‘How on earth am I supposed to answer a trap like that?’
‘I’m completely done for.’
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