Oppa And I Are Fated To What, Now?

After a reunion twenty-five hundred years in the making, every moment she spent with Minjun felt like a dream.

She had waited for this one moment across a stretch of time no ordinary human could even imagine, so how could she not be happy? And she had believed that happiness would carry on from here. Why wouldn’t it? Two lovers who had longed for each other had found each other again, and not a single obstacle stood between them.

She had thought all that was left was to live out sweet, cozy days together without a care in the world.

Then, in the middle of training, Minjun suddenly lost consciousness and collapsed.

“Oppaaaa! Oppa! Oppa! Minjun-oppa! Wake up, Minjun-oppa!”

Screaming his name at the top of her voice, Sia shook his limp body again and again.

How— after everything it took for us to meet again!

At the same time, she threw every healing spell she knew at him.

“His breath— I have to check whether he’s breathing.”

With trembling hands she felt for his pulse. It was faint, but thankfully, it was there.

That was all, though. As things stood, Minjun showed no sign of coming to, and why he had suddenly passed out, or what state he was in now, not even she could say for certain.

A chronic illness? No, it isn’t. Oppa never had anything like that. Then is there some other problem I don’t know about? That’s not it either. So why did Oppa collapse? Healing magic isn’t helping. No — it’s gone past not helping; it’s actually making things worse.

Had she not been a dragon, the shock might well have knocked her out on the spot. Barely holding on to her wits, Sia searched for whatever had made him collapse, but no matter how hard she racked her brain, nothing came to mind.

“Before— before it gets any worse…”

I have to do something about it.
I have to do something, anything.

Her reason was starting to go numb. Hands shaking badly, she began dragging every healing artifact and potion she owned out of subspace, grabbing whatever came to hand.

But was this the answer? Looking at the state Minjun was in, she suspected these things might do nothing at all, or even bring on side effects instead.

Then what about the Dragon Word?

“There’s no time to think.”

One powerful working of the Dragon Word might serve him better than a pile of half-baked artifacts and potions. She was on the very verge of speaking it aloud to wake Minjun.

“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.”

The voice calling out to her was unfamiliar, and Sia turned her head to see who it belonged to. The being she had taken for a stranger turned out to be no stranger to her at all.

“H-how…”

Here, on Earth, stood someone she had never once imagined she would meet.

“Why is Grandpa here—”

Rokan, the former Dragon Lord who had vanished without a trace just before she turned a thousand, her own grandfather, was standing right in front of her.

“Shasha. Are you worried about that man, by any chance?”

Sia, or rather the Red Dragon Shasha, nodded hard.

“In that case, keep well away from him for now. I’ll take care of the rest myself.”

Right up until I lost consciousness, I’d been thinking I might just die like that. Since I’d come to, though, I was apparently alive, at least, even if every last bit of strength had been drained out of my body.

I opened my eyes and slowly sat up.

“Where am I…”

After passing out, I’d assumed the first thing I’d see on waking would be a hospital room, but no. This wasn’t the training ground where I’d collapsed, or a hospital, or even my own place. Where on earth was I?

The space around me was a cavern so enormous that no decent indoor gymnasium could hold a candle to it, yet it clearly wasn’t an ordinary cave. Judging by the furniture set out here and there, someone lived here.

Hold on. Where’s Sia?

Sia had definitely been right beside me until I blacked out, but here I couldn’t sense her, or anyone else.

“Sia! Sia!”

Panicking now, I shouted her name at the top of my lungs. What if she’d disappeared again? That couldn’t happen, not after everything it had taken for us to meet again.

“Minjun — that was your name, wasn’t it. Good. So you’re awake now.”

That was when I heard an unfamiliar voice. I definitely hadn’t sensed anyone there, and yet a man who looked to be in his forties was gazing down at me. The one unusual thing about him was his red hair and red eyes, just like Sia’s.

“From the way your eyes are darting about, you’re clearly quite bewildered. Yes, of course you are. I’d have been the same in your place.”
“Who… are you?”

I searched my memory as hard as I could and came up empty. Apart from his hair and eyes matching Sia’s in color, I had nothing to go on to work out who he was.

“I’m Sia’s grandfather.”
“…Sorry?”

Her grandfather?

Both of Sia’s grandfathers, on her father’s side and her mother’s, should have passed away before she came of age. But if he was her grandfather…

“Sir, did you perhaps — forgive me for asking — get reincarn—”
“What are you talking about.”

Then what is he?

He was far too young to be anyone’s grandfather. Going by looks alone, you’d sooner believe he was an uncle.

But I was missing something. Sia, reincarnated as a dragon, had red hair and red eyes, and this man’s hair and eyes were the very same color. On top of that, the strangely intense energy I could feel rolling off him could only mean one thing.

“…A dragon, sir?”
“You’re awfully slow to catch on. That’s right. I am indeed a dragon, just as you’re thinking.”

Sia’s grandfather let out a great, hearty laugh.

“You must have a great many questions. Well then, what are you most curious about?”

I had nothing but questions, but naturally the one I most wanted answered was where Sia was.

“Where’s Sia? Where is Sia right now?”
“She’s downstairs. Don’t worry, she’ll be up soon. Our granddaughter has been worrying herself sick over you as it is.”
“Phew. Thank goodness.”

I let out a sigh of relief, but until I saw Sia’s face for myself, the unease wouldn’t go away entirely.

“You’re worried about her, I see.”
“How could I not be? Sia must have gotten a terrible shock when I collapsed…”
“A shock hardly covers it. She was in a state of panic.”
“Haah. I’ve gone and made her worry for nothing.”

I’d been getting through the training perfectly well and then keeled over out of nowhere, so of course she’d been shocked.

“Then, sir, are you—”

— THUD. THUD.

Just as I was about to ask my next question, a thunderous noise came booming up out of the ground. Thinking the cave might be coming down, I scrambled for somewhere to take shelter, but Sia’s grandfather only smiled, perfectly unruffled.

“Shasha. I know how you feel, but didn’t I tell you your boyfriend is still at the stage where he needs to rest?”

— THUD. THUD. THUD.

“Somehow you seem to have become even more of a child than the last time I saw you, two thousand years ago. Shasha. I know you’re impatient, but wait a little. Didn’t I ask you to wait just a moment?”

He spoke gently, as though Sia really were down there beneath us, like a man coaxing a willful granddaughter.

Shasha. He hadn’t spelled it out, but it seemed to be the new name Sia had been given when she was reincarnated as a dragon.

“As you can see, our granddaughter is worrying about you a great deal.”

So those heavy tremors had something to do with Sia? I still didn’t understand the situation a hundred percent, but if he said so, then that was how it was.

“I’d meant to have a leisurely talk with you and let you recover properly before letting the two of you meet, but our granddaughter looks too impatient for that, so there’s nothing for it.”

Sia’s grandfather laid a hand on my head and began muttering in a language I couldn’t understand.

“There. Done.”

I had no idea what magic he’d cast on me or what had changed, but he declared it done and called for Sia.

“Shasha. You may come out now.”

— RRRRUMBLE!

All at once the ground split open, and someone climbed out of the crack.

It was Sia.

“Oppaaaa—!”

The moment she was out, Sia came at me at literally the speed of light and threw her arms around me.

“Oh— right. You might not be able to breathe. Oppa, are you okay? Are you awake now? How does your body feel? You just collapsed all of a sudden—”
“I’m okay. I’m okay. Calm down.”

Maybe she was still afraid something had happened to me, because Sia couldn’t keep still. I patted her back and settled her down as best I could.

“You’re really, truly okay, right? Grandpa, our Oppa’s really okay, right?”
“He is, as you can see. He only needs to rest a little.”

Sia’s grandfather watched the two of us with gentle eyes. Today was the first time I’d ever met him, but I could already tell how terribly much he cared for Sia.

“Still — ‘Oppa’, of all things. Shasha, you’re over twenty-five hundred years old, and that lad you call Oppa is a mere twenty-five by the reckoning of this place.”
“Graaandpaaa!”
“Heh heh.”

Apparently he couldn’t resist playing a mischievous little joke on his granddaughter. Sia puffed out her cheeks and sulked.

Maybe I should tease her a bit too?

Since Sia was twenty-five hundred years older than me, I wondered how she’d react if I called her Grandma.

But.

“…Oppa? What are you thinking about right now?”

Somehow, I had a feeling I’d better not. The moment I turned my head her way to tease her, a chill went through the air.

“N-no. It’s nothing. Just — you and your grandfather look close, is all.”
“Oh. Never mind, then.”

Thankfully, Sia didn’t press any further.

“Then let’s stay just a bit longer, and once Oppa’s better, let’s head straight out. Oppa. We said we’d go on a date after training, remember. Is there anything Oppa wants to do?”
“Mmm, good point. Doesn’t look like I should push myself yet, so how about we order delivery at home today and just hang out?”

There didn’t seem to be anything badly wrong with my body, and the whole business looked to have wrapped up nicely too.

I’d thought all that was left was to go back home and enjoy a cozy date.

But.

“Sorry to cut in on you so suddenly, but there’s something the two of you need to know.”

Sia’s grandfather, who had been quietly watching us from behind, stepped in.

“The two of you are fated never to be together.”
“…What?”

For a moment, I doubted my own ears. How on earth could such a thing exist in this world?

“Grandpa, wh-what on earth do you mean… huh?”
“Shasha. I understand that you want to be glued to your boyfriend all day long, but if you were to do that, the boyfriend you love would go on suffering days like today. And perhaps—”

His eyes had been on Sia, but now he slowly turned his head toward me.

“He might even die.”