Chapter 53
Chapter 53: Don’t Hit on My Oppa
Once her extended phone conversation with Minjun came to an end, Sia felt her mind whirling in utter disarray.
Her biggest worry centered on the rest of the dragons who looked down on her romance with Minjun, fearful they might step in and target the pair of them.
There was a real risk they might direct their wrath toward an innocent mortal merely because he had the audacity to care for a dragon.
Given that they had to tread carefully around Sia herself, her grandfather, and the modest faction of dragons standing in her corner, they would likely hesitate before resorting to reckless extremes.
Even with that buffer, lowering her guard was simply not an option.
It was impossible to predict who might strike at Minjun, at what hour, or through what method.
Still, dark anticipation was not the sole emotion stirring inside her.
There was Minjun’s gentle protectiveness, the steady resolve echoing in his words when he promised they would weather any obstacle in their path, and the sweet consideration behind the tteokbokki, the present, and the handwritten note he had prepared out of concern for her well-being.
Remarkably, under circumstances so fraught with tension, those little gestures still sent butterflies fluttering through her chest.
That warmth alone granted her a sliver of solace.
‘No matter how much I mull it over, I still cannot wrap my head around it.’
She had spent well over a century as a dragon compared to the brief span of her mortal existence, yet the rigid mindset of her kind remained entirely foreign to her.
Must a dragon’s affection be reserved solely for another of their own race?
Eager to shake off the lingering melancholy, Sia opted to dig into the tteokbokki Minjun had personally prepared for her.
She snapped a quick photo and brought up her messaging screen to let Minjun know she was about to eat and appreciate his hard work.
Right at that moment, an unexpected text from an unfamiliar sender caught her eye.
[Hi there! This is Go Yuna, the older sister figure to Minjun you bumped into at the restaurant before 🙂 Still remember me? I’ve been wanting to reach out to bond with you a bit more, Sia, but I only just found the nerve, hehe. If I recall correctly, you mentioned being a Hunter as well. Would you be open to an occasional practice match together? We could have a friendly spar and grab a bite afterward!]
“…Go Yuna?”
Her thoughts were already tangled enough, and now this woman chose this exact moment to reach out.
Where had Yuna managed to dig up her contact info, and what was her motive?
Sia’s brow furrowed as she scanned the lines once more.
“Just what is this girl trying to pull?”
Having heard nothing about the encounter between Minjun and Yuna from the previous morning, Sia was completely blind to the woman’s true intentions.
‘She doesn’t even mention bringing Oppa along.’
Why go out of her way to request a private get-together with just Sia?
There was zero chance she was driven by a pure, earnest desire to form a friendship, despite what the cheerful text implied.
Did Yuna intend to drive a wedge between her and Minjun, or was there another petty scheme brewing beneath the surface?
With her thoughts spiraling, Sia forwarded the photo of the dish to Minjun along with a casual inquiry.
[By the way, Oppa. Did you happen to share my contact information with Yuna unni?]
Minjun’s reply popped up almost instantly.
[Not at all. Did something happen? Did she reach out to you?]
It seemed Yuna had tracked down her information through some outside channel.
Yet the method of how she tracked it down hardly mattered. The only crucial detail was that Minjun had kept it to himself.
[Nope, I was just suddenly wondering. I’m going to dig into the tteokbokki now, Oppa!]
For the time being, Sia chose to conceal the fact that Yuna had reached out to her directly.
So what step should she take next?
Leave the message unread and ignored? Display blatant hostility? Or offer a polite, hollow response while masking her inner thoughts?
At first glance, none of those paths appeared particularly satisfying.
Yet upon further reflection, Sia saw this as an undeniable opportunity.
A chance to confront the woman face-to-face and deliver an unmistakable boundary.
Meeting away from Minjun’s watchful gaze meant Sia would have no reason to maintain her sweet, harmless facade.
‘I’m already sick of wasting energy dwelling on her.’
Unbeknownst to Sia, Minjun had already settled the boundary on his own end; but lacking that knowledge, she felt driven to handle the nuisance personally once and for all.
‘Besides, my mood is already foul enough from earlier.’
Had Yuna reached out a day prior to Sia’s stressful encounter with the other dragons, Sia might have brushed it off without such sharp sensitivity.
In that regard, Go Yuna’s timing could hardly have been worse.
Resolved to teach her an unforgettable lesson, Sia drafted a reply.
Come the following afternoon, Sia sat waiting for Yuna inside a coffee shop positioned near the designated combat arena where they had scheduled their meetup.
As expected, she had kept the entire arrangement hidden from Minjun, and she had no intention of ever bringing it to light.
Her sole goal today was to sever this bothersome nuisance by the roots.
Before long, Yuna picked her out across the room, offering an enthusiastic wave as she strolled over.
“Sia!”
“You made it, unni?”
The moment they locked eyes, both women masked their true thoughts behind bright, syrupy voices that dripped with feigned warmth.
“I really ought to have reached out sooner. I was hesitating because I was worried you’d find it awkward hearing from me out of the blue.”
“Not at all, you could have messaged me anytime. There were plenty of things I was curious to ask you as well, unni.”
To anyone passing by, the pair would have easily passed for affectionate acquaintances.
Beneath that facade, however, both were concealing razor-sharp intentions behind pleasant smiles, nursing deep disdain for one another.
“Shall we head down to spar, then?”
“Sounds like fun!”
Together, they made their way down to the underground combat hall situated in the same structure.
The interior of the arena was wrapped in eerie silence.
Thanks to Yuna reserving the facility beforehand, they stepped straight inside without delay.
Slipping into their training attire and strapping on protective gear, the two women took their places opposite one another on the combat mat.
“Doing this after such a long break feels surprisingly nostalgic. It really takes me back.”
“Same here. It’s been ages since I had a proper bout, so I’m feeling a little rusty. Please go easy on me, unni!”
“Don’t worry about a thing. Let’s both do our best.”
Even while keeping up the lighthearted banter, Yuna kept running through the exact same resolve inside her head.
Today, she would force this upstart girl who overstepped her boundaries to taste the sheer disparity in their capabilities right down to her core.
Normally, when an experienced, high-ranking combatant sparred with someone lower in rank—even if the former had retired—the stronger fighter was expected to rein in their power.
Yuna, however, fully planned to unleash her full strength and thoroughly dominate Sia without mercy.
If Sia cried foul about her being too rough, Yuna would merely brush it off by claiming her prolonged retirement had made it difficult to gauge her own strength.
‘That gives me the perfect pretext to schedule another session.’
She could feign regret over today’s mishap and promise to hold back properly during their next duel.
The more often they stepped onto the mat, the more chances Yuna would have to unleash her bitter frustrations directly onto Sia.
“Shall we kick things off, unni?”
“Whenever you’re ready.”
The second both women channeled a flicker of mana into their combat armor, a chime rang out through the arena to signal the start of the bout.
Without missing a beat, Yuna, acting as a spirit summoner, instantly manifested her Salamander.
“Oh, you’re a spirit summoner, unni?”
“That’s right. I guess the topic never came up before.”
Sia watched the newly summoned Salamander with an expression of faint curiosity.
Yuna’s Salamander was known for its fiery, belligerent temper, having grown deeply frustrated during the quiet days following Yuna’s retirement from active duty.
Ever since she stepped away from combat, instead of throwing itself into exhilarating, high-stakes skirmishes, what had Yuna reduced it to? Kitchen duty, of all insults. She had repeatedly ordered it to char meals to add a smoky sear, earning endless grumbles from the fire spirit.
Today, though, the air was entirely different. Even if it was merely a controlled practice bout, it remained an adrenaline-fueled clash against another Hunter.
Recognizing the context, the Salamander flicked its burning tongue in sheer exhilaration.
It buzzed around Yuna, practically begging for the command to strike.
‘Salamander, blast that woman right in the face. Pour everything you’ve got into it.’
Yuna relayed the command straight through their mental link.
Considering they were outfitted in protective combat gear, a full-power strike wouldn’t be enough to kill Sia outright.
Yet what if the armor cracked, leaving her with severe burns?
‘Honestly, that wouldn’t be the worst outcome.’
Yuna could simply pass it off as an unfortunate accident, offer a hollow apology, and cover the medical expenses out of pocket.
Money was the least of her concerns.
In fact, watching the girl suffer would grant her immense satisfaction.
Choking down a sinister smirk at the dark fantasy she dared not voice, Yuna leaned in, eager to watch Sia’s composure crumble.
Naturally, that wishful fantasy was doomed to fail from the start.
Carrying out the directive, the Salamander drew upon the deepest reserves of Yuna’s mana, coiling its power to unleash an inferno directly toward Sia.
Yet midway through, its surging flames ground to a halt, smothered by an unfathomably colossal force unlike anything it had ever witnessed.
‘…?’
The foreign pressure left the creature frozen in shock.
Gathering its willpower, it strained once more to ignite the blaze, but in that very breath, a suffocating aura of pure horror crashed over its spirit.
“…!”
Having never crossed paths with a true dragon, the Salamander failed to identify the crushing aura as Dragon Fear.
Even without knowing the name, an instinctual truth burned into its consciousness.
The entity standing across the room was anything but a fragile human.
Laying a single finger on her would invite an unimaginable catastrophe beyond its comprehension.
The spirit scrambled to warn Yuna through their telepathic tether, yet before a single thought could cross, an incomprehensible authority tore it away, banishing it straight back into the Spirit Realm.
“Agh!”
For a spirit to be expelled back to its origin realm by force was rare, but whenever it happened, the summoner bore the brunt of the shock: an agonizing surge of mana coursing violently backward through their channels.
While non-lethal, the recoil left summoners writhing on the floor in sheer agony for minutes on end.
The moment her spirit vanished from the room, Yuna hit the floorboards, completely incapacitated by the violent mana backlash she hadn’t endured in years.
She twisted on the ground, releasing pained, muffled cries.
As humiliating as it was to appear so utterly broken before Sia—the very rival she detested—Yuna was in too much agony to preserve her dignity.
Casting away every shred of pride, she wheezed and weakly extended a hand toward Sia, silently pleading for relief.
Sia merely stood tall, glaring down at her with an icy, detached stare that completely erased the bubbly demeanor she had put on moments before.
“Ugh… Sia… please…”
Never had she imagined that simply forming a person’s name could drain the air from her lungs and cause such searing torment.
Beyond the bodily agony tearing through her veins, a suffocating shroud of terror began to settle over her heart.
Historically, not a single summoner had ever perished merely from the recoil of a dismissed spirit.
Yet a horrific dread clawed at Yuna’s thoughts: she might very well become the first casualty.
Worse yet, the punishment was far from over. A different tier of torment lay in store for her.
The suffocating Dragon Fear that had paralyzed the Salamander shifted its weight, pressing down directly onto Yuna.
Crushed under an oppressive weight of dread unlike anything she had ever faced, her breath caught entirely in her throat, and the color rapidly drained from her face until it turned pale and blue.
Slowly, deliberately, Sia closed the distance, standing directly over the pathetic figure.
Could a presence this monstrous truly belong to a low-ranking D-rank Hunter?
“Unni.”
Sia’s eyes held all the warmth of an executioner studying their mark right before the final blow.
Yuna desperately wanted to demand an explanation for what was happening and why Sia was revealing such a terrifying side, yet the words died in her throat, turning into nothing more than a faint, strangled whine.
“What made you think you could chase after my Oppa? When you knew full well he already had someone by his side?”
Sia’s tone was completely devoid of inflection, a stillness that made the surrounding atmosphere infinitely more terrifying.
Pinned under that weight, Yuna could do nothing but shiver in sheer helplessness and endure the confrontation.
Every past choice surged back as a wave of bitter regret: failing to claim Minjun’s affection during their youth, pursuing him far too aggressively upon their reunion, and attempting to take out her spite on Sia. Every single step felt like an irreversible blunder.
Yuna prayed that unconsciousness would take her on the spot, but her awareness remained painfully sharp.
“Just so we’re entirely clear, don’t bother getting any funny ideas about the surveillance cameras you passed on your way down here.”
Sia had already subtly carpeted the entire combat chamber in her own spellcraft; any recording equipment would simply show two Hunters engaging in an unremarkable practice match.
In short, not a shred of incriminating footage existed.
“Even if you scream to the world about what happened here, not a single soul will believe you.”
The underlying demand was unmistakable: keep your head down and stay silent.
Tears spilled down Yuna’s cheeks as sheer terror for her life forced her head into frantic, obedient nods.
Releasing the oppressive grip of Dragon Fear, Sia stepped back toward her original mark.
As the searing pain of the mana recoil gradually receded, Yuna’s ragged gasps slowly smoothed out into ragged breathing.
Yet the chilling terror remained deeply etched into her soul.
The room appeared completely restored, but the hollow, trembling look in Yuna’s eyes proved the horror was entirely real.
“That was a great match, unni.”
While Yuna lacked the strength even to brush away her messy hair, Sia had seamlessly switched back to her cheerful persona, speaking with gentle warmth.
“I learned so much today. It really was an honor. How often does someone like me get the opportunity to trade blows with an A-rank Hunter?”
Sia carried on with effortless casualness, chatting as though they had just finished an ordinary, everyday spar without a hitch.
“…”
That sudden shift was so deeply unsettling that another tremor of dread rippled down Yuna’s spine.
She lacked even the willpower to question Sia’s true identity or motives.
All she could manage was a blank, fragile nod.
Sia smoothly stepped closer, wrapping her arms around Yuna in a warm hug, appearing from the outside like an appreciative sparring partner thanking her senior.
Resting against her shoulder, Sia leaned toward her ear, her voice dropping to a whisper meant only for Yuna.
‘If your face ever appears around Oppa or me again, this won’t be where it ends.’
Stepping smoothly out of the hold as if nothing had transpired, Sia turned toward her with that same sunny grin. “You must be starving by now, unni. Since it’s right around lunchtime, shall we go find a bite to eat?”
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