Chapter 8
Chapter 8. Oppa, Which Bitch Was It?
SHHK.
Minjun drove his blade straight through the throat of yet another lizardman.
It was an impeccably clean, decisive execution—one that the Minjun known to Sia just twelve months prior could never have pulled off. As she observed him in action, an odd sensation crept over her.
‘That… can’t simply be credited to the weapon.’
His raw physical prowess, refined form, and battlefield awareness had undergone an unmistakable transformation.
Minjun himself seemed completely oblivious to the shift, but Sia was a dragon. She recognized at once that he was operating at an echelon far exceeding any reasonable human benchmark.
‘What on earth took place?’
Far in the past, within the realm where she once dwelt, Sia had witnessed many warriors handling a Dragon Bone Sword. While their combat arts and sword forms varied wildly, their fundamental technique for channeling the blade’s latent might had always followed a single, identical principle.
They applied stimulus to the steel, coaxing forth the distinct essence preserved inside the dragon bone itself.
Yet Minjun was awakening that slumbering reserve through an entirely unheard-of approach. Sia had harbored doubts during his earlier swings, but seeing him wield the weapon once more dispelled every uncertainty.
‘I’ve never witnessed such a phenomenon before.’
Rather than a simple mortal borrowing the draconic vigor slumbering in the blade, he was wielding that very draconic strength as though it were inherently his own.
Although his execution remained rough and unpolished, Sia harbored no doubts on one front: were the dragons ever to catch wind of this anomaly, it would provoke utter pandemonium among them.
While her thoughts remained entangled in bewilderment, Minjun concluded the skirmish and turned his gaze her way.
“Sia.”
“…”
“Sia, where did your head wander off to?”
“Wait, what? Ah, it’s nothing.”
To anyone observing her, her expression reeked of suspicion, yet Minjun chose not to press the matter.
“Let’s take a brief breather before we push ahead.”
“Yeah. Sounds good.”
Even as Sia maintained an undisturbed facade, the gears in her head turned at breakneck speed.
‘I’ll have to dig into this before long.’
She needed to unearth the mystery lying hidden within Minjun—a secret he wasn’t even conscious of holding.
The breach expedition wrapped up without the slightest hitch.
Entirely unassisted by Sia, Minjun slaughtered every last lizardman lurking within the rift single-handedly, demonstrating combat potential that completely eclipsed anything he had shown in the past.
Yet, despite stepping out into the open after conquering the portal, Minjun remained clueless regarding the exact nature of the authority Sia had spoken of earlier.
“I’m bound to grasp it eventually, right?”
“Without a doubt. Let’s just celebrate the fact that you discovered your innate talent today.”
A journey spanning endless miles always commenced with an initial stride. For this evening at least, Minjun resolved to cast aside thoughts of both the enigmatic energy and the Dragon Bone Sword.
He could fret over those complications starting tomorrow, once he saw today’s outing through to a joyous finish.
Dusk was already creeping across the sky by the hour they exited the rift’s perimeter.
“Feel like grabbing something to eat?”
“Definitely. My stomach was starting to complain anyway. Oppa, do you have a craving for anything specific?”
“I’m easy with whatever. How about you?”
“Well…”
Pondering the options for a brief moment, Sia chimed in with a sweet, guileless tone.
“Could we have tteokbokki again?”
She had already tucked into tteokbokki during their midday meal, but it seemed one serving had hardly quelled her appetite for it.
Then again, only yesterday I had broken down before her memorial, weighed down by the bitter regret of never having shared one final plate of tteokbokki with her while she still walked this earth.
“Why wouldn’t we? Throwing in a couple of sides sounds like a great plan.”
“Yay, excellent! Let’s head there right away.”
The pair made their way to a different tteokbokki diner than the spot they visited at lunchtime and placed their order.
“Hehe.”
Sia rested her cheeks upon both palms, shaping her hands like blossoming petals, her eyes fixed upon Minjun much like a sunflower tracing the light.
“What’s running through your mind?”
“You, oppa.”
“You’re so adorable I feel like taking a bite out of you.”
“If it’s you, oppa, I’d happily let you swallow me whole.”
Their sickeningly sweet banter was enough to make any bystander cringe into a ball of secondhand embarrassment, yet neither participant showed even a flicker of hesitation.
They carried on with lighthearted chatter until Sia eventually excused herself to visit the washroom, briefly stepping away from the table.
“Make sure you don’t burst into tears just because I stepped away for a minute, alright, oppa?”
“Now that’s a tough ask. I can’t promise I’ll hold it together.”
Watching her figure retreat, Minjun lingered on her path with warm affection, happily turning over the day’s events in his mind.
In the meantime, two women positioned diagonally across from him kept stealing glances his way, murmuring quietly between themselves.
“Yeonju, shift your eyes over there for a second and check that guy out.”
“The guy wearing the dark hoodie?”
“That’s him.”
“Whoa… he’s really good-looking.”
The two onlookers, Jung Minju and Hwang Yeonju, kept their whispers low enough so neighboring patrons wouldn’t overhear.
Minjun carried that warm, striking elegance that made the idiom “a crane perched amid fowl” seem practically made for him. His voice carried a rich tone as well, and above all, even a brief glance made it abundantly obvious how deeply he treasured his partner.
“I wish I had a man like that.”
Minju expressed genuine disappointment over the fact that he was already taken, mentioning she would have asked for his digits right then and there otherwise.
At that moment, Hwang Yeonju threw out an utterly wild remark.
“What if I go over and ask for his number?”
“Have you lost your damn mind, you crazy bitch?”
Jung Minju assumed without question that Yeonju was just fooling around, yet Hwang Yeonju’s face looked completely earnest.
“Wait, you’re not… you’re not actually being serious, right?”
“I’m totally serious.”
“Are you out of your skull? Didn’t you literally just watch him all over his girlfriend?”
“That’s exactly why it’s exciting, dummy. Plus, she’s not even at the table right now. If I’m making a move, it’s now or never. How about a wager? If I walk away with his digits, you cover our round at the bar later.”
Hwang Yeonju had always exhibited an excessive fixation on men, but historically she kept to a baseline boundary that she refused to violate.
This time around, she skipped right over that boundary as casually as clearing a jump rope.
“Come on, for real. This is crossing the line.”
Striding right up to an individual who had been shamelessly displaying affection toward his significant other only moments before to hit on him seemed completely unhinged.
Hwang Yeonju fired back with a brazen retort.
“Terrified?”
“Excuse me?”
“I asked if you’re terrified you’re gonna lose the bet. Just keep your eyes glued on me. I’ll snag it in seconds. Make sure your wallet is ready for the drinks.”
“Hey! Hey, Hwang Yeonju!”
Minju desperately tried to hold her back until the very last second, but Yeonju pushed off her seat anyway and made a beeline toward the man.
“She’s genuinely going to land herself in a disaster one of these days.”
Minju had always known her pal was missing a few marbles, but she never imagined her depravity stretched this far. She let out a faint, inaudible groan.
Paying zero heed to her friend, Hwang Yeonju strode forward with unyielding swagger toward Minjun.
“Pardon me, but—”
Planting herself beside him with absolute self-assurance, she addressed him.
“Would you mind sharing your number? I typically never approach people like this, but you happen to be entirely my preference.”
“…?”
The second her words registered, Minjun was unable to conceal his sheer disbelief.
‘Hasn’t she been sitting over at that booth this entire time?’
Their spots weren’t far apart, meaning she had undoubtedly witnessed his affectionate moments with Sia. Yet here she was, brazenly requesting his contact details?
“My apologies. I already have a girlfriend.”
“I’m well aware, trust me. But couldn’t we simply be buddies? A male friend and a female friend. There’s nothing wrong with that, right?”
“…Pardon?”
He fully anticipated she would back off after a clear denial, but the woman instead shoved her smartphone closer to him, deliberately drawing attention to her bust while doing so.
‘…Has everyone lost their minds?’
She was casually telling a taken man that missing out on being his romantic partner didn’t bother her, as long as she could establish herself as his female companion?
The whole pitch bordered on sheer lunacy.
“I must decline. That isn’t going to happen.”
“Oh, stop being like that. If handing over your contact feels like too much, I can just type mine right into your device. You can’t even handle that much?”
Under normal circumstances, even someone audacious enough to corner a strange man would gracefully back down after one or two rejections. This woman, however, clung to Minjun like a stubborn tick, dead set on walking away with some method of communication.
Minjun was thoroughly convinced that she was certifiably deranged.
“I harbor zero interest in exchanging contact information with you. I’d prefer it if you refrained from dragging out this hassle for the two of us.”
His voice carried a far sharper bite than before.
Hwang Yeonju eventually gave an indifferent shrug as though the entire interaction had grown dull, strolling right back to her booth.
Watching her step away, Minjun’s brow furrowed into a deep scowl. The mere reality that this absurdity played out while Sia had stepped aside left a foul taste in his mouth.
Right at that second, Sia reappeared from the direction she had departed, carrying an unfamiliar retail bag dangling from one hand.
“Oppa, my bad. Were you sitting around waiting forever?”
The instant her foot crossed back into the dining space, however, her instincts picked up an unsettling shift.
‘…Why is the air in this place feeling like this?’
Sia subtly expanded her transcendent perception across the room.
The moment she extended her reach, the murmured comments of the diners scattered across the tables flooded straight into her ears.
‘Damn, that’s wild. What kind of nerve does it take to demand digits from a guy with his girl right there?’
‘No kidding. I don’t care how hot a guy is, I could never bring myself to pull that.’
‘I heard her offer to settle for just being his girl bestie if dating was off the table. Wow, the audacity…’
‘What’s going to go down if the dude’s girl finds out about this?’
‘What else? We crack open the snacks and watch the fireworks.’
No matter how hushed mortal voices tried to be, no murmur could ever slip past the senses of a dragon like Sia.
“Oppa.”
Within a heartbeat, the atmosphere enveloping their table chilled to a freezing standstill.
“Oppa, is there something you’re keeping from me?”
“Keeping something? Sia, wait—”
“Which bitch was it?”
Her gaze, completely hollowed of light and emotion, locked onto Minjun with a cold, foggy haze.
“Which bitch dared to hit oppa up for his number?”
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