Dragon Tales

“Dragon?” Dayeon called out as she pushed open the door to her brother's and her boyfriend’s apartment.

She kicked off her shoes and looked around. No answer.

“Dragon?” She called again, louder this time, before finally spotting her brother sitting in the living room chair like he owned the whole place — which, technically, he half did.

“Oh. It’s just you,” she said flatly.

Daejung didn’t even look up from his phone. “Nice to see you too, little sister.”

“Hey, Hyung.” She dropped her bag on the couch. “Where’s Dragon?”

“Asleep.”

Dayeon frowned. “Then why did he text me to come over?”

“He didn’t.” Daejung finally looked up, and there was the faintest smirk at the corner of his mouth. “I did. Using his phone.”

Dayeon stared at him. “…Why?”

“Sit down.”

“I don’t want to sit down, just tell me —”

“Sit. Down.”

She sat down. Mostly because she knew that tone and it was faster than arguing. She crossed her arms and looked at him like he was already wasting her time.

Daejung set his phone aside, laced his fingers together, and looked at her with the most obnoxiously serious big brother expression she’d seen since she was sixteen and came home with a tattoo.

“I want to make sure my little sister isn’t grooming my best friend.”

Dayeon’s mouth dropped open. “I’m sorry — what?”

“You heard me.”

“I heard you say something completely unhinged —”

“I know you’ve been crushing on Komodo for years,” Daejung said, unmoved. “I thought you’d grown out of it. A phase. A little sister thing. But I guess not.”

Dayeon pouted, which she knew he hated because it always made him feel guilty and she was not above that. “Is that wrong?”

“It is,” he said, “when you deliberately shape yourself into his ultimate type so no other girl can compare to you.”

The apartment went quiet for a second.

Then Dayeon exhaled through her nose and said, “Okay first of all, rude. Second of all —”

“Second of all, am I wrong?”

She opened her mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. “…I want him. I’ve wanted him for three years. I did everything. I played my part. I waited until he was actually ready to date again after Jasmine broke his heart, I spent real time with him — actually learning what he likes and dislikes, not just pretending —” She held up a finger when Daejung started to cut in. “And I also made sure he wasn’t some lame who wasn’t about anything before I let myself go all in. So.”

Daejung looked at her. Long. Skeptical. The look she’d been receiving from him her entire life whenever he was deciding whether to believe her or not.

“Okay,” he said slowly. “What’s his job?”

Dayeon blinked. “Are you quizzing me right now?”

“Answer the question.”

She rolled her eyes so hard it probably hurt. “Mechanical engineer. At a weapons company.”

Daejung’s expression didn’t change. “How many kids does he want?”

“One. Or as many as are financially responsible.” She tilted her head. “Want me to give you his blood type too? His childhood pet’s name?”

“What do you actually see in him?” Daejung pressed, ignoring her entirely. “And don’t say he’s cute.”

Dayeon straightened up, and whatever sarcasm was sitting on the tip of her tongue went quiet for a moment. When she spoke again she meant every word.

“I see a soft-hearted, well-meaning, awkward, overworked salaryman who is going to treat me right because he was raised right.” She said it with the kind of conviction that left no room for debate. “He’s genuinely good, Hyung. Not performed well. Actually good.”

She paused, then added more quietly, “I also have to be a little mindful of some of his quirks. But that’s where the deeper love comes in.”

Daejung’s eyes narrowed. “Quirks like what?”

“Like the fact that he’s hyper-competitive and is always grinding on some new skill. Or that he literally needs dessert after every single meal —”

“That one I knew.”

“— or that when he’s really thinking something through he just. Starts talking to himself. Mid-sentence. Out loud.” She waved a hand. “I think it’s endearing.”

“You would.”

“And —” She hesitated. “When he gets really stressed, he slams his fist into his own face.”

The room went still.

Daejung slowly uncrossed his arms. “He does what?”

“I’m working on it,” Dayeon said quickly. “We’ve been working on it. There’s been progress.”

Her brother rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Okay. Fair. I’ll give you that one.” He shifted in the chair, and she could see him recalibrating. “But why not someone your own age? Someone who doesn’t share a lease with me?”

Dayeon looked at him, and her expression softened before she could stop it.

“Remember when I got injured? And you two both had to watch me for that week?”

Daejung’s posture changed slightly. “Yeah.”

“One night the painkillers weren’t working. I was just — I was in real pain and I couldn’t sleep and I was trying not to cry about it.” She tucked her feet up under herself on the couch. “And he stayed up all night with me. Reading superhero comics out loud. Doing all the voices, Hyung. The bad ones too.” She laughed a little. “And he had to be in at work the next morning.”

Daejung was quiet.

“He did the villain voice for like three different characters,” she added.

“…That does sound like him.”

“That was when I decided.” Dayeon shrugged, easy and certain. “This boy is mine.”

Daejung sighed — the long kind, the kind that meant he was surrendering ground he didn’t want to surrender. “Okay. On one hand, I will admit, that’s — the commitment is there. The romance is there. I see it.”

“Thank you —”

“On the other hand,” he continued, cutting her off, “you are my baby sister, and I told him you weren’t preying on him.”

Dayeon’s eyes went wide. “You told him what?”

“I told him you had a little crush, it was harmless, you’d get over it —”

“Daejung!”

“— which you clearly have not!”

“Because it was never a little crush!”

“Dayeon, you just told me you decided he was yours almost four years ago.”

“Yeah. And?”

“You were barely nineteen.”

She opened her mouth, closed it, and then lifted her chin with the particular brand of dignity only the youngest child of a family could muster. “Okay well. I am if nothing else consistent.”

“Consistent,” Daejung repeated. “And stubborn. And you have always been exactly like this about something once you’ve decided you want it.” He leaned back. Looked at her for a long moment. “…If you’re both happy, I’m not gonna be the one to stop it.”

Dayeon’s whole face lit up. “So we have your blessing?”

“Absolutely not,” he said immediately. “Don’t put words in my mouth. It’s weird. It is going to take time getting used to. The mental image alone —”

“Okay, okay —”

“I grew up with both of you —”

“I know —”

“That’s my guy —”

“Hyung.”

“— but.” He stopped. Exhaled. “But I’m not going to be in the way of it. That’s the most you’re getting from me right now.”

Dayeon beamed at him. He hated when she beamed at him. She knew that and did it anyway. “I can work with that.”

She stood, stretched, and grabbed her bag off the couch with the air of someone whose business here was fully concluded.

“Now I’m going to go cuddle with my boyfriend,” she said pleasantly. “While youhead out to go see Karina again?”

Daejung’s head snapped up. “What?”

But Dayeon was already halfway down the hall, and the only thing she left behind was the sound of her laughing.

You felt the warmth before you felt anything else. Your eyes flutter open and you see your girlfriend wrapping around you like some cute marsupial.

You lean into it at first but then your mind catches up

“You can’t be here your brother’s going to freak out,” you start

Dayeon smiled at your worry and said, “Daejung and I have come to an understanding,”

You groan “That sounds ominous,”

Dayeon smiles and says, “It’s not now go back to sleep,”

You roll your eyes and do so.