It was a peaceful lunchtime.
“Here comes the airplane, open wide! Say ah...” Yoon-Hee said in a sing-song voice as she picked up a piece of meat with her chopsticks.
She mimicked the sound of an airplane as she placed it into Yong-Yong’s mouth.
Yong-Yong happily accepted the meat, chewing contentedly as Yoon-Hee smiled and patted his head. “Good job. Such a good boy.”
As Yong-Yong chewed the meat, his gaze shifted to Yoon-Hee. More specifically, it turned to Yoon-Hee as she fed Byeol.
“Zoommmm...” Yoon-Hee mimicked an airplane again.
With a cheerful grin, Byeol happily accepted her bite. “Meat is yummy. So good!”
“Our Byeol eats so well. Do you want more?”
“Yes! Do the airplane thing again! Pwease!”
Yong-Yong felt conflicted. Looking back, Yoon-Hee had always treated him like a child. He hadn’t minded before Byeol came along, but being treated the same as her now hurt his pride. After all, he was a whopping eight thousand years old.
What did it mean to be an adult?
It was a difficult question.
By human standards, anyone over the age of twenty was legally considered an adult in Korea. Yong-Yong scratched his head and crossed his arms after searching for the term “adult” on the SpacePad.
Do-Jun sat at the dining table, reading a newspaper. Curious, he peeked over its edge to see what the mini-dragon was up to. Yong-Yong lay on the rug in the living room, lost in thought, occasionally letting out a sigh.
Amused, Do-Jun chuckled softly before going back to his paper.
Becoming an adult didn’t require searching far for examples; one was already nearby.
Yong-Yong thought about his master, Do-Jun, and his daily habits. Most importantly, Do-Jun always woke up early in the morning, while the “children,” Karsiel and Byeol, often slept in.
“I’ll start waking up early, too,” Yong-Yong declared with a solemn look.
Yong-Yong brought an extra alarm clock from the nightstand in the bedroom to the living room.
Wearing her summer pajamas, Yoon-Hee looked at the small pillow and thin blanket spread out on the living room floor and murmured, “Are you really going to sleep here?”
“Yup,” Yong-Yong explained that he had set the alarm clock to go off at 6 AM and was sleeping in the living room to avoid waking anyone else.
The alarm clock by Yong-Yong’s head blared loudly, vibrating as it went off. The sound was so obnoxious that Yong-Yong furrowed his brow and rolled over, eventually turning off the alarm with his paw.
With peace restored, a contented smile spread across his face. “Hehe... Sleep...”
Yawning, Yong-Yong rubbed his eyes as he woke up. He stretched his legs behind him, arching his back, then blearily glanced at the alarm clock beside him. Upon noticing the clock's hands pointing past eleven, he gasped in shock and tapped the clock with his paw.
“W-what happened? Is it broken? Why didn’t it ring?”
“Good morning, Lord Izaas. For the record, the alarm rang plenty of times. You turned them all off,” Karsiel said from the dining table.
Across the room, Byeol and Karsiel were already having lunch.
“We left you alone since you were sleeping so soundly, but now that you’re up, you can join us,” Karsiel added.
“Yong-Yong, come eat!” Byeol called.
So much for waking up early.
Scratching his head, Yong-Yong quietly walked over and took a seat at the table.
After finishing his brunch, Yong-Yong washed the dishes. He then stared at a pack of instant coffee sticks in the kitchen drawer. The packaging was black, with “BLACK COFFEE” written in bold red letters. This was the drink Do-Jun had every morning to start his day—coffee, as they called it.
Yong-Yong poured the coffee mix into a cup, added hot water, stirred it, and then dropped in a few ice cubes. He knew that it would taste like the Americano he had once tried at the Academy with Do-Jun. It had been unpleasant, but if becoming an adult meant drinking coffee, so be it.
“That’s Daddy’s dwink,” Byeol said, tilting her head as she approached.
Standing on her tiptoes, she peeked at the coffee-filled cup and the empty coffee stick wrapper on the table.
“Yup. It’s for adults,” Yong-Yong said.
“Does that mean you are an adult?” Byeol asked.
At that, Byeol narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “That’s a lie. I don’t like lies. You can’t dwink that.”
Watching the exchange while separating the garbage from the recyclables, Karsiel chuckled softly. A moment later, a gagging sound echoed from the kitchen sink as Yong-Yong choked on the bitter drink. Karsiel resumed sorting recyclables with a grin.
On weekday afternoons, Karsiel occasionally taught Yong-Yong and Byeol Korean using elementary school textbooks, such as “First Grade Dictation” and “First Grade Reading.” She laid the books out on the living room table, with Byeol sitting beside her.
“Lord Izaas, it’s time for spelling practice,” Karsiel called.
“You two go ahead. I’m reading the paper.”
Near the balcony, where sunlight streamed in, Yong-Yong unfolded the morning newspaper that Do-Jun had been reading.
“But today is spelling test day...” Byeol said, looking puzzled.
“I’m an adult, so I read the newspaper,” Yong-Yong replied.
Byeol tilted her head in confusion before whispering to Karsiel, “Is Yong-Yong bwoken?”
“No, Lord Izaas is trying to conquer the tall mountain called ‘adulthood.’ The newspaper is quite advanced—I can barely read it myself.”
Stung by the remark, Yong-Yong straightened up and began reading aloud, slowly and deliberately, from the front page. “De... nuclea...rization... structural limits...”
That evening, Yoon-Hee decided to prepare a healthy meal for the family. Recently, they had been eating meat dishes for dinner almost every day, which had led to bad habits, such as avoiding vegetables.
She heated some oil in a frying pan and added shiitake mushrooms, stir-frying them over high heat. Her plan was to make sautéed spinach and shiitake mushrooms with butter and soy sauce. As she worked, she noticed something odd. Yong-Yong, who usually hovered around whenever she cooked, was unusually quiet today.
She glanced over her shoulder and locked eyes with Yong-Yong, who was stealing glances at her from the sofa. The moment their eyes met, he quickly turned his head away.
Karsiel approached her quietly and whispered, “He’s still on his journey to become an adult.”
Yoon-Hee couldn’t help but sigh deeply.
Dinner was ready, and the children gathered around the dining table.
Yong-Yong flinched as he examined the side dishes: spinach and shiitake mushrooms in soy sauce, stir-fried garlic chives with eggs, doenjang soup, fried eggplant, and fried zucchini. That was it for dinner.
Yong-Yong was horrified to find no trace of meat on the menu. Even when things were sparse, there was always at least one sausage on the table. Shocked, Yong-Yong briefly covered his eyes with his front paw, rubbed them, and then scanned the table again.
However, no matter how many times he looked, the menu didn’t change magically. The shock left him speechless, his mouth opening and closing silently.
When Yoon-Hee noticed his reaction, she stammered while explaining, “Um, so, uh...”
“Thanks for the meal,” said Do-Jun, picking up a shiitake mushroom with his chopsticks.
He started eating without complaint, enjoying the food. Watching him, Yong-Yong realized that Do-Jun had never once been picky about food. Yong-Yong thought to himself that a true adult eats well, even if it’s just vegetables. Half-resigned, Yong-Yong started eating, stuffing his mouth with rice.
However, a small doubt crept into his mind. Do I really have to be an adult?
“If you finish everything, I’ll give you money for ice cream,” Do-Jun said with a smile.
Yong-Yong’s face lit up with delight.
After finishing his meal, Yong-Yong immediately headed to the store, but ran into a problem: there was no ice cream. Apparently, the hot weather had caused the store’s stock of over one hundred ice creams to sell out.
“Excuse me, Granny, is there no ice cream left?” Yong-Yong asked, just to double-check.
The store owner looked apologetic as she replied, “Oh dear... A lot of people came for ice cream today, so we’ve run out.”
“This can’t be...” Disappointed, Yong-Yong drooped his head.
Then he spotted four red bean ice creams tucked into the corner of the freezer.
“Ah! There’s ice cream!”
Yong-Yong smiled brightly and quickly grabbed all four, rushing to the counter to pay. The store owner chuckled as she watched him. Normally, Yong-Yong would have eaten an ice cream on the spot, but today, he didn’t even touch one.
“Aren’t you going to eat it?” she asked.
“No, I’m fine. Thank you and sell lots, Granny!”
“Alright, take care.”
“Did you get the ice cream?” Yoon-Hee asked.
Yong-Yong hopped up and placed the bag of ice cream on the dining table. When Yoon-Hee looked inside and saw only four ice creams, she tilted her head.
“Where’s yours, Yong-Yong?”
“I already ate mine.”
“Typical. You’re always the fastest when it comes to food,” Yoon-Hee muttered with a small laugh.
Yong-Yong simply shrugged his shoulders as Do-Jun watched with an incredulous look.
Yong-Yong didn’t stop his “training” to become an adult. Determined to wake up at 6 AM the next morning, he spread his bedding in the living room.
Yoon-Hee was in her pajamas, heading to bed. Seeing Yong-Yong getting ready to sleep in the living room as usual, she asked, “Again...?”
“Yep,” Yong-Yong said with a resolute expression.
At 1 AM, Do-Jun got up and walked into the living room where Yong-Yong lay asleep under a thin blanket, his eyes closed. Do-Jun opened the freezer, took out an ice cream he had noticed earlier, and sat down on the sofa, looking at Yong-Yong.
“Wake up,” he said to Yong-Yong.
“I’ll count to five. I know you’re not asleep. One...”
Yong-Yong jumped up immediately.
Do-Jun unwrapped the ice cream and held it out to him. “Here.”
“You didn’t get one for yourself, did you?”
“N-no, I did! I ate mine first!” Yong-Yong shook his front paws in protest, but Do-Jun stayed silent, holding the ice cream toward him.
“My arm’s getting tired. Take it already.”
“B-but, Master, that one’s yours.”
Hearing the countdown, Yong-Yong immediately snatched the ice cream. Whenever he heard a countdown, his body reacted before his mind could process it.
“Finish that and then go back to sleep,” Do-Jun said, lying down next to him.
Sniffling, Yong-Yong devoured the ice cream in a hurry. After finishing it, he clung tightly to Do-Jun.
“Are you waking up early tomorrow?” Do-Jun asked.
Yong-Yong nodded and said, “Yes, I have to... to become an adult...”
Hearing that, Do-Jun chuckled softly.
It was summer, so even before 6 AM, the sky was already bright. Sunlight streamed through the curtains.
The alarm clock next to Do-Jun’s bed rang loudly, signaling 6 AM.
“Ugh...” The loud sound made Yong-Yong frown.
He reached out his paw and pressed the button. The alarm stopped, and Yong-Yong immediately drifted back to sleep, snoring peacefully.
Watching the entire scene, Do-Jun pressed his fingers to his temples and let out a long sigh.