Episode 59: Fireworks (5)
“But I want to go.”
A green pair of indifferent eyes looked into his eyes. The resolute tone of her voice displayed her unwillingness.
Kaeul told him that he needed to spend one hour a week with Bom at the very least. After the immersion into BY was undone, she rambled on about letting the air out of a tyre but… he didn’t understand what that was about.
Looking back, he realised that the last time he was alone with Bom was more than 3 weeks ago. He should’ve been alone with Bom three more times in that time period according to Kaeul.
“Stay here for a bit.”
“I want to go though…”
“Just a bit.”
“Like 10 seconds?”
“That’s way too little.”
“But why? I really want to go.”
However, Bom was trying to avoid being alone with him.
Why?
If she wanted to be together, then why was she refusing to be together?
Thinking about the disparity between those two points led the Regressor to think about how he hadn’t replied to Bom’s question. One good event can erase all the bad thoughts in her mind – despite saying that and asking him to call her pretty, Bom didn’t get any response out from him.
In the countless repetitions of life, he had never spared any time for interpersonal interchanges with the dragons, so this iteration was the first of its kind to the Regressor. He was confused and inexperienced, and thus needed time until he could find the right solution.
And now, he had finally come up with a small solution.
“It’s because I want to stay here for a bit.”
“Just us two?”
“Yeah.”
“But I don’t want to.”
“Just stay here.”
He said with a stiff look on his face as Bom asked while tilting her head.
“Sorry? Why?”
“Don’t ask. Just listen to me.”
Bom looked at him as if he was acting weird, but obediently returned to his side and sat down. Sitting side by side, the two of them stared at the night sky.
The last batch of fireworks of the festival soon departed into the sky. Whenever those exploded, they caused Bom’s white skin to be coloured in all sorts of different colours.
Time passed meaninglessly without any conversation.
Bom vacantly opened her mouth.
“I want to go.”
“…”
“I’m getting hungry and I also want to see Kaeul right now. I want to ask how she went with her song.”
“You should’ve come earlier then.”
“Like I said, it was too crowded. I want to see Yeorum and Gyeoul as well, so let’s go back now.”
“We can see them later.”
“No. Also, it should be about time for Kaeul to get her award, so we should go.”
“No.”
“I want to go to the toilet as well.”
“Why would dragons need to go to toilets,” he asked.
“Why can’t we go to the toilet?”
“You don’t have to go.”
“But what if we want to go.”
“Why would you want to go.”
“Do you want to know why?”
“…”
“Should I tell you? What we do in a toilet?”
“No. No need to.”
In response to his words, Bom turned towards him with an indifferent look on her face. After staying quiet for a bit, she opened her mouth and said bluntly.
“Ahjussi… do you think of me as a puppy or something?”
“What? Where did that come from.”
“Don’t you? I think you do. You say ‘come here’ and ‘go there’. I eat whatever you give, and only do what the owner wants me to do.”
“That’s not the case.”
“If it isn’t, then please let me go. I want to go now.”
“Do you seriously want to go?” he asked again.
“Yes.”
“Even when I want us to be alone?”
“Just like how I’m not your puppy, ahjussi is not my owner.”
Bom said that with an extremely calm expression on her face. Although he usually tended to refrain from using the Eyes of Equilibrium on the dragons, he felt the need to know what the truth was at least for now.
[Eyes of Equilibrium (SS)]
“I want to go now.”
The authenticity hanging on the eyes was a strong ‘false’ – a lie that completely contradicted her will.
Bom was lying.
“Actually, can I be honest?”
“About what.”
“When we first met, ahjussi told us to stay inside your fences right. I did what you told me to, and was obedient so I want you to stop restricting me now.”
False. She was lying.
“Ahjussi didn’t like being alone with me right? I’m also slightly uncomfortable with it being just us two.”
False. She was lying.
“If you’re misunderstanding me because of my clothes, let me tell you again that I wore it just because it was a festival. I simply wanted to do something different.”
False. She was lying.
“I’ll go first. Because of you, ahjussi, the last fireworks have already started. I wanted to see it with the other kids.”
“…”
“I hate you.”
False. She was again lying. Not a single trace of honesty existed in her words.
After seemingly pouring out everything that was on her mind, she heaved a sigh before standing up from the ground. Without even turning back, she started walking forward.
Why was she lying? It was to create a gap between him and herself; in order to avoid being alone with him. Perhaps she was afraid of another rejection.
In other words, trying to distance away from him was a false act and he had to grab her.
Standing up from the ground, he grabbed Bom by the wrist. He was unskilled with interpersonal relationships and lacked thoughtfulness so he didn’t know how to peacefully stop someone from running away.
Therefore, he physically stopped her from leaving.
“Ah…”
His grip might have been too strong. Bom faintly groaned from pain.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Just stay here. Before I get mad.”
Due to his limited conversational skills, the only words that left his mouth when stopping someone were threats.
“Please, let go of my wrist.”
“Stay here. I’m telling you to.”
“I told you I don’t want to.”
“Bom. Are you trying to make me tell you off.”
“…”
“Listen to me. Stop trying to make me mad.”
The words that urgently left his mouth were somewhat sharp, and Bom turned uneasy when her guardian made a straight face.
“…”
Before long, she whispered softly.
“It hurts…”
“…”
“I won’t go anywhere. So please let me go…”
He let go of her wrist.
She was still wearing an anxious look on her face, while he silently looked back into her green pair of eyes. For a long time, the two of them awkwardly stood face-to-face.
“Sorry for grabbing you tight.”
Soon, he apologised and Bom returned a nod.
“You kidnapper…” she murmured with slight mischief.
She appeared to be preparing for something. He looked at her, trying to read what she was doing and Bom also tried to find the right opportunity and stared back at him.
Bom broke the silence and opened her mouth.
“By the way, did you know that?”
“What?”
“You know, that…”
“What is it.”
“Close your eyes for a bit.”
He closed his eyes and in that moment, Bom raised the hems of her skirt and quickly ran towards the bush.
Why was she running away now? For what reason?
In any case, she couldn’t go far. She was but a lizard no matter how hard she ran. Before long, Yu Jitae caught her by wrapping his arm around her waist and left her hanging in mid-air.
Seemingly finding the situation funny, Bom chuckled out loud while he threw the child onto the grass. She tried to lift her body up from the ground but bursted out into another laughter and gave up on trying to stand up.
After laughing for a long time, her nervousness seemed to have dissipated. Bom obediently sat on the grass and Yu Jitae sat next to her.
“You know… I know what you’re worried about, ahjussi.”
Bom continued with a calm voice.
“You’re thinking that we shouldn’t be too close.”
“…”
“Our Amusements will end one day and… when that day comes, we will need to go our own ways. If we cross the line and get too close, it will hurt us more when we separate. Right?”
The Regressor didn’t say anything in response so Bom continued with an even clearer tone of voice.
“But you know, I think your assumption is a bit wrong. I’m not trying to, be like that, with ahjussi… I don’t know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong.”
“I think you’re the one that’s assuming things.”
“Then I guess we were both over-assuming things.”
She giggled before lowering her head.
“I just, like playing with ahjussi and that’s why I’m trying to get closer. You know how I’m a very boring girl, right?”
Yu Jitae wanted to check the authenticity of her words with his Eyes of Equilibrium but couldn’t do so because he couldn’t look into her eyes.
“Hmm, so, don’t feel too burdened about getting too close with me. And also, please don’t misunderstand. I just find ahjussi funny so…”
Even now, Bom was thinking for his sake and was trying to make him feel less burdened.
However, he didn’t believe what she was saying.
“Right. I get it. But by the way.”
“Yes?”
“Can you look at me?”
“Sorry? Why?”
“Just turn around for a bit.”
“Don’t want to…”
“Why.”
“I don’t know. I just don’t think I should look at your eyes.”
At this rate, he couldn’t use the Eyes of Equilibrium.
However, Yu Jitae remembered Kaeul’s words. If he could spend at least an hour alone with her every week, Bom’s state of mind which Kaeul described with very extreme words should settle quite a bit.
According to Kaeul, despite feeling like the world was crumbling down in front of her, Bom was being considerate of him. She was acting like a mature adult, but she couldn’t be fully composed because she was still but a child who lived a little more than 20 years.
“So, ahjussi. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Quietly, the Regressor thought to himself.
He knew that he had to treat Bom differently to how he was treating other kids, perhaps because she herself wanted a different treatment.
However, all the interpersonal skills that could be used on Bom were things she had taught him herself. Even now, he was trying to find the most suitable course of action from the list of actions shared by Bom.
“Right. I got it.”
What did she say back then?
If you’re worried, please console them. If they have to change, please help them and if you treasure them…
That was when Bom stood up and started walking.
“Should we go then?”
If you treasure them, give them a quiet hug – that was what Bom said to him.
The Regressor walked towards her back while she was walking, and carefully reached his arms forward.
The last firework soared into the sky and created the biggest explosion today.
“Ah…”
By the time she realised it, Yu Jitae was hugging her from behind.
Shocked, her body shrunk and turned stiff from nervousness. He didn’t know how to hug and awkwardly wrapped his arms around her stomach. Resembling a statue, Bom rigidly moved her trembling hands and placed them over Yu Jitae’s hands.
“Sorry for getting mad at you just then,” he said.
“…”
“I never found you weird or annoying.”
“But I said bad things to you.”
“I know it wasn’t true. And I don’t even remember them. Don’t worry.”
In fact, Bom had gotten one thing wrong.
He wasn’t worried about parting.
It was simply that he knew how he had no right to be happy alongside the child whom he had hurt the most, and was concerned about getting too close with her.
However, if Bom wanted to be happy together with him, what should he do then?
“Let’s think together. We still have a lot of time to go.”
“Yes…”
“Let’s slowly, talk it out.”
“Okay…”
Yu Jitae tried to pull his hands away, but couldn’t because her hands that were closed over his hands were pressing down hard. She was pushing his hands into her stomach and he soon realised that his hands were too deep inside her stomach, to the point that he could feel the belly button with his fingers.
For him, this sense of distance and the touch of their hands were troubling.
“Time to finish the hug of reconciliation,” he suggested.
“…”
But Bom was silent.
When he tried to stealthily pull his hands away, she stopped them again by force and this happened several times. When he called her, ‘Bom,’ she replied with a whine, ‘Nnng’.
With a softer voice, she slowly whispered.
“One more minute…”
Until the light completely disappeared from the night sky, he didn’t unwrap his arms.
Her stomach was warm.
*
[381. It felt like a dream.]
[Ahjussi Observation Diary ★★★★]
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Thanks so much for the chapter!!! Ive been waiting for this to be translated since I read this through Machine translation.
As a side question tho if i may ask:
Do you happen to have the raws up til the very end? Ive been trying to find raws since the sites providing mtl only stopped at 322. And if ever you have, would you be willing to give the raws for those who wish to read farther ahead?
Thanks and more power to ye
The mtl is shit. Not because i dont know how mtl is, but even emong mtl, its belong in the “really hard to read” Category mtl.
So, thanks for the chapter!
I only have access to Munpia chapters which is impossible from my knowledge to share.
And as for the mtl readability, it probably has to do with the names of the dragons. Because they are named after the 4 seasons, it’s hard for AI to differentiate them. I had a look at them myself out of curiosity, and oh boy was it hard to read 😀
I dont think you should read the mtl. This novel is focusing on the interactions between characters. Unlike action novels, where you can skim through the conversation to go to the action, you have to understand the meaning of the conversations in this novel. if you dont then this novel become shit
Wow. I wonder how this will go. Thank you for the chapter!
Thanks for the chapter.
The author is very brave to write a scene like this. It sounds like a scene from a shoujo manga.
Is the author a female?
The scene where Bom lies about her feelings and how she sees the MC is heavy in emotions. However, rather than focusing the attention on Bom’s feelings, I would have liked to see more of the MC emotions and thought process.
Ngl I hate bom.
OMG a fellow Bom hater…. Thankfully im not the only one
#no_romance_route
#yes_to_wholesomeness_route
Are these routes mutually exclusive? It would be an extremely awkward romance anyway, progressing at the snail pace and getting sidetracked at every step. I think their “a long time to go” will be still not enough to close the distance to zero, wink wink nudge nudge.
And I bet that Yeorum would get in their way at every opportunity, once she spots the signs.
Lol y’all gonna suffer then, as further down the road Spring do be comin.
– Source finished the whole novel.
Les go! Let ship sail.
Can you confirm me if in the end they end up together and sleep together, tbh I lole their relationship the more and love so much bom and Yu, I really hope they married together a the end, please tell me !!
I can’t believe someone who named themselves “Happy Happy Comment Squad” just spew hates against one of the dragon.
How ironic.
Thanks for the chap!
Thx for the chapter
Well Bom was getting awfully creepy. I guess it’s due to all her repressed feelings.
Thank you for these amazing chapters. For fellow Bom haters upper me try to read it in Bom’s perspective. 🙂
Ngl, i hate bom. Sike bom haters! Bom numbah 1
#YesToRomance
#StartOfJitaesHapiness
Lol, this was a rollercoaster of a comment.
What about the lady that was his first love? What if I want her to come back? Is that not allowed?
While Gyeoul best girl, the Bom/Jitae romance route is best timeline.
This opened up a whole lot of things with Bom. Thanks for the chapter
I really really appreciate your efforts. It’s tough to find a feel-good novel these days and this just hits right. Thank you. Thank you.
The hatred towards her seems a bit irrational to me, when you take into account that she is a dragon and lives looking to the future, putting her by human standards is a bit silly.
Thanks for the chapter.
Why y’all hating on bom???
to be honest that was cute, Yu Jitae is worried because he didn’t know what kind of things that would lead to bom’s death because Bom never died before, and Bom is being considerate, i think this is a nice touch to the slice of life
Cuz romance relationship ruin the pacing. It feels like it’s there just to be there, not necessarily important for the plot. But uhh.. I’ll try to live with it.
Although the main plot revolves around ensuring the dragons’ happiness, I believe the subplot revolves around Jitae regaining his feelings. As of now, we barely see jitae expressing any pleasant feelings; instead, he mostly expresses negative emotions like anger. This growth, I believe, will be one of the most important factors in our mc’s emotional recovery.
The plot is “girls must have a nice life” and the pacing is most slice of life with a bit of action. So having romance in that equation (as part of the plot and pacing of a slice of life) is normal, as it’s an important part of any girl’s life, even more at their age.
Now if you don’t like romance its OK, but that’s not the characters, or author’s fault, so you can go to a shonen instead of hating here.
It’s not the romance we but the fact that the author is trying to force it in the story. A lot of the content here seems planned out but the romance seems out nowhere and ruins the flow of the story.
“ruins the flow of the story” absolute bloody nonsense. “not planned out”. Have you not read the other 182 chapters, bom has been different to all the other dragons from the onset and had a clear romance subtext to much of her interactions soon after. The romance is good, without it bom would be proper borin
Yeah…forced…not like the author had tried to set 100+ chapters worth of development for the sake of trying to add romance. Yep definitely forced.
No hate on romance genre lovers but I don’t like romance cuz of multiple of reasons
1. im a 17 years old guy that never experienced sh*t
2. I feel that romance in general is cringe(wether in real life or novels)
3. Romance chapters(as in this one) feel kinda unnecessary and for filler reasons
And I’ve read a few action novels that fused romance with action awesomely well but romance in this novel as some friend above stated feels wrong and i feel it’s kinda forced and unhealthy
In this setting, shouldn’t romance feel awkward? If you take two awkward characters, both strangers to romance (MC because he forgot his first love long ago, Bom because it’s her first love) then the things you dislike here fit in the story in a sense. And falling in love feels like getting high/drunk on emotions, so those affected obviously don’t get the cringe themselves because they are too absorbed with what they feel.
But man… Did i start the great bom fans vs haters wars myself? xD
I must first say that I do enjoy MC interaction with the girls and the growth of the MC out of his inertia. And surprising enough I think that this novel could have used some Harem tag, to spice the otherwise lukewarm conflict.(without blue dragon ofc)
Because, the story end up suffering for the way that is just developing the pre-set points from the start, for each dragon;
– The Yellow was set to be the one that needed a Friend help her navigate the danger of fame
– The Red was later revealed to Need a Master to train her or she will literally die
– The Blue as the youngest needed a Dad that she has a out of place mission to protect.
– The Green, that had no desire, was pushed into “conquering” the MC like a shojo game.
Even at the very first few chapters Bom(green) say that is like she is the mother, with 3 daughters(the cute, the rebel and the silly).
And from all of them the Yellow end up with the most interesting story, because she not only seen to share a deeper story with the MC, her amusement goal spark new conflicts that doesn’t revolve around the MC in interesting ways, in special the end of the BY flashback, now she can even tap that older version when in problem.
Red on other hand was relative straightforward, convince her that he can train her, and later her clash with other cadets just further building up what we already know of her, that she is trying to get better. Her shojo manga being the most interesting development yet.
Meanwhile Blue and Green, seen to live in function to the MC without much reason, with Blue at least having the fact that she is almost literally his daughter. While Boom reason is a very light tease of the MC.
Even the other enemies, like the demons or “The Hostility”, couldn’t even shake the status quo,
That why I said that Harem could make things more interesting, the MC is already a dull for most things, them get on the way of each other while not crossing his line could put a little more spicy to their interactions. Having them slowly comming to the terms that they might be feeling something more for the MC, could be interesting, while the MC would have another problem to worry about.
Because after this chapter everything is almost seen set in stone, and the MC seen to have no reason not to go further with his relationship with Green and he is almost has fallen into her grasp. In fact, most characters are already on the cusp of their resolution, Red is getting stronger, Yellow got some fans and BY experience, Blue is being adorable, Green get the MC.
All other subplots seem to never integrate with the Dragon Main plot, that is also a shame, so we care little for them.
But you still reading it despite know this one literally have “romance” as its own genre. Ok Im not tying tioargue with you because its pointless. Ruining the pacing of what ? This novel is clearly about the personification of the 4 dragons. So right now we are in Bom’s feeling arc and whats wrong if thats become a romance feeling. I really cant understand why some of you dislike it lol.
Anyway good luck for translation team I wish I can still read this until the end of chapters.
I read it way before the “romance genre” started when the romance started i was already attached to it so i can’t just stop cuz of one thing that I don’t like when i like 10 more
ROKU is talking about the front page for this novel that says: “Genre: Modern Fantasy, Seinen, Romance” which can be viewed here, https://rainingtl.org/novels/kidnapped-dragons/ I imagine you just didn’t notice when you started.
I found the novel on NU and jumped straight to the 1st chapter that’s why I’ve never seen that
Hate to disappoint, but even there is the “romance” tag present. Here other possible spoilers: “love interest falls in love first”, “obsessive love” and “slow romance”.
Thank you so much, for chapter
I mean it was quite obvious since the beginning that Bom and Yu Jitae will have a different relationship in comparison with the other dragons, she was the only one who tried to reason with him in the prior iterations and she assumed the role of “mother/big sis” of the the group (especially with Gyeoul) trying to understand him, to be part of his world (when they went together to hunt demons), also she’s the only one who doesn’t really have a purpose, doing always something different each iteration.
I won’t be surprised If after Yu and Bom deepen their relationship to be revealed that the entity who’s messing with Yu is a prior iteration Bom who hates him for everything. I can see the author doing that in way to make Yu confront all his sins.
Wait was the romance really that hard to spot? I feel like it was quite obvious when she started her whole teasing thing. Maybe it’s cause I’ve read so many light novels that I can discern when there will be a future romance or not. The only stories I can’t do that with are the tragedies where the multiple romance candidates end up dying.
The comments on this one have been super active. And it’s arguing on the romance here lmao 🤣😂. It’d another great chapter as always. Honestly. I don’t much like pure romance novels. But. I do enjoy when a serious novel/action story has some romance mixed in from interesting characters. It’s fun to have a mix of different genre’s, if it’s done well. That’s why I think Gintama is so great, best of all worlds 😃👍
lmao this really turned into a shoujo novel
thanks for chap
peeps hate bom huh? kinda hard for me to even comprehend why even when you throw out reasons cuz the focus from the beginning was on
1) Them finishing their amusements happily
2)(implied) mc had to understand what he messed up by doing the daily life thing (by the end of which he should be able to function as a living person)
its just ppl who got too caught up in the no romance happy-cuddly feeling and refuse to move forward with the story.
and TBH way back at start it was hinted that all 4 dragons were prone to death but only gyeoul killed herself once while bom strangely tried random things every time but never to succeed. Also recall they have to live their entire lives with this memory afterwards.So my guess is if Bom really continued to fail as is then every iteration at the end of 100 years when she found nothing she liked,she would most likely kill herself since she had no attachment to her present or past.Mc never arrived at this point ever tho.
Sometimes I really wish people with bellow average IQ did not read novels, which are clearly beyond their ability to comprehend. The progress of the MC’s and Bom’s romance is completely natural and it doesn’t ruin anything, because it was hinted from the very beginning. If you did not understand that until now, sorry to say, but your intelligence isn’t really high. Or just because you dislike romance, that doesn’t mean anything about how the novel is “bad”. Full of stupid and immature people.
Translator, please don’t let these kind of people affect you. You are doing a wonderful job with a wonderful novel.
Great chapter
Wtf guys, i also dont need to read romance in every novel but this is probably best pairing from eastern fantasy novels. Most of the times their characters are too flat. Harems where girls just wants to help MC? This is just better and that why u r reading this
Also how blind can u be to never see this pairing come out?
Wow, that really felt like a major leap in their relationship…
hehe boi
Haha our MC act like a robot – if x then y. He doesn’t understand what action should be done so he just insert whatever from his programming. It feels like his actions is the action of a stereotypical overbearing ML lol with the wrist holding and the back hug. Red Dragon will get a nosebleed looking at them
A year late but reading through the comments….
I’m pretty sure the development with bom was already hinted and foreshadowed quite early on. It was obvious… for me at least. Maybe y’all that find it sudden need to reevaluate y’all’s EQ(?)
I’m gonna weigh in way the hell too late, but I’m also in the boat that doesn’t prefer having the romance here. It’s not that I don’t like Bom, it’s not that this is sudden, but for me this part is relatively less interesting in this novel. Bom and Yu Jitar getting together doesn’t make me feel the same satisfaction or amusement I got from other sorts of scenes like Yu Jitae telling Mihailov to stick to crowds or the poor sniper running afoul of the Archduke or the happy happy gym members being hilarious mental cases.
That’s mostly where my dissatisfaction stems. To me it feels relatively unsatisfying compared to other parts of the story. If thus was part of a different story I might be thrilled, but as a part of this wild ride, this section just feels kinda meh to me at the moment. As such I’d rather skip through this part or ignore it.
TL;DR: I don’t hate Bom, but the romance between the two doesn’t give me the same satisfaction or seem as interesting as other scenes hence I currently would have preferred it if it hadn’t been a part of things.
Whether I change my mind or not will depend on how things are developed from here.